Ten Things I Think I Think...

It's about that time - the Quarterly blog post from our little family. I often tell myself that I'm going to update our blog more frequently, but I'm awful at taking pictures on a daily basis and so I never feel like I have anything to share with the group. But because so many of Amanda and my family members are so far away, I figured it would be nice if we at least checked in every once and a while.

But then comes the hard part. The part of the blog where I add substance... or at least try to. I'm fresh out of original ideas and relevant pictures, so I'm going to copy my sister-in-law Sarah's recent post on their family blog titled, "10 Confessions." But instead, I'll title this one "Ten Things I Think I Think" so I don't completely swagger-jack her blog.

"TEN THINGS I THINK I THINK..."

1. I think being a true "cat person" is harder than it looks. In fact, it's a lot of work. To be a full-fledged Crazy Cat Lady takes a lot of sacrifice and I realized this lately early in the mornings. You see, as you already know, Amanda got two kittens a few months ago. Now fastforward to present day. Little did I know baby kittens grew into alarm clocks a couple months in.

Payton's new thing is to wake me up early in the morning. It's awful. Terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay now receive more pleasant wake up calls than I do. Payton (our hunter) gets up... stretches... surveys the scene... and then attacks my body lying defenselessly under the blankets. Amanda and Bell (the lazy kitten) sleep through it. I can't.

What makes it worse is this week Amanda has been gone out of town for business. When Amanda is here, Payton will pick on one of us and then switch after a while. With Amanda being gone, I suffer alone.

Today Payton started off playing Mr. Nice Guy - she held her face in front of my face for a few minutes, purring loud enough that I dreamed that the vacuum cleaner was left on. Purring didn't wake me up though, so she proceeded to gnaw on my throat, simultaneously put both paws in both my eye sockets, tried to lick the inside of my nose, pounced on my stomach and even took a below-the-belt shot.

As I write this entry, Payton is staring at me with a very sinister grin, like "You have to fall asleep sometime buddy..." Such a creep.

2. I think the coolest thing about me is my wife. Without her being around this week I have managed to eat pizza for 4 meals, I spent 1 night trying to fix our 1993 Super Nintendo system, and my only social interaction (outside working hours) was to go across the street to play "Call of Duty" on my neighbors XBox360. Oh, and I did go to a fishing club meeting (which was great). Basically, what I am saying is that without Amanda being around I morph into that loser that we all know who has been living in his parent's basement since high school. Pizza, video games, and a fish club meeting... really? That's all I got?

3. I think the Georgia Aquarium is the most outragious thing I've seen in quite a while. Two weeks ago, we headed to Atlanta to celebrate Sue's (Amanda's mom) birthday. We had a blast eating at some great restaurants, playing board games at night, and shopping during the day. But my personal favorite was our visit to the aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It was amazing. At one point I was looking at a 400 lb. grouper and a tour guide was telling visitors nearby about how this species of grouper was overfished. Confession: At that exact moment, I was thinking about how if I ever had one last dying wish, I would wish for a day of unlimited fishing inside the 6.3 million gallon ocean tank.

4. I think I had the time of my life the other day, despite not understanding the majority of what was taking place around me. Amanda and I went to a neighbor's birthday party with their family. Everyone there was from a variety of Slovic countries and we had a blast. In true Eastern European fashion, the food was plentiful and the people were extremely welcoming... and in true Andrew Brown fashion, I sat next to the family's Crazy Uncle who drank a little bit too much. Just my luck. I forget his name, so we'll just call him Uncle Slovicstan. Anyways, Uncle Slovicstan spent an hour telling me about how he looked in his (road) biking uniform. Minor detail, Uncle Slovicstan was large enough to eat Lance Armstrong - so yeah, I spent my afternoon trying not to imagine him in his biking gear. But don't cry for me Slovicstan, I ended up having a really good time.

5. I think ESPN needs to give me a job. Who picked the Kansas upset? Who had Butler in the Elite 8? Who has all four of his Final Four teams alive in the tournament (Duke, WVU, Tennessee, Kansas State)? Yours truly. For the record, I have West Virginia winning it all.

6. I think summer couldn't come soon enough. I turn 28 years old (which has no significance), we celebrate our anniversary, cookouts in the evenings, warmth in the mornings, numerous beach trips, days spent on the boat, lots of fishing (my goal is to bring in a large sailfish this year), July 4th, lightening bugs, esc. There's so much to look forward to this summer, but the thing that I look forward to the most is my oldest brother's family visit! Ash, Sarah, Charlotte, Liam and Alistair are coming in August and I can't hardly wait!

7. I think I have a new favorite quote in life. I wish the quotation was from a virtous man who changed the world, BUT...

"Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been." -Jimmy Buffett

Ok, so Jimmy Buffett hasn't changed the world, but he has made enough fruity drinks and footprints in the sand to be considered thee expert on having a positive attitude and a good time. And I like people like that.

8. I think I am going to write a book within the next year or two. Truth be told, I have already started writing. The book is called "The Panacea" and is about two brothers who share a common childhood dream to own a boat and own a fishing charter business. But when they grow older, the older brother choses to take a different career path, leaving the younger brother to chase their dream alone. When the younger brother wife passes away due to illness, the boat ("The Panacea") becomes his refuge and escape. The meat of the story is about one brother trying to help his younger brother deal with the pain that is left on land.

Please don't feel obligated to compliment the storyline, that's not why I share. It's just something that I am working on, along with painting more often. I don't know if I will put the time and effort necessary to try to get the story published, but I've always wanted to write a book and I don't want to find myself at age 90 one day wondering why I never put a pen to paper. FYI - "Panacea" means a remedy for all ills. Fun fact: Panacea was the Greek goddess of healing.

9. I think my new thing is grandpa-style shirts. I have two shirts, specifically, that Amanda hates and restricts me from wearing them at will. I have been given two strict guidelines to wearing the shirts: 1) I have to be fishing; AND 2) we have to be at our house. Confession #2: I have worn both shirts out-and-about while Amanda has been gone.

The shirts aren't nearly as bad as Amanda makes them out to be. They are nice button-up beach (yes, like a Luau) shirts with different type Saltwater fish on them. One is blue and one is white. I have worn them at least 5 times out in public and two different occasions I received compliments from complete strangers. Catch was, they were both grandpas... I like to think I'm ahead of my time.

10. I think Payton finally fell asleep on our bed while I typed out this blog and I think it's my turn to pounce on her...