And now for something completely different

On Monday of this week, the high was 55° and the weather was gorgeous. Today, the high was 4. Wind chills last night hit -35. Needless to say, that's really cold.

In the past, January and February have always seemed like the dreariest months of the year, and the kind of weather we're having today only serves to bolster that. But one particular sign has been very encouraging over the past few weeks: the days are getting longer, and there's now some daylight left when I'm driving home from work. Living in the northern parts of the country definitely makes you notice, and appreciate, the amount of sunlight that you get.

While we were making dinner this evening, I started to tell Wendy about a Rolling Stones song I heard recently that I'd never heard before, but really liked. She stopped, looked up, and started singing But don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire, which was exactly the song I was about to describe to her. It turns out that one morning earlier this week we were both driving to work at the same time, listening to the same radio station, heard the same song, which neither of us had heard before, and both really liked it. That cracked us up. As you can probably guess, the song is called Play With Fire.

In other news, we're looking into buying a house in the coming months! Housing prices in this part of Illinois are still fairly expensive since we're close to Chicago, but it's not quite as expensive as the Boulder area in Colorado.

And, finally, I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo several nights ago. It was incredibly good, and I found it interesting to note just how much the Count is like a 19th century Batman (or more correctly that Batman is a 20th century Count): Tragedy befalls both of them in their youth, they disappear into the Orient where they develop their skills, they re-emerge into society incredibly wealthy and mysterious, they both have hidden caves, both are masters of disguise, some people think they're vampires, and, most importantly, they both have an unquenchable thirst for vengeance. Despite the similarities, though, I would venture to suggest that both characters are unique and unforgettable. Bravo Messieurs Dumas and Kane, on jobs well done!

A Post of Olympic Proportions

It is now T-minus 56 minutes to the Olympics! Or at least the opening ceremonies, shown on a seven-hour tape delay from Italy. But I'll take what I can get! Because I love the Olympics, even more than I love the Tour De France!

We got a Tivo last month as an anniversary present to each other, which we're both loving so far. (Providentially, we discovered after ordering it that the fourth anniversary, at least on contemporary lists, is the electronics anniversary. Go us!) I'm really pleased to have the Tivo, because this is our busy season at work and I'm now getting in almost all my hours for the week on the weekends, which is of course when most of the Olympics coverage is on TV. On a job note, although 6 a.m. events are pretty rare so far, 7 a.m. events are coming along much more frequently than I think is really ideal. Disregarding the occasionally obscenely early start times, though, my job is still going quite well.

Um...what else? I successfully hemmed a too-long pair of pants, which was a first for me. Randy set up a wireless network for our computers and the Tivo, so we can now listen to music and browse pictures stored on our computer from the TV, as well as set up programs to record from the Internet. Thanks to an anniversary gift from my parents, we have peaches and pound cake from Harry and David, which is incredibly delicious. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

We've also both been doing a lot of reading recently - Randy's been reading The Count of Monte Cristo, all 1300 pages of it, while I've been flying through a bunch of much shorter books. I especially loved The Perilous Gard, which I keep thinking back to, even after finishing it. I love books that can make me do that.

And I note that it is now T-plus 6 minutes from the Olympics starting. (I got slightly distracted while typing this up.) Don't worry; I'm Tivo-ing it!

Sponge-Worthy

One of our adoring fans posed this question to us recently in a comment: Whither SpongeBob? He should, after all, constitute a full third of our blog, if the tagline above is to be believed.

Well, dear readers, fear not. We have not forgotten about our absorbent and porous friend. Although he has not had a starring role in our blog until now, he has made several cameo appearances. One such appearance was in the form of a band-aid (although it was pointed out to me later that it was no mere band-aid I used that day -- it was a glow-in-the-dark one!); another appearance here detailed our impression of Mr. SquarePants' adventure on the silver screen.

And, as you may have guessed by the new name adorning these pages, the current and previous title of our blog have paid homage to classic quotes from the TV series:

"Art thou feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?"
-- Spongebob, Mid-Life Crustacean

"Just look at him. Square... the shape of evil!"
-- Sheldon J. Plankton, The Fry Cook Games

Having established the subtle, yet unmistakable presence of Mr. SquarePants, we can turn our attention to the manner in which we became fans.

