I think if you listened closely during the excruciatingly long black screen at the end of the Sopranos series finale, you could probably hear neighbors up and down your street saying “What the Fuck?” The final episode pretty much gave me what I’ve come to expect from this show - a few funny moments (Phil’s death and subsequent headcrushing), a whole lot of boring moments (to Anthony Jr: who cares?) and an ending that can best be summed up as “The Sopranos: David Chase totally stopped caring about making this show years ago, and now he doesn’t have to anymore.”

A while back, David Milch came up with a show idea that he loved so much, he killed his excellent Deadwood off in the middle of multiple plot lines to make it. That show, John from Cincinatti, premiered last night, and wow, bad move Mr. Milch. A show about a rage-filled family of surfers and a mysterious man with a weird haircut, checkered Vans and magical pockets? Even the presence of the great Luis Guzman can’t save this one - I predict it’s dead before the end of the season. Swearengen’s revenge!

Where has the time gone? I’ll tell you where:
About a month or so back, we did indeed find a house and went ahead and bought the thing. Our new ranch comes complete with a pedigree. We saw the place, fell in love and made an offer before we found out that the seller was a friend and former employer, who was able to fill us in on the house’s history: the previous owners (a couple who immigrated from Germany/Bulgaria after the war), moved in when it was built in 1964. They never had kids, and spent their lives painting, gardening, and hanging out before they passed away last year, well into their 80’s. They left us a house in top-notch condition that’s full of hardwood floors, sweet 1960’s fixtures (and appliances and some furniture), a HUGE yard full of plants, central air(!), and more space than we know what to do with.

Since then, we’ve been consumed with wiring, moving, painting, cleaning, planting vegetables, weeding, mowing, making bread, and other house-related duties. We’ve also gone to Texas for 10 days, (briefly) visited Baltimore, bought a widescreen HDTV, and just yesterday celebrated our 6th anniversary.

Still on the home improvement to-do list:

• completely redo gnarly 70’s bathroom (peach walls/tub + brown tile + beige toilets = ouch)
• Finish setting up basement lounge of AWESOMENESS
• Complete my transformation of the 60’s TV console to an A/V cabinet

After months of hour-long commutes and years of cramped apartments, it is really nice to wake up every day, pad through our spacious ranch, leisurely sip coffee while staring at the splendor that is my new backyard, and be able to make it to work in 10 minutes. Check out more images of our new place HERE.