Questions and Comments are welcome...

Well, thanks to A-Train, I came to discover that I had inadvertantly and unknowingly enabled "comment moderation" on this here blog, which means that the blog wasn't publishing anyone's comments until I approved them, but I didn't know I had to approve them. So I had a big long list of everyone's comments waiting for me to approve. So I have approved them all, and I turned off comment moderation, so feel free to leave your comments and tell me what you think of my life.

So I will now address some of the things that came up in the comments:

1. Sean, you don't get a prize because you are in the picture. Of course you know who took it.

2. No, Becky, I have never cut my fingernails with a knife. It's never gotten that bad.

3. Tim Bantle! Howdy!


And now, on to the things that have been going on...

Last night, A-train Aimee came over and we had some Thanksgiving leftovers and then sat around and shot the proverbial shit. It was a good time, and somewhere in the middle of the conversation I decided that I could go for a nice big G&T, and then another, and another, and by the time Aimee left I was a bit drunk. I always feel a bit strange when I'm the only one who's drinking. Usually because then I'm the only one who's drunk. But I guess it doesn't make me feel too strange, especially when I'm with folks as close as the Jeanners and the Aimers. After Aimee left, the Jeanners and I went out for a walk, and it was a nice quiet night.

Yesterday during the day, the Jeanners and I got some good work done (maybe plugged our mouse hole [if ya know what I mean...] and fixed our annoying squeaky bed) and I also worked a long time on some recording that ended up being not very good. But it was fun to work on it. Maybe I'll stick it up on the Myspace site...

Work has been pretty good. Still owe many phone calls to people.

Rah, Rah. Sis-Boom-Bah.

Why has writing in the blog seemed not as interesting as it used to? Is this a phase? Will this pass or will the blog slowly die? My guess is this will pass.

At work we are entering the holiday mode, which I don't think will be too bad this year. I wrote a note today to everybody in the department, laying out some helpful hints about how to deal with some of the shit that will undoubtedly come up when the store is full of people, and also just kind of a cheerleading note to say that it could actually be a decent time this year if we all help each other out, because we've got a good crew of fun people. So work was fine, uneventful, and I'm off tomorrow which should be nice. The plan is to hang out with A-Train, who we haven't seen in about a million and a half years, and with whom I will now be able to swap B&N war stories.

I said that work today was uneventful, but I forgot to mention that today I heard that they caught two people having sex in the womens' restroom yesterday at the B&N. Which is fine with me, but I'll bet the two people weren't married, which I think is immoral. I'll bet that people never have sex in the mens' bathroom at the B&N because I keep it smelling like feces so much.

Tom Waits has a new 3-disc set! Zowie!

Thanksgiving

Well, here it is, Thanksgiving Day, and the Jeanners and I are in the kitchen, listening to Garrison Keillor and preparing our Turkeyday feast. Turkey, stuffing, mashers, vegetables, and many pies. It's a grey, cloudy day here, but we're having a good time so far.

Last night we watched Citizen Kane. I thought it was pretty good. The Jeanners fell asleep.

Tomorrow begins the screaming drive towards Christmas at work. I'm enjoying these last few days before things get crazy. Although I'm hoping that if the department is scheduled well it shouldn't be as hectic as years past.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Keep Soaping!

Today is a day of mixed emotions. Happy because I have the next two days off, and tomorrow is one of two days during the year when the store is closed and I don't have to think/worry about it. Sad because we're usually in Ohio at this time of year, and we miss our buddies there. But also a little excited because we know that having a break from our usual Thanksgiving festivities will make the next time we get together all the more rockin'. But anyway, I hope that all is well in Ohio and that everyone's Thanksgiving is peaceful and happy.

Today the plan is:

1. hit the gym.
2. inspect our bedroom and kitchen to see where the mousies might be coming in. (we think that the living room has been properly sealed.)
3. make stir-fry. Yeah! Stir-fry!
4. I also, at some point, need to call or e-mail my brother, to whom I have owed an e-mail or call for some time.

'Twas good to hear from Sean about his recent trip back to the Midwest for his (gasp) 30th birthday. When did we all get so damned old? And yet, I'm sure the boy can out party any 18-29 year olds that care to challenge him...

Drew's blog made me laugh today. Perhaps I should change my online alter-ego to turduckenboyden? It seems that fame jumped right from the standard "turkey" directly to the "turducken", and my beloved "turken" never achieved mass popularity. But then, why have a chicken inside a turkey when you can have a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. 'Tis the American way.

