The Hell you say!

Moving Sale!!!!

2008-04-15T14:53:00.002-07:00

With much over due consideration I am only going to add new post to my other blog here.

This is where I started, but that's where I'm at.

A Little Late to be on the Bandwagon.

2006-10-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, I did it. I went to MySpace. On the constant agonizing request of Big “C” I went to see what the fuss is and I gotta tell you, I still don’t see what the fuss is. So I signed up thinking maybe being a member will show me what so cool. Well I’ve been a member for all of an hour and despite some jaggoff I don’t know adding me as friend I still got nothing. I’ll give it a solid honest try and let you know when I do.

It’s about time!

2006-04-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know I suck I haven’t written in a while, even on the new blog I’m stuck in the holding pattern. My problem is this… I’m boring and have nothing really exciting going on. Work sucks (like the rest of you don’t know this yet) and I’m not into anything new right now. Well that’s not true… I started to watch Farscape. I know this is old news to many and the series has been over for a few years now, but I never had the Scifi channel and with my heavy interest in the new Battlestar Galacticaand the recommendation of Colton, I took the time to watch a few of the reruns currently being play Sundays on a local channel. I’m absolutely hooked. I’m pissed that I’ve missed the bandwagon for this, but better late than never. And to really enjoy the series I started a Netflix account. If you rent more than 4 movies a month, this service is ideal for you. I’ve also enjoyed being the judge for Marvel for the past few months, but I would really like to be a player again. (Like I have ever been a player!)

Divided I stand

2006-03-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I started a new blog. It's very new and I don't know if I'll move everything over or just toggle between the two. Of course I'd have to start writting much more often either way. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Breakin' the law

2006-02-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday two weeks ago, I had one of those dreaded "Parent Moments" where I received a call from the school telling me "Your son has done something very bad and we need to see you right away.”This of course, turned the short time I was at work into a circus with me having to explain why I needed to leave. Everyone else who's a parent can understand because they all stop me to "share" similar stories about their kids.All this really does at a time like that is to make me feel like I'm a bad parent on parade. Before leaving I had to exhaust all efforts to contact my wife to meet me at home, after failing to reach her she amazingly enough happened to arrive home just after I did. We agreed that I would go talk to the boy’s teacher about what happened and bring him home. He was caught stealing a large crystal from a rock collection the class was studying. It’s understandable for a nine year old boy to do something foolish like this. However to explain where he got this rock to my wife and I was a lie that his teacher gave it him. To avoid being caught at school when asked if anyone saw the crystal, he lied that he saw someone else with it at the playground. Over a few days the teachers concern grew to where she planned to contact the cops about the missing crystal because of its value. This is when my son decided fess up, wrapped in another lie that someone made him do it. This is where the lies really become interesting. He said that an older boy who has been picking on him in the school yard told him to get the crystal, an older boy who’s been hiding in a tree, wearing a sky mask and shooting at him with a bee-bee gun. But it doesn’t end there, my son made the comment that this person has been getting him to do things for the past two years. Now, my children have very vivid imaginations, sure, but with this creation the Teacher sent my son to be evaluated by the schools counselor who advised the need for a district psychologist to review my son. At this point I feel this has gone far enough. I know my son, I talk to him and spend time with him and try to be a much better parent then the absentee that was my dad. I know this is my son’s attempt to avoid being blamed and punished. I get this. I also am not oblivious enough to bring in the circus of modern mental health to fix my son for me. But it did give me a fantastic way to call my boy’s bluff. When we got him home and sat him to go over his story for what he did and why he did it, I could be the parent of an Oscar winner for how well he stood by his story. Then very calmly I told my son that for how unbelievable his story is and the fact that the school has advised the need for professional help we were going to send him to an institution where he could get the help that he needed. The look in his eyes was priceless. Then I leaned in real close and said “This is the very last moment for you to tell the truth and not be sent away.” And with that came the confession. The remainder of the night was used to reinforce the need for truth. Yeah I know I used a lie to out his lie you have to think of it as a fight fire with fire moment. I’ve told my son time and time again that he can’t lie to me without me knowing it. Unfortunately, he’s getting better at it. I’ve discovered that parenting is just built on lies for the betterment of child raising. Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy, and a long list of empty threats used in every day development are a part training children to understand the consequences of their actions. I may be a hypocrite but at least my son will thing twice before the next lie he tells.

I'm glad I didn't have to list six

2006-01-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you, who are just joining us, please refer to Habitual Meme for the post leading to what follows.

