My wife and her sisters...

...are recounting stories from their childhood.

I am amazed they survived to adulthood.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Rilo Kiley, "The Moneymaker"

"Who Among Us Is Still Afraid Of Choice?"

Michelle was offered and accepted the job at Accotink on Friday. She'll be the Event Coordinator, PTSA liaison, and a co-teacher in three English classes. She's very excited but also very nervous about it. We both head in to get ready for the new school year on Monday.

It means a lot of changes for us. We'll be commuting together, so there's a good chance I'll be selling my car. This actually has a lot of benefits: we won't have to pay my car insurance anymore or buy gas for it. That's about $350-$400 a month we'll save. We're thinking of looking for a new place closer to the school so we could cut our commute time. It'd make sense, if we're headed to the same place each day. We'll also, of course, have the same schedule, which is fantastic. Now we can take vacations together and be off on the same days. No more worrying about whether or not we'll be able to get time off so we can take trips. So that'll be groovy.

This afternoon, we took the Wii over to Michelle's parents' house. Everyone had a lot of fun playing, and I think her parents are really interested in picking one up now. We also had pizza, which is always great.

Tomorrow we're celebrating Michelle's youngest sister's birthday. We're also probably cleaning the apartment. Then it's back to the grind (well, a new grind for Michelle).

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Charlie Sexton, "The Regular Grind"

"Don't You Feel My Leg"

The trip to Oklahoma was...well, it was. Michelle finally got to meet my family (most all in one go over at dad's house), and everyone seemed to like each other. The whole traveling thing was a rough experience, though. We barely made our flight out to Oklahoma, and then we almost missed the (much too early) flight back to DC yesterday (that's due in large part to my inability to navigate and the fact that I forget where I'm going or how to get there a lot of the time). We also ended up spending a hell of a lot of time in the car for a four-day trip (over 600 miles in that time). But it was good to see everyone; my cousin's daughter has grown, my brothers both have steady girlfriends, and we got the chance to play guitars in heat of the Oklahoma night once more. Good times.

We have Teacher Orientation/Work Days all next week. While I'm ready to get back into the daily grind of it all, I really do wish I had a few more weeks to relax and not do anything. The trip to Oklahoma really wore me out, and I don't know that I'll be recovered by the time school starts.

Michelle is actually currently interviewing for a position at the school. Part of me feels this will be wonderful, and part of me worries about us working at the same place and both of us being teachers. But I'm sure everything will work out as it's supposed to.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Shins, "Australia"

"Looking For Store-Bought Bones"

We're only a few days away from the trip to Oklahoma to meet all the family. Michelle's kinda nervous about meeting them all in one go, but I'm sure it'll turn out fine. My family's just excited a got married; as long as she's breathing and has a pulse, my family will like her.

We got a Nintendo Wii over the weekend. The thing is freakin' awesome. The Wii Sports game is great for a group (as we discovered Saturday night; drunken boxing is so much less difficult than Jackie Chan movies would have you believe), and Super Paper Mario is one of the best games I've played in ages. It's a great mix of action platformer and a hint of RPG elements. Gameplay is innovative and intuitive, which isn't necessarily always the case with these things.

Really, the Wii does just about everything right. It's real easy to set up and play right out of the box, the controller is versatile and easy to use, and it's got a lot of functionality and creative possibilities without being too gimmicky. Sure, it may not be the graphics horse that the X-Box 360 or the PS3 are, but Nintendo has opted to go for style and substance over flash. And make no mistake, the system can still crank out some nice visuals. Super Paper Mario, for instance, isn't as fancy-looking as, say, Gears of War or whatever other games they've got running on the other systems. It does have it's own unique sense of style, and there are nice little flourishes throughout the game (like how each new world is "drawn" as if by an etch-a-sketch when you first enter it) that are really appreciated.

So yeah, definitely a system worth having, if you can find one (took us a week and a visit to about 15 or so different stores, not including the stores we called beforehand to see if they had any in stock).

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Camera Obscura, "If Looks Could Kill"

"Why does everything I whip leave me?"

Michelle and I embarked upon a great and noble quest to find a Wii tonight.

It didn't go so hot.

Discouraged and distraught, we drowned our sorrows in The Simpsons Movie. I definitely recommend it. It manages to recall the glory days of seasons 4 and 5 without seeming too nostalgic for those early halcyon days. Good times.


Only four more days of summer school left to teach, then I get a two week break. Michelle and I are bound for Oklahoma on the 17th to visit family members and eat way more food than we probably should (that's what you do when you visit family, after all).

The Quest for the Wii will continue next week when I am done with school. I have a cunning, brilliant plan that will no doubt work quite well if only I remember to wake up early enough to implement it.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The White Stripes, "Ball and Biscuit"

"Twenty-Twenty-Twenty-Four Hours To Go-o-o"

Things I have accomplished in the last twenty-four hours:

1) Started feeling much better (still kinda don't have much of a voice, though).

2) Bought groceries.

3) Vanquished the Evil Smell in the Kitchen (it was something in the fridge, which had to be purged of its contents, purified with fire and bleach water, and consecrated by members of the local religious community before we could restock it with edible food).

4) Watched some Monty Python's Flying Circus.

5) Hit baseballs at a batting cage for the first time in about a decade or so.

6) Got access to the Dim Bulb site via FTP again (so I uploaded somethin'!).

7) Slept like a baby and dreamt that PT Cruisers got 50-odd miles to the gallon, but only if you bought the basic model (the fancier models, however, only got 25 or so MPG).

Yes, I am truly a Renaissance Man.

I also bought the tickets (well, on Tuesday night, actually) for Michelle and I to fly to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. The ostensible rationale behind the trip is to make an appearance at dad's wedding reception party, but the tacit reason (well, guess writing it down here doesn't make it so tacit, does it?) is to give Michelle a chance to meet the rest of my family. We're taking a side trip out to Wichita to see Mom as part of this little jaunt, so I actually rented a car as well (the first time I've ever rented a car). I anticipate good times and way too many embarassing childhood stories from my grandfather.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Hem, "Not California"

K-Fed Focused on Parenting; Music World Heaves Sigh of Relief as Parenting World Stands Terrified

Apparently the former Mr. Britney Spears is gonna focus on being a parent.

Which is great and all, really. Lord knows the world needs another so-called "celebrity parent" talking about how hard it is to raise kids with all that money. And hired assistants. And did we mention the money?

I'm really not sure who would make the worse parent here: Britney, with her crazy partying and inability to find suitable undergarments (or spell check), or a man who calls himself "K-Fed" and already has a history of being something of a deadbeat dad.

Really, the winners in this are the children, I think.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Ryan Adams, "English Girls Approximately"