June 28, 2001

ometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. I started packing for my trip this morning, and suddenly found that there is very little room in my luggage for such bizarre items as clothes. Go figure :) I have so much in games and other items that I'm taking to various members of my family that over half of my suitcase is taken up with this miscellany. I stopped by the game store last night, looking for tokens to use to replace the plastic chips they supplied with Ivanhoe, and found only some that I need.... but I also found a couple of more games I thought my sibling's families could play, namely Uno and Phase 10, neither of which seem to be at funagaingames.com. Now, Phase 10 may be a little advanced right now for my sister's second son, but in a year or so, I'd be willing to bet he'll be old enough. I guess since these are "mass market" games (you could almost certainly get them at Toys R Us), they don't have to worry about carrying them on the internet specialty stores.

I heard an amusing "bumper" this morning on NPR. Apparently some couple here in California (go figger) thought that the schooling their child was getting was illegal in some way, so they made a citizen's arrest of the principal of the school. They're now up on charges for kidnapping. I don't know why I find that so hilarious, but I do. :)

Friends are like onions. They have multiple layers (oh, sure, if you want to stretch it even further, you could say they make you cry). I'm constantly amazed at the wit and wisdom displayed by my friend Rob (Issigri). On the exterior, he seems like a laconic good ole boy from southern Virginia, but he constantly amazes me with his insight and humour. He's gone and married another amazing friend of mine, Tracy, and they're just starting their life together up in the northwest. I know they'll be happy together, and hope they'll continue to regale us with their funny stories...it just cracks me up to see it from both sides of the relationship. Of course, she may actually be allergic to her husband, but......

I won't be posting tomorrow, as I'm leaving at the COD (crack of dawn... which is always silent, why do they call it crack?) to fly out to Texas for the big family reunion. So I'll hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you on Tuesday.

Oh... someone tell Chris I'm sorry. I went to a sports bar yesterday for lunch, and watched the Indians play the Yankees. Boy, that was a stellar performance :) Of course, now she'll want to make fun of my poor Orioles, who have been so bad this year that I'm not even following them. I guess I'm much more a football fan than I am a baseball fan. I love to go to games, but watching them on TV is much less exciting for me.

And finally, a quick pat on the back goes out to my friend Sushi, who is finding the strength of character to stop doing something that she knows is bad for her, but she loves dearly. Change like this is the hardest thing, but I am impressed. I'm just sorry I'm not going to get a chance to see her in the 30 minutes I'll be in town this weekend.