i don't even know where to start

Yeah, I know that I write about being busy all the time, but this time I'm serious. These past two weeks have just about worn me out.

We traveled to Ohio last week for my Uncle David's funeral. He'd been fighting hard against some health issues for a couple of years, and has a chance to rest now.

We used to play basketball at all the family reunions; the uncles vs. the nephews. All us kids thought we were the shiznit bc we could run circles around the old farts. All we had was youth, though, they had experience and brains and teamwork and discipline that actually wins games. They whipped us nearly every time.

It was like the story of the old bull & the young bull, looking at a bunch of cows in the next field. Young'un says "Hey, let's run down & jump that fence and do the dirty with one or two of those cows!" Old bull says "I'd rather stroll down to the gate over there and take care of all those cows."

Dave used to drive me crazy when we played ball. He'd be dressed in blue jeans and loafers, toothpick in the side of his mouth, "Old Fart" ball cap turned backwards on his head. Looked like he was ready to change the oil in the car, not like he was playing full-court with the kids. He made me crazy bc he was always in the right place at the right time on defense, picking up all the loose balls. He made me crazier with his outside shot - it was MONEY. He'd put the ball up from all over the court, and it was the sweetest, gentlest shot, every time.

And he smiled past the toothpick when he shot, well before it went in the basket, bc he already knew it was good.

Thanks for helping me learn to look for the gate, Uncle Dave.

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Recapping the rest of these couple weeks....

School is slamming me hard this semester. I've got a week & a half before getting a small break before starting the fall term. These two classes have posed the heaviest workload I've had in the past 3 years.

The kids are all fully back in school now too. They're still happy about seeing their friends, and haven't really gotten too much homework yet.

Kid1 has turned in notice down at the Hole. He got promoted from shift manager to assistant manager at the ice cream shop, and got a decent raise to go along with it. I'm totally proud of the work that he's been doing, even though I'm nervous that the extra money might take his focus away from school.

Before the trip to Ohio, I ran a short triathlon in Reston. It was a bit of a surprise; we were out riding one morning, and found out the race was taking place the following morning. After a couple quick phone calls & emails, we all got invitations to race. I felt really good, but my run is still the weakest point. I've got another, more official, race coming in a couple weeks, and I'm hoping I can step it up a little bit before then.

This past weekend was top shelf. We did the whole day Saturday at the Buffett lot party, our group of 20 sharing smiles and drinks with 25,000 of our closest friends. With no recovery time, Sunday was Block Party IV. The crowd only measures in the hundreds, but we do our best to shut down the whole neighborhood. Augur treated us to another excellent show in the afternoon before heading over to headline Jimmy's later in the evening.

I need a rest.

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Here's a creative puzzle game that'll force you to think a bit. The game is good, the puzzles are challenging, and there's cute little toons between levels. With all this intelligence focused on the game, no wonder the title is about as dumb as you can get: Blocks with Letters On.

Perfect Balance is kinna like Tetris on a teeny tiny little platform.

One for the simpletons: mini-golf + human cannon = ragdoll fun!

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There's a reason some kids are slow:


The interwebs should come with warnings.

Superpenis!

(from EatLiver.com)

Jen sent a video. I watched a different one. The video starts here:


This is why you're fat. Mmmmmmhmmmmmm; breakfast pizza, complete with gravy, bacon, & eggs.

I'm on a Boat, Navy-style. This either a really good home-made vid by a bunch of bored sailors, OR it's a really good ad paid for by the Navy. (My gut tells me it was sanctioned. The editing looks professional, and getting footage from inside and outside the helicopter seems a bit tough to pull off for a video prank.)


A little pedo-bear, just for you Mikey...


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