Bak 2 skool, yo...

I know, I know -- 3 1/2 months? 3 1/2 months since my last post and I have the audacity to call this a blog?!?!?

I'm not making excuses, but there are reasons, not least of which being that I haven't really had much to say. I can hear my family guffawing in disbelief, but no, really it's the truth. When I have more time and energy you can be certain that I will intrigue you with my incisive analysis of current events and politics, inspire you with my philosophical musings, infuriate you with my angry leftist rants and raves, expand your musical knowledge with insightful commentary on whatever music happens to infatuate me on a given day, and bewilder you with non-sequiturs and strange tangents of thought. You'll just have to wait. For now, this post will be a relatively brief summation of my life right now.

Of course you know that Wendi and I have been living together again for about three months now, that we took a vacation last month to Valley View Hot Springs in Colorado's beautiful San Luis valley, and that school has started again, all of which can be gleaned from Wendi's much more timely blog. She's no slacker when it comes to blogging, my wife, which is more than I can say for many members of my family, myself included.

Anyway, school started a month ago. I'm trying something new this semester -- these newfangled online courses that are supposedly the wave of the future. For the past two semesters I've been in class four out of five weekdays, and though I prefer to have a real live teacher for the interaction and feedback, the schedule exhausted me. It's an understatement to say that working a full day and going to class for 2 to three hours can be draining... perhaps "life-sapping" is a better adjective.

I'm taking the usual nine credits (3 classes) this semester, but two of them are entirely online, except for the exams. While it's nice to not have to be on campus four days of the week, the amount of homework and studying that need to be done seems to have increased exponentially.

Last semester I could go to class, listen to the lecture and come away reasonably educated, which negated me having to do anything else after I got home, apart from the odd bit of writing or calculating. Weekends I would use to get the big stuff done, and I could usually do that in one of the two days.

Not so this semester! This semester, I don't get no stinkin' edu-ma-cational lectures. No, I get to figure it all out my own dang self, be it chi-square tests of independence or an accounting schedule of disposition of assets (bankruptcy). It's actually consuming more time than last semester. It doesn't help that the two online classes I'm taking are Advanced Business Statistics and Advanced Accounting, which are junior and senior level classes, respectively.

Heck, Biz Stats was hard enough the first time around, and I had a good teacher. I even knew what he looked like. And that's on top of my regular class, another junior-level, Accounting Information Systems. My nose is deep in a thick, arcane text 6 to 7 days of the week lately, just so I can stay on top of things -- to the chagrin of my wife who thinks I'm being kind of obsessive.

Not to complain too much. I'm learning a lot and that's what counts. I even enjoy it (sort of) -- but I'll be glad when it's over!

Last Saturday, my wife and I had a nice date. We went to PF Chang's for a yummy, spicy and rather expensive dinner of scallops and a couple of mojitos to wash them down, after which we planned to catch Andrew Bird -- who, coincidentally, was the subject of my last post -- at the Bluebird Theater. I had been looking forward to this show since I found out about it (courtesy of Wendi) last week. His album "The Mysterious Production Of Eggs" has been growing on me, even moreso since my last post. A one-of-a-kind, introspective and thoroughly original talent is A.B.

But it was not to be. There was no joy in Denver that night -- Andrew Bird was sold out! I was surprised -- I saw him in 2000 at the same venue. He barely filled half the joint! Oh well, I've got the records to listen to, as John Lennon might say...

Wendi and I have been bewitched by the monstrously, horrifyingly, agonizingly cute pictures of our newest nephews, Maxwell and Cal, that have been circulating. Please you guys, keep them coming! I have a picture of young Cal as wallpaper on my computer and my cellphone right now, and as many times as I see his face, the little rugrat never fails to make me all soppy stupid.

Finally, a word of advice to everyone who has bicycle -- if you live in an urban area, lock the wheels with a cable! Someone stole both wheels off my bike this week. I can't imagine why, but they did. Curse you, bicycle-wheel-thieves!!! May my wheels bring you no joy and somehow bring you grievous bodily harm!!!