I first became aware of the aforementioned character in 2002, when I began my job in Colorado. The department I was in had established a team mascot, which was a talking SpongeBob SquarePants doll ("Bring it around town," he exclaimed). Every month the department would vote for a member that had performed exceptionally well, and the winner had the honor of possessing the doll, which was nicknamed "FancyPants," for that month. Lest any harm befall the mascot, the Code of Ethics within the department included the line "Treat FancyPants with Respect."

Having never heard of him before, I asked Wendy one day if she had heard of a cartoon named something along the lines of "SquareBob SpongePants." She had, fortunately, and she corrected my mistake.

Not long after that we began watching the TV show on Nickelodeon and discovered that we quite enjoyed it. SpongeBob is zany, naive, and, perhaps, somewhat gay (not that there's anything wrong with that). A fine combination. And a fine show.

We thank you, Mr. SquarePants, for providing hours of entertainment. And to our readers: should you ever have any SpongeBob-related questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We shall always endeavor to answer.

Well.

Last night, I finally fell asleep around 4 a.m. This morning, I got up at 8 a.m. I left about 10 minutes later than I should have for work and was stuck behind someone going 5 miles under the speed limit for probably a third of the way there.

When I finally got to work, it turned out that the server was misbehaving, and I spent probably 30 minutes trying to get my computer to restart. I spent another several hours looking up the zip codes for over 200 addresses, for a mailing we're doing.

When I got home today, I discovered that the two boxes of Christmas presents we had to mail to ourselves had arrived and had been sitting outside our garage in the rain all afternoon. I brought them in, checked the mail (in the rain!), and then walked all the way across our light beige living room carpet before noticing that I had stepped in mud while checking the mail. I also managed to almost completely shred one of the crusts I needed to make dinner while trying to get it out of the pan.

The carpet is now clean, a pot pie is in the oven, Randy is on his way home, and I am drinking a much-too-strong pina colada.

So. How are you all doing?

As promised, here's a selection of the 100 memories from our Christmas trip.

1. Wendy accidentally walking in on a little girl in the women's bathroom at a gas station, apologizing and moving on to the next stall, where she accidentally walked in on a little boy.

20. Abby doing the laundry dance.

22. Santa bringing Randy's mom a tulip toilet seat.

26. Santa bringing Randy's dad an Aircap 2 - strongly reminiscent of a chemical warfare mask.

27. Playing Battle of the Sexes with everyone at Randy's house.

28. Discovering that Cory is rather metrosexual, and thus knew many of the answers to the female questions.

31. Celebrating our fourth anniversary!

34. Nearly running out of gas on our way back to Kansas City, but fortunately just making it to a gas station in Topeka.

38. Graffiti in a Kansas bathroom: "God is the reason for the season," except "God" was crossed out and "Jesus" was written above it.

70. Randy's dad saying he wanted a 52" plasma TV for Christmas, and Wendy telling him that all we could find was the 56" one, which wasn't what he asked for, so we didn't buy it.

76. Walking down the aisle at Wal-Mart with Wendy and Abby and hearing a little boy say, "Mom, that lady is cute! Both of those ladies are cute!"

80. Getting home and discovering that our suitcases had been searched.

(Which surely had nothing to do with...) 82. Wendy having her Miss Army knife confiscated by Midway security.

Happy 2006!

Hola, amigos. Sorry it's been so long since we rapped at you, but we're back now!

December was busy, but not terribly exciting through most of it. My back problems were re-diagnosed as possible gallbladder problems, and then re-re-diagnosed as possible back problems. I suspect that I did in fact have a severely pulled muscle or deep bruise, since it seems to have finally healed almost completely over the last week or so despite my less-than-healthy holiday diet (which would probably not be the case if it was a gallbladder problem).

So I spent more time this past month than I would have liked at the doctor, and the rest of the time frantically trying to get the Christmas shopping done. We did get it all done, with time to spare, thanks to the beautiful, beautiful internet.

