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July 31, 2007

Timeless Comments

While I was gone to Alaska, there was lots of activity in the comments of old posts. Apparently, this blog is quite popular.

Some select gems I came across when junking them all were titled
"Hip-hop dancing"
"Bird exercise"
and
"Hi, you need drug"

My audience knows me so well.
In fact, I think all three together is pretty much just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by ribbu at 12:15 AM

July 27, 2007

Family Reunion

I think I can argue, without much dissent from the masses, that family reunions aren't really all that interesting if you aren't related to the people reuning. So, the "details" I promised of the family reunion probably haven't been keeping anyone up nights with anticipation... and I won't bore you with a minute-by-minute accounting. (When I say that family reunions are boring, I mean to you not to me. Presumptuous? Perhaps. If I get more than 4 comments demanding the nitty-gritty on the family reunion, I will be more than happy to oblige. Let it be noted: not MY family. Not even the Swanson family. This is Grandma Swanson's family (subscribers to Idiots'Books might remember Grandma Swanson's tirade against traffic included in the last subscriber letter) - she is one of three sassy sisters, and it is to that root system that we traveled, and found ourselves in Ohio (the Buckeye State).).

However, some highlights:

The biggest highlight of the weekend was when I cracked myself up making a joke that was unrehearsed, unscripted, and right off the top of my head. This never happens (I usually rehearse all my jokes at least 4 times in front of the bathroom mirror before "outing" them to my public, the fans, etc). I am typically very dull and slow. Anway, the setup is this:

As we were saying our good-byes, Matthew asked me to take a picture of him and his dad and Grandma Swanson:

(nice picture, if I do say so myself)
"You know," he said, "the three generations."
His dad suggested, "Maybe next time we'll have a photo of four generations."
To which I responded, "Yeah, if we can ever convince anyone to adopt Grandma."

You see how few highlights I have in my life?

At any rate, I had to share because I really cracked myself up, but the joke was pretty much lost in the din of everyone saying their good-byes. It's probably the worst thing to make a joke, have no one respond to it, and then laugh to yourself about it for ten minutes afterward. Unless, perhaps, the worst thing is to then write about it on your stupid blog.

The other part of the trip I thought you might be interested in is that, apparently West Virginia is open for business:

I think this is probably good news to everyone, and thought I should broadcast the word starting here, for all you folks who haven't driven through West Virginia, and therefore did not know it was open. Please send this information to ten people you know, and ask them to send it to ten people they know, etc etc and so forth, and pretty soon people in Siberia and China and even Oklahoma will be flooding into West Virginia by the dozens.

Do your part. Spread the word.

Posted by ribbu at 11:47 PM | Comments (2)

July 19, 2007

Back in Business

Well -
I HAVE RETURNED!

Now that I looked, I realize I didn't give you all any indication that I would even be gone in the first place. I guess that's what you get for me being so harried. Anyway, I was gone. GONE. So far gone, I couldn't even check my email.

Want to know where I was?

ALASKA.

In the bush.

Have a look. Our camp is located between the two sandy patches at the bottom of the point (Coffee Point, that is). We are so far in the bush that the one phone we had access to (our crazy neighbor Vern's) was cut off because the radio signal he had cribbed together from the town across the river (Egegik, that is) was in a friend's house, a friend who died over the winter, and whose phone got shut off because he (obviously) stopped paying his bill. So, no more phone, until Vern finds someone else across the river who will allow him to mount a huge antenna on his house.

Matthew was able to tap into an internet signal that was brought via satellite from a full-timer in Naknek (meaning, he literally brought his satellite dish from Naknek to Coffee Point for the summer) who generously allowed folks to use it when it was up and running (which was only if the all the stars were aligned). So, Matthew posted a few entries over at theBarnstorming if you'd like to see a bit of what we were up to. Posting was an arduous process, involving sitting out in the sand dunes aiming his computer at the signal tower and hoping his posts would update before the system went out again.

I, obviously, did not have the patience for that nonsense, and that is why you only find me here now, now that I've returned to civilization.

But, we're off to the wilds of Ohio for a family reunion tomorrow, so don't expect any more exciting posts like this one.

But after that, I promise to fill you in on the latest.

Posted by ribbu at 12:46 AM