The ol' weekend roundup.

My cliffhanger ending from last time was that the permanent retainer attatched to my bottom teeth was coming loose. It eventually popped out altogether, which was really weird. For a full day I was just licking the inside of my teeth, feeling how weird it was to not have something there. Tongues are really weird things with their own mind, it seems. Anyhoo, I went to the dentist Friday morning, and we discussed if it was even necessary to put the retainer back in. My dentist wiggled my teeth and thought they were solid and had been for a while, and said it probably wasn't necessary, but can always go in later. So, I'm metal free!

Friday night we met up with some peeps as sort of a sidecar to a blind date between a sister of a friend and a friend of a friend, both of whom I don't know very well or at all. But it was fun to hang out with Iwan and Eryn and observe. We think we saw Junior Seau, but his back somehow was always turned to me, and it was hard to get a good look.

We departed the party early on Friday, because Saturday morning we got up at the crack of snot to take my parents to the airport. It's scary how I can wake up early, drive a car, come home, get in bed and fall back asleep, and then wake up later and barely remember anything from the morning. Anyhoo, that all went well (I assume :).

That day we had a window salesman guy come and talk to us about replacing our windows. I liked what he had to say, and his official estimate was about 2/3rds as much as some other over-the-phone estimates, so we'll see how he stacks up. He did a neat little demo with a heat-lamp, shining it through normal windows and then their double-paned, treated windows. The temperature of our house fluctuates so much, I think that better windows would make a huge difference in keeping heat in or out. We've got a lot of housing upgrades that we want to do (windows, ceilings, carpets, landscaping), but each of those things are expensive, so we've got some picking and choosing to do. Stay tuned on those.

Saturday afternoon I went golfing with Iwan and Miami John. As well as I shot last week, I played crappy this weekend. That's the way the game goes, I guess. Nice to hang out with the boys, though.

Diana started tearing stuff out of the side yard on Saturday while I was golfing. With a foothold established, we went to town on Sunday and continued the process. For the third weekend in a row, we have about a dozen huge trashbags of plants lining the sidewalk. Good stuff, but hard work.

That afternoon we met up with Eryn and Heather and Li'l Mike and saw "Super Size Me". For those who haven't heard, it's a movie about a guy who decides to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days. His rules are that he must eat three meals a day, must try everything on the menu at least once, must NOT eat anything not sold by McDonalds, and the best: if they ask if he wants to upgrade to a super size, he must accept the offer.

It was a really fascinating movie, both chronicalling his struggles and health issues mixed with interviews from various food and health experts about the general eating problems and fatness of America. The main guy was also very personable and fun to watch. Good stuff. Go see it.

Watching the movie really made me appreciate both my mom, who always fed me very well growing up, and my wife who has continued the process. My only vice is a soda a day with lunch, but compared to one guy in the movie who would have 3 or 4 HALF-GALLON sodas a day, I think I'll be ok. Immediately after the movie, we coincidentally went over to a Whole Foods market to get some groceries, and it was amazing to see how good all the food looked after watching this guy chow down McDonalds for the last two hours.

Monday morning. Back to work!