Our wedding rings came in the mail today! In a week and a half we'll be wearing them. Jen will be my wife. I still have moments where it all seems like a dream. Time just slips by and the world changes under our feet. This is definitely a big change in my life. I welcome it, and Jen, with open arms. We are not two halves pressed together to make a whole. We are two wholes joined together to form a bond even more durable than the rings we'll be wearing on our fingers.

Tuesday is lengthy for me. It is the only day during the week where I go to all three jobs. The tour at Hidden Villa today consisted of ten first-graders. Most of the roosters where slaughtered in the past week, so the one I've caught the last couple of tuesdays is now food. I caught one today who needs his spurs trimmed. In the cow pen, I coaxed a small fence lizard onto my arm for the kids to look at, and then we got the treat of watching the cows make some pies. The kids were a bit grossed out. In the past, I've gotten kids involved in pushing bits of straw into the cow pies, causing them to resemble low-rent porcupines. Not today. No playing in the cow flop for these kids.

It was slow in the garden at the museum. Sam, who visits the museum on a regular basis with his mom and little brother, was interested in one of the snake books. Since he can't read yet, I was telling him what kinds of snakes he was looking at. When we came to the garter snakes. He looked up and asked, "what do they guard?"

Jen and I have gotten the house and yard into better shape over the last couple of days. We are also the proud owners of two new bookcases. It took me the better part of an hour to assemble one of them. It now squats in the corner behind the lamp, filled to the brim. The other one waits to be assembled. There will still be piles of books even after this one is filled. This is how it should be.

I hope they catch that sniper bastard soon and take away his toys.

Animals spotted tonight: One large skunk, and eight egrets.

cds I listened to while getting pissed off about the proliferation of guns in this society: Calexico "Scraping" and "98-99 Road Map", Ani Difranco "To the Teeth" (not one, but two brilliant anti-gun songs!), Amy X Neuburg & Men "Sports! Chips! Booty!", Mark Growden's Electric Pinata "Inside Beneath Behind", and Lights In A Fat City "Somewhere"

now: Seven Percent Solution "All About Satellites and Spaceships"