Word Association for May 29th

Again, time for the word association game.

1. Crowd:: Follow
2. Hamburger:: Bun
3. Choker:: Strangle
4. Lights:: Camera, Action!
5. Tinsel:: Town
6. Testament:: New
7. Best part of the day:: 5 PM
8. Election:: Results
9. Clarinet:: Band
10. Dead Sea:: Scrolls

It's finally Friday!

I'm thrilled to report there are only 10 minutes left in my work day. And there is much rejoicing. I'm ready for a three day weekend.

I swear, people in my life must read my blog to figure out how to behave. Wednesday night saw both roommates currently in Kansas working hard on moving out. I think they're mostly out, too. I know one still has a few things left in the bedroom, but nothing he can't get in 30 minutes.

In case it really is true that I need to complain about something to get what I want, Casey (new roommate) hasn't waited on me hand and foot for a month yet. :)

I've been trying to talk to one of the guys who works maintenance here at work about my shower, which is dripping yet again. Trying since Tuesday, yet he still hasn't stopped by to talk to me. I may have to call a plumber. Don't have time to deal with them right now, however.

Youth group last night was opposite the sports banquet, so I was the only guitar player for worship. As a result, I took requests. Since we weren't planning to practice Sunday because of the long weekend, we know have a set to play next week. Except one of the songs was requested, so we may have to sub or just not repeat it as much as usual.

I have four episode of the second season of Rocky and Bullwinkle left. Maybe I can finish it up Saturday morning.

No funny spam to post today, so I guess I'll just sign off.

Are you looking forward to a three day weekend as much as I am?

Speaking of Spam

Ok, so I wasn't going to do this until tomorrow if I did it at all, but after the Thursday Threesome this week, I had to post it today.

I got another great spam e-mail today. Again, I'm assuming this was because of my reviews at Amazon. Below is the first part of the e-mail.

Now available from Amazon.com: A new book written in a new literary style. Over 3,000 easily understandable new words used. Experimental fiction and
a new, brilliant writing style sets this literary work apart from the norm, bringing to mind Joyce’s "Finnegans Wake." The theme is as old as the stars, and the fascinating plot captures the imagination as Petrarch’s Laura de Sade of Carpentras reincarnates into a 16 year old girl. From perdition to redemption, the riveting novel in ornate prose is introspective and skilled. 3,000 invented words are introduced as Laura’s soul is possessed by the German siren, the Lorelei. She captures a teacher’s heart, and when rejected he experiences insanity. Recovering, he begins a quest for Laura’s release from the underworld.
- Mindquest Review

here is an excerpt:

the lorelei! a puella of such beautèzza unparalleled, such charisma mesmairican, such gemtice symphio-marvalo. the lorelei! how many sail-ors have succumbed to buffaloverwhelming snare at the hands of her wiles! how many inattentive men have met destructo-doom at the will of her caprice!

the lorelei! heartless, cruel and knife-cunning, unable to give herself to love’s demanding reduction of the ego, its ruthless sacrifice of individuality yet pacifying her romantic instincts by engaging in only its courtship aspect, flirting, smiling, conversing with the opposite sex about life’s labyrinth, its bafflemento, its enigmatic tendency towards mishap.

the lorelei! when i recognized her as a substitute in the disguise of an honor roll, sixteen year old virga, devoted to charity, whose middle and last name were elizabeth jefferson and therefore took steps to evade her pierce blazèndo, her bosom delisho and her rocket-eyes seductèevoo, she still refused to allow me freedom from her emerald-charm intoxican, way-laid me, bound me in a stupor of opium and imprisoned me in a dream-dungeon schizosan. so again i found myself sailing down the rhine river, hearing her song, attentive to the razor-rocks. she nailed me, the lorelei cast me in a glow of hallucinogenic nightmare, my heart inextricably tan-gled in her endorphines, unable to survive lest i climbed the cliff, waited until she graduated, declared my love to her and reveled in all the psych-fervor, all the lush dominion that her magnolia bloomed of. yet even atop her cliff the lorelei had more snares, traps and death-ruses that plunged me into slashphyxiation pompeian.

