BurnSite: September 2007

beach bound

Tomorrow morning Brad and I leave town and head to one of our favorite places on the coast for our 4 year anniversary trip.

We'll stop in Madera for lunch with Grampo at the Old School House (where we got married) and then be on our way.

Five days. Riding bikes, walking on the beach, eating great seafood (and assorted cheeses, of course).... just the two of us. No kids, school, or work.

Sweeeeet.

natedog. plugged.

an encouraging word from al

"Do not worry too much about your problems in mathematics. I can assure you that mine are far greater." --Albert Einstein

iTs alive

My iPod has been dead for months. I didn't know what was wrong with it. I only knew it didn't work, I was sad, and I didn't have a bunch of money to fix it. I also knew that a new one is totally out of the question (and the budget).

So one day Brad and I were driving along and I saw this handmade sign on the side of the freeway on-ramp. It said 'iPod repair' and then gave a phone number.

I called the number, and spoke to a very polite young man who patiently listened to me describe the problem: "Well, first it started just dying, you know? And then...the black apple thing started happening, and then, the black apple went away and there was this picture of a battery, and then... nothing. Like, it's totally dead. Muerto."

He informed me this was all likely good news. Probably my battery was just dead. He could fix it for me. And as a matter of fact, he is student at Fresno State and can meet me on campus.

Sweeeet.

So yesterday I met him at the student union (where I usually study anyway), and he pulled out his bag of tricks, which is full of all sorts of iPod parts tucked into little pink bubble wrap envelopes. Pieces of every sort of iPod you can imagine are in there ... even for ones like mine that are "practically collector's items." (Because it's all of...what? Two years old? Crazy.)

He told me he is putting himself through college doing this.

I think that is quite impressive.

So now I have my iPod back, and this young man has $40 to put in his college fund.

Everybody wins.

I'm loving it.

four years ago on this day

i like killing flies

I watched an odd little movie the other day on my Netflix Watch Instantly. It's about a family-owned restaurant in Greenwich Village. An extremely unorthodox business (and family), to say the least.

Check out the menu.

Watch a couple of clips.

Crazy. And fascinating.

Because people are funny.

Next NY trip, I'm there.

I'm supposed to be doing math homework right now.

flight of the conchords

It's likely everyone else has known about this for a long time. But I haven't. Because I'm not that hip or whatever. And I don't have TV.

So when Emily and I were in Duxbury visiting my sister and nephews, they were shocked to learn we had no knowledge of Jermaine, Bret, and Flight of the Conchords. They nearly forced us to sit and watch it.

And oh how we laughed.

And we are still laughing.

Sometimes laughing is just the best thing.

NateVision

The other day, after I had squirted myself for the 47th time with the kitchen sprayer that Nate had rigged with a rubber band, I got to thinking about this son of mine.

He kinda lives (as a friend of ours would say) "in his own private Idaho." He simply yet passionately embraces whatever comes his way.

He does his own thing.

He is a little bit odd, actually. In a surprisingly refreshing way.

Sometimes I think that if someone followed Nate around with a camera, and people could watch NateVision: All Nate, All The Time, it would be a good thing. Like, therapists would tell their patients to watch NateVision to learn how to live in the moment; and folks who have trouble relaxing could just switch the NateVision on and settle in for a little calming-down session, and anyone who wanted to just laugh and get those endorphins going might check in to see what ol' NateDog is up to.

Until the reality of NateVision comes to be, I believe I will just thank God for my own access to him, and be grateful for the gift of Nate.