it's going to be lights out for the next several days...maybe longer. i won't know until monday whether or not i can get DSL at the new place (btw - got the keys this morning) and i don't have a dial-up modem in my box, so we'll see what happens. if i can't get DSL, by god i'm going to get some sort of broad band if it kills me. I AM NOT GOING BACK TO DIAL-UP!!! you just never go back, and that's all there is to it! so i'll be back sometime next week, hopefully!

well, we never got the keys today. hopefully i'll get them tomorrow. it would really make things easier if i could get all of the small boxes over into the garage before saturday. then i would only have to focus on furniture.

we've signed the lease...we haven't gotten the keys.

grrr...

WE GOT THE HOUSE! we're going to sign the lease this morning.

i've been shorn. it was my decision though. i was sick of it for many reasons...the same ones that make me do it every time. oh well. spring is here, which feels like summer in any other part of the country, and of course our summers are miserable. it was definitely something i had to do, and it was something that emily hated doing. it is good to have a stylist for a wife though! also, it will only take fifteen months to get it back. :)

going to look at a house for rent in less than an hour. i really hope that we get this one. you'd think that it would be a renter's market, but here in marion that isn't the case. every property seems to be managed by a realtor and they all do credit checks. emily has great credit, but mine sucks. i had an exorbitant amount of credit card debt from my previous marriage, and several years ago i put it on a debt negotiation program. although the program saved me a lot of money, i got bad credit from the whole deal ---something that i was aware would happen beforehand, so it didn't come as a surprise. anyway, we keep losing out on houses that we want to rent, because of this. i just think that's nuts! i mean, i'm coming to the table saying that we own our own business, we live in the apartment above, but we've outgrown it. i tell them that i previously had lived in my father's apartments which i managed. we're also currently landlords ourselves, with a basement apartment in our building that we lease. you would think that they would take all of this into consideration! we sound like great prospective renters! it's just driving me crazy. i'm at my absolute wit's end over this. i realize from a property owner's point of view you have to be wary of the riff-raff out there, but we meet every standard of responsible tenants...

other than my blasted credit.

well, i'm going to go get the car washed and head over there.

i sure haven't been blogging like i should. those who really know me know what's up though. for those who don't, i'll just say that emily and i are dealing with some major issues. fortunately, we have each other, and i believe that we'll be past all of this by the end of april. the cool thing about our marriage: i'm married to my best friend, and when you have to deal with a lot of shit, it's best to do it with your best friend. so...coming into the summer, you're going to see a much happier cook family. i guess that's all i really want to say about it now. for those who even read this, i'm just saying all of this so you don't read too much into us being pretty low key right now. to our closest friends, thanks for being so cool and supporting us with your friendship.

fact: on average, i probably spend at least five minutes everyday updating my message rules in outlook express to handle the enormous amount of spam that i get. that's over thirty hours a year. if time is money, that's about six hundred dollars for me. six hundred bucks that i'm not ever going to give to anyone that sends me spam.

finished up a job last week, so now i'm home indefinitely for some time. this will give me more time to get tax stuff together. woohoo.

rohan's nose won't stop running, and he's taken to wiping the snot from his face with his hand which leads him to smearing it into a big slimy mess.

it's a lot of fun.

the show saturday night went great. we had a good time, and the recording from the evening didn't turn out half bad. i've uploaded several tracks to mp3.com, but they've yet to approve the songs.

rohan is distressed at the moment...he can't find his jesse doll (from toy story) that allie gave to him yesterday...

well, i'm going to join in on this search for jesse.

i'm just laughing at something emily just said, only because i can relate: "i'm tired of stroking people's egos where there shouldn't be egos...it's just ridiculous."

yeesh...do i have a headache.

the kids have eaten dinner, but they pretty much wiped out everything that i fixed, so after emily gets off of work she's going to have to run and pick something up for the two of us.

i just got through cleaning rohan up...now he's fallen somehow in the living room...

he was fine, just as i thought. oh...what now...

i'm back, after scolding rohan for screaming at me. he wanted to drag a hot wheels race track in to the living room, after i told him not to, he screamed at me in defiance. yeah, i wonder why i have a head ache...

i posted the friday five, but blogger at it, so screw it...i feel like ellen feiss.

sitting here waiting for emily to get back with the car from an oil change, so i can clean it out. today is such a great day to be outside. of course, i had no choice, since i work outside, but i'm sure that my point is well taken. we're going ot nashville tonight with some friends for the weekend. it's been a year since we had a weekend without the kids. it's going to be soooooooooo great. however, i'm sure that by sunday i'll be dying to see them again.

wow did we have a great time playing last night at the hangar. there were just a lot of friends there that hadn't seen us yet, and it was just a good time hanging out after we played. i wish ryan had played with us, but i'm sure florida has its good points too. he'll be back to play with us there on the 15th though, so i'm really looking forward to that. i was really surprised at how well our music was received, since it really is so contemporary. i'm thrilled to death of course, but still surprised.

i'm burning cds to give away at tonight's show. i hate having to buy new cd labeling software. every time i turn around, the labels that i'm using aren't available any more, so i have to buy an entirely new labeling kit, since no two label templates are the same.

i really have nothing to say. i'm looking forward to tonight, and i have a lot of stuff to get ready, but i thought i'd take a break and post...but i just feel dazed. i need a nap. that's my new motto. "I NEED A NAP!" yeah, that's sounds good. it fits me well.

well, i didn't post yesterday...the day was too long, and i was too tired. i've got rehearsal tonight and a show tomorrow night. i'm yawning as i type. not much to write anyway. it's the final night of "i'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" which emily and i have been watching every night. i usually hate reality shows but i love this one. i like the three celebs that are left, so i don't really care who wins. everyone i talk to either hasn't seen the show, or just plain hates it. oh well. we're just strange i guess. hmmm...i think i'll go practice for tonight.

i took rohan to the doctor today for his two and half year wellnes check-up today. it cost 61 dollars to find out what i assumed: he's alive and well and doing fine. i really need to get us some health insurance. our last policy sucked balls. rohan wasn't covered for anything until he was nineteen. isn't that lovely? like i said, it was a really good policy.

i've begun work on a huge geneology table based on the works of j.r.r. tolkien concerning middle earth. the ones that were included in the lord of the rings and the silmarillion are just way too consise. i'm trying to get emily to read the silmarillion and i know this would be a great reference material, rather than flip back and forth between several books and whatever tolkien encyclopedias i have around trying to remember who came from who and what family they were from, etc., etc., etc. however, the possibility of her actually reading the silmarillion is not very good. she reads hundreds of books every year, and although she read the lord of the rings several years ago, i don't think she's up to reading this book. so maybe someone else could put this table to use after i'm finished with it. it's also another reason not to really start on our tax stuff. :)

oh yeah, we did watch mean machine the other night. i highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun.

ahhhh sunday. what a great day for doing nothing. this isn't always the case of course. sunday is usually the only day to get anything done, since there isn't any time during the week. i do however need to work on preparing the books to take to our accountant for taxes. it's all so unorganized from august on. procrastination is king too much in my life. i'm still not working on the stuff today though ---ha! i think i'll take a nap.

we went out for chinese last night. it was actually good. then we went to blockbuster and rented several movies. master of disguise for the kids (i saw half of it before i had to go pick up my dad at the hospital), my big fat greek wedding (nice movie, more entertaining than i would have thought) and mean machine with jason statham and vinnie jones, who are mostly known from the cast of snatch. we may get the chance to watch it tonight.

we went to the mall today. we didn't really buy anything spectacular. emily bought a book of norman rockwell paintings, allie bought j.blume's superfudge (that makes you feel old), and i bought a couple of magazines. oh, we also did some housewares shopping at target (babywipes, some new frosty mugs, and a usb cable for our new printer). talked a bit with some friends of ours that bought the party shop. then we came home, sent the kids to bed to take naps. i read about the new children of dune mini-series coming this month on the sci-fi network. i guess i need to get our dish working again. we've been without since late january 2001. i just feel that it's too much money for such crappy programming. i wish that you could order only the networks and channels that you wanted. emily fell asleep, she's snoring right now...i may lay down after i finish this.

i guess we'll watch that movie tonight, after the kids re-watch theirs, of course. maybe we'll junk food it. that's always fun...but that means that i'll have to make a kroger run, but we need alcohol anyway, so i need to hit the liquor store on the way back. saturday nights just the way i like them. of course, i'm not a drinker, never really have been. i'm almost thirty, and i'm just starting to try to acquire a taste for beer. i hate it really, and only just recently have i been able to drink one whole bottle at any given time. i just think the shit is nasty, and i never really cared about it when i was younger. and to those of you who think that you know me, but have watched from afar, i've never ever tried smoking, and i've never even tried any sort of drug. now, if taking mini-thins before a show count, then i did that, but only because driving ten hours between shows can have its effects on you, and i never did more than two at a time. hell, i remember one night after a show in wichita, i was going to drive the first leg home (schurl would always take over for me past st. louis), so i took two mini-thins and drank two 20 oz bottles of coke...i was out an hour later....schurl had to drive the whole trip. if i'm tired, my body doesn't care what i've shoved down my throat. anyway, i digress...i like bloody marys (of course around here, they're the best at the cellar in carbondale) and then margaritas that aren't strong. i think tequila has a chocolate aftertaste (yeah, yeah, i know ---call me crazy) and i drink it for the lemon lime flavor, so when we're at home, i drink them virgin. seriously, i think that cuervo margarita mix tastes like a lemon lime mister mistee from dairy queen, and i've never wanted anyone putting chocolate in my mister mistee, so you can at least see it from my point of view...at least if you squint really hard.

interesting factoid about me...i have 20/400 vision in my right eye, and 20/600 vision in my left eye. when i can't find my glasses, it's a site to behold, i'm sure. i look like a hounddog with my nose inches above whatever surface i'm checking out.

i might check in later.