A pointless trip down memory lane

As we were driving to Ikea this afternoon, we happened to be passed by a motorcyclist. Today, unlike other days, this sight vividly brought up memories of my father's motorcycle. During his brief bachelor period (in between marriages), my dad finally got himself a motorcycle (my mom would never let him have one). It wasn't some cool chopper or a zippy looking crotch rocket, but rather a BMW touring bike that sounded like George Jetson's flying saucer. It really was a perfect fit, as my dad is a big dork. When he would use it to drop my sister off at school, she would always make him stop a block away, because she was too embarrassed. I, unfortunately, was never allowed to ride on it. My mom wouldn't allow it, and my dad, being the good guy that he is, respected the fact that she had 51% custody of me and didn't take me on the bike. He finally let me ride it just before he sold it, so that I wouldn't feel quite so left out. Of course, by that time I was living with him full time, so my mom couldn't really object. I still didn't mention it, though.

An interesting experiment

I just finished reading the blog of a guy's month-long project to eat for a $1 a day (linked to by Dubious Quality). Really interesting, though I have to agree with many of the commenters that the guy could have done a bit better for himself if he knew how to cook. Even a bag of onions could have livened up the monotony.

A's family is also 8 years old

As I may have mentioned before, my broad sense of humor has a definite twist towards what might be considered juvenile. This has gotten me into trouble in the past with a certain administrative assistant, who did not think that a banana peel in the recycling was at all funny. Now, mind you, I didn't put the banana peel there and it was kind of a sucky thing to do, but it was also hilarious. Luckily, now that I've moved offices, we've gotten ourselves a different administrative assistant. She's from the main office and so has gotten to know my dad (he works there), which therefore means she's already had some experience with my sense of humor as, you see, I got it from my dad. Although this was never in dispute, it really couldn't have been clearer this Christmas. My grandparents had gotten R and me a box of See's goodies, which happened to include a package of milk chocolate foil balls and a tin of extra fancy mixed salted nuts. Balls and salted nuts. When my grandparents left the room for a moment, my whole family cracked up. Shweaty balls, anyone?

Addendum

7. Floss more regularly.

8. Be less messy. This is really an ongoing project. I tend to have brief moments of neatness before descending back into the chaos that is my life (or, really, my apartment). I just don't know how people do it.

2007 also marks the changing of the calendar. This time, the switch is from "Japanese Woodblocks 2006" to "Nuns Having Fun." Although the new calendar is certainly more funny than the last year's, it feels like a step down in classiness. I hope that isn't a sign for the rest of the year.

And a happy new year

Well, 2007 has finally arrived. It made it here without my supervision this year, as a glass of wine seems to be enough to put me to sleep these days. I'm not really a New Year's Resolutions kind of person, but I'll do them for the sake of the blog. A warning, though: A few of these are really just things that must be done this year, and not so much things that it would be nice to do.

The Goals:

1. Continue exercising several times a week, and don't slack off when school gets busy. Just think of all the complements you got this Christmas, and also keep in mind Grandma's quip about how she hopes they can also expand the ring when you told her about how you had to get it re-sized smaller. Grr.

2. Continue doing the readings for class on time. It really paid off last quarter, so don't get lazy.

3. Get a firm figure on how much money Dad will be contributing to the wedding. We don't want a repeat of what happened when we went of to college, now do we?

4. Reserve a ceremony and reception location and a caterer this summer for next summer's wedding, so that these tasks don't have to be done during the school year.

5. Post, on average, every other day. I think I'll be shooting for every day, but life just gets in the way sometimes.

6. Send people cards on their birthdays.

Well, that's pretty much it. I hope you all have a happy new year!