Digital Wilderness

No other sit-com has tugged on my heart strings more than Mad About You. I still remember the first time I saw The Finale, the three part ending of season 4, when the Buchman’s were going through a really rough time in their marriage and we all wondered if they would stay together. That was a tough stretch to watch, and though they brought it on themselves by making bad decisions, I was still rooting for everything to work out and for them to live happily ever after (I say it like that were real people). There’s also an episode in season one, Met Someone, which was about how Paul and Jamie met. This was another episode that warmed my heart (I’m such a sap). I really can’t wait until I experience these emotions, both the good and bad, in the context of finding, dating and marrying that special person. Over the past year, I’ve gone from wanting that fairy tale, storybook, “perfect” marriage to really looking forward to experience the highs and lows of a “real” marriage, wanting to work and fight together through the difficult times then share in the enjoyment and pure bliss of making up and the moments of triumph each other’s lives. I’ve come to realize there can’t be all good times in a marriage, no matter how hard the couple tries, and the difficult times are like fertilizer that nourish the relationship and make the good times all that much greater. I’m digressing…

Mad About You is one of my favorite sit-coms, joining the likes of The Cosby Show, Seinfeld and The Office (that I can think of off the top of my head). If you haven’t seen it, catch it in syndication on TV Land or watch seasons 1-3 on DVD. Highly recommended!

Congratulations to Bill and Karen (my aunt) on their marriage today! May God bless you with many happy years together!

I think I’ve seen more movies in the past three months than I have the past 2 years. On tap this weekend was Get Smart. I was hesitant to see this, thinking it would be one of those movies where all the funny parts were shown in the trailers that saturated the airwaves leading up to the release. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this was a stellar movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I did laugh a lot more than I expected. While he wasn’t a Don Adams, I think Steve Carell was good in the role of Agent 86, and the casting of Masi Oka (Hiro on Heroes) and Nate Torrence (Studio 60) as techies were also good choices. I wasn’t sold on the choices of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Anne Hathaway, however, and the plot was old, the recycled typical bad-guys-try-to-blow-up-the-world-good-guys-stop-them routine. But like I said, there were some good laughs sprinkled throughout and some nice nods back to the basis for the movie, the TV series that aired in the mid-60s. I remember seeing a few episodes of the television series Get Smart when I was younger, and while I don’t remember the specifics, I do remember liking what I saw. The movie seems to be missing the feel of the TV series, though, and almost tries too hard to replicate it, forcing in these references rather than letting them flow naturally.

The movie is good for some laughs if nothing else in the theatres appeals to you right now. Some will like the movie, most probably won’t. The movie could have been much, much worse. I’ll give it a C.

Congratulations to Greg and Michelle on the birth of Claire Allegra, who was born June 19th at 8:58 PM via C-section. She weighed 7 lbs and ???oz at birth. Mom, dad and baby are doing fine. Congrats to the new parents!

Congratulations to Rachel and Chad on the birth of Amelia Claire, who was born June 19th at 8:15 PM via C-section. She weighed 7 lbs and 10.9 oz at birth. Everyone is doing great other than being tired and hungry. Best wishes, new mommy and daddy!

One of my new favorite blogs is Stuff Christians Like. (Thanks to Dan for the introduction to the site) Funny stuff, such as “Indiana Jones of the Bible?” that I previously posted or this one from SCL a few weeks ago:

Stuff Christians Like: #258. Taking a date to church. (6 fun tips.)

I’ve, uh, been guilty of #1 and #3…

1. Pray that the minister asks you to hold hands.
I am normally against the forced hand hold, but if you are on a date, you should hope that the minister asks the congregation to hold hands. I’m not saying you do the interlink digit thing, you barely know this person, but still it might be nice.

3. Take lots of notes during the sermon.
If you don’t sing, take extensive notes during the sermon and aggressively greet the people around you when given the chance, you should just wear a t-shirt that says, “This is the only date I will have with this person.”

Or this good one from today…which I’m also guilty of…
#301. The prayer score guide

1. Someone grunts positively while you are praying = +1 point
2. Someone says “yes!” while you are praying = +2 points
3. Someone says “yes Jesus!” while you are praying = +3 points
4. Someone says “I’m not praying for that” after you finish = minus 3 points
5. Your wife or husband give you the “wrap it up” tap during your prayer = minus 2 points
6. Someone in your small group references your prayer later = +1 point
7. The pastor references your prayer later = +3 point
8. Someone shot blocks your prayer, praying the opposite of what you just said = minus 2 points
9. Someone puts their hand on your shoulder while you pray = +2 points
10. Someone attempts to put their hand over your mouth while you pray = minus 2 points

See the rest of the list, and more, at Stuff Christians Like.

It’s been about three months, so let’s do a check up on my goals for the year.

• Run three 5ks or one 10k
  – Done! Ran the Flying Pig 10K in May
• Become and stay debt free, completing baby step 3 of Dave Ramsey’s plan
  – I was debt free in March and have stayed that way since. I’m currently building up my 3 month emergency fund.
• Complete a minimum of 12 credit hours of classes without incurring any debt
  – 8 credit hours have been completed without debt. 5 more credit hours are planned for the fall semester.
• Complete two landscaping/outdoor projects
  – The walkway/landscaping bed from the garage to the deck has been started; cleaning and treating the deck should be done within the month.
• Become more knowledgeable about mutual funds and retirement savings
  – I’ve read three books and many articles online, and continue to stay on top of financial news. I’ve reallocated what I have invested in my company 401k and will start additional investing once my emergency fund is fully funded.
• Maintain weight
  – So far, so good, though it hasn’t so much been a result of exercise as not eating as much due to stress and over all busy-ness.

