Today, Elliot VS. Mommy VS. Friction

Avoid AMI Health Insurance

We've been in an awful mess trying to figure out insurance. Not that we are in a particularly bad situation, it's just that the things we are told by differing parties are all conflicting and nobody will get back to us.

I know in the past we've recommended this particular agency to some people, but we take it back. Don't go to AMI Health Insurance. They may not be the root of our troubles, but they promise to figure things out and call you back, and they never do (except, of course to call you back 2 hours before your appointment and say he's going to be leaving town in one hour).

To any business people, this is all we want: If you say you're going to call us back, call us back. If you are going out of town, don't make appointments for after you leave—and if you do have to cancel an appointment, give some notice.

THE HORROR, etc.

I'm currently in the Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport, waiting to go back from my first conference trip.

I just got a drink a drinking fountain that I never want to drink from again. As I drank, I discovered that underneath the grate of the drain, there was a HUGE cockroach living there, much too big to escape, but his antennae and limbs poking around through the holes. The sticky coke residue around the drinking fountain suggests that the cockroach pulled a Winnie the Pooh, climbing in when he was small and finding enough junk to eat to get his stuffed self stuck in that little cage. I'd take a picture, but I don't think that's something you want to see, and it's certainly not something I want to see again.

In other news, the trip was good, though I missed my wife and boy a lot. It's the first time we've been apart since the night we got engaged, so we used a lot of minutes on the phone. I got a good feel of the French Quarter of New Orleans: A few actual attractions, tons of bars, and even more souvenir shops. I went to historic Preservation Hall, a completely unadorned tiny traditional New Orleans jazz hall, where the New Birth Jazz Band played. They were pretty incredible. People were packed into the hall, and there was a huge line outside of people waiting to get in for the second show.

Afterwards, I went to see Ratatat. I had known, and liked, them from their recordings, but they were completely, transcendentally AMAZING live. They are an instrumental (yeah, no vocalist) duo who play guitar, bass, keys, drums, and autoharp, all while laying down phat beatz. A great light show with a huge burst of confetti at the end sealed the deal.

They are mine

As I was crossing the street by the Wilkinson Center, I was accosted by a passenger in a car stopped at the light.

"Uh, Excuse me."

I made eye contact. She had a thick Russian(?) accent and bleached-blonde hair. Did she need directions?

"Excuse me. I craim your glasses."

"Huh?"

She puts her fingers in circles around her eyes.

"I craim your glasses. They are mine."

Grad school update

I've heard back from 2 of the 4 schools I applied to, and accepted at neither. Two to go. The one I feel I have a fighting chance at getting into is UT Austin, so we'll see what happens. If I don't get in this year, I'll be sure to apply to like 15 next year.

Band Names

Following is a list of band names (?) that Summer and I found in our handwriting on the back of a Relief Society Bulletin in July 2008.

Free Willypedia
Wackypedia
Ok Go Wait No
The Ghosts of Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin's Ghosts
The Mighty Mighty Ben Franklin
The Ben Franklin Electric Detective Agency and Wig Shop
Lasers and Microchips
The Oklahoma State Visitors Council
Jesse James' Hand
The OK State
The Restaurant State
The Universe State
The Empty State
The Nothing State
The Sasquatch State
The Pegasus State
The Loch Ness State
The Winston Churchill State
The Gandhi State
The Gravity State
The Big Bang State
Rocket Fella
Napoleon's Gold Hand
Dead Robert Frost
Zombie Abe Lincoln
All you need is Louvre
Nicey
Whatever, Attorneys at Law
The Gametes
The Baker
Art Snobs
Nothing Eating the Nothing
The Waiters at the End of the Universe
Flight of the Condors
Eli Whitney
Thisbys
Dangerous Persons
Cecil O.
The Weaker Sex
Possible Halloween Costumes

Summer's unintentional puns.

Summer accidentally makes funny jokes sometimes, and not just when she's sleeping. From today:

me: the lady who directed Across the Universe is directing a broadway musical of Spider-Man, with music by U2.

summer: that's uh...edgy?

I laughed and she didn't get the joke.

In other news, I have been sick and sicker, and I went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics.