Please forgive my language and my temperament. A smelly pile of cat puke can do that to a person.

In other pukey news, my grandma, Bev Thornburg, was involved in a fender bender earlier last week. Some woman plowed into the passenger side of Grandma's car as Grandma was driving to the laundromat. The passenger side door is now caved in, thanks to a numbskull who wasn't watching what she was going.  Thankful Grandma is okay and nobody was hurt.

Eric and his roommate took a young Japanese man to a local strip club. A good time was had by all. 

July 14, 2003
The following is written in the style of America's finest columnist, Larry King (Compared to Larry, William Safire is chump change!).

George Lindsey: Goober is on the mainline,
 tell him what you want

It's been over a week since I last updated Active Blather. I blame Joey Heatherton...Replaced the fried TV last Sunday with a new one. It's a Toshiba...I've been killing flies and ants the last couple of days. I hope God isn't an insect...After a week of wanting pizza, I finally got one today. It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Pizza Hut, you disappointed me...I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching Adult Swim on Sundays. Home Movies is my personal favorite. Love McGuirk...As I was driving out of a parking lot today, I saw a short woman with incredibly thick legs. She was talking on a payphone...Death has really been stalking Hollywood the last couple of weeks. The death of Barry White was a surprise. With the passing of Hackett and Ebsen, are there any Buddys left in tinseltown?...Belated birthday wishes to my Dad and to my Aunt Lee Ann. I hope you both had good birthdays and I promise I'll call soon!...New Castle, a town just a hop and a skip away from here, had its Mayberry in the Midwest festival this weekend. Mayberry, of course, refers to the fictional burg from The Andy Griffith Show. I guess this is the second year New Castle honored the great sitcom and played host to several of the surviving cast members. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts didn't attend, but George "Goober" Lindsey was there. So was Elinor Donahue...Ms. Donahue played Ellie Walker, Andy Taylor's first and greatest girlfriend. Ellie wasn't on the show for long (Only the first year, I think), but it has always been my belief she was Andy Taylor's perfect match. Ellie was intelligent, forthright, independent, and beautiful. In other words, she was the perfect woman. Why Andy favored Helen Crump over Miss Walker is a big mystery to me...If I had known about the big Mayberry event earlier, I would have gone to New Castle just to meet Elinor Donahue and to get her autograph. Maybe they'll do it again next year and she'll appear. Something to plan on. Remind me if I forget.

July 5, 2003
It was a stormy Fourth of July. Nature's fireworks started in the afternoon and ended in the wee, small hours of the morning. The lightning was certainly fierce and it claimed a beloved member of the Cherry household. Yes, the TV in the living room died yesterday after a bolt of lightning struck. The set lingered a bit after it lost its picture, spitting static and limited audio from what sounded like a NASCAR telecast. And then it fell silent.

It's always a shame to see a good television go, especially at such an early age. I'm still grieving as I write this, but the real grief will occur when I see how much it's going to cost to replace it.

July 4, 2003

Happy Fourth of July! I hope everyone is doing well on this Independence Day. I'm doing fine myself. Not much going on for the most part. Just typical everyday stuff that really doesn't merit a mention. I mean I could write a paragraph on my eating habits or a couple paragraphs on my personal grooming (I cut my fingernails yesterday), but why would anyone care to read about that? I know I wouldn't want to write about such tedium thus I don't. However, I did cut my fingernails yesterday or have I mentioned that before?

In other matters, my brother, Todd, fell off a train car earlier this week. As many people know, Todd works for the railroad so climbing train cars is part of his job. However, falling off train cars is not. Todd thankfully didn't suffer any major injuries from his fall, just some bumps and bruises.

In other harrowing news, I bought a pink pencil sharpener this past Monday. I never saw a pink pencil sharpener before and I wasn't planning on buying one either, but it was the only pencil sharpener the store had so I had to get it. The need for a pencil sharpener outweighed the pinkness so now I own an extremely pink, Malibu Barbie pencil sharpener. Hair extensions will surely follow.

Eric recently ate the best pork chops ever. 

June 23, 2003

This past Saturday was the big Garfield parade in downtown Muncie and it was pretty decent. There were bands, clowns, and even a balloon ala Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Hundreds of people showed up to line the streets as kids awaited the bounty of tossed candy from the parade participants. No politicians were allowed in the parade (except Muncie's beloved mayor, Dan Canan) so everyone was spared an endless stream of "Vote for Me!" signs. Jim Davis was there and I am pleased to report he no longer has his ponytail (Balding, middle-aged men shouldn't grow ponytails. It just screams desperation in my humble opinion). 

I had a pretty good time taping the extravaganza with Tim behind the camera. I rambled on for nearly forty minutes, saying whatever entered my head. I must admit I got a little snarky from time to time, but it was all in good fun.   

I want to take a moment to thank Marc Acton for letting us use his camera for the parade! Oh, and a shout out to Samantha Keihn for waving to us as she played her trumpet (Sorry we didn't wave back, Samantha!). Go Blackhawks!

And special thanks to the Idiots' very own Tim Richardson for giving up a Saturday morning to tape the fat cat's hootenanny. I couldn't have done it with out you, Tim!

Arlo Wazzo (Tom Cherry) at the Garfield parade