In Eckleburg's Eyes - 5/20/2008

I had a great Monday evening with JTH and his family.

I met JTH at the home of his friends CRF (aka CYKTGWHS) and TL (aka TLYKTGG). The house is situated in a subdivision that borders on being in Lenoir City if it is not already. It is nice but it reeks of canine. JTH is house sitting for their two dogs, Neko and Lincoln, while they are out of town. The dogs are brothers of the Belgian Shepherd Malinois variety. If you happen to be in charge of any upcoming spelling bees, "Malinois" would be a great word to choose as I am pretty sure Akeelah would even have difficulty with it.

After picking JTH up we met his parents as Sam & Andy’s, a local restaurant. On the way we had an interesting experience as the red light at the five-lane intersection of Kingston Pike and Concord Road was stuck. The lights were not blinking, they were stopped on one rotation. JTH did his part by calling 9-1-1. After his conversation ended, he noted how courteous they always are. Apparently, he has had to dial 9-1-1 three times!

Sam & Andy’s is another local staple, long having a location on the UT campus. Sam and Andy Captain first opened shop in Knoxville in 1946. The campus location closed on April 29, 1997, but they still have a Farragut shop. On this night, I had perhaps the best meatball sub I have ever tasted. I obviously recommend the place, just bring cash as they do not accept credit cards. Amazingly, I had cash on this trip, but it was unecessary as CEH paid for my meal. Thanks, Homer!

JTH’s parents eat there often as the food is good and simple and its building is close to their home. KTH joined us having completed her first back at work after knee replacement surgery. The preschool teacher returned just in time for the final week of the weekday program.

His mother was raving about a Christian novel called The Shack by William P. Young. The novel was self-published in May 2007 and became a USA Today bestseller, having sold over three-quarters of a million copies. If you are into Christian fiction, it is supposed to be good.

JTH and I then returned to his friends' house and watched two episodes of “Rob & Big” on DVD. I had never seen the program before. This is an MTV “reality” program which follows the life of skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and his best friend and bodyguard Chris “Big Black” Boykin. Created by the producers of “Jackass”, it has absolutely no plot. Naturally, JTH loves it. If nothing else, the expression "do work" is now in my vocabulary.

The original photos in this post were the first pictures taken with my new cell phone, Verizon’s LG VX8350 model. My only complaint is that I had to use the promotional photo of the phone as it cannot take a picture of itself. I guess nothing is perfect.

I will close with another update on the epic wallpapering experience at the Vinson home. One strip of paper was finally put up on Monday. One. The workers cleverly closed the doors at some point, giving the illusion that they were hard at work. My mother thought that they were all day in the house at night but they had been gone for some time, only leaving a pickup truck in the driveway. Thus, the papering continues...