Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Wait is Over

We didn't get it. Poop.

Also, I've decided that I'm gonna learn how to play pedal steel guitar.

The Waiting Game

So Jeannie and I made an offer on a house Friday night. And then on Sunday morning our agent, Lorrie, got an e-mail from the selling agent, who said that they'd received 3 contracts over the weekend and that we should make our best offer. The J-Dog and I talked it over and decided we were happy with our offer, so we left it the same and sent it back. And now we've been waiting to hear what happens.

The waiting is kinda sucky, although I think we've made the right choices through the whole process. I'm glad we made an offer, and I'm glad we didn't raise that offer, and I think we'll both be sad if we don't get it, but we're OK if that happens, too. Bleagh. The home-buying process is a little bit broken, I think. It seems kinda backwards. Oh well.

The last couple of days we've been helping out with the building of the set for CSC's summer shows. It's been a nice way to keep the ol' noggin' occupied during the house business. And it's been good to be outside and working on stuff, and at the same time not be in charge of building the stuff.

The other day, I think I figured out that my dreams (the nighttime kind) have, my whole life, been showing me (generally) the things I desire. When I was a kid, I dreamed a lot about flying and having magical powers and shit. When I was in my 20's, I would always dream about meeting and playing with famous rockstars. These days, it seems like my dreams are all about my friends, the most recent of which was a dream about Sean paddling a canoe against some swift rapids, and eventually falling backwards out of the boat. Cole and I were watching from the bank, and she went in to drag Spiff out of the water.

I'm not sure what my recurring shoplifter dreams are about. I guess anxiety or just the desire to do a good job at work or something.

I guess that's all I've got for now. I'm gonna go buy a red pepper and make a stir fry for dinner.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Size Might Matter

Holy cow, it's been over a week since I last wrote. If my own blog was listed in the handy-dandy chronological blog-list over there to the right, it would be down near the bottom. A very shameful place to be. Apologies.

If it has been a week since I last wrote, it's because my brain has obsessed with a series of houses that the J-Dog and I have looked at. The first one was big, somewhat rundown, on a huge partially wooded lot, and was somewhat affordable. I got pretty excited about it. The J-Dog less so. So the other night we had a big 3.5 hour discussion about it where we worked out how our finances would work, and rehab loans, and made lots of lists of work that would need to be done, and talked about the floor plan, and ended up deciding that it wasn't the right place. It was big, though. After our marathon 3.5 hour discussion, we both felt a little wiped out, so we went for a quick walk and then came home and I made us some accidentally super-strong G&T's (we had less tonic than I thought we did), and Jeanners got a little drunk. It was cute, although Drunky-Drunk didn't sleep very well.

I would be sad, but luckily the same day that we decided that the big place wasn't the right place, another house went on the market that looked pretty promising. It's super cheap (why?) and good sized and looks to be in a workable state of disrepair. And I went and drove by it last night and got out and walked around the outside, and now I'm convinced that this is the place for us. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the inside until tomorrow morning, so for the last day and a half, I've been a bit annoyingly excited about the place, which makes the J-Dog automatically (and understandably) take a more cautious look at the whole thing. My problem is I get too excited. I told Jeannie that if this house goes off the market before we get a chance to see the inside, I will go into a months-long depression and stop eating and let my fingernails grow super long and all that shit. But seriously, I think it could be perfect. And it's cheap.

What else?

I'm about halfway done with my mammoth Willie Nelson biography. It's OK. I'm still on a Willie kick, but now I'm also doing some listening to early Sun Records stuff. Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison. This Sun Records interest was sparked by starting to read Johnny Cash's autobiography, CASH, at work. It's really good. And much shorter than the Willie book.

Work has been un-remarkable.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Courier New! The Musical

Well, we went and saw the guys from Spinal Tap the other night. It was, at the same time, both entertaining and slightly depressing. Entertaining because they're funny, and they played most of the songs I wanted to hear (they didn't play 'Stool Boom,' but they did play 'This Bulging River'), and they did an audience Q&A (which I always think is ballsy); depressing because the whole thing had a bit of an 'old guys attempting to rock out with acoustic guitars' vibe. Nonetheless, enjoyable.

Last night I went over to Patrick's (formerly from work) place to watch the season finale of LOST. For the last few episodes, the show has been teetering on the brink of spinning hopelessly out of control, but with the finale they really pulled it back and took it in a whole new direction. Very good finale, and I'm glad I got to watch it with other LOST dorks in a social setting. And I had lots of Guinness, which always helps. In a strange coincidence, I saw Derrick last night on my way to Patrick's (Derrick is my old boss), and FCW was at Patrick's for the show (FCW is my old, old boss), so I saw my two former bosses on the same night in two different places.