thus i now stand, still tomahawked by the lorelei’s pantherizing hex, still vodooed by her bewitching aura, scheming to either obtain her yet or exact my revenge, cause her the same amount of heartache she cast upon me, myself seething in a piranha-infested bolgia. for i have recovered from my madness, have regained the ability to work, to earn an income, em-ploying my divisions, my squadrons and my dragoons. once again i am free from the delusion that paralyzed me in barbwire, cluttered my mind with senseless cacophony and distorted my perception with immaterial phantoms. once again i’ll foray into the lorelei’s domain wondering if she will viperize me with soul-venom or accomplish another criminal heartec-tomy or even more vexo-meniacle: feign admiration, allow me to taste the delecto-splurge of her kiss, only to eventually cast me in a sea of squid, my veins twisted in violence.

Seriously, now. Anyone understand that? After about two sentences, I give up. And I only have under half of the excerpt. There is no way I'd wade through a book like that. Furthermore, 3,000 new words? So are you trying to connect with the reader or just sound important? And capitalization might be helpful. Honestly, based on some of what's there, we have either a bad speller or a bad editor, either of whom is trying to cover that fact by bragging about new words.

But here's the best part. Notice what's missing? It took me a little while to notice, but we have no title or author here. Now I could assume that the e-mail came from the author, but I've received e-mails from someone telling me how great this new book is, so I might be wrong. So if this is trying to get me to buy the book, they've failed because I can't find it to buy it.

I honestly don't know whether to laugh at such stupidity or shake my head at people who think this is smart and literary when it's really stupid.

Thursday Threesome for May 26th

Brought to us this week by evil people and The Back Porch. (Not that there are any evil people at the Back Porch, mind you.)

Onesome: Comment- Are there any blogs you regularly read and comment on? Is it just to say "hi, how are you?" or is there one site that just makes you have to join in the conversation?
I tend to not leave comments unless I have something to day, so I don't leave the "Hi, how are you" kind of comments. I do regularly comment on my friends' blogs. It's how I'm staying in touch with some of them.

Twosome: and Trackback- Does anyone actually ever really use this function of their blog?
It's used quite a bit on political blogs. Blogger doesn't support it either way, so I don't use it at all.

Threesome: Spam- We all hate it! Anyone have any clever ways of dealing with it? Share it with us, please.
Other then earlier in the week when I mocked some of it, no. Just hit delete as fast as I can.

Rants, rants, and more rants

Yep. It's been awhile since I did nothing but rant around here, so I think it's time, don't you?

Of course, some of the first ones will be aimed at my soon to be departed roommates. (Excited I am.)

First off, as I've mentioned before, two of them are going to Kansas this weekend. Leaving tomorrow and coming back on the 31st. They are to be out by the 1st. Now, one of them is working on packing and moving his stuff out. (They got the keys on Monday.) The other one has done nothing toward moving out. Honestly, I was hoping they'd be out before they left so that I could rearrange the room and so that Casey could bring his stuff up from the garage. But he has not done one thing toward moving. Granted, he doesn't have a lot of stuff, but it still takes some time. Time he won't really have since he leaves tomorrow. I will be most upset if he's not out on time.

The one that is working on moving out isn't on my good list either, however. He got some stuff out of our storage closet last night and left it unlocked. This is in a public walkway. I keep my Christmas stuff in there and some personal information I don't want Joe Blow getting their hands on. How hard is it to lock up after yourself? (Obviously pretty hard since he never does.)

On the other hand, he gave the kitchen a very good cleaning yesterday.

And now the other thing.

You might remember that several years ago, Christians started boycotting Disney. At the time I said it was a mistake. We as Christians can't expect a secular company to create entertainment we would support 100% of the time. To boycott the one company that tries the most to create family entertainment is stupid.

My idea of an entertainment boycott? Don't go see a movie that would offend you. Yes, there are times I would go further, like Last Temptation of Christ, but it would be for a few months while that one movie is fresh.

