Holiday Media - Book One - Slaughterhouse-Five

The semester ended last Friday for me, and now I'm on my Christmas Break. I'm going to try and read a number of books and watch a number of movies particularly between now and next Thursday when we leave for Indiana and from January 3-14, before classes start for me. I will try and give updates about each piece of media I consume (including CDs if I receive any for Christmas).

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

I received this book as a gift for my birthday from my wife. I have been told by many people that I would really enjoy Vonnegut, and so I thought I'd ask for a book of his for my birthday. I didn't have a chance to start reading it till this past weekend and finished it this morning. It is a dark, humorous novel that is a retelling of the Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany in World War II. As one who was present for this event, being held as a P.O.W. in Dresden, Vonnegut gives us a perspective of that event (and war in general), that runs contrary to how many would speak of it. This book is a reminder that war is not glorious. It is a gruesome thing in which we must dehumanize our enemies in order to make it glorious. War seems to be inevitable. However, Vonnegut paints a picture of a man who comes to accept the war through the means of seeing the world and its events as completely determined and always existing, so we do not have any sort of say in how things turn out. Through this acceptance, Billy Pilgrim lives his life, jumping about from moment to moment of his life (skipping about many years in an instant), for there is no now, but everything always has been and always will be.

Although I disagree with the way that Pilgrim comes to accept the evil in the world (and the world in general), I thought this was a wonderful book. It is a great commentary on the war and the unnecessary slaughter of humanity (particularly civilians) that occur in most wars. It is a very dark book with moments of humor that might make you chuckle a bit. When you finish the book and reflect on it, the idea makes you want to laugh until you are reminded that the idea of the book is found in reality. This book was my first Vonnegut read, but I already look forward to the next chance I'll get to read another one of his books!

Currently Reading: Ludwig Wittgenstein - The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk
Faith, Film and Philosophy - eds R. Douglas Geivett & James S. Spiegel

Where I've Been...

These last two weeks have been crazy for me. I've traveled the country and experienced many significant moments, at least for me.

On Tuesday, November 13, I flew out of Waco for the Evangelical Philosophical Society conference in San Diego, CA. About the time I settled into the hotel room, I got a phone call from my mother-in-law. Her mother was not doing well and she was trying to get ahold of Jess to let her know. From that point on, my time in San Diego seemed tenuous. However, on Wednesday, I was able to reconnect with some friends from Bethel (some of which are my former professors, but especially after the trip, I feel like I should call them friends). I had lunch and supper with them and also spent time at and in between papers catching up and discussing things.

On Wednesday afternoon, I presented my first paper at a conference. The paper was entitled "Kierkegaardian Commanded Love". It was a brief synopsis of my master's thesis and was well received by all 8 people who came to hear it. It's even better when I only knew four of the eight! Half of the people came because they thought my paper title sounded interesting.

On Thursday, I was able to do my bookshopping at the conference where everything is half off. I limited myself to 8 books, but I'm quite excited about the 8 I chose. On a far more solemn note, while eating lunch with a friend at The Cheesecake Factory, I received a call from Jess letting me know that we needed to start booking tickets for a trip to Michigan. Her grandmother was going to pass away, and they were keeping her on the ventilator long enough for everyone to get back. So with the help of Brad (and no help from Continental Airlines), I got a red eye flight booked for that evening on American Airlines, which was my first domestic red eye flight of my life.

Friday, I arrived in Chicago at 4:40 am, and awaited my flight to Detroit. I arrived there about 9:30, and waited in the terminal for my lovely wife to arrive on her travels from Waco to Dallas to Detroit at 1:30pm. We were picked up by my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and my beautiful niece, Sophie. It was the first time I had seen Sophie since her birth in September. They drove us back to Jackson, and we went directly to the hospital. We got to see Jess' grandma while she was only semi-sedated on the ventilator and she seemed to interact with us. After some time, we left the room so they could take her off the ventilator, and we came back to hearing her familiar snoring, as she peacefully slept before passing away late that evening. Jess was present with her mom and aunt for her grandma's passing.

Saturday and Sunday seem like a blur. The thing I remember most is working on a slideshow of Erma (Jess' grandmother) for the viewing. I was glad that I was able to help out in some way in everything. The family loved the slideshow and I'm making copies on DVD for everyone to have at Christmas. Another neat thing is that my parents called on Saturday night from Ireland to express their condolences to Jess. That meant a lot.