We just got Helvetica from Netflix, on Schlueter's recommendation. If you're like me, you probably think a movie about a font sounds like a very very bad idea. This had better be good, Schlueter.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Cosmic Connections

There are 2 dates during the year that seem to have cosmic importance to me, dates where a lot of different things have happened that for some reason stick in my brain. One of those dates is Nov. 5th (Marty McFly, Spiff, J. Steinmetz, etc), and the other is May 10th. Today is:

1. Bono's birthday (I believe he is 75 this year).

2. My brother-in-law Tom's birthday. I will not disclose his age out of respect for the victim.

3. The 4th birthday of this here blog. Happy birthday, time-waster extraordinaire!


We're trying out a different kind of salsa. I don't like it.

Last night we watched Amadeus, a movie that both I and the J-Dog remember enjoying back in the day, but last night it seriously blew. First of all, it's fucking l o n g. Long like a big ugly dick. And it basically has one premise that it takes 3 hours to show to you over and over again: Salieri is jealous because Mozart is a genius and he (Salieri) isn't. I don't know. Like I said, I used to like it, so maybe it really isn't that bad, but I guess my taste in movies has changed a bit over the last 15 years or so.

There's a part of me that wants to see the new Star Trek movie, and another part of me that wants to drown myself just so that part dies.

Boy, it's a gorgeous day outside!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mutha's out there!

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

The, uh, death.

Not much going on. At all. Which is kinda nice a little bit. I had the day off work today, and I got many things accomplished, including a stack of dishes, an oil change, a trip to the gym, and a trip to Target where I bought a new package of white T-shirts and a new package of underwear. I should be set for clothes now until 2019.

The other day in the shower I was trying to think of my most embarrassing moments. Not sure why. I could think of two. Neither of them will make any sense without me describing the situations in which they occurred, but I don't feel like taking the time to set up those situations. The first was when I was talking to Aimee's mom on the phone and I said, "Sorry about the, uh, death." Perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever said to anyone. The second was when I attempted to make a funny joke by saying "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," in a very slow and very monotone way. It fell flatter than any attempt at humor that I have ever witnessed, and I immediately felt a burning shame that made me want to throw up, take a shit, and set myself on fire. Perhaps coincidentally, both PKP and BJ were present at both of these occasions.

The J-Dog is currently a member of a jury.

Oh, I also made some brownies today.

Also, when I weighed myself at the gym today before I worked out I weighed 169.5 lbs. That would be awesome, but I think it might have been a fluke because when I weighed myself after the workout I weighed 173 lbs. Oh, but my workout did consist of eating 3.5 lbs of Toblerone.

Been reading The Buddhist Bible, a book I picked up from the used bookstore in Eugene, and it's pretty good, if you like reading scriptury-type things. Also still reading my Willie Nelson biography, which is making me think a lot about Sean. It's all about playing live music and what a central thing it was in the lives of all these young Texas and Nashville musicians in the 50's and 60's. Makes me wonder what it would be like if I was in a band.

Also, the musician Doug Sahm's name has been popping up in many places over the last few days. I don't think I have ever heard any of his music, but perhaps I shall investigate.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Bowling Execution

Been a busy weekend. Looked at houses yesterday and went then went to work. We looked at a house that if I were a single man I would totally buy (although if I was a single man I wouldn't be able to afford it, but that's neither here nor there), but Jeannie doesn't want to buy it. It's OK, I forgive her. I understand that it's not the right house for us. But it's big and old and cheap, and it has this attic on the third floor that you get to by going up this old staircase, and the attic is dark and eave-y and would be a perfect recording studio. It looks like this:


Today we went down to the DC area to help PKP and T move into their new place (which is new and beautiful and lovely), and we met lil' baby Finn (who is also new and beautiful and lovely, as well as chill, sleepy, and content), and it was nice to get to hang out and help out, although it rained pretty much the whole day. Then after we got home I took an hour nap and then went into work for an inventory, which was fine. At Pat and Teresa's I ate some pizza, and then at the inventory I ate some pizza. And I have pooped today about 20 lbs. worth of poop. But unfortunately I ate about 25 lbs. worth of pizza, which means my net weight gain is about 5 pizza-lbs. And now I'm staying up too late after the inventory. I will regret this tomorrow when I have to go to work in the afternoon.

I was straightening up the books in the Sports section tonight, and I saw a book called "Bowling Execution." Two words I never expected to see in the same sentence, and for a second or two I had no fucking clue what the book was supposed to be about.