I’m sure you’ve all seen the “Lazy Sunday” video that was on Saturday Night Live recently. There have been countless parody videos circulating the internet, but this latest one hits closest to my heart. “Lazy Muncie” is the Midwest version and, sadly, I can completely relate to it.

Our weekend was filled with sushi, plywood, concrete backerboards, jig saws, L-brackets, wine, excellent Italian food, shut-off valves, 2×4′s, 1×2′s, 1 1/4 inch screws, 2 inch screws, 3/8 inch copper piping, a life jacket from Katrina, venison, shrimp, curtains, friends and family. And we couldn’t have had a better time doing it all.

Yes, my parents came down this weekend to help us with the condo a little. My dad and I spent all day Saturday tearing up the old countertop in the kitchen and figuring out how to make the new one using plywood and concrete backerboard. We stopped for the evening to go out with Andrea’s mom and her boyfriend for dinner, where we ate great Italian food at Nino’s in Westport. The rest of the evening was spent in St. Charles drinking wine, scotch, beer, and bourbon and Coke, laughing and telling stories. A good time was had by all.

Sunday, Dad and I were back to the countertop. We got the backerboard mortared down to the plywood and then screwed into place. We filled a few gaps and joints and then had a late lunch before they left for Fisher again. A few hours later, Andrea and I met up with my biological father, George, and my half-brother, George, as they were in town. We had dinner with them and George gave us a little wine, a life jacket from Katrina (he works down in New Orleans), some nautical charts (which are going to look awesome in my cubicle at work), and some household items he had lying around.

It was a busy, exciting, and educational weekend. Dad had never put down a new base for a tile countertop and, obviously, neither had I, but I think we did an amazing job and both learned quite a bit. Next time we’ll be old hats at it. And it was good to spend time with him like this. While we were in the condo we were focused on working, but during the trips back and forth to Home Depot, we got to chat a little and generally talk about life, something we don’t get to do much anymore now that I’m 3 hours away. It was good and I’m glad to have had the chance to work on this project with him. I couldn’t have done it without him.

Now the tiling can begin, which we’re hoping to start working on Wednesday night. This is all between packing for our big move this coming weekend. Looks like it’ll be another hectic week ahead…

Another busy – but fun – weekend ahead.

Tonight, Andrea and I are going to sushi with some of our friends. Later on, my parents will be pulling into town to help us with condo stuff this weekend.

Saturday will be spent waiting for the cable guy to come hook up our internet connection, then multiple trips back and forth to Home Depot while we put on a new tile countertop. Then it’s dinner with Andrea’s mom and my parents to go over wedding plans.

Sunday we’ll bid a fond farewell to my parents, probably run some errands, and then meet up with my biological father and half-brother for dinner.

It’s going to be hectic, but whenever you get to spend time with friends and family is a good time. I’m looking forward to it.

Next week is Spring Break for me, which, sadly, won’t be spent in Fort Lauderdale or Cozumel. Instead, I’ll be packing boxes filled with stuff for our big move next weekend. Of course this packing will take place at night after I’ve worked a full day at the office, so it’s not really a vacation at all. But, that’s what you get for going to school when you’re 31 years old, ya know?

Hope everyone else has a good weekend, too!

So this morning I decided to go to my online comic book subscription service and drop a comic that I haven’t been getting into despite it coming from one of my favorite authors. Of course that left me with only two comics on my list, so I figured, “I’ll get a recommendation from CHUD’s comic book column and try something new.” Now instead of two comics on my list, I have six. Me and my damn bright ideas. But, I need some good reading. Things are kind of picking up in that department for me as of late. After finishing “Saturday”, then finally reading a graphic novel I’ve owned for about 2 years now called “Jinx”, I’m making time to read again. It helps that we don’t have a TV hooked up at the apartment right now, but I might try to keep this trend going even after we get officially moved into the condo.

Now if I could just get into reading my English text book, I’d be set.

I’ve always loved the “Tomorrowland” futurists – those guys from the 50′s and 60′s who imagined we’d be living on the moon by 2001 and that atomic energy was the key to utopia. In that same vein, I can’t get enough of looking through old Popular Mechanics magazines whenever I find them in thrift stores or used bookstores to see what these forward thinkers envisioned our lives would be like. So when I happened upon this website – Modern Mechanix – that reprints articles from Popular Mechanics and similar titles of the time I knew I’d found yet another site that I had to add to my daily web surfing routine. Check it out and marvel in “The World of the Future…Today!”