Something Something with a cherry on top

So Bri posted recently regarding our inexorably oncoming wedding. It is now five months away, and approaching with what can only be called frightening velocity. Much like an avalanche, or a landslide, we can't get out of its way--we just have to run as far as we can, hide behind a rock, and hope that the Red Cross can dig us out before we run out of crackers.

In two weeks we are going to San Diego, so that Doc Goodman can blast out my wisdom teeth with the power of SCIENCE! Which is always to be preferred to a guy with pair of pliers and a pitching wedge. We are also going to go to the beach. A lot. Probably all the time that we are not spending with Steve and Candice and company (We like water).

In the interests of keeping this in some way relevant and, not to point too fine a point on it, entertaining, I will ignore the normal day-to-day trappings of our existence and focus on the neat, big things which occupy our lives--a global vision, if you will. Bri, who loves details, among other things, will almost surely focus her contributions on plans and logistics and all those fun, interesting things that she's so good at keeping track of. She will be a very detailed atlas, while I will be more like a picture from space--mine might look cool, but hers will help you get somewhere. The advantage of this approach is that she's better at keeping logistical things interesting, while I...well, I have no positive contributions, but this is my website, so I get to post anyway! So there!

We went to St. Louis today. Took Bri's little sister Corissa home for her spring break; her dad and I worked a bit on maintaining Bri's car. We got a nice dinner and Bri's dad gave her car an oil change, so that worked out rather nicely. Now it will be possible for us to take her car to San Diego when we go.

I've been trying to teach Bri how to drive a stick shift, and it's actually going pretty well--when I can get her out to practice. She suffers from a chronic lack of confidence in her ability to keep the car going on hills, so she would probably appreciate any funny stories/interesting tips that you'd like to give her. Please, though, for my sake, omit the horror stories of pushing four cars off of a mountainous cliff because you couldn't stop the car from rolling backward--that is NOT something which would encourage her to continue with the learning experience. Of course, if she learns, then we won't have to take her somewhat older car every time we make a major trip (Which happens on the order of at LEAST once per day, it seems sometimes), so there's a bit of a motivation on her part there, at least.

I never really realized how racked Dad's nerve had to have been every time we went practicing--I'll bet he had to come home and have a nice quiet lay-down in the dark after every session; Bri is doing rather well, and the number of times my feet are twitching is STILL enough to make my feet sore after less than an hour. So there's a life-lesson in here, I think, though I can't find it yet. Probably "Don't teach someone how to drive without first inbibing considerable ulcer medication", though it could also be " Wear comfortable shoes which will not bruise your feet every time you stomp on the floorboards". I'm working on this one--more when progress is made.

In another strange and totally inexplicable fashion, I've been reciting Psalm 23 in my head a lot--you know: "Lo, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" and all that jazz. Not really understanding why, though--my religious beliefs are the psychological equivalent to stumbling blindfolded through the amazon rainforests at midnight, wearing nothing but deer repellant and a stick of dynamite. Who knows, though--maybe I'm having an epiphany, in the biblical sense. Then again, maybe I'm just watching too many comic book movies. Who can tell? Not me.