It's always tough reentering normal life rough after spending a lot of time and energy preparing for and undergoing a landmark event in your existence, and that's exactly where i'm at now. I'm very happy to be married now, and wouldn't change a thing, but find myself in somewhat of a rut with respect to work, daily affairs, etc. Maybe living in anticipation of the wedding wasn't so bad after all.

V and i do have some post-wedding domestic affairs to keep us busy. We've been receiving loads of great wedding gifts from our registry, plus Arlene and Alan bought us great new shelving for our kitchen and a swank dining table from Drexel Heritage, which we just ordered last week. I've been hunting around on the travel websites to see when V and i might be able to take our honeymoon in Greece. Several labmates from Boston reside in the Greek isles and have extended invitations to us, so we plan on taking them up on their offers once 1) the brutal heat of the Mediterranean summer has died down a bit, and 2) the chaos of the Olympics has passed. Looks like late October or November might work. Finally, we're also beginning to become more serious about buying a house. Tonight we have our second appointment to look at houses with friendly local realty agent Joe Campagna, and i've begun chatting with mortgage brokers to elucidate the financial end of things. Who knows? My last barrier to maturity may be broken soon.

I'm making a number of attempts to amuse myself also. For one, you'll immediately notice that the journal section of the site has seen a few changes. Just like Dean Moriarty, i'm never quite happy unless things are in a state of flux. I'm eager to give the site a whole new look, but just can't find anything that i like better than the simplicity of the current layout. So instead i've taken to adding functionality here and there, with the latest being the calendar showing dates when i've posted, and the search utility. Try it out, let me know if anything's funky. And let me know if you've got ideas on how to make things more useful or pretty.

Video games are another sure-fire way to entertain me. Matthew has graciously agreed to host this year's SMFA Cup down in Los Angeles on the weekend of October 16 and 17. He's arranged a day of open sea fishing followed by an evening of hard fought video footie also starring Gary, Sean, and new entrant Kevin. We'll be duking it out on FIFA 2005, which will be released a few days prior to the tourney. Therefore none of us will have time to hone our skills in the new version of the game, which should level the playing field a bit. Nevertheless, lately i've been refreshing my memory of FIFA 2004 so as to optimally defend my 2003 SMFA title. Matthew's been talking some major trash, and i fully intend to see if he can back it up.

In other video related news, i used some Best Buy rewards coupons to offset the cost of a wireless adapter for Xbox Live. I've now got my Xbox online, sans cables running across the house. It hasn't helped my skills in multiplayer Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow though. Whether i'm a spy or a merc, i'm still getting tooled. Getting ordered around by your 14 year old teammate is not flattering to the ego, either. Web tutorials suggest i need to practice offline, but i haven't found time for that yet. Instead i'm developing a little phobia of Xbox Live.

I've also decided to have the broken Xbox that Veronica got from AuctionDrop repaired and ... ummm ... "improved". I found a guy in Union City who will replace the faulty DVD drive as well as ... ahem ... well, "improve" other aspects of the system for a reasonable fee. I'm dropping that off this Saturday, hoping to pick it up shortly thereafter.

And last but not least in my mind, the new Premiership season is now a week and a half old. Chelsea have maximum points from their three matches with four goals scored and none conceded, and are 3 points in front of Arsenal who've played only two matches. The press is already branding the Blues "boring" and "dour", but Mourinho isn't hesitating to bark back. He has correctly pointed out that 1) our first two matches were against tough opponents Birmingham and Manchester United, 2) our newly-assembled squad is still learning to play together, and 3) we haven't dropped any points yet. This naturally has incensed the media and caused them to lambast Chelsea further, but if anything Mourinho is not one to suffer fools (or anyone else) gladly. Of course i'd love to see us beating everyone 5-nil, but 1-nil and unattractive is better than 1-3 and flamboyant. The Arse are looking mighty strong, so it'll take a special season to win the Championship. But with a touch of luck there's no reason to expect that as the season comes to a close Chelsea won't be near the top of the table.