Easter and Epcot

hi gang.

one of the most aggravating aspects of having a kid under age of 1 is all of the official 'firsts' you, as a parent, have to deal with. 'baby's first christmas,' 'baby's first st. patrick's day,' 'baby's first miller lite,' etc. well, you can chalk one more 'baby's first...' off the list, folks, 'cause the easter bunny just came to town and dropped off a pedia-friendly, age-appropriate easter basket to remind us all of whatever it is easter's supposedly about anyway.

rabbits delivering baskets of eggs to children... i have no idea what this has to do with Jesus.

(though i guess whomever came up with the 'fat, bearded guy flying through the air in a deer-powered snow carriage, breaking all existing laws of time and space in doing so, all for some ridiculous gift distribution scheme based solely on a child's individual merit'-thing really wasn't trying to drive home the whole birth of Christ thing, either...)

anyway.

we went to epcot the other day with the voigts... i hadn't done that since sims came down to visit in december. as usual, 'going to the park' entailed passing on all existing rides and attractions, and taking a liesurely stroll around the world showcase, which is absolute heaven for a beer affeciando and lover of social studies (i happen to be both).

this was a good warm-up for mid-may... when the hough clan comes down and we all throw on our tourist pants. cowabunga.

- brian

Peace Corps Shebang 2009

A couple months of planning, but we finally made it happen. We headed out towards Tampa on Friday (Alayna's first weekend away); and settled in for a crazy weekend with Brett, Bonnie, Lauren and Susannah. We hadn't seen any of them since our wedding, with the exception of a couple hours with Lauren about a year ago. It was like a breath of fresh air.

The weekend suited us all just right. Elaborate details for simple plans. Our first day we planned to sit on the beach and just enjoy the sun and one anothers company. Well, after a little drive and parking to check out a 'private island,' we waited about an hour in line to buy tickets for a ferry.

Once we got to the "secluded" area and tried setting up camp, the wind was so crazy that both of the packed umbrellas kept blowing over and we were once again forced to choke up some dough to rent an umbrella that was already well set up. It was a nice time after that, but it did take a few hours until we all felt the relaxation the beach was supposed to provide. (Mind you, Cannonball was fine the entire time with sand entering every crack possible) The night ended with grilling and eating dinner around 10.

- kristina

one thing that never fails in a peace corps reunion of any size is the inability for all rpcvs present to complicate rather simple matters beyond all rational thought. this may be due to our old habits of facilitating and administering highly complex orginizational settings in a foriegn land, bridging cross-cultural barriers and trying not to get ourselves killed, but, without fail, we cannot make simple plans when hanging out with one another anymore.

everybody wants to run the show.

don't get me wrong here , either - i expected this kind of mess well before i even reunited with these rascals, and i think nothing less of them because of it. i truly believe that this sort of dilemma is bound to happen when you force a bunch of 'leaders' to hang out with one another. i guess that's what drew us all into the peace corps into the first place...

you don't see many 'sheeple' signing up for foriegn diplomacy work.

anyway, going back to our tale, the second day saw a bunch of near-thirty'ers hung over from the previous night's white russians and martinis, but nevertheless resilient in their epic quest for beachery and jet skiing. i, myself, had no desire to jet ski, but was down for the beach... so, once again, our group set off for the coast where brett, susannah, lauren, and joe went jet skiing, while bonnie, kristina and i had what i'm considering to be the worst lunch i've ever had (in terms of service). i won't bore any of you with the details, but the food was disgusting and i got pooped on. literally.

waiting around for the others to return was boring, but having a few drinks along the pier boardwalk wasn't. i didn't mind that too much at all. alas, as evening was sitting in, people's minds and stomachs were ready for sushi and so the whole caravan of extravagant planners high-tailed it back to headquarters, where susannah's expert sushi-making prowess was put to the test. she didn't disappoint.

the next morning, we all slept in and, consequently, missed church on Easter sunday. the cannonball did get to watch her parents decorate eggs and make a mess in someone else's kitchen, which was fun enough i suppose. following that thrown-together easter mess (we had forgotten her basket and everything else associated with the holiday at our place back in orlando before we had set off for tampa), we said our farewells and departed back towards central florida and normalcy.

if there is a moral to this tale, kids, it is probably this: keep it simple.

