Dan and I are currently at home in the great state of Mississippi, and yesterday we took a quick trip up to Jackson to see some friends. On our way there, I saw a lot of Jesus signs, and it made me wish I was faster with my camera so I could take a picture for the blog. One of the big things I miss about living in the South is the fact that Jesus signs are all over the sides of the highways and byways in Mississippi, usually either erected by a church or some well-meaning property owner who wants to give you something to think about while you drive. Every once in a while, my dad will call me from his truck, where he's driving through some tiny little town, to tell me about a new church sign he's seen, and I keep saying that someone should make a coffee table book of nothing but photos of these signs, because some of them are truly hilarious in their grotesqueness.
The sign I saw yesterday was hand-painted in gigantic lettering, and it displayed a lack of understanding of the fact that when you're writing something down, using capital letters is like yelling at your readers. It said: "Tell JESUS about it."
The subtext, I can only assume, was "Listen, I don't have time to hear about your problems. But I know who does."
I laughed for the next ten miles. Man, I miss living here.

Well, we're back from our trip to Mississippi, and right now we're spending a lot of time doing laundry and trying not to think too hard about the fact that we have to go to work tomorrow, but until I have time for a entry about the trip, I thought I would share a series of photos I took the last night we were in Mississippi. We were in the Stuckey's convenience store on Highway 49, a local meeting place in Hattiesburg, waiting for our friends Chris and Lindsay so we could go eat fried catfish in Moselle, Mississippi. (Really.) Stuckey's is not just a normal convenience store. It has a large display of extremely tacky knick knacks, ranging from glass angel figurines to bumper stickers to T-shirts. The idea appears to be that if you are getting gas and suddenly remember that it's your mom's birthday, you're covered. Anyway, since I had been giving a lot of thought to why there are so many references to Jesus everywhere you look in the South, and since we were in Stuckey's, the Hallmark of the South, I decided to try to see how many gifts I could find that mentioned Jesus in under five minutes and photograph them. Turns out, quite a few. Enjoy the photos, and please don't think I'm sacreligous, I just really find this stuff fascinating. Thankfully, I'm not the first person to notice all the Jesus signs, and even if I were, I don't think I could sum it up any more eloquently than Flannery O' Connor did when she said,
"I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner who is not convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God." ~ Flannery O' Connor, "The Grotesque in Southern Fiction."

And that's why when you're in Stuckey's, you can buy all three of the following items:

I like how this one was displayed right along with the Elvis paraphrenalia.

Tonight, we in the Wachdorf home are immensely grateful for our friends Mike and Susan Newnam, who came over today to help us fix our swamp cooler, the evaporative cooling air conditioning system that is extremely popular in the Southwest in spite of the fact that it is very susceptible to getting clogged up by dirt, which as everyone knows, is very rare in New Mexico, the high desert.

Ranting aside, we've been very uncomfortable in our house lately because our swamp cooler has gradually been decreasing in its cooling abilities, and most evenings before the sun would set, our living room would reach a cozy 85 degrees. As new homeowners, we were hoping that the "Ignore it and hope it will go away and not cost you $500" method would be effective, but eventually, we had to admit that it was broken. We were resigned to calling the handyman, who would charge us the aforementioned $500, and then we remembered that we know Mike and Susan. For those of you who don't know Mike and Susan, trust me when I tell you that they are the most competent couple you will ever meet. They build furniture together and recently built a workshop the size of a small home in which they house every power tool known to man. And they are also exceedinly generous with their time and advice. So today they came over and Dan and Mike climbed up on the roof and Mike showed Dan how really, the tubes in the swamp cooler were just a little clogged up, and cleaning them out is no big deal. Susan washed off our filter, which I'm told was covered in some really nasty gunk.

So tonight, we bask in the cool coolness of our living room and are thankful for Mike and Susan. If you're nice to us, we'll ask them how to fix problems at your house, but at the rate we're calling them, they're likely to change their phone number soon.

The following are two photos, both taken on Dan's birthday. The first one is from 2005, the second from 2006. Look at the two photos and tell me what difference you notice about Dan between the two photos, and what you think about that difference. You know, like on Sesame Street.

Photo No. 1, from 2005:

Photo No.2, from 2006:

Bonus points if you can tell me the rest of the lyrics to the Sesame Street song on which this entry's title is based. Also, I think the lesson I'm learning from looking at these photos side by side is that I need to get more creative with my picture-taking methods.

Dan is a wonderful husband for many reasons, but one of them is that he understands what is going to make a good gift for me. Lucky for him, it's usually nothing that's too expensive. In most cases, I'd be just as happy with a really good book or a really good CD as I would with anything that cost a lot more. His big gift coup was buying me an MP3 player for Christmas, which has changed my life. Now, I can drive in my car, and walk around on the street, and work in my office, all while plugged into my own personal radio station, which only plays things I like. It's a dream come true.

Tonight, Dan brought a CD home for me as a random nice gift because he's a sweet man and he typically keeps a running list of CDs that I want. (There are always 5-10 albums on this list. I'm kind of a freak.) Tonight's gift was Radiohead's "The Bends." I have loved this album for more than 10 years, but have previously only had a really bad tape of it for reasons that will be explained later.