The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits" and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says "You have been tagged" (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

As far as weird habits go, some of these might just border on Annoying.

1, I often have very deep and intense conversations about theology, Philosophy, life, life on other planets and the theoretical physics behind how super powers could really work, all while driving alone in my car.

2, Being the child of a former school teacher I have a nasty tendency to correct other peoples speech, much to the dismay of most of my friends.

3, Kevin Conroy is the actor who does the voice of Batman from The Batman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. And is the only specific voice of a character (Batman) I hear when reading comic books.

4, I have to remind myself at least once a day, that I am no longer in High School. (That dream about being naked while running late for a test just keeps getting worse and worse.)

5, I can’t fight the urge to have a silly answer for every rhetorical question.

Now since I don’t have very many people not already named on Neal’s blog for this game I’ll tag only two: Ryan and Dustin.

Happy January 10th

2006-01-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Now for the past two months the frenzy and rush shopping and buying and eating are all by the wayside, I just want to take a moment to reflect on the things you really wanted that you didn't get.
Now that the abismal holiday season is over we can get back to work.

"We got to go the crappy town where I'm a hero."

2005-12-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

You scored as Hoban 'Wash' Washburne. The Pilot. You are a leaf on the wind, see how you soar. You have a good job, and a stunning wife who loves you (and can kill people). Life is good, which is why you can't help smiling. Now if you can just get people to actually listen to your opinion things would be perfect.

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

88%

Simon Tam

81%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

81%

The Operative

75%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

75%

River Tam

75%

Shepherd Derrial Book

69%

Inara Serra

63%

Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye

63%

Jayne Cobb

44%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

At least Noah had time to build the Ark

2005-11-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

Like Captain Ahab and his Moby Dick, I too have been challenged by whale.
To follow up my Thanksgiving in “Moist” style, I was thrown into the deep end… literally. On Friday, instead of trying to battle to crowds at Wal-mart for some cheap-a$$ laptop that I don’t need, I decided to be productive and improve my home with some home improvement. For some time the Bathroom sink faucet has become more and more faulty and I was going to replace it with an equally crappy replacement. Now, I do see myself as a rather handy person around the house. I have tools and I know how to screw… things together when necessary. If you’ll if you’ll review my previous post titled “Fun with power tools” you’ll see what I’m talking about. Replacing the faucet would not be my first foray into plumbing, but is has been the most adventurous, and by adventurous I mean time consuming, stressful and painful. The whole thing went south right from the get go. I cleared off the vanity, got all the tools I thought I would need and began. I turned of the hot water valve below the sing without incident. Then I tried to turn off the cold water valve, I was able to turn it a little about a quarter turn when it stopped, but the water was still on. Okay, let me try to turn it again with more force, still not going anywhere. One more time and POP the pipe leading to the valve snapped. Well now I was in a predicament. I water coming at me with the pressure of a fire hose and this cold water at the end of November, Cold! In a panic I tried my best to divert the horizontal gusher in the bucket I had strategically place to collect any leaking water. Every three to five seconds I had to quickly dump the water to the tub and reset to collect more of soon to be rising water all while my wife and family tried to get to the water main under the house in a rarely used, dark, creepy crawlspace. From what I’ve gathered fro other eyewitness accounts it too was a comedy of errors leading to no success, leading to the timely assistance of my neighbor from across the street. He was able to turn off the water at street; he was also very knowledgeable about plumbing and repair. Now here I was soaking wet from freezing cold water, admiring my latest screw-up while my toes went numb from the same freezing cold water two inches deep on my floor. Now this happened Friday at 1pm, so I have some time to clean and make as many repairs as needed. I was even luckier that my very knowledgeable neighbor has a good friend who is a “real” plumber. After the removal of the counter top, vanity and most of the old carpet in the hall way outside of the bathroom, my new plumber was able to come out to my house late on a Friday and replace the 50 year old and mostly disintegrated pipe and valve. He did this in all of 5 minuets for a very modest fee. To my truly fortunate surprise, I have beautiful cherry glazed hardwood floors beneath my cheep, crappy, twenty plus year old carpet. Now that we know, we may have to remove more carpet, but that’s another post. As of Sunday I made no less than eight trips to the hardware store, spent over a hundred and fifty dollars from my Christmas bonus and learned how to assemble, disassemble and reassemble all of the piping and hardware including the vanity and countertop in my bathroom. I was even able to finish my original intention of replacing the faucet with a high quality Moen replacement. As for any really bad water damage, almost all of the water drained to the dirt foundation of the dark, creepy crawlspace. Aside from a little caulking, the bathroom is as good as new. Damn! I forgot to get caulk, now I have to go back to the hardware store.

