And then before you know it, they gots ya.

And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you

Miss you hiss

So what's common amongst these three songs and a few others that I can't think of?

Lovecats - The Cure
Hot for Teacher - Van Halen
I WIll Follow - U2

When I was in high school during the MTV AGE, I was pretty much a metal head but I always liked The Cure, one of the most original and talented bands of all time... so many unbelievably cool songs. I had had a friend in junior high who was into them.... I found out a long time later that this guy had committed suicide in college, something that surprised me since he seemed like a normal kid but I guess you never know what people are going through. Although the Cure's "Pornography" album is one of the most depressingly heavy albums I've ever heard, the fact that he got me into the Cure and his later suicide as far as I know have nothing to do with each other. Just some random associations of mine about the Cure. That and he had this poster on his wall. Plus that I was listening to them on my ipod while I mowed the lawn today and thought this whole thing up....

The motorcycle growl that is the beginning of the VH song was just getting going when my car was slammed from the left and heaved across the intersection. Speckles of glass were falling and a massive pain was filling my world but the first thing I just had to do was reach towards the radio and shutoff that goddamn song... there is just no way it fit the situation. Later on as the ambulance people were strapping me into a traction suit I found out that a driver had made a left turn into me. She panicked and ducked below the dash and kept the gas pedal pressed and the steering wheel turned so basically did a 270, jumped the median, and broadsided two more cars that had been sitting in the two lanes with her moments before. Turns out I was fine and that was the first of several pre-graduation accidents.

Speaking of college, one of my roomates (and I do mean "room" mate not apartment sharer... it was the same room) built a pretty impressive loft in our room. We each had an area for a mattress and there was a couch and a desk underneath. I remember doing schoolwork at that desk while listening to his "Joshua Tree" CD which, although I always liked U2 back then, was the first time I "got into" them... not that I actually put down any change for one of their albums though. And I know "I WIll Follow" is not on "Joshua Tree" - well, I do now - but the above is one of my few U2 associations. I did like Bobcat Goldthwait's parody of "With or Without You" but I can't find it on the boundless Internets.

Hold up

My Dad sprung for our first grill back when we got the house up here in stripmall paradise and it lasted a long while.... thans Dad! A few new burners extended it's life by three years. Then we repaced it with a castoff from some neighbors which didn't work out (it's basically fon full blast or not at all) so near the end of this summer, with some good deals out there, we picked up a new one.

Here's a pic.

New pets and new grill.... coincidence?

For at least the last 2 years, K and I knew we'd get a pet for Erin sometime. We wanted something small that would be easy to have someone watch when we went on trips. The focus was a hermit crab for a little while then it became a gerbil. then at the beach, it shifted back to hermit crab.

But we ended up getting them two guinea pigs.... and it turns out that Liam, although he always seemed apathetic at best about a pet (and actually against getting a dog, a view we share) was pretty excited about the little guys.

Their names are Jesse and Ryan although they are both girls... according to the pet store. Speaking of, we had planned to get them from a "rescue" or from someone that need to give them up but the rescue places wanted you to basically convert an entire room to a home for the guinea pigs complete with down comforters, whirlpool bathtubs, and a masseuese and the former owner thing just didn't work out.

Jesse was named by Erin for the Toy Story character. Not sure where Liam got Ryan. Ryan is by far the dominant of the two and they eat like... well, like pigs.

Tales of a fourth grade what the f-?

Thursday night, out of the blue, Erin asked me what a dunce cap was. She reads a lot of books in the American Girl series which are based in various times in history so I suppose that's where she picked up the word. Now, when I was a kid, we would have to stand in the corner if we were bad. It's hard to imagine schools nowadays doing that... oh the shame of actually having to be punished for disobeying the rules, it would surely traumatize the kids for life loosing cutthroats and sociopaths on society.

But I have to admit, much like it's not easy to imagine a teacher in the 21st century forcing a child to be made the object of whispering and tittering by his or her classmates for screwing around, it's difficult for me to see a kid being made to sit on a stool at the front of the class with a pointed cap because he was having problems getting the right answer.

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, every Friday we would have dance day at PE. In my elementary in San Antonio, Texas, PE was held in a big, metal building and overlorded by a large woman who was the one who paddled kids on their birthdays... Miss Ostrowski or Snuffleuppagus or something like that was her name. I suppose before I go further I should explain that... when a kid had a birthday, as I remember the whole school would gather round (though I suspect it might have just been the class) and the victim would bend over and get "gently" paddled with a large oar-like implement. The number of hits equaled the number of year the kid had become.

Anyway, for the dances, the boys would pick a girl and they would be partners. I remember one time I was all set to pick Janice Hayes, the crush of my mid-elementary years, but some mean kid named Billy picked her first. I clearly remember seeing the look of what I decided was dissapointment on her face... of course, she was hoping she would get to dance with the short kid with the Coke bottle glasses! Without even mentioning the fact that such "picking" of the girls by the boys would never be allowed these days, the rules of Friday Dance Day dictated that if a boy didn't pick a girl fast enough, he would have to dance with another boy. And one of the boys would have to wear a ribbon!!

Looking back on all this, I realize that this was because there were more boys than girls. So, much like the last sailor down from the sails of the "Bounty" getting whacked with a blackjack, no matter what happened, there would be boys being forced to dance with other boys.

After being too slow to pick Janice, I did not recover and didn't pick another. So I ended up having to dance with Victor.

But he had to wear the ribbon.

She bop-a-kimbap

I had lunch with a former cow orker yesterday and since I hardly ever eat out, I voted for an eclectic place and chose Dan Moo Ji, a Korean place not close to my work but not far. It was, of course, different from the usual and it was interesting not knowing what to order. The waitress made a few suggestions that we sheepishly followed.

We ordered the tuna kimbap that I saw being raved over on the net but it was no big deal. It came looking like sushi and the outside was sushi-esque. As a wrap, it would be pretty good but I guess it had me set for sushi but the thick and standard - hell, I'm not going to do a restaurant review. The food was so-so but I liked it because it was different.... which is not saying a lot.

Joe Bob says check it out.

Not quite up to speed yet

The soles of my feet are stiff leather, hardened by miles of hot sand, driveway rocks, and blazing asphalt.

While I doze off to sleep, my arms twitch in uncontrollable sweeping movements.

At 10, I wonder if today's a good day to have the first beer before noon.

I'm still spitting out salt water and sand.

I wore my sunglasses and re-applied sunblock every two hours...
at work today.

Requested pic

This picture does NOT do justice

to how absolutely pissed off they were.