We were able to go and visit both families again this Christmas. We first headed to Tulsa to spend some time with Randy's family. We had a great time hanging out with everyone, and were very pleased to meet Joy's fiancé, Cory. He's a funny, wonderful guy, and they're obviously very much in love. We approve!

After a few days, we drove up to Wichita to see my family as well, and again spent most of our time hanging out and playing games. While we were in Wichita, we celebrated our fourth anniversary. It fell on the same day as OU's bowl game. OU won, sealing the victory with a late interception, which was a nice gift. (Sorry we were so, um, exuberant with our cheering, Mom. We didn't mean to wake you!)

We're glad to be back home now, although I wish we could have stayed longer. We had a wonderful time with both families. Coming soon: a selection of our 100 memories from this trip. I'm sure you can't wait!

May you all have a happy 2006!

Radar Love

A low pressure system from Oklahoma is making its way across Illinois this evening. The current forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow, which will make it the first substantial snowfall of the season.


Also, this is too funny: The city of Bryan, TX, decided to spice up their yearly water quality report by making it into a calendar with pictures of their water service employees. Check out some of the images here. My favorite is the guy sitting on the toilet.

I am the Connect Four King!

Yesterday I was at the grocery store and happened to notice a display of games next to the checkout lane. Among them was Connect Four. I hadn't played it in many, many years, but I remember having much fun with it as a kid, so I bought it.

Wendy and I opened it up this evening and it didn't take long before the fun started. For her, at least. Five moves into the first game, she beat me. We were both rather surprised, not to mention very amused. One game was all it took for me to get my bearings, though. I beat her four moves into the second game! I then went on to dominate the remainder of our games. So far I am quite pleased with the purchase. :-)

In other news, Wendy threw her back out after we returned from St. Louis. We suspect it had to do with the transition from sleeping on a waterbed at the Calderwoods' to sleeping on our regular bed here. She's much better now, but for a couple of days she couldn't move or breathe or lay down or do pretty much anything without considerable pain. A steady diet of Advil helped immensely.

Our stay in St. Louis was very enjoyable. Grandma Gilda did, in fact, make a huge Thanksgiving feast. There was a lot of good food, and there were many games of Trivial Pursuit, along with lots of football. (I learned all about the Illinois high school football playoffs from Grandpa Jack.) It was fun to see everyone that Wendy grew up with. On our way out of St. Louis we even stopped to see the house and drive around the neighborhood that she grew up in.

I am thankful for mostaccioli

We're going to St. Louis for Thanksgiving! I'm really looking forward to it - I grew up in St. Louis, and my family's gone back every year since we moved to Kansas. I haven't been able to go for the past four or five years, though, and Randy's never been.

Every year, we stay with our friends the Calderwoods. We lived across the street from each other in St. Louis from the time I was about 6, Brian was 4, Abby was 3, and Steven and Erin were 2. Kevin wasn't born when we moved in, but I remember the day he came home from the hospital. We grew up together - playing like best friends, fighting like siblings, leaving our shoes in the wrong family's living room, obeying (and disobeying) all four parents pretty much equally. Our backyard had a big swingset and theirs had a pool, and we spent all summer running back and forth between the two houses, our parents joking about the Calderwood-Drescher gym and swim club. Abby, Erin and Steve share the same birthday, February 3, and Kevin's birthday is February 2, so there were lots of shared birthday parties when they were younger. The Calderwoods over-paid me to babysit when the kids were little, and I taught Kevin, a fellow lefty, to tie his shoes. I couldn't possibly love them all more, and I am so looking forward to being there again.

And this year, Randy will finally experience the wonder of a Grandma Gilda Thanksgiving. She's not our grandma (she's the Calderwoods'), but she always spoils us like she is. I don't think there have ever been fewer than 15 people at her house for Thanksgiving, but there's always enough food to feed probably three times that many people. There's turkey, of course, but being an Italian grandma, she also serves mostaccioli. And mashed potatoes. And sweet potatoes. And green bean casserole. And gravy. And rolls. And peas. And stuffing. And pumpkin pie. And apple pie. And pecan pie. And angel food cake. And pizzelle. And I'm sure I'm forgetting half a dozen (or more) other things. She's not happy unless you're rolling home.

