Weekend Updates

Warm weather hit the 'ville and I finally feel as though Spring is upon us...

* I hit the skate park, along with half of the Concretins, on Sunday. I had a good session. I am getting my speed back and had some great runs in the capsule with my lip tricks (nose stall, tail stall, axle stall, and rock-fakies). Ah, skate season is open.

* Jooj and I did a little cleaning on Saturday. She cleaned the yard and I cleaned the garage. It felt pretty good. Then we took the netting off the pond and fed the fish for the first time in 4 months. I counted 10 (went into the winter with 11). We have a bit of an algae problem but the guy at the pond store says that everyone does right now. We picked up a net, some Super Bug (yummy bacteria), and some stuff to combat the algae.

* U of L won their first two games to make it to the Sweet Sixteen. For the most part they looked really good. Jooj and I have brackets and she is leading by 4 points right now. The funny thing is that our brackets are almost identical at this point. The only difference is that I have Memphis going to the Final Four and she has Uconn. And that game is worth 4 points. So we'll either tie or she'll win. Crazy!

* Mom and dad bought a new TV and gave us their projection TV. It is so big... and heavy! I about blew a vertebrae getting it upstairs. I don't think Pops and I realized how heavy that SOB was going to be.

* We celebrated Jooj and my niece's birfdays this weekend. The next day we had the normal dinner with my immediate family. You know, I just love my whole, big family. I love everyone on my wife's side (especially you, Kim :) and of course I adore everyone on my side. I am just so lucky to have so many wonderful people around me.

* The neighbors... grrrrr! I can't even go into now but it appears that round 1 has gone to me. I'll disclose more a little later. Stupid Aussies!!!

Toby ran away from home

Tobias "Toby" the cat ran away from home this afternoon at approximately 4:20 PM. Lucky for us, he is rather spoiled and not particularly filled with a sense of adventure. Oh sure, he sometimes fancies himself a big cat hunting on the Serengeti or a sleek jungle cat stalking his prey. But really he's spoiled rotten.

So it was no surprise that he turned up after 10 minutes of searching for him. Shaking his food canister was the ticket to luring the king back to his castle.

Welcome back, Toby. I know that the family (even Boba) would have been torn up had you not returned.

UofL #1

U of L finished the regular season with a conference record of 19-2 in the Big East. This earned them the undisputed champion of the Big East.

U of L did what they do during the tournament. They played hard and fast (and sloppy) in the first half of each game. Then they ground down each opponent in the second half of each game. That led them to a victory in the final and the trophy in the Big East Tournament.

And then this afternoon, the NCAA brackets were announced and guess who is not only a #1 seed but also the #1 seed for the tournament? You know, you don't really have to guess if you follow these things or at the very least can infer the answer from my blog title.

But, yeah, number 1 :)

The weekend was good

The weather was very nice. I was able to hit the skate park and remind myself how out of shape I am. We all enjoyed Watchmen Friday night. Wade came over and we watched Step-Brothers. The home office is really coming together. After some initial trouble with the holes I made in the desk and the size of the wire grommet (which I will *not* blog about as it will only serve as a reminder of a difficult point on my life... teehee!) I got everything straightened out. Jooj and I went over to the office and stole a comfy chair. Battlestar Galactica was awesome (only the 3 hour series finale left? Boo!). We cleaned out a bit of the basement and straightened it up. Boba has a large crate now to match Jack's. The kids are back with us. Jooj has the day off today. Mom is making Pacific Stir-fry tonight and having everyone over for dinner. Man-o-man, besides realizing that the headlight is out in the CRV this morning I can't really complain about anything over the last 72 hours.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Well, at 3:45PM today, I know that Wade, Kels, Ashly, and myself will be.

I scored 4 tix earlier this week for the 3:45 showing in the Director's Hall at Stonybrook. I've read the graphic novel twice. I wasn't into comics yet, besides cursory readings of my friend's Spider-Man, when the original series came out. I read the graphic novel in college (the one with the broken glass from the Comedian's apartment). I purchased a new copy (the one with the close-up of the bloodied smiley face) and read it last year. There was so much I didn't remember (or skipped over). What an amazing book!

I'm sure I will purchase the extra-long director's cut on DVD and I can't wait to see the animated version of Tales of the Black Freighter. The reviews I've read seem mostly positive, which is saying a lot for a book that, as many would say, just doesn't seem like it would work in any medium other than a comic.

New addition to the family?

I think that I've convinced Jooj to make a new addition to the family in the form of a little kitty cat. I swore off any future felines after having to say goodbye to Miss Annie (and having to clean up the mess in the litter box that a very sick, very old cat makes). But my heart has softened a bit. Kels has always maintained that she wants another cat. Toby, the sole cat in the house now, is still young enough and playful to keep up with a kitty. I think a new kitty cat in the house would be a ton of fun (jeez, I certainly may eat those words).

