Archive - 2006

Here's an interesting social conundrum that has raised its head recently: We used to have some fairly close friends, a guy who worked in same firm as me and his wife. This friendship got to the level of sometimes going on vacations together, being invited to family events like weddings and birthdays, that sort of thing. We had always had opposing political views, they being Chevy Chase Donks and us being Virginny Republicans, but none of us was especially political and the topic simply never got discussed. At least until 2000.have your cake and read more too!

The Iowa State University Cyclones lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes last weekend 27-17 in Iowa City. My wife Janis & I were in attendance, sitting directly behind the trombone section of the ISU Cyclone Football "Varsity" Marching Band in the North end zone. You want to know what OLD feels like? I was talking to one of the trombonists about the last time I'd sat in that section of Kinnick Stadium in 1986, when ISU was so bad we spent more time soliciting varied brands of liquor from our neighbor's wineskins than we spent actually watching the game.have your cake and read more too!

If you're making your spouse's lunch and you decide to include a banana, please be sure to tell said spouse before he or she jams the brownbag into his or her briefcase. This will ensure one fewer nasty surprises at lunch time. Ick.

"Mr. Knightley entertains his nephews." From the Jane Austen Society of the U.K.:

Emma Woodhouse regards herself as the most important lady in the village of Highbury, being mistress of her father's house and receiving the deference of all the neighbourhood. She is cleverer than most of her acquaintance, and loves to meddle and arrange their lives for them.have your cake and read more too!

I'm sorry, but I had to put this up to bump the poetry fest. I know Kathy's a "girly-girl" who likes all these sorts of fru-fru things, but she also possesses an appreciation of all things testosterone-soaked (with some minor exceptions), so I'm confident that she's happy with my football updates. Until she shows up at my door with a lead pipe & a blowtorch, I'll assume that my attempts to "butch things up" at Cakeeater Central are welcome. ISU won again last night, but it was closer than it should have been.have your cake and read more too!

I realize that I'm about two weeks too early. But after picking about a pint of raspberries from the garden for Sunday night dessert; a nice, cool, rainy day yesterday, and a nice, cool, misty morning today, I can feel my summer torpor slipping away. So I'm going to go ahead and post a tribute to my favorite season by one of my favorite poets:

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!have your cake and read more too!

It's currently three days and nine hours until Iowa State University opens the 2006 football season against Toledo. We're optimistic that the defense can replace their losses and continue their winning ways, and that the offense will benefit from another year's experience and realize their full potential. Many pundits are picking ISU to finish somewhere between 4-8 and 7-5, but you've got to remember that most pundits are idiots. Me? I'm looking at 8-4, with losses at Texas & Oklahoma, a loss to Texas Tech in Ames, and another loss in there somewhere. Can they do better than 8-4?have your cake and read more too!

Step 1: Me: You know, with all the bad news about the Iranian nuclear mess, I think it may very well be time to start considering taking some precautions - storing up rations and supplies, thinking out evacuation plans, getting papers in order - that sort of thing. She: Hmm. Maybe. Step 2: Me: Of course, this would mostly be about you and the girls, since any nuke attack on downtown Dee Cee by the bad guys would more than likely take me out as well. She: Uuuuuuuh......!!!! See? Easy!

It turns out that I will have to fly on bizness on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. So far, this seems more creepy than worrying to me. As anybody who's read my blog over the years knows, I'm already quite frightened of flying. But my fear is the irrational sort, the kind that makes me think the wings are going to fall off if I let go of my arm rests, not the rational sort that would make me concerned that the bad guys might try some kind of commemoration. Whatever the case, I reckon that's going to be one quiet and subdued flight....

I set out on my two week jaunt to Maine with a couple of biographies with which I intended to amuse myself while sitting on the porch overlooking the bay. The first of them, which I was already about halfway through, is Georgiana: Dutches of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. Georgiana was a prominant late-18th Century political hostess and like her Spencer descendant, the late, unlamented Princess Di, lived a glamorous high life but lacked both emotional stability and common sense.have your cake and read more too!