pictures and music

28 May 2008

For those of you who are interested, I uploaded some new pictures from Mom's birthday on our photo page. And there's a new podcast here. Enjoy!

we are now officially pedalling fools

27 May 2008

action shot(!):
We used some our tax refund and got Alice a cool little commuter bike on Saturday. We went on a bike ride together on Sunday and she's getting the hang of 21 gears. Hopefully now we can start using our cars a lot less.

bob, terror of geese worldwide

22 May 2008

Cameron somehow convinced us to go on a daytrip to Charleston on Saturday to keep him company. We went down by the river and this happened:
The dogs saw some geese swimming, which got their undivided attention real quick. I called, "Get'em!" to Bob (half joking) and sure enough, he leapt in for the hunt.
Let me tell you, that dog can swim. The geese quickly realized this.
He got so close to one goose that it dove down into the water. And stayed down there for over a minute. I've never seen a goose do that. I guess this was life-or-death for him at this point. Bob started roving, looking for secondary targets. Right about then, Alice realized that there was a goose nearby with a trail of goslings (aka dog snacks) and shrieked. We started yelling and coercing Bob back towards shore in an attempt to keep him away from the young morsels.
As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, on his way back to us the same goose surfaced in front of him. The hunt was on again. After a second dive, the goose had managed to survive and the unsuccessful hunter came back dry land for some petting and cooing from his masters. Which is what he really wanted in the first place.

the world always wins

21 May 2008

I love the coach's expression in the last panel.

Good news! The Metro Pulse , Knoxville's Alternative Paper, is going to start carrying Perry Bible Fellowship, one of my favorite comic strips.

back from wv

20 May 2008

Alice and I got back late on Sunday after a marathon trip to West Virginia. Highlights:
I had my last site visit at Cowen on Friday- the Dining Hall is finished. We'll be heading back up on the 7th for the opening ceremony. We had a belated Mother's Day for Mom Saturday evening. All the sibs and Drew pitched in to get her a Dyson. Now she can combat pet fur more effectively! Drew talked me into applying with him for the Amazing Race. We'll see if we can get further than him and Cam were able to.

On another note: I'll be pushing hard to get a lot done on the house in the next two weeks. If you can help, let me know! I'll need it.

my dinner

14 May 2008

What cereal executive looked at that insane squirrel thing and said, "Gentlemen, I think we've found our mascot."? I got creeped out everytime I looked at it. But Valu Time sure can make them some good cereal.

weedwacking!

12 May 2008

The Joy that is Homeowning has really started to make itself known in our life. Yesterday I marched up to the hardware store and bought my first weed eater. Let the weed apocalypse begin! The backyard at the house is trying to make itself into a bona fide JUNGLE. I'm starting to feel like Viet Cong could be hiding in there. Before things get too far out of hand, I've got to put the fear of spinning plastic wire into the heart of all that green. Next up: Lawnmower!

the end of an era

07 May 2008

You may have noticed in the last post that I mentioned selling Greta. For those of you who don't know, Greta was the butterscotch VW bus that faithfully served me for four years after college. Alice hated her, I loved her, and I hung on to Greta as long as possible after her engine seized up last spring. Greta holds most of my car records:

Most nights slept in on the side of the road

Longest road trip

Most sheets of plywood hauled

Highest number of breakdowns

Highest number of MacGyver roadside repairs

Most dog poop cleaned up in (Thanks, Bob)

Most rivers forded off-road

I actually got a little choked up as I watched her get hauled away. I didn't know I had that much attachment to that big ugly box-on-wheels.
Here's to Greta- she was a great car. I sold her to a guy (Owner #6) who is going to fix her up for one of his kids. I bet she has two more decades of driving in her.

it's mandolin time

05 May 2008


Well, totally following in Colleen's footsteps, I won a mandolin on Ebay a few minutes ago (though I think maybe it was my idea first). I sold Greta the Vanagon yesterday and I wanted to use some of the money towards something cool instead of frittering it away. And I think a new musical hobby will be a good way to relax- better than just watching cable TV. I don't think I'm going to be any great shakes as a musician, but I love the way a mandolin sounds and I hope I can learn a few cool songs.

Posted by ck at 5:50 PM 2 comments  

10 things i hate about commandments

02 May 2008

Ok, so I blatantly stole this from Will. But I had to share:

confession time:

I know it's lame, but for some reason I find this site hilarious.
I guess you have to have cats to think it's funny.
I Can Has Cheezburger.

i'm tired beacuse i couldn't stop reading

01 May 2008

Holy crap, Cormac McCarthy is a good writer. I'm going to start calling him Cormac here, because writing his full name over and over is getting old, and after reading a heart-rending book like The Crossing, I feel like we should be on a first name basis.

Cormac can write himself a good book. The Crossing is more melancholy than All the Pretty Horses- the Border Trilogy is steadily getting darker (though not all out dark, like The Road). It's another coming of age story, but not in the classic romantic sense. Cormac accentuates the dark disillusionment that comes when childhood is left behind. He continually examines The World (with a capital W, in the biblical sense) in relation to Man. With frequent philosophical asides from the people Billy (the main character) encounters on his three trips into Mexico, we see the World as Good, the World as Dark and Fallen, the World as an Illusion. Often God is called upon as a contrast to this mortal coil, or blamed for the plight of the World. Many questions are asked, few answers are pushed forward by Cormac. He leaves it to the reader to come their own conclusions.

So I stayed up late finishing reading it, and now I am tired. I already have a line on a used copy of Cities of the Plain at the Book Eddy, so the Cormac obsession continues....