Jeff’s Journal

He was 94.

I’m not sad, per se - one, he was 94, lived a fairly rich life, had 14 kids, etc etc. I’m sad in the way that death is sad, that my father has no surviving parents anymore. Etc.

Death is still weird, though. I don’t know how to explain my relationship to it at this point, except that it’s weird and I don’t like the concept of funerals and yeah.

So this will be an interesting week.

1) Stimulus check arrived and deposited. Of course, $1000 of it was spent already on bills and taxes, so there’s $200 left - oh, whoops, Ann’s starter in her car went. Starter + tow + labor = a hair more than $200, for sure.

Sigh.

2) Even with that minor setback, this looks very, very enticing.

With all the stuff flying through my head, I wish I wasn’t so hot and lethargic. Eventually I’ll catch up on the personal front. Quick hits:

1) It’s the kind of hot where you take a shower at 7:20, look in the mirror at 8:30, and you’d never know you actually showered by looking, and you feel all gross and sweaty already. I usually have good heat tolerance - not today.

2) Firefox 3 Beta is nice, but the sooner they can get the session recovery working on it, the better.

3) Massachusetts folks - in the off chance you’re not working this Friday, or even get an hour for lunch, Ann & I will be in Central Mass for the morning to the mid-afternoon. Let us know if you’re around/available/whatever.

4) As excited as I am for this week, it’s going to be way too busy - a tough short work week, followed by the Sox game, followed by R.E.M. in Mansfield, followed by an Irace-side family party, followed by Sunday work. Gah!

5) Healing teeth = weird.

1) First, a meme. Don’t feel like tagging, but list 8 things people may not know. These are always hard for me because I lay so much out there as is, but it’s been a while, so…

a) For a long time, I couldn’t stop a book after starting it. My tolerance level has shifted dramatically in a short time - if a book doesn’t hook me in quickly, I’m generally not going to finish it. I have no clue what caused that shift.

b) I’m currently looking at my desk at home (it’s 10pm on Tuesday) and I’m shocked - I cleaned this before my wisdom teeth thing, and within 7 days, it’s possibly worse than it was before. Unopened mail, CDs to listen to and mail out, etc. It’s incredible, my ability to accumulate stuff.

c) I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, and I feel like I’m making some minor breakthroughs in ability. Not so much where I’m going to be more than above competent, but better than I’ve ever felt in the 10 years I’ve been playing now.

d) I find it odd that I have so much nostalgia for 1990s alt rock, yet dislike most grunge and was a little too young to truly appreciate it.

e) One of the best things I’ve done for myself the last few years is fully embracing my inner nerd. I wish I had done it in high school - it couldn’t have gotten much worse for me socially as a whole anyway, and it would have saved me a lot of strife in college.

f) I have no clue why I’m so bad at e-mailing.

g) As bad as I am at e-mailing, I’m worse with the phone. Still.

h) I still regret too much. I think I always will, no matter how happy I am with my lot in life.

2) My first day back to work was interesting on a number of levels, but keeping it on a health note - wow. I was wiped by the end of the day. It’s amazing how something so small as this can really throw you off your game. My jaw was really killing me by the end of the day, my voice was really ragged and shaky beyond the compensating and the remnants of the cold/allergy battle, and yeah. Wow. If I wasn’t so damn busy with summer stuff, I might have considered going home, but I barely convinced myself to stay home on Monday. Working through things is good, I suppose.

3) I’ve been following R.E.M. setlists since the tour started and since my show is next week - the lists are VERY impressive. plenty of Accelerate, of course, but they’re pulling out a lot of great old stuff. “Heron House,” “Ignoreland,” “Circus Envy,” and “Pretty Persusion” are all songs I’ve wanted to hear live and that have shown up on lists, “Ignoreland” being a staple thus far. I’m still pulling for “Auctioneer” and now perhaps wishing for “9-9″ isn’t completely out of the question. One week! ONE WEEK!

