The next Wensday (according to my clock)

The Feast is almost here.

Question about uncleanness: Would you feel comfortable using animal parts from animals that are unclean to eat? For example, would you use a brush with bristles made from hog hair? I've got to look into that further, but as far as I can tell right there doesn't appear to be wrong. I'm interested in hearing what you think. And no, I'm not contemplating starting a hog farm. :-)

We had a close friend visit us for the first time in 5 years this past weekend. She is probably the person most responsible for me meeting the M.R.S. I also dated her sister for 4 years, but that's a story for another day. She was coming into town for a baby shower for another friend. It was quite different trying to get into a "Trumpets mindset" Friday evening with a houseguest who doesn't believe what we believe; in actuality, I don't think she's very religious at all. We did enjoy her company, and we caught up on each other's lives. She comes from a pretty impressive family: She has a Master's in Public Health, and just graduated from the Georgia State School of Law; her older sister, whom I used to date, is an M.D.; and her baby sister has a PhD in Biochemistry - no, biomedical engineering from Duke. Their mom has a PhD in Entomology from Michigan State. One of my old college roommates came over Sat. night as well, and we spent the evening reminiscing and watching Michigan State and Boston College play the stupidest 4th quarters in human history.

The rest of Trumpets was absolutely amazing. Noah caused me to miss most of our local elder's morning sermon, but I got to hear the afternoon sermon - it was stellar! Mr. Ehman is always encouraging, and his explanations of the nuances of the Greek and Hebrew meanings of words is always enlightening.

Sunday morning, bright and early, it was off to the Barrel - Cracker Barrel, that is. Work was absolutely horrible. We recently switched to a Micros system (computerized tickets as opposed to handwritten ones), and the grill line was having all sorts of problems getting the orders correct. In addition, one of the cooks didn't show. Ticket times were in the 30-35 minute range for most of the day, and we stayed on an hour wait as a result. Everyone was stressing even more than usual; good thing I'd prayed about watching my attitude before going in to work. I was so busy that I took my coffee cup in to drink a cup before starting work at 9. It was 2:30 before I had the time to actually pour the cup of coffee. I missed out on the cleaning party because of work; I'm interested to see how it went. I guess it would help your understanding if I told you that we're moving to a new location for services. From what I understand, it has a full kitchen. I'm as excited as Emeril to use that thing. Yep, we might be having some fresh-outta-the-oven hashbrown casserole next potluck.

Wensday

The Feast is getting close now! I set up an appointment for Friday to get our vehicle serviced. I took her to the mechanic’s yesterday to get a couple of estimates and the mechanic fixed one of the problems in about 2 minutes while I was giving my contact information. Apparently the air-flow meter was giving false readings due to the air horn being partially disconnected. The truck had been sputtering whenever we pressed the gas, sometimes to the point of cutting off. Next we’re going to get some bushings replaced on the front passenger side, which shall finally end the annoying loud squeaking that manifests itself every time I turn the wheel or hit a bump. It doesn’t look like I’ll get the A/C fixed, but hopefully we won’t be needing it in sunny Fla. We’ll get an oil change next week and we’ll be ready to go. Sixteen days and we’re OUTTA HERE!!!

Couch-to-5K took a hit last week. In other words, I didn’t run at all. I went out to the park yesterday to start at the 2.5 mark again and it was brutal. I had this incredible hitch in my side and in my chest. It’s not possible to lose that much ground in one week, is it? (All of a sudden I’m getting bad feelings about running post-Feast.) I had to stop at the 1.5 mile mark, walk a lap, and then struggle to finish the last mile. I did finish, but it was murder. Today I have a sore right calf to show for my efforts – as well as a small feeling of accomplishment.

We’ve been running to the mailbox every day looking for the letter from our attorney, but so far there’s been nothing. I think I’ll give them a call and see where they are in the process of finalizing things. I’d like to have everything finalized by the Feast. I think Daytona would be a good time to start making up for lost time.

The M.R.S. is almost halfway through the first semester of her final year of nursing school. I’m quite proud of the way she’s immersed herself in her studies. I think she’s going to do quite well this year, but I know she can’t wait until July when she’s done. She’s already tossing out ideas about us having a big blowout to celebrate both of our graduations – assuming I hold up my end of the bargain.

Hey Joe & Ashley – look out for the dreaded post-marriage weight gain!

The Emperor is Naked

Yes, the Emperor has been exposed. I've felt all season that Florida State was good enough, if they could get past Miami, to be in the hunt for a BCS bowl game because of their favorable schedule. I also thought they had the potential to lose to teams they had more talent than, as that's been their modis operandi since Jeff Bowden became offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (or whatever his title is) a few years ago. I rationalized the performance against Troy (in which they had to come from behind late in the 4th quarter) as a fluke. I see now that they are clearly not a top-10 team. While the defense is good, and extremely fast, the offense is still sputtering. You cannot be a top-10 team and still not have scored an offensive touchdown in the first half of a game all season. Yes, Mr. B, the M.R.S. is preparing a nice dish of roasted crow for our dinner tomorrow. At least my Cowboys won tonight. The beatdowns delivered to Miami and Notre Dame were nice too. Of course, the Miami beatdown further diminishes FSU's luster, as they had to struggle mightily to beat the Hurricanes. Looks like this is gonna be a long season. At least I can always fall back on my alma mater and jump on the bandwagon. Go Tigers!!!

Ladies, I could hear your eyes glazing over with boredom as you read this. Then again, most of you probably didn't even make it this far. That was probably sexist.

And I screwed up that Ross Jutsum song again!!! For the record, placing a hymnal in front of your face Summer while laughing hysterically doesn't keep the song leader from knowing that you're laughing hysterically. At him.

Uh-oh...

It looks like trip to the conference in Brazil Sep. 18-20 is a no-go... By the time I finished dotting all my i's and crossing all my tees, the earliest I could receive my expedited visa is Tues/Wed, the 19th or 20th. I don't see the point in spending $2000 to miss a conference. I guess I can do some more data analysis and present my results at another conference in January (New Orleans!). My advisor is really gonna be ticked though. It's my own fault for waiting until the last minute to try to secure everything. I wasn't aware of all the requirements I needed to fulfill in order to travel abroad as a representative of the university. My boss is really gonna be ticked. I may as well send him an email now so he won't be waiting for me in the conference room tomorrow to check out my presentation. Did I mention he's gonna be ticked? Oh yeah, I was supposed to be giving another presentation there for someone else in the lab b/c she just had a baby. It looks like I'm gonna be real popular around here the next few weeks.

