I made some changes to the site last night. Really all I did was to load a new template and move some things around a little. I also worked on making a new image for the header area here. Currently (as I mention because in the future this won’t be the case) there’s a picture of a flower. I’m working on a collage of family and friends.

I’ve felt very productive these past few days at work in particular. I ran out today to go to the bank and pay the mortgage. I picked up some comics from Fanboy Comics while I was out. Geeking out, this was a pretty good week for comics, and next week looks to be a good one too. Marvel’s current big crossover is called World War Hulk. A while back a bunch of good guys shot the Hulk into space, attempting to send him to a planet he could inhabit all by himself where he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else. Well, he ended up going to a planet where he was able to be hurt and he was put into service as a gladiator for a tyrant. With some other gladiators he was able to overthrow the emperor and ruled the planet until the ship that got him there blew up and killed a bunch of people, including his pregnant queen. So he got pissed off and decided to come back to Earth, where he wants to beat up the people who shot him off into space in the first place. It kicked off with him beating Black Bolt to a pulp then going after Iron Man. The issue where he fought Iron Man was a good one with lots of action penciled by John Romita, Jr., whose blocky style I always thought was very good at conveying weight and mass, which a book featuring a fight between the Hulk and a suped-up Iron Man needed.

I also picked up an issue of The Boys, about a group of people who hunt super heroes corrupted in ways only Garth Ennis would commit to paper. Lots of other good stuff too- X-Factor, Invincible, some World War Hulk tie-ins, Jack of Fables. I still get a number of mainstream comics but I’ve cut down on them a lot in favor of more alternative, adult comics.

Okay, it’s been a while since I devoted any time to writing about comics, so I thought I’d get my fix on that.

Michael was in a cleaning frenzy today. I think it’s because he’s been packing lately, but he wiped the counter, put up the dishes, watered the backyard plants, vacuumed his room, all kinds of stuff.

I washed all our laundry today, which was only four loads including one I put in the dryer a couple days ago plus whites. When Amanda came home she started putting the clothes away and pulling some aside for our Kentucky trip. I went out and picked up a few cooking supplies as she was making cookies for our small group dinner tonight. We picked up a bit and such until everyone got here. Everyone didn’t include a few people tonight though. Rob Peterson and Kristen Barriner are going out of town tomorrow (just like almost everyone else) and had a bunch of things they felt they needed to take care of before they left. Kyle Van Zandt had heard about a group of guys who go out and surf then do some Bible study, so he was going to check that out. I’m pretty interested in it too, and we’ve thought about changing our group back to Wednesday night. If we do that I’ll very likely go check that out.

Everyone else was here tonight though. Lorin Van Zandt brought chicken Parmesan and I think Meagan Koch brought a salad. Our discussion tonight was a very good one and ran long- to 9:15. We cut it off at that point because Adam Koch has to be up at 4:00 tomorrow morning for work.

After everyone left Amanda and I finished packing up for the trip and put the rest of the laundry away.

Tonight’s the last night we’ll be spending in the house with Michael as a resident. I’ll miss having him around to be honest. Although I haven’t played much on the Xbox lately, he’s around for that and just chatting, hanging around. Plus he tends to buy more snacks than we do, and while I don’t eat a lot of them he does share.

Josh McRoberts went in the second round of the NBA draft, which sucks for him. He’s going to be a Portland Trailblazer though, along with the number one pick Greg Oden. The two of them played in high school together and seem to be good friends, so even though he probably would have been picked higher last year or the year before, the talk is that it’s a good situation for him. I really wish we’d seen more of what he was hyped for when he was at Duke, particularly this past year, but I wish him well. I just hope his attitude picks up now that he’s in the NBA. I think this past year his heart wasn’t in college basketball.

Zach Dotsey