Monday was the viewing, and it was neat to see how many people Erma had impacted. She was a woman of small stature, but was loved by all. My parents also came up for the viewing (after getting back from Ireland at 1am and working all day). That meant a lot too.

Tuesday was the funeral. It was the first funeral of someone that I felt like I had a close connection to that I was just there as family. Many family members shared at the funeral as well as many non-family people. The funeral home was pretty much packed. The one downside of the funeral was the officiating pastor, who among other things, butchered half of the names of the family members when reading the obituary. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Wednesday we spent some time with family in Michigan, and I did a wee bit of homework. That evening, we drove down to Berne, as we were celebrating Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday. It was the first Thanksgiving spent with family as a married couple. It was cool that my brother Jay turned down doing stuff with his friends when they called, and he told them that he couldn't hang out because he was hanging out with his brother and sister-in-law. It is a good feeling when your younger brother wants to hang out with you. :)

I actually got some good connecting time with each of my brothers over Thanksgiving, especially with Jared, even though he was back in Texas. I love my brothers and am so grateful for them. I'm looking forward to us all being together in Berne for Christmas.

Thursday evening we drove back to Michigan, as our Friday flight was an early one, necessitating us being at my mother-in-law's house at 5:15am. We stopped at Starbucks and we were off to the airport. Because we bought our tickets so late, we weren't able to sit together on the plane, which was sad. We arrived back in Waco around 1:15pm, and were picked up by Travis.

Friday afternoon was spent working on homework and then Friday night was spent going to the movies with Aaron and Bekah. The movie we wanted to see was sold out (No Country for Old Men), so we settled on Beowulf. I was pleasantly surprised with it and would recommend it to most anyone. It was really nice to be back in my own bed last night after 10 nights away from it.

Today, I did homework. Lots and lots of homework. Finished a paper, graded a bunch of stuff, started working on a lecture, etc. I'm just trying to get caught up as the end of the semester is less than two weeks away, and I sure have plenty to do.

All in all, it's been an exciting time. I feel closer to my family now than I did two weeks ago, especially my in-laws. More and more, I feel the distinction between "my family" and "Jess' family" shrinking, which is nice.

Don't expect much from me soon... I'll be in the world of trying to finish a semester strong!

Chops of Brilliance

There is a conference currently going on at Baylor right now celebrating the life and writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the leading Jewish theologians/philosophers/thinkers of the 20th century. Many Jewish scholars are in attendance at this conference. As I am presently taking the Jewish Philosophy class, I have been attending some of the sessions, including the luncheons.

Today, we had a buffet luncheon provided by the food services here at Baylor. The buffet included a nice pasta salad, cooked carrots, Peruvian potatoes, some kind of pasta with sauce, and pork chops. Yes, we were served pork chops at a conference full of Jewish scholars. To the surprise of no one, many people were vegetarians for lunch today. It was quite funny, yet sad at the same time.

Maybe I'll write more of my thoughts about this situation at another time.

Life in Waco...

At one time I thought I might have something fun and interesting to say on here. I was wrong.

I mean, I have fun and interesting thoughts... I just don't think they're fun enough nor interesting enough to post on here.

Maybe next time.

Until then...

Waiting for tomorrow...

The last few days, I've been living the life of a bachelor again, as Jess has been in Jackson, MI, visiting our new niece, Sophie. During that time, I've been here in Waco alone, trying to get homework done. I also went to the rodeo on Friday night with the philosophy group. It's been a lonesome time, and not nearly as productive as I had hoped it would be.

I've found that my wife is a great source of sanity for me. With her absence, I find myself stressing out about homework far more. For instance, I have a paper that I've been trying to work on over the last 36 hours. I have one page... barely. There are so many things I want to write about, I can't choose one. I have a feeling if Jess was here, I would just write on one of them and go with it, for there wouldn't be this open-ended amount of time. I would want to spend time with her, so I would just do it. Similarly, I've been going to bed later and sleeping worse, waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, and struggling to fall asleep. I know, it sounds sorta pathetic.

