It'll be a long time

There was this really awesome, well they still are awesome, band that the title makes reference to. Other than that, it has no real correlation to this post. =D

This last weekend we went up to this quaint little town here in michigandialand called Charlevoix, named after the French Duke Sir Charle Voix (the voix is pronouced "voy[phlem]"). We went up for a friend's wedding, and I must tell you, if all Catholic weddings are like theirs, they are much more entertaining than any other wedding I've ever been to.

Priest: Nick loves Jen, and Jen, well, I think she loves Nick. I've never asked them, come to think of it, but I don't think she doesn't love him. You do love him, don't you Jen?

Or the even better one

Priest: The passage that they chose about the couple that just got married and they're going to pray, what most couples don't know or realize is that the reason they are praying is that she was engaged to be married nine previous times, and each time a demon that was jealous because of her beauty, killed her husbands. Not that I think Jen's possessed or anything...

Those are only just a couple of gems that this comedian of the most holy order and servant of the holy see was pulling out of his camel hair garb for this wonderous occasion that will only occur once (hopefully) in their lives. If we were going to get married again, we'd probably ditch the dirty mexican and have this guy come do it (sorry Rick, but you were too reserved during ours).

As we were headed up to Northern Michigan, also known as Disney's Hell on Ice, we were a bit concerned about the weather and whether we would need to bring clothes to weather any bad weather we might encounter while we were wondering whether we needed to stay inside. I love english, and it's younger adopted brother finish. While we were there it was about 90 degrees each day! It was awesome! I thought so anyway. We got up there Saturday and had time to check out the shell and tiny rock (they float) encrusted beach. Pam and I also discovered you cannot skip large, fat, round stones. They just tend to sink like a small child dropped into the deep end a pool-Pam claims that's what happens to them. During the reception we went down to the beach there, which did not have many shells, but did have small stones, which we skipped our hearts out. Pam handed me a large clump of sand and said "Ten bucks says you're not man enough to be able to skip this chunk of sand." The challenge was issued, the gloves were off, my manhood was at stake here. If I was unable to do this task Pam might realize that I wear skirts on the weekends while she is at work I'm not man enough for her and make me do the dishes and laundry for the rest of my life. The abject horror that was running through my head at that moment made me want to run away screaming, find a park full of penguins and go for a toboggan ride. Instead I stepped up and I skipped that measly little chunk of sand as if it might be the last thing I would do as a free man. I did so well that I now have a contract to skip chunks of sand for the national sand skipping olympic team (look it up, they really exist). Later we played some badminton, bagpipes and shoots and ladders. We tried to play mouse trap but the wedding party kicked us out at that point, saying we were just to wild for them.

The next morning we woke up and decided the best way to get a wedding out of our system and off of our skin (not even sand blasting can get wedding out of your hair) was to go for a nice long bike ride. I'm fat. I've been getting fatter for the last little while too and sitting on my bum all day doesn't help anything either. After about ten feet I wanted to give up and turn back. Pam being the amazonian woman that she is wouldn't have any such nonsense, and so with a cat of nine-tails at my back, the wind blowing in my hair (we also found out that mouse and blow dryer can give me some pretty awesomely out of control hair that would try to take over the world if we let it. I thank mu lucky stars we had some water handy) and bugs in my teeth we trudged out way along the solitary paved bike trail we were on. There were signs along the way warning us that if we left the trail we would most likely be shot and/or caught in a bear trap as it was private property around us. I'm glad that serial killers sleep in on the weekends. We stopped at some what we thought would be beaches. It turned out they were just bug sanctuaries and they tried to carry us off. Luckily we had some bottles of off bug spray and lighters with us (the lighters were in case we got lost and had to start the forest on fire so they could find us; be prepaired). They did manage to make off with my bike at one point. But I got it back, thanks to some sweet moves I learned from watching Walker Texas Ranger. We made it about 5.5 miles out on the trail, and Pam's arm got tired of whipping me and so we went back. I was relieved.

