Well, well, well. Another weekend, another trip. Looks like I'm the trip machine, y'all. So is Lindsay. Hell, so are the dogs. Yes, we are all bona-fide trip machines. Look out. Look out for the trip machines. Do I smell a new hit rap song about tha Trip Machines? No. No you don't. Not at all.

Lins and I just got back from Iowa, yes, oh yes, Iowa, last night at 9pm. Her cute new little niece was baptized and Lins is the godmother, so we thought we should really try to be there, which we did. And were.

And I'm glad we went -- I had fun in Iowa. Hell anywhere is fun as long as I'm hanging out with Lindsay. Having the dogs with and I not having to work just makes the deal even sweeter. We have a couple of good friends in Iowa City that Lins and I love to hang out with. So, yeah, naturally we stayed overnight (at their nice new house!) and did the hang out thing with them Saturday night. The ped mall, an outdoor street festival was going on, that kind of shit. Mostly Gin and tonics and frozen drinks and beers were going on. Yeah, that was fun. Too many gin & tonics, though. In a good way (at the time) and in a bad way (the next day at church -- ouch).

Talk about a place I really hate more and more each time I go -- that's church. We'll save that rant for another time, though. I'm sure you don't read my posts so that you can hear me bitch about everyth... Oh, wait. You DO read it for that? Good to know -- thanks!

What else has been going on in the month plus since my last post? Would you like a comprehensive list? Oh, I think you would... Here comes!

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Last night we came home to the cleanest and nicest looking our house has been -- maybe ever. At least since we got the new carpet and have implemented other cool shit and shit. Hee. Our friend Carrie (Her sister is Kristi of the K&K Connection -- connecting the dots!) cleans our house for us now! A cleaning lady? Sure, if you have to attach sexist labels to it, yes. Otherwise we like to call her "Carrie". It's crazy, I know. So, a "Carrie" -- a first for us! We pay her money and she's going to clean the shit out of our house every 2 weeks!

It's a great exchange -- a little bit of money for a cleeeeeean house -- without us doing any of the work! It's revolutionary! It's another thing to add to the list of "best thing we've ever boughten". We ain't got time to clean and shit! Plus we like Carrie and she does an amazing fucking job. Give it up for clean houses! Yay!

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Over Memorial Day weekend, Lindsay and I went to Chicago for our first real vacation since our Chicago trip last August. So we needed to get away. Talk about a great vacation. It was filled with fun, relaxation, museums, great food, cute giggly Japanese girls, dogs running in fields, the Matrix Reloaded (I give it 5/10 -- too clunky and dialogue-y), love and all that shit, and, of course, Ikea.

Speaking of Ikea... Thanks to some crazily shrewd planning, Lindsay and I were able to get in, get out, get everything packed the car and get on the road and get on gettin on in an hour and a half -- on a Saturday. It was glorious. Compare this with last year, when we spent five very long and very full hours in Ikea. Oh yeah, we've gotten that much better at *it*. *It* being shopping through a giant store filled with joy and beautiful shit really really fast, of course. What's our secret? We brought an Ikea catalogue with and went through and planned our purchases before we even showed up at the insanely busy and insanely large giant blue store. It's a lovely way to go.

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You know how Illinois has that tollbooth on their state line as you're leaving the state? You know, like they're obviously and blatantly milking that last 40 cents from you? Yeah. That booth? I like to call it Illinois' Bend Over and Say Goodbye Tollbooth. Catchy, isn't it?

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Lins and I bought a TiVo a lil while back. Thoughts? Oh good lord it's fucking awesome. Basically it takes the control dynamic and transfers it from the TV to you. You control the TV. Watch what you want when you want. Record every episode of a show, no matter when it's on. Watch what you want when you want. Echo? Yeah, maybe. But it's fucking great. Damn. If you can afford it, I can't recommend it enough. We even get surround sound where we didn't used to. Now that's fucking quality.

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I think I may have set a new obscenity record with this post. Yay me! Fuck yeah! Thanks for fucking stopping by!
Eric