Taking Time

Relationships are hard work. They take a lot of time, energy, patience and understanding. It's like having a full-time job on top of another full-time job, except, it's cool because it's a girl and stuff. They're soft and pretty and say smart things. It's worth it.

Having a heavy schedule has kept me from being able to simply go out on a date with my girlfriend for the last two months. Julie and I made up for lost time this weekend. On Friday, we found a lovely little French restaurant called Cafe Matou that's just a ten minute walk away from our new apartment. Matou is French for "tom cat," which was not on the menu that night.

Yesterday, we took a little road trip to Malta, Illinois to visit Jonamac Orchards. It's about an hour and a half drive west of the city near Dekalb. We grabbed lunch at a place called The Black Stone Restaurant that served breakfast all day. It's the kind of place old people and families coming from church flock to. Shamelessly, the highlight for me was seeing two very overweight gentlemen who looked like brothers walk in wearing their Sunday best.

Jonamac was a lot of fun. The plan was to stuff ourselves with apple-oriented food products, get some pumpkins from their pumpkin patch, check out the apple catapult, and get lost in the 8-acre maze. We pretty much did all that with a few minor hiccups. The apple doughnuts just tasted like plain ol' doughnuts to me. The apple catapult was not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. Basically, you just slingshot apples into a board that's about fifty feet away. Give me some moving targets or something cool to aim at. At least move the board closer so I can see the splat.

A sad part of the trip was that the pumpkin patch was devastated, Apparently, the Great Pumpkin took a beating from the funky weather. The pumpkins that we saw were spread out, split open or just in really bad shape. I somehow managed to find a skull-shaped green and orange one. Julie found one that was reddish-orange and all wrinkled. I'll post the before and after carving pics soon.

Other than that, the corn maze was really cool. And big. We must have been in that thing at least an hour. Maybe more. The caramel apples and apple pie were great. We brought home a caramel apple pecan pie, a dutch apple pie, cider, a big bag of honey crisp apples and a small bag on northern spy apples, which I have never heard of so I had to try.

Julie and I had a lot of fun and feel like a couple, again.



THERE'S SCIENCE TO BE DONE

This video has been making the rounds. If you haven't seen it, it's a catchy little tune. I'll explain what it is after you watch it.






It's the end credits of a video game called Portal which is an off-shoot of the Half-Life series. I've never played it, so there are inside jokes about Black Mesa and references to Aperture Science that I don't get. The song is being sung by an evil computer that the hero blew up at the end of the game.



THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

On Saturday, I asked...

"Four police officers in South Bend, Indiana entered a vacant house recently and were attacked by what?"

17% answered "Teenage Vampires"
- Which I thought was a very good guess. Unfortunately, Indiana cops all reek of garlic and the hormonally challenged vampires all died.

No one figured it was "Demon Dogs" or "Zombie Slaves"
- Although, what else are you going to find in Suuth Bend, Indiana?

Scully-like logic prevailed and 83% got it with "Fleas"

According to the Associated Press, four officers investigating a burglary were attacked by a swarm of fleas in a filth-ridden vacant house. The tiny, biting attackers were so overwhelming that the South Bend patrolmen had to be decontaminated and ended up being sent home early from their shifts. "They were all over the place _ in our socks and even in our shorts. It was disgusting," said Cpl. Ken Stuart. The owners of the house were cited for flea-ing the scene of a crime.

Thank you. I'll be here all week.