Thanks giving day space filler.

2005-11-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanks giving!

Welcome to my parlor said the Flytrap to the Spider

2005-11-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've noticed lately that all of my friends have become very introspective lately on their Blogs, I'm not going to do that today.

Several months ago we purchased a Venus Flytrap, since then I've become rather obsessed with finding insects to feed it, aside from one really confused mosquito, the only bugs that have that I found are spiders. I've been really concerned that they aren't working, as more and more of the traps have turned black and fallen. So went the online search of "How can I improve my green thumb for exotic creature eating plants." What I found is this:

Dionaea muscipula, or Venus's Flytrap, is a low growing perennial herb native to coastal bogs of North and South Carolina. (I don't live anywhere near here) Leaves will reach up to 5 inches long with flat, winged petioles. The blades are reniform (kidney-shaped), 2 lobed with the lobes hinged and fringed with stiff cilia. The upper surface has 3 sensitive hairs that when stimulated by insects cause the lobes to close together quickly (much this closing happens within ~1/30 of a second, or fast as I would put it). Plants are easy to grow and are great plants for terraria. They are hardy in USDA zone 8, (Again, I don't live anywhere near here, I'm not even sure what zone I'm in) but growing them in nature may be a challenge because of their need for low nutients and low pH -- difficult unless you intend to simulate their natural bog environment.

Culture: Dionaea muscipula need full sun to partial shade to high indirect lighting and a humid atmosphere with a moist to wet soil. If grown in containers, the container should be placed in a tray with at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water at all times. (Done this) Water must be distilled or rain water because they do not tolerate city or hard water. During the winter months, they should be allowed to go dormant from Nov-Feb. (Ah ha! This is what I needed to know) Plants need to have winter temperature of 45-50Â° F (5-10Â° C) or the small bulbs should be lifted and stored in moist peat at a cooler temperature.

Now that I know it's suppose to go dormant I'll stop worring untill Feb when I can't get to wake up. Utill then I have to help my daughter stop calling it a "Penis Flytrap". She's four and doesn't understand why Mommy and Daddy laugh when she says it.

I'm a Modern Man"

2005-11-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

I recently started reading (really just listening on CD) Geoge Carlin's "When will Jesus bring the Pork Chops" and one of the early chapter is this great monologe that I wanted to share...

"I'm a Modern Man"
George Carlin,
November 5th, 2005
Beacon Theater, NYC

I'm a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.
A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist,
Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect.

I've been uplinked and downloaded.
I've been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing.
I know the downside of upgrading.

I'm a high tech lowlife.
A cutting edge state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker,
And I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

I'm new wave but I'm old school,
And my inner child is outward bound.
I'm a hot wired heat seeking warm hearted cool customer,
Voice activated and biodegradable.

I interface from a database,
And my database is in cyberspace,
So I'm interactive,
I'm hyperactive,
And from time-to-time,
I'm radioactive.

Behind the eight ball,
Ahead of the curve,
Riding the wave,
Dodging a bullet,
Pushing the envelope.

I'm on point, On task, On message, And off drugs.
I got no need for coke and speed,
I got no urge to binge and purge.

I'm in the moment,
On the edge,
Over the top,
But under the radar.

A high concept, Low profile, Medium range ballistic missionary.
A street-wise smart bomb.
A top gun bottom feeder.

I wear power ties,
I tell power lies,
I take power naps,
I run victory laps.

I'm a totally ongoing bigfoot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach.

A raging workaholic.
A working ragaholic.
Out of rehab,
And in denial.

I got a personal trainer,
A personal shopper,
A personal assistant,
And a personal agenda.

You can't shut me up,
You can't dumb me down.
'Cause I'm tireless,
And I'm wireless.

I'm an alpha male on beta blockers.
I'm a non-believer and an over-achiever.
Laid back but fashion forward.
Up front, Down home, Low rent, High maintenance.

Super size,
Long lasting,
High definition,
Fast acting,
Oven ready,
And built to last.

I'm a hands on, Foot loose, Knee jerk, Head case.
Prematurely post traumatic,
And I have a love child who sends me hate mail.

But I'm feeling,
I'm caring,
I'm healing,
I'm sharing.

A supportive bonding nurturing primary care giver.

My output is down,
But my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
And my revenue stream has its own cash flow.

