My Birthday - the best ever!

To say say that this birthday was the best ever is something of an
understatement. I'm actually quite flabbergasted by the whole thing and just a
bit speechless...

... I know, the end must be near.

As planned, I met my lovely bride at her place of employment Thursady afternoon
and we headed to the 'Boro.

WITHOUT THE KIDS.

We checked in to the hotel and then immediately went to eat. During a very nice
dinner in which I totally blew out about three weeks of calorie counting, Stacie
gave me a wrapped present. I opened it and found this...



Not quite understanding what this was all about, I opened the box to reveal
this...

Stacie had D-Day take a bunch of very sexy photos her and then had them made
into a book - a REAL BOOK.

NOT a photo album - an actual hard-backed, glossy-print BOOK!

I was surprised to say the least and I almost 'lost it' right there in the
restaurant as I thumbed through the book.

Just a sampling of some of the images:

This one's nice...



In MY shirt, with MY guitar...HOT!



I think this is another of MY shirts (and with my tie, below) with another of my
guitars...HOTTER!



No guitar in this one, just the HOTTEST!



Like I said, this is just a sample, there were 55 images, I believe, total. And,
also like I said, this was the best birthday present I ever got and the best
birthday I've ever had.

It just got better from there, by the way;) Sorry no pictures!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, today is my birthday. I took the day off from work and school to...

Well, to do basically nothing.

O.K., I might have peeked at the e-mail and the WebCT once or twice.

Just to stay in the loop, you know.

I got up early to see the kids off to school and they each gave me a nice shirt.
I say "they" - we all know that Stacie picked out, bought and wrapped
the shirts. How do we know this? For one thing, they were expensive shirts. For
another, they were wrapped very neatly. The main way I knew the kids really had
nothing to do with these gifts, though, was that there were no horses or Star
Wars characters depicted on either shirt.

Thank you!

Later, I'm meeting Stacie after work and we're going to Murfreesboro. We're
going out to eat, maybe catch a movie, do some shopping, whatever...

WITHOUT THE KIDS.

Stacie's off Friday so we have a whole 24 hours to ourselves.

WITHOUT THE KIDS.

Did I mention that already?

Sorry.

At any rate, I think the joke of telling people that I'm turning 29 every year
on my birthday has run its course. It's just not that believable any more.

Let's see, 35 sounds good. Yeah, that's the ticket! I'm turning 35 today.

And next March 30th, and the March 30th after that, and ...

Bummer...

I just found out that a guy I knew in college had died...

Five and a half years ago!

I had no idea and went looking for him on the web.

I guess that happens when you don't keep up with people. There are so many people I used to know that I've neither seen nor talked to in many years.

Some of them might now be dead... like Dennis Shockley. He was a German instructor at MTSU in the late eighties. I took several of his classes. He was one of my all-time favorite teachers in any subject - ever. He was a good teacher but he neither acted like or looked like a college professor - despite his nickname being "Doc". I think that had to do with his involvement in the punk rock scene. He insisted on being called "Dennis" or "Doc" in class - never "Mr." or "Professor". If you had seen him walking across campus, you'd probably think he was a graduate student instead of a faculty member. He had been involved in the underground music scene in Knoxville before getting the teaching gig and he just exuded coolness. Chicks dug him and guys wanted to be like him. He even hung out with students. He would have class meetings at some of the local bars believe it or not and several times went out with me and my friends. Once, we were cruising through the MTSU campus, looking at girls, with Dennis and a couple of other guys in the back seat of my old T-Bird. Suddenly he yells, "STOP! Roll down the window!" A quite shapely and scantily clad young woman was walking down the street. Dennis hollered out, "Como Estas? Chicky Baby!" Needless to say, she didn't look twice at us, but we had a good laugh. This was my foreign language instructor, remember. Another time, we spent a good portion of an elementary German course session talking about European popular culture and the different groups in the youth culture that one might encounter if traveling though Germanic Europe. Dennis was very expertly describing Punks and Rastas, Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers. Someone asked what a "Rocker" was. Dennis quickly scanned the room and locked eyes with me.

"Hey, 'Artur', please stand up."

I was wearing my usual uniform - tight jeans with a chain for a belt, leather boots, a ripped up t-shirt with an ancient denim jacket and I sported a bleach-blond spiky mullet with a blue streak dyed into it and probably a couple of earrings.

Yes, me.

I stood.

Dennis said, "This is what a "Rocker" looks like."

My five minutes of fame.

Dennis was killed on Halloween night, 2000, by a drunk driver. There's an account of what happened here.

