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It snowed here yesterday. 1/2 inch of accumulation. School was canceled today because of it.

I have a new bed frame. My queen sized luxury mattress and box springs no longer need to rest ingloriously upon the floor. It is made from black walnut and has 4 drawers. (The bed frame, not the floor)

My puppy is a year old

In two days, I will have been working at the same job, living in roughly the same place, for 2 continuous years.

In October, Olivia and I had been dating a year. Now it is more than that. Quick calculation informs me that it is currently something like 14 months.

My camera has been sent to the Best Buy Geek Squad to fix a (hopefully) minor problem with the viewfinder. I have a protection plan, so theoretically it won't cost me anything.

I miss my friends, and wish them the Merriest of Christmases, the Happiest of CKHannakahs, and the Most Joyous of Festivuses in the coming month.

Now where's my dad-gum figgy pudding?

SCUBA 2.0

Well, this weekend, I upgraded my SCUBA certification. I am now a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. I am certified to dive up to 130' deep (I've been 110 as of yesterday) and I can theoretically navigate in low visibility water armed only with a compass and the knowledge that 27 of my kicks is approximately equal to 100 feet of travel. It also turns out that doing 5 dives in one day is extremely tiring. Also, if I have not had time to brag to you, I just purchased a pair of Powerisers, and they are believed to be arriving on August 31st. Pictures, I'm sure, will follow, and perhaps even broken bones (although hopefully not..). There have been slip n' slides (homemade) and trips to North Carolina (camping on the beach was involved) in the past month, none of which were written about until this time, and I hope you, faithful reader, were not off-put by my lack of correspondence. Until next time, hang in there.

Tanning salon

Today, I spent nearly an hour in what I choose to describe as "a tanning salon catering exclusively to acrobatic contortionists". I spent the time between 7:30am and 8:30am, indoors, wearing gloves, sunglasses, balanced on a very precariously balanced ladder, in a narrow space, sweating profusely. In actuality, what I was doing was changing the

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four foot long fluorescent light bulbs on one of my exhibits, when the lights just happen to be situated in a 10 foot deep pit, where the only access is by a ladder that is 5 feet tall, lays on the bottom, and is only reachable by a grappling hook that I jury-rigged with rebar, a carabeaner, and some climbing rope. It was actually kind of fun in that "yeah, it's annoying, but this place is kinda cool" sort of way.

We also caught two sharks today. We were only going to catch one, but we got the wrong one first, and had to try again. It was a long day, but at the end I got to go see Avenue Q with Olivia, Kevin, and Christy. The show is well worth going to. It's hilarious, and I'll probably be humming "Schadenfreude" well into Thursday.

Anyway, goodnight from Tennessee. I'll probably be seeing some of you soon at Father's Day in Pennsylvania.

Home again, home again

Jiggity jig.

I'm back in Tennessee. Pictures to follow once I get a card reader to replace the card reader that I got to replace the USB cord that came with my camera that I lost at around this time last year. Go me.

Wildfire

I, like the dentist caught in an avalanche of dentures, and in Massachusetts. I arrived yesterday shortly after noon, and am spending the majority of this week imposing on the goodwill of college friends while we all attend Spring Wildfire 2010. Last year, this is where I learned to breathe fire and a few new contact staff tricks. The goal this year is to learn some poi tricks and some double staff moves, also not to drown due to the predicted constant rain that will joining us from Friday until Sunday. Pictures will surely follow after I get back to Tennessee.

Pictures that make me laugh

See if you can spot the thing that made me laugh in this one.


Miranda brought her puppy Mari to come play with Puck. Mari will be staying with us next week while Miranda and Josh attend a wedding in Wisconsin, so we thought it best that the puppies know each other before being forced to spend a week in close proximity. They got along like a house on fire. I think this picture makes it look like Puck is flying.

Circus and fencing with sharks

This Tuesday at work, I got to fence with sharks. Basically, I was handed a 3 foot long piece of 1.5" PVC pipe with some electric tape wrapped around it, and told "Don't let the sharks eat Jeff". Now, these are 8 foot long, 300-400lb Sand Tiger Sharks. They have considerably more mass and much more impressive dentition than your average Ivy League fencer, on the other hand, they are less likely to bite you than your typical saberist. Well, to cut the story short, Jeff is still alive, and more-or-less a whole man (the missing parts aren't my fault).

The next day I got to go to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Baily Circus in Knoxville. Olivia surprised me a couple days before and informed me that we would be attending, so despite an oncoming illness, I went and had a lot of fun. It was full of Cuban acrobats, Asian elephants, miniature ponies, some trained house cats, 6 lionesses, and an exuberant golden retriever. There may be pictures to follow. Mine aren't that great, but Olivia had her zoom lens and was able to get some better ones than I was.

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Well, I've done it again. Not learning my lesson from the incident in Miami, I went and got another dog. This one is a border collie/blue heeler mutt who was picked up free from a run down trailer in Union County, Tennessee. On the other hand, I do live in a bigger house, with an actual yard, and a job that allows me to EARN money rather than slowing the rate at which I lose it. After nearly a day and a half of trying names on for size, he has been harnessed with the moniker "Puck". (He was nearly stuck with Othello, because he's black, but the desire to name him after a troublemaker in a comedy rather than the main character of a tragedy won out.) Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my friend Puck

String is fun.
Playing is hard work

In other news, the Knoxville News Sentinel (newspaper in Knoxville...go figure) ran a segment about our aquarium. To do this, they came and followed the late night aquarist around for 3 hours, making it nearly impossible to do any work and asking lots of questions. How do I know what they did? I was that aquarist. Here is the 5 minute video supplement that was also run with the print version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgvQA48tiqI

That ought to satisfy my parents for my goings on for the past few days. Have a good weekend Mom and Dad, you'll probably have to watch that video at the library or school.

How I spent my New Year's Eve

In a fit of artistic...genius? genocide? Olivia and I drew pictures for the other to color. Here are the results. I'll leave you to guess which was drawn by whom.