Later that day we decided we hadn't had enough fun yet and went to see a castle that used to be a farm. Where now luxurious brides and their wedding parties are wowed and awed there used to be cow pies, flies and sweaty men with the complexion of burnt meat loaf (they probably smelled about the same too). Ah the joys of modern medicine. They have a pond filled with rainbow trout which you can feed. They were kind of funny because if you threw a handful of food in one spot they would literally jump out of the water to get over each other and too the food. They were really skinny too and looked like they needed the food [insert sarcasm here]. Whoever built the castle wasn't very smart either. They had an ice room that didn't have a roof, and it was pretty warm that day (and not just because Pam couldn't keep her hands off me either!). They had some giant chess boards out in the "gardens" and we started some epic battles that would have put Harry Potter and his measly friends to shame with our mad ninja skills, pfffft! who needs magic. We were chased off by some crazy dude wielding an ax saying something about all work and not play made him a very dull boy. All in all, it was pretty awesome, and since there were no weddings go on that day we actually got to see the whole place. The bathrooms were super nice too (they don't let the cows use them any more).

We spent the rest of the day playing fat dog and eating lots of candy (they have a gourmet candy shop down town) and making sure the bike ride didn't get us too healthy. Preservatives. I need to eats lots of them to make sure that I'm going to live for a very long time. Yes, they're made in a lab, but so were you (your parents just never told you, kind of like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, just this one went on for a lot longer), and that just means I actually know what's in them. The more you eat the better you feel. I'm almost a doctor, trust me. =D I tried to get Pam to watch Law and Order with me, but she'd have none of that and threatened to bring out the cat of nine-tails again if I didn't let her watch the Princess Diaries. Needless to say, it was an Anne Hathaway marathon afternoon for us. I think I passed out at one point, that or my mind has blacked out a portion of that day because the next thing I remember I was texting another friend about whether or not he had been abducted by aliens. We came to the conclusion that he had not been the glorious recipient of Obamacare, but rather the unwitting participant in a government sponsored alien abduction program with the beings from Zlothogmaglopaskdjhasdkjashdmbsdnbmcv!$^aslkdj the III.

We also saw some mushroom houses-they're really called that-though don't ask the people that live in them if they're hobbits, they get kind of upset and will chase you will chase you with what looks like a butter knife, though they claim it's a machete. They're surprisingly fast for living in a mushroom house as well.

Here's some pictures from out weekend of awesomeness and all around awesome:

 This picture is fuzzy and dark, much like many purported sightings of Bigfoot or the Pope. Was I really there and if so, did I really molest the stone wall??? We'll probably never know...unless of course you find that wall and take a DNA sample and check it against mine...curse you science!!!!

My super power is super glue

When I was about 6-7 years old I had the joy of finding out that I needed glasses (this is Jared). This is every kid's worst nightmare (other than the one where you show up at school naked, which when you're in elementary school-at least the first few years-isn't such a bad thing. You show up, they send you home, you get in trouble and are grounded and have to stay at home cleaning and doing other menial chores your parents loath doing themselves, and you are forced to never go to school again. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to sneak out of your house naked while you're in elementary school and it's a school day. You'd be surprised what your parents are willing to do to make sure you go to school). Monster movies are pretty rad themselves, but that has nothing to do with getting glasses, except that you find out that beast man is not the most commonly used villain. After getting my glasses I learned this, and other surprising facts I hadn't noticed before, like my hands had lines all over them. It kind of freaked me out. The day I got my glasses I learned some very important lessons. The first of these is that, while they mean well, parents lie sometimes. It's not bad, it's kind of like the first time you bake a cake. You hope it comes out well, and you try your hardest to make sure that it does, but at the end of the day the truth is, the cake is in the garbage and HASMAT is on their way to pick it up. Actually, for me, it was a lemon meringue pie-I love lemmon desserts, I love dessert, but lemon desserts are one of my manly weaknesses, and I have manly manly of them. Did you know that if you add four tablespoons of cornstarch, instead of four teaspoons, you can make lemon flavored cement? We used it to help keep our swing set from tipping over on us, you know, for when you swing too high, and because you weigh like 20lbs and you swing higher than two feet off the ground the swing set tips over. But the point is that roller derbies rock! That and parents mean well, they're also, well, mean.

Because of my glasses though I became very good at fixing things I couldn't see very well without my glasses on, namely, my glasses. I have strong astigmatism (I spelled that right the first time, yo! High five for me!) and so my glasses back in 1986-ish where about as thick as bulletproof glass was back then. They were great for starting fires though, and many an ant died under the fire of their unblindingness power they bestowed upon me-I just couldn't look at the sun. Plus anyone who reads comics knows that the geeky guy has to have some sort of super-secret super-power, otherwise, what's the point of being geeky? Plus you get to wear spandex costumes, masks and capes. What's the point of being a nerd if you can't kick some bad-guy butt at night while you should be getting sleep that will help you function and be all smarty-like the next day. This is the real reason nerds and geeky guys wear the same clothes day after day and never have their hair done properly. It's not that we don't care, we're just sleep deprived from protecting your ungrateful butts (that's mainly aimed at congress) so do a nerd a flavor and comb his/her hair or wash the clothes they're not wearing (naked nerds!) if you get the chance. Who knows, you may find the formula for cold fusion in one of their pockets-we've figured it out, we're just not sharing because we're that kind of people, and we don't want sports fans to benefit from essentially free energy. That and there's the dilemma about what will happen to the earth's atmosphere once we start one reaction, will the entire earth turn into a giant ball of flaming oxygen and charred flesh? Universe bar-b-q in the super-awesome quadrant, woohoo!!! Use our secrets wisely if you come across them.