Good progress so far, much better than in past years! For the first time since I started posting my goals in 2005, I might just reach every one.

So, I’m a little behind on the blogging. Here’s another post that should have been up days ago…

Last week absolutely flew by, especially Friday through Sunday. It felt like I woke up Monday, blinked, and the week was over. I thought it was going to be a very long week, with two of my co-workers in one department being on vacation the whole week, one co-worker from my other department taking three days off and an upcoming product launch. There was a ton of work that had to be packed into the work week, and as it usually goes, time didn’t slow up. But that’s a good thing!

Friday was the quickest day of them all. It should have been the most trying, as I had to be at work early, we had a beta release of the new product and I had to do two training sessions for co-workers, something I wasn’t even slightly prepared for. (More on that later…) I also wanted to leave work early (well, it wasn’t really “early” since I got in early, just earlier than normal) so I could hit the road for Nashville at a decent time. I’ve been incredibly anxious about things the last two weeks, and that usually makes time crawl, but not on Friday! Even the approx. 5 hour car trip seemed to take only minutes.

And there’s the segue to my weekend…I took a road trip down to Nashville this weekend to visit my brother and sister-in-law. It was a much needed trip out of town, even if I was exhausted most of it as a result of the busy week. As I mentioned, the trip down went by quickly and uneventfully, and we just chilled and caught up on things that evening. I brought my Wii along for the trip, so we also watched as my brother fed his new-found Guitar Hero addiction. I’ve created a monster…and his wife is none too happy about it.

Saturday dawned, earlier than I wanted (they didn’t let me sleep in much), and we started off the day with a good breakfast. It felt nice to sit still and enjoy a breakfast for a change, plus the bonus of relaxing while my brother and sis cooked for me. Before we headed out for a hike, I learned a lesson the hard way, from an experience I hope I don’t ever have again. The night before, I took my contacts out and put them in solution, as I normally do. Rather than use my travel size bottle, I used my brother’s, which was sitting out on the sink. I didn’t pay much attention to it, just saw it was a brand I hadn’t heard of before – Clear Care – and didn’t give it a second thought. (Those of you who have heard of Clear Care are probably cringing right now.) When I put my eye balls in the next morning, it felt like I had put smoldering charcoal into my eyes. They were on fire! I immediately took the contact out, but my eyes were as red as a sunset and leaking like memory from a Windows program. Shew!!! I wanted to claw my eye out. Wow, I can still feel them burning. For those of you who haven’t heard of Clear Care, it’s not your normal contact solution. It’s 3% hydrogen peroxide and is meant to only be used with a special lens container. Had I actually read the bright red warning strip on the bottle that clearly stated to only use the solution with the special container, I would have spared myself hours of agony… Lesson learned! Thankfully, I had my glasses with me, so at least I could still see as we took our hike.

We went to Percy Warner for a nice hike, on a very toasty day. It was about 95 and quite humid, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying a nice 6 mile hike. Gotta get some more hiking in for my trips later in the summer (WV, Big South and Red River Gorge)

Keeping with my tradition of trying a new restaurant when I’m out of town, we went to MAFIAoZA’s pizzeria for dinner. Eh, nothing really to write home about here, but pizza’s still pizza… We got a meat lover’s, so life was good.

After dinner, we stopped off for some Ben and Jerry’s then took a tour around Vanderbilt, specifically the lab where my brother works. I’ve heard him talk about what he does as he pursues his doctorate, but it was interesting to see where he does his work.

I had never been to a Whole Foods Market before, but apparently it’s a big deal. David and Elizabeth couldn’t wait for me to experience it. I wonder if the organic fad will fade like the many others that have come and gone over the years…

Sunday we went to lunch at Zoe’s Kitchen (another new-to-me restaurant) at their new outdoor shopping center. While there, I was people watching and noticed a lack of diversity – everyone had the same body type! My hosts explained that is was a very fit and affluent area. This was pretty evident from the emphasis on organic and fresh food businesses that were all around the area.

I left for home early afternoon, but stopped off for a visit with my paternal grandparents while I was down in those parts. Always good to see them – and to eat grandma’s cooking.

The “Summer of Chris,” my summer of wearing out not rusting out, is off to a good start. Can’t wait for my trip to NC in July, to see good friends and take a visit to the beach. Woohoo!

Wow, that was a long post…

Few days late…but congratulations Cyclones! The Cincinnati Cyclones won the ECHL Kelly Cup last Thursday, downing the Las Vegas Wranglers 3-1 in game 6 to cap an awesome season. Along the way, the Cyclones set a league attendance record with a standing-room-only crowd of 12,056 watching the final game and a league win record with 71 combined wins in the regular season and postseason. This was the first “pro” championship in Cincinnati in about 18 years. Hopefully more are on the way. Congrats Cyclones!

Any one have experience with home automation, such as the X10 protocol? I’ve been thinking about getting my feet wet with some home automation projects this summer. Nothing major, just exploring the possibilities and doing a minor project or two. It’s a dream of mine to one day have a state-of-the-art, high-tech, automated…log cabin. Gotta start somewhere, so why not play some now…