Good-night sweet prince…

I said farewell to a good friend on Wednesday. He saw me though tough times, sad times, boring times… but mostly happy times, as he has been a friend for the last two years of my life – two of the three years that I’ve known Brittney. But I digress.

He may not have been the most healthy of friends – his vision went out at one point, and some of his vital organs went bad – causing a sad face or two, but he stood by me none-the-less. He fought through his imperfections to shuffle me up some goodness, and provided us with hour after hour after hour of entertainment on the countless roadtrips Brittney and I have been on in the last two years.

But, like those that came before him, he lived a full life and eventually had to go the way of the eBay. I dressed him in his finest suit, laid him in his coffin surrounded by his favorite possessions – his charger, his USB cable, his snug plastic case – and sealed him up for ever more. Brittney helped me to bury him in the mailbox that would lead him to his final resting place – Arlington, TX.

I just wanted to give a public “thanks for the good times,” and to relive some of those good times with you. The following are some of my favorites:

His first trip to the beach

The time Jack “commandeered” him and we ended up partying until Jack passed out and I was able to take him back

When we took gold at the Winter Olympics

And one of my favorites, iPod day at Disneyland. Christian’s music was way too loud.

…and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Surfing

Fun fact number 33: I have never been surfing. Normal surfing, or the mutated “super-terrific fun” version – wake surfing. I have been wakeboarding, thanks to Brittney’s family. I never even really liked boating before I went with Brittney’s family – when it literally became sink or swim. I had to like it or they would have rejected me as a possible suitor, and fitted me for a nice pair of cement galoshes. They are hardcore.

So anyways…. I don’t surf. I lack the ability to stop water from gushing into my brain cavity unless I plug my nose with my hand, so I don’t think it would go well.

Random post tonight, but I haven’t posted for a couple of days and I felt I owed it to my fan. Thanks for reading, Mom.

Shipping

I think those boys were on to something with the Pony Express. Being able to ship things is great and all, but I don’t know that it is worth the price – the price of having to deal with packing peanuts. There are few substances in the world worse than the styrofoam packing peanut. First off, they are made of styrofoam, which feels, sounds, and tastes like uncomfortable and pain rolled into foam form. Secondly, they somehow go from having weight to not having weight at any moment, so they can just go flying off in any direction they feel whenever they feel like it. They are impossible to move in an organized and contained manner. Just try and dump a box of packing peanuts into another box. Try it. It will quickly deteriorate from a simple task into Thunderdome. Thirdly, why on earth would you ever choose packing peanuts over bubble wrap?!? That is happiness and joy encapsulated in tiny plastic bubbles. Every time one of those bubbles is popped the world becomes a happier place. Plus bubble wrap has decided to obey the laws of physics so you can easily remove it from, and place into, countless types of shipping containers.

So I’m formally submitting a plea to the world, in blog form, to please, please, STOP USING PACKING PEANUTS. They are horrible. I would much rather have you use real peanuts. I like baseball, and could use the snack food for Owlz games. I will include a picture of the accused so that you will know the offender when you see it, so that you can avoid it like the plague that it is.

Just remember that it hates you and only wants to make your life harder.

Awwwwwwww…..

Isn’t this cute??? Adorable.

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Nature has a weird sense of humor.

Dante

Fun Fact: I have a dog. His name is Dante, and he will turn 9 in a little over two weeks. He is the best and greatest dog ever. He is an Alaskan Malamute, and weighs in at a little over 100 pounds. Unfortunately he doesn’t live with us because we can’t have pets where we live, but we are hoping he will someday. He has been included in the running for the title of the All-time Champion Dog, with his fellow contestants being Lassie, Clifford, and the real darkhorse of the competition, Cujo. I think Dante is in the lead spot going into the final voting period. We’ll see how it turns out.

Birth

Fun fact: I was born in the year of the monkey. I don’t even like monkeys all that much. Don’t get me wrong, I find them as comical and entertaining as the next guy; despite a rather traumatic monkey encounter I experienced one fine June 5th at a German zoo. Here are some of my favorite animals (edit: In no particular order):

Toes

Does anyone know why we have toes? Would we be any worse off if they were all just fused together, turning our feet into a blade-like appendage? We could lose the toenails, which also seem pretty pointless – maybe they protect our toes from small, fairly light objects from hurting our toes more than they would with no nails; that would save us from wasting precious minutes clipping our toenails every week or two and eliminate the risk of painful ingrown toenails – and also save me from the disgusting stories people feel the need to tell me about their ingrown toenail experiences (I’m talking to you, 11th grade English teacher Mr. Kennington). But back to the toes themselves… Its not like we need them on an individual basis like our fingers, but we would lose that delightful “This little piggy” song – or it would at least have to be severely shortened. No toes would lead to fewer broken toes, and probably a lot faster swim times. I guess there are some good reasons to have them… I just don’t see them. So if anyone could enlighten me on the purposefulness of toes, it would really help eliminate this nagging feeling of lost opportunity every time I look at my feet. Thanks in advance.

Funnish Fact

The first concert I ever went to was a Beach Boys concert for my mom’s work party (WordPerfect) when I was 11. The last concert I went to was Death Cab for Cutie. That was a long time ago, and I am going to make a concerted effort (pun absolutely intented) to attend more good shows. I plan on starting next month by going to see Muse with the tickets that Brittney so awesomely got us for my birthday.

The Letter Z

The letter Z is the hardest letter in the alphabet to pin down. Why is it that in the States we spell it “organize,” but in Britain it is “organise?” And why do they call it “zed” in Canada but “zee” here? Why can’t we all just get together and decide, once and for all, what exactly this letter is, and how we use it? We need to set some solid boundaries for that jerk of a letter, and show it who is boss. Don’t even get me started on that needy, clingy little letter Q.

Cookies

Fun fact of the day: cookies are probably my favorite food.