Here comes old man winter
I actually had to wear a jacket today. This begins the decline of nice days. At least I don’t have to fill my bathtub with water.
We have had two showings on the house. Things in the market are slow so I’m not holding my breath on something right away. Anyone want a house in St. Paul?
Tonight will be one exciting night of TV. Presidental Debates!! I think I’ll need a beer filter to understand the truth in the statements.
Rocket away
I’m suddenly in a photo exhibit that’s opening this weekend.
Photographs by the Jacksonville Journal-Courier’s Steve Warmowski and Clayton Stalter and Guido Strotheide are among those to be shown at MacMurray College.
The three took part in the “America 24/7” book project along with more than 1,000 professional and tens of thousands of amateur photographers. Last year’s best seller is being followed this year by the publication of books for each of the 50 states. The show will feature the photographers’ favorite photos from the week.
Mr. Warmowski was the coordinator for the project in Illinois and has eight pictures in the book.
An opening reception is scheduled at 5-7 p.m. Saturday at MacMurray’s Putnam Center for the Arts. The gallery also will be open homecoming weekend from 6-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, as well as during the regular hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays or by appointment.
Prints from the show will be sold, with proceeds going to Big Brothers/Big Sisters of West Central Illinois. The books will be available at the show as well.
Buy a 50s-STYLE DINER in J’ville. — Actually, you have to move it somewhere if you buy it. It used to be the Rocket Diner and I enjoyed going there, but it didn’t make it. Now it’s on eBay. Two days left and no bids, though.
Went to a 5-band indie-rock show at the Coffee Club last night. I stayed longer than I would have liked, but it was fun. Finally got to hear one of the local bands I’ve been wanting to hear (Hope for Madison). Also playing were Super Famicom (missed that one), League (from New York), Faultlines (Iowa City), J.A.C.K. (Springfield).
House lookers
We met up with Josh and Amanda and Gavin for lunch at BJ’s on Sunday. They looked at some houses in town and plan to look at more the weekend of IC’s homecoming. We rounded out the day by washing the cars and mowing the lawn … and, of course, Ultimate.
Cheapish rental property
The house that Julie and I had our first apartment in is UP FOR SALE. We rented the upstairs, and it was a great deal. We had two washers and dryers that we were free to use and a garage and off-street parking, central air, a huge kitchen. The only reason we moved was because the owners wanted to sell it and move away.
I broke down and bought the newly-released STAR WARS TRILOGY DVD just now. I had to sign up for the Amazon credit card, but I got the DVD set for a “Grand Total: $11.80” which I thought was pretty good for an item with a $69.98 list price.
I added “Hidalgo” to my 2004 movie list. Julie and I both went to the video store, independently of each other, yesterday. I rented “Six Feet Under” season 2, disc 4 and “Hidalgo.” Julie came in later and went to get the “Six Feet Under” disc only to find it gone. So she picked up a copy of “Hidalgo.” The guy who had just checked me out a little while earlier — Theo — was probably a little confused. He told Julie I had just rented the same movie. So Theo saved us from renting two copies of “Hidalgo.” Thanks, Theo! Now if I can just remember where I recognize Theo from.
Next up: Jeanne
Hurricane Ivan was redirected, but it looks like Jeanne is heading straight for us! Currently a category 3 hurricane, expected to be in Orlando around 8 a.m. Sunday.
So again, we are filling bathtubs and water jugs, topping off the car with gas, etc. We were certainly blessed to have been protected from the last two storms (CHARLEY & FRANCES). Will we be spared from a third? Stay tuned…
Update Sunday 09/26 9:00 a.m.
Well we survived the very blustery night! We still have power and all of our windows, internet, cable, and telephone service are all A-OK. We had a hurricane party last night with our friends over to ride out the storm. We played games (Scene It, Halo, Battlefront), watched movies (Lizzie McGuire, Lion King 1 1/2), and ate a lot (stir fry, peanut butter bars, vanilla/white chocolate cake). We had a blast. We were all up to 2 a.m. staying safe. We should have slumber parties more often!
Everyone else is still in bed. I’m ready for breakfast! It is still really blowing outside, but not as bad as in the middle of the night, so I’m sure the worst of it is over.
Update Monday 9/27 9:45 a.m.
The curfew was extended until 6 a.m. this morning, so we had guests for another night. We decided on a marathon viewing of the original Star Wars trilogy! (Christopher hadn’t seen it before, so that was exciting!) The airport was closed, so my flight was canceled. I won’t fly out until tomorrow morning now, and I just finished adjusting my hotel reservations. Weather looks nice out this morning: sun is shining, birds are singing 🙂
No protection needed
The U.S. House voted 247-173 yesterday to approve the so-called “Pledge Protection Act.” The measure, H.R. 2028, bans all federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, from considering constitutional challenges to the Pledge.
‘No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance, as defined in section 4 of title 4, or its recitation.’. The limitation in this section shall not apply to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia or the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Lame, I say.
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OK, I’m testing Troy’s new router setup by uploading this picture:
This is the dresser I helped a friend move to his upstairs bedroom the other day on my lunch break. Then we went to get a chicken salad sandwich at the Jacksonville Coffee Club. They were out of chicken salad, but made more just for us. Woo!
Unspecified incident
Might be going to a Guided by Voices concert in St. Louis tonight. Kinda last minute.
Looking forward to the weekend
I’m in Philadelphia on a painfully-boring project.
I’ve been playing “BURNOUT 3” the last couple of weekends. It is a great racing game whose differentiator is incenting the player to crash! For example, in my favorite mode, the game provides busy intersections as game levels. The more dollars worth of damage you do by crashing through the intersection, the more points you get! There are other racing modes as well, all of them still encourage some level of crashing because you get speed bonuses for ramming competitors off the road.
The new game for this weekend, though, (my wife is picking up for me AS I TYPE) is the new “STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT” game. An XBOX demo of SW:BF ships with the new DVDs, but I already know I’ll like it. I’m looking forward to participating in massive Star Wars-themed battles, in vehicles or on foot, with 16 players online!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Nice use of “differentiator” and “incenting,” though incenting sounds made up. 🙂 — g
Back to the Octopus store
So I’m back in Korea and voting for something squirmy tonight. Maybe I can top the last experience and get a photo.
I bought a new house, though it won’t be official ’till we sell ours and all that. Anyone looking for a place in St. Paul?
Nothing much happening here other than the house, and that always seems to be something. Here’s a photo of the new place. It is nice, but needs a ton of work.
Click to see bigger image.
Apparently a sad sac
Called off today’s mountain biking excursion, so I got to have lunch at The Uncommons with Josh. I guess Clay saw me looking extra wiped out at the grocery store last night and thought I wouldn’t want to go biking today. Hehe.
Well, I’m gonna run some errands and stop back over at IC this afternoon.
Those obscenely-priced figures were on sale at the store we got groceries at last night, so I picked up a few. Now I just have to return that Stormtrooper that I paid $30 for.
Fuzzycouch 