4) So I was, uh, able to see the 4th edition D&D player’s manual. They’ve done a LOT of streamlining, but I can’t say I miss too much from what I knew of 3.0/3.5. I still wish I could play as a multiclassed bard, but I think my understanding of things has opened up a decent idea for a character. If I have any real disappointment with it early, it’s that the alignment structure has changed - if i’m reading this correctly, no more chaotic good? We’re stuck on only neutral (or, in 4e terms, “unaligned”)? That’s kind of crappy, but it also fits in with some of the said streamlining. Regardless, I find it difficult to work off of PDF files, and I hope once I get the book in my hand, I can work some other stuff out on my own.

Given that the 4e book has leaked, we did work with it more in our game on Sunday, and to great result. It, again, helps that we have a really great group going, but everything moves incredibly smoothly with it, and yeah. I’m gushing a bit, I suppose - we’re halting the pre-made campaign after this weekend, and then two weeks off before we dive into the long-term. I can’t wait.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Enough outta me.

So let’s see:

1) Try not to catch a cold when trying to recover from wisdom tooth extraction. It’s no fun.

2) Pain is slowly fading. Percoset makes me feel like a zombie, but my mouth can only open wide enough for eggs, so…

3) For the amount of bitching I’m doing about this, I’d hate to see how much I devolve into a small child if I ever have to have real surgery. I was a pathetic human being last night.

I’m hoping for a bit of a turning point today. We’ll see.

I’m doing okay.

I say okay because a) the surgery went great, and b) I’m in pretty sizeable pain right now and the percoset doesn’t appear to be doing much for it at the moment. I also have a pollen-allergy-induced headache which is complicating matters for pain, but other than that…

The actual procedure was funny - conked out in 30 seconds, out for about 45, remember NOTHING. That’s what I’m talking about.

The bleeding is weird.

I dunno, that’s it for now - time for some soup and to lay down more.

Ann hit Massachusetts for a wedding and friends and babysitting (oh my), leaving me to my own devices this weekend. Good times!

1) Ann left Saturday morning, and I decided once the cat woke me up at 8:30 that I was going to try and be as unproductive as possible for once. I’m proud to say I generally succeeded - I took a shower and ate, but I was otherwise completely lazy: playing video games, catching up on the stack of CDs I’ve been meaning to listen to, listing some stuff on eBay and Amazon, watch a couple things on demand - exactly the kind of day I ultimately needed.

2) Yesterday was the inaugural of a new D&D group I’m involved with, this time with people I’ve known in various ways for a while. The Fourth Edition is coming out in a few weeks, and a pregenerated campaign was put out to help familiarize/transition to the new rules and such. Having very little experience overall with the older editions, this essentially was starting from square one for me, except that I knew the basics of the basics. So even with some tolerant hand-holding from all involved, I feel like I was getting a pretty good grasp on things to the point where the final battle we faced (and we ran 5 battles over the 8ish-hour period, which was AWESOME) I was essentially able to work on my own without asking too many questions or screwing up to the point of almost getting killed, which was great.

I have to say, though - holy shit did that kick ass. Excuse me as I completely lose any mainstream cool cred, but if I had realized it was this much fun, I would have tried harder to get into a group in high school and not blown Steph off 5 years ago when she tried to get me in on a game back then. As a timesuck, the time flew by like nothing else. I arrived at 1:30 and we essentially dove right in, and I looked at my watch and it was 3:30. Just like that. I was pretty surprised, but hey, that’s how it goes. Beyond that, it’s really great - coming at it from no significant battle experience in my limited D&D encounters before, diving in and nuking some kobolds is amazingly easy. I played a human wizard, and the level one spells are actually worth using. You have your basic magic missile, but you can actually give cold/fire/acid damage early, and have it mean something. Plus, the wizard has a Scorching Burst which is essentially a low level tactical nuke - by the time I got the hang of it, I was able to nuke 5 guys on one spell with the correct positioning, and the one time I was able to use Burning Hands was pretty nifty, too.

One thing I didn’t expect, however, was the fun tactical maneuvers we were able to pull off. Mike (who’s a very fun guy and I’m especially looking forward to gaming with him) worked out a pretty great pincer technique on one encampment that worked wonders (especially since a rogue/warlord battle combo appears to be potentially devastating), and the smooth battle system (which appears to be much smoother than previous incarnations) really speeds things up. In a word, friggin’ awesome.