Anyway, at least one of the companies that called for the boycott is lifting it. And why are they doing that? Because Disney is distributing the new version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe coming out in December. They also talk about Eisner stepping down and stuff like that, but let's be realistic. It's because a movie they want to support is coming out, so they're lifting the boycott. And Disney has made no good movies in the last nine years that should have been supported? Things like this make me mad for this reason. We should never put ourselves in a position where we have to lift a boycott when a secular company makes a family friendly movie with overt Christian themes. To semi-quote Phil Visser, why are we surprised when non-Christians behave in a way opposite what we as Christians think they should? They aren't Christians. They won't do what we would do. And we can't force them to do it our way.

Of course, I'm talking about entertainment there and not moral values. That's a completely different issue that I should save for another time.

(Thanks to Mike J. for the initial post to the news story.)

Someday I'll Get the Knack of Sun Screen Down

Saturday, the youth group went to the beach in Santa Barbara. It was probably about 80, slight breeze. A very nice day. And the water was really warm, too. Threw a Frisbee around for a while, hung out, swam. In fact, I was the first to swim out to a red buoy in the little harbor where we were hanging out. Of course, once I'd done it two high schoolers and two high school staff had to do it as well. See, I'm a leader others can follow. :)

If only they'd obey. We basically turned the kids loose with a couple rules such as what areas they could go to, when to be back, and what size group they could be in. High school, 5 or more. Jr. High had to have an adult with them. We'd been there maybe half an hour when four jr. high school guys decided to head off by themselves. There were rather mad with me when I stopped them. I offered to go with them, but that wasn't good enough. Fortunately, the other leaders backed me up, and there were some there to back me up when it started. A minor inconvenience, but not enough to completely ruin my day.

The true downside is my sun burn. Yes, I put sun screen on. Twice. But I still got a nice sun burn on my shoulders and back. What's really funny is the splotches of white skin where I obviously did get the sun screen.

In other news, the other staff who helps with the worship team is leaving youth staff effective in a couple weeks. I'm majorly bummed, especially since we've got two almost high schoolers ready to join the group who don't respect me at all. The two high schoolers will be staying, so for at least a year I'm sure they'll be setting a good example and help keep them in line. But after that.... I'm going to have to talk to the youth pastor about how to handle this situation as the time draws closer.

My roommates should have the keys to their new place. No word to me about when they intend to be out, however. I'm hearing this week, but nothing for sure.

And my shower has started leaking again. Can't turn it off tight enough. This was supposed to be fixed last summer! Frustrating. I'll have to try to talk to someone from maintenance tomorrow who will know how to fix it. Called him today, but for some reason he wasn't sitting by his desk waiting for me to call. Ironically, I had seen him twice before Phil suggested I talk to him.

So, I finished one of the two Alias books that came out this month. Faina needed a little more editing. Don't know if I was just oblivious to the bad writing on some of them or if the longer length made it more noticeable. Second half was great.

I'm now working my way through Dangerous Depths. I think I've about had it with this series. The environmentalism is slowing down the story and making it too predictable, too. Plus, it's taking it to the anti-business extreme. I'd like to meet more then our hero's boyfriend who is a business person who cares about the environment. Is that too much to ask?

Finally, I have to take a cue from Lee Goldberg and mock a couple people who have sent me spam. (Be forewarned. If I don't know you and you send me spam, this might be you next time.)

The first is from someone wanting me to read their book and review it at Amazon. Get them all the time and usually ignore them because I'm usually not at all interested. Like this one, for example. The e-mail says, "You are an experienced Amazon.com reviewer for books on investing, and I value your opinion." That's great that my opinion is valued. However, I have never reviewed a financial book at Amazon. Can we say form letter?

This second one was too good to pass up. It was correctly sent to my junk mail folder here at work. Here's the first paragraph:

Requesting Your Permission:
Outward Media, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based,
results-oriented marketing firm specializing in marketing communications
solutions. We would like the opportunity to send you information regarding our
new Private Opt-in Messaging platform that creates a secure, SPAM-FREE
communication channel between you and your customers.

You mean spam like your message to me was? Just wondering.

Word Association for May 22nd

Coming to you live via here.

1. Heimlich:: Manuover
2. Gesture:: Hands
3. Party:: Time
4. Cuddle:: Couch
5. Room with a view:: Hotel Room
6. Sebastian:: Bach
7. Ooooh:: Lala
8. Sigh:: Contented
9. Two fish, three fish:: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
10. Cake or death:: I'll take the cake.