I can't wait to see everyone!

On an almost-completely unrelated note, I went to the dentist today (after finding one that did not have a five-month wait for an appointment). I was kind of nervous about it, since I haven't been in probably four years, but I would like to report that the dentist told me I have the best teeth he's seen all week, and my gums are fantastically healthy. I just realized, though, that he did not give me a free toothbrush. Hrumph.

You have one new message!

I ran some errands this afternoon, and when I got back, there was a message on the answering machine, an automated phone call from our congresswoman. She was calling to invite us to attend a town hall meeting on identity theft tomorrow afternoon. It's a growing problem, she said, particularly in the suburbs, and she's arranged for a panel of experts to speak. It was a very convincing message - I will definitely be there. Because it's being held at my conference center. And I am scheduled to work.

Okay, I know I'm a dork, but I got kind of a kick out of telling her recorded voice, "Why, thank you. I'd be delighted to attend. I'll be sure to get there early to get a good seat! And to unlock the doors!"

In other news, dinner tonight was an unmitigated disaster, to the point of throwing it away and going out to eat instead. It wasn't even a new recipe - something just went terribly wrong somewhere, leaving Randy and I staring at the stove and then at each other until I finally said, "Um...You want to go out instead?"

Miscellanea

Not much has been going on since I returned from Texas; Wendy and I have both been working away this past week. So here are some random thoughts and observations to pass the time:

-- Thunderstorms rolled through Illinois yesterday, bringing rain for most of the day, along with a brief shower of nickel-sized hail for good measure. Last we heard, this part of Illinois is still about a foot below normal rainfall.

-- Kudos to the Kansas Jayhawks, who snapped a 36-game losing streak to Nebraska. Our friend George claims to have helped in the victory, by posing for a picture in the Kansas paper that, he says, "angered Nebraska so much they couldn't focus on the game."

-- Wendy has discovered a back way to get to work that shaves about 5 minutes off the commute. Not only is it quicker, but it's much more scenic, too. The road twists and turns, and is lined with large trees whose branches hang over the road. Judging by the number of palatial houses along the way, I would also say it's a fairly well-to-do area.

-- A small shopping center about a mile from our house recently opened up. So far it has a 7-11 and a Rosati's pizza. We tried Rosati's last week and we both enjoyed it. Hopefully it won't become too much of a temptation having it so close!

Our Love Holds On

Today I heard "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry three times.

To be fair, I was in the car (and thus listening to the radio) much longer than usual, since I drove Randy to the airport this morning. His grandmother passed away earlier this week, and he flew down to Texas today for the funeral. Luckily, the company his mom works for is affiliated with an airline, and she was able to get a free flight pass for him. It's nice that he's able to be there with his family. I've been thinking about them a lot today.

I would like to apologize...

OU 37, Baylor 30 (2 overtimes)

I'm afraid I jinxed OU. Earlier today, when the Michigan - Iowa game went into overtime, the announcers pointed out that it was the first overtime game played at Iowa's stadium. I turned to Wendy and said "You know, I don't think OU has played an overtime game under Bob Stoops." So, of course, Baylor (of all teams) took us to two overtimes. Thankfully we still pulled it out.

To their credit, Baylor is a much-improved team this year, and I'll be rooting for them to become bowl eligible. I'm just glad they didn't do it against us.

After a quick check of the statistics, this is indeed Bob Stoops' first overtime game at OU. OU's last overtime was a win over Texas in 1996.

New Job and Other News

Good: Everyone has been really friendly and welcoming.
Bad: "Everyone" is, so far, approximately 578,459 new co-workers whose names and faces I need to remember. It's a much bigger college than my old one.
Redeeming: There is widespread nametag usage.

Good: I can set my own hours, outside of the events I need to be there for.
Bad: The events are sometimes on evenings or weekends. For instance, I worked yesterday afternoon, and this coming Saturday, there's an event with set-up starting at 6 a.m. For those of you playing along at home, that means I'll need to leave at 5:30 a.m. I am so not a morning person.
Redeeming: 6 a.m. events are very rare, I'm told.