However, tomorrow night, I get to pick her up from the Waco airport! :)

In her absence, I've been listening to the two CDs she got me for my birthday. She got me "The Essential Billy Joel" and "Bat Out of Hell" by Meatloaf. The inspiration for the Billy Joel CD came from her Valentine's Day gift for me. I knew that there were a handful of songs by Queen that I liked, but never was bold enough to branch out and check out a greatest hits CD. Well, I got Queen's greatest hits for V-Day, and found that I loved many more of their songs than I realized. I'd mentioned a few more artists that I liked a handful of songs by, in case she wanted to go that route again. Billy Joel was one of them, and I'm thrilled with his essential hits. I've found that there are many songs of his that I like. I highly recommend it. With Meatloaf, I've always liked the food, so an artist with the name of a food you like can't be bad, right? Actually, I'm a fan of rock opera, and "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is one of my favorite rock opera hits of all time. I had mentioned this fact to my wife once, and she surprised me with the first CD of the trilogy, and it's great! It's only 7 songs, but a full 45 minutes of entertainment. If you're a fan of rock opera or even Queen, check out Meatloaf... and the music by the artist of the same name is pretty good too. :)

I'm sure there's other profound things I could say here, but I'm feeling guilty about my paper... so back to work on that. Oh, and my wife comes home tomorrow. :)

Way Back When...

On my way to class this morning, I'm listening to the radio and they announce they are playing this next song for "Way Back Wednesday". I'm looking forward to a great 80s hit, or even something from 91 or 92. Instead, "Freshman" by the Verve Pipe comes on. This song was a hit during my late high school years, 10 years ago. It made me feel old that something from late high school could be considered as being "Way Back". I guess that's just how life goes!

On a positive note, my wife's 24th birthday is today! Happy birthday Jessica! :)

Madden and Me

Today Madden 08 was released, and thanks to some gift cards, I purchased my copy at Best Buy this morning. Given that we have a Wii, I purchased the appropriate copy. (Since I don't have any pictures of me playing Madden, I thought I'd include a picture of me boxing on the Wii and spare my wife of the pictures of her bowling and boxing.)


I managed to spend a shameful amount of time playing the game today. However, as opposed to just feeling slothful, like I normally do after spending the large bulk of a day playing video games, I also have a sore arm and a sore finger.

When playing Madden for the Wii, one must make a forward throwing motion to pass the ball, besides the pulling of the controller back when snapping the ball. In addition, one must jerk the appropriate controller to the left or right or push them both forward in order to help evade tackles or to make better tackles. These facts account for the sore arm. The sore finger comes from playing too close to a wall. As I went to stiff arm a defensive player, I rammed my finger into the wall. (For those who care, I did have a successful stiff arm and went for another 15 yards before being tackled.)

Although today was spent playing alone, it made me remember and long for the days of playing video games with close friends, often on a daily basis. During my senior year at Bethel, rarely a day went by without playing at least an hour of Mario Kart with my roommate and neighbors. The year after Bethel, while living in Mishawaka, countless hours were spent as four of us each played a team in a dynasty in college football. Every summer spent in Berne included many evenings in front of Ed's TV, playing some sports game or other. Although the games were fun, the people were what made the times great. In some circumstances, very little constructive language was used while playing. In others, the game was secondary to the discussions occurring between those playing and those watching about life, love, and everything else in the world. In each case, friendships were made and/or strengthened. Before leaving for Texas, I met up with two guys from Berne for a weekend of Madden. It was a memorable weekend, not so much because we played so well (although we did play really well), but just the camaraderie of three guys.

Today brought back those memories and more, and made me look forward to the day when those people don't live so far away, and also to the day when I will look back with a similar fondness on the memories and friendships strengthened through time spent together in front of a televisions screen here in Waco, where the game becomes secondary to the conversations occurring between all those involved.

A Brief Catch-Up

The last few weeks have been crazy, but I have emerged victorious... or at least I have emerged with my life. Either way, the stress has let up for a few days at least.

Last Thursday (August 9), I spent many hours in a computer lab, taking the Ancient and Medieval portions of my comprehensive exams. I spent the entire summer studying for this exam, and I feel like I passed. After investing so much time and energy, it just feels good to be done. Hopefully I'll still feel good about them when I get the grades back. Between that and the Harry Potter release party (I finished the book that Saturday evening), my life hasn't had much excitement up until that time.

After the completion of the comps, the test-takers went to Health Camp for a supper of hamburgers and milkshakes. Jess and I followed that with a trip to see The Simpsons Movie. I highly recommend it. I don't remember that last time I laughed so hard.