In Which I Play Hooky

Ok, maybe not really. But it felt like it at the time. And was very, very fun.

You see, yesterday was the only booksigning within a few hours of me for Donna Andrews while she's out from the east coast. Now, I think most of you know I'm a Donna Andrews fan. But I had two unautographed books. I just had to change this.

I debated for a couple weeks if I was going to try to go or not. I don't know why. I know me. I'd be upset if I didn't at least try. So yesterday I brought the books into work with me and asked Phil if I could take a couple hours off in the afternoon. He said sure, so I took off.

Unfortunately, the signing was still a ways away. Down in Thousand Oaks to be exact. But it was worth it. Donna was her normal entertaining self, and all of my books by her are once again personally autographed.

Beside, there's something about being out when the rest of the world is at work that makes it even more special. I realized as I was driving back how nice it was to not be thinking about work for a few hours during work hours. Sometimes it's the little vacations in life that are the best, right?

No youth group last night - school play. So I buzzed my head (still a crew cut, not shaved) and watched TV on DVD.

The new lease for the roommates moving out will be ready to be signed early next week. Maybe the two going to Kansas will be out by Thursday. *Crosses fingers that this will go quickly and well.*

Still nothing on that job I interviewed for on Monday.

Thursday Threesome for May 19th

This week's edition is brought to us by monthly cycles and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Full-- Full? What meal fills you up the most during your day, breakfast, lunch or dinner? ...or is it the ice cream you're digging into as you wander around the blog world long past when you should be asleep ?
Dinner by far. I usually keep eating until I'm full, which always helps.

Twosome: Moon-- Do you really think there's any truth to the popular idea that "things" happen when the moon is full? Come on, it's just us here...
I've never noticed it. I'm usually oblivious to the cycles of the moon anyway, but things seem to stay the same day to day to me.

Threesome: Rising-- ...and shining?: What is your normal wakeup time on Thursday mornings? ...and can you be described as a "Morning Person" or not?
Between 6 and 6:15 so I can get up and go running. Of course, that allows me to lay in bed a little while before I have to get up. :) And there are the mornings I ignor it, go back to sleep, and don't run. Today, fortunately, wasn't one of them. As to being a morning person, by the time I'm out of the shower I'm ok, but don't expect much from me before then.

Checking in

Frankly, I don't have a whole lot of news.

I've actually been on time to work all week. Something about needing to get Casey here on time, I suspect. Still, it's been nice to get an early start to my day.

And I've been reasonably productive, too. Not sure if I've gotten enough done to justify taking any extra time off tomorrow to go to the Donna Andrews signing, but I think I'm going to go for it anyway.

I'm down to 12 episodes of season 2 of Rocky and Bullwinkle! Considering it starts with 52, that's quite an occomplishment. I've been working on it off and on since September. Looking forward to getting through it and moving on to I Love Lucy Season 3.

Talked to Tom last night, and he and Chris get back from Kansas on the 31st. That's better but still not the smartest thing to do if you ask me. (And if you didn't intend to ask me, why are you reading my blog?)

And I'm way behind on my book blogging, aren't I? Maybe I should catch you up.

A Dime a Dozen another solid book by Mindy Starns Clark. The plotting was more even then previous books, but the final 100 pages wasn't the rush of plot twists the first two had.

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth is a Nancy Drew spoof that find her growing up and still solving mysteries over the years. Depressing at times, worth a read for the cameos of other teen sleuths.

While visiting Mom and Dad, I listened to Too Many Cooks and Murder at the Vicarage, both of which I enjoyed even if I found out later the second was an abridged version.

Finally, last night, I finished Keys to Death, the latest Booked for Travel Murder by Emily Toll. As with the others, the lack of investigation into the mystery bugs me, but the great characters and intriguing sub-plots keep me reading.

I Love a Good Blonde Joke

Check it out!

Thanks to John for bringing it to my attention.

Running Like Crazy

Not that there's anything unusual about that.

