'Mustelid Stank' would be a good name for a 70s styled southern rock band.

Admittedly, I have a rudimentary knowledge of martial arts, but it was my understanding that "karate," or "the way of the hand" was developed in response to the feudal Japanese government's decree that only the samurai class would be allowed to carry weapons -- thus, a way that the peasantry could defend themselves from any violence visited on them by the samurai.

So, uh, it shouldn't make sense that a local karate dojo has a class called "Little Samurai"? Am I off-base here?

Kinda moot; the dojo went out of business.

Highlights from this weekend:
• Friday I took the day off for my ultrasound at the urologist. The day was a miserable kind of cold and wet because of the steady, stinging drizzle and I was sorry to see Christy head off to work into it. I cleaned the ferret cage and did some absent-minded cleaning around the house while I waited for Mom and Charles to arrive. At 11:00 they arrived and we drove out to the house Christy and I are looking to buy. Mom and Charles danced around in the gray mist and icy rain and peered in the windows. Despite being cold and wet they both were pleased with the house. We drove down to Rose’s Caribbean Restaurant on Main Post Rd. Mom and Charles had never had Jamaican before, so it was a real treat to see them actually enjoy it. We had hoped Christy would be able to meet us out for lunch but she couldn’t get away from the office. We finished up our meal and ordered take out for Christy. We dropped by the museum and I ran in and gave Christy her lunch. Mom and Charles drove me to the doctor’s office. The visit to the urologist went very quickly. I was done with the ultrasound in about ten minutes. It was interesting to see my kidneys and bladder up close and personal. After I got done we ran a couple more errands: I dropped off paperwork at Neighborworks and deposited our Christmas money from Mom and Charles in the savings account. After that, we drove down to Joeys Thrift Mall. Apparently, they were not into browsing that day. It was cold in there. Then they dropped me off back home and I played video games and cooked chili until Christy got home from work. We ate fresh chili for dinner, and then I left to go over to Jason and Lisa’s to record more for the book. Jason and I spent a couple of hours working on fixes for the preface and the entire first chapter before calling it a night. Christy and Lisa came in and we all sat around and watched The Departed until about midnight.
• Saturday Christy and I went shopping. All day. Not for a few hours. All day and multiple locations. We started at valley Rescue, then a thrift store farther up Second Ave., then over to the Salvation Army, then to the mall, then to Wal-Mart. We actually got a lot marked off of our list, including Susi, all the kids, and my mom. I also managed to pick up some interesting albums. Funny story- by the time we made it to Wal-Mart both Christy and I were tired, cranky and had to go to the bathroom. We walked in to our respective bathrooms. All the stalls were full, so I waited patiently. The door to the closest stall opened, and a young lady of about 20 or 25 stepped out. She saw me and gave the ‘wtf’ look and I gave her the ‘wtf’ look. She looked past me to the urinals on the wall and dawning realization crossed her face. All she said was ‘oh my god…’ and sheepishly walked out of the bathroom. Heh. That night we started getting ready for the ‘80s party. Jason and Lisa came over and we all got dressed up. We were late the start of the party, but it was lots of fun. About 15 people showed in costume. About two hours in everyone decided to go to Mellow Mushroom, but Christy really wanted to go to Lil’ Kims Cove, so we went there instead. Becky and Jackie joined us, as well as DrunkKaren and DrunkMolly, and also Amelia and Mike. We had a good time, but there were so many people singing that Christy was well lit by the time her songs came up in the rotation. We eventually left at around three in the morning.
• Sunday was slow starting. We both lay in bed until about 11:30. Christy eventually got up around 12:30. We didn’t do anything productive until about three then we raced to get all of the pecans spiced for the family party at five. We missed the start of the party and showed up with Dad about an hour and a half late. The Cargill Christmas party was held at the Eagle & Phenix Mills Lofts and it was very lovely. Christy and I were really tired, but we did enjoy spending time with the cousins. After the party, we just went home and relaxed a little before turning in.

longtimegone and I have way too much spare time and, apparently, an unhealthy oppression with snuggies. At least for today. I can't promise our attention won't be caught by some other As Seen on TV product tomorrow.

We started poking around on the internet, looking up snuggies and not only learned where they came from, but created an origin story: ( Snuggies Revealed )

Christy and I have had to let another potential house go. We got word yesterday that the really nice house in the really nice neighborhood with the really nice yard and the really spacious rooms was bid upon by a really nice couple with a really nice offer that was better than ours.

Over dinner at IHOP, Christy and I licked our wounds by imagining how much fun it would be to constantly harass this couple with passive-aggressive comments about decorating. “Oh…you were going to paint this room mauve. That’s… that’s nice. We were thinking that it would be the guest bedroom, but yeah….storage would work, too. Oh, the back yard? We were thinking Japanese garden but…sod. No, sod. What? No, sod is….sod is…it’s alright, really. Did you notice the sundial in the floor of the sun room? No? Oh, I see. We were planning to strip the paint off of it and see if it looked pretty. But….Carpeting! Oh, yeah…who needs to see the sundial anyway, right?”

Heh. So, yes- back to square one. I’m sure our broker David is beginning to wonder if we are going to become a permanent fixture in his life. I am beginning to wonder if we aren’t setting our sights too high, or if we should just remain in an apartment for the rest of our natural lives. We like our place now; it’s just becoming too small for our lives. Christy is convinced that we are being steered by a higher power to a house that will be just right for us. I am of the opinion that this higher power is an idiot for guiding us away from the last one. All we can do is keep trying, keep looking.