Here is a picture of my glasses from high school that I never wore in public unless I absolutely had to (i.e. if I was driving, which meant I never drove on any of the six dates I went on while in high school-I tell myself that it was by choice). It's amazing how much your eyes can improve while you're young by making them work to see what is out there. The downside is that if you try it when you're older you just go blind faster (Milton and Joyce had that problem, if I remember correctly-I'm being lazy and not looking it up, since this isn't a newspaper and I don't have to do any fact checking...this isn't FOX or CNN either). It must be a vitamin-D or -K deficiency in old people with which young people are not metabolically challenged.

As a school boy, I did many things that normal school boys did. I tried to play basketball, baseball, football, street hockey, four-square, jump rope, wall ball, dodge ball, tag, etc. etc. The one thing that all of these had in common was I was terrible at them all, and they usually ended with me having broken glasses. If you've watched a Christmas Story you will know that broken glasses are the major cause of death among elementary school children. The news usually says something about a rare case of polio or the measles that an elementary school kid died from. This is code for they broke their glasses and their parents beat them to death with stubby thumbs (that's another story I won't go into right now). Every single pair of glasses I've had/owned from my first pair until I was 23 ended up broken, bruised, beat up and other wise destroyed.

In this picture you can see they have tape on the bridge (super glue wouldn't hold that part together on its own), the ribbon was to keep them from falling off my face and breaking in more pieces (which happened at least once and resulted in the ribbon being added) they are also broken on the side and super glued back together. My best pair, which I, sadly, don't have anymore had the ribbon, tape holding the lenses in, wire where the screws once were and super glue on the lenses and various other places, all working together to keep them in one piece and on my face. I used to waiter while wearing those. I would get awesome tips because people would feel bad for me and give me extra money to help me out. I had another newer pair, I just didn't want to ruin them yet.

Then along came these guys that is the only frame I have had for my glasses since I was 24. I have not been able to break these ones. They look like the ones in the picture above with ribbon, but they're a little different. This just means I have to be careful when I buy a new pair to make sure I get these ones. I think they're some sort of alien technology that someone smuggled out of Area 51 and has been able to market them under the radar from the government men. I'm grateful for that person needlessly risking their life so that we can have unbreakable glasses frame technology. If I were the aliens I'd totally be anal probing us too. Steal my *#$@! unbreakable glasses frame idea and market it as your own! I'll teach you, take that! Literally, take it. Fire in the Sky was a fabulous alien movie. Aliens was good too, but the jumping out of the belly and eating you instead of sticking things in your bum just isn't that frightening. You die. The end. With anal probing, you have to live with that forever, you'll be scarred and fear the open night skies until your dieing day. Stupid goth kids.

Now the point of this long narrative: I'm lucky to have married Pam. She's lucky too, but for a different reason. I'm lucky because she's freakin' awesome, amazing, smart, talented, gorgeous, and otherwise all around perfect. She's lucky because my secret super nerd super power (which is not super spelling powers, especially words with double letter, CURSE YOU DOUBLE LETTERED WORDS!!! we've never liked each other much) is super glue. I even have the remains of super glue still on my finger tips to prove it.

