Little bits to chew on

1) I watch the Today Show in the mornings while I'm getting ready. Of course, for the last several months, if I've had any free time between when I'm supposed to leave and when I finish getting prepped for work, I've been playing a little Midnight Club 3, which I finally finished (yeah, I know...but you try beating a game in a reasonable amount of time while only playing it 10 minutes at a whack). So, more Today Show for me. My main motivation is that the cast irritates me less than the other morning shows and I do need to have SOME idea of what is going on in the world. Unfortunately, this also means I get a lot of the Hollywood gossip crap that they don't put on the real news shows in the evenings.

For instance, I learned that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have been hanging out. If that isn't call for a catastrophic club fire, I don't know what is. Anyway, they also have been hanging out with Lindsay Lohan. You know what I realized? Well, first, I realized that people who can't sing seem to be clumping together like stroke-causing platelets on a cholesterol build-up, but THEN I realized that...we're all stuck in Junior High! Why does anyone care who these people hang out with? Why does anyone care what they do? And why doesn't anyone who cares happen to have a sniper rifle and an overdeveloped sense of cultural justice?

Ahem...anyway, think about it. We've got the party girls, the cool guys (you know, the Brad Pitts and George Clooneys...any of the guys who've at some point been named as Sexiest Man Alive or somesuch nonsense), the jocks (T.O., LeBron, etc.), and we've even got the bullies. Of course, you'll almost never have to worry about them flushing your head in the toilet or stealing your milk money. It's your retirement they're after. It's like we're all living on Dawson's Creek.

What? That show's not on anymore? What do I know? I only get three channels.

2) I love me some Heroes. That show is basically my reason for getting up on Mondays. Yes, I realize that it doesn't come on until 8pm Central, but if I don't go to work, I can't get paid. If I can't get paid, I can't give the electric company their money. If they don't get their money, they shut off my power and I can't watch Heroes on Monday nights. And that would be a shame. I mean, I could easily get as involved in it as some people do Lost, had I the time. It wouldn't hurt my feelings any to go over the episodes frame by frame looking at different bits of stuff like looking for the RNA symbol or where else the double slash mark has turned up or even trying to find things in previous episodes after they've come to light, but...I don't have that kind of time, so I just wait for the next airing.

For those of you wondering why my wife isn't my reason for getting out of the bed...dude, she doesn't have to get up until after I've left. She's another reason to stay IN bed.

3) The lamp they have in the delivery rooms at our hospital totally look like some sort of death ray. Especially the way they open out of the ceiling. I keep checking to make sure that our baby isn't going to be delivered by Dr. No.

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mrs. Askins, I expect you to push!"

Appendage

I think my appendix is the only thing working properly anymore. Went to the optometrist on Friday (having my eyes dilated was an interesting experience) and got a prescription for glasses to use while on the computer (stupid eyestrain). I can't sleep at night because my neck is out of whack, which isn't that painful, but it causes my shoulder to hurt in the way things should only hurt when they're being ripped off. My knees seem to be failing me. I've done nothing to them, but going downstairs requires having a hand on the rail because if I stumble, they aren't strong enough to catch me anymore. Also, standing is less than pleasant. And, to top it off, my stomach seems to have missed that minor detail concerning where it ends and my esophagus begins, since it apparently believes that its acid is just fine so long as it hasn't gone over the edge into my trachea. Of course, a little spillage is bound to happen when it's up that high.

As you can see, the only thing that hasn't failed me yet is my appendix, and it doesn't even do anything (except eventually blow up and try to kill you).

So, if you happen to have a spare body lying around, preferably unused, I'd really appreciate it if you could send it to me for Christmas. This one's pretty much ready to be traded in.

Loss

Yesterday, my grandfather passed away. That was pretty tough for a number of reasons, most of which you can probably guess. I wish I'd been able to be there and it's tough knowing that I can't be there for the funeral, either. Still, I have a lot of good memories of him and I feel a great deal more peace about everything than I expected. I'll miss my Grandpa Ray, and I'm sorry he didn't get to meet Aaron, but I'll still carry him with me.

Blues

Things have been a roller coaster over the last couple months with my grandpa. He's been in poor health for a couple years now, but things have taken a turn for the worse in the last little bit. They found cancer. They took most of it out, started him on chemo. Last week, he got pneumonia. He pulled through the surgery with the cancer, so maybe he can pull it off again and come through. I hope so. If any of you out there pray, I'd appreciate it if you'd say a couple in his favor. If you don't, I'd take it as a personal favor if you picked it up in the short-term, at least.

This is one of the things that's been keeping me from doing comics lately. The worrying has done a lot to keep me from being that creative. In fact, it's one of the few things that can distract me from thinking constantly about the baby. I hope my grandpa lives long enough to meet him.

In case you're wondering. This does have a lot to do with the ACS button in the links. It would seem that we're all driven to support the causes that affect us most directly.