We currently are the parents of:

Kelsey ("Panzy"), a 15-year old human female
Will ("Will.i.am"), a 12-year old human male
Jack ("Jack"), a 7-year old canine male (Jack Russell/Pit Bull mix)
Tobias ("Toby"), a 5-year old feline male (grey tabby)
Boba Fett ("Boba"), a 1-year old canine male (RAD mix = "Real American Dog", i.e. "mutt"... we do know that his mother was a boxer)

What I've been discussing with (bugging) Jooj is the name. I want a male orange tabby. Here is what I have so far:

Otis - sounds cool and fits the four-letter precedent but not really named after anybody
Reese - Kelsey's favorite candy and possibly the same color of the peanut butter inside
Heath - Jooj's favorite candy and possibly named after Heath Ledger... isn't toffee kind of orangish?
Bartok - named after the bat in Anastasia ("I'd give her a HA! And a HI-YA! And then a OUU-WA! And I'd kick her, sir.")
Gato - Spanish for "cat" and fits the four-letter precedent
Miller - my favorite cheap, American beer
Stimpy - this is a longshot since I'm not sure anyone in the house besides me remembers the Ren & Stimpy show
Dick Clark - this is a total inside joke between Jooj and me :D
Ellis - named after the street we used to live on

So I think we'll pass these name suggestions over to the kids and see what they think. Jooj wants to surprise them and get the cat before they realize we've picked it out. I think that's a fabulous idea!

Moving the desk (this will make you laugh)

I moved my desk from the office to my home office today. That is taking another step towards making the permanent move home. We still need to finish some painting and I need to hang some door handles. I also need to drill a hole in the desk to run cables to the two computers that will be at my feet. Once I get clearance from the network admins to move my phone and computer I will pretty much be home for good.

So dad showed up with some moving dollies and we, along with help from Narayan and Gaurav, finagled the behemoth down to the pickup truck. Dad slowly drove the short distance to the house. We pulled up and I realized that I have no way in. The garage door keypad went dead and I hadn't bought a new battery yet. I checked the two back doors and even the balcony door... LOCKED. So we climbed back into the truck and came back to the office to get my garage door opener from the Jeep. We drove back and I walked in through the garage door. When I went to unlock the front door I saw that it was already unlocked - I guess from when Jooj grabbed the Scott's Lawn care paperwork off the door handle yesterday. I didn't even think to check it. Sheesh, silly me!

Bachelors and (Un)Birthdays

Okay, so I watched the season finale of The Bachelor last night on television with Jooj. I have overheard some of the episodes while on the PC in the next room during the season as Jooj watched them. So I may or may not know everything there is to know about Jason, the Bachelor, and the two grrrls he had to choose from: Melissa and Molly. But what an ass! I mean, seriously, I hope nothing good comes from what he has done.

For those of you that don't watch it (and for those of you who do, there are spoilers below) let me fill you in what happened. He chose Melissa. He broke Molly's heart. I wanted him to choose Melissa. She seemed more like him. They were so cute when he proposed. It looked like a good match. But then on the after-show he confessed that the spark was gone and that he still had feelings for Molly. They brought Melissa out and he broke off the engagement right there. She was livid and had every right to be. She called him a bastard and stormed off. He went backstage. They then brought Molly out. She said that she was hurt but still had feelings for Jason. Then they brought him out. After some awkward moments he told Molly that he had broken it off with Melissa and wanted a chance with her. Judging from her face I thought Molly was going to tell him off. But she caved and they kissed and she said that she would give it a shot. Jason is a bastard. I hope that Melissa gets her own Bachelorette show and finds the man of her dreams. I also hope that Jason finds only misery with Molly. Shame on you, Jason!

On a much brighter note, I sent a text to my fellow outlaw Kim and wished her a happy birthday. She txt'ed back thanking me but informed me that her birthday wasn't until Saturday. D'oh, d'oh, d'oh! She did mark me down as the first, official birthday greeting that she had received. Sheesh, I'd hope so!

Weekend Updates

Will is feeling much better. He spent the majority of the week playing video games. He went to school on Friday and came home and pretty much crashed for 16 hours. I had wanted to send him back earlier but after seeing how Friday wiped him out I am happy we kept him home all week.

Battlestar Galactica was awesome Friday night. I can't believe that there are only 3 more episodes left. I feel like something big is going to happen but I also get the feeling like we won't have resolution. I don't know how to explain it. I guess I don't see the whole thing ending on a bright note. Riveting!!!

We celebrated Dad's birfday on Saturday by all going to Havana Rhumba. It was yummy! Jooj and I hadn't been there since our first ever date. We pointed out the booth where we sat and giggled :)

We also picked up a new crate for Boba to sleep in. The plan was to switch out the crate he sleeps in now with the new one and give Jack his old one back. Jack changed those plans by hijacking the new one. The look Boba gives me now when Jack is enjoying his giant new crate has convinced me to buy another one for him. Poor puppy (yeah, right!).

It was a really good week. Kels was in a terrific mood. Jooj went to the doctor and is on the road to recovery. Will is back on his feet. Papa Brinley can sleep easy knowing everyone is happy.