I hope you have your reading glasses on.

'Cause this might be extra long.

I will tell you about all sorts of things, so have a seat, children.

I first must apologize for my lack of blogging. It will get better when I have the regular schedule of the semester. I'm even going to try to fix those broken links to the right and add some more later.

First random fact: J. had a party over the weekend for a conference that was going on here. End result: Much left over beer here. I've been drinking a lot of it. Today I told myself that I wasn't going to drink any today. You know, just to try it out.

Well, I felt so bad being chastised by T. and L. that my iron resolve broke. And now I'm drinking beer. (Maybe it will make this blog better . . . you never can tell.)

So the wedding was very nice. T. and D. looked very good as always, and their fancy-pants outfits didn't hurt. (I especially like lagirl's photo of T. right next to the one of her Dad giving the speech, where everything is out of focus except her teeth.) The church was nice, the weather was nice. Good job all around, people.

I was glad to finally meet C. and L. (We all know it will take T. and D. forever to finish their dissertations, so y'all should come out and visit. This goes for you too, Dr. Smooth. It seems L. is unemployed for about 6 months every year, so what's the holdup?) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Good or no? [If either of you are accosted from afar by someone yelling movie titles, it will probably be me.] I guess this should read: CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY?

My three separate flights were only delayed a sum of thirty minutes my whole trip, so I guess I beat J. on travel time by something like a light year. (If you would like to hear more of this, and the flooding in Houston, give him a call, I'm sure he'd be happy to discuss it.) I did have to sit by two children on the way from Burbank to Phoenix. Fun. I didn't think there was that much room to crawl on the floor between aisles on Southwest, but "Cody" or "Dusty" or whatever the hell his name was proved me wrong.

After SD I went to LA for a few days. I had never been there before either. It was all right. I didn't hate it or anything. I resisted the temptation to have my sister drive me around to locations from scenes in _The Big Lewbowski_ and have me reinact them and take pictures. I was pretty close. We went to the Farmer's Market in Santa Monica? Had some falafel as big as my head. We went to my brother-in-law's brother's house in Malibu? (it overlooks the ocean). We went to UCLA where my sister works. We drove around and went past all the tourist crap, Mann's Theatre, etc. Saw the weirdos dressed up as other weirdos. Saw the worst SpongeBob costume ever. It looked a child molestor. Didn't actually see the HOLLYWOOD sign. My sister would say, "Oh, if that building wasn't there you could see the HOLLYWOOD sign. We can see it when we move." But, of course, when we moved I was inevitably looking at something else. Drove around on the strip. I was really hoping to see some washed-up 80's hair-band rockstars, but no luck. Went to a comic book store. [I talked to M. about novels for quite some time at the Holiday Inn Bar, but we never got around to comic books . . . why is that?] Stayed at my sister's condo in Westwood. Watched a lot of baseball on my brother-in-law's HDTV. That was pretty good. Stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Encino that overlooks the valley and Van Nuys airport. Went to Inspiration Point. That was pretty. Went to the Self-Realization Garden; saw a box with some of Ghandi's ashes in it.

I didn't take any pictures at the wedding. Other people had cameras, and I was already carrying much stuff, etc., etc. But, I do have pictures of random crap in LA, if anyone is interested. I'll post one here.

I must admit, I really liked the lizards. We don't have lizards in the midwest, so I took many pictures of random lizards.

(My mother just called, so I was unavoidably delayed. So that "hour" estimate may have been hasty.

So, I'm getting ready to move, packing and all. I'm also reading John Cheever's _The Wapshot Chronicle_. Good reading, folks, I recommend it. Here is a sample:

"At the camp Leander threw some hamburgers onto the stove lid and when they had finished supper they went to bed. Coverly asked if he could read.
'What's your book, son?'
'It's a cookbook," Coverly said, looking at the cover.
'Three hundred ways of preparing fish.'
'Oh Goddamn it to hell, Coverly,' Leander roared.
'Goddam it to hell.' He took the book out of his son's hands, opened the door and threw it out into the night.
[. . .].
Coverly knew that he had offended his father [. . .]. The sense was not only that he had failed himself and his father by bringing a cookbook to a fishing camp; he had profaned the mysterious rites of virility and had failed whole generations of future Wapshots . . . "

Then they go to a nudie show at a fair. There's virility for you!