Hello Parents,

How are you guys doing? Everything is going pretty well here. I really enjoyed the visit from Debbie. We had a really good time, did a lot of resting and went to a few small parties. On Sunday we went to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate her birthday. The food was good although the Nachos were huge and made eating the rest of our food a little more of a challenge. She left early on Monday, of course making me get up a few hours early. Kidding of course, her visit was well worth it.

The schools judicial department sent me a letter saying that they are not going to follow up on the violations that they sent out to 220 kids. That is a relief because in my opinion it is a little early to start out on disciplinary probation. I didn’t really think that they were going to charge everyone with it, and this seems like a more reasonable course of action.

As for the lump on my head that was mentioned in one of my dads blog entries… yes the genes have made themselves comfortable inside of me…. I hit my head hard on a door frame. The lesson of this story is that I am not allowed to wear flip flops. I was getting up to go to the bathroom at two in the morning, when next thing I know my sandal gets stuck on the floor and down I go. And down I go hard. I don’t remember exactly what happened after that but my roommate tells me that i was not making all that much sense for a while and he was about to get some help before i came back out of it. I feel a lot better although my head is still a little sore.

I am looking forward to seeing parents weekend, something i never really thought i would be able to say. Glad that you guys decided to come. And there are a few things that I need. I need a belt, the chair, shampoo, conditioner, axe deodorant (spray and stick), toothpaste and im sure i will think of a few more things before you come. When is that you will be arriving and when do you leave again?

Also, mom, did you deposit the money this morning because I put a check into my account. And i am no longer using the card. Thanks a ton

Much love
Matt

You all liked that last one so much… .

You sometimes see nail guns used as weapons in movies, but it’s a preposterous proposition because the safety, the gizmo which has to be pulled back for the nail to fire, requires great force to retract. If you want to play Mel Gibson in Mad Max with my framing (as in nailing the studs that make up the frame of a house) gun, which uses good, lethal-sized nails, you must use the claw end of a hammer to retract the safety. Which is good because it keeps your fingers away from those projectiles as they go whizzing after pigeons. I mainly fire nails into the air to watch the bright steel tumble and glint against the blue sky.

However (I am a however guy) , I have a smaller finish nail gun, which is operated by a battery and gas cartridges, and I can pull that safety back with my left thumb and forefinger. The nails I commonly use are two inches long and about a thick as the center of a toothpick.

This day I’ve finished my eight hours of hard labor, and as a salute to quitting time, I aim my gun not quite straight up, pull the safety back and fire. I’m sure that nail tumbled into the wild blue, but I doubt it reflected the sun’s light. I can’t say for sure because I was bent over, knees on the ground, holding my left hand in my right as if I were back in Cincinnati praying for my juvenile-deliquent soul at St.Catherines. When the scream of pain passed I peered down at my thumb, at the two small drops of blood on either side.

From yesterday’s Boston Globe

Let’s see…Kate’s off to have her hernia repaired

while Emma is home in bed because

Saturday, while playing soccer, she had her leg stepped on and broke both bones above the ankle.

Steve Jobs spoke about the iPod, which the market analysts claim is losing its coolness compared to the emerging players: “That’s like saying you don’t want to kiss your lover’s lips because everyone has lips.”