not much

Pretty uneventful last week or so. Just work, eat, sleep, repeat.

My brother finally married his long time girlfriend, and they are now working on getting her her residency (and eventually, citizenship). Apparently, the fee to file the first form needed is $190, and must be accompanied by their marriage certificate, her visa, 2 color pictures of her, and a few other things. She wants to pay a lawyer $2500 to do all of it---but, being a Schutze, my bro is trying to do it all by reading the INS web-site and following the directions. I'll let you all know how that goes.

small animal liquidation

Today we gave away our hamster Tanka and a Guinea Pig named Spunky that Briana recently bought (and I complained about for 48 hours straight).

We are now down to 9 Guinea pigs and NO hamster.

Yay.

the good, the bad, and the frakly

THE GOOD

Well, it turns out that getting a new car when your wife is driving an old car is not very smart. We are therefore, as of Sunday, the proud new owners of this four door version of my car, in a much less frakish color (and w/ automatic and A/C):

THE BAD

Of course, after getting further into debt by taking a loan out for the car, Briana found out on Monday that her school hasn't paid any premiums to the health insurance company since September, so all of her medical bills and prescriptions back to 09/30/05 are being retroactively denied. Of course, over Winter break, she made a gazillion appointments so they would be done during her vacation... we are awaiting some type of resolution, but at this exact point, all of the doctors want the money from us.

THE FRAKLY

The Friday night premier of the new Doctor Who was frak-tastic and did not disappoint. I think that they kept it just campy enough to give me that "I'm 12 years old again, watching Dr. Who" feeling, while adapting the humor and the storylines just enough to make them work for the present day audience. Like any "Dr.", it takes a while to get used to a new personality/actor, but I think this guy's got it right.

the good and the bad

The good news is that sci fi begins airing the new doctor who series on Friday!

Bad news is the elliptical started making a "clunk" noise with each revolution, so Briana isn't using it. My next step is to put a board underneath it, but the board smells like chemicals (it needs time to air out, but while it is stinky, she probably won't use it, either). I knew it was a mistake to spend that much on this thing...

...a NEW CAR!!!!!

DA DA, Dada, DA DA DAda! deedle deedle deedle deedledee... (that's an attempt at the price is right music)

The blue escort is gone, replaced by our new 2005 Chevy Aveo. This car brings a smile to the whole world. Literally! The second photo is not doctored in any way, it was just one of my dad's flares of creativity, and I intend to keep it that way.

This St. Patrick's Day

I would like to recommend that you check out the group "Black 47".

I would describe them as a mix between the Pogues, the Clash, Cypress Hill, and a few other groups.

Most importantly, they throw in some great Irish (and American) political ranting for your listening pleasure.

The Album "Home of the Brave" is probably my favorite.

big purchase

Well, thanks to Briana's constant begging me, and the fact that I didn't hide my coming raise, we are now the proud owners of this monstrosity.

So, if you are ever in BG and need to work out, just stop by. After your workout, you can listen to 9 loud Guinea Pigs, or get knocked over by our dog.

Seriously though, this thing was not cheap (although we didn't buy it at as high of a price as you see in the link), but since she has gone to the rec almost daily for about 6 years now, I think she will be one of the few people who buys a piece of exercise equipment and actually ends up using it.

weekend "to do" list

1. Play Starcraft...I bought it for $5 on a clearance rack.

2. Deliver 80 pounds of coffee to the Book and Bean in Berea. For those of you in the Cleveland Area, did you realize you can still get your Grounds for Thought Coffee (and even at a combo book and coffee shop!) in Cleveland?

3. Visit Granny at her new retirement community in Strongsville.

4. Visit my parents, hand over a check for the amount of my car that sold and give my dad our old monitor (we just got a 17" flat panel).

5. Come back to BG and if there is still light, clean up doggy doo doo.

6. Try and get Briana to relax---she was Praxis observed this weekend and she is still questioning every little thing that happened. Her observer was coughing/blowing her nose the whole time, so Briana is afraid this may have put the observer into a "bad mood"...

7. Figure out when Doctor Who first airs on Sci Fi this month, so I can set aside everything else and hopefully not be too disappointed.