1/2 Day

Sometimes it is more fun to work a half day than it is to have the entire day off. Today was one of those days, I went in to work early for a meeting, stuck around with Elizabeth and got some shite done, and I am now at home, about to put some hot dogs in the pot (not a euphemism, I'm literally going to put some hot dogs in a pot and boil them), and listening to a new cd that I bought for myself.

Today is the type of day I think of when I think "November." Chilly, grey, breezy. Bleak but peaceful. I think the beauty of November is often overlooked after the flashy melancholy of October. But I think it's rapidly becoming my favorite month.

This evening I head in to HCCA to take down the ladders from Love's Labors. Then we're having a meeting to start talking about the summer shows, then a general company meeting. So it'll be a lot of CSC stuff going on this evening. I'll think I'll bring some beer to keep things interesting.

The cd that I bought, by the way, is James Brown's Soul on Top. It's good stuff, especially when you keep in mind that James Brown is absolutely insane. Rolling Stone had a good article a few months ago, and the gist of the article was that James Brown is currently incredibly bonkers, and I believe that article. But anyway, this cd is pretty good, lots of James Brown-esque screaming and wailing, the kind that my dad hates so much. And a big band. It's a big cd, good for playing loud in the car.

jlhgljhghgfhfgddfg

I have been piss poor on keeping up with the blog lately. Mainly because I've spent the last couple of days wrestling with Jeannie's computer, attempting to rid it of viral infections. Yuck. I hate arguing with machines.

Not too much else going on.

Been enjoying The River in Reverse, by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint.

Hope all is well at the Schluetermetz house.

The Break Up

Ah, I've been working a lot, but I have the next 2 days off. One day of chores and errands, one day of perhaps recording or perhaps sitting on me bum.

The Jeanners and I had a good anniversary. We went to a Greek restaurant called "Samos" located in, well, Greektown. Which is a little distance away, but it was worth it. It wasn't very fancy, the stuff we ordered was relatively cheap, and it tasted almost as good as the stuff at Olympia. I think that with a little lettuce and some feta cheese (which I'm sure can be added next time), the gyros will be just as good as Olympia. And I now know that the Greek sauce-stuff that I like so much is called "tatziki" or something like that.


Yesterday at work a guy came into the department, and looked very well groomed, black leather jacket, vaguely and generically and slightly foreign. He asked if I worked the department, then said he needed my help and knew absolutely nothing of what he was talking about. Then he said, "I will tell you the truth. I am breaking up with my girlfriend, and I want to give her a song that will make her sit and cry for weeks and weeks." Well, at first my mind blanked on good breakup songs. I wanted to say, "Jeez, jackass, the entire Blood on the Tracks album is great for breakups, but he didn't seem like a Bob Dylan type of guy. Plus, I had no idea if the breakup was due to the fact that she did something bad to him [i.e. does he want a mean breakup song?..."Idiot Wind"] or because he did something bad to her [does he want an I'm sorry breakup song?) or did it just end? (in which case a just plain sad breakup song would be in order). In the end I suggested "Gone for Good" by Morphine and "Lost Cause" by Beck. He listened to samples from the songs but didn't seem too impressed. I'm not sure he and I looked at breakups in the same way.

Year after year of hellacious torture

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the wedding of the Danners and the Jeanners. We are planning on celebrating by going to a greek restaurant. Whenever we are in St. Louis, we always eat at Olympia (a greek restaurant) and have the deluxe gyros (one of the few instances in which the Jeanners eats meat), and every time we're there we always say, "We have to find a good greek restaurant in Baltimore." So tomorrow, Operation Find a Good Greek Restaurant in Baltimore '06 begins.

In all seriousness, I think this will probably be our last anniversary. I give the marriage maybe six months more, tops.

Sad news has cancelled our Thanksgiving plans. So the Turkeyday will be different this year, and surely not as good as it always is, but we will either find something else to do or else enjoy a few days of doing nothing.

We had our annual holiday meeting today at work. At 6:45 this morning. It's the one time of year when everybody that works at the store is gathered at the same time. Which I always think is kind of fun. Anyway, it was fine.

Thassall for today!

How come you never say "Golly Moses" after we kiss?

