We're down to 3 months and some change until our wedding, which puts us about a month away from sending out the invitations. For those of you not aware, I designed our invitations and we are assembling them ourselves to save money (quite a bit, in fact). One of the things we are including with the invitations will be a 3.5" x 5" RSVP postcard, which according to the USPS, fits the minimum size requirements for being mailed. Just to be safe, Selina decided to take one of our postcards to our local post office today during her afternoon off to make sure they didn't have a problem with it.

Apparently they do.

Below you will see our postcard lined up with a template that Selina was given at the post office when she asked about mailing it. Now, the USPS employee claims that the machine will kick our postcards out as undeliverable because it does not meet their size standards. WTF? Are you telling me that the USPS has such precision machinery that it can align postcards perfectly enough to detect that this one is 4.95833333333333333333333333333333 inches long instead of 5.0 inches long? I call horseshit.



To put this outrageous claim by the postal employee to the test, I took three of our RSVP postcards, slapped a stamp on them, drove to three separate USPS facilities and dropped them in the mail. One was in North Austin, another in Round Rock and the final one was dropped off at the very post office in Pflugerville that stated that any USPS machine would kick it out as undeliverable. I clearly marked each RSVP so that I could tell which one came from which post office when they arrive.

I thoroughly I expect to see all three of them in our mailbox by next Monday (June 29th) at the latest. We'll see how sensitive this equipment really is...and how big of a liar that guy at our post office really is.

KVUE News ran a report yesterday afternoon where they set up a camera and watched to see how many people on bicycles ran the 4-way stop. 36% of the cyclists at least slowed down when running the sign (although they still ran it), but 61% made no attempt to stop. Some jackasses were on TV claiming that they have the "right" to run signs/lights because they don't have a motor. Bullcrap! You can't have it both ways. All the bitching and moaning about "sharing the road" means nothing if suddenly you think you own it

Another basketball related injury occurred this past Friday during our lunchtime game. While attempting to block a shot, I received an elbow to the ribs. I got the wind knocked out of me, but it was a hard enough blow that it apparently bruised (if not cracked) at least one rib. Unaware of the extent of my injury, I went ahead with my plans to play golf that same afternoon. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best thing to do with a rib injury since swinging a golf club involves quite a bit of torso twisting.

By Sunday the soreness started to turn into a sharp pain while executing certain motions (twisting, bending, stretching, laughing hard, etc). At this point I messaged Selina (I was in Waelder for Father's Day and she was in Austin) that I was definitely going to the doctor on Monday.

Monday morning rolled around and I called my doctor's office to try and schedule an appointment. Turns out he was on vacation, so I called the ARC Urgent Care Center off of Far West. The doctor there examined me and informed me that he couldn't hear any signs of a fracture (explained that you can actually hear the broken ends rubbing together when taking deep breaths) and that I wasn't showing any signs of a punctured lung (pain the in the shoulder area when breathing caused by air escaping from the lungs and building up there). He ordered a chest x-ray just to make sure, though. Results should be in today.

So here I am, sitting at my desk at work and relying on over-the-counter pain relievers to get me through the day. If bruised ribs hurt this much, I'd hate to have broken them. Doctor said that if I needed something stronger, he'd give it to me. I'm seriously debating on taking him up on the offer.

Just kidding. I'm not really eating a pie...it was a tweet I read while browsing through Slate's article entitled Orphan Tweets. There are some jewels to be found out there among these "one tweet wonders".

Monday mornings are bad enough without large tree limbs splintering off from the Bradford Pear tree in our front yard, but that's exactly what I had to deal with this morning.

As I was preparing coffee and throwing waffles in the toaster oven, the doorbell rang. It was our neighbor, Angela, and she said there was something in the front yard that I absolutely had to look at. I'd like to mention that she had what I call "the big eyes" look -- you know, that look that says "Holy crap, you're in for a surprise". I had no idea what to expect, but as I stepped out the front door I saw that there was a rather large portion of our Bradford Pear tree laying across our yard, the sidewalk and their driveway. Luckily, the limbs didn't hit either of their vehicles (phew). Angela's husband, Anthony, let me borrow his chainsaw so that I could cut the limbs into manageable sizes in order to get them pulled out of the driveway/sidewalk and pulled over to the side of the yard. Now I'm waiting for a call back from one of the tree services in Round Rock so that they can come by to pick up the fallen limbs and assess the rest of the tree.

What a way to start the week off...now we have a half-naked tree and a big pile of brush laying in our front yard. I'm sure the rest of the neighborhood really appreciated the chainsaw wake-up call this morning, too.

Yesterday afternoon I jumped into my car and turned on the radio (I listen to 590AM KLBJ, which Selina hates) just in time to hear Melinda Brandt's traffic report. She said that there was a major traffic delay on south Mopac near Barton Creek Mall due to "people getting out of their cars and picking Crunchberries". I wasn't quite sure if I had heard her right, but the weather report that followed also mentioned that it was "peak Crunchberry season". WTF?

I got home and told Selina that apparently the traffic and weather people were smoking crack and were talking about Crunchberries like they were real. She started laughing and showed me an article that was forwarded to her concerning a woman who sued the Quaker Oats Company alleging that she was tricked into thinking that Crunchberries were real fruit.

Thank God the judge threw this ridiculous-ass case out. There's a lot I could say about that woman, but I think the article says it all.