So Friday night, Casey and I were supposed to met up at my office at 5 to move him out of his dorm room. Only problem was I wasn't in my office at 5. When I returned at 5:05, he'd come and gone. We spent 30 minutes trying to find each other. But we finally did connect. He had more stuff then would fit in my car, so we left half of it in my office and loaded the rest up in my car. Then I grabbed dinner and we ate while waiting for his RA to check him out. Whlie grabbing dinner, I said hi to Brad really fast. (Yes, that was for Matt.)

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6:30, which worked out well. I went for a run before Casey and I headed out to graduation. On the way, we stopped and loaded the rest of Casey's stuff into my car. You should see my garage. It's so full of stuff right now since that's where we put most of it.

Anyway, we got to graduation just before it started. And, frankly, I'm glad we didn't get there any sooner. It was HOT!!! For the first time, the college was holding their graduation outside. The weather went from mid 70's earlier in the week to near 100 Saturday. Casey and I both got sun burned in spite of the sun screen we put on. Ok, so obviously I didn't put it on very well. We finally got through. Then we went to a party for Kurt and Kellie. Had lunch and played volleyball. It was a nice time. Came back, went for a swim, and headed to game night. My old roommate Erik was there. He was my roommate my last semester in college. I got to meet his wife. It was great to see him again, even if he did cost me the game by forgetting he had one of the Clue cards I was asking for. :)

Sunday was almost the usual. Church in the morning and evening. Talked to my family. But no worship team practice since we don't have Bible study Thursday. We had a SNYF. Most of the people went swimming, but it had cooled off so much I didn't get in. The kids drove me crazy on the way there. Why is it my car is a toy to them?

Today, I had a job interview. The company sounds great and they apparently liked me. We'll see what happens. There are at least two interviews to go. It's further away then I really want, but still reasonable. Don't know if I want it or not. Hopefully I'll get a better idea once they make an offer of money and I find out what benefits are. Which I should have asked in the interview. Oops.

Right now, I'm watching the Survivor finale with Casey. I accidentally heard what happened today, and I'm happy with the outcome.

Time Again for Word Association

But first, something I forgot to blog about Friday. Check out my number of reviews. I guess I'm evil. :)

Now, our main attraction, taken from here.

1. Grandma:: Cookies
2. Pet:: Rock
3. Desolate:: Island
4. Backspace:: Key
5. Common ground:: Basis for relationship
6. Storm:: Clouds
7. Dark:: Side
8. Water bottle:: Drink
9. Training:: Job
10. Dot coms:: Amazon

Hardly Unlucky

So today was Friday the 13th. I've never put much stock in it being lucky or unlucky going along with the theory that people just notice things more on one day over the other.

You see, I found out my new roommate Casey got the job here on campus he was going for. So there's a chance that he'll become a permanent roommate and not just a summer roommate. At least I hope it works out like that.

Of course, with Casey as a roommate, I guess I'll have to stop complaining about my roommates on this blog since some of you know him. :)

In other news, I hardly slept Wednesday night. No idea why, but my heart was racing and mind racing. Probably having something to do with everything going on in the next few days.

I am feeling better today. In fact, I'm feeling better today then I have felt in about a week. I got allergy shots yesterday. Wonder if there's something out there that was putting me over the top.

Youth group went well last night. We finally watched the video presentation of the pictures from the scavenger hunt last month. My team lost. :( Let Jared take a song on his own during worship because I just wasn't getting the hang of it during rehersal. No one commented, so if they noticed, it obviously didn't make a big impression.

Then I went over to Kurt and Kellie's house to watch the year end show video. Ok, so I'd just seen it the week before. But I desided that I should take them up on a chance to hang out and be social. And I'm glad I went. Had lots of fun. (Have I mention K&K on my blog before? They're both on jr. high staff and got married two weeks ago.)

And a rant about my roommates. Two of them are going home to Kansas for Memorial Day weekend. How did I find this out? By evasdropping. Never mind the fact that they know that Casey moves in tonight since the dorms close. They are leaving the Thursday before and will be back the 31st or the 1st. Now I don't know why they are going, but does it seem smart to you to plan a trip out of state for the time when you've known for three months you're moving? And not discuss it with your land lord? I've been joking about changing the locks on the 1st. Maybe I really need to.

