Really...

Does anyone else miss Amy Poehler on SNL? Although she is pretty funny on Parks and Recreation.

Final Countdown

Only 3 more hours until a new season of The Office starts!!!!

Just for Fun

This clip makes me laugh so much:



I love that he has a little rolly suitcase. And the way he says "I am leaving" is pretty hilarious.

Am I overly excited about this?

Today when I got home from work, there was a package at my door containing this:

I had this book as a textbook for a class in high school and I really liked the class since it was the first class I remember taking that was about more "recent" history. And the teacher of the class was really excellent. We used this book a lot in the class and I really enjoyed everything that we read out of it. And I have been meaning to get a copy of this book and read the whole thing so I am hoping to be able to work my way through the book (I looked through the book briefly and recognized a few of the people and remember quite a few names!).

Your plan was flawed from the start

One of the things we did during the family vacation last month was sing around the fire. One song that Rachel and Trey often sing/play is Cold Missouri Waters (the most popular version is by the group Cry, Cry, Cry) and the song is really sad and I cry every time that they play it. I thought that maybe if I learned all the words than when I hear the song I would be so focused on remembering the words that I wouldn't cry. But the plan hasn't worked so far because I still cry every time (except one time because I listened to the song on repeat). But I am learning most of the words. Anyway, here is a YouTube video of the song:

I'm driving the hell out of this truck!

On my way to the post office after work, I notice that my alternator wasn't charging the battery and the car was getting really hot. I pulled into the Dairy Queen, popped the hood, and discovered that the fan belt was broken. So after a short chat with my dad (just to check how easy or hard it would be to get the right fan belt), I took the broken belt and walk down to the NAPA store (which was about 1.5 blocks away) and bought a new belt. After another call to my dad to figure out what tools I needed and to make sure I knew all the pulleys that the belt went around, I went to work. I was able to get the belt around almost all the pulleys except for the last one which required moving the spring loaded idler and getting the belt around the last pulley. Unfortunately, I couldn't move the idler and put the belt around the last pulley. So, I walked across the street to the fire house and asked a fire fighter to help me with the last little bit. With his help, I was able to get the belt around the last pulley and now my car is running back to normal (alternator charging and car staying cool). And I was super proud of myself for getting most of the belt on by myself. And I only got a little dirty (grease all over my hands and on my forearms) and hardly any on my shirt (which is currently soaking in the sink).

Back to form

I like to relax by reading a good book but the last book I got from Paperspine was Never Let Me Go which was such a slow read because it took so long for there to be any action. And the book was about 80% narration rather than conversation between 2 characters (which is why I have no problem rereading Jane Austen!). But right before vacation, I stayed up late on Friday night finishing the Raw Shark Text by Steven Hall. That book was really fantastic and wonderfully paced. With some books, it seems this the plot is chugging along and the author thinks "Uh-uh this is running to almost 300 pages, I better wrap this up in the next 20 pages" and so the end feels rushed (and I think that climax of the book is less satisfying). But the Raw Shark Text did not have that problem at all. The basic plot is a guy named Eric Sanderson wakes up in an apartment with no memory of who he is but keeps getting messages from the "First Eric Sanderson". Oh and he is being stalked by a conceptual shark. There is a perfect mix of action and heavy cerebral lifting (like wrapping your head around the idea of conceptual fish that come in all sizes). And there are some places with nontraditional text (like a shark made out of letters). I highly recommend it to everyone (and the 400+ pages really fly by, I think that I read it in about 1.5 weeks).