Potpourri

The weekend was a mixed bag, mostly good though. I got to see a lot of cousins I hadn’t seen in ages. All my grandmother’s living siblings were present at the family dinner, and I was reminded that my Grandma’s kids/grandkids are the runts of the Cabbagestalk clan. (Thanks for being 5’8”, Grandpa.) It was weird seeing cousins who were little kids the last time I saw them all of a sudden towering over me (and I’m not a short guy at 6’2”). One of my little cousins is now a professional comedian, having been seen in bit roles on Saturday Night Live, BET’s Comicview, and Comedy Central’s premium blend. Another of my cousins there is a former major league baseball player, having played for the Mets, Angels, and Mariners. Unfortunately he played about 15-20 years too early, before average players could command multiple millions of dollars per year. Some of my relatives have not had it so well, and it showed in their faces. We actually missed the dinner portion of the dinner, having been to Sabbath services in Asheboro that afternoon. Services were good as usual, though Noah was a little whiny. I assume he was that way because services were two hours early, and his schedule was thrown off. Then again, maybe he was just having one of those days. It turns out Asheboro is the closest congregation to my parents’ home at 90 miles exactly. Charlotte is right at 100 miles, Raleigh (Warsaw, NC) is 116 according to Google Maps, and Walterboro is ~140-150 (though it’s only 103 miles from my brother’s crib).

My mom and I got into our semi-annual argument Friday night because I was taking the time to go to services Saturday. (Is it still an argument if only one party is speaking?) She doesn’t understand why I won’t forsake church to spend the entire day with the family. I’ve pretty much given up explaining why, and just let her vent. That ended what had been a great dinner put together by my brother and his wife. I guess it’s our turn to be hosts this week, as Clemson’s football season kicks off and my brother is a season-ticket holder. So I went to bed Friday night in a less-than-stellar mood; we overslept Sat. morning, and we ended up making it to services about 15 minutes late. We drove my Pop’s F-150 because my A/C is shot in my truck, and that bad boy drinks gas like a baby drinks milk. I slapped $30 bucks in and the truck laughed at me. So after the family get-together, we stopped by my brother’s house and ended up not going to my parent’s until midnight. Then I got the evil eye from the folks because they’d been waiting up to spend more time with the kids. Dad usually goes to the local convenience store for breakfast before going to work around 10, so I assumed that was going to be the case this time. Therefore, I left the carseats in his truck (assuming he would want to take the boys to breakfast like he did the last time I was home), and I was also planning to gas up his truck then as well. Guess what? This particular Sunday he leaves home around 8 without waking anyone up for breakfast, and he decides to drive his truck. Needless to say, he was not too thrilled about having to get our stuff out of his truck before he could leave; he was even less pleased at not having as much gas in his truck as he was anticipating. Eventually we all get up as mom is preparing to go to church. I tell her we’re leaving early that afternoon so that we’ll get back fairly early. I also tell her we’ll be at her mother’s house saying our good-byes when she gets out of church. I assumed she knew we’d be leaving directly from Grandma’s, but apparently she didn’t. She was already there when we got there (yes, we were behind schedule again), but she left without us saying our goodbyes. After we’d been on the road for a while, Mom calls and is a little peeved b/c we didn’t stop back by the house on our way out. My bad. More guilt.
Anyway, we’re back safe and sound. I think Noah and I are going to go to campus and begin the wife-selection process. If he’s going to put in his 7 years of hard labor to win some lady’s hand, he should probably start now. And why is he calling me Mike?

Whether he killed JonBenet Ramsey or not, John Mark Karr is one sick puppy.

Week six, day 1 of couch-to-5K. What a time to figure out I’ve been doing the program wrong.

A semi-real post for a change

With the court date approaching to set up visitation rights for me, I received from my attorney a counterclaim from the defendant's attorney. It appears that she is trying to get my petition for visitation dismissed outright; if that fails, then she wants me to have supervised visitation b/c of the relationship between Jalen and the M.R.S. Apparently the attorney is under the impression that the M.R.S. yells at Jalen and shows favoritism to Nick. I haven't seen that myself. I'm just sick of the whole mess. Of course, they want me to pay her legal fees as well as my own, and they want the judge to deny recalculation of child support monies... This whole situation is leaving a bad taste in my mouth; hopefully this will be the only time we go to court, and hopefully the judge will deliver the most equitable ruling for all parties. (A man can dream, can't he?) Anyway, I hope the court proceedings don't turn into a dredging-up of who-did-what-to-whom. I'll probably have the M.R.S. stitch up my mouth to insure that I don't say anything I'll regret later. On second thought, maybe I should stitch up her mouth...