Word Association and Thursday Threesome

And now it time to catch up in my memes.

First, Sunday's word association.

1. Android:: Not Quite Human
2. Revenge:: Best served cold
3. Knight:: Horse
4. Stranded:: Island
5. Weakness:: Strength
6. Greed:: Money
7. Walter:: Michael (Lost reference)
8. Dense:: Packed together
9. Sheep:: Shepherd
10. Propane:: Tank

And now for today's Thursday Threesome brought to us this week by kids on a road trip (or my mom on a trip) and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Are--Are you planning on heading out this Memorial Day? ...or is it a 'stay at home and chill' kind of holiday for you?
I usually try to stay home on Memorial Day weekend. And that's what I'll be doing this year. Heck, game night is at my place that week. :)

Twosome: we-- ....and who is "we" when you go traveling? Any preferences that you can state here in blogland ?
Usually my family. Otherwise, I travel alone.

Threesome: there yet?-- ...and when you get there, what are you going to do? ...or if you're staying in, what's on the menu? Are you cooking out or just opening a can of tuna?
Excuse me? I haven't planned what I'm eating next week. Memorial Day is a little too far away to plan. :)

Speedy Update

I have 15 minutes before Lost starts. Let's see if I can do this.

I had a great weekend with my parents. And Mom must have thanked me a million times for coming up, so I think I made her Mother's Day. :) Friday night I stopped and saw Donald and Heather on the way up. We played Clue. The men won games. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for a third game because it was obviously Heather's turn to win. :) We also found the best ice cream ever. You must try Breyer's All That and Caramel. Ok, so my favorite is still Dryer's Dreamery's Coney Island Waffle Cone, but this is close.

11 minutes.

Saturday we got together with the Irwins and played mini-golf. Mr. Irwin won individual, but the Baker family won team.

Sunday my uncle and his mother-in-law (who we're close to) came up to visit.

Monday, I came back to the reality that one of the two people I thought was moving in isn't. So at the moment, it's just going to be Casey and I this summer. Which honestly sounds like lots of fun. I don't think I'm going to try too hard to get another guy in here unless it's someone one of us knows.

Today I called a couple places about potential jobs I'd been meaning to call for over a week. One of them set me up with a client right away and I have an interview Monday at 1. We'll see how it goes. The job is in Van Nuys, so it's not as close as I would like. But it does sound promising.

Meanwhile, they changed my job while I was gone. Suddenly, the on-line credit card system is beginning to accept student payments. I've told them before that if they're going to do that, they need to give me lots of notice and we need to talk through how this will work because it's going to create lots of extra work for me. But do they listen? Nope. They hold a meeting on Monday and start using the system that day. They'd better start listening soon because it's going to be murder when I go on vacation next month.

3 minutes. I made it!

And I'm Outta Here

On my way out the door to spend Mother's Day weekend with Mom (and Dad).

No youth group last night because of the annual carnival the Christian school puts on. I wonder how it did yesterday due to all the rain.

And the other guy who might move in is still stringing me along. He says he should know by Monday. I guess that's fine since I don't have any time to worry about it right now anyway.

I thought every thing was finished in that department. It was supposed to be easy!

Anyway, hope everyone has a good weekend.

Thursday Threesome for 5/5/5

We interrupt your regularly scheduled post to bring you this important service announcement. Today is 5/5/5. Enjoy!

And now, without firther ado, we present this week's Thursday Threesome brought to us by The Back Porch.

Onesome: This--is the one thing you need to get finished today! What would that be?
At work, I need to get today's loan roster processed and the transfer made. We won't get into what I need to do at home.

Twosome: and a-- project you'd like to get started on this weekend would be?
Nothing, since I'm going to visit my parents this weekend. Not exactly good on the project department.

Threesome: Day--Scenario: tomorrow is suddenly 'your day'--school is out, the kids are covered; you're shift is handled at work; you have no obligations! ...and you have gas and spending money. What are you going to do with your time?
Disneyland! I've been dying to go back for a couple months. I'm also dying to go to the beach, so that would be a close second.

Twisting and Turning

I need a better paying job. I can't stand all these twists and turns!