So now I'm siting here soaking reliving my love of this album circa 1995, and it made me think about five records that were huge for me when I was 14-17 or so,and, therefore, had a dramatic impact on my musical tastes from then on. It also made me realize that almost all of them were bootlegged for me by my very much cooler than me friend Leigh, who made me tapes because I didn't have a CD player for a long time. I have since grown up and bought legal copies of these records, but my love of them has not faded, even though in some cases, it's kind of embarrassing to admit how much I love them. But I thought I'd share my list, and you can share yours, if you're the kind of person who can remember what kind of music you liked when you were 15.

So without further rambling, here are the Top Five allbums that rocked my socks off from 1994-1998 (and still do), in no particular order:

Counting Crows, "August and Everything After." If I knew how many times I have listened to this album, I would be able to count up the countless hours and days of my life that have been narrated by the voice of Adam Duritz. And while that might be a really depressing number if I thought about it in terms of what I could have been getting done instead, I can't say I regret it.

Indigo Girls "Swamp Ophelia." I know, I know, the Indigo Girls are terminally un-hip, girly, and otherwise questionable. But I don't care. They make beautiful music. True confession: In college, I was the less impressive part of a cover duo/band made up of me and my friend Julie. We almost exclusively sang Indigo Girls songs in the coffee shop of our college. And no one stopped us. No, there is no surviving video of this unfortunate phase, and today I would have to have a great deal of some controlled substance in my system to do any such audacious thing. But it was big fun.

Radiohead, "The Bends." Radiohead today of course has a borderline cult-like following of geeks who are perfectly cool with the fact that they turn out an album once every six years or so and that the aforementioned albums seem (to me) to be getting less and less comprehensible as time passes. I don't have any issues with their later work, but I've never loved anything they've done like I love "The Bends." The video for "Just (You do it to yourself)" is my favorite video of all time, and in 1995, my family did not have cable, so the fact that I've ever even seen it is a testament in itself to my fascination. Long live Thom Yorke.

Vigilantes of Love, "Blister Soul." For this one, I have to thank my friend Cara. Vigilantes of Love is an ever-changing lineup of musicians whose essential purpose is to back up the musical stylings of Athens, Georgia's Bill Mallonee, who has been referred to as the Flannery O' Connor of folk music. He's a believer with both feet firmly planted in the fact that we're all sinners in need of grace, and I think he's one of the finest songwriters of the last 20 years, Christian or otherwise. Keep your CCM music, I'll take Bill Mallonee any day. The VOL song "Skin" is kind of my personal theme song for a lot of reasons. If you're going to check out Mr. Mallonee in all his glory, I highly reccomend that you buy the compilation album titled "V.O.L." Heck, I'll buy you a copy if you want me to.

And finally, we have Ben Folds Five's "Whatever and Ever Amen." Piano! Bass! Great weird backup vocals! What's not to love?

Honorable mention goes to R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People," Jeff Buckley's "Grace," Jimmy Eat World's "Clarity," Sarah McLachlans's "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy," Pedro the Lion's "It's Hard to Find a Friend," and Toad the Wet Sprocket's "Dulcinea."

So now ... your turn.

I've been meaning to share these photos for a while. I took them back in April when I went home, when my sisters Audrey and Hannah and I spent a nice morning on the porch. Audrey was working, washing windows to help my mom get ready to host a bunch of Audrey's friends for dinner before prom. Hannah and I were just sitting around in our pajamas drinking coffee. The following photo is somewhat staged, but pretty accurately sums up what was going on:

Audrey was pretty upbeat about her slave labor status, especially considering that I kept taunting her with a camera.

I love my sisters.

I have previously been a big fan of Keanu Reeves as the leading contender for title of World's Worst Actor. But as of tonight I would like to declare to you that there is a new nominee, and his name is Vin Diesel. If you don't believe me, please watch "The Chronicles of Riddick," as Dan just made me do. Keanu is going to have to star in, I don't know, Speed 8 in order to win now.

I'm starting to think that getting the Dish package and having access to hundreds of movies was a mistake, in as much as most movies are just really bad.

So Dan is out of town this week, at a "business conference" he attends every year ... in Las Vegas. I'm pretty sure it's just a big excuse for a bunch of computer hacker nerds to get together and see who can come up with the weirdest things to do to one another's computers.

In any event, I'll have some time on my hands this week, and I've ordered some movies I've been wanting to watch on Netflix. Here are my selections: Monsoon Wedding, Everything is Illuminated, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and The Office Season One (the British version, which I've heard is better than the American version).

Pretty much all of these come highly reccommended and I'm looking forward to watching them, but since I have a hard time making really stupid choices, I think I'll let y'all tell me which one to watch first. I'll post my reviews as I watch them, so if there's anything in that list you really want to hear about from my skewed perspective, or anything you have found particularly good, speak now or forever hold your peace (Chris Carr, you whiner, you and your wife better come see us anyway.)