242 - The Office

I just finished watching Season 2 of the Office and now I am all caught up with the show. I got the dvd a couple of weeks ago - it was dirt cheap at Circuit City - $17.99. It was great watching it on dvd - I am amazed at how quickly I watched the whole season. Each episode features deleted scenes which add and continue the story for another 10 minutes. The deleted scenes are great because they follow up on some of the minor devlopments that were cut due to time.

I loved the BBC's original version and I probably still prefer their characters, but the US characters are starting to grow on me and I look forward to a long run of the show.

I think my favorite episode from last season is "Dwight's Speech."

Yes, I am watching the current season.

241

My desk is a mess.

I hate it.

It is covered with layers upon layers of paper.

8-1/2 x 11,

11 x 17,

24 x 36,

and little post-it notes are everywhere.

This mess is driving me crazy - ha, ha.

I THINK YOU'RE...CRAZY.

I need to clean it up...

But what good will that do, when you work with lot's of paper?



Does it ever really get cleaned up?

240 - Thursday at work

These guys (Blue Angels) are flying overhead right now and it is hard to concentrate on work when you here a screeeeech come zooming by. We keep running to the windows to watch/catch a glimpse but I am usually to late. I stood outside during lunch to watch for a little bit.

THERE GOES ANOTHER ONE...so loud and fast. This is exciting. My heart is beating fast.

BTW...I work downtown and they are flying form the downtown airport.

Okay...now I think I want to take the boys to the air show this weekend. I forgot how impressive the planes are.

239 - 1/2 Friday

Last Friday was my "half" Friday and at home on a whim, we decided to go out for lunch with the boys. We were thinking of the eating options that weren't McDonald's or I guess any sort of fast food when it occurred to us that we should try out the new T-Rex out a Legends. Come on,...boys and dinosaurs, giant insects, and meteor showers...you can't go wrong.

The place is like an amusement park. The outside of T-Rex is mountainous with a huge life-size brontosaraus bones over the entrance. I was holding Els as we walked in the door and I felt his body tense up as we were greeted by a robotic moving T-Rex with huge teeth and blinking eyes. The inside is made up of different themed pre-historic enviroments. We must have been seated in the sea room because our table was right next a huge aquarium with a snails, jelley fish, and other sea things that I don't know the names of. The ugly looking dinosaur statues that was 10 feet away came to life every 10 minutes or so, which kind of scared the little guy at first, but soon he was all giggles. And then there is the meteor showers. I think this happens like once an hour. The lights start to fade to dark and then there are some sound effects.

All of this action kept the boys content for the entire dining time, which is why fast food tends to work better. Els kept spying and pointing to different things that would come to life...like giant ladybugs, ants, and other dinos.

Another nice thing was that our server brought out the kids meals first, so we had time to get them going on their dinners before ours came out. This, I don't think is a standard practice, but our server asked us because Ewe told our server that he wanted a cheeseburger and fries when she was taking our drink order.

I was pleasantly surprised that the food was actually pretty good.

On a lighter side (lame news speak), being at the Legends we also did a little shopping and I got a new pair a jeans. A new pair of jeans that had a 2" smaller waist since the last pair of jeans I got.

238 - August Recap: music and books

Now that the month of August has come to an end, it is time for me to look back at the new records the I've been listening to and my monthly book that I have read.

Tilly and the Wall - Bottoms of Barrels
The first thing anybody mentions about this band is the unique percussion style - that is a tapdancer as their percussion. TATW is a very unique sounding band because of the tap dancing and foot stomping and hand claps...very organic with horns, organs, acoustic guitars, keys and a trio of harmonic vocals.

Leigh Nash - Blue on Blue
Leigh first solo album since the break-up of Sixpence None the Richer finds her doing accessible and smart adult alternative pop.
Sigur Ros - Saeglopur EP
The Saeglopur EP has an extended version of Saeglopur plus three new songs of beauty. Along with this EP is a DVD that includes three of their music videos from Takk... The videos are powerful cinematic stories the describe the music or is it the other way around?

Erik Larson - The Devil in the White City
"A thousand trains a day entered or left Chicago." - is the first line of this book that reads like a novel but is the true story of the Chicago Worlds Fair (The Columbian Exposition) that took place in the early 1890's. This story follows the lives of two men who were linked by this historic event. The first man is Daniel Burnham who was the Architect responsible for this daunting task of designing and building the Fair in a short amount of time. The second man is H.H. Holmes - considered America's first serial killer whose warm charm lured many young women visiting a "big city" for the first time into his hotel or "castle."

237- labor day weekend

This was an amazing weekend for so many reasons. I always look forward to the first of September, because it means that fall is right around the corner with so many things that I love. The weather was amazing. Having spent most of my weekend outside, I cannot stop gushing at how amazing the weather was.

I started Friday night off with a soccer game. It's always fun to play and run around and we won too - which is always good.

Saturday morning we emphasized the "labor" of Labor Day weekend with some yard work. We lemmed up so branches in our backyard and planted grass seed.

Saturday evening was the first KU Jayhawks football game of the season. My dad and I have had season tickets for 9 years now and my sister joined us a few years ago. We started a new tradition this year by going to the Student Union and picking out new shirts to wear. College football gameday atomsphere is the best - the fans are wearing there colors, the smell of tailgaters, the sounds of overstuffed bars, the sounds of marching bands, the roar of the crowd, and the weather of Autumn.

Sunday, we had our big family picnic over at Antioch Park with lots of good food and great weather.

Monday, Vernal and I took the boys over to the Topeka Zoo and Gage Park for a little daytrip. We picnic'd in Gage Park and played on the 'old school' playground equipment. We even took a little train ride around the park before we went into the zoo. I used to live in Topeka - for about a year. Gage Park was my favorite back then and it is still a great park with lots of activity. It is a good place for entertainment and fun. We then went to the zoo. I know it is a small zoo, but it was perfect of the pace that we were going. And the weather was perfect!

236 - PreSchool (part 2)

The report is in...

I guess Ewe did fine and didn't look back one bit.

Els on the other hand, as suspected, was a complete wreck. He had his backpack with him in the car but could not understand why he had to leave. When put back in his car seat, he was screaming and pointing at the school. And as they drove off, he tried to turn in his seat to look back at the school.

Poor guy! In two years you will get your turn.

He cried all the way home and for an additional twenty minutes at home.