Where The Flag Have You Been? at 8:41 PM

Alright, so it's been three months. That went by pretty quickly. At least in blog years. In truth, it's been a pretty long three months, and a pretty long three months before that. I've been working in Fort Wayne and living in a hotel now for six months, and my house still hasn't sold, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. I won't say anything just yet, but in the next couple of weeks, there will be yet more to talk about concerning work and home. For now, let's talk about a couple of things.

First of all, I grew tired long ago of eating out every day. One would think, of course, that this development would cause me to eat out significantly less often. One would be mistaken in this line of thinking. I probably eat out a little less often, but seriously, who wants to work for at least 10 hours, come home to the lovely Residence Inn, and cook a meal? Not me, my friends. No, I'd rather just have something delivered. And that's what happens most nights. So as you may have guessed, I am a fat man. Was I a fat man before? Sure. But now I've entered the territory of fatter man. Also I have a big bushy beard, which is maintained once a week. I know I look a mess on a number of levels, but I have ceased to care. With my schedule being what it is, it's impossible to get into any kind of routine, so I don't even try anymore. But hey, such is life, right? It's temporary, so telling myself that is how I've been able to deal with things. And were my wife any less fantastic than she is, she would complain constantly. She's been great. She's been mostly at home alone with a two-year-old, getting progressively more pregnant (although pregnanter is a more fun word), and she's had nary a complaint. My wife rules.

So in a nutshell, that's life right now. Let's not dwell on that, lest this post get more depressing than it already is. Right now, let's talk about some Luke. He alternates between being terribly two and painfully cute. His favorite game right now is to pretend that someone is chasing him, laugh hysterically, and run into different rooms, slamming the door behind him. On the speaking side of things, he says "no" to everything and everyone unless he really wants to say "yes", which he pronounces "dess". Sometimes he'll even say "please", which is pronounced "pzips". He also has favorite objects that he looks for wherever we go. The child has a radar for these objects. Of course, any circular object is a ball. All balls are to be played with, and it is unacceptable if he is unable to obtain any of these balls for his personal use. Balloons in grocery stores, the giant balls that are sold in the department stores, basket-, foot-, and baseballs on TV, those big red metal balls in front of target that don't move…he must have all of them. Also, he loves to look for trucks, which he calls "teeku". This word evolved in an interesting way.

When he first started noticing trains, he would call those "chugga-chugga". Trucks, on the other hand, got only one "chugga". "Chugga" was pronounced "chicka", which became "tika", "teeka", and now "teeku".

Okay, maybe that wasn't all that interesting. But when he sees trucks, the bigger they are, the longer he'll hold the syllables. For example, a pickup is simply "teeku". But a truck on a construction site is "teeekuuuuuuuuuu!" So there's trucks, balls, the moon (which he pronounces correctly), and most recently, flags. The pronunciation of this word is especially amusing. If you take away the "lag" and add a "uk", that's what it sounds like. I mentioned before that he has a radar for these things, and what I mean is that he sees any of them, he'll yell the word multiple times, getting progressively louder, until one of us acknowledges that the object is indeed there. And he always sees them way before we do. Way before we do. He must have Jessica's eyes, because I don't see that well. He could be a freaking fighter pilot with those eyes.

So moving on to current events, we had a snow day today at work. Or at least my employees did. I still worked a full day and then kept working on the laptop when I got to the hotel, but whatever. It's snowing like a beast out there. There are snow drifts all over the place, and I've seen them as tall as about six feet. And that's just on the sides of the road. I opened up the center as usual at 6:00 this morning, but had to close at 10:00. There's a level two snow emergency in Fort Wayne right now, which means you can only drive if it's an emergency. So that pretty much tied my hands as far as closing up. And now I'm back in the hotel, and it hasn't stopped snowing or blowing out there all day long. I couldn't see too much driving home from work today, and that was like seven hours ago. Doesn't look great for tomorrow, but who knows.

Well, that's enough out of me for now, but I'll probably have some random stories to tell as we go along here, including the harrowing adventure of how I got my tooth fixed. Let's close with some notes.

-"Heroes", "24", and "the Office" are the best shows on television right now.

-I have to admit it: I like Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. I can't help it. Shutup.

-The Dixie Chicks were less than gracious while accepting all of their bogus awards on Sunday night at the Grammys. It sure would be nice if the Grammys weren't completely irrelevant to everyone outside the music industry.

-The Descent is the best horror movie I've seen since The Ring. Fantastic stuff.

-And speaking of horror, The Ruins, by Scott Smith is the best horror novel I've read since It. And I read a lot of horror/suspense/thriller novels.

-If you enjoy rock music and still haven't checked out Wolfmother, I implore you to do so.

-If you enjoy acoustic guitar music, check out Rodrigo y Gabriela. In fact, check out the video below. Pure awesome. (Let's just say the song of the day is "Diablo Rojo", which is the song playing below.)

-Also, I predict that the guy in the second video will win "American Idol" this year. You heard it here first. Or maybe not. But you heard it here. This audition was good enough that he made it through the Hollywood round with two awful performances. And there's a guy that looks like Jack Osborne who's a lock for the finals, too.

-"Veronica Mars" has slipped a lot this year, but I'll give it another season to turn it around. I just really don't understand the whiny, teenage girl-like direction they're going with Veronica's character. She seems to be acting younger instead of older as time goes by, and it's annoying. Also, Logan's character has never been sympathetic and needs to go away. Quit trying to make me feel sorry for him.

Enjoy the videos.