Gains & Losses

I buried my guinea pig today. Bitey Gilbertson, possibly the greatest guinea pig of all time has passed away.

2007 has been something of the proverbial roller coaster thus far and i've been in something of a funk, but i feel like the digging and filling of a hole in the ground has worked some therapeutic magic on me. So, as Jonas Mekas' project enters its 54th day i share the sparrow's feeling of freedom and release, with it comes the need to tell my story.

As i said, 2007 has already had its highs and lows. Gilbertson's passing was really hard to take. When we came back to Omaha after Christmas we noticed a sudden weight gain in him. After a couple of vet visits he had some treatment that was working on and off, but he wasn't himself. He died in his sleep, likely of a sudden heart failure.
That same weekend, Brooke's birthday, DaveT, Carolyn & Brigette were visiting and we accrued a new family member. Rex Grossman, a 2-month-old 'Bogle' (or perhaps a Boglin Terrier), came home Sunday afternoon. Part Beagle, part Boston Terrier, Rex seems to have gotten the best of both doggie worlds and is a fine looking, kinda gross, puppy. Aside from a nasty poop-eating habit the little guy is pretty cool.

On a related 2007 hi-low, January was spent watching my precious Bears win their way through to the Super Bowl and after Devin Hester's opening return i thought it was our year. But despite my obvious disappointment at the outcome they had an amazing run and i am actually excited for next year.

My first quarter of teaching at Metro Community College wraps up next week. The quarter went fairly well, though, i think what it was really good for was giving me an idea of how to do this next quarter. I've seen growth in several of my students and will likely only have to end up failing/giving incompletes to a couple of them.

It's also the season of graduate school news. Stanford wrote me to request that i kindly not go to school there, please, but i did get an acceptance letter of sorts from UW-Milwaukee. The last few days have been quite spring-y indeed and though i hear a wintering is coming this weekend, overall, things are looking up.

Dinner Party of Five

... though, only if you count Gilbertson.

Tonight we hosted a small and successful dinner party, which seems to be nothing special, really, but is definitely something i've often thought to myself i should try more often. Tobi (our pleasantly surprising 3rd wheel roommate for the 1st month of marriage) invited a friend from her nursing program over for dinner to celebrate their completion of the 18-month Creighton nursing program.

I made a shrimp fried rice, that i must say, came off just about perfectly, Brooke boiled some corn on the cob and we drank a risky bargain-bin bottle of white wine from that also was pleasantly surprising. Rob, said friend, was excited to discuss zombies and religion and anarchy, so the rather short event, which culminated in slices of watermelon (which were passed on to Gilbertson after we ate our fill), was never boring. In fact, Rob is even excited to read my zombie thesis, which will then, likely, be the last we hear from him...

...but anyway, lovely evening.