So the group appears likely to be myself and Mike, Mike’s wife Jenny (who is wonderful), Steph, Mandy, her brother Bill, and Mandy’s husband Bill running the eventual full-scale campaign. I’m very, very excited.

3) I’m also home today, and so is Ann. So we’ll probably do something, whether it’s hit a movie (Young @ Heart is up at the indie theater in Concord) or grab lunch somewhere or just hang out, but another wide-open day isn’t a bad thing before the next few weeks come barreling in…

This is actually serious:

You: Of legal driving age, free on Sunday, 1 June for most of the day. Likes to eat, meet people they don’t know, and can stand multiple hours of me in a car.

Me: Jeff, aged 27, 3 days out of having four wisdom teeth extracted. Likely to be hopped up on percoset, and equally likely to have not eaten anything resembling real food in days. Has good music taste.

Essentially, I’m looking for someone who might be willing to cart me around a bit on Sunday, 1 June. By “a bit,” I mean to Somerville for a birthday brunch, followed by a trip into Worcester for something else, followed by a trip home for me. Payment includes brunch on me and some gas money, plus my adoration and company.

If you’re willing/able, let me know. No pressure - it’s why I’m posting it here as opposed to begging all my friends individually and feeling like I’m guilting them into it.

Please turn your attention to panel four of Questionable Content this evening.

That line by Hannelore (the blond one) about “highly-trained actors?” Totally was something I had convinced myself of in various forms until close to the end of my senior year of high school. In fact, I was thinking about that again today in a short fit of insecurity.

I mean, yes, completely ridiculous, but I have never actually seen it stated elsewhere before. Ever.

…unless my parents paid Jeph Jacques to write this comic…

I woke up this morning feeling a little ill and with a small headache. Given the wisdom teeth situation, headaches are a norm for the moment, but the stomach thing, not so much. By the time I got ready for work, the headache was much worse and my stomach felt like it was going to cause a small-scale revolt.

Needless to say, I went to work, suffered some dizzy spells, my head is pounding, and my stomach hates me, and I’m back home.

Minor flu bug or whatever aside, I’m glad I only have to put up with a couple more weeks of this bullshit.

Jeff: “Ooh! They’re making a Captain America movie!”
Ann: *silence*
Jeff: “…and that’s really exciting! And the guy who played Jayne on Firefly is attached to play him!”
Ann: “Oh, I can see that. I liked the red.”
Jeff: “…huh?”
Ann: “The red. Fire.”
Jeff: “What?”
Ann: “Oh, shit. I thought you were talking about Captain Planet.”

Then a discussion commenced about the following, which input would be appreciated:

1) Is Captain Planet really a super hero?

2) Is Captain Planet simply propaganda masked in colorful animation?

3) Ann: “Would Captain America help his wife clean the fucking kitchen?”

Apparently, my e-mail address gets to be the “sent” address in a variety of spam today. Thus, I’ve gotten roughly 400 undeliverable bouncebacks since 8am this morning with no end in sight.

Ugh.

Mario Kart anyone? 2707-2006-6250

For those of you who don’t wanna play, I offer this:

1) Tiff’s wedding was this weekend. Between the whole “blast from the past” wedding mass with Fr. Madden (former High School headmaster) presiding and the somewhat sketchball wedding band, it was a very nice wedding and a good time. I wish I had more to say about the wedding/ceremony than I do, but I don’t - congrats to Tiff and Rob in any regard.

2) We ended up crashing at my old place last night, and Ann & I slept nearly 11 hours on a futon. I can’t remember the last time I slept 11 hours period, but there you have it. We rushed out to Maxwell Silverman’s in Worcester for a pricey-but-worth-every-penny brunch with Julia, Danielle, Steph and Steph’s sister, where I ate more bacon than I should have, but what else is new? It’s good to see people, anyway.

3) Annoying guitar note - I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, in part because I’m somewhat obsessed with getting a cover version floating in my head onto some sort of recording, but a problem that I forgot about has been picking itself back up as of late - cramping. My hands are small, but not THAT small, and yet whenever I do any non-open chords, my hand invariably cramps up. Part of it may be that I’m simply using too much force in holding the frets down or whatever, but it’s crazy frustrating.