The Jeanners and I were going to go see LOVE's LABORS tonight, but I was too damned tired when I got home from work. So we stayed home and watched THE PHILADELPHIA STORY instead, which I was not expecting to like but ended up liking a lot. Basically it's about a bunch of rich white people who get trashed and then hungover. But with Jimmy Stewart, who I always enjoy.

Also, we caught another mouse tonight. I have a feeling that as the weather gets colder we'll be catching bunches. At least we seem to be catching them now before they get a chance to settle in and we really get to know them. Still, it makes a person feel pretty damned guilty.

Had a really rude customer today, someone who was belligerent for no reason, not just annoying. Haven't had one of those in awhile. 'Tis almost the season!

US-6 Mice-0

We caught another mouse last night. I think that puts the total at 6 since we moved in at the beginning of July. That's more than 1 a month. The mice still seem to prefer the death trap to the happy trap. Maybe we should just buy a fox...

Right now Jay Farrar is playing on the Itunes radio station we enjoy so much.

Last night I (finally) did not wake up in the middle of the night due to dreams of shoplifters. I did, however, have a dream that I was an usher on Letterman.

I like to think that, in most areas of my life, I employ a healthy mix of cynicism and hope. But when it comes to politics, the cynicism really rears its ugly head. I hope that in the coming years my inner thoughts are proven wrong and that somehow the U.S. government becomes a lot less interested in killing people and more interested in subsidizing the sagging compact-disc industry.

Cutting off hands seems reasonable to me.

The shoplifters are getting to me. It's very depressing to find a bunch of things stolen every day and not be able to figure out who the f*@# is stealing all this shit?! Especially when you think the person who is stealing all this shit is a damned kid.

This morning before work Jeannie and I were listening to an Itunes radio station and in the course of about an hour I heard Greg Brown, Daniel Lanois, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and Ron Sexsmith. Not too shabby.

I think I've decided that when it comes to obscenities in the blog, I'm going to follow the example of The Goonies. Which means that you can say "shit", but the f-bomb is reserved for very extreme circumstances.

Tomorrow night I have plans to go have a half-priced burger with Patrick From Work and then watch LOST. I am looking forward to it.

Everyone Absolutely Must Vote

I do not actually believe the above statement is true, which I'm sure would make some (most) of my friends angry with me. But oh well.

Last night as I was parking my car at the end of the night, I saw a fox rummaging through some garbage and then trotting nonchalantly across the street.

Every night this week I've been waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares about shoplifters. It seems we're having a problem in the department at the B&N with the thievery.

Well, everyone have fun voting!

Great Scott!

Ah, November 5th, 2006. Twenty-one years ago, Marty McFly took his fateful trip back in time. Thirty years ago, the world welcomed one Seanyboy Spiff. What a day!

It's Sunday morning, and I have the day off, thankfully. Last night at work I felt like I was getting sick, but I'm not sure if that was the case or not.

What shall Jeannie and I do with our day? We have no plans except to make a large stir-fry dinner this evening. We were talking about maybe playing outside, but it's not a very sunny day.


Well, after writing the previous sentences, Jeannie and I went to the gym, went to Trader Joe's, and came home and had a nice bacon n' schmeggs breakfast. Now I'm going to lay on the couch and relax.

Last night I listened to Steinmetz Family Rhymin' at about 1 in the morning and it made me sad, partly because it's so good and partly because I miss my friends a lot. Thanksgiving!

The phrase for the day is: baby seal cracker pig.

"Hello Dear. Senator. Babs."

The title of this post is my favorite line from the Alfred Hitchcock film, Strangers on a Train, which the Jeanners and I watched this evening. It was nice to sit around and chill after a long, relatively annoying day at work.

Love's Labors opened tonight. Hope everything goes well.

Right now the Jeanners and I are resting on the couch, and I have a feeling that we'll be in bed soon. I'm pretty damned tired, and her eyes are closed, which means soon it will sleepy time for us both.

Hoops and jumping

I am blogging this blog on the road. I'm currently at the Howard County Cente for the Arts (known to those in the know as HCCA) where I was doing a little work on the lights and set for Love's Labors.

I spent my entire day off working on b-crap for the B&N, and I'm still not done. Some of the b-crap will be helpful in the long run, but much of it will not. I wish I could say, "Well, at least I'm getting paid for it." But I'm not. Dammit.

I desperately need a haircut. And I need to call my parents.

It's been beautiful autumness here.