Over the years I've learned that super glue can save you a trip to the doctor for stitches (bike trip where I hit the ground first and then my bike landed on top of me). It can't save you from a later trip to the doctor for antibiotics so they don't have to amputate, though. It can fix broken things (not bones, unfortunately). They even have super glue now for metal. Metal of all things! Did you accidentally tear the panel off of the circuit breaker box? Not a problem, just super glue it and you're done! I'm never buying a house you've owned. I also learned that super glue can fix broken glasses. This would usually be an easy task, except for when you remember that you need your glasses to see, and you have to try and fix them before your parents get home, you have to be to work, or something else. You're supposed to wait 5-10 minutes after you apply the glue to let them set. You really only need about two, as long as you don't mind the burning, searing fumes that are near your delicate eyes for the next three to eight minutes while it continues to dry. This can come in handy if you're late for work. You come in all teary eyed, and just tell them nothing is wrong and you're sorry for being late. If they finally get up the nerve to ask you, tell them something like you were in a hurry to get to work and accidentally ran over your little brothers foot, shattering it. You called an ambulance but had to leave him so you wouldn't be too late for work and you're just worried because you don't know if he'll be okay-he was bleeding and screaming pretty good when you left. If you have a friend that's a cop you can really play it up by having them come into your place of employment in uniform and ask for you. If you don't get fired, you might get a raise.

But after all these years of practice, it was finally put to some good use when Pam woke up and her glasses were broken. I said, "Hold it honey, I'll be right back!" She hollered at me a couple of time as I zipped out the door, and when I came back she tried to beat me up, but luckily she couldn't tell the difference between me and the dresser so I came out unscathed. I went and bought some super glue and had those puppies fixed in five minutes flat! If this were an olympic sport I would be champion, and not just because I could play off of the judges sympathies.

Here are her glasses (fixed) and usable:

That was the point of this story. To prove my point here are some pictures of me turning out dogs into shark dogs. You can see the duck tape doesn't work very well.

I took some picture of them when I used super glue, but our lawyer says I can't post them until after the trial (a neighbor saw me and contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Steak (PETA) and they filed some 'animal cruelty' complaint, idiots).

If you thought this was long and rambling, it was. Congratulations, you were right, have a cookie, though not one of ours. None of this would be possible without this wonderful woman:

Yes, she was blind in the that picture (glasses were drying) and I'm not sure she knew I was taking it-I think she thought I was bringing her breakfast. She's great!!!

You should be dancing

A tax dollars hard at work, sitting on the side of the road taking a break. It's too bad we can't watch government workers like the government wants to be able to watch all of us. That could be a bit, what's the word, ugly? Not quite the right word, no, terrifying that describes it a bit more aptly, I think. I'm supposed to be working on a paper, but I need some instigation to get some perspiration so we can all have some inspiration. This is just more fun anyway.

Who knew that you're teeth were worth so much? It turns out that to replace a tooth it costs $2-5k. If I would have know this, I would have sold me teeth a long time ago and never told anyone. Pam's almost got her new tooth, and we're very excited to have this new member of our family join us. She went in earlier this week and it was good too, her gums were encroaching on the implant and the screw was starting to come loose as a result. Good thing the dentist had his pliers and a laser handy! Few people know this, but gums are a very aggressive and obstinate species. You think teenagers or terrorists are hard to deal with, try getting your gums to eat their vegetables and to leave their bombs in the box instead of taking them to bed with them. Good luck with that. I've tried to get Pam to take up smoking because she would have a handy place to hold her cigarette with the tooth missing. She didn't like the idea though and said she would if I took up being castrated (she didn't say it like that, but I can't really write what she did say. Not because it's inappropriate or anything, but because I really can't write what she said. I think it was the gift of tongues. I did understand one thing she said sort of, though, it had something to do with taking out the kitchen garbage. It was very confusing and garbled. I almost cried. It was a good thing I had my G.I. Joe action figures near me to hold me and keep me warm till the storm passed.) Hooray for teeth!

I promised some people that I would put up pictures of the inside of our house on here, and I"m still planning on doing that, it's just not going to happen right now. There are a few dead bodies that still need to be rendered and the place cleaned up before Pam is willing to let me take any pictures and post them on the internet. Did you know you can't cure cannibalism? I didn't even know it was a disease. Also, why do cannibalism and cannabis sound so much alike? I know the one can make you a bit paranoid, but I'm hoping it doesn't lead to the other. I'll let you decide the order.

Sleeping can be fun. It can also be entertaining, especially if you're watching someone else sleep. Not in that creepy way, like watching them from a tree with binoculars, but like I'm a light sleeper and wake up to just about every noise, including my own snoring. The other night I woke up to Pam telling me no. It amused me and I waited for a little while and she did it again. She seemed a bit upset with me over something. Thankfully it was a dream. She also tends to kick and throw fists if I roll over and touch her even a little bit while she's asleep. It's okay though because I snore like a banshee that has a terrible cold that won't go away. I was talking in my sleep the other night too, though Pam said she didn't remember what I said, only that it made her laugh and then she kicked me to get me to shut up so she could go back to sleep. I now know where those mysterious bruises come from. =D

Being married is great. I should get back to writing things that I'm supposed to be doing.