On Friday, my wonderful wife and I went to San Antonio for a belated over-night celebration of our one year anniversary. Our anniversary had been the previous Sunday, but due to comps, we stayed in town and she cooked a delicious meal while we had our cake. Our time in San Antonio was a nice break from the busy lives we had been living lately. We visited the Alamo and spent some time on the Riverwalk. On Saturday we visited Market Square before coming back to Waco.

This brings us today. I helped some friends move in, and in a bit, I'll be going with a friend to pick up Madden 08. I'm getting my copy at Best Buy tomorrow morning, but it'll be fun nonetheless. Tomorrow (and the rest of the week for that matter) will be spent with Madden and Michael Polanyi. I've been meaning to sit down and read through Personal Knowledge for some time, so I figure now is as good of time as any! I should also work on my paper I'm presenting at a conference in November.

With a new school year starting next week, I've done a little bit of thinking today about how different things look this year. A year ago, Jess and I were loading up the truck to make our trek down to Waco. We had been married for only 8 days, and Jess had no idea where she would get a job. I was trying to decide what classes to take, while having a good idea what I would do a dissertation on. We didn't really know anyone down here and all we had were each other. Now, we're helping other people unload trucks, we've been married a year, we know our way around here, Jess has a job, I know my classes, although I don't know what my dissertation will be on. More importantly, we've made some roots in Waco. We've met lots of great people and have made some great friends. We've found a church that we feel at home in. The best part of it all is that we still have each other.

Crazy Texas Weather

Tonight we had an interesting experience with the Texas weather. We were on our way home from a little concert we went to at a little coffee house about 20 minutes from Waco as we had our first experience driving through a Texas storm. In Indiana, it will storm, but more often than not, you have a nice gentle rain. In Texas, when it rains, it pours. And pours. And pours. It's the kind of rain where you have your wipers turned on high and it still doesn't do a whole lot of good. We encountered this for the last 2/3 of the drive home. Of course, you drive slower, but the longer it goes like that, the more the water accumulates on the roads. Even on the interstate, you drove through substantial puddles.

When we got off the interstate at our exit, we were forced into a parking lot on the side of the road, as the intersection we had to drive through was not just flooded, but was a raging river. While we sat in the parking lot, we saw at least 3 cars washed to the side of the road. We waited about 10-15 minutes in the parking lot, as our street was a one-way street and the intersecting road was worse than our one way street. While we waited, it had stopped raining where we were at, and so the sewers were able to play a little catch up. Eventually, it was drained enough that we could drive through it. It was still probably 4-6 inches of water, but it was much better than the 12-18 inches that had been there 10 minutes previously.

As we continued home, we drove through a few more substantial puddles. There was one in particular that when we went into it, I had a gut wrenching moment because it felt like it could be a doozy. However, it was manageable and we were able to make it through safely.

What happened tonight would be considered a "100-year rain" in Indiana, as in, it only rains like this once every hundred years. This year, however, we've had 3 or 4 rains like this in Waco. Luckily, there has not been a need to drive through it until tonight.

I think ultimately, it's just a crazy summer for weather here in Texas. It's mid-July and we have yet to hit 100 degrees. We're also probably 30-35" of precipitation above normal for the year. Last year when we moved down here, temperatures were consistently around 105 and there had not been any notable rain since May. My what a difference a year makes.

iPod Shuffle

So I've seen a number of people do a post where they set their iPod or iTunes to random and list the first 15 songs that come up. I'm joining the fun now with my iTunes (since the iPod is downstairs and I'm feeling too lazy to actually go get it right now).
1. The Color Green [Gloris in Excelsis] - Rich Mullins
A good start... you can't go wrong with Rich.
2. Heaven Heals - The Normals
This is quite possibly the least pathetic or bitter break-up song I've ever heard.
3. I Need Somebody - Chagall Guevara
Steve Taylor during his exile from CCM.
4. Just Missed the Train - Kelly Clarkson
What a voice... she's still my American Idol.
5. My Friend (So Long) - dc Talk
How much longer will their sabbatical last?
6. World Without End - Five Iron Frenzy
I wish they were still together.
7. Birdland - Buddy Rich Big Band
Great pep band memories from high school.
8. Down with the Ship - Seven Day Jesus
An under-appreciated CCM band with positive high school memories for me.
9. To Be Myself Completely - Belle and Sebastian
I really like most everything I've heard by these guys. They're definitely worth checking out.
10. Believe Me Now - Steven Curtis Chapman
How is this working out that so many artists with significance in my life (that I haven't listened to in awhile) are showing up on this list?
11. On Distant Shores - Five Iron Frenzy
The first repeat band, but not a bad one for sure.
12. The Remedy (I Won't Worry) - Jason Mraz
What a fun song... I'll always associate this with the summer after graduating from college and the reminder it served!
13. Grains of Sand - Sarah Masen
My favorite female vocalist of all-time finally shows up! I was getting nervous.
14. Fade to Grey - Jars of Clay
Who (besides me) thinks that Much Afraid was quite possibly their best album??
15. Will You Be Mine - Big Tent Revival
Good ol' Steve Wiggins!