Potpourri

Strangely divergent things going on for the next few days. I have 2 days off (which hasn't happened in awhile) and here's some of the things on my non-existent to-do list:

1. Laundry (today)
2. Eye Doctor Appointment (today)
3. Go to HCCA to finish and touch-up the set (today)
4. Watch LOST (tonight)
5. Do 2 months worth of hypothetical schedules and daily assignment sheets for work (tomorrow)

That's about it. I guess it's not really as much as it seems like in my head. But doing all the scheduling stuff tomorrow is probably going to take many unpaid hours. Why am I volunteering my time to a huge corporation? Because I care, dammit.

A couple of days ago I switched our music library over to Itunes. I hate all things I-related (ever since the deaths of my Ipod, as well as Apple's practice of making all of their hardware and software incompatible with other brands [to the point that when I install Itunes on the computer, it loads some sort of malicious script that makes it impossible for me to open Musicmatch Jukebox -- and the same thing happened when I tried to install my Creative Zen Touch MP3 player onto the computer; I couldn't install the damn thing until I had uninstalled Itunes]), but Jeannie and I have been enjoying listening to the Internet radio stations included with Itunes. Plus, now we can (easily and legally) download many more This American Lifes for our upcoming road trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Yeah, Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was my 4 year anniversary with the B&N. It was also my dad's 4 year anniversary of his retirement.

Here's what the Jeanners looked like (with friend Katie) last night for Halloween:



She asked that I not post this picture, but I believe that freedom of expression is one of the things that makes this country great. I think the lesson here is that if you don't want people to post pictures of you as some sort of blue wizard on their blogs, then you shouldn't take any pictures of yourself when you are dressed up like some sort of blue wizard.

Did anyone else catch Letterman the other night when Borat was on and he made the reference to "wizards sleeves?" Funny stuff.

The Lou

Today I would like to send out a great "Huzzah!" to my home city of St. Louis, MO. First of all, their baseball team, the Cardinals, recently won the World Series. Secondly, the city was just named THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA. I guess that when you come from THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY IN AMERICA you grow up tough like me. Although, as my wife likes to always point out, I'm technically from the suburbs. Still though, I'm pretty tough.

This morning at work I made a bit of an ass of myself. LESSON LEARNED: As Patrick from work pointed out to me, correctly, you should know what you are talking about before you criticize others. Mr. Dan's Mouth, please say hello to Mr. Dan's Foot.

Taking a Leak

Last night, due to the heavy rains, the ceiling in our bedroom started leaking. And it actually started leaking right over our bed. And, actually, it started leaking right over the part of the bed where my crotch likes to sleep. So I woke up very early, thinking that I had wet myself with cold, cold urine. But actually it was just rainwater leaking down onto my crotch. So that was cool.

Then, when I got to work this morning, the manager was panicky because the 2 people who were supposed to show up to open in the cafe did not show up, so she and I and another person scrambled around and tried to figure out what needs to happen in order to open the cafe. One of my jobs was to make the mocha, and I'm thinking it probably tasted like shit because it was all lumpy. I was later told that I probably hadn't whisked it enough, but jeez, I whisked it a lot. So I got a lesson in cafe this morning. It was enough of a lesson to learn that I want to stay in music.

Hmmm. What else happened today? Not too much. I was by myself in the department for most of the day so I stayed pretty busy and the day went by fast.

Tonight I'm planning/hoping for a quiet night because I have a long day tomorrow of set stuff and then work.

Angels in America

The Jeanners and I went and saw P. Kilpatrick's show, Angels in America pt. 1: Millenium Approaches and I was very very pleasantly surprised. I was not expecting it to be very good, but both Jeannie and I really enjoyed it. Well acted, well directed, and interesting design choices. I had originally thought that the space was going to be too small, but the play actually worked really well in such a close setting. Who knew. Anyway, it was refreshing to see something good.

p.s.

K-Torr is a daddy!

