Michael Jackson is dead!

Sad news.

Michael Jackson is dead -- No, not the Michael Jackson with four famous brothers and two famous sisters.... I mean the BEER HUNTER is dead at 65.

Like such as and.

It's been a while since I've done the deadlift. Somewhere around January of this year, I laid the weights aside to work on calisthenic stuff (pushups, situps, dips, etc.) to prepare for my shodan test, part one of which is only about two weeks away now. Well, I was deadlifting today, in the yard, pulling up 2'x2'x2" concrete pavers, that I'm guessing weigh about 100 lbs each... 28 of them (just a small sampling of the kind of stuff that filled my new yard leaving no room for... oh... I don't know... maybe... GRASS!!!). A nice morning workout. We're paying a guy to come into our yard with machines to tear it up and level it down, and get it ready for a lawn. We're all very excited about having a nice yard for the kids to play in, blow stuff up in, throw a ball, set things on fire, or whatever.

In other news: We're gonna spend a few days at the seashore soon. I love the smell of the ocean air. I hope I can smell it, because I have a cold.

Oh, in case you missed it... recorded for posterity, an excellent example of the dim, shallow, empty generation that "U.S. Americans," is, along with "the Iraq," and "like such as and." --

Feeling good, feeling anxious

I had a good Lord's Day yesterday. I feel refreshed spiritually, which is just what I needed. I also had some good private worship this morning, reading some Proverbs which I will be trying to recall to mind and think about throughout the day.

I pray that the Lord will help me to be a better dad than I have been so far.

In other news: It's getting down to it. I have a few weeks left to get whipped into enough shape to pass my Shodan (black belt) test. I'm getting older, for sure. I'm sore all over today from the things I did Friday and Saturday. You know what though? I appreciate that I go to a school that requires hard work to earn Shodan, rather than a school that hands it out to just anybody. I get such test anxiety, and I'll be glad when this part of my training is done.

August 15th

August 15th is our 15th Wedding "University" (Daniel said that). I think what I'm going to do for my wife is haul all the yard trash to the local green waste drop off. Then have some champagne.