4) My face hurts. I’m very apprehensive about the removal of the wisdom teeth, but damn will I appreciate not having face/headaches almost daily from them.

All for now…

1) The Manchester City Library held a book sale today. Needless to say, I wish I could have spent a little more time there - fill a paper bag for $5? I wish I could have dug out some eBay fodder. Alas, I still came out with quite a haul:

Among the really good grabs:

* Stranger in a Strange Land hardcover, which replaces the copy I gave away many years ago. I’ve been meaning to reread this as well as have Ann read it.

* My Grandfather’s Son, Clarence Thomas. In a donation pile. At the library. If I didn’t know that the Manchester Library had a copy of this, I’d be pissed.

* Two Barry Goldwater-penned books: Conscience of a Majority and Where I Stand.

* The Story of Scientology, a coffee table book about Scientology. I did it for the lulz, or something.

* French Furniture Under Louis XIV. Because it was there.

A bunch of theatre books and some quirky US history tomes filled out the bag. Total haul was over 20 for $5 - I would have paid $20 for the Clarence Thomas and Robert Heinlein alone. Not too bad.

And Pigeon approves

2) Ann & I are fairly well addicted to the John Adams miniseries on HBO. It’s fun to engage in historical geekery with her - she’s become quite enamored with Ben Franklin.

3) Hung out with Steph, Mandy, and her husband, Bill, for a bit on Saturday. Dinner at the Outback, good times had. I’ve been friendly with Mandy through Steph for a couple years now, and this was the first time we’ve actually hung out in the real world, and she’s quite charming. With the dissolution of my D&D group, it looks like I’ll be joining them (and Mike, I understand?) in June for some Sunday gaming once the Fourth Edition Players Guide comes out. I’m pretty stoked.

4) Flag football started this weekend. I played fairly crappy, all things being equal, but I did have a couple receptions and got outleaped on an out pattern because I’m short. It’s a different feel than dodgeball (obviously) and I’m not sure I love it, but it’s still good to be active and I generally like my teammates, so good stuff.

Back to the Sox game…

1) I feel like a whiny little brat because of this head cold, but my goodness is it kicking my behind. I somehow survived the winter without as much as a sniffle - a few exhausted days, but nothing legitimately sickly, so yeah. Crappy, but what can you do?

2) Saturday night was fun - Lee Anne and Steve came up and came to a hockey game with us and then we did a little drinkin’. It’s always good to see them, and the hockey game was good as well.

3) Dodgeball is done for the time being - my team ended up with the 8 seed and nearly ousted the top team in the first round of the playoffs. Final record? 1-7, but a really fun season. I’m doing flag football starting this week, which should be…interesting. I’m short and my hands are too small to grip a football, so…

4) You’ll recall an entry a while back about the old friend I treated rather badly and recently got back in contact with. I met her for dinner this week, and it was a really great experience - aired out a lot of stuff, worked the awkwardness out a bit, and it was a good thing overall. Glad we’re making progress.

5) A belated and general thank you for the birthday well-wishes and gifts and whatnot. My 27th was a pleasant one, in no small part due to everyone in my life, so thanks!

6) Upcoming stuff in no particular order - R.E.M., Tiff’s wedding…life in general. For how crazy busy I tend to get, there’s really not a whole lot happening yet a ton happening all at once.

Ah well…

When you’ve had second row seats for your favorite band, nothing will ever reach that again, so I should consider myself blessed that I’ve been in the front ten rows twice when I’ve seen R.E.M.. But getting bounced out for a server error during the fan club presale when you had second row seats ready is annoying as hell, and when Ticketmaster blasts you out now when you’re reloading to find out when tickets go on sale is just wrong.

So, needless to say, I have a spare pair of tickets for the R.E.M. show in June. Face value for the two (ticket + service charges) is $140 for Row H in section 4 - not terrible seats by any stretch, although a bit further in the corner than I’d like compared to the ones I got that are further back but closer to the center.

So if anyone reading this wants them, let me know. Grr.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to discuss this publically. Ann & I had been waiting until we could sit my parents down and discuss it with them first - some of you know this through various inklings or because we’ve spoken to you since Easter, but we weren’t holding back for any other reason than wanting our parents to know before we talked about it to everyone else.