Wally Bangs confirmed for me that this is the same Dennis Shockley and we shared a few "Doc" stories from our mis-spent youth.

I'm bummed...

This is going to be hard to explain...

Wow! Front page of the newspaper and everything.

A local substitute teacher has been having sex with her daughter's underage boyfriend and paying him for it with beer.

Now I know there are a lot of people out there with a lot of different ideas about what it means to be good person...

This doesn't make anyone's list.

Don't try this in a Philosophy class!

Mobile-phone cheating in exams on the rise.

Incredible. How, exactly does this work? The student has a mobile phone with text messaging? The friend is at a remote location with similar technology and a textbook? Or do they just upload their notes into the phone?

I'll stick with eraser-mate notes on me forearm.

DANG!

Buck Owens died!

DANG!

Read slow, drive fast.

Not much today. I have mucho errands to run and I continue to inch my way through Sophocles' "Philoctetes".

Exciting stuff, let me tell ya.

I had actually read the entire play in one setting, looked over the discussion questions, then immediately went back and started reading the play again. Much S L O W E R this time.

TschuB, mi amigos.

Tad...

Tad only had a minor sinus infection, so nose spray and eye drops will get him fixed right up.

And, it may be artruch.net instead of artruch.org.

What about art-ruch.com?

Stop the presses...

Yeah I actually checked into getting a proper internet presence. Some of the plans are priced very reasonably.

I'm going for it!

Alas, "artruch.com" is already taken - believe it or not. Don't bother, it's some kind of Japanese site.?

Artruch.org, then. Coming soon to a server near you! What will the world do in the meantime?

And now for other breaking news! I'm well into my Sophocles reading - ahead of schedule, thank you.

The kids are on spring break this week and Tad has to go to the doctor this afternoon so I'm going in to work late.

The weight loss program is still working too. Down now to about 210. 15 more to go!

Next week is my birthday and I'm taking a day off work to go out of town with my girl. Can't wait.

Peace and carrots.

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Finally...

I finally got some pics of Tad's birthday party to upload. Have I ever
mentioned that I HATE Blogger.com? Yeah, I guess I have. I tried to post these
and more the other day in conjunction with my original post on the part but
noooo... Foiled by the dastardly BloggerBot once again!

I can now upload jpegs but the problem's not gone, I just figured out a way
around it. I have to upload each image twice! The first time, the popup just
goes blank. Exit the popup and do it again and voila'. Easy. I'm seriously
looking into a hosting service. ArtRuch.com?



Cars, money, fame, attention... Baskin's ice cream cake rocks, Dude!



...And rocks! The "Pin the Ears on Yoda" game was a big hit!



...as was the Vader Piñata. No pun intended. And here's Tad with his buddy
Vader.

See you in the funny paper!

Sweet Dreams?

My lovely bride and I were recently discussing my impending birthday.

In less than two weeks, I'm turning 29.

Again.

For the eleventh time!

Then, Stacie just had to make reference to the next birthday...

She hinted that there will be some kind of spectacle just over a year from now.

I shudder when I think of the things she's done to her (much older) siblings.

Not to mention what we did to D-Day on his fortieth.

What kind of person would go to the trouble of creating a fake, but very detailed, life-sized grave with a tombstone reading "RIP - Here Lies Your Youth"?

Oh, that was me. Sorry. (It should probably be "death-sized too?)

Stacie really went over the line, though, when she mentioned inviting a certain former "significant other" of mine to the hypothetical party.

She said, "I should invite [her] to the party. What do you think she would say?"

If looks could kill, I'd be a widower now.

I reminded Stacie that this borderline psycho had virtually stalked her when we first started dating.

"Oh yeah, you think she'd ever admit to that?"

Probably not, she never admitted any of the other thousand psycho things she did.

Once I realized Stacie was joking, though, we had a good laugh about that.

Around that time, we went to bed.

And then I dreamed that it really happened!

Oh my, it was horrible!

In the dream, [she] actually showed up at my birthday party...

She walked up to me and said, "Hi, remember me?" and tried to hug me.

I took a step back and said, "You must be joking!"

Everyone laughed... except her.

She even brought her geek husband...

... and he and Stacie (who suddenly seemed to be the best of friends) convinced us to recreate an old picture...

...plus twenty years.

D-Day took the picture.

WHAT would I do with a picture like that?

Back in the real world, I always liked that picture of myself.

Too bad about the other part.

Really, I wish the her no harm, but if she shows up at any party of mine, it won't be pretty!

(no pun intended, huh)

And, just so you know, sometime around late February/early March of 2007, I will become very, very suspicious!

