Today, I have approximately four hours right now before going to the Sox game to do the following:
Eat lunch.
Go to Sportmart to purchase needed camping equipment and accessories.
Clean out my car's trunk and passenger compartment.
Watch for my neighbors to give them the tour of the home and instructions for what to do with the dogs while we're gone.

These are very doable tasks in this time period, supposing everything goes well. I just hope my neighbors are around. I don't want to have to leave a note with the key somewhere for them. It's easier to just show them what to do. I also have to write my weekly "Way We Hear It" for work tomorrow, but I'll probably get up early enough to do it tomorrow morning before work. That has seemed to work well in the past.

So, no more talking and more doing. I'll get to "play" and "relax" at the Sox game later. Yeah...

Here's a cutline (caption) I just wrote. I bet it goes over the heads of 95 percent of our readers, and maybe 50 percent of you self-proclaimed geeks out there:

Platinum: Falcons WR Peerless Price is expected to be the catalyst in the offense’s uprising

(With apologies to Jim, who wrote something similar months ago) I wrote a poem. Enjoy.

I need to get away.
I need to get away from work.
I need to get a way around the terrors of the mind.
I need to mind those things in order to get around them.
I need to find a quiet place, enjoy my surroundings and let it all melt away.
I need to sit on the beach at night and look at the stars and the moon and the planets and dream and think and wonder.
I need to observe a meteor shower and be amazed and filled, again, with wonder.
I need to say an important prayer when I arrive at the campsite this time, instead of getting caught up in the anger of being late like last time.
I need to assess myself.
I need to not come to a conclusion, but clear myself up on some things about myself.
I need to communicate better, since so many people I think really know me seem not to understand me at all.
I need to wander the darkness of the island and play night-time capture the flag.
I need to figure out how to grow up without acting my age.
I need to figure out where I'm headed.
I need to figure out if that's really where I want to go, and if not, how do I jump these tracks and land on new ones?
I need to figure out if the casualties from a proverbial train wreck like the potential one above would be worth the risk?
I need to sleep amongst the trees.
I need to not be interrupted in the night by some damn animal that shouldn't even be there in the first place.
I need to stop the empty spots in my life from growing and consuming me.
I need to think of ways or find people to fill the empty spaces in my life so they stop growing.
I need to fill the empty space in my savings and checking accounts, not because money buys happiness, but because it frees my mind.
I need to stare at a campfire and lose myself in the flickering.
I need to recharge my batteries, because it's going to be until at least March until I can take another long vacation.
I need to find my own direction.
I need to find the courage to go in that direction.
I need to find the courage to believe and persist in that direction.
I need to jump any canyons that might be in the way and never look down.
I need to remember who I am or rediscover myself.
I need to know why.

I'm so ready right now to go camping, it's not even funny. I'm just ready to get away...since this is the last vacation I'll have before, say, March. But now I'm sleepy...so off to bed. Not much to report right now.

Today I seemed to start out in a great mood and full of energy...after seeing the highway at a standstill in the OTHER direction, I was happy. I mean, I felt bad for the person who crashed and blocked the entire highway (people were out of their cars, sitting on the median, because traffic wasn't going anywhere, a la a C.H.i.P.S. episode I remember), but I was happy it wasn't in my direction. But in the past few hours, man, things have turned a bit...I feel tired and a bit crabby. I don't know why either...I'm making nice progress here with my tasks at work, I've made some solid plans for the next couple days and camping and none have really fallen apart. I haven't gotten any ridiculous assignments like Laz does or anything of that sort either. Just odd...

So I just don't know. Strange. All I know is, right now, I have no desire to get any of my other work done, even though much of it is due soon. Life and the brain are weird, I tell ya.

Working on finalizing my camping trip...it's going well. The hard part will be packing all the stuff plus me, Barb and Pete into my Grand Prix. That will be tough. But we should be able to do it, I'd think. I just keep worrying that I'm forgetting something, which is why I'm going to Sportmart in the next few days to buy a propane lantern and see what I might need.

I hadn't posted since not eating. So for all you guys know, I died of starvation. :) I ate once yesterday and twice today, so I'm OK.

I also got another good night sleep yesterday, so that was huge. I'll probably go to bed soon, though I always say that and never do.

I got a nice amount of work done today, and also took care of a few camping trip issues for next week. I also finally sent out an email about Ghetto Bowl, which a lot of folks have been wondering about. Here's hoping this is easy...yeah right. :)

Otherwise, there isn't too much to talk about today.

All right. Urban Therapy Wedding photos are up. I still haven't eaten...I'm almost afraid to. :)

Well, Barb has a blog now, and she's like, all smart and stuff in her first post. Go read it! Now!

Also, I'm back to Haloscan commenting. I anticipate much anger. :) Email me if the dumbasses are down ever.

Part of me wants to go back to bed, part of me wants to be sick and part of me is hungry and wants to go to Noodles & Co. and eat.

I just watched most of a Gilligan's Island episode upstairs with Gerard. I found out, he nearly threw up this morning, so he's feeling sick. That's not good in my "weakened" state. Let's hope I don't get sick.

Otherwise, that's that for now.

I don't get it...I can't seem to load my view any blogspot blogs on my computers...strange. Yet, I can post here OK.