While I’d imagine I’m one of the few human beings who can boil down a pretty major life choice into a lolcat, there you have it - Ann & I plan on internationally adopting our first child.

Let’s get a few things out of the way - first, there’s no fertility issues that we’re aware of. The stereotype appears to be that this becomes an option only when you can’t biologically have your own children, and that’s not at issue here. In fact, we’d like to have “our own” kids at some point in the future. Just not now, and not before doing this.

Second, we’re not against domestic adoption, it’s just not really something we’re interested in. For one, domestic adoption costs make international adoption look cheap in comparison (and it’s not), and for another, the benefits for the child coming from China or Korea or Russia or someplace with similar upheaval and uncertainty is miles ahead of a child who may have a rough go of it domestically as a foster child, but still gets the benefits of growing up in the States.

Third, seriously, Angelina and Madonna have nothing to do with it. If they did, it would be the first trendy thing I’ve done in years. But yeah - the comments have come out before, and no. Just no.

This isn’t necessarily going to be easy for us. The costs are high, the requirements weird, but it’s something we’re really into. Right now, we’re leaning toward South Korea, although China is high on the list but is likely impossible. We thought about Russia as well, but that’s kind of difficult, and our religious situation (read: lack thereof) forces us out of places like the Philippines and (I think) Ethiopia from the start.

Granted, this is ultimately going to be years down the line - many places expect you to be at least 30 or married 3-5 years, but this also means that Ann & I need to start thinking about it now. It’ll be an interesting ride, for sure, but we’re very excited about the end result, and, amazingly, so are my parents, who are behind us 110%. My mother let me know today that she wants to be “Nanny Joan,” so I think we have people safely on board.

We’re doing this because we feel like we’re the right type of people to make some child’s life better. It’s a way we can give back to the world in a way that matches up with our values and beliefs, and it just feels like the right thing to do. I read stories like this and my heart breaks a little bit, and to think we might be able to do our own part for someone else in a way that others might not is a really neat thought.

We’re both excited. We’ll keep things updated as we learn and do more - Ann’s got her Big Book of International Adoption all tabbed out, I’ve been talking with parents at my library - we’re really all in. How scary. And fun. And amazing.

A highlight reel of our busiest weekend since the holidays:

1) Friday night dinner with Tiff, Rob, Steph, and Julia. In a scary-ish thing to think about, my 10 year reunion from high school is coming up. While Steph didn’t graduate with us, it’s still really great to know that, even as we grow older and marry and move away and all that jazz, you’ve still got the old standbys who you may not see or speak to on a regular basis, but you fall right into place with once you’re all there. Just a really great, happy, pleasant evening with them, and another reminder that I need to make it a point to get down there more often.

2) That, for all the crap I’ve given them and all the slack I refused to cut them over the years, that my parents are really great people and that I’m really glad I have the parents I do. I’ll go more into detail on this another day, but I’ll just say that they impressed me a lot this weekend.

3) My cousin Nick just started college this year. It’s kind of funny - he’s 9 years younger than me, I remember going to the hospital when he was born, and now we can all sit around and have a normal human being conversation with him. Maybe it’s kind of nerdy and overly sentimental, but that’s pretty cool in my book.

4) Michelle and Josh are two great friends to have. I can’t say enough good things, and I’m glad they’ll be getting married. Finally.

5) Hanging with Dave in Boston for brunch on Sunday. To say that the way he’s presented himself in his journal over the last 4 years has no direct bearing on how much energy this man has (while partially hung over, mind you) is an understatement - a really cool and fun guy, and considering I was concerned we wouldn’t get to meet up with him at all, both Ann & I were glad we took the detour to get some time in. You’re good people, sir, and welcome at Chez Raymond anytime. His friends were awesome, as well, and a great plus to what ended up being a great cap to a great weekend.

This week is looking fun, but busy, as well - Friday night I have a dodgeball thing, Saturday we see Lee Anne and Steve (which will be a blast), and Sunday is Elf Power. Plus, I took Monday off to recharge, something I’ve rarely been able to do and something I’m doing sans guilt. That’s always awesome.

I’m seriously loving life right now.

…I got married.

