blood is thicker than booze OR my mafia loan fail-safe

kie: back in ithaca, after a weekend-long stay in the middle of nowhere
kiel: starting to get tired
kio: shhhhh...

i got some comments about my picture the other day. this expression is one of utter joy, and nothing else. it is neither meant to inspire fear nor disgust in my readers. besides, wait til you see my ass.

anyay, instead of another creepy picture, here's my cousin david holding a bass that i caught while out on the susquehanna on saturday.



it came in at about 18 inches, and came close to breaking my line.

fishing is like sex in some ways:

• if you keep throwing out your line, you'll get a bite no matter what kind of lure you use
• it's mostly boring repetition until the 30 seconds or so of excitement
• at the end of the day, you're just wet and your hands smell like fish
• it's most fun when you do it drunk on a boat full of guys

actually, fishing is not like sex at all. i accidentally (really i swear!) hooked sarah in the back once. yeah like she's not going to hold that over me for the rest of my life.

in the past two weekends, i had a family reunion and a wedding on my mom's side, and a trip to the river with my dad's side. this summer, especially in the past two weeks, i think i have seen just about all of my living relatives, out to third and fourth cousins. by my count, there are over 100 or so of them. which is good, cause in case i ever owe the mafia like $20,000 i'll only have to borrow a couple hundred from each of them. seriously though, it's amazing how everybody has stayed in touch. i guess when most everyone stays within 50 miles or so of where they grew up it's easy, but still!

the wedding was technically for my second cousin, once removed. somebody who i probably met as a kid once or twice. but we were invited and we really tore the house down. literally in some cases. there was a shuttle from the reception to the hotel, so EVERYONE was sloshed. THEN after the wedding lots of people (including the bride and groom) went out to a BAR! man, i come from a family that can pack them away. i see this as a positive trait.

in case you're wondering how my root canal went (AND I KNOW YOU WERE), it was fine. the integral of the total pain involved did not amount to much, but there were some Dirac delta functions along the way, i'll tell ya. pretty soon i will be rocking a sweet gold crown, though, and they will possibly be tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty. hmm, i guess if all else fails i can sell the crown to pay off my mafia-related debts.

kelly and dan came to ithaca the other day, and we ended up walking all around town for dinner and ice cream. i drank a milkshake, then filled the cup with water only to later realize that i had previously thrown a napkin in the cup. did you know that wet napkin gets sucked up through a straw? well now you do.