Last night at dinner, Casey told me that he would have a job on campus this summer no matter what, so he was going to move in. Great, I thought. I now have all roommates found. The other guy was going to come over and check the place out last night, but I thought he was a sure thing.

And the other guy did come over and check the place out. After 10 minutes of looking for parking. Don't know if that has anything to do with it or not, but when he was leaving, he told me that he needed to run numbers and would let me know by the end of the week if he planned to move in or not. Um, what was that last week about wanting to move in for sure? So now I get to wait longer to find out how many roommates I'll have next month. And this is after I told someone he couldn't move in cause I had found all the roommates I needed.

Meanwhile, Casey needs to move in in a week and a half because that's when the dorms close. My roommates had told me they'd work around it two weeks ago. Suddenly it's going to be a problem. Yep, the same roommates who thought having 5 people there for two weeks back in Feb. was ok. "Where's he going to put his stuff?" "With us packing up it'll be hard." Excuse me?! I have bent over backwards to work around you. You can work around me.

Maybe I should have kicked them all out in March like I was tempted to do.

Meanwhile, I got to have lunch with David today. Great to catch up with him. And we're planning to start swimming on our lunch hours once the students go to get ready for the trathlon we're both planning on doing in July. It's the same one I've done in years past up at Castaic. Should be good.

How about an update?

I thought it was about time myself.

Friday night was career Bible study. And inspite of the fact that I intended to leave early, I was about the last to leave as always.

Saturday, in spite of my wishes, I woke up nice and early. So I got on the internet before going for a run and getting ready to leave for the day.

At 11 AM, I walked out the door. First stop was the theater, where I bought 7 tickets for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Then I went to Kurt and Kellie's wedding. It was very nice and I wasn't ready to leave the reception three hours later. But I had to leave. Came back to campus, picked up Matt and Casey, and headed to the theater for the movie. We all loved it. Very funny and in the spirit of the book. Or at least what I remember of the book. After the movie was dinner at Johnny Rockets then Uno.

Did I mention that Josh and Bonnie were there? It had been over a year since I'd seen them, and it was wonderful to spend time with them and "meet" their son. Man, I've missed them!

Sunday was the usual church stuff. Master's College choral sang at church for the evening service, which was very nice. And for lunch Nick and I finally went out for my birthday. Almost two months late, but that's the way things turned out.

This week promises to be social week for me as I'm meeting some friends for lunch the rest of the week. Meanwhile, last night I took a couple friends out for dinner to say goodbye since they seem to think they can move to Phoenix. Plus, they'd had me over and taken me out to dinner, so I thought it was time I reciprocated.

Plus Donald was in town over night, so I headed over to his sister and bro-in-law's for a little while. Got to see pictures of his trip to Seattle. I've discovered the down side of digital cameras. People take more pictures then they would otherwise, so it takes longer to go through them. We also saw the first video of the baby that his sister is expecting in November. They're are positively thrilled about that, and it's wonderful to see.

Tonight promises to be my down night. So I hope to catch up on 24, watch extras on National Treasure, and catch tonight's TV shows. I had hoped to get a couple CD reviews written today, but it didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow?

Speaking of which, I've decided that the "Currently Listening to" list on the side is going away. I usually have about six CD's here in the office at any one time plus listen to two or three CD's in the car. It's just way too much work to even pretend to keep it up to date.

I was a bad boy today. On impulse, I bought the first season of the Bob Newhart show. Not even a super big fan, but a marginal one. I just couldn't pass up the price. If my common sense gets the better of me in a few days, I'll be taking it back. I'm not opening it until them. It's just so cheap for a set like that....

Word Association for May 1st

Gotta run. Worship team practice starts in 10 minutes!

Found here.

1. Texas:: Brother and Sister-in-law
2. Scholarship:: College
3. Runner-up:: Second Place
4. Mustang Sally:: A student at Masters?
5. Jones:: Keeping up with
6. Hard to get:: Rich Mullin's song
7. Jewish:: Israel
8. Crew:: Cut
9. Cable:: TV
10. Assistant:: Secretary

(For those who don't know, the mustangs are the school mascott at Master's. Now, can someone help me with Mustange Sally?)