Perspective (or, Sleepy Barcelona)

Today at work I helped a guy in a motorized wheelchair who had no control over his body from the neck down and very little control from the neck up. Basically, his whole body was constantly writhing and spasming, and he drooled a lot and couldn't speak or gesture, and just constantly seemed like he was in the process of performing a very low-impact sneeze. I asked him if he needed any help, and he sat and flailed a little while, and I waited, and then somebody else came up and asked for help so I helped them, a little relieved.
As I was helping the other customer, the wheelchair guy rolled up behind us, so I figured that he must need some help and just wasn't able to talk. When I was done helping the other customer, I noticed that wheelchair guy had a board next to him in his chair. I took the board out; it was about 1.5 feet by 2 feet, and maybe a quarter of an inch thick, and on the upper left hand corner it said "I can hear perfectly." Next to that it said, "I use this board to talk. Repeat back the things I point to." The rest of the board was covered with words and the alphabet and the numbers 0-9. So I held the board in front of his face and he proceeded to flail around a little more, but little by little I noticed that he was using his nose to point to different words or letters (it didn't help that he was wearing a baseball cap; for awhile I thought he was trying to point with the bill of the hat). So after awhile he was able to communicate that he was looking for a specific DVD, and he wanted me to read to him what our computer said about it, and I ended up ordering the DVD for him.
At the end of the conversation he started spelling out "can" "someone" "help" "me" "in" "the"...and I was worried that he was going to say "restroom." But he ended up saying "elevator," so I helped him get in the elevator and took him upstairs and he went on his merry way.

The Point: The point of all of this is to say, "HOLY SHITE!" What an amazing amount of balls and strength and heart this person has to be out and about on his own. If I was trapped inside of a body that didn't work, I'm sure I would lay flailing around on my bed all day and life a very short, unhappy, bitter life. So I was just moved by this guy and his profound handicap and the amount of energy,brains and effort it must take to overcome it every moment of his life. The world is a strange place.

The last couple of nights as I've been driving home after doing set stuff after rehearsals, I've been coming up into the city from the south, on 395, which is probably one of the prettiest views of Baltimore there is. The city really has a nice skyline from the south, and I enjoy the drive. Listened to "The Old Matchbook Trick," and thought it was a song that eveybody should hear. I'm not sure if that's true or not, though.

Also, saw a guy who looked like Kevin Sorbo walking on Charles Street.

Busy

Well, I've gone from "Not much going on..." to "I need more time!" in just a day or two.

Yesterday I spent about 14 hours working on a relatively easy light hang and load-in. Why did it take so long? I don't know, exactly. Without Jeannie's help in the morning I probably would've been screwed. Watched rehearsal last night, and I have a few things to fix before rehearsal on Sunday. So now every moment of my time is booked between now and Sunday night. Lovely.

Hmm. I will cut this short because I want to have time to make myself a big bacon n' schmeggs breakfast before work. Yum!

Math!

Not much has been going on, yet strangely busy...

This morning I woke up and did a bunch of calculations for work--projected sales, proposed hours, etc. I feel like a real grown-up manager! Actually, though, figuring all this shit out before the holidays hit puts me in a much more relaxed state. Now I just need to convince our store manager of all the stuff I came up with this morning.

Tomorrow is my day for hanging lights and loading in the set and all that stuff. My loverly girlfriend is going to help me in the morning. Hopefully it will be a good time and unforseen-problem-free.

I'm in a weirdly good mood, and I have been for the last several days...I think after all my worry while I was out of town I feel relieved to get back and see that everything is as normal as ever.

Wonder how Rich has been doing in St. Louis/New York?

Cow Pie

The Jeanners and I had a good day off today. Thismorning I made myself six eggs worth of breakfast burritos, and then we headed out to work on the set for LOVE's LABORS LOST. We didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped, but Jeannie will be able to help me work on Wednesday morning so I'm not worried.

Then we came home and made some dinner, and we had wine with dinner (life feels good when you have wine with dinner!) and watched a little bit of THELMA AND LOUISE, which I had never seen. It appears I was not missing much.

Something that we made for dinner wanted to leave my body immediately and forcefully, so I think that Jeannie might be trying to poison me...

I bought a cd yesterday by The Breaks Co-Op, and it is not as good as I wanted it to be, but there are some good songs on it.

My stomach is still cramping a little bit so maybe I'd better sign off for now.

So Much New News

Firstly, I have bad news for all of you who love me because I'm skinny and cute: They're building a Chipotle right down the street from our apartment. Holy Shite. I predict I will soon be tipping the scales at at least 450 lbs.

Secondly, I have a bad headache and I'm tired right now.

Thirdly, Jeannie and I were going to go see Pat's show tonight but are going to go on another weekend because I'm not feeling great and we're both pretty damned tired.