You have been warned.

More shameless bragging...

My professor this semester is really on top of things...

I have already received a grade for my midterm exam.

Glad you asked, 20 out of 20 points!

(that's 100% for the mathematically challenged)

I was a little worried about it. I felt like I went out on a limb on one of the questions. And, I happened to write less on that question than the others. When you're talking about a 4 question test, that makes a big difference.

That reminds me of the time when an acquaintance asked me about my studies. This person said, "When you take a test online, how do they know you're not cheating?

I struggled in my explanation. We're not talking about multiple choice or fill in the blank questions here. I received 7 questions about a week before my mid was due and I got to pick four to answer. On those four I was expected to write 1000 to 1500 words. I wrote about 1400. When I told her that this was an upper division humanities course, she just looked at me blankly. I explained that we're reading classic works of literature and philosophy that have most shaped western thought. Blank look. I told her that we read a great deal and write about what we've read. Blank look. I then tried to explain that there are no right or wrong answers necessarily but we are graded on how well we integrate what we have read into our own thoughts and form opinions and make arguments based on our reading and how well we express those thoughts and opinions and support our arguments based on the readings...

Apparently, I can explain the philosophical origin of evil, sin and human suffering a lot better than I can explain how a senior level philosophy class works.

I also showed M&M my midterm questions last week.

He said, "Oh, those don't look too bad."

Really?

"Yeah, I could answer those!"

O.K., Mr. smarty-pants, then explain to me how the atomism of Leucippus and Democritus represents a compromise between the thoughts of Heraclitus and Parmenides.

"DUHHHHH......."

That's what I thought, now go on, son, ya bother me!

Geez!

At any rate, Stacie read over my midterm answers before I sent them and said, "You have nothing to worry about."

I really appreciate her confidence.

On the other hand, she didn't graduate from Princeton with an M.Div. and Ed.D. like my professor...

On the other, other hand, she was right!

I love her!

I mean I love Stacie, not my professor.

TschuB.

Vader goes to church...

Since the last post, I HAVE BEEN BUSY!

Friday morning, I got up early (early for me anyway) and prepared for my trip to Murfreesboro.

Relax, no pictures...

...of the preparation or the trip.

I made it to the lab and, crazy as it is, the lady working the desk appeared to know what to do with my specimen cup full of... well, you know what it was.

And, apparently, so did she - which was an improvement over last time at least.

The lady said, we'll get right to this - call the doctor in a couple of hours.

When I called Dr. Show-it-all's office, the "Oh-my-god-you-look-just-like-keifer-sutherland" lady answered the phone.

SHE REMEMBERED ME!

I almost hung up.

After cramming a 4 minute conversation about the pronunciation of our respective surnames into a scant 12 minutes, I got to talk to a nurse.

I had assumed that the doctor's office would tell me that the results would be available in a week to 10 days or something like that.

No, they had already inspected my stuff and declared it completely devoid of any baby-making substance.

Woo-hoo!

Man, I was excited.

I almost propositioned the nurse.

Stacie was less enthusiastic: "Yeah, that's what we paid them for, wan'it?"

Well, yeah...

The remains of the day were spent gathering up supplies for Tad's party.

The evening of Friday was spent turning these hundreds of dollars worth of supplies into attractive but worthless decorations (including a life sized, three dimensional Darth Vader in the church gym) that were torn down and thrown into the trash this afternoon.

The party went great, though. A little light on attendance but otherwise acceptable. Tad got a bunch of clothes, toys, and money as well as a sload of candy.

My birthday's next and I know exactly what I want.

Probably won't get it, though.

Yeah, I know, wheels are turning...

And, I made the final revision to my mid term examination and submitted it via the wonders of e-mail.

Fingers are crossed!

Progressing on to early geek, I mean Greek tragedy... what an butt that Agamemnon was!

But, I feel like I haven't had much of a weekend.

I need to go back to work to rest up...


Supergirl said...

Hmmmm.... wondering what it is that you want for your b'day, but think you won't receive.... never know, you just might get something even better! (wink!)

8:59 PM, March 20, 2006

Clarifications...

Just a couple of clarifications.

When I wrote the other day about the geeks who read my blog, I intended that to mean only those folks who read my blog for purposes of trading in some geek fantasy blog universe game...

Not you normal geeks who just read my blog because you are...

Unusual.

And my post last Saturday about the wreck of the Buick...

The wreck was true - The part about the police...

IT WAS JOKE, O.K.?

Unfortunately, my frail attempt at humor struck just a little too close to reality.

Sorry.

