Already Over...

And just like that, it's all over. People say, "but the Holidays are still here," but it doesn't feel like it. New Years is a totally different holiday than Christmas. New Years celebrations are nothing like Christmas celebrations except for the people gathering and eating. The gift-giving (and receiving) is over, and people are starting to resort back to their typical I'm-better-than-you-so-bug-off mentality. Yeah, I'm excited that 2007 is almost over, and I'm sure fireworks will be fun as ever, but I hate that Christmas disappears so quickly. We should turn Christmas into like a week-long celebration. That whole Twelve Days of Christmas, we should resurrect that! Christmas is like your birthday: it takes forever to get here, suddenly it's right around the corner, and then in a flash it's gone! Every year I realize about 7 pm on December 25th that Christmas is over for the year. After 7, most people I know are starting to head home and get ready for the work day ahead. I dunno, it just sucks.

On the brighter side of life, how was your Christmas? Get good stuff? Fine, if you insist, I'll list what I got cuz I know you're just dying to find out.

1. Red and Black LEATHER motorcycle jacket.
2. Brown Leather Cuff
3. Red, Black, and White motorcyle gloves
4. Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End
5. Chronicles of Riddick 3 Disc set
6. Stealth (DVD)
7. Gun Magazine
8. Travel Coffee Mug and Thermos
9. Candy
10. Starbucks Gift cards
11. Gander Mountain gift card
12. iTunes gift card
13. cash
14. Sissy Bar and Luggage rack for my motorcycle
15. Day-by-day calendar
16. Financial books
17. Dress Shirt
18. Tie
19. Really sweet free verse poem from my wife
20. Flashlight
19. Bourne Ultimatum (DVD)
20. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
21. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
22. Hand-made Scarf
23. Book on Police Heroes
24. More Candy

I think there was some other stuff, but I really can't remember it right now. Anyway, I should probably get to work since I've been here almost 1.5 hrs and haven't done anything yet but make coffee. Later,

$

It's been forever, I know...

So, I haven't posted in a little while, but no one complained or reminded me, so there. I'll try to be more frequent so that if anyone cares they won't be dissappointed. I probably mispelled that and mispell because I do everytime, but Lynne Singleton will faithfully correct me because she does that. Anywho....

So today is a special day... Melissa and I have been married for Two Years today!! Yay yay yay, congratulations to us! It's been a fast two years, and definitely doesn't seem like that long, but we have certainly been through more than our share of...stuff. We're going on a much needed date tonight, so that will be good. I can hardly believe it's been two years, especially since I can remember our wedding day like it was yesterday. I think I honestly remember everything about that day. Get your mind out of the gutter. :) So yeah, that's a wonderful thing about today.

In other news, it's only 8 days till Christmas!! Presents presents presents and MORE presents!!! Oh, and we're going to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the important reason. The AWESOME presents just highlight the wonderfulness of the day. Melissa and I have been giving each other one gift a day since the 14th. Sort of a twelve days of Christmas count down. It's fun. She's gonna love what I'm giving her tonight, but I can't tell you or she'll find out.

So, anybody getting anything good for Christmas? Yes, I'm implying that (gasp) you know what you're getting. I know a few things I'm getting, but that's partly because people just asked, "what can I get you" and I told them one thing and they said "ok." It's really that simple. If that sounds like a horrible idea, just remember, I hate surprises, so I love knowing what I'm getting.

So I'd love to keep typing, but I'm on a conference call, so I gotta go. Later.

$

Things to Consider...Part Two

**Why do cleaning people feel the need to clean the bathroom while the building is open?? We might need to use it!!!

**What if humans were born with a rechargeable battery pack?
**Where would it be located?
**Could it be upgraded?
**Would it come with a car adapter?

**What if The Force (Star Wars) was real?
**Would YOU be a Jedi?
**How do you know?

**Are you really awake?

Guess What We Did......

So Melissa calls me the other night, and says "Baaaaby?". I'm already thinking, "Oh great, what now?" She says, "can I have two kittens?" My first response was ".............................oooookaaaaayyyy..." See, typically, my wife hates cats. She maintains that she still does, but that these are kittens, so they're ok. I keep trying to remind her that they will turn into cats, but whatever. They are awfully cute. I'll try to get some pics up tonight or tomorrow.

On the cats-er, kittens. They are adorable. One is white, the other black and grey with a hint of brown. They have gorgeous eyes, and are very sweet. We were lucky, because they are potty trained, and I only wasted one old pair of jeans figuring out that they expect a litter box. Also, kittens looooooooove artificial Christmas trees. The black one has been in the tree almost nonstop since we brought them inside. This is a very cute sight to see, and I'll have to get a picture of that in here too, it's just that when he's up there (Oh, yeah, they're BOTH males) he's knocking ornaments off the tree so he and his brother can play with them. I caught them trying to eat a rocking horse this morning (shakes head). If you've noticed, I have mentioned names yet, and it's because we can't think of any yet. If you have suggestions, I'll be taking them through the end of the week, so feel free to leave a comment. We've tried a few ideas, but I'm just not liking any of them. It will probably help once I get pictures up, so stay tuned.

In other notes, how 'bout this weather? It's WONDERFUL. Except for mornings. Mornings are cold. I hate cold. I bundle up as much as I can, but it's never quite enough to stop my hands and legs from freezing. It's terrific in the afternoon when the sun is shining. I go on a ride to nowhere just to enjoy the weather. Riding home is a little chilly again, but not near as bad as in the morning time.

I just realized I forgot to mention a very important incident. James and Lynne (and Isaac) Singleton are the proud owners of a house! YAY! They bought it the week after Thanksgiving, and they are moved in. It is a really nice house with lots more room than their apartment, and it's in Jersey Village, so they have a nice neighborhood. We've been over a few times now to help out. Sooo very cool, and we are so happy for our good friends to finally have a real place. Apartments are nice, but not as nice as having a house. Of course, now James has a lawn to mow... ha ha.

So to sum this post up, I need cat names, it's cold outside, and hooray for the Singletons. Later,

$

Poem of English

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!