Fourthly, I tweaked the look of this here blog so that the random picture would be visible on more browsers. Aaaagh! Geek talk!

Lastly, Jeannie caught a mouse last night with her bare hands and then accidentally bit its head off.

A big crying baby. That's what I am.

So it turns out that I was overreacting about all these fears and worries about work, just like everybody was telling me. Work today was fine. I kind of enjoyed it a very tiny bit. Tomorrow I work in the morning and then go back at night for a music inventory. In between I must go to Baltimore Stage Lighting to pick up some gel. Unfortunately, BSL is on the other side of the damned city.

Watched LOST tonight with Jeannie, who was, as usual, uninterested. The episode was so-so, but next week's looks pretty good. Jeannie gave me some kisses, though, that made me want to go roll around in the hay.

One thing I forgot to mention about our trip:
1. Jeannie and I bought a grand total of 4 pairs of shoes.

Long day tomorrow. Should be ok, though.

Back Home

Well, Jeannie and I have arrived back in Baltimore, after another relatively easy drive thanks to some more This American Life downloads and nice driving weather. And my dad took us to the library before we left St. Louis so we could get another book on cd, but the things we got weren't that great. They helped pass the time, though.

Well, I'm dreading going to work tomorrow. During this trip, I seriously started thinking about other jobs that I could possibly do. I don't know why, exactly. Am I burned out on retail? Do I not like being a manager? I'm not sure. I just know that I've never dreaded going to work like this since I've been at the B&N. Maybe after I go in tomorrow all of these bad feelings will go away. Maybe they'll be worse. Not really sure at this point, and I think that's part of the problem.

I think that another part is that both work and the set/lighting design/build for CSC are reaching points that require my attention.

Sunday Night

I don't want to go back to work on Wednesday in a way that is different than the other times that I haven't wanted to go back to work. I feel almost scared to go back to work, like I'm going to get yelled at when I go back or something. Which I guess is a possibility, but not likely. But I feel scared.

Today was a good day, one that Jeannie and I spent with my family, and it was relatively painless. It was really good to see everyone, and it's nice when people take off work and skip other engagements to come see you when you're in town. And Jeannie likes my family because everybody generally gets along, which is sometimes different than her family. Anyway, it was good to see everyone and I enjoyed it and I got to drink some red wine to boot.

I think, for me, the highlight of this trip has been getting to spend time with Jeannie's maternal grandmother, who lives in St. James, MO (just outside Rolla), and who, up to this point, I have met only one other time, very briefly, and not in the best circumstances. We've gotten to spend some good time with her this weekend, and she is a very nice, quiet, warm, funny woman. And tiny and cute. So that has truly been a pleasure and I'm so glad that it has happened.

I have, for the last several minutes, been cutting farts that smell more like poop than farts. You know the kind.

From Concentrate

From St. Louis....

Here's what's been going on the last couple of days, condensed down to a few sentences.

1. Jeannie and I had one of the easiest drives here that we've ever had, thanks to:
a) an audiobook. Nando Perrada's account of when his Uruguayan rugby team's plane crashed in the Andes, called Miracle in the Andes.
b) several cd's worth of downloaded This American Life episodes.
c) Equally shared driving responsibilities.

2. At a rest stop in Indiana, we encountered a handcuffed and manacled convict, wrists chained to his waist, with armed police escort. Jeannie was wondering how the convict was going to pee with his hands chained to his waist. Who would pull his pants down? Well, I can now answer this ancient question: it turns out that the policeman unchained the convict's hands while he pee'd. The convict remained in handcuffs and anklecuffs, however.

3. I saw a large flock of birds while driving up 170 from Jeannie's parents' house to my parents' house yesterday. It was large enough that I described it to myself as a swarm of birds.

4. I think that every season, there is one day that is the perfect specimen of weather from that season. Yesterday was perhaps our perfect day this autumn.

5. On the drive here, we drove through sunshine, rain, and even snow. In Ohio. Why do I always seem to encounter my first sowfall of the year while I'm in Ohio? Not much fall color along the drive, other than in western Maryland and West Virginia.

6. Today we head off to Jake's wedding.

7. I have been thinking/worrying about work far more than I should be. I'm afraid I left things in more a state of disarray than I wanted to.

8. Jeannie got a haircut yesterday that is supercute.

Morning Thoughts

Sometimes when I listen to the Supremes I feel pretty pumped. Does that mean I'm gay?