I won't mention it again.

Unless the 5-0 comes, asking me questions.

In that case, I spill my guts!

Ah, back to me mid-term.

I don't understand this but it sounds impressive.

I just discovered that I am listed on BlogShares's Top 100 incomings links list.

I had no idea there was any such thing as BlogShares...

...but there is.

According to their site, "BlogShares is a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by incoming links."

Sounds like a bunch of geek stuff if you ask me.

And, of course, you did ask me. At least by default - because you are reading my piteous Blog!

On the other hand, my current listing is number 36 of the "Top 100 Incoming Links"

As per their geek website: "This is a list of the most valuable incoming links at the time OTHER blogs are indexed. It is indicative of FUTURE value not CURRENT value."

Yeah, that clears it all up.

My current valuation is "B$366.67" with an all time max of $1000.00!

Compared to Joe Trippi at (B$658.93),

and MSNBC.com: MSNBC TV at (B$2,327.07).

Those were the only famous names I found on the list.

Hey, I'm worth 56% of Joe Trippi!

But that means that Joe Trippi is worth 1.79 of me.

Well, at least I didn't vote for Howard Dean.

Come to think of it, maybe Trippi didn't either! Ha!

But, like I said before, I don't really understand all this. It's just impressive to me that there are enough other people reading my humble Blog for me to make any kind of list.

Even if they are all geeks.

By the way, I'm available to trade or vote.

Time Flies...

Today is March 15th - exactly three months since my surgery.

Wow, time flies!

I'm now due back at the lab...

... the one where I take my sample!

Then, I just have to wait for the good news from the doctor. That will make this whole four month long ordeal worth it. I hope.

So, yes, I am going back to the 'Boro on Friday.

No pictures this time, I promise.

Well, only if I see something really interesting.

Friday will be busy, besides. I'm going to the clinic early. As early as I can get up and get there anyway. Then I'm picking up supplies for Tad's birthday party and making some preparations for that. I have to pick up the ice cream cake and get that to the freezer at church as quickly as possible. I need to get a haircut at some point. And I have a mid-term exam due by midnight.

Saturday won't be any better: Tad's birthday party is 10 - 12 then we have to clean everything up. I wonder if Tad realizes he will picking up all the trash from his party. Probably not. And Stacie has an Eastern Star installation that afternoon.

That's not including all the things I normally do on the weekends. If I make it home to stay before dark on Saturday, I'll be happy.

Back to my exam preparations!

215 and counting...

My weight loss program is right on track.

I now weigh about 215 pounds.

I bought some new clothes this past weekend - size 34 pants and medium shirts!

Folks are starting to notice that I've lost weight and are asking "How're you doing it?"

They probably think I'm being a smart-aleck when I say, "Eat less", but it's really that simple.

Not easy, but simple.

I have some other observations on people's reactions that I will delve into once I've given them some more thought...

(and when I don't have a midterm exam due)

TschuB.

Happy Birthday Tad!

Today's my boy's birthday!

Tad is eight years old today.



I'm taking cupcakes to his school later and Stacie is taking him out to eat tonight.

Then, he just has to itch for a few more days until the big Star Wars themed party on Saturday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Crazy...

The other day, I heard the CRAZIEST thing on the radio.

Vinnie Paul is relesing a new "project". It's called "Rebel Meets Rebel" and was "Dimebag" Darrell Abbot's last recording.

It features Vinnie, Dime and Rex from Pantera with...

Drumroll please....

David Allan Coe.

WHAT!

I thought it was joke or something at first, but, no, the BUZZ played two singles off the CD Frinday night.

INCREDIBLE!

David Allan Coe playing with Pantera.

I'm still shakin' my head over this one, folks.

The wreck of the old '89...

Yeah, so the Buick got wrecked.

I knew it would happen.

Still driveable though.

It seems the authorities are looking for someone driving a similar car.

Something about some damage at a local construction site...

I know nothing!

Bad Shakespeare...

I recently came across an old(e) copy of Reader's Digest that had a small sideline on some of Shakespeare's more colorful, I mean colourful, insults.

Such as?

"I never see thy face lest I think upon hell-fire,"

...and "Thou art a very ragged worm."

..or this one, "You fustilarian, I'll tickle your catastrophe!"

...and I love this, "Thou damned tripe-visaged rascal."

Alas, some of my faverite bardian put-downs were missing.

This passage, spoken by Trinculo in Act 3, scene 2 of The Tempest just kills: "Thou liest, most ignorant monster: I am in case tojustle a constable. Why, thou deboshed fish thou,was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so muchsack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but half a fish and half a monster?"