Many of you reading this have known me, either through school or work or through LiveJournal, for longer than my wife has known me. You know full well where I’ve made my mistakes, where I’ve done embarrassing things, where I’ve made my life harder than it has to be. With Ann, all of that changed - she’s my rock, she gets me in ways most others have not, she validates my existence in ways I never could have imagined. Marrying her was the easiest and best choice I’ve ever made for myself, and I’m reminded of this fact nearly every day.

31 March 2007 was a really cool day in my life, and I’m glad so many people were able to share in it in their own way. For those who couldn’t be there, I’ve finally gotten video of one of the best parts up, so enjoy the Unity Volcano. Excuse the video quality - it was the best rip from the DVD we could get at the time, but it’s the idea that counts and YouTube isn’t entirely known for high definition anyway.

So yeah, today was a big day for dentistry for me. Odd notes from someone who can’t remember his last cleaning or anything at all.

1) Either I take very well to anaesthesia or things are very good in the dentistry world these days. I was completely prepared for a world of pain, and it turns out that I mistakened the drilling they had to do for my fillings for the actual cleaning. The drilling part I figured would be really bad, and it wasn’t. So, like, sweet on that!

2) The cleaning was…interesting. I was essentially Tartar Man, which is kind of gross and I’m a little ashamed of myself in retrospect, but holy crap did it make a difference visually. I could care less about visual appearance, but egads, seeing what it looks like now as opposed to before is like night and day. Absolutely crazy.

3) I still have some minor cleaning left (again, Tartar Man is my name and my superhero power is taking two cleanings to deal with what a mere mortal requires in one), but seriously? Very little in the way of pain, which was impressive. I was a little numbed up, but nothing crazy, and my gums are in rough shape anyway, so most of the pain was simply to gain later on. The worst part, honestly, was that damn suction thing, because I hate a dry mouth.

So yeah. Uh, not bad at all. Certainly not the way I’d like to spend a Wednesday morning, but whatever. Plus, everyone there seemed to agree that my teeth and stuff are really healthy, and once the inflammation and stuff goes down, I should be a-okay. So that’s nice to hear. I’m a real lucky bastard in a way due to that.

Now excuse me, I’m going to continue moving my tongue along my teeth like I have been all day, since I haven’t felt these parts in years.

EDIT: As I posted this, I’m totally lusting over this. I wish money wasn’t so tight right now, I’d totally do it.

If anyone’s looking for birthday ideas for me, however…

1) Ann & I are fairly excited by the prospect of having finally made some possibly really good friends up here in Manchester. Granted, with her surgery and our schedules, we haven’t had the time to really foster a few relationships with good people we’ve met so far, but I met the children’s librarian from Amherst at the Jeff Kinney event in January, and we finally got together with her and her husband last night for drinks and dinner, which later turned into a three hour affair and an invitation to have an Easter lamb with them today. Another 5 hours with them tonight, and it was just a refreshingly good time. They’re a fun couple, we all have a lot in common, and yeah. It was really great.

We’ve had our share of trouble putting ourselves out there, meeting people is never easy, and Ann will be the first to admit that she doesn’t do well under any sort of social pressure, so this was admittedly a big deal for us, and it worked out really well so far. So hooray!

2) The next few weeks are pretty much a wreck for us. A jolly wreck, but a wreck nonetheless. Thursday of this week, we’re seeing Glen Phillips in Derry (20 minutes away!), and then Friday we’re headed to Massachusetts to see Tiff and Rob (and Julia, are you free? E-mail me, I don’t think you got my last e-mail), and then Saturday is family Easter. Yeah, don’t ask. But we’ll see Michelle and Josh Saturday night before heading home, and hopefully find time to see David while he visits from DC (we gotta work that out). After another work week, we have another…something on that Friday night followed by a visit from Lee Anne and Steve (which we’re psyched about) and then the Elf Power concert the following evening. And then things finally calm down.

And that’s just what I remember at the moment. I guarantee I’m missing something here.

3) Our car insurance went down! Hurrah!

4) Other than all that, life is good in Chez Raymond. We’re pretty excited for the spring and summer, and we’re going to make more of an effort to see people and work stuff out. So yeah. It’ll be fun.