Anyway, I'm off to visit the folks this weekend. We're meeting up at my brother's place, and my parents are coming over to spend the night. Lil bro was already marinating the steaks when I talked to him earlier this evening. I think the plan is for us all to stay at his place, but I think the me and my crew will drive on over to my folks' place to bed down. That'll knock an hour off the trip to Asheboro Saturday morning - which is especially important since services begin at noon. After that, we'll come back. We'll see most of my Dad's side of the family that evening; I'm still trying to figure out just when we're going to get together with Mom's side. There's no way I can go home without seeing them - Ma would kill me. (I felt so 12-years-oldish when I typed that line).

Nick is missing the opening of football season this week, but he hasn't expressed any disappointment. I'm quite proud of that fact. Hopefully the Sabbath won't ever feel like a burden to him (or Noah), but I know that Jalen does (did?) feel as though he missed out on some things when he was with us on the Sabbath. It's probably going to be a bigger problem once he starts playing high school football - especially given the importance of athletics in his mom's family.

Anyway, I guess I'll start working now. See ya...

Endorphins, schmendorphins

So... how long until I experience the mythical "runner's high"? And why do my calves burn so when I run? And when does running stop being boring?

I haven't even made it to the church picnic yet...

Nick's football team sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts as a fundraiser. We ended up with 4 boxes that we didn't sell. Well, make that 2 1/2.

I may as well finish off the cake the M.R.S. made for today's potluck. Might as well knock back the last of the butter pecan ice cream too. Looks like I'll be running tomorrow after the picnic.

Firsts

1st haircut... See any resemblance to his older sib?



1st day of 1st grade...

You can't make this stuff up.

Breast implants save Israeli woman from rocket
Updated: 7:11 p.m. ET Aug. 15, 2006

JERUSALEM - An Israeli woman's breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack during Israel's war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old’s heart.

"She was saved from death," said a spokesman for Nahariya Hospital in northern Israel. The woman has been released from hospital.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

At least there are no doctored photos accompanying this article. Sorry; I couldn't not type that.

10, 560 feet

TWO MILES.

That's how far I've run these past two days. I was visiting the in-laws yesterday, so I took advantage of the unseasonably cool weather and drove on over to Sertoma field in Walhalla. It was quite relaxing running on the dirt trail, next a small creek (brook? stream? malnourished river?). They were a slooow two miles, but I'll take it! Today, I went back to the track while Mr. Heisman 2020 practiced football. I'm down from 231 lbs to 215 since dieting/beginning couch-to-5K.

We registered Mr. Nick for school today and it took two hours. The actual registering part only took about 15 minutes, but when we went to meet the teacher... ...it turns out that she taught at the M.R.S.'s elementary school during the years the M.R.S. attended. So they spent pretty much the next two hours getting caught up on every teacher who ever taught at South Pine Street. She's been a finalist for the Golden Apple award (given to teachers who excel by a local television station), so I guess that's a good thing. She doesn't appear to have any problem with the Feast, so that's a good thing too.

The M.R.S. begins her final leg of nursing school next week. She attended orientation today and is all giddy and whatnot. By this time next year she should be receiving her LPN degree. I think at that point we'll have a big ol' party, and then I'll settle down to my new life as a kept man. Keep your eyes open for the invite.

If I can just stick with this school thing long enough to graduate... My committee member from Washington State U. is here for one of her other student's oral exams. She's pretty much offered me a post-doctoral position in her lab to work on some bioinformatics projects. I was also offered a position in central California, as well as one in Alabama. Unfortunately, accepting a post-doc position requires one be finished with one's doctorate, which I am not. *sigh* OK Mike - just suck it up and put your all into it for a year and knock this thing on out! Kiwigeek, you think you can give me a crash course in Unix & Perl?