Maybe I can just take a vacation the next few days and let everyone just assume I'm at the conference.

I am so gonna get kicked out of grad school.

At least I'll get a 24-hour respite in about 17.5 hours.

Incidentally, I recently "upgraded" to Blogger Beta, which means that for the time being I can't comment on any non-Beta blogs, and at some point this will probably become a private blog requiring permission to read (I assume). I think I'll need to add the email addresses of those who want to read this. I'll keep ya posted.

Court

The court date has come and gone. It appears that I will now receive standard unsupervised visitation every other weekend, from 6 pm. Friday to 6 pm Sunday. Our attorneys got together before court and tried to work out a resolution before we were called in to see the judge. The defendant accused me of not taking advantage of the time Jalen was present, so we agreed that if I will not be present for a period of > 1 hour, then I must take Jalen back to his mom. Problem solved, right? Wrong! Then my attorney comes back and asks about us not allowing him to watch TV, particularly sporting events? What? I explain to him about not watching games on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons, but other than that there weren’t many restrictions on sporting events. If anything, I watch too many! So we agreed to allow him to watch a reasonable amount of television. Everything’s hunky-dory now, right? Wrong again! The lawyers huddle again, and then come back to talk to us. By this point even her attorney looked exasperated. She wanted Christmas and Easter (OK), and we agreed to split the Thanksgiving weekend each year. She was steadfastly opposed to Jalen attending the Feast with us, so I don’t know where we stand in that regard right now. I’ll definitely invite him anyway and see what happens. I found out that she thinks I’m a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. My attorney is drawing up the visitation order, and will forward it to her attorney. Upon his approval, the judge will sign the order and everything will become official. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement!

Although I’m glad to have something official to go by, I’m still upset that we had to end up in court. I hate that we couldn’t work things out and not get the state involved in our family affairs. Hopefully this has brought an end to the tug-of-war with Jalen in the middle.

As an aside, it was interesting watching the other people there for court. One lady before us came out of the courtroom in hysterics and had to escorted out of the building. Apparently, the Department of Social Services was sending someone to check out her home, and a child or children were temporarily in the custody of their father. The case immediately before us involved two couples: one middle-aged, well-dressed, probably middle to upper-middle class; the other, young (early twenties), dressed in jeans and t-shirts, probably lower class (in the economic sense). The young guy, I noted, had marijuana leaf designs all over his jeans. I wonder how that case turned out. Another young man showed up to court with his mom; I guess his case was after ours. He had on saggy jeans, a jersey, and a baseball cap cocked to the side. I see now why my attorney stressed to us the importance of dressing up for court. Even if jeans are the best one has, jeans with an illegal substance on them??? C’mon now.

Recap

Paul over at It's a Paul World has an interesting post today about a European military buildup in the Middle East. Speaking of the Columbus, OH based blog, our very own Prodigal daughter returned from C-bus and appears to be none the worse for wear... Well, except for that hideous OSU Buckeyes T-shirt she now owns.

The weekend was swell. Family came to visit and kept me up half the night Friday, and it was quite enjoyable. Services went well as usual, and the after-services meal was refreshing. We hadn't stuck around lately due to advice from our financial advisor (my oh-so-small bank account), but I'm glad we did. I splurged on some delicious beef/mushroom pizza on a hand-tossed whole wheat crust from a local pizzeria. It was absolutely fantastic - almost as good as that single ice-cold draft Bud Light I had at "Celebrate Anderson" yesterday.

Yesterday started well. I went to bed early Sat. night for a change (around midnight), and got up @ 6 to watch the Tomorrow's World telecast. After it went off, I stretched and did some crunches and push-ups (not very many of the latter), and drove off to the track to finish up week 6 of c25K. After nearly dying completing the first mile, the second mile and a quarter weren't as bed. I'm cautiously optimistic about making the jump to 2.5 miles today at Sertoma Field. Anyway, I came home, showered, and prepared to go to work when I noticed that my watch was dying. It wasn't 8:15 after all; it was more like 8:30. I leave home at 8:40 to make it on time. Needless to say, I did not shower, shave, iron, and dress in 10 minutes. I still made it to work only a few minutes late. You might've noticed that there was no mention of breakfast above. As you can imagine, I got pretty hungry during my shift... Eventually it died down though, and I made it through the day. The M.R.S. picked my up, we briefly swung by the Brooks' for a shower and change of clothes, and then we headed back over to the Anderson Civic Center's Amphitheater for a "Celebrate Anderson" concert. I really just went for the fellowship and fireworks, but the orchestra ended up being really good! They played a lot of patriotic tunes, but the song of the night for me was "Orange Blossom Special" as arranged by Robert Wendel. I was going to try to describe it, but you can give it a listen yourself.




After their performance, I got another treat - Dionne Warwick! While I wouldn't say I'm her biggest fan, I definitely like her big hits. She started with "Walk on By", and "Anyone who had a Heart", sang a couple more I didn't know, and finished with "That's what Friends are for". Even though she was quite congested, she acquitted herself well.



After that, the evening drew to a close with a 21-minute fireworks display that wowed the boys, accompanied by more tunes like Stars & Stripes Forever. They played other songs that I've heard a million times, but I don't know the title - one was that Thus Sprach Zoroaster or something like that. The theme to "2001: A Space Odyssey" - I think. I can't be sure as I've never seen that movie. Anyway, it was a great ending to a pleasant evening! I'm glad Patti, Country Girl, and the Brooks talked me into coming out.

I was going to post more pix, but blogger is trippin'. Later!

Finis

Here I am @ 3 a.m., back on campus to use a printer. Normally I would just wait until tomorrow, but tomorrow's the first football game and I'd never be able to get in here. They already have my building's parking lot blocked off.

Sometime around 11 pm, Thursday, Aug. 31…

Hot Buttered Soul: “What’re you checking out?”

The M.R.S. : “I’m checking out the church speaking schedule.”