...And this, from Caliban, later in the same scene, "Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou: I would my valiant master would destroy thee!"

The Tempest is replete with such.

But my all time favorite from the Avonian is one of the few Shakespearian passages I know by heart:

"Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!"

I use it often.

It was said by young MacDuff just before he is murdered in Act 4, scene 2 of MacBeth.

As the murderer is stabbing the lad, he calls him an "egg" and a "young fry of treachery".

Egads, man!

Not much going on...

Not much going on. I just can't stand to let more that a couple of days go by with out posting something.

I'm still fighting the effects of the medicine I'm on while trying to work and I'm well into my readings on the presocratic philosophers.

We're also in the planning stages for Tad's birthday party. Star Wars theme, 'natch.

Probably no more posts until Friday unless something earth shaking comes out at one of the three meetings I have to go to tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'll be hanging out with Leucippus, Democritus, Parmenides, et al.

TschuB!

You never know what you'll see in the Wal-Mart...

Since my last post, I've pretty much just stumbled around in a drug induced dream state. These medicines are definitely helping to get rid of the para-flu-whatever that we have but it's almost a case of the cure being worse than the disease. We're counting down the days 'til the meds are gone. Four to go!

In the meantime, I'm trying to complete some projects at work as well as learning everything there is to know about Hesiod's Works and Days.

Fun.

O.K., you know I've got a funny story or something to share, right?

Here goes. The whole family went to the local Wal-Mart Saturday to pick up a few items to tide us over until the next marathon shopping trip.

We were casually pushing our cart down the aisle when I heard a woman talking behind us.

Just in the extremity of my peripheral vision I glimpsed a lone woman. I assumed she was having a cell phone conversation since she was obviously talking to someone and she was alone.

This person zipped passed us, continuing her conversation and I was totally prepared to never give it another thought.

My beautiful bride then said, "That one's crazy as bat!"

What are you talking about?

"Don't you know who that was?"

It turns out that it was one of my former "significant others". (Though she was never that significant)

And, as my overly observant spouse noticed, she was not holding a cell phone. She probably doesn't even have one.

No, this lady was simply strolling through Wal-Mart carrying on a complete conversation with herself!

Just as I start to think how glad I am that I met Stacie, Stacie says, "Aren't you glad you met me?"

But, before I can even agree, she just has to rub it in a little by saying, "Just think, you could have ended up with her."

I started to say, "Well, at least she never stalked you."

But, better judgement prevailed and we went on our merry way.

Stacie was right, though!

That woman is crazy and I am glad!

To Jerry in Heaven...

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. With all the meds I'm taking, I do well to get to work and back home.

To top it all off, I wrote a very intersesting post yesterday that got lost in cyberspace somehow. I hate Blogger! So, I just gave up on blogging for a couple of days...

Why yes, I do remember what my lost post was about. Thanks for asking.

It was about Jerry Falwell's latest embarrassment. The way I see it, Pat Robertson has been shamed out of the public spotlight (for now) due to his idiotic remarks about Ariel Sharon's health.

Therefore, ol' Jer has to step in and make a complete ass of himself.

Not that it too hard to do that...Here's the breakdown:First a story came out saying that John Hagee, a conservative TV evangelist, and Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg had convinced the Rev. Mr. Falstaff, er, I mean Falwell that Jews can actually go to heaven.

Oh my!

The story says that Falwell now accepts "dual covenant theology" which says that Jews, as God's chosen people, don't have to believe in Jesus to be saved. Now I'm starting to think that Jerry Falwell, in his old age, might be softening up a little bit. You know maybe he actually started reading his Bible - the part about God loving ALL people, the part where God enters into a covenent with ALL mankind, the part where Jesus accepts the least, the last, and the lost unconditionally.

Unfortunately, no. Jerry nows says that the whole thing is made up and those Jews are still going straight to hell when they die!... along with everybody else who doesn't share Mr. Falwell's backward and intolerent understanding of God.

I hope I get to heaven just so I can see the look on Jerry's face when he realizes he will be spending eternity with a bunch of Jews, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists...

If he's there...

He-He.

Dancin' the night away...

Shelby went to a school dance tonight.

Darrell and Joanie were the official photographers at this event so we had unofficial chaperones in situ.

We know so many people, these poor kids will never get away with anything.

Here's some pix:














Extrovert that she is...
...and with best friend Kayla:

Pajama day...

Shelby and Tad's school had a "pajama day" on Wednesday.

This is what they wore to school...



Hey man, don't let the cuteness fool you... they're evil.