IMR: 1998: March: 27

IMR: 1998: March: 27 -- Friday, 8:41 p.m.
Our Apartment, Makiki, Hawai`i

Katie -- two months old yesterday -- is napping, an awesome-smelling dinner awaits as the rice simmers down, and I feel like writing as much as I can during this little lull because lord knows when I'll have a free moment to ramble again.
Man. Spring Break's about up, so very quickly, and nothing on the week's to-do list is anywhere near done. Let's see:

Taxes. Our first joint filing! Too bad we can't claim Katie until next April. Good ol' Uncle Sam penalizes married folks without kids. Worse yet, there's still a semester of Ka Leo editor paychecks on this W-2... major income without any taxes withheld. We're gonna owe.
Two articles for the next UH Student Handbook. Provided this one gets to see the light of day, that is... which knowing the Board of Publications isn't ever a sure thing. Cora's given me two months to do 'em, and I haven't even started.
The Amnesty International Hawai`i Chapter newsletter. Yes, yet another project -- to Jen's dismay -- for which I won't be paid. But hell, it's great resume material. Just because I'm a born-again student doesn't mean I should throw "extracurricular" out the window.
Two, maybe three scholarship applications. Not even I can believe I'm going to try and cash in on my academic excellence. What is this world coming to?

What I did accomplish is pretty much limited to work. I threw together my first imagemap for the AIB site, and added a touch of JavaScript to the UH Press site.
See, over Spring and Winter breaks, student employees are allowed to work 40 -- instead of the maximum 20 -- hours a week. Even after taking Tuesday off as usual and with yesterday's Kuhio Day holiday, I think I still racked up a little over 30 hours.
Every cent helps. Jen's disability checks are more than a month off.
The only other major developments pertain to our all-purpose shindig next Saturday, and fortunately they're all positive.
Despite having it all dumped in his lap upon arriving home from an overseas trip, dad has been able to catch up and get invitations out to his side of the family. The Pagoda upgraded the venue to one of their large ballrooms, and threw in a free hotel room, too. And practically everyone on our dream guest list is confirmed to attend.
Although still miffed her parents can't come, Jen's still pretty excited about the gathering. Even a few of her coworkers will be there.
It's only so obvious that Ka Leo totally overwhelms your life. Many of my dearest friends also happen to be former coworkers. Kim, Donica, Mio, Ruth, Martha, Veronica... all from the Golden Years, of course. To that end, Greg will be the most-missed invitee, stranded as he is in Austin.
And I still can't believe Nate and Jaimee -- friends through thick and thin -- are flying in for this.
Hmm. Since it is, among other things, the wedding reception we never had, I wonder if I can needle William -- best man at our wedding -- into giving the traditional speech?
We'll see. At least he's in a good mood. The man's in Hilo now in the throes of -- gasp! -- a social life.
Friday, 9:27 p.m.
Our Apartment, Makiki, Hawai`i

Katie's a little fussy tonight. Jen and I are "bouncing" her -- her preferred way to wind down after a busy, stretch- and smile-filled day -- in shifts.
What else what else... random thoughts here.
Yesterday Jen and I zipped over the H-3 and toured Windward Mall. Just as eerily depressing as I remembered. And the food at the "food court" made me sick. At least the place doesn't seem to be trying so hard to be another Pearlridge. Jen said it reminds her of a mainland mall... not neccessarily a good thing.
We wandered into Sam Goody, but decided not to patronize them because the sign in the window had a glaring typo. Next was Tempo Music, where Jen tricked me into picking up a cassette with a collection of the 1998 Grammy Award nominees.
Sure it had Shawn Colvin, Fiona Apple and that Rolling Stones' k.d. lang ripoff, but it also had Hanson's accursed "MMMBop."
After figuring out that the opposite ends of the Sears store were on different floors (leading to a car hunt of ridiculous proportions), we headed back into town. I got a safety check at the McCully Chevron on Kapi`olani (only a month overdue), then picked up a new battery at Sears.
A $70 expense, but neccessary. My old battery finally gave up the ghost. Or, more accurately, I murdered it.
For some strange reason, on three seperate occasions this past week I sapped it completely. Left the parking lights on at Alex & Claudia's reception, for one, and leaving a door a tad ajar Tuesday night for another. My jumper cables have never seen so much action.
(As an aside, after Todd rescued me the next morning, I had to rescue him later in the day when he locked his keys in mom's car. Must run in the family.)
And these past few instances are part of a long record of battery homicides. I don't think there's a car-owning friend alive who hasn't gotten a "can you give me a jump?" call from me out of the blue.
You know, doing these little things to keep my little car running have made it hard for me to get up the nerve to get it appraised as a trade-in. But I passed up a chance the other week for a '91 four-door Toyota Corolla priced at $1,300, and I don't think I should have.
Oh, and speaking of Todd... Wednesday's rescue operation found him at the Pearl Kai Jelly's. As he rescued his keys from a trunk-full of Magic cards, he mentioned that he might be getting a full-time job there.
That would be cool. At least it'd be working with something he loves. And full-time at that.

Jen has rediscovered the "interrupting cow" joke. This week, at least, it's the funniest thing under the sun. You know the one:
Joker: Knock knock.
Victim: Who's there?
Joker: Interrupting cow.
Victim: Interrupting c...
Joker: Moo!
To stretch out the laughs, we've been adding in variations. Interrupting chicken, interrupting pig, interrupting frog. At one point, though, Jen got a little confused.
Jen: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Jen: Interrupting cat!
Me: Interrupting c...
Joker: Moo! I mean, meow!
I guess you had to be there.

So the new Volkswagen bug is in town. I'm almost tempted to go down to see 'em... but only because they're gonna have 25-cent hotdogs and a Beatles cover band to celebrate the arrival.
Man. Those VW marketing folks have quite an ear for music. Greg concurs, at least.
Remember "Da Da Da"? The song used in that smelly chair TV ad, making the obscure album it comes from (Trio's eponymous release) a momentary bestseller?
Now they've got several different ads for the new bug, all using great tracks. I wonder if I can find a list of the different songs somewhere? I wonder if they've thought about putting out a VW compilation CD?
(Hey, if there's a CD for those diamond commercials...)
One I recognized immediately: The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds." To most, perhaps, as obscure as the other commercial tunes, but it was once in high rotation on the lamentably lost Radio Free Hawai`i.

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