HBS: “So do I have any responsibilities this week”

M.R.S.: “Yep; sermonette.”

HBS: “What???”

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.

Friday

I hate science.

Anyway, it's been a few days since I got on here. This week's been pretty uneventful (i,e. I haven't gotten much done). That's nothing new. I did go riding through the countryside of Anderson Sunday, attempting to find the new abode of Tman and Rebel. No luck with that, but I had a good time just riding (Yes, I know I could've picked up the phone and asked for directions, but that would've taken all the fun out of the journey). Of course, that ride was a little more expensive than it would have been this time last year, but you can't put a price on relaxation.

I guess I'll head on over to the gym to try and get some running in, and then head up to see the in-laws. I think there's supposed to be some cooking-out going on. I'll probably head over to the library near their house and try to get some work done while I'm there. Later!

FYI: I just found out that the Jacksonville Jaguars have a home game @ 4:05 vs. the New York Jets while we're at the Feast. I may try to check that out. And I might not be doing the ride around the track with a professional driver at the Daytona International Speedway - it costs $134 for 3 laps. Bummer.

Is it October yet?

I'm so ready to go to the Feast that I'm about to burst. This is the first year we've gotten our room so far in advance. There should be no worries or last-minute scares involving where we're going to stay. Of course, now that I've said it... The rest of the fam are eager to go as well. We know that some of our friends from OH and LA are going to Daytona, along with most of our local congregation, so there should be plenty of people there we already know. I'm looking forward to making as many new friends as possible while I'm there; I know it's gonna be tough devoting enough time to the friends we already have while making an avid attempt to incorporate new friends into our family circle. I think we'll have an event or two at our place, maybe a progressive dinner or something like that as well as a lunch. Maybe a fish fry, 'cuz I'm definitely going deep-sea fishing. We'll see.

As far as the exercise/diet, today I plan to wrap up week two of good ole couch-to-5k. I've lost maybe a pound this week (after splurging on lasagna to begin the week), and I'm currently wearing a pair of jeans that were uncomfortably tight a few weeks ago. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Tomorrow I'll probably wear a pair of black slacks that I haven't been able to button in months. They won't be as loose as they were when I bought them, but I tried them on today and at least now I can button them again. *Yay for small victories* Yep, I'm definitely gonna utilize the exercise room at Ocean Walk this Feast. Oooh, I get to have key-lime pie every day while I'm there. Yum.

Guess who just decided to look at the speaking schedule last night? Guess who's gonna be pulling a Manuel tonight?

Mom joins the club

I talked with my mom yesterday after a trip to the emergency room for stomach pain. She's been under a lot of stress lately, and she appears to have re-ignited an old ulcer. While they were running tests on her, they discovered she has diabetes. Let's tally 'em up:

Diabetes
Mom,Pop, maternal Grandpa (died from complications), paternal Aunt Berta, paternal Grandpa (died from complications), paternal Grandma, paternal Uncle Del, and I'm unsure about my 15 other aunts & uncles.

High Blood Pressure
Everyone above the age of 40.

Of course, the heavy consumption of refined starches and sodas, as well as even heavier consumption of fatback, fried pork chops, chitlins', and ham is probably not helping much.

For the past few weeks I've been trying to diet, and I think I've done pretty well. I think I've passed the craving stage, and as long as I don't skip meals I don't struggle with cheating. I've FINALLY started to exercise a bit too. A quick recap:

• Sunday: 1 hour of full-court basketball
  
• Monday: incline sit-ups, 1st day of couch-to-5K
  
• Tuesday: incline sit-ups, 1.5 hours of full-court basketball
  
• Wednesday: incline sit-ups, 2nd day of couch-to-5K
  
• Thursday: incline sit-ups, 30 minutes of full-court basketball
  
• Friday: sometime today, incline sit-ups and 3rd day of couch-to-5K
  

Hopefully I can keep this up as well as incorporate some weight lifting. Right now I have negative muscles.

The new melting pot?

I find my bus rides to and from work to be pretty interesting. I spend a lot of time just looking at people (not staring, stalker-like). As opposed to many small southern towns, being in Clemson means that a substantial portion of the CAT-bus-riding community is international. I get on at the first stop so I have my pick of seats, and I get to watch the faces come and go. My street has a heavy Chinese population. The next stop, Goldenwoods, offers a variety of passengers; some white Americans, some black Americans, some Turks(I think), and some Chinese. We then travel down Cochran road, which is heavily populated with Chinese and Koreans. The bus travels through an income-based apartment complex, (Sterling Woods) where the residents are mostly lower-middle-class-to-poor black and white Americans. There are also some Mexicans who get on here too. We then hit the LeMans apt. complex, or "Little India" in Clemsonspeak. This is where the bus fills up, unless you're riding in off-peak hours like I usually do. The route then takes us through downtown, and from there on to campus. After I get off I think the route continues on to the grocery stores and out past where Summa works.

I enjoy looking at the beauty and variety in the different ethnicities and nationalities I see living here. I enjoy comparing and contrasting the different hues, accents, hair textures, eye colors and shapes of my fellow bus riders. Back in my hometown, everyone was either black or white, with a few Native Americans thrown in. I kid about the public schools here being like the United Nations, but I'm glad that my kids get to interact regularly with those who are different from them. The boys recognize ethnic differences, but they know (without me telling them) that people are people, and that neither ethnnicity nor race lessen a person's worth.

Interesting articles

Dublin, Ireland (LifeNews.com) -- A scientist in Ireland has made a major breakthrough in the field of adult stem cell research by producing insulin needed by diabetic patients from the stem cells from the umbilical cords of living babies. The result provides real hope for diabetics because the insulin from embryonic stem cells doesn't work as effectively and involves the destruction of human life... (click to read more)

WASHINGTON - Circumcising men routinely across Africa could prevent millions of deaths from AIDS, World Health Organization researchers and colleagues reported Monday... (click to read more)

LDRs

My long distance relationships hurt.  There’s nothing like the buildup as the opportunity to see the object of one’s affection approached.  There’s nothing like the release of emotion when you finally get to see, hear, and touch that voice on the other end of the phone, or the hand that wrote those letters.  After the first day, the little monster called Dread would show up in whichever room the two of you occupied, usually starting out in the corner.  Its rate of growth was inversely proportional to the length of time remaining for the visit, and as it grew the monster would creep to the middle of the room.  One developed the art of pretending Dread wasn’t there.  Eventually though, Dread would force the two of you to acknowledge its presence – with said acknowledgement usually accompanied by a tear - or thirty.  And parting?  Food didn’t taste as good, comedies weren’t as funny, hanging out with friends wasn’t as desirable… …not, at least, until the planning for the next visit had begun.

