2006 will be my Year

Actually, probably not. But we always try. "This will be the year that I..."
Fill in the blank with just about any idle threat to improve your body, mind or soul. I guess my only real resolution will be to quite my nasty habit of smoking, for health and financial reasons. Don't worry, I still support everyone's right to smoke if they chose.

HAPPY NEW YEAR's DAY!!!
New year's eve has essentially been a bust most my entire life. Either no party or a horrible party. My best experience is probably the New Year's eve I brought in with a group of complete unknown's--joined by my temporary Best Friend Lauren Kerr. (I say temp b/c we were close as long as it was convienent, and we both knew that)

New year's eve in Madison is no exception. It's horrible. The Mid-West is a sink hole for holidays. They just don't celebrate them like would like to see. Except for 4th of July, they celebrate that proper. The Mid-West isn't the first to see the American New year--the glorious apple NYC is. Everyone knows the Ball Dropping moment, which always comes 1hr eary for us in the Mid-West. I enjoyed this eve with my girlfriend and her sister, but we might as well have been out any other night of the week. As I recall the people in the bar hollered more for the east coast than for their own mid-west.

Still I enjoyed my time out. I barely go to the bars anymore. As Lewis Black says on "The White Album"... "How do you guys know when its New Year's out here, 'Oh, well, New Years is when we drink with HATS on!'"

Lazy Days

I can remember exactly when I had some spare time. Last November, three days before Thanksgiving. Ah, the memories.

Today, I have about 3hrs of down-time, and so, I write to you--my fellow Bloggers. I bring you news of a great T-day and a Merry X-mas. I have come to grips with my aggravating projects as a graduate student and nobody has gotten injured along the way. Life is good.

On other mentionable notes, one of my X-mas gifts was a cook book from my sister. Not an ordinary cook book. This book (http://www.altonbrown.com/pages/bookit.html) describes the principles of cooking and how they actually work in a scientific approach. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I'm not a particularly horrible cook, I follow recipes well and have a few specialties. However, I usually lack the ingredients and Lord help me if the recipe says "chop" or "dice" because I'm not quite sure what the difference is.

This book gave me an approachable go between to learn. Maybe my Hamburger Helper days will be over before I know it. Although, I can always rely on my beautiful girlfriend and her exquisite Korean cuisine ;-)

Unforgettable

"If there was ever going to be a Harris wedding, this is exactly how I pictured it."

Devin's words and our thoughts precisely. Laura's wedding did not go off without a hitch. Instead there were numerous fiascos and incidents that interfered with our original plans and performances. Firstly, it rained... and rained... and rained. Not a big deal for an indoor wedding, but for our outdoor wedding, whoa boy! Big deal. Secondly, bickering within and outside the family. The groom's parents had essentially disappeared when it came time to rehearse and the minister had an air of a dictator. Thirdly, the ren-faire was not an option to celebrate afterwards (what with all the rain and bickering).

Still, we managed to have a very unforgettable wedding. Laura and her groom were married and everyone was happy, soaking wet and all. Even all the brothers managed to calm down and politely seat themselves in the draping renaissance themed outfits.


17 Umbrella's........... $78
6 King-size tarps..... $100
4 Bales of hay.......... $20
Remembering the day your sister was married during a torrential down-pour...... Priceless.
There are a few things money can buy, and for the rest, there's the Harris'.

A moment of silence please.

This past weekend, Frank passed away. It was while I was away in MD, and so I did not get too say my good-byes. Kiki was watching over him and it seems he picked the peverbial bucket during the night after a healthly meal of crickets.

He was a good frog. Never caused trouble and enjoyed his meager surroundings. Even though his presence made very little impact on my daily life, he will be missed....

And by God, it does taste just like chicken!

Model Girlfriend

This is Kiki. She models for me. Not very frequently, but on the occasion.
Ok... she has never really modeled for me persay--more or less she just laughs at me.

This picture is very dark, and b/c you may not get to meet her, you will have to take my word that Kiki has a contrastingly very bright and warm personality and attitude toward everything. I think I must have tricked her into dating me (shush, don't let her know).

Probably a better picture is the one below. But I'm sorry to say I kinda dirty up the photo with my goofy face and Curious George t-shirt (do you see why I'm lucky?).

Well, I'm sure that mainly my friends from back home will glance at my Blog and then glance again to make sure I haaven't tricked them as well. Check away! It's a real picture. No, I didn't take a photo out of a magizine or pay a cute girl to sit with me. Although I will admit I have considered that in the past.

BTW, Kiki is not available. And she does not model, although I believe she would do well in the business. She is very happy to just be herself and I think that is awesome.

A Little Helper Over Here

You should all look forward to a new Blog on the nutrition and taste reveiw of various Hamburger Helper box dinners made by the Betty Crocker corporation. I take great satisfaction in devouring these tasty meals, but have found that the description on the label lacks the luster that some deserve. Conversely, other packages should contain a warning to disuade consumption.

Until then, cheers!

This Gas is Really Uncomfortable

I frequent the PDQ (for non-Midwesterners, that's a gas station). And I like to chat it up with my buddy Ed, who is the manager. He for-warned me that prices would sky-rocket... duh. But the better part of his knowledge was that he knew how high the prices would go.


"This morning it was $2.39, tonight it'll be $2.93, and tomorrow $3.20."
"$3.20!!! That's outrageous..."
"What?! It won't stop there... in a couple days it'll be almost $4.00."

Right on the money Ed. When will the prices go back down? Ed predicts that they won't. His theory is that the tragedy of hurricane Katrina gave the US oil companies a reason to finally raise the price to where they wanted us to be. Now..... some of his theories didn't exactly pan out, we're still waiting for those martians to bring his dog back, and it turns out pubic hair does grow back thicker after shaving it off. But I still wince at the thought that he may be right.

My friend Gavin from MD (check out his band The Making and Three Track Mind) has a great online photo album recording the rising price, it's called "Price per Gallon" its sad and hurtful to see, but interesting to watch such an abrupt climb.

Does anyone have a suggestion?