Goat herding it is!!

Even though both of our families have been pretty good about not bugging us too much about when we're going to have kids (we know it's on their minds...) we have decided to follow the strategisms of W and do a preemptive strike to a threat that we believe to be there with all of our heart and soul though we don't really have any evidence to back it up. We're going to have kids and lots of them. Just see the picture below:

This will be great for several reasons.
1) We can always send a few of them to stay with the grandparents for an extended period of time
2) We won't get in trouble for keeping them outside
3) No diaper changing
4) They can't talk back
5) We won't have to worry about bullies
6) We can castrate the stupid ones
7) They're environmentally friendly
8) It's okay if they don't go to school

Etc. etc. etc. The list just keeps going and going why having kids is awesome! All of my friends were right, I'm excited to have kids. The more the merrier, and the greater the chance that one won't be missed, say around Christmas and Thanksgiving. ;-)

Mary Jesusmas and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas all! We had a very fun christmas this year. Instead of boring everyone with explainations... I'll just post a few pictures. They are more fun anyway.

Jared's making some fabulous cookies to take to peoples houses...

Here is our Christmas tree.

The dogs are opening their Christmas presents (they got bacon).

Santa Came!

I won! These scared the crud out of Cracker though. After playing for a while we started wondering where he was. Turns out that he ran into his kennel after we started playing. He's been running around the house all day with his tail tucked thinking we are abusing him.

This is how married people open presents.

Michigan is cold...

Mary Jesusmas to all and to all a cold night.with bacon.

He's flirting!

Cracker does this really creepy thing where he will lie on my side, put his nose about an inch from my face and just stare... I figured I would get a picture of this more than slightly uncomfortable stare and this is what I caught...

The Joys of Something or Another

It's a strange coincidence that almost every single day that Pam has off I have to be into work early, and usually end up having to stay late. Today, for example, I had a fellowship application due and so even though I'm done with classes at this point and had no real reason to come in, I had to be here for about six hours. I know, my life is very tragic, I can come in for six hours and call it a full day, not really do anything other than review what I've already written and still get paid the same as if I'd come in and slaved my a mad whore to satiate my insatiable clients appetites only to be told I'm not good enough, nor will I ever be able to rise to their standards-Chuck, I'm having strange recollections of you describing your soon-to-be old job-only to have my pay docked. I guess that's why they have pimps, then no one can dock their pay no matter how lousy they perform. I think politicians must have pimps in the background that no one really knows about or is not willing to talk about if they do know about it. I'm finished now and waiting for Pam to come pick me up. We're going to go out and celebrate, I'm not sure what, but we're celebrating and that's good enough for both of us. Hopefully we don't get too wild and wake up the proud new owners of a giant pig farm. I don't think Michigan has many pig farms, and that's what worries me the most.

This last week TW and cracker have decided that they don't hate each other anymore and can be friends, or at least friendly to each other. Usually cracker comes anywhere near TW and TW starts growling and wants to tear crackers face of-stupid cracka'! Get outta my hood! Normally bella gets along great with cracker, but since tw and cracker have been getting along famously, she's decided she no longer likes cracker and has tried to tear his face off a number of times. Those that know cracker can vouch for him being a very loving dog, he's just dumb as bricks for the most part. He will look at you with the most blank expression when you're telling him to do something, unless there's food involved, then he can and will do anything you ask him to do. He'd be terrible as Lassy unless you had treats in your pocket every time you got into trouble. Then again, he'd probably forget to go get help and end up in the bottom of the well with broken legs as well, but at least he'd have those treats in your pocket. Very nice dog. Very stupid dog. Our other two are just racist.

Michigan has finally decided that since it's December it should not just be cold and covered in snow, but that it should be so bitterly cold that you walk outside and you can feel the water you are made up of turning to ice and if you don't move quick enough you will be a human-cicle before you get to where you are going. It makes for turning off your refrigerator to save energy okay though, so it's not all bad.

Pam and I have decided that if we have kids, I will only beat them and so we should just go ahead and schedule a vasectomy for me. No guy is ever happy with someone poking and prodding around down there, well, they don't like real doctors that are doing some sort of check up poking and prodding around down there. But it's for the greater good and thus must be done, so I will bite the bullet (and wooden stick I hope they are willing to give me) and get it over with. Plus, if we really want kids I'm sure Angelina and Brad will be willing to give up a few.