it's been a while.

due to an overwhelming lack of an overwhelming response to my blog inactivity, it remained inactive for much longer than i intended. we've been crazy busy trying to get this wedding ready and as i move my eyes slightly to the right at the counter, i see we're under 10 days. wow.

things are moving along at a furious pace. we've heard from a lot of people we're excited will be coming next week and a few we're sad won't be able to make it. but it will still be awesome. that is, if i can shake this cold. summer colds are the worst. it started 5 days ago just in time for the weekend. hit me like a ton of bricks: sinus congestion, sore throat, headache...the usual.

turns out it's not so much a viral thing as a late season allergy attack...unlike any allergy attack i've ever experienced. thanks to medical staff at my beck and call, i'm on the mend.

i've been liquidating a lot of the junk i've been dragging around for years. you know you've underpriced something on Craig's List when you get 13 responses for it in a day. conversely, you know when you've overpriced something, too. no takers on my old Army BDU's. unbelievable.

with the $20 i scored for the La-Z-Boy, Andrea and i went to AC Moore to get stuff for, you guessed it, the wedding. $19.99 for some brown bags and fasteners for the programs. easy come, easy go.

i'm actually about to get back on Craig's List and put a bunch of stuff in the "For Free" section. yeah, it's old and cheap but it has history. i'll be a little sad to get rid of it: the coffee table and end table were bought by my Mom and stepdad after they got married in 1984. i used them all through college and beyond. every burn mark and gouge has a story. a story that i will blog about one day. i bet you can't wait.

i'm out.

OK I admit it.

Andrea blogs more often than me, she is better at it, AND she leaves comments. She is the greatest almost-wife in the whole wide world.

Clairvoyency Watch - 2007

i want to update my estimation of being 1 in 100 in the history of mankind to pull this stunt (see post immediately below). i submit i am roughly 1 in 1, i.e., the only person alive or dead. that's if you narrow it down from "predicting what song is playing on the radio" to "predicting 'Feels Like The First Time' by Foreigner is playing on the radio". however, when you get down to that level of specificity, it becomes less special. like, you may be the only person ever to watch an episode of "Cop Rock" while eating a hot pocket and drinking strawberry Yoo-Hoo. you get the idea.

oh, on my way to work this morning i flipped to 100.7 again and Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was playing. but "Feels Like the First Time" came on immediately after. no lie. i hope they're not in the middle of some Foreigner contest, like a ticket give-away and they play that song 100 times a day. while detracting slightly from my sense of accomplishment/achievement, i would still feel the need to talk about how awesome it was every now and again.

Classic Rock

real quick: Andrea and i pretty much keep it locked into 91.5FM, which is the local NPR station. it's #1 on my radio. #2 is 100.7 "The New River". i liked "The Old River" better, which used to be a pretty good station that played classic rock, but not the cheesy rotation consisting of only Boston, Frampton and The Eagles. they had a much deeper rotation. until a year or so ago when they went totally cheesy. the other cheesy classic rock station went country and the "new rock" station (96.1, #3 on my saved list) now plays "everything that rocks", which means all the crappiest songs you can think of from the past 25 years. i have the NC State station all the way over on #6, but i never listen to it. i'm too old for college radio. give me my news and the occasional rockin' 70's or 80's tune and i'm happy.

so, we were coming back from Cary last night listening to NPR and i blurted out "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME - FOREIGNER!!" and hit #2 on my radio. and what song was playing? on my mothers eyes, it was "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner. i about went off the road. it was awesome.

it's not like i've done that same trick every day for a year or anything. even if i had, the chances of catching it at the exact moment the song was on would be low percentage. truth be told, i've only ever tried that one other time: yesterday. i said "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME: FOREIGNER!!!" and hit #2, but it was The Cars, i think. so i'm 50%. not too shabby.

i figure that exact occurrence has happened maybe 100 times in the history of mankind. but the radio didn't get big until the 1900's, so it's not that big a deal, right? wrong!! it's not my fault humans were too dumb to invent it sooner! so yeah, i'm one of maybe 100 people in the world to do that. not counting the time a radio station was changing its format from country to classic rock and played "Stairway To Heaven" for 24 hours straight, back to back. i imagine plenty of people could guess what song was playing on that station at any given time, but were probably not as excited as i was to be correct.

please don't leave a comment telling me how you "thought of a song" and then turned on the radio, only to hear it. no witnesses = it didn't happen. i'm talking about pulling a Babe Ruth, in radio form.

you just don't know how excited i was when i heard Foreigner playing my song. hehe, "my song". like i love that song or something. i do now, i can tell you that much!

it doesn't take a whole lot to get me excited.

The Onion

the content filter at work blocks The Onion, YouTube...all the good sites. but that's OK b/c i have The Onion headlines on my personalized Google start page. my "iGoogle Page", if you will. and even though i can't follow the links, i enjoy reading them...imagining how much more funny they would be if i could go there and read/listen to them. but another part of me (the part that adjusts to things that don't work properly, i.e., a burnt out light bulb, a squeaky hinge, improperly functioning brakes, etc) just enjoys them as is: stand-alone funny headlines that make us laugh:

Cult Leader Pretty Cool, Actually
Bar Skanks Announce Plans To Kiss
[audio] Area Man Mows Around Dead Body

that's good stuff. i also like the "American Voices" section.

Entertainment Update

our friend Seth called us up to see if we wanted to see "Knocked Up" with him last night. Andrea had some cheap movie tickets she got through work (good for movies that have been out for 2 weeks or more) so we decided to do it. it's kind of a big deal for us to go anywhere or do anything on a weeknight, but i'm glad we did. it was hilarious. we laughed and laughed and laughed.

without spoiling it for you, she dies at the end. j/k. it's a filthy movie, from a language perspective. but if you can get past that and just enjoy it for what it is, you won't be disappointed.

here is my ratings analysis:

acting: 7 out of 10
plot: 6 out of 10 (it ain't "Gone With The Wind"...it ain't even "A Mighty Wind")
script: 9 out of 10 (very well written. dialog is what makes this movie a masterpiece)
hilarity: 12 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10

stop what you're doing and go watch this movie right now. unless you don't like foul language, in which case you should steer clear.

Operation Goatee: Mission Aborted

i shaved it off this morning. it wasn't working out for me OR Andrea. i gave her a kiss last night and she yelled for no apparent reason. turned out one of my chin hairs poked her in the follicle. ouch!

not much else going on. i'm still playing ukulele all the time and getting more familiar with the chords. i taught myself Stairway to Heaven the other day! it's pretty easy. come to think of it, most stuff is "easy" on a ukulele which is probly why i like it so much. me and Seth jammed on a little A-D-E thing Monday night, as well as a few classics. he was on 6 string, of course. he's good! he's gonna teach me "Big Love" by Lindsay Buckingham, which rocks...AND ROLLS.

i want to get some pickups for the uke so i can plug in and share it with the world. or at least the neighbors. Andrea has a set that fit in her old acoustic, but i'm scared to put them in. not only would it involve rendering them useless for future use in a guitar, i don't want to render the uke useless, too! i'm not the handiest dude on the ranch.

in summation: my Lanikai LU-11 is best Christmas gift in a long time. thanks Schuster's! (and Baby for suggesting it)