Friday, 4 April 2003: One of the worst things about living out in the world in this modern age is bills. Rent, gas bill, electric bill, cable bill, cell phone bill, home phone bill... you name it. I realize that bills are a necessity and that I will have to deal with them or become a relative stone-age hermit. Doesn't mean I have to like them. Well, Katie and I have tried to cut down our bills as much as possible. We don't have long distance service (we use a calling card), we pay for a lesser-expensive dial-up connection that is offered by our phone company, we've cut down our cell phone plans and try to take advantage of whatever new deals they have. You know, that sort of thing.

Well, the one big thorn in our side has always been our local telephone bill. We can deal with what we are charged by just about any company out there except our SBC bill. It is ridiculously overpriced and the fact is that 85-90% of the incoming calls are either telemarketers or wrong numbers. So, I called up SBC today to start cutting some services. When we first signed up for the service, we ordered stuff like Caller ID, VoiceMail, Dial-Up Connectivity, Local Calling Packages, etc. Well, today I stripped us down to the basics... literally the basic local phone service, the line charge (which we can't get away from no matter what), our dial-up through SBC Yahoo, and Caller ID (we kept this to know when not to pick up the phone... if it says "blocked call," "unknown number," or anything else like that, we don't pick it up... that simple). Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the solution to our overpriced local phone service.

Thursday, 3 April 2003: It is finally here. One of those days that I look forward to for a while. The day that the NFL announces the schedules for the 2003-04 season. For those of you fellow Bears fans, here it is...

Preseason:

• Week 1: Indianapolis Colts
• Week 2: Denver Broncos
• Week 3: at Arizona Cardinals
• Week 4: at New England Patriots

Regular Season:

• September 7: at San Francisco 49ers
• September 14: at Minnesota Vikings
• September 21: bye week (a little early if you ask me)
• September 29: Green Bay Packers - Monday Night, Baby!
• October 5: Oakland Raiders
• October 12: at New Orleans Saints
• October 19: at Seattle Seahawks
• October 26: Detroit Lions
• November 2: San Diego Chargers
• November 9: at Detroit Lions
• November 16: St. Louis Rams
• November 23: at Denver Broncos
• November 30: Arizona Cardinals
• December 7: at Green Bay Packers
• December 14: Minnesota Vikings
• December 21: Washington Redskins
• December 28: at Kansas City Chiefs

Postseason:

We'll just have to wait and see and hope that Kordell pulls through for us. Go Stew!

I have to say that the games I'm most looking forward to are both the Lions games (I really want to see how they do with their new coach Steve Mariucci) and the Raiders game. Kinda cool to see them play the Chiefs as well. And, of course, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dying to see them break the Monday night jinx... and against the Packers, no less.

Wednesday, 2 April 2003: Before you read any further, take note of the following disclaimer... my wife and I are happily married. We love each other very much and have no plans to separate whatsoever.

Now that I've said my piece...

Katie was listening to the radio this morning on the way to class and she called me to let me know that "my girl" was back on the market. I asked her what she meant. She said, "Scott Foley and Jennifer Garner are separating."

Hmmm...

Of course I feel bad for Foley. He had himself one helluva wife and was probably the envy of many a man (and some women, I'm sure). But now, the tables have turned. It may finally be time to check out that Hollywood singles scene. A month and a half ago, Kate Beckinsale and her nine-year live-in boyfriend (who cares what his name is) ended their relationship. Of course I'd be fighting with my good friend Mike over her. Now Garner is free. Oh, the possibilities.

And don't you all worry about Katie, she announced to me during our phone conversation this morning that she is going after Foley now. If you've been reading this site for a while, you know that Katie has always hated Garner because she's married to "her Noel" (Foley's character on Felicity). My Katie loves her Noel.

Yes, people, this entire entry is a joke, of course. Like I said earlier, we are happily married. We just like to josh around with each other and the idea of the two of us swooping in and breaking up Foley and Garner's marriage has been the source of many an in-joke for some time now.

Monday, 31 March 2003: Here's something that hasn't happened in a long time... I saw three movies this weekend. Okay, so two of them were repeat viewings, but I still saw them. And I only had to pay for one. That makes it even better. On Saturday night, I went with a couple of friends to see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I had seen that back in December, but they hadn't seen it yet and wanted to do so before it was gone from the big screen. Katie was invited too, but she was pretty drained and still hadn't seen the first one either, so it really made no sense for her to see this one.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, I went, by myself, to see Spirited Away since it was rereleased in theaters after it won the Best Animated Movie Oscar. Strange and trippy, but well done. No, despite the fact that this is animated, I wouldn't necessarily consider this a kids' movie. They won't really understand what's going on. Yet 80% of the people in my theater were under the age of 5. Why don't parents get it? Not all cartoons are for kids anymore. Have you seen South Park or Beavis and Butthead? Would you argue that these are kiddie toons? God, I would hope not. I think parents see "cartoon" and "Oscar winning" and automatically assume Pixar or Disney. Not the case here folks. The kids were just chattering away throughout the whole movie not paying attention at all. Plus, this is a two hour flick. Not many kids have that kind of patience or attention span. Two hours is a long time for kids. C'est la vie.

The final flick I saw was actually with Katie on Sunday night when we went to see, for a second time,How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. She needed a good flick to see and we both liked this the first time around and we had free tickets because our punchcards for the local theater were full. Gotta love freebies.