just a little bit

hello, my name is russ, er, i mean tclops and i like to procrastinate. one of my favorite sayings is 'procrastinate now! don't put it off'. right now, i need to do some school work, and it's due tomorrow, but somehow my brain is wired to think i have all the time in the world. 22 hours until it's due, and it will only take an hour or so, so i have loads of time. makes sense, right? that's how i always like to roll.

i started a british lit class a week and a half ago - it's a 5 week class and so there's plenty to do in a short time frame. the whole class is comprised of 17-22 year olds. after the first day of class, i had a dream that night that i was back in high school. i woke up thinking it was weird, but i didn't think much of it until the next morning as i was sitting in class, and it hit me why i had dreamed that. i am back in high school. a couple of them are actually kind of cool kids. who would have thunk?

there will be no more blogging from me until i get this stuff done. or until i become bored with it and take a break. whichever comes first.

top ten....

....reasons to procrastinate:

1.

bumper sticker

i need to have a bumpersticker made. i may not use it right away, but maybe in a year or so.

don't blame me for this obamanation.

i actually really hope i won't have to use it. do i think that we're all screwed? not necessarily. the far right thinks he's a socialist and the country is going to hell in a handbasket. the moderates are saying that he'll bring parties together and be a transcendent figure and all that. i really don't know what the far left is saying because i just don't pay much attention to those guys. all the 'analysts' are spewing forth what they think obama is going to do and how he will handle the numerous monster issues he will face as president. i'm tired of listening to it. the fact of the matter is that nobody really knows how it's going to play out. well, hopefully obama knows. the rest of us will just have to wait and see. i say enough with the hype and back and forth between experts. i'll just sit back and watch the show, and draw my own conclusions. the next year or so will prove to be very interesting.

politics and religion - the universal argument catalysts. maybe that's why i can only handle short bursts of paying attention to politics - there's always something to argue about and way too many sides to look at.

almost fun

i love me some softball. i started playing on a coed team with erin earlier this year. i played baseball growing up until i threw my shoulder out trying to pitch sidearm. i think i stopped playing when i was 16 or 17, which was a long time ago. now that i'm playing again, i'm surprised at how well my arm has held up. throwing overhand helps too, i guess. i love playing the game. any excuse to play is great with me. this past thursday, our last season of the year wrapped up. no more softball thursdays until february or march. i'll miss playing every week.

last night, my brother's mens team needed an extra player and i wasn't working so i jumped at the chance to go out and play. i wound up pitching the whole game. i did fairly well - no walks and a swinging strikeout (i tried not to laugh at the dude). not a bad line, except we lost 33-0. our defense made a few errors, but overall they were hitting the ball exactly where we weren't. add that to a horrible offense (myself included), and it was brutal. playing softball is fun. 33-0 is not fun. next time they need a player, i'm in. i'm not sure if that makes me an optimist, or a glutton for punishment.

fair to middlin

puke fest rides, greasy foods, butter sculputres, big crowds and big tex. fun times were had at the state fair this year. in past trips to the fair, any combination of rides, food, drinks, parking, and admission has always added up to a good bit of change. this year, we decided to go on the cheap. here's the breakdown:
parking: $10
admission for two: $6 - with 2 dr. pepper empties
food/ride coupons: $20
a fun day at the fair for two: $36

one of the highlights was watching the crazy daredevils. will they pull off that handstand 80 ft. in the air? will they fall to their death? can they turn that music up any louder? the lowlight was the car show. boring. there weren't any real cool concept cars other than the new camero. almost all the other cars were ones that i've driven as a valet. the biggest disappointment was the new dodge challenger. outside it looks amazing, but inside and it looks like any other dodge/chrysler product. the only pictures i took were of some pretty rad choppers.

observations from the fair:

1. we just aren't really that into the fried food thing. sharing a corny dog and fried grilled cheese did us in. for desert, we went with a tried and true, non-fried lemon chill.

2. those foot massagers really do make your feet feel better. if your definition of better is beyond feeling, then it's a bargain for only a quarter. that thing vibrated the hell out of my feet to the point where they went numb. by the time the quarter ran out, i couldn't feel anything below my knees. brilliant.

3. who goes to the fair, eats a bunch of fried crap, then gets on one of those puke fest rides? they make me dizzy just watching them. maybe the trick is to get the pukers out of the way at the very beginning, then chow down on an empty stomach.

4. for an event that features such stomach-wreckers as chicken fried bacon, fried gorditas, fried dinner rolls, and fried cake on a stick, there really should be better toilet paper in the restrooms.

some pics for your enjoyment:

dubya likes a good foot massage (stolen from their site)

nice lookin sled

does this really look fun?

don't look down...

ps. ever wonder what the hell fair to middlin means? look it up.

oh the thinks you can think

oh the places you can go..... i love me some dr. seuss, but this isn't about dr. seuss. this is about all the people i have been able to stalk out there on the innernets. in less than 30 mins and starting from my brother's blog, i've perused a bunch of blogs of friends from way back. seems everyone has one of these things and that i'm rather late on that bandwagon. usually i just smile and wave as bandwagons pass on by, but for some reason i'm along for the ride now. so what to do now? i guess i have a few emails to send or comments to leave or something.

"hello there it's me and i'm still alive. how are you? i am fine. i read your blog it was great feel free to look at mine. yada yada yada."

the whole concept seems so foreign. but i guess it's all the rage now and perfectly socially acceptable so here i am throwing some elbows trying to grab me some personal space on this here crowded bandwagon.

sugarmomma and the trophy husband

so the wife started a new job this past week which elevated her to sugarmomma status which i guess makes me a trophy husband. so now i have to do stuff like blog about things and get plenty of beauty sleep. she has to do stuff like go to work and slave over a dual flatscreen monitor setup and then come home and think of ways to keep her trophy husband happy. trophy husband likes a moderately clean living environment and home cookin. and fancy cars. and cruises. trophy husband does not like school and work, but sugarmomma says he don't have a choice. sugarmomma apparently calls the shots.

we've done a couple of things to celebrate our new status (stati?). we went to the fair last tuesday which was her one-day window between old job and new job. we went on the cheap (it can be done) and we had loads of fun. we also went to the melting pot - a fancypants fondue place in addison. there was a crapload of food and all of it was really good. we had a wonderful time, but i don't think we'll be back for another few years, kind of like going to medival times. fun/enjoyable/etc, but not something to put on every new year's goals-for-the-year list.

Post 2

i've just spent the better part of the morning setting this thing up. it's a lot of work. i'm not sure about this whole blogging thing but i figger i'll give it the old college try. worst case it will wind up being a lonely little page swept to the corner of the cyberworld, gathering dust. best case it will in some small way make the innernets a better place to be. stay tuned to see what happens.

just like cooking spaghetti, i'm just going to throw it at the wall and see if it sticks.

post 1

just a test. only a test. if it were a real post, you would be reading something that didn't expressly say that it was a test.