This worked out pretty well, if I may say so myself. I'm sorta surprised that Sixpence didn't show up at all on this, nor did anything from any musicals, but that's the way it works out sometimes. If you haven't done this yet, do it.

As far as the rest of life, my German class finished today. I'll do my final translation over the weekend and then it'll be done. I will be able to focus primarily on reading for my comprehensive exams, while also working on my paper on Harry Potter and Personal Identity. I think the title may end up being "Will the real Harry Potter please stand up?", but we'll see if the papers comes together in a way that it makes sense for the paper to have that title. Also, on Monday evening, we fly out of Dallas to go to Tennessee for family vacation. We're returning to the same area we honeymooned not even 11 months ago, so we're definitely looking forward to that. Maybe in the next few weeks I'll get a chance to post something profound.

Late night/early morning thoughts...

It's quite late here in Waco, but I'm still up. The German translations had to be done, so I stayed up. Now I'm letting them set in a bit before looking at them again before bed, as there is a quiz tomorrow over the vocab in the sentences.

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on Monday. I feel so blessed to have parents that have exemplified to me a good marriage. The whole family is meeting up in Tennessee in about 3 weeks for vacation and to celebrate the big anniversary! When I think about the fact that Jess and I have been married for a little more than 10 months, 30 years seems so far away. Between now and then, I have no idea what will happen, but the possibilities are exciting for sure!

The decision to do a five-week intensive German class while trying to study for my first set of comprehensive exams will not rank among my best decisions of all time. I'm just hoping to still have hair left when this summer is done!

Jess and I recently became members at our church down here. It's a baptist church... so I guess that means we're baptists now. However, we're a part of the CBF (Central Baptist Fellowship), not the Southern baptists. Our church has really been a blessing to us as we've been down here. I like to describe it as the church home I always longed for but never believed existed. It is quite liturgical, following the church calender and the lectionary, while incorporating moments of silence, the ringing of the bells, responsive readings, Scripture readings, and the passing of the peace of Christ to name a few.

The word from the insurance company is that we'll get our car back by June 30th. That is exciting.

I went on a bit of a spree this afternoon while taking a break from reading. On Tuesday, iTunes adds the new releases to their store, so I was browsing through it. As I was browsing, I stumbled upon an album from a CCM artist, which led me down many rabbit trails in my trip down memory lane. In addition to the purchases I made, I looked at songs by Bryan Duncan, Bob Carlisle, Wes King, Gary Chapman, Al Denson and others. I ended up buying two songs: "Save the World" by Eric Champion and "I Surrender All" by Clay Crosse. The first song takes me back to high school and the positive affiliations I make with this song. The second song is one of my favorite CCM songs as a song of personal commitment, although I must say I prefer my brother Jared's rendition of it.

Surrender is something that isn't easy for me, but something that I recognize the need for more and more in my life. To what or whom do I need to surrender? My wife? God's will? Love? God Himself? I think some of those answers are better than others... and some of those answers aren't necessarily different.

Ok, I think the scatteredness should come to an end now, but maybe sometime soon I'll get a solid, cohesive post that actually says something interesting!

A Welcome and a Weekend

I have decided to make the switch from Xanga/Livejournal to blogger.com. I've been thinking of a good opening post for awhile, and although there have been a number of topics considered, the events of this weekend are just too much not to write about.

This weekend I went back to Indiana for a quick trip for Jay's high school graduation open house. I arrived in Fort Wayne late Friday night and flew out early on Sunday morning. I made it back to Berne with no problems at all. However, after being at my parents' house for about an hour, I get a phone call from my wife. She's in tears, as she was in an accident, hitting a parked vehicle while trying to find a friend's apartment. The car was not really drivable and she was shook up, but there were no injuries to her apart from a bruised ego, thankfully. We exchanged multiple phone calls over the next 14 hours or so as we were trying to take care of insurance issues and getting a rental car and all that jazz. Now, there is a nice little red car sitting in front of our apartment. I don't know why, but I've always found red cars to be a bit too flashy for me, and now having to drive one, my fears have been confirmed. However, that is not important to the story.

