Bill Roper's Journal

I walked out of lunch over at the Beacon Tap, got in my car, and looked out the passenger side window at the stores across the street. A light pole was perfectly positioned so that I read the name of one store: "Advance Auto Farts".

I related this to Gretchen when I got home and she hurt herself laughing and responded "They must specialize in exhaust work."

This is (one of the reasons) why I married this woman...

Gretchen is a bit under the weather today. I had a bit of a gastrointestinal bug late last week, so it's possible that it's migrated over to her.

She's spent a lot of the day resting, so with any luck, she'll feel better tomorrow.

I am going to get caught up on things. Several of them got done today.

In the meantime, we are mere minutes from Gretchen's birthday, so I am going to stop catching up on things now... :)

Gretchen has asked me to thank everyone for the good wishes on her shingles. She now has antivirals *and* a can of lidocaine spray, which she says is "a gift from God".

K got an award today at the high school drama awards for playing a crazed murderer in a comedy farce. We are assured that this is not type casting.

We greatly enjoyed the finale of "The Company You Keep" and are hoping that it catches a renewal. Meanwhile, "True Lies" got the ax, which was not a surprise. "East New York" *also* got axed, apparently because CBS wanted more concessions than Warner Bros. was willing to deliver. We'll miss it some, but it is a bad sign for a series when all of the supporting characters seem to be more interesting than the lead. (Your mileage may vary.)

Meanwhile, we're wondering if Kara Killmer is planning to leave "Chicago Fire" after this season. It wouldn't be a great surprise to us or apparently to much of anyone else, at least looking around online. Meanwhile, I was greatly amused by the guys in the firehouse complaining about the lead character in some firefighting series they were watching having a beard and how his mask would never seal with that thing. I looked over at Gretchen and said, "So does the lead on 'Fire Country' have a beard?" Apparently so...

And will they *ever* find anything really interesting on "The Curse of Oak Island"? One more episode for this season, so I guess we'll see what turns up.

I guess we're watching a lot of TV as the season heads to an end.

Normally, Gretchen would have taken Julie to school this morning. Unfortunately, her lower back imploded and sent various unkind messages, so I got up, borrowed her van, and took both kids to school.

She has spent the day upstairs, nursing the back along with Aleve and ice packs.

We'll see how it does tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Gretchen's birthday, as of which she will be as old as I am again. This happens every year, of course, because that's just what the calendar is like.

My plan is to let her sleep in. We'll see what the universe's plan is.

Happy birthday, Gretchen!

Today is Gretchen's birthday, which means that she has once again caught up to me in terms of birthdays celebrated.

Happy birthday, Gretchen!

While at a function at Julie's school tonight:

"Where do upwardly mobile undead shop for clothes? Aberzombie and Lich!"

Gretchen noted to me, "Do you know how to remember when our anniversary is?"

"No," I replied. "How should I do it?"

"Find the day in the end of August when there is something that you want to do that I don't want to do. That will be our anniversary."

This is slightly unfair, but not entirely. A couple of years ago, I went to see Billy Joel in concert at Wrigley Field. On our anniversary, as I discovered after I bought the tickets.

This year, I made plans to go see the Cubs play the Mets at Wrigley Field on Monday night.

On our anniversary.

This is an annoying pattern that I am going to attempt not to repeat next year, as that will be our 25th anniversary and it would be nice to actually spend it together.

In the meantime, we decided to celebrate our anniversary today. After we got back from the pool (which closed for the season today), I grilled some lovely steaks from Mariano's; then after dinner, we had cheesecake for dessert. (Because, as we remind Katie, any restaurant with cheesecake is a sufficiently fancy restaurant, at least according to Katie.)

It was a fine day.

And tomorrow, Gretchen and I will have been married for 24 years.

Happy anniversary, love.

Gretchen had her colonoscopy today. Everything looks fine, although they're doing some more tests to try to figure out the source of her intestinal distress of recent weeks. She's due back in five years.

So, good news!