We got our first taste of bitter cold Saturday. The temperature when I left the house at 6:30 in the morning was around forty-seven, and when I got done with my duties at work at around 10:30, the parking lot was misted with rain and the temperature had dropped nearly ten degrees. The day remained cold and wet; the clouds alternately covered everything in a fine, icy mist or properly rained on everything without remorse. That didn’t stop me from going out into the day, and certainly didn’t prevent anyone else, either, as there were thousands of cars in the sprawling parking lot of the Walk-a-Mall.

We attempted to meet Hoyle and Linda out at Carrabba’s, but the restaurant only opens after 2p.m. on Saturdays, which I find to be a ridiculous business model. It’s not my restaurant, though, so we went with plan two: Ruby Tuesdays. Hoyle and Linda gave me a huge beer mug with Harley-Davidson: Kuwait on the side for my birthday. We chatted throughout lunch, but Hoyle seemed to be irritable and distant. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but he seemed very agitated. I’ll give him a call later on this week.

After lunch, Christy and I spent about a thousand years grocery shopping. Actually it was about two hours, but still. Buy the time the cart was full we were done with shopping. We drove ourselves and our groceries home in the cold, soupy muck and were happy to have a warm, dry home to return to.

That night Christy and I went over to Susi and Sonny’s for dinner and to watch Susi’s new favorite movie, Julie & Julia. Susi prepared a lovely meal of green salads with artichoke hearts, pork Bolognese, and for dessert a tiny chocolate lava cake. We sat in the family room watched Amy Adams fluster through a year of recipes and Meryl Streep capture the clumsy beauty of Julia Child. Christy thought the movie was a little too pat, and as always in almost any situation where there is a shift from one media to another, especially from book to movie, or in this case from blog to book to movie, something gets lost in translation. I still found it an endearing and sweet story. It’s good to have a hero.

Sunday was a non-starter for me. I was geared up to begin working on the book but I got a text from Jason letting me know he was otherwise occupied and that he’d call me later. I spent the rest of my day alternating between playing video games and eyeing my phone. This made me cranky as the day started to wind down and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do any work. Christy and I did manage to get laundry folded, though.

I am thirty-three years old. I have run one-third of my race, if it so happens I am actually participating in the hundred year dash. It’s more likely that I am just cresting the peak of the mountaintop. I hope I have a few years of breathlessly gaping at the vista from my zenith before I begin making the inevitable trek to the other foot of the mountain. As they say, it is all downhill from here.

My official birthday celebration began Tuesday night after I got off work. Christy and I met Susi and Sonny at the River Club for our traditional fancy birthday dinner. I had two martinis before bread hit the table. We did gifts between ordering dinner and being served. Susi and Sonny gave me a hilarious card that had a drawing of two showgirls, then two showgirls, then four showgirls, and underneath then it read, ‘Can you guess the song?’ When opened the card played a voice of someone singing ‘titty rump, titty rump, titty rump rump rump’ to the tune of Rossini’s William Tell Overture. Pure comedy gold. They also gave me these lovely figurines of Snoopy and Woodstock in Christmas get-up which will go lovely with our Peanuts Christmas tree we already have. Susi also got me the Lego Architecture Series model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Christy gave me a beautifully thoughtful handmade card and a silver Fossil watch with a deep midnight blue face that fades to silver in the center of the face. Dinner consisted of a cup of lobster chowder followed by filet mignon with warm chocolate cake for dessert. Dad chose wines that blended perfectly with the meal.

After dinner we went back to Susi’s and Sony’s so they could listen and critique my project I’ve been working on. They really loved it, but parents always love anything you do. Christy and I went home, relaxed and patted our bellies until about midnight, and then went to bed.

I took the whole day of Wednesday to fully enjoy my birthday. Actually, it ended up being one of the busier days I’ve had in a while. Christy and I woke up at 8:30 and got out of the house by nine to get some errands done. We deposited our earnest money from the house we didn’t end up buying into our savings.

Then I went to Aflac and printed out a couple of pay slips to bring with us to our appointment with our financial advisor. We drove to NeighborWorks at ten and met her in her office. We spent the better part of two-and-a-half hours talking with Nonie and getting our housing finances in order. As soon as we know what the word is from Fannie Mae on the house we want, we already will have the head-start on financing.

We were practically starving after our meeting. We drove out to Red Robin and had ourselves a wonderful birthday lunch filled with baskets of steak fries. While we were there, we kept seeing commercials for Jos. Bank for a suit sale, so we went over there after lunch to try on suits, but they were too expensive even on sale.

We drove over to visit with Adam and Andrea for a little while. Adam and Alasdair were zonked out on the couch. We walked over to visit with Andrea and get a grand tour of their new property. The big white house (practically a mansion, really) was filled with incredible woodwork and functioning antique electrical fixtures. Once the heating and air are installed, rooms aired and painted, banister sanded and stained, carpet laid, and furniture placed, it’s going to be a fantastic place. They have a lot of work ahead of them, but it’s going to be well worth the effort.

After visiting with Adam and Andrea, Christy and I went home and relaxed for a few hours. Mom and Charles popped into town at 6:00 and we went to dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse. Dinner was tasty and I ate entirely too much.Afterwards, we went to look at the house we want to buy, but it was too dark.The rest of the night Christy and I spent relaxing in the living room.