The internet age has dulled somewhat the excitement of walking quickly (running) to the mailbox as the postman drove off.  Ooooh, and if you actually received a letter from your baby… … life was good.  Of course, there was the slight disappointment to deal with if you didn’t have any mail, but there was always the next day to look forward to.  Of course, IMing and cell phones with mega-minutes have made long distance relationships easier (and cheaper) to manage, but one still has to deal with emotional highs and lows.  I think I’ll just keep the M.R.S. close by.

Put some South in your mouth

The Food Network is becoming an obsession in the Hot Buttered Soul household.  It seems like every time the TV’s not on ESPN or Sci-Fi, it’s on the Food Network.  I must admit that I’ve even been caught watching the channel by myself once or twice.  It’s sort of like the weird attraction the M.R.S. (and certain other bloggers who shall remain nameless) had for Trading Spaces.  Weird.  I’m finding myself particularly fond of Good Eats and the show that shows how common food products are made.  I guess if I were one of Isaac and Rebekah’s twins, I would be Jacob.  I’m DEFINITELY stopping by Paula Deen’s restaurant The Lady & Sons on my was down to the Feast.

There is some intrigue going on here at the Institute.  Without going into details (since I don’t know them), my advisor is changing positions and will no longer be the director of the Institute.  Since this just happened today, no one is sure what the fallout’s gonna be.  My advisor is remaining on staff, and is still on the tenure track, so I shouldn’t have to change advisors.  I don’t know yet how (or if) this will affect the proposed Brazil trip, or the direction of my research project.  I know this interests absolutely no one out there, but I needed to pad this blog entry.

Desiree, I apologize for stepping away from MSN Messenger w/o letting you know.  I was recruited to help set up some cubicles and I forgot to return to the computer before dipping out to the library.  My bad.

The day after

The 4th was OK. I should've been here working, but after making a cameo appearance I dipped and went to a cookout at my (wife's) uncle's place. Most of the family made it over there, and there were plenty of cousins for Nick and Noah to play with. Noah was quite the cranky one yesterday, as he's being weaned by the M.R.S. and apparently this was causing withdrawal symptoms. That also led to he and I spending quite a bit of time together, as everytime he was near his mother he almost ripped her shirt off. (sorry honey). Things did not get any better last night; we finally had to drive him around for a while to get him to go to sleep, and when he woke up in the middle of the night the M.R.S. had to leave the bed and go sleep on the couch whilst the Tiny Terror and I fought in the middle of the bed until he went back to sleep. He awoke pretty early this morning, but seemed to be in good spirits as I left.

I spent the end of last week and the early part of this week trying to compare some of my cotton DNA sequences with protein sequences in an international database and just couldn't get it to work (even though it's not complicated). Turns out that as editing the Perl submission script in Wordpad, the text editor was inserting extra characters at the end of each line. Apparently UNIX doesn't like these extra characters. Our systems admin finally figured out what I was doing wrong, and now I'm good to go.

I'm waiting on my labmate to come back to the office. She's been in a meeting with here committee for the past 2.75 hours getting grilled on her research grant proposal. Hope she does OK. I'm sure she'll cry, as she's very emotional - but I'm also sure she'll pass, as she's very, very smart. Guess I need to go about scheduling mine. Yuck.

I don't want to be at work

The fireworks display @ Clemsonfest looked awesome - from my office window.

Ben-Gay required

Two days in a row in the gym, doing incline sit-ups and playing basketball.  I ache.  I reek.  I can barely move my legs.  And my truck got towed today b/c I didn’t make it out to the meter in time.  Guess I’ll go home and drown my sorrows in a big plate of turkey wings.

Roots

Roots is a fascinating book.  I highly recommend it.  It is the story of Alex Haley’s maternal lineage, from his Mandinka ancestor Kunta Kinte to the birth of Mr. Haley.  The book covers the time period from the mid 1700s to the early 1900s.  The section covering the slave voyage from Africa to the US is particularly chilling.  There’s tons of slave dialect, so the slaves’ conversations might be difficult for someone who’s used to reading only the Queen’s English.  I never saw the landmark TV mini-series, but I think I’ll rent it or better yet, see if our library has it.  If you’ve got some time to kill, I highly recommend giving it a look-see. If you enjoy it, you might also want to read Queen, which is an account of the author’s paternal side of the family.  Both were written by Alex Haley.  Queen was also made into a mini-series in the late ‘90s, with Halle Berry playing the title character.  Reading the books has made me wonder where I come from.  Am I Mandinka?  Wolof?  Ashanti?  Maybe I’ll know one day.  Also, I wonder how much European is in me?  (I don’t think I have quite as much in me as the M.R.S. does).  I have been in contact with a relative who’s been doing some genealogical research, and she’s traced my paternal grandmother’s family (The Cabbagestalks) back to slaves on a plantation in Manning, SC.  As an aside, I’m sure glad we don’t have the custom of passing along the mother’s name in this country.

One of these days I need to get around to reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Not 100% sure I'm not Stupid

So, picking up where I left off, I had the proverbial happy childhood. I went to school and really enjoyed the public school experience. Classes were pretty easy, though from time to time I would struggle with things most others found simple. One thing that stands out is the problem I had working with percentages; specifically, converting fractions into percentages and doing word problems involving percentages. Finally Mom had to get the college daughter of a co-worker to show me some tricks, and eventually all was well. I think that was around 8th grade. Somewhere around that time, I also developed a keen dislike to being perceived as "smart." I was entering that troubled time known as adolescence, and in my high school "smart" guys didn't get the girl - particularly "smart" guys with thick glasses, HUGE feet, and parents who didn't give in to pleas to be allowed to do everything the other kids were doing. Anyway, I stopped raising my hand so much in class (not that it mattered much; whenever the class was stumped, I invariable got called upon by the teachers), and distanced myself from any behavior that could be labelled "geeky". I must've done a good job, because by the time I got to college, NO ONE thought of me as "the smart guy". I was perfectly content to focus on the social aspects of college life, just as I did in high school. Unfortunately college classes were a wee bit harder than the classes at good ol' Clio High School.