Well, don't any of you call me at work today...I'm not there. I stayed home because I felt terrible this morning, partially because I went to Hawkeye's last night and was bombarded with three shots at the end of the night and partially, I believe, because my body's finally saying, OK, time to rebound from the weekend. I'm just flat-out tired, and I slept until about 15 minutes ago. Like, truly slept. So this will be nice.

Luis and Monica bowed out of the camping trip yesterday, because (in good news) Luis got a new job, finally. That's good. But I am a little disappointed, as our group of originally seven is now down to four, and one of those four is coming on Day Two of the trip. It'll still be a fantastic time, no doubt about it...but I am a little disappointed. :) Ah well...

I've got things to figure out for camping and I have to get the Ghetto Bowl Draft and BBQ in order this week before my camping trip next week, so folks know when to come. Also, I need to upload my few Urban Therapy Wedding pics so whoever wants them can have them. Yeah...

I just had a great radio moment...apparently, one of our former contributors has done his top 50 players regardless of position for another paper. I had not seen this, and the host, whose show I've done since I've been here and is really cool, brings up the top 10. He goes through the list and mentions that Tony Gonzalez is tied for second. I say, "What?" He says, "Wait, Todd Heap is tied with Jeremy Shockey for 9th."

I just bust out laughing, seriously laughing, live on the radio, for a good 30 seconds. I'm still laughing now. Todd freakin' Heap is among the nine best players in the NFL, regardless of position (ALL POSITIONS)? Are you KIDDING me? We spent five minutes on my befuddlement and why I thought that was nuts, let alone putting a tight end in the top 15, period. Tight ends are EXTRA...extra blocker or extra pass-catcher. They are not integral to the team's success. T-Gon is a phenomenal player, no doubt, but the Chiefs can live without him, as could any other team. In fact, until they took the focus off him and put it on a capable back like Priest Holmes, they were average. Now, the only tight end who would belong in or around the top 10 would be T-Gon, but the others, no.

Todd freakin' Heap. Boy, that made for good radio. I still can't believe it. I'm off to Hawkeye's for 10-cent wings and camping planning.

First of all, I'm obsessed with this song that I heard on the radio by a band called "The Used." I knew my little brother would know who it was and what song, and I had a good feeling that he'd have the CD. Lo and behold, he did, and he even said it's like, his favorite band right now. So I borrowed the CD, and quite frankly, most of the songs are annoying (for the same reason I don't like the White Stripes except for "The Hardest Button to Button"--the dude just screams and whines most of the time instead of singing).

But there's this one song, called "Blue and Yellow," that has me completely transfixed. I listened to it at least a dozen times straight on the way to work. Maybe it's because I can't exactly figure out what the song is trying to say, on top of the fact that it's just a fantastic song. You may have heard the song: The hook is, "Should've done something but I've done it enough/By the way your hands were shaking/Rather waste some time with you/Should've said something but I've said it enough/By the way my words were faded/Rather waste some time with you." No idea what that means, because the last line throws me. Otherwise, I'd have it figured out.

Secondly, since there seems to have been some confusion, I will explicitly state it here for those of you who don't know or haven't figured it out. Donna and I broke up in March. There were folks who did not know this, and I apologize for the confusion and for not telling you sooner. Of course, when she talks about her boyfriend in her blog, and his name is not Andy, I figured you'd all have figured it out. ;)

Finally, I will work on getting my comments back up and running (either by paying or switching somewhere) soon. I know you all have things to say. :)

One more finally: I'll get my digital photos from the Urban Therapy Wedding up some time, though I was looking, and noticed I didn't take many...and those I did take are of one or two people here and there or group shots that everyone got, really.

All right...time to work into the routine. I work every Sunday from here on out. Yeehaw. :)

Quick blog before I go to bed...

This might sound depressing, and it did get me down a touch on the way home this evening. This weekend was, by far, the best time I've ever, ever, ever had with you NU folks. It's not that the other times were bad or average...it's just that the weekend surrounding Troy and Eulalia's wedding rocked so hard. This weekend ranks up there in my entire life in terms of great times/events. And now, of course, it's over. Laz, Kelly and Chi Chi are gone tomorrow, Nathan left today (it's still Sunday to me), and Jim, Donna, Kim, Nick, Anthony and that bride and groom character are at home or heading home Monday.

It's not a depression in that it'll ruin the weekend, because no, it won't. It'll only make me appreciate it more, really. It's simply the post-party realization that life's about to kick back into gear, and in a big way this week at work.

Many of you guys had never seen me having as good a time as I had this weekend...I was giddy. I was silly. But I was having sooooooo much fun that it didn't matter. And I know you guys enjoyed that part of me and seeing me just cut loose and not really give a crap about things. :) And I wasn't even drunk...I may have gotten a bit tipsy on Saturday night, but that was about it, and I came down from that really quickly. I was on such a natural, happiness high that I was able to stay up so damn late on Saturday even after such a long day.

I know folks will say that the following thing is silly to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't think that there will be another event in the history of "The Ghetto" that will top this past weekend. I truly don't. Things will come close, but never reach the heights that the Urban Therapy wedding reached.

More on the Urban Therapy Wedding later...and you can read all about other thoughts, events, post-party wrapup at almost all of the blogs to the left. Goodnight all. You guys are the absolute best, and I'm happy to have spent this weekend with all of you. :)