Good: I have an actual office, with walls and a door.
Bad: It's pretty small, and I share it with two other people.
Redeeming: They're very nice and funny, and can answer the questions I can't, such as where the bookstore is, and whether we take credit cards (through the pillars and past the information desk, and yes).

Good: I really, really like my job so far, and can't stop talking about it.
Bad: Randy's getting kind of sick of hearing about my day in excruciating detail.
Redeeming: He's happy to see me so happy, even if it means reliving my day in almost real time.

In short, I'm really pleased to have a job again, and I'm really glad it's this one in particular. It was disappointing to be rejected for the other jobs, but I think this is the right one for me.

In other news, this weekend we went to The Pumpkin Patch and walked through a six-acre corn maze. It took us about 30 minutes, and was lots of fun. We also got some apple cider and pumpkin donuts, although we didn't actually buy any pumpkins. Priorities, after all.

Also,using the last of his birthday money to (partially) fund it, Randy bought The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. We've been working our way through it (all 23 pounds of it) and really liking it.

And in conclusion, poor Notre Dame. What a way to lose.

Weekend Recap

Today we made it to the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford. It was a very pleasant experience, and was made even more so thanks to the fall colors. The Gardens turned out to be a fairly popular place to be this afternoon; there were several employees out directing the flow of pedestrians.

One interesting sight we came across was a tree growing horizontally off of a hill. It was still growing strong thanks to a very tall log that had been put in to prop it up.

There were also several paths blocked off with "Private Property" signs; they all appeared to lead to a house at the top of a hill. We overheard a group of people in front of us say that the gardens were basically someone's back yard, open to the public. What a very cool back yard that would be. (Incidentally, we also overhead those same people discussing various creative ways that an ostrich could kill a lion.)

Most of the trips we take during the fall tend to be on Sunday, since Saturday is, of course, college football. Thanks to the magic of digital cable and ESPN Gameplan, there were 29 football games available for us to watch yesterday. When your team of choice is being trounced by their arch-rival, it's nice to be able to switch to any number of other (more competitive) games to take your mind off the resounding defeat.

On a happier note, Friday night Wendy and I went to see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was incredibly funny, with moments of absolute genius. We both highly recommend it.

Finally, a sunset from late August. If you look closely to the left, you can just make out the beginnings of townhouses that are being built across the pond. (Fortunately all of the trees are staying.)

Employed!

I am very pleased and excited to announce that I am once again a productive member of society: I got the job! I will be a conference center assistant in the Continuing Education department of a nearby college. It's part-time, and will mainly be event planning and coordination. My first day will be next Wednesday. Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone!

Also, the weather today was fall-like and gorgeous. Earlier this week, we were back up into the high 80s, but today was mid-50s and delightful. Hurray for October!

A gentleman's account of the weather

Autumn has arrived. It greeted us yesterday with a cold, rainy, and windy evening. We gladly welcomed it; the summer was warmer than expected, and led to much anticipation of a change in season.

I checked the weather as soon as I awoke this morning and discovered even further evidence of Autumn's arrival:

Prostrate with Grief!

As part of my birthday celebration zone (™ Jill), we went to see The Corpse Bride this Friday. It was good, and some parts were quite funny (Randy and I have been using the phrase, "prostrate with grief" as often as we can work it into conversation). See if you spot a quick nod to Edward Gorey in one scene - we both thought we saw one, and it was the same scene, so we're pretty sure it's there. Overall, though, I think I still prefer The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We were also hoping to go visit some Japanese gardens in Rockford this weekend, but it ended up raining both Saturday and Sunday, so we went to IKEA instead. There's a huge IKEA (link is a PDF) store in Schaumberg - almost too big, in fact. It reminded us of visiting Powell's Books (link is a PDF) in Portland last summer, which takes up an entire city block. It's great to have so much stuff to look at, but unless you have some idea about what you're looking for, it gets pretty overwhelming. I don't know if either map successfully conveys the sheer size of both of those stores. You could pretty easily just disappear into either one, never to return...

One of the things I got for my birthday was Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. I love these books. The first time I read them, I could hardly think of anything else for the two weeks it took me to finish them all. I stayed up far too late on weeknights and got up early on the weekends to read them. They're incredibly absorbing. Anyway, my point is that I whole-heartedly recommend them, and you should all go read them.