...that, or else don't trust susannah on a jet ski.

not gonja and damn proud of it,

- chief maliguna

sankpala, northern region

Fezzig Faces the Gallows...

today, a line was drawn in the sand.

we started seeing warning signs last summer that something was starting to go awry with our parrot, fezzig. he started plucking his own feathers out, and wasn't as talkative as he used to be. the most obvious factor for this change in behavior, obviously, was the brand new, fresh-out-of-the-womb kid that kristina had just popped out - our bird was jealous as all hell, and was taking it out on himself/herself.

several months went by, and while his feather plucking did, in fact, cease to an extent, his mood progressively got worse. he started to bite kristina more, and would no longer respond to her commands... which is weird, seeing how she's the one he bonded to when we first got him back in 2005. i, personally, chalk this up to the whole 'lover scorned' thing... but that's just me, and i don't know if parrots do that sort of thing.

i'm not a orthinologist... or whatever they're called.

anyway.

about a week or two ago, as the bird was squawking at the top of its lungs for no apparent reason, and my wits were quite nearly at they're end, kristina and i came to the realization that weren't doing anybody - either ourselves or fezzig - any favors by continuing on in such a fashion.

so we decided that we'd put him on a trial basis for the next couple of weeks and determine whether or not we should put him up for adoption.

its been a pretty hard decision to make on our part - the guy's been part of our family since i returned from africa - but we had to do what was best for everybody, and, honestly, i don't think we can give the guy the attention he deserves at this point. we spoiled the crap out of him when we first got him, and are unable to give him the same level of attention that we did when we were both kid-less and career-less. besides, what happens when kris gets knocked up a second time? or we end up getting a dog? or the dog we ended up getting gets knocked up? these are things we have to think about, and, unfortunately, all signs are pointing towards the adoption of fezzig the ferocious.

we'll keep you posted.

SPRING BREAK!!!

its been a long time coming, friends, but spring break is finally here... and it couldn't have come at a better time, either. i am friggin' exhausted. work and school and being a DILF and all has worn this ol' scalliwag down like nobody's business. i need myself a week long break away from 45 minute commutes at 6am, hormonely-imbalanced teenagers, and the like.

...and, although your conception of "SPRING BREAK!!!" might look something like this:

...for yours truly, its probably actually going to be a lot more like this:

...time for videogames and some afternoon nappin'.

- brian

"Quality vs. Quantity," or "Why Don't People Buy My F&*%in' Stuff on Craigslist?!"

those of you who know me are probably already well aware of the fact that i love swords. i have no idea why i love them so much, but i do. i always have. there's no rationale behind this - i don't collect them for value, self-defense, or live-action role playing - i just seem to feel more happy in life when i'm surrounded by 1095 high carbon steel.

since i've got a kid now, i've tried to liquidate some of my armory assets and maintain a higher-level collection. for the last two years i've been trying to sell some of my cheaper, less-awesome swords over craigslist.org, but, alas, to no avail. my goal in selling these is three-part: i would essentially be a.) clearing the house of unnecessary (and dangerous) clutter that would appease the spouse and offspring, b.) obtaining extra revenue to go towards the purchasing of a select couple of higher-quality pieces, and therefore c.) creating a better collection to show off properly.

so far, to date, i've sold one, really cheap ninja katana for $20.

folks, if anybody has any ideas on how to better off-load these pieces, i'd love to hear 'em. ebay charges to much for listing fees and is bogged down by thousands and thousands of other people trying to sell similar items. craigslist is full of spammers, scam-artists, and people who don't hablo inglais and never pay up when they say they're going to.

here's what i'm selling....

1.) brass-handled falcata - $60

2.) decorative costume sword - $10

3.) civil war cavalry saber (replica) - $60

4.) tulwar shortsword from india - $50