Early Xmas Present

This post should have been posted the week before Xmas, but I'm just now getting around to it.  Those of you (all two of you) that witness the staleness of this blog can appreciate the musty delinquency of this post.

Several months back, I received a parcel from the district court in the city in which I live.  That's federal court.  I thought, shit shit, jury duty in a federal court!  It turned out to be just a questionnaire about eligibility for jury service.  My first thought before reading the entire document was screw this!  Toss it!  Well, somewhere near the end was some nice friendly words about how I would be criminally prosecuted if I didn't answer all the questions truthfully AND return it within the time limit specified.  Ok, so, fine.  I filled it out and sent it back.  Wev...

Fast forward about a month and a half.  Lo and behold, another parcel informing me of my required-under-threat-of-prosecution jury duty.  At first, I thought my fear had been realized.  Shit, stuck on a grand jury (which could be a really lengthy obligation)!  It turned out to be just county jury duty.  Wev.  I got called into a jury panel in the first round of the day (lucky me), but I was near the end of the line.  So, I was privileged to witness the rest of the panel get asked questions by the attorneys and get picked to be on a jury to try some guy who kicked a cop.  Another day of my life that I'll never get back.  Whoopee...

Now fast forward again to the week before Xmas.  My early present:  a federal jury duty summons.  I'm reading this thing, and it's telling me that I am panelist number 32.  I think, cool, I'll get to watch someone else be questioned and picked for a jury, right?  Not so fast.  I soon discover after further reading that I am ON-FUCKING-CALL for the entire month of February!  It gets better.  I could possibly be called to serve several times during the month!  What?  Are there not enough people in this top-ten-largest city to find enough potential jurors that everyone is only required to do their day (or days if they are on a jury) once?!

And now for the salt on the wound:  The  last paragraph of the panelist information packet, written in all caps as if they were mockingly shouting at me (to be read in your snarkiest sarcastic voice):

IT IS THE POLICY OF THIS COURT THAT ALL MALE JURORS WEAR COAT AND TIE, AND FEMAIL JURORS MAY WEAR blah blah blah... JEANS AND SHORTS ARE NOT CONSIDERED APPROPRIATE ATTIRE FOR JURY DUTY.

Goody for me.

Tangibles

Yeah, yeah, it's been forever since I've posted. Blah blah blah. Wah...

Anyway, I guess we're in the third trimester now. Holy shit, the time has flown by. One of Wife Unit's friends gave birth to her son today. One of my coworkers found out his four-month-pregnant wife is having twins. Fraternal. Another instant family. There must be something in the water here. One of my team mates at work's wife is preggers. He's 24, and he as two kids, the oldest is seven.

In my house, which is in utter disarray, less than two weeks before the party/baby shower, the painting is done. Crib waits to be assembled, all the pieces leaning against a bed in another bedroom. Baby dresser/change table waits to be placed in the nursery, patiently passing the time in my hallway. Shower gifts have begun to arrive. We received a baby bathtub day before last. It's inside what looks to be a baby tub duffel bag. The big hammock shaped dent in the bag means one of the kitties found it to be a comfy bed. Baby Oven says her ring finger is starting to swell, and it's time to wear the ring hung from a chain. She can barely keep a TV tray on her lap now, much less lap space. I've even felt some movement in Wife Unit's belly, but most of the time the baby freezes as soon as I can place my hand upon the swelling cocoon in which my daughter gestates.

But... Nothing, nothing has impressed upon me more with the realization that a baby is on the way than being kicked in the back/butt by my unborn daughter for the first time while being spooned. It was pretty trippy... Yeah, I'm feeling a little perpetual.

And it was pretty cool.

Getting better

New toys r kewl!

Nerd alert!

A passing...

There it was. Didja hear it? It was the sound of my life ending another phase and entering into a completely different, new phase. As always, I feel a bit melancholy when waxing about things ending and transitioning into something else. Things will definitely be different. I've already lost count of how many times I've heard that from friends and family, associates. At the same time I'm feeling a roller coaster of other emotions. Glee. Overwhelmingly awashed thoughts of "oh shit!" Fear of the unknown. Adventurous wonderings of the unknown. Contemplative musings on how I will manage, how we'll manage. And others that I can't seem to describe with recycled electrons here.

Yeah, found out last Sunday my spousal unit is pregnant. Woohoo!!!! (hmmm, shit!), etc. So, everything will change, so I'm told. Everything is changing. I'm seeing the love of my life in a completely new light, and discovering that I have stumbled onto a completely new flavor of being in love with her, and that's pretty cool...

Yum!

Yum!
Originally uploaded by zentropy.

#end

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Eagerly awaiting for fiesta to start. The anticipation for beer, food, and fun is killing me!

04-15-05_1806.jpg

A most welcome thing after a week like today.

Yawn... or is it "Another five minutes...

How fitting that it's the Monday after the time change to daylight savings. I may be saving daylight, but what good is that for me? Hmmm? It's dark during the drive to work now, and I'm much sleepier during said drive. Hmm, a danger to myself and others, so no plus there. I can't make myself go to sleep an hour earlier, thus, perpetuating said sleepy drive to work. I tried reading a book about Java programming, thinking, “Hey, this should put me asleep pronto!” I was up until well past midnight.

I guess this is an opportunity for me to bitch because I had to get up an hour earlier, and getting out of bed in the morning for me is like waking the already-way-passed-dead dead. Lately, it has become quite an ordeal to drag myself out of bed, not unlike volunteering for a deep colonoscopy.

And to top it all off, I forgot my Java book at home, and I forgot my underwear to change into after my morning run. Yep, it looks like I'm goin' commando today.

Out of bounds

Out of bounds
Originally uploaded by zentropy.

Pretty flower, no? I took this picture in Colorado last summer. It is so beautiful outside today, I thought this would be a nice addition to today's post.

Made it through the weekend unscathed, but not circumstantially. What I mean is that I went to a place for margs that I don't usually. The margs are great there, strong as hell, but it was really crowded. The place had a cool vibe tho'. You could feel the exuberant joy of a sunny, albeit windy, Friday in the crowd. It felt rather strange, tho', to be sipping a tasty lime slushy while watching and speculating with CNN on the TV they had in the patio when or if the Pope was going to pass on. He finally did yesterday. About five hours and three margs later, it was definitely time to go. My friend, with whom I was celebrating the end of his Lenten prohibition, suddenly decided it was sleepy time. I suppose I would have been sleepy too after foregoing alcohol for over fifty days. After waiting for a cab, on display in front of the bar, narrowly avoiding getting carried away in a vehicle with blinky blue and red lights (ok, not so narrowly, but the rent-a-cop dudes were less than understanding), we finally made our way to my friend's house, leaving a street pizza trail out the door of the cab with frequent stops along they way. Oy! You'd think grown-ups like us would be smart enough to avoid this kind of behavior.

My point of this rambling is that it seems silly things like this happen whenever we step out of our usual routine (different bar, trying something new, etc., whatever). Not as safe as usual, always presenting a challenge, and never, never failing to remind that we are alive. These little reminders help erase the insignificance of life's little annoyances. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Friday shenanigans, again!

Ah... It's full on friday.

Testing flickr

Testing flickr
Yeah, testing flickr. Blogger didn't digest the messages too well sent directly from my phone, so let's try this for awhile. This is my mood. It's Friday again, Friday afternoon actually. I'm cravin' a marg bigtime!

Hmmm, no surprise here.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Moderate
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test