Continuing my random hopping from subject to subject, I have another interview next Monday, with the same place I interviewed at last time. I'm almost a little afraid to mention it, given that I haven't gotten any of the jobs I've mentioned interviewing for before, but I figure having extra people sending good thoughts my way can't hurt. So, if just one more of you than last time (when I was second choice) could think good thoughts for me, I should get the job. Or maybe even two of you, just to be sure. Your assistance is much appreciated.

Birthdays, Tourism, and Trojans -- Oh my!

Wendy celebrated her 26th birthday this week! For her birthday dinner, she chose Chinese takeout, something we hadn't had in a long time, and which we both enjoyed. We also had a chocolate hazelnut/nutella cake, courtesy of a Nigella recipe. Very tasty. All told, it was a fine birthday, although Wendy is starting to feel really old. If anyone out there who has successfully navigated the waters of their mid-20's wants to offer her some advice or words of encouragement, I'm sure she would appreciate it. :-)

Earlier this week, I happened to notice an ad on weather.com with the following picture:

I'd seen it before, but I've become so accustomed to ignoring ads that I paid it no attention. This time, though, it caught my eye, and I noticed it was for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, showing a trail in Tunnel Hill State Park. So, I (gasp!) clicked on the ad, and was taken to http://www.enjoyillinois.com. The site lists a number of attractions and trip ideas, and it reminded me of just how little of the state Wendy and I have seen. There are a couple of places it listed in Northern Illinois that I'd like to check out soon; namely the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, and the Starved Rock State Park, which is located in the Illinois River Valley.

And, finally, the USC Trojans. They dismantled OU in last season's national championship game. Now that the Sooners are firmly out of the national championship race for this season, I find it much easier to admire the incredible talent USC has. I watched the first quarter of their game against Arkansas last Saturday, in which they scored 28 points in a span of 92 seconds! It was almost unbelievable; they scored so effortlessly every time they got the football (the final score was 70-17). If they play to their potential every week, I don't think any team in the nation can beat them. But, you never know. I remember Florida State looked invincible in 2000, but OU shut them down, and Miami looked invincible in 2002, but Ohio State pulled the upset. In one game, anything can happen.

Hot Air For a Cool Breeze

Apparently we brought our drought karma with us from Colorado, because it's still been very warm and dry here, with temperatures well above normal. This evening, though, a storm front blew through, bringing my favorite kind of weather. I love it when it gets cloudy, blustery, and cool right before a big storm. (As opposed to the oppressive, humid stillness you sometimes get instead, which I don't like at all.)

By about 5 p.m., it was overcast, with the wind ruffling the surface of the pond and tossing all the leaves on the trees around. I opened the windows, and as we ate dinner, we watched what looked like a heck of a storm roll in, turning the sky dark and sending lightning bolts flying. We could smell the ozone and humidity. The wind kept picking up, at times blowing the reeds around the pond flat against the ground. The weather people reported that there was a severe thunderstorm warning, and we were eagerly anticipating it.

We got no rain at all.

The storm blew right by without stopping. At least tomorrow is supposed to be about 15 degrees cooler, much more in line with average temperatures for this time of year. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it stays nice for my birthday next week, but I'm afraid it won't.

Edited to add: Randy and I just got back from a walk around our neighborhood. Part of it is still under construction, and it was windy enough earlier that a Porta-Potty set up for the construction workers had blown over. That will be an unpleasant surprise for someone to find in the morning.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, is five months an unreasonably long time to wait for a dentist appointment? My eye doctor saw me the same day, my medical doctor saw me the next week, but my dentist can't see me until February. That seems way too long to have to wait, but maybe it's actually par for the course.

Argh!

I completely forgot about Terry Bowden. He means well, and he tries hard, and he gets excited about college football, but he's just not that great of an announcer. However, in today's loss to TCU, he had the quote of the day. Late in the game, OU's quarterback made a bad throw to a wide open receiver, who still had a chance to catch the ball, but dropped it. Bowden promptly said:

"Folks, that's rebuilding, not reloading."

And that, in a nutshell, sums up the game.