In reality, I did think I was very smart when I was in high school. It would've been pretty hard not to after hearing it for 18 straight years. The best summers I had were the summers I participated in Duke University's Talent identification Program, where I was housed with kids who'd taken the SAT in 7th grade and had scored above a certain percentile on the SAT. If I remember correctly, I scored an 830 or so (almost all of that was Verbal; my math score was in the low 300s). I realized quickly that I was nowhere near the top of the food chain there, and I was perfectly content. I was free to release my inner nerd! There were 15-year olds who were earning college credits there; I think most of the participants either ended up attending Duke or one of the Ivy League schools. Now, I don't think I'm so smart. Many of my life decisions are evidence of that. Actually, I guess most of my life decisons would land me in the "stupid" category. Also, I think my ability to remember random facts, and to know a little bit about a lot of things, was misconstrued as "smartness". I am not very analytical, and I learn that more and more with each passing day of grad school. If you need someone to memorize someone's email address though, then I'm your guy.

It's funny watching people's reactions when they find out I'm in grad school. The peeps who knew me from back home pretty much expected me to go off and become a lawyer or doctor or something that required an advanced degree. The peeps who know me from my Clemson undergrad days, or from the 6 years I was on academic "hiatus", well they tend to look as though they'd been told that the earth is indeed flat.

Grrrrr!

Brazil is trippin’ hard!  Apparently, they want me to physically go to one of their consulate offices to obtain a visa.  The consulate with jurisdiction over South Carolina is located in … … MIAMI, FLORIDA!!!!  For those not familiar with east coast geography, that’s a loooong drive.  Or I could go to DC, a shorter, yet-still-long drive.  Perhaps I could coerce the boss to fly me to DC for a day.  This Brazil trip might go the way of the India trip; i.e. not happening.

That Boy

Listening to some ABBA right now, relaxing in my cubicle. Recent conversation with Nick:

N: "Daddy, when God comes back, I'm gonna ask him lots of things, like how did He open the Red Sea, how did He turn the water red... I'm not gonna tell Him you have a tattoo though."

N: "Daddy, I wish I could be like God."

HBS: "Eventually you can, son. You just have to live the kind of life He wants you to lead. You learn about that way of life by paying attention in church and by reading the Bible."

N: "But I can't read the Bible!"

HBS: "I know, and He does too. Right now it's my job and mama's job to teach you what's right and what's wrong."

N: "Awww man, sometimes I told a lie."

HBS: "That's OK son - we've dealt with that. Just try your best not to do it again. "

N: "OK." (smiles)

Randomness

I just re-read the 21 Balloons. It was still enjoyable, though it was a much shorter read than I remembered. I'm currently listening to some guy on the radio try mixing turpentine and sugar at the request of one of his listeners. While I've heard of people doing that, I'm much more familiar with the tried and true spoonful of kerosene & sugar. If you haven't had a grandma nurse you back to health with home remedies, you've missed out.

I see that the Episcopalians have elected a their first woman as leader. I wonder what her views on homosexuality will do to the denomination. She doesn't see it [homosexuality] as a sin. There's controversy a'brewin'.

Go Heat! Any other year I wouldn't mind Dallas winning, but I need Shaq to go ahead and get another ring without/before Mr. Bryant.

And now for some more pics of my kids:


Nick reading some-Mother-Goose-poem-I-can't-remember-right-now to Noah.



Nick commanding his minions



Too bad Summer was in Louisiana/Texas/Montana and Desiree was in California or the pic would've been complete.

Challenge

Try saying "Hey, Hong-hai!" as you run down the stairs. With a mouth full of sunflower seeds. Without spitting in Hong-hai's face.

Anyway, the workday is winding down, and I'm preparing to pull a Manuel. Anderson peeps: Have I given enough sermonettes to begin recycling?

Nostalgia isn't always good

I gave myself a dose of semi-depression today. I went to the library to do some reading, and picked up a copy of TAPS from 1989(TAPS is Clemson's yearbook).. It's amazing how people slip through the cracks in your mind as time passes. Of course you always remember the people you played ball with at Fike (the campus gymnasium); the people you sat with in Little Africa (the part of Harcombe Dining Hall in which many black students sat at dinnertime), the people in your major, etc... The people you passed every day but didn't interact with regularly though - they tend to get forgotten. I was amazed that I hadn't thought of many of the faces I saw in more 10-15 years. That's not what depressed me though. Depression set in when I realized just how awfully I'd wasted the decade from '88-'98. I can remember laughing about wasting my time, doing nothing with my life, and boldly stating, "I'll never regret these years! I know that others are graduating and moving on with their lives, but I'll never be able to have this much fun again - and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!" Yes, I was that big an idiot.

I don't begrudge my old friends their success; no really, I'm happy for them. But for a while today, I was thoroughly disgusted by my inability to do what I was supposed to the first time around. I am in grad school now, but I'm still not applying myself fully. That frustrates me, but I haven't been able to change that fact. So far I've gotten by, but I think my peers and my superiors believe that I know more and I've done more than is actually the case. I keep telling myself that today is going to be the day that I focus and do what I need to do to graduate, no matter how much I don't want to. And each time the result is the same. Oh well, at least the Heat victory tonight took my mind off my shortcomings.

On the road again...

Heading to Charlotte to see my older brother and my Pop is supposed to drive over.  Yall have a profitable Sabbath.  

*note to self*  Get the A/C in the Blazer fixed.

No topic

My family (pic taken by Rebel)



I love you guys.

I'm currently starting to review old class notes as I prepare for my comprehensive exams, which look like they'll be taking place at the end of June and mid-July (writtens and then orals). I'm also trying to get my passport and visa information together, as my boss wants me to attend a conference in Brazil in September. Who would've ever thought that being a student would give me the opportunity to travel to California several times, San Antonio, Nashville, and New Orleans? Stay in school kids.