Saturday afternoon/evening I participated in Jay's graduation open house. My mom made far too much food, which she always does, but it was all excellent food. I also was able to reconnect with one of my favorite teachers from high school as well as a couple of dear friends that I hadn't spoken to since Christmas. Both conversations were welcome, as it is always nice to pick back up with people that you haven't seen for some time, and have it be as though you were never really apart.

I stayed up far too late with my family on Saturday evening, given that I had to be up at 4:45 to head to the airport for a 6:45 flight. My flight from Fort Wayne to Dallas was going very well up until we got about 100 miles from Dallas. The pilot came on the intercom and said that we would be in a holding pattern here for some time as Dallas was having thunderstorms. Ironically, when flying back from Josh and Stacy's wedding, we were unable to fly into Dallas right away due to storms. We eventually were re-routed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, as we began to run low on fuel. We got off the plane while waiting out the storm. Eventually, we reboarded and were off to Dallas on what was supposed to be a 40 minute flight. Everything was supposedly about an hour delayed at Dallas, so a 40 minute flight would leave me with 35 minutes to make my connecting flight to Waco. However, the 40 minute flight turned into a 60 minute flight. I began to get a little nervous as I now would have 15 minutes to make my connecting flight. We then waited at the gate for 10 minutes for someone to let us off the plane. I now had 5 minutes to make my connecting flight. However, the flight had been delayed an extra 10 minutes, so I had hopes of making it. I ran through the terminal (through 30 gates) with my bags, and made it to the gate with 7 minutes to spare. I walk up to the counter and ask about the Waco flight. They informed me that it closed about 2 minutes ago and I didn't make it. I pointed out the window and said that the plane is still at the gate, with the walkway connected to it. Is there any way I could make it on the plane? They said there was not, and I asked when I could get a flight to Waco. The next open spot on a plane was for Monday morning. This arrangement would not work, given that I have class in the morning and I'm not going to wait 20 hours for a flight when I'm a 2 hour drive away from my home. I asked about shuttling me to the Waco airport on the ground, but they said they didn't do that. I told them that I knew that wasn't true as they've done it for people I know. They then said that it has to be at the very least 10 people to do it, and that is only if there are not flights that day still or something like that. All this time, the walkway remained attached to the plane that I was supposed to be on. The flight time had been delayed an additional 15 minutes while I was talking to them, but they would still not let me on the plane. I finally asked about a refund for my ticket from Dallas to Waco as I'd just have my wife pick me up, and they informed me I'd have to speak to someone at the ticket counter, which is outside of security, which also meant that I would be unable to get any food or anything like that. I was informed that a partial refund (as opposed to a refund for the entire trip) cannot be handled at the airport, so they gave me the contact information to get my refund as well as a standby ticket so I could get through security to get food while waiting on my wife. I did check and see the likelihood of getting on the flight I was standby for, and it was overbooked... just like every flight from Dallas to Waco yesterday. There was no chance of me getting on since they were struggling to get people to get off. (On a side note, I did see the David Crowder Band across the waiting area. I thought about going to talk to them, but decided that I was in too fowl of a mood to enjoy an encounter like that. Anyway, I live in the same town as them. I'll probably run into them at Ninfa's or some place like that.)

So I waited for my wife to come pick me up in the little red rental car. I ate some lunch, translated some German, and read some Aristotle. Two hours later, she arrived, and we got back to our apartment around 5:00 pm. It was a long weekend to say the least, especially concerning transportation for the Schwartz family!

Before wrapping this up, I have one more beef with airports. On Friday night, my layover in Dallas was over suppertime. There was a Pizza Hut express near my gate, so I was going to eat there until I saw that it was $9.50 to get a personal pan pizza, breadsticks and pop... and there was only one pizza and one set of breadsticks in the warmer and the expiration time was about 10 minutes away, so they'd been there for awhile. I decided for $2 more, I could go to Chili's Too and get better, more filling food... so I did. It was good. But I don't understand why in the world they charge so incredibly much at airports for food apart from the fact that they can. Damn capitalism!

Anyway, welcome to the new home of my thoughts. I'll try to post semi-regularly with various thoughts about life and events that occur. Please comment when you like!