Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

I have spent the entire afternoon and evening working on engineering drawings for my Drafting class. This is quite a challenge because I have absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever. I can barely draw a stick figure. I avoid the game hangman at all costs because it involves drawing said stick figure. The last time I played Pictionary with my family I drew a lightsaber and half the room blushed and my aunt made an “ahem” noise as she choked on her cocktail.

And now my professor wants us to draw houses in an isometric view.

I thought that’s what we got when we watched guys warm-up in the locker room.

In less than three weeks my Drafting class will be all about computers. I am counting the minutes until that time. But for the first three weeks I feel like I’m stuck in some cryptic boot camp trying to draw lines and circles and make my letters look like an all caps Helvetica font. Every time I discard another attempted drawing, all I can think is “15 cents, 15 cents” as we have to use this fancy engineering paper. I think I threw away at least $5.00 today.

I guess it’s all about the learning experience. I should have spent $5.00 on a Big Mac or Taco Bell. It would have given me less gas than my homework did.

When I’m folding laundry I enjoy turning on the television to make the time pass a little quicker. Can someone please explain to me that while we have over 400 channels in a wide selection of languages, why can’t we have a 24/7 classic sitcom channel? “TV Land” doesn’t fit the bill anymore, since they show lots of Gunsmoke, Bonanza (which does fill the woof requirements with Pernell Roberts) and the A-Team, but gosh I want to see more Green Acres, The Munsters and Leave It To Beaver. What happened to “Our Miss Brooks”? If we can have a channel dedicated to documentaries, we certainly can have a channel dedicated to classic sitcoms.

I’m just saying. Tinka-tinka-tee, me. Please.

Well now it’s looking like January. We’re under a Lake Effect Snow Warning through tomorrow night. I’ve heard expected snow accumulation of anywhere from one inch to at least a foot. Only Mother Nature knows, so I figure why worry about it. We’ve got a snowblower, I’m capable of running it, and we like being snuggled up in the house, so what’s there to worry about. Hell, we’ve even got powdered milk that we can mix with snow if things get really tough.

Since I’m a relatively smart cub, I have today and every Friday off from school. I’m using the time to catch up on my assignments, catch up on laundry and clean the house from top to bottom.

Yeah, right.

I stopped in at my old office and gave them a loaf of raisin bread to share and then I’ve been working on websites and doing road geek things all day. I am doing laundry too, but that doesn’t really require a lot of effort. I do think that I’ll have to get up and chase the guts of the washing machine down the hallway some time soon because those bearings that have been making noise for the past four months or so are getting really, really loud. Let’s all say a prayer to Mother Downy Tide that we don’t have to buy a new washer for a while, because fixing this beast is more expensive than buying a new one.

Tonight we are scheduled to go to Syracuse for dinner with my sister. I think we’ll brave the storm and go unless it gets too out of control on the Thruway. After all, that’s why four-wheel drive was invented.

Earl and I have decided that we are not going to watch “American Idol” for a while. I was fully prepared to jump onto this latest season in full snark mode, but last night’s auditions in Seattle were just too mean spirited. The judges were pretty mean spirited on Tuesday, last night they were just downright mean. We weren’t entertained at all.

Now I don’t consider Earl and I to be ultra politically correct guys. Once in a while we may snicker privately when we shouldn’t or we may tell a joke that’s a little rude. However, we know the limits of good taste and last night a line crossed. The three judges on American Idol hit a new low. Three people “in the business” really have no business making fun of a contestant’s physical apperance by calling him a monkey. Paula Abdul, regardless of her state of inebriation, should not cheer a contestant on when they’re in the room and then laugh uproariously when they’ve left. That was just humiliating for all involved. The judges and the producers should be ashamed of themselves.

We’re not watching the rest of the audition process. We may boycott the rest of the season. It’s just become too mean.