The big news here is that the alleged murderer of a Clemson student has been arrested in Tennessee. One of my female labmates lived right upstairs from the murder victim. She says things are slowly returning to normal in her apartment complex, but it didn't help that a couple of days ago resident of the complex (a grad-student in counseling) was arrested for sexual assault. I was surprised at how quickly the murder became a national story. I must admit I had my doubts about the Central Police Dept., but it appears that they did top-notch work with the eyes of the nation upon them.

It looks like I need to update my links. It's a Paul World appears to have been taken over by someone else. Paul, I hope all is well with you. Miss your musings.

Thankfully, I shouldn't have to hear random conjecture about 666 for awhile.

Wed-nes-day

So I handed my attorney a check for $750 and proceeded to watch him open a Microsoft Word document, add some names, add some addresses, print it out make a copy for me. That was just the retainer fee; there's at least $250 more in my future. And if we have to make more than one court appearance, he gets $150 an hour. He's helping me out though. I must remember that. Yes, he's helping me. The legal papers will be served tomorrow, so I should be getting cussed out by phone sometime tomorrow afternoon. C'est la vie, I guess.

Ah McKellan... How I love thee

Upon arrival at church around 1:30 for 2 PM services...

Nick: Daddy, where is everybody?

Me: Nick, everyone's not here yet. We're early. People will get here soon.

Nick: Wow! We've NEVER been early before!

Anderson folks will appreciate that one.

NBA action is fantastic

The NBA playoffs have been absolutely amazing. All of the big guns for the playoff teams have performed as expected, and in some cases, beyond what was expected, even for superstars. Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat is shooting near 70% from the field against one the defending Eastern Conference champions, whose trademark is (was?) defense. Shaquille O'Neal, also of the Heat, has forgotten that he's supposed to be on the downside of his career. Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks has crossed the threshold of mere very-goodness to great with one play against the San Antonio Spurs; likewise, Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns has shown that maybe he did indeed deserve that MVP trophy. Detroit, the team with no superstars, the team that epitomizes the word TEAM, teeters of the verge of elimination, while their first-year coach is hearing the ghosts of playoff failures past. The games have been exciting and hotly contested. As my squad (the 76ers) didn't even make the playoffs, I've adopted the Miami Heat as my favorite to win it all. That way Shaq gets a championship without Kobe. Yes, I know that's petty. Here's to 3 more weeks of give-and-goes, pick-and-rolls, and alley-oops!

Quickie

A quick blurb before I run to meet the bus. The church picnic in Charlotte was fun - they learned not to have it in August, for one. Guess who pitched for the first time ever? My line: 1 IP, 9 runs, 28 hits, 6/7 errors, 5 ER. Of course when I came up to bat it was time for the blessing of the food, and the game never resumed. I think we only had one casualty - let's just say that time is catching up to Mr. Lyons' ankle. Nick and Noah had a blast; Noah fell asleep in his seat before we could even make it out of the parking lot. The trip to my folk's place was pretty uneventful and quite hot. I must get the A/C fixed this week. That is #1 on the to-do list (not counting my meeting with my attorney tomorrow to set up legal visitation). I'm definitely asking for the Feast - wait, it's 8:16 and the bus comes in 4 minutes. Bye!

Edit: I hurry to the bus stop to find out that the schedule is different in the summer... The next bus doesn't arrive until 8:50.

Checking in

Check out our new kitchen with the avocado green countertops. It definitely has a 70s feel to it.


The living room before the boxes.



Future $20,000,000 man




Nick has oficially been turned on to Spaceballs. Today he's being indoctrinated into the adoration of all things Godzilla. I've gotta run now; we've got some shopping to do before sundown. Maybe we can finish unpacking over the course of the weekend. Oh wait, we're going to Charlotte Sunday, and probably on to Clio Sunday night/Monday. Dad's all giddy b/c he finally has a computer. It's full of architectural drawings and software, but at least it's a functioning computer. It's much better than the Commodore 64 he bought 10 years after they became obsolete.

Withdrawal

Post(s) forthcoming. No internet access at the new crib.

Fool me once...

...shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you - and I guess that means I'm stoopid.

Noah tends to get up in the middle of the night and makes his way to our bed to feed nurse. I always wake up on the edge of the bed with his feet in my back, our bodies forming the letter 'H'. Yesterday, I wake up to find a nice, cold, wet spot in the center of the bed where his diaper overflowed. Too much H₂O the night before, I guess. OK. This morning I wake up to find another wet spot in between us; this time with lumpy white particles on the sheet and pillow. Let's just say that I think Noah OD'd on milk and poppy seed rolls last night. I think it's time he learns to sleep in his own bed.

Oh yeah - FYI: Young kids and venetian blinds don't mix.

Biblios

Some books I loved as a kid/young buck. Some I need to re-read, as my memory of them is somewhat sketchy. These will be in the kids' library. Definitely.

• A Wrinkle in Time, The Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle
  
• Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
  
• Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
  
• The 21 Balloons - William Pene du Bois
  
• The Martian Chronicles/The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
  
• Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell
  
• Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George
  
• Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
  
• The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander (The Book of 3, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King)
  
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
  
• Sounder - William H. Armstrong
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  
• Animal Farm - George Orwell
  
• The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden/Thompson
  
• Old Yeller - Fred Gipson
  
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle - Beverly Cleary
  
• Where the Wild Things Are - Max Sendak
  

Thank you, English teachers, Mrs. Powell (4th-grade Gifted and Talented Teacher), Childcraft/World Book Encyclopedia, and the Troll book order program for introducing me to the wonderful world of lit. Oh yeah, and my favorite children's Bible. There's nothing quite like losing yourself in a fascinating world that someone created in their head and captured on paper. Too bad journal articles don't excite me the same way.

Monday

About a year ago, I posted something of an autobiographical sketch which covered my early years. (It was May 6, '05 if you're interested.) I was sitting here reading old posts when I realized I'm glad I started this blog. Reading the archives brought up memories and feelings that had been buried since I initially captured them on "paper". I'm looking forward to reading them again a few years from now, and see how I've changed over time.