I’m writing this last night, so I think I’m going to stop now.

Ann: “Play that Decemberists song I like.”
Jeff: *fires up “We Both Go Down Together”*
Ann: “I love this song, but it makes me uncomfortable. It’s such a nice song, but then he rapes her.”
Jeff: “What?!”
Ann: “Yeah! Why else would she be crying?!”
Jeff: “Uh, because it’s sorta like Romeo and Juliet. They’re in love and can’t be together, and it makes her sad.”
Ann: “Oh, come on. It’s a class thing, first, and second, why would she be crying.”

*keeps listening*

Ann: “Well, regardless, that shows how different you and I are. You hear romantic love, I hear rape.”

Tomorrow’s Ann’s birthday. Give her some love.

EDIT: Later

Ann: “I get the impression that they jump off a cliff, but at the end of the song, he says ‘Meet me at my veranda.’ Does he jump off a cliff into a veranda? Is the cliff a veranda? The only reason I know what a veranda is is from The Three Amigos.”

EDIT #2: “I never knew why she jumped off a cliff with a rapist. That confused me.”

Easter is my favorite time of year for candy. I’m not a huge candy person overall - a few cookies after lunch is good, the occasional candy bar, but I’m not a big sweets person. With that said, Easter means SweetTarts and the Easter version is “Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies.” They’re a tiny bit more chalky than their round cousins, but are also larger and thus more flavorful. I love them.

This bowl pictured represents the contents of my bag of chicks, ducks, and bunnies today. ALL blue, orange/red, and purple. No green. No yellow. I don’t even like the blue ones, and my two favorite flavors didn’t even make the bag. Absolutely ridiculous.

I hate today.

The Good: My health insurance (read: not my dental) will pay 100% for wisdom teeth extraction. Even better, they’ll pay for all of them to be removed, not just the three impacted. I’m not going to say I’m excited to have them tear some stuff out of my face, but it’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about it.

The Bad: Vehicle registration this year - about $275 combined state and local. The annoyances of a new car, I suppose.

The Ugly: It turns out that we won’t be getting a refund from Massachusetts, and that we actually owe around $250. Annoying as hell, although I should have expected this.

Combine that with the federal tax we owe (around $330) and that’s over $800 we have to lay out in the next 6 weeks. Doable, but ugh.

1) Meet Gobbles:

I got home from work today, and Ann started yelling “Did you see!? Did you see?!” I, of course, did not see, and we went out to the patio to see a large wild turkey chilling out on the roof of someone’s SUV. Pretty hilarious - he hung out for a few hours, hopped on a couple other cars before shuffling off into the sunset.

It’s not rare to see flocks/packs of wild turkeys off the side of the highway up here - it’s one of those great, odd things about New Hampshire wildlife that I appreciate. Ann took these pictures over the course of the afternoon.

2) So, since they’ve made their way to Chicago by now, I guess it’s safe to talk about them - thank you cards!

We made a deal early on after the wedding - Ann’s in charge of her family, I’m in charge of mine. She got her cards done before the summer, I think, and I was bogged down in summer reading and then dodgeball and then dodgeball and I never really got to it. Ann went to Philly a few weeks ago, and I totally intended to just do them and be done with it (if you were at the wedding, you know how many people we’re talking), and I essentially slacked off and played video games all weekend. Monday rolled around, and I’m swearing to myself, so I tell her that I’m needing to crack down and need her help finding things, which is when she shows me the cards, finished (and finished for weeks at that). I felt like more of a tool at that moment than I have the entire time we’ve been married.

If you got a neat little joke in your card outside of the pre-printed headline, I promise every word is true. If you didn’t get a card because you weren’t there, the text at the top was something close to “The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned After 11 Months of Marriage…When Your Husband Says He’ll Do the Thank You Cards, Don’t Trust Him.” It’s true.

So, publically, thank you all for coming, again, and making our big day worth it. Our anniversary is in 2 weeks, and I’ll have a fun post up for that.

3) Speaking of why New Hampshire is awesome, I bet your criminals don’t try to leap out of the courthouse window, and if they do, I bet they don’t apologize first. I love my state.

4) Our dodgeball team won! We;re 1-5! We’re 1-5!