This week has been hard as far as running goes. I just haven't had the energy or desire to continue. I missed yesterday, so I went out around 11 this morning to make up for it. The 90-degree heat beat me down halfway through, so I didn't finish. I think I'll take another stab at it while Nick's at football practice. He's loving it, btw. At least he's stopped asking to put on his football gear @ 9:30 in the morning (when practice isn't until late evening).



Noah is having a ball feeding himself. The first thing he does when he wakes up is run into our room, jump on the M.R.S.'s head, and cry, "Eat-eat" over and over again until she gets up. The boy eats constantly. Constantly! Anyway, his vocabulary is increasing rapidly, although I don't think many people other than us can understand what he's saying. Nick's lucky he's the older of the two - Noah definitely has bully tendencies.



Jalen started 8th grade two days ago, and football practice yesterday. I have a teen-age son. Seems like only yesterday I was trying to keep his little three-year old behind from playing on my stairs. "Eat-eat" was one of his favorite words too.

I found some pics from 3-4 years ago on some floppy disks. Here's one of my favorites.

Stop the Madness

Dakota Fanning to be "raped" in new movie... Story here.

It could've been worse

Let me calm down from my panic. I noticed that my check hadn't been deposited into my account a few minutes ago. I was about to call my employer to see if there was a mix-up, since the dinero is almost always in my account by midnight on Thursday nights. As I was going to find the phone number the phone rang; the woman who handles timesheets was trying to find me. She starts out by telling me she has bad news for me. Coming on the heels of some of the BIG changes being made here at work, I assumed the worst. Turns out she forgot to fax in my timesheet before going on vacation, and the lady who receives them didn't catch it b/c she too was on vacation. So, instead of being fired/let go/laid off, I just don't get paid this week. I guess I'll survive - I'll just gorge myself tomorrow at the Potluck. It's a good thing I picked up a couple of server shifts at Cracker Barrel this week.

Perhaps I'll get a call from my oldest son's mom for a change. No check for me also means no check for her.

Creation Museum

PETERSBURG, Ky. - Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the earth. Except here, the giant reptiles share the forest with Adam and Eve.  That, of course, is contradicted by science, but that’s the point of the $25 million Creation Museum rising fast in rural Kentucky.  Its inspiration is the Bible — the literal interpretation that contends God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them just a few thousand years ago. (click to read more).

Miguelito's Inferno

I can do this. For the first time I actually believe I can complete the couch-to-5K program. Today I completed the first day of week 4. I ran 1/4 mile, then walked 1/8 mile; followed by running 1/2 mile and walking 1/4 mile. I repeated the routine for a total of 1.5 miles run and .75 miles walked (not counting the 5 minute warm-up and cool-down walks at the beginning and end). The last 1/2 mile was difficult, but it felt GREAT to complete it, as I've never run more than a 1.25 miles in my life. It didn't help that the temp was 95 degrees when I went to the track. I think our heat index is supposed to be 105. At least my pores got a workout to match my heart.

I'm currently sitting in the Multicultural Lounge on campus. It's located in our student center directly across from our ice cream shop, which means there's a lot of foot traffic. It's interesting watching people come to the door and look in, often with a look that says, "Are white people allowed in there?" Very few people actually attempt to come in, even though there are tables, a couple of couches, a PC, and a big-screen TV/DVD player. Maybe I'm just too intimidating. lol

The M.R.S. had some dental work done yesterday. She was pretty much a zombie for 8-10 hours afterward thanks to the pain medication. A nauseous zombie, at that. She's doing much better today.

Nick began full contact at football practice yesterday. He got the wind knocked out of him once when he was tackled by the coach's son, but he was fine. Noah ended up with a more painful injury, as he dislocated his elbow at some point. It was either when I was dragging him to the car, or immediately before that when some of Nick's friend were playing with him. We were about to take him to the emergency room b/c we noticed that he wouldn't use his left arm to do anything. The M.R.S. called the doc, and he told her to try a technique for popping the forearm/elbow back into place; she did it expertly. Two minutes later he was back to his old self. I think she's gonna make a fine nurse.

Oh, and the two new beef rib dishes @ Olive Garden are excellent. I think the tortellini dish is slightly better than the braised ribs w/ risotto.