the return

i went swimming today and boy was it wonderful. at least until clouds starting coming in. actually, first i worked out a little and ran in our apartment’s workout room. then i went home to change, then went back to the swimming pool and laid out for a bit. it is all so conveniently wonderful. i've had this routine three days in a row now and sort of feel like a celebrity. not many people are afforded the time to to just kick back like i've been doing. but before you call me any names, i have also been working my tail off getting our apartment in order. on any given day i'll run about a dozen errands. our apartment is the building right next to the clubhouse so we have it made. way back in the day if i wanted to run it had to be outside, tanning involved going a few blocks to the park, and swimming was never an option unless i paid to swim in a the community piss pool. of course the pool will be closing soon i’m sure since summer seems to be winding down unfortunately. didn’t it just start? either way school starts in about two weeks so that will probably take up most of my leisure time. the place is great though. better than expected. our second story view of the parking lot turns out being a view of mountains galore. i’m sure we can see from boulder probably down past golden. and what sunsets this state has to offer.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006): a nascar natural goes from #1 to nothing, then realizes the importance of family and blah blah. i would never have seen this had i not been such an amazing friend willing to see crappy movies to please my people. as i expected it was very funny. so many times though there would be a big punchline, but then dialogue would start right up and the audience would miss whatever they were saying because the laughing was continuing on. you can blame a combonation of editing and the writers for that one. if it matters to you, which it may, 97 percent of teh humor is pretty crude and i thought that a good chunk of the jokes were quite sacrilegious, specifically all the mentions of "baby jesus". they also ripped on the french way too much and for that reason alone i'm dropping my grade of this movie. it was funny and entertaining and there are lots of great characters. and my hat's off to the work that was done to make the races look awesome with the cool fx and camera work. you get a lot of awesome perspectives you would just never see watching nascar. not that i watch that ridiculous sport. if you can stand the crude and blasphemous humor, see it.
flawed but worth seeing, C+.

the trip to california for the funeral was surely something to remember. emily and i drove out together and we get to a little outside of vegas when i realize i’ve lost my wallet, i think, somewhere outside of st. george. i mean, how crappy is that? i haven’t lost a wallet since high school. so we had to make the two hour trek back and after a bit of a scare, the gas attendants were finally able to produce my long lost wallet, unscathed. and off we went. we got into colton kind of late that night and met up at my grandpa’s house with mom, chris, and little joey. i remember that night kind of getting into it with mom about grandpa’s things and his will and other people involved. i suppose the night before the funeral isn’t the best time to be bringing all that crap up but i promise i had no intention of letting it get that far. i think i was just overwhelmed and frustrated like the next person. either way, after a little heatedness, joe and i headed up to our hotel for the night. on the way over kim called me and gave me some rather startling news. more on that later. the hotel was great. we stayed at the holiday inn express and were definitely satisfied. the downtime joe and i had together was awesome. he and i bonded and spent more time together that weekend than as long as i can remember. i don't think that sentence makes sense, but you get the point. truly one of the highlights of the trip.

our apartment is coming along so nicely. as far as décor, it looks nothing like our old placed. i’ve really tried to change it up as best as i can. all yesterday i worked on our bar swivel chair that was my grandpa’s. my aunt linda and uncle larry bought it for my grandpa and grandma for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary probably some time in the 50s, so everyone in the family has some memory or two, or three, sitting on the chair in the kitchen. i remember sitting there seeing my grandma next to me shortly before she died. it means a lot that i have it and i’m trying to get it looking respectable once again. boy was it filthy. i spent many hours yesterday taking it apart and cleaning the wooden part of it. there are metal parts that are badly spotted and i’ve tried that clr crap but it didn’t work. if anyone has any ideas, please send them this way. how does one make metal pretty again? today i hope to get around to painting it. i worked on it most of the day on our balcony (have i mentioned the view?) and it seems as though our apartment is on some trade route or migratory flight path for wasps. there is a small dormant nest in one of our vents out there, however these i think were coming from the mailbox downstairs. we saw a gazillion of them flying in and out of the unused box out there the first day we got here. these conditions were hardly ideal for spending hours out there. at one point i’d have three wasps flying all around me before i’d run off screaming to get inside. to this day i haven’t been stung by anything and i certainly wasn’t about to then. so off to safeway i go. i returned to the balcony with the new name of death. every five or so minutes a wasp would enter my domain and would receive a spray of my poison. i battled with all the might i had and only ran back in the house a couple of times when their sneak attacks would overwhelm me. using my grandpa’s chair as my shield and raid as my sword, one by one they fell and after destroying maybe ten of them i headed down to their nest and four more lay slain. time will tell today if i truly was the victor.

it's good to have the internet again.