We went by the Brooks' after services this week for one last hang-out with Ashley before the move to Ohio. We had a great time as usual, and finished off the night with an airing of "War of the Worlds". It was... interesting. I didn't like many of the characters in the movie, though Tom Cruise's character becomes tolerable by the end of the movie. The ending, while true to the H.G. Wells story, seems sorta rushed and the movie seems to end as if the studio just ran out of money and decided to wrap it up wherever they were. The Martians were pretty cool, although they appeared to me to be the same aliens from "Independence Day". I wonder how they rigged up those death rays to not damage clothing at all.

Luckily for Charlotte, the softball game this Sunday was rained out. Now the offensive juggernaut that is Anderson will have the opportunity to practice once or twice before we head up to make up the game. Maybe that rainout wasn't so lucky for Charlotte after all. Especially with our dead-eye pitcher having another few weeks to prepare.

I do not like green eggs and ham.

Warning: Title of post has nothing to do with the actual post.

It's been some week. I've started the Couch-to-5K program again, and I'm trying to drag the M.r.S. along. We both made it through day one with a little residual soreness. We're going out this afternoon for day two. Hopefully Nick can keep Noah occupied by pushing him around in his stroller; if not, well, we'll figure something out. The prospect of jogging while carrying 25 lbs. of jiggling boy around on my shoulders is not appealing.

We're supposed to be moving in 10 days. I guess we should start packing. Perhaps we can have a big get-together at the crib 2 days before we move again. In reality, everything will probably just get tossed into boxes on Mother's Day. Hopefully this is our last move before I graduate and purchase our first home. I'm really looking forward to having grass to mow, a garden to plant, gutters to clean, etc... I think I'll start looking now for some garish oil paintings for the walls. Something that has dogs playing poker or something like that.

Well, I've got to run and take my daily dose of The Cream and The Clear, and my daily injection of human growth hormone - after all, I've got a softball game to prepare for. Have a wonderful Sabbath, dear reader.

Edit: It's 7:34 and the M.R.S. is in Wal-Mart. Looks like Couch-to-5K is out for today.

Busted!

I went to Jalen's school for lunch today. He was quite surprised to see me - especially since he happened to be sitting at the "lunch detention" table for talking in class. I talked with the teacher who sent him to detention while I was there, and she assured me he wasn't usually a problem. Of course, by the time I see him again, I'll probably have forgotten this transgression.

I just met with a faculty member to pick her brain about a direction for my project. She gave me a couple of ideas which I'm about to read up on; hopefully, I'll still be able to get out of here next year. Now it's off to read some microsatellite papers. Ciao!

Feelin' old

My body shouldn't feel this bad after 3 games of basketball. I don't know what kind of shape I'll be in after this Sunday's softball game in Charlotte. Some practice beforehand would be nice, seeing as how I haven't played competitive softball since I was 18. (Well, there was one failed attempt to play intramurals in 2000, but I'd rather not talk about that.)

Today I became the father of a teen-ager. *sigh* Where has the time gone? I now know why parents make videos of their kids doing random things like playing in the living room. We watched a video last night of Nick playing in his walker and taking a bath in the kitchen sink when he was a baby. Again, where has the time gone? And man, could you ever see the resemblance between him and Noah!

Oh, and for you Anderson folx, this week's sermonette will either be about sin, God, or some combination thereof.

My education

Things I learned from my grandparents:

• No matter how sweet and docile they may appear, every old person in my family at one time was a hellion. Every one. Especially my two grandfathers.
  
  
• Every grandmother, no matter how sweet and docile they are now, at one time pulled a gun or a brick on a grandfather to help him reign in his stay-out-all-night tendencies.
  
  
• Clouds are to be feared.
  
  
• Clouds does not mean "clouds", but actually means "thunderstorms". All electrical items are to be turned off AND unplugged. No sitting on the floor is allowed. No loud talking or boisterous playing is allowed - for "The LORD is doing His work." (Does that mean he's vacationing when it's sunny out?)
  
  
• Jooging (stabbing) people and chunking (throwing) rocks are bad things.
  
  
• Sugar (diabetes) is prevalent in my family.
  
  
• The size of one's feet is directly proportional to the amount of time spent running around barefoot.
  
  
• Throwing bones into the slop bucket is a no-no. As an aside, I learned that it costs 25 cents to get your little brother to remove said bones from the slop bucket.
  
  
• Snuff is the nectar of the gods.
  
  
• Every part (and I do mean every) of a hog is edible.
  
  
• If it can be shot, it can be cleaned and cooked.
  
  
• All hand-held fans must have either a picture of MLK, JFK, or "Jesus" on the front, and an ad for the local mortuary on the back.
  
  
• No home is complete without a picture of the "Lord's Supper" on the living room wall. In the 70s, it was preferable that said picture have lights around the frame.
  
  
• Jimmy Carter was a good president; Ronald Reagan was the devil incarnate.
  
  
• Goody's powder cures anything.
  
  
• Addendum: Cornbread, rice, and fish scraps provide all the nutrients a family of cats needs. Old hubcaps are their favorite dishes from which to eat.
  

I think I'll go visit the family next week. It's been far too long.

I think the boys are excited by my musings. Agree?

Philadelphia

Kids = Crumbs

And I haven't even started on the truck yet.

Slurp

Caught him as he was working a popsicle to death. The look says it all.

As the M.R.S. has posted, we've settled on Daytona. Choosing this site eliminated the need to buy plane tickets or passports or the need for a rental car. That means mo' money, mo' money, mo' money! (Don't get excited - I'm a struggling graduate student, remember?) Anyway, it looks to be an 8-hour drive, which is not too bad. I'm strongly thinking of spending a night in Savannah on the way down and taking the fam to Paula Deen's restaurant. I wonder if her hoe-cakes have lard or bacon fat in them? It's a question that didn't come to mind until after I left her restaurant last time.

We found a place we liked, also reported by the M.R.S. Nick was all excited about the split-level floor plan. I was smitten by the thought of having a kitchen in which I could actually move around in again. The fact that I'll be able to open the fridge door without hitting the kitchen table is just an added plus.

