I’m just taking a moment to quickly update the links on the right hand side. My coworker and cube-neighbor Laura has moved her blog, and is now taking advantage of Blogger’s wonderful features. She used to use MySpace, which, um, for lack of a better word, sucks. I suppose it’s okay if you’re into the whole social-networking aspect of blogging, but I’m really not.

And we have a new entry into the blogging-fray – Amelia! I know her as “Amy” from my undergraduate years (Go Hokies!), but apparently that is SOOOO 1998, and she goes by Amelia now. Which is cool. It avoids me having to list “Amy” twice in my list of “People I Know”.

In other news, my reading binge has slowed considerably, and I’m in the middle of both Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five. Catch 22 has been a STRUGGLE. For some reason I’m just not very interested. So I’ve currently abandoned it several hundred pages in, and am plowing through Slaughterhouse Five. Which is depressing. The Time Traveler’s Wife is next.

Kate and I went through a mad period of movie watching during June and July, thanks to Lou Ann, who lent us her Netflix subscription while she was in Europe. It was really nice of her, and we got through several movies we’ve been meaning to see for a while.

Down in the diversions on the sidebar, you can see I’m now reading The Kite Runner, which was a birthday gift from my mother in June. I’m just now getting around to reading it, and so far, it’s really engaging. The DVD of the moment is the first season of LOST, which Kate and I enjoyed immensely last season. Check it out and get caught up in time for the second season!

I also wanted to mention that I have been SO REMISS in updating my links to people I know. Jackie has started writing Live from London, and I’m just now linking to it. I know, I’m a sad, sad, blogger. Also, Ken has made some improvements and migrated to a new domain name, as well. My apologies to these two deserving blogs, and their authors.

Okay, I’m signing off until I have something worthwile to write about. And the peanut gallery can just keep their snarky comments about that last sentence to themselves.

So there’s been a reason I haven’t posted since I was in Blacksburg. Apparently while I was down there, I got bitten by a tick of some sort, and didn’t know it. He latched on, dropped off a wonderful little bug, and then hopped off. I thought it was a mosquito bite.

But no! Last Sunday my hands broke out in beautiful red bumps (which eventually spread up my arms a bit and around my knees and elbows), and I had a lovely fever and aches and pains. A trip on Monday to the doctor (and subsequent follow-ups on Tuesday and Wednesday) revealed the probable tick-disease. It’s not Lyme, and it’s not Ehrlichiosis, and the jury is still out on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (tests haven’t come back yet). But it’s definitely something tick-borne. I’m on antibiotics now, and everything is mostly back to normal.

I’ve never seen my doctor so interested in a disease. He said there was even a possibility that I had more than one rare tick-borne nastiness. He said “Then you’ll definitely see your name in the paper”. Yay.

Can’t I just stay anonymous and healthy?

I went to the Orioles/Yankees game with Kate and my in-laws last night. This has become a yearly tradition where we go the game and watch my team lose. No, seriously. I think this is 12 O’s/Yanks games in a row that I’ve been to with my in-laws that the O’s have lost.

We got back awfully late from the game, and it was after 1AM before I finally fell asleep. My alarm went off at 5:30AM, and, as I usually do, I hit the snooze. Or at least I tried to hit the snooze. In my blurry-eyed haze I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the infernal contraption on the bedside table next to me SHUT UP. I must have hit every button and switch on the damned thing, and it wouldn’t turn off. Kate can vouch for this, and if she hadn’t been woken up by my inability to operate simple electronics, I’m sure she would have found it enormously entertaining.

I finally got the clock turned off, and managed to sleep in until 7:15, which was not the plan at all. I think I might need a new alarm clock. Because there’s NO CHANCE that this was operator error. Nope. None at all.

So our neighbors who lived next to us moved out and sold their house in, oh. . . March. We just now had a new family move in. So here’s my issue. They have a dog. A YAPPY dog. It’s a beagle/jack russell terrier mix. Casey loves having a dog next door. And a yappy dog means she is constantly reminded there is somebody right around the corner.

Anyway, I was mowing the lawn last weekend, and found in my yard what? That’s right, a nice little deposit. I could only assume that it was from our friend next door. So last night, we are making dinner, and Kate sees the dog on it’s leash in our front yard and says “Oh that’s nice. They’re letting their dog pee in our yard.”

Me: “Did you say something to them?”
Her: “Well. . . no.”

So I’m rather irate at this point, and I poke my head out the front door, and sure enough – dog in our yard (not doing anything at this point other than strain at the leash and try to get to me). I notice that not only has Princess (yes, that’s really her name) peed in our yard, she’s also left another lovely deposit. So I bend down and pet her and say hello. And as nicely as possible, I say to the lady at the other end of the leash something to the extent of “We’d appreciate it if you didn’t let your dog pee and poo in our yard. That’d be great. Thanks.”

To her credit, she was really nice about it, and apologized. I went back inside to get a bag to pick up the offending poo. And I was plotting with Kate what I would do if this kept up. What would be an appropriate response? Dropping the deposits right back in their yard? Flaming bags of said deposits set on their front porch? I was pretty riled up. I mean, really. HOW FREAKING RUDE.

Anyway, I went outside to pick up the poo, and it had VANISHED. They were nice enough to pick up the poo when they realized that this was actually something that bothers people. So I had to take back all the nasty things I said, and, fortunately for everybody involved, neighbor-wars were averted.

So I’ve determined that I can be pretty mean behind people’s backs and really nice to their faces. I’ve determined that nice wins, and I should start trying to be nice behind their backs as well.

Ken pointed out that I hadn’t mentioned National Teacher’s Day. Apparently because I didn’t mention anything here, I am a rotten husband, will be a terrible father, and am generally a child and teacher-hating fiend. I mean, come on. Even Google recognized the teachers with one of their cool specialized logos. (Side Note: I’m a huge fan of the special logos)

Yes, my wife is a teacher. Yes, she is underappreciated. So I present to you below links for several teachers that I know. Go drop them comments and tell them how much you appreciate them:

Kate
Lou Ann
Shannon

Christine – since there’s no official “Youth Minister’s Day” and she too must work with crazy kids.

Before I left the house, I was prepared to write a diatribe about how all the cell phone companies and cable companies are out to leech ever last dime out of good natured consumers like me. After dinner and $0.25 beers – yeah, not so much with the caring.

Hard Times Cafe in Herndon had a great deal this evening – half priced burgers, $0.25 beers, $2.50 chili dogs, and $0.25 wings (can you tell it’s their 25th anniversary?). At any rate Kate’s coworkers suggested going there for dinner, so we decided to get a cheap meal. We both ate for $10. It was fabulous.

So yeah, good times. Did I mention $0.25 beers?

I spent 1.5 hours (each way) getting to and from DC today for a meeting. I get to do the same thing tomorrow. This is NOT my normal commute. My normal commute is 5 miles against traffic and it takes me about 15 minutes in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the evening. It is unbelieveable, and I really do take it for granted.

So here’s to me not bitching about my two days in DC. Cheers.