Okay, ’tis all.

1) If I was one to do those “Do 101 things in 1001 days” lists like everyone else I know, I would have crossed one thing off my list today: The Baconator.

I don’t generally eat fast food. It’s one of those things that used to appeal to me, but just doesn’t anymore - I go to a Burger King or McDonald’s or something maybe twice in a given year, and usually out of convenience rather than desire. With that said, around 12:30 today, the craving for two huge burger patties with six strips of bacon overwhelmed me, and since Ann is out for the day and there’s a Wendy’s less than a mile down the road, well…

The verdict? Good, but not amazing. With that much bacon, it should be amazing, but alas, it was only good. What it definitely was was amazingly greasy, though - I’ve washed my hands twice since lunch and I still feel gooey.

2) I’m overdue regarding music and stuff, but I’m so addicted to Kathleen Edwards’s new album it’s not even funny. It’s quite good, and Ann feels threatened by her, so it’s win-win.

3) Any technologically savvy people want to help me figure out why embedded flash videos (YouTube et al) just freeze without sound after about 2 seconds? I can’t figure out if it was an update, or clashing programs, or something else, but it’s completely weird. Never had this problem before, and I never realized how much I actually use YouTube until recently.

4) Speaking of YouTube, if every Celtics game was as exciting as this moment, I’d probably be on the bandwagon:

More later, I suppose.

1) I had my first dentist appointment in a very, very long time today. Very long time. Long enough where I honestly feared the worst, and you know me and fear…

a) The X-Rays were pretty interesting, although I had forgotten how intense my gag reflex was. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten before going and I didn’t give the assisstant/nurse any presents, either.

b) The best news: only 2 cavities, both surface. This was ultimately shocking to me, as I expected much worse and in much more difficult places, but no, instead it’s a relatively simple situation. Considering my haphazard use of mouthwash (only been consistent over the last 6 months or so) and my relative lack of flossing (I know, I know), I was very happy.

c) The somewhat good news is that the problems I’ve complained about with my front teeth are entirely treatable, and are only significant because I haven’t been to the dentist in ages. If anything, it serves me right for waiting as long as I did (only partially my fault), but it was a bit of a relief to know that it’ll be dealt with relatively soon.

d) The crappy: wisdom teeth. While they’re not bothering me too much, there’s enough concern for them that I’m gonna have to get them out - hopefully all four, but probably three of them. Annoying, and does not fit with my schedule at all. So we’ll see how that works out, but that kind of blows.

We’ll see if I’m still singing praises after what will probably be a rough cleaning, but consider me surprised.

2) I think I’m coming to terms with my ability, or, more to the point, my lack thereof. I’ve found myself to be relatively happy with the way things have panned out for me as of late - I work a decent schedule, I do my sporting activities one or two nights a week, I have my gaming night, and plenty of spare time to spend with Ann, see friends, or just hang around. Now that I’m feeling settled, it’s almost as if I don’t feel overly stressed out or stretched too thin.

Of course, this means some sacrifices, but ones that I’m not entirely upset about. After all, where could I fit in a theatrical production in my schedule? How could I possibly rehearse with a band twice a week? Do I miss those things? Sure, but I also find I enjoy being at home and getting a decent night’s sleep and not being overwhelmed, too. In a lot of ways, the stability I’m finally experiencing now is the stablity I’ve been yearning for over the last few years. So it’s nice to not rock that boat. I can still write and read and create and be myself without being burdened.

Life ain’t too bad right now.

So I’ve taken yet another step in development - a smidge nerdier and a smidge more social, as I joined a Saturday night D&D group.

I have to say, it’s more fun than I thought it would be - a 5 hour session last night essentially flew by. I’m playing a Cleric for this campaign, which is interesting, and my problem is more overthinking (”Hey, can’t I just cast a command spell on this guard and MAKE him let us into the city?”) than getting the hang of it, although it’s still a lot more complicated than I remembered. But I’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.

Steph, didn’t you give me a book at some point? I think I may have left it at my house, which is annoying, but isn’t a 4th edition coming soon as well? I’m wary of picking up a bunch of stuff anyway, but still, pretty fun stuff.

I’ll have more later, I suppose.