I hate it when I let myself get caught out there starving! I just called China Wok and ordered a large chicken fried rice, fried chicken wings, and an order of sesame chicken. As I typed that last sentence, I realized I was perpetuating a stereotype again. I guess I'll dance my way to the restaurant, pick up my dinner, and chase it with the seedless watermelon I bought Friday. Oh yeah, and lust after a white woman. *sigh*

For the uninitiated

Jheri curl info from http://memorylab.deanlabs.com/FashionDetails.aspx?ID=221:

Once the natural (unprocessed) afro lost favor, the wet-look jheri-curl took over. Popularized by Michael Jackson, the jheri-curl is a chemical perm process that relaxes the natural kinky curl of black hair, leaving loose curls in its place.

Hair care product manufacturer Jheri Redding created the process and a series of gels and conditioners to help maintain the distinctive wet-look. Having a jheri-curl required constant care and upkeep, as well as a hearty heap of oil activator conditioner to keep the hair soft and shiny.

Unfortunately for bus seats and car headrests, the jheri-curls oil activator left behind an unpleasant greasy residue. But such is the price of looking good.



S-curl info is from Wikipedia:

S-Curl is a trademark for a line of hair products designed to slightly straighten the natural hair texture of a man of African descent, so that natural wave and curl patterns are looser and more prominent. The term "s-curl" soon came to describe the hairstyle that resulted from the use of the S-Curl line products and the products of competitors.

Depending upon the strength of the application, an "S-curl" hairstyle has hair texture either only slightly less kinky than natural African hair, or more closely approaching the curly hair texture of a mixed or Latino person. Similar to a woman's permanent, an S-curl is applied using relaxers containing lye, and, like a jheri curl, requires continued use of specialized shampoos and conditioners to keep the chemically altered hair from becoming dry, hard, and brittle.

See what you're missing, Desiree?

Yesterday as we cruised through neighborhoods looking for "For Rent" signs, I guess Nick had had enough. Blue was still hanging in there though.



Noah, on the other hand, was a little perturbed at the M.R.S. for taking a picture of his brother without taking one of him. So, to insure peace and domestic tranquility:



OK, so I really just wanted to share pics of the boys. I like them almost as much as I like King Kong.

Feast possibilities

Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Daytona, or Oxnard.  I must have warm weather.

A wordsmith I'm not.

I usually type my posts out without thinking in advance what I'm going to post. When I read them later, I almost always hate them. I've thought of going back and editing them, but I'd end up editing them to the point that they would no longer reflect what I was thinking about when I typed the original post. I guess I'll leave them be, except for egregious flaws.

Great. [/sarcasm] The Lady Tar Heels have lost and Duke is winning. I guess I'll root for Maryland to win the Ladies' NCAA basketball championship, to go along with Florida for the men. I hope Aaron, Kristen, Zac, & Lindsay don't party too hard if the Gators win. Actually, I'd be amazed if anyone other than Kristen knew their school was playing for the national championship tomorrow night.

'Twas Beauty Killed the Beast.

And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And beauty stayed his hand. And from that day on, he was as one dead.

I fell in love with the big ape as a kid. At some point in my childhood, I saw the 1933 version of the movie; I don't remember how old I was when I saw it. I was fascinated by the idea of a giant ape who fought dinosaurs and pterodactyls. The whole "love story" aspect of the movie went way over my head at the time. I saw the 1976 remake around 1978 or '79 - whenever they started airing it on NBC as the movie of the week, or whatever they called it then. (That's what they did with theatrical releases before the advent of VHS and DVDs). I picked up on the love story this time, especially when Dwan (Jessica Lange) is begging Kong not to put her down because she knows the helicopters are going to shoot him down. I loved the mighty 8th wonder of the world, even though he was quite obviously a man in a suit. Lemme tell ya something: Peter Jackson's remake is BY FAR the best of the three. (The 1980s sequels to King Kong aren't even worth mentioning, btw.) I'd heard complaints that nothing happens in the the first hour of the movie. That's not true. Jackson introduces the main and supplementary characters, and fleshes out their backgrounds and personalities. This caused me to be emotionally vested in their predicaments once they reach Skull Island and all heck breaks loose. I really felt it when things happened to the characters. Usually only books draw me in like that - it's quite nice when a movie that's so visually stunning also packs an emotional wallop.

As for the aforementioned Skull Island, it's the creepiest place I've ever seen. I would've lasted about 3 minutes there - assuming my ship wasn't bashed to pieces on the rocks. That scene when the camera crew finds out that the island isn't uninhabited is priceless. You can feel the impending doom building, and there's nothing you can do about it. Incidentally, a dentist could make a fortune on that island.

And then there's Kong. No stop motion photography here. No man in a suit, walking and standing like a man. Nope. Kong is borne out in full fledged CGI a la Gollum for the LOTR flicks. This Kong is quick, agile, and STRONG. The fight with the 3 T-rexes is worth the price of admission. Did I mention that he's holding Ann Darrow almost the entire time he's fighting? One thing is certain: Kong ain't no punk! And then when he finally gets to fight without being encumbered by Miss Darrow, he handles his business. And this Kong has personality. At times he's a monster; at times, he's a big hairy kid. There is one scene that was unintentionally funny to me; Kong and Ann are sitting atop the Empire State Building enjoying a sunrise right before the biplanes arrive for the final showdown. Ann is sitting in his hand, and I kept expecting Kong to clutch Ann and say, Gollum style, "My precious!". Well, it was funny to me at the time.

The love story between Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody) and Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is pretty understated, which was good. I think that subplot seriously weakened the '76 film. Here, it's shown just enough to make you understand why Brody goes to the lengths he does to save Ann. The eventual "relationhip" between Ann and Kong is also well played, and never strays into the realm of the unbelievable (assuming of course that you can believe in a 25-foot ape and an island full of dinosaurs to begin with). The genuineness of their relationship gives the denoument its power to punch you in the gut and bring you (not me, of course!) to tears.

The inclusion of the famous deleted scene involving giant insects and a ravine was a masterful stroke. Kudos, Mr. Jackson. I just wish you'd not felt the need to invoke God's name in the manner you did those two times.

A special thanks to Country Girl for hosting the viewing party and to Mr. Country Girl and Tman for feeding us. Daily Notion and Diamonds on the Inside rounded out our group. I hadn't done the group movie night thing in a while; I need to rectify that. Who's up for War of the Worlds?

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!