As predicted...

I am up to my ample behind with stuff to do today, and have only had the briefest of opportunities to check the blogroll this morning. I did notice that Delaware's Finest Fritz Schranck is having himself a birthday today, so I sent him a ridiculous e-mail version of The Beatles "You Say It's Your Birthday." The pure delight of such a thoughtful deed on my part sent him into paroxysms of glee, to the point of donning an Ed Grimleyesque red shirt and high-waisted black pants and perfoming the Dance of Joy as he sent his return e-mail. Being the Very Largest Ed Grimley Fan Type Person Upon the Planet, I Must Say, I was as pleased as pleased could be to see that Fritz was a fellow fan, and sent him back ANOTHER e-mail suggesting we should make plans for a big jam session on the triangle. ::ting:: And then something happened that has never happened to me in my entire life.

I was shoveling papers around the desk and the telephone rang. Now despite the silly cornpone act I sometimes put on here and other places, whenever I first answer the phone I always use my very professional Midwest television anchor voice--rich, deep, manly, and devoid of regional cues, and today made even more husky and masculine by the world's worst case of pneumocrappiness. After I determine the identity of the person, I will either switch to Efficient Bureaucrat, Clueless Bureaucrat, Lazy Bureaucrat, Educated Guy Caught in a Bureaucracy, Somewhat Friendly Acquaintance, or full bore Down Home Boy modes, depending on the caller.

Ringring--"This is Terry Oglesby."

"Hi Terry, this is Fritz Schranck."

Do what?! Wow! IT'S HIM! "Well, HEY THERE!"

What a fun call! And a first, because in close to a year of blogging, I have never talked live and in person to another blogger. Oh, lots and lots of fun (and serious) e-mails, but never a voice at the other end. Until today.

We covered just about all topics known to man--the new Apple commercials, in which Fritz found that Teen Girl Culture transcends mere distance? you know? like, because everyone dresses and acts the same? Which then took us to our plan to outlaw the Internet, then on to taxes, Delaware corporations, working in government, libel, slander, our respective volumes of e-mail (he--one per day, me--one per day, hate mail--none for either), being spambotted by a domain jumper using your own name to spam you with secret methods of increasing the size of the old John Thomas, tips on increasing traffic from Google using such innocuous words as "hole," "monkey," and "hot," family, Erma Bombeck, if this blog makes my butt look big ('yes' was the consensus), birthdays (343 ain't old, by the way), blogging, blogging, bloggers, blogs, trolls, blogging, barbecue...Stop here. Imagine sitting at your desk and hearing someone talking about slow cooking a Boston butt all day long so that by the end of the day, the meat just falls off the bone. I nearly gnawed the mouthpiece off the phone. Then it was on to various smoked pig eateries, holiday travel, and finally a promise that should the Schranck family every cross the border of the Cotton State, there will be another call placed and much fun will be had. Much to the mortification of our children, as we will each be nattily dressed as Ed Grimley.

::ting::
posted by Terry at 11:57:00 AM