Journal Entry: June 2, 2008

Thursday afternoon, on my way home from work, I stopped at Ace Hardware to pick up a new garage door opener remote for T-- (one of our old ones just stopped working, and new batteries didn't fix it). It was cheaper than I'd expected, and I'd figured I would have to order it online, so all in all, it was a pleasant surprise. Worked right away, too.

Anyway, I got home about 5:00 and found T-- working in the yard. I set up the new remote, then took AB to the gym so T-- could finish up her work.

I met K-- and N-- there, and N-- suggested a new ab workout that might not leave me quite so exhausted as the hanging leg raises (and she was right), but it works muscles I haven't really been working before and, yeah, I spent all day Friday cursing her name.

After weight training, though, K-- and I did the second day of week 4 from my jogging program, and I saw a definite improvement. On day 1 I'd extended the last walking break by 30 seconds just to get through the final jogging bit. We didn't do that Wednesday, and it was still overall easier. That was rewarding. Now I've taken a four day break, and the strain in ankle seems to be all better, so I'm hoping I can finish out the week strong, today.

After the gym K-- and N-- went home to grab some dinner, and I picked up some Bueno for us, then I grabbed a quick shower before I ate. Right around the time I finished, D-- and K-- and N-- showed up, and we all watched the season finale of Lost. Good stuff. It ran until 10:30, though, since we were watching it DVRed, so I headed to bed as soon as everyone left.

Friday, I came in to work for the morning, then left at 11:00 to pick up T-- and the baby and head for Little Rock. Mom hadn't been able to make it to town the last couple times Dad came, so she hadn't seen the baby in over a month (and, as a result, was starting to get panicky). We had actually promised to go up to Little Rock for Memorial Day, thinking it was this weekend, and had to cancel on that for K--'s birthday party (among other things).

Anyway, we made good this weekend. We made it to Mom and Dad's place around 5:30, and sat and talked for a while while Dad heated up the grill, then Mom and I ran up to a liquor store to pick up some wine for dinner while Dad grilled the steaks. Sirloins and filets mignonnes, my favorites.

Dinner was awesome. Getting to see my parents was cool. I ended up spending most of the evening downstairs with Dad, him playing WoW and me playing AoC. Finally gave up about 11:00 to head to bed.

Saturday morning, Mom took T-- and AB to the Little Rock zoo. I slept in. Around 10:00, I finally got up and stumbled downstairs, and Dad offered to take me out to breakfast. We went to IHOP, and took along his laptop so we could discuss my markup of his novel. It was fun. We were also leisurely about it, so when Mom and T-- called us around 11:30 asking about lunch plans, we had to admit that we were only halfway done with our breakfasts. They settled for Wendy's, and we went out for an early dinner later in the afternoon.

Meantime, though, we went back to the house and watched Stranger than Fiction, which I had lent them because Mom had never seen it. She finally got around to it on Saturday, and we all watched with her. Such a good movie.

Then we went out to dinner. The plan was to visit a dive of a pizza joint that Mom and Dad had heard much about, but when we got there found it "Closed for Marcus's Graduation! Congrats, Marcus!" or something to that effect.

So we went way out of town to some other pizza place that Mom and Dad like, but they weren't offering the buffet because it was Saturday, so we tried the nearby barbecue place, and found it closed (with chains across the entry drive), and by that time there was much talk of a dinnertime curse. Josh mentioned another barbecue place Dad had twice tried to take him to (on Mother's Day and Memorial Day) and it had been closed both times. I'd been there before, and it's some fantastic barbecue, so I petitioned for that, and eventually we drove the twenty minutes back into town -- probably nearly an hour of driving around trying to find places, total -- and ended up at Whole Hog less than a mile from my parents' house. It was good, though. So good.

Then Josh and Dad and I spent the rest of the evening downstairs, playing games and working on Josh's laptop (which is having some weird problems). I played Mom's WoW account for a couple hours and it was a strange experience. It hasn't been that long since I've played, but playing another game with only-slightly-different-controls since then made the whole thing a bizarre experience.

Sunday morning we went to church, and in class we talked about raising children (and how much different it was in the good old day), and I objected to nearly every point the guy was making through the first half of the lesson, but I didn't feel like derailing the discussion just to bring up my objections. Besides, he had the whole class on his side, so it would have been a hard-fought debate and I wouldn't have won.

Then the sermon was on the passage in Matthew where Jesus suggests cutting off your arm if it causes you to sin...and I gained a flash of insight (entirely unrelated to the preacher's take on that passage) that made good sense of the passage for the first time, to me. I'll probably write up a little sermon of my own on the topic to post up here, today or sometime this week.

Then Mom and Dad took me to lunch at P F Chang's, because they finally got one in Little Rock and they know it's one of my favs. It was delicious, too. Then it was already 2:00 by the time we got home, and a storm was rolling in, and we had a five to six hour drive ahead of us, and it was time to go. We packed our stuff, said goodbyes, waited out a major downpour, and got out the door at 3:00.

As part of a complicated favor for my sister's in-laws (who are good friends of my parents'), we'd agreed to drive the in-laws' minivan from my parents' house to OKC. So T-- took the minivan (and AB, thankfully), and I drove the Honda back home. As a result, I got a long stretch of alone time, and nothing to do but think.

I listened to all three of my French CDs (Patricia Kaas's Tour de Charme, George Brassens's Les Copains d'Abord (1 de 2), and Francis Cabrel's Samedi Soir Sur la Terre). I haven't listened to them in at least a year -- it's generally only on long drives like this that I do. I love songs on each of them.

Actually, Cabrel has a song, Je t'Aimais, Je t'Aime, et Je t'Aimerais (which means "I loved you, I love you, and I will go on loving you") that is one of the best songs I've ever heard. It may be my favorite song. Right now it is, anyway.

But I got home and looked up the lyrics, because I can only translate so much of that at high speeds, and one of the lines that I'd thought was "nous se regardait" meaning "we watched it all happening" (which, I now realize, would have to be conjugated "nous se regardions"), instead appears to be "nu sur les galets" which, close as I can tell, means "naked on wheels."

That's not quite the same romantic imagery as the rest of the song. Maybe there's some prettier way to translate it.

Anyway, "naked on wheels" or not, it's a beautiful song.

Also, I noticed that dude uses the word "tellement" ("too much") in every single song on the CD. Odd.

But, yeah, we made good time despite the storm and got in around 8:30. We had some dinner, I got some stuff ready for work this morning, and then it was already time for bed. That's a weekend come and gone.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.