Our house is all moved into now, and decorated for Christmas. We couldn’t have done it without Ash’s parents and our friend Ryan. They helped so much, our house turned out amazing!

We’re so fed up with waiting for them to install FiOS in our apartment, we decided to buy a townhouse in Orange because they have Time Warner Cable instead. Okay, so maybe that’s not really the impetus for the move, but it’s certainly a plus.

We’re in escrow now, and if all goes well, we should be moving into our new home in late November or early December. Wish us luck!

I’m listening to Spring Awakening and it made me think about books that are banned from schools. I think one of the greatest reasons to allow access to controversial books, particularly coming-of-age books, books about prejudice, and books about depression, is that young people need to know that they’re not alone in their thoughts–other people have been through the same things, and they can learn from those experiences, fiction or nonfiction.

In Spring Awakening, the characters are restricted from sex education, and as a result, they don’t know the immediate consequences of what they’re doing. It’s an important message to consider: Over-protecting people can keep them from being able to protect themselves.

So Verizon was supposed to install FiOS on August 16, but one of their installers called in sick that morning, so again they had to cancel on our entire building at the last minute. Now it’s mid-September, and we haven’t even heard about a new install date. At this point, we’ve definitely decided not to sign up for it when (or if) they eventually come around again.

I really enjoyed [title of show]. It’s a Broadway musical about two guys trying to write a Broadway musical, and it stars the two guys who wrote it, along with the two women who worked on it with them. It’s exactly what you’d expect it to be–a song about writing an opening song, a long scene about a scene that’s too long–but it works. It’s touching and hilarious, and it’s especially great because you’re watching the very people who wrote it… writing it. If you’re in New York, I highly recommend it. It’s an underdog of a show, with no big stars or hit movie behind it, so it’s pretty easy to get tickets.

Since December we’ve been hearing that we’re getting Verizon FiOS “soon” in our building. Finally in June they scheduled a day when every single tenant had to be home, and FiOS would be installing their stuff in every unit. The installers came that morning and said, “oops, we forgot to bring pipes to enclose the cables in the garage, so we need to reschedule.” Now they’re supposed to come again this Saturday, and once again someone needs to be home in each unit. This time I’m expecting, “oops, we forgot to bring screwdrivers, so we need to reschedule.”

I finally got a Sonicare toothbrush. The hygienist recommended getting one when I was at my new dentist’s office last month. My previous dentists just recommended any electric toothbrush, but apparently my new dentist’s staff are believers in the Sonicare hype.

Anyway, in my research of the different models, I found out that Wal-Mart had a model called the Sonicare Xtreme–which uses AA batteries instead of a charging base–and it was only $28 (instead of the typical $99 or more)!

Some reviews online say it dies a quick death if the battery compartment gets wet, so I’ll have to be careful. But it comes with a 2-year warranty, so I should be covered even if it does. I was replacing my Crest SpinBrush ($10) every six months anyway, so if this one lasts just a year and a half, it’ll be worth it. And supposedly it works much better than other toothbrushes, thanks to its “sonic cleaning action,” which I still think is hogwash but my new dentist thinks is science.

Ash and I have been listening to Mortal City by Dar Williams in the car recently. In particular, we really like track eight, “The Pointless, Yet Poignent Crisis of a Co-Ed.”

And another thing, what kind of a name is “Students Against the Treacherous Use of Fur”?
Fur is already dead, and besides, a name like that doesn’t make a good acronym.

It’s a good album, as long as you like really, really folky music. We generally do.

Ilse was really matted when she went for her haircut today, so they had to cut it really short again. She looks like a big white rat.

Wow, I haven’t written anything since May? The saddest part about that is that my archives will always skip over June 2008, as if it’s the month that time forgot, or as if I don’t know the order of the months. “Let’s see, April, May, July… July? That’s not what’s next!”

June had weddings and stuff. Work was pretty hectic too, and is even more so now that it’s July. Ash and I have been watching a lot of HGTV, and I even tried my hand at some “Hidden Potential” inspired makeovers using Photoshop.

Ilse is sad every day while Ash is at work. She just camps out by the front door waiting, or she sleeps in her Sherpa bag all day. Oh, the poor neglected puppy. Of course she wouldn’t be neglected if she were willing to play with me, but noooo… she wants her “mommy” instead.