Alright Already!

Yes, I know I’ve been very delinquent, not posting in over a week, as three of you emailed to point out. A single tear wells up in my eye as I think that people actually noticed I was gone...
So, what’s been happening? For one, my parents were in town, to whom you can assign 90% of the blame for the dearth of blogging. Much of my prime blogging time was consumed playing game after game of Yahtzee. I only managed to win one game, and Shelly came out of the week with the highest overall score, thus making her nigh unto impossible to live with. Also, I’m hoping the time that passes before I again hear the words "That’s an expensive full house", "Two’s are hot!", or "You can take a one on your ones" will be measured in months or years.
On Saturday, the four of us decided we weren’t sufficiently cultured, so in the interests of self-improvement, we headed to Raleigh and the Museum of Natural Sciences. It was an incredible museum, with many interesting exhibits, but far and away the best one was the Acrocanthosaurus display. Here, you can see Shelly, Mom, and Dad posing with his prey:


And here are the skeletal remains of the stalker, apparently the only ones on display in any museum. Aren’t we the lucky ones?


The sojourn came to a regrettable end Monday morning, when Mom and Dad headed home to Maryland, but not before they got the singular pleasure of jumping my car for me in the morning. After a full day at work, one of my co-workers also received that unique accolade, and then Shelly made it a triumvirate later that evening when she jumped me so I could go to Auto Zone and get a new battery to the tune of sixty dollars. At least the installation was free- they had a lot of trouble getting the bolts off the terminal. My decision not to go straight from work in my shirt and tie with minimal tools seemed retrospectively genius.
Does anyone else get annoyed when a TV series builds up a certain storyline across half a season, heightening the drama to a fever pitch, only to have the issue resolved in ten minutes at the end of an episode? House did that to us last night, and Shelly would like to add quite unbelievably legally. At least we won’t have constantly-gum-chewing Tritter to deal with anymore.
Today I lived up to the promise I made my mother a few months ago and went to the dentist. After an hour of 'Maria' scraping the tartar off my teeth (tartar she was quick to assure me was no fault of my own, but due to the placement of saliva glands in my mouth), I was led to the X-ray room, where I could have sworn the technician was trying to torture some kind of information out of me. After having countless (ok, eighteen, but it seemed to go on forever) bite plates jammed back into my throat, and being asked to bite down on sharp, cardboard corners, I was close to breaking. Her helpful advice to 'breath through your nose if you have problems' did little to assuage my pain. In the end though, the dentist made a brief, five minute appearance, told me I had a clean bill of health, and ushered me back to the waiting room to make an appointment in six months.
Ok, there’s probably more to report, but Shelly’s got the NC game on in the other room and the ambient noise is enticing me. That should tide you over. I’m tired anyway, since Shelly and I have been up in the gym just workin’ on our fitness tonight. So, I bid you adieu.
(Dear Lord, that isn’t French, is it??)