I read junk mail,
I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds,
I watch trash sports.

I'm gender specific,
Capital intensive,
User friendly,
And lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex.
I like tough love.
I use the f word in my email,
And the software on my hard drive is hard core, no soft porn.

I bought a microwave at a mini mall.
I bought a mini van in a mega store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.

I'm toll free,
Bite sized,
Ready to wear,
And I come in all sizes.

A fully equipped,
Factory authorized,
Hospital tested,
Clinically proven,
Scientifically formulated medical miracle.

I've been pre-washed,
Pre-cooked,
Pre-heated,
Pre-screened,
Pre-approved,
Pre-packaged,
Post-dated,
Freeze-dried,
Double-wrapped,
Vacuum-packed,
And I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I'm a rude dude,
But I'm the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
Rough tough and hard to bluff.

I take it slow.
I go with the flow.
I ride with the tide.
I got glide in my stride.
Drivin' and movin',
Sailin' and spinnin',
Jivin' and groovin',
Wailin' and winnin'.

I don't snooze,
So I don't lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal,
And the rubber on the road.

I party hearty,
And lunch time is crunch time.
I'm hanging in,
There ain't no doubt.
And I'm hanging tough,
Over and out.

Fun with Power Tools

2005-11-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

For the two days of this weekend I had two jobs required of me.
On Saturday I spent almost all day tending my children while Sign Foo was manning a booth at the Deaf Center Bizarre. I had the fun opportunity to make them breakfast and lunch and we played and had all the great Father/Children time that should come more often.

On Sunday however, I spent working in the yard. Using the blower to clean up leaves and doing most of the general yard work to prepare for winter. I also used a considerable amount of time repairing the roof of the garage where some of the shingles have worn and started to leak. It’s just a seasonal fix; I plan to reroof the garage this coming spring or summer. Before I was finished my wife asked me “Why do men like power tools?”
This got me thinking about the past few years of me acquiring an assortment of fun power tools. The first (as it usually is) was a drill, not the most expensive or powerful, just a general utility drill that I used, and used, and used. After enough use and enough times when that particular drill was not enough, I bought another and more tools as well. As well as my new (and old) drill, I have circular saw, two kinds of jigsaws, a sander (Used on the Dresser from several posts’ back) and a CHAINSAW! That I have not yet used, but long for a Zombie attack so I can pretend to be Ash from Evil Dead. (Groovy!)
And to answer my wife’s question, is that they symbolize the ability to both destroy and create. It takes power and skill to take something raw and make it refined. Well, it’s my answer at leased.

Bring on the Deadites already!

You know you can't do it

2005-10-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

So, I'm in my car at lunch heading home and rarely do I listen to the radio. (except in the morning) Then a little classic R.E.M. came on, and I used to better at singing along with the lyrics, but have slowed greatly. Now lets see how far you can get before you screw up...

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -world serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs. Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves it's own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, brightlight, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite. Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

Inside, Outside, Upside down

2005-10-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I've been having difficulty with very simple and common tasks, such as my job, speaking and walking. I've started to stutter, mumble, and loose my train of thought and so on. Aside from actually doing this, my real concern is why? I think it might just be the accumulation of stress starting to way heavy on me, at lease I hope it’s that simple. I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking to myself and trying to find ways to improve my situation. In doing so I’ve discovered a few things about me that I’m not entirely proud of. One is that I’m very bitter. I constantly see the world around me from a negative viewpoint. My wife recently even told me that I’m the most negative person she knows, and she’s right. I automatically assume the worst and I’ve started to become angry at the smallest of things. I’m now worried that my health issues are a result and not a cause of this. I’m not sure what to do to realign my mental state so that I can become the relaxed care free person I believed I once was. I don’t mean to worry anyone. I’m not planning to hurt myself or anything. I’m just noting my concern at the present state of me.

My life as a sick potato

2005-10-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

So thanks to my timely stay at the hospital for my daughter, I am now sick with Strep. After I started to lose my voice on Monday and Tuesday the symptoms refused to be ignored and for the second time since mid Sept. I had to see my doctor, as good a doctor as she is I'm really sick of seeing her... all pun intended. Wishing my tea had been Hot Toddies for two days didn't help the painful headaches and being bed ridden from Thursday morning to Friday morning.

Thanks to my son's friend Spencer lending us Lego Star Wars for the PS2, my Friday afternoon was much better. By early this evening I beat all three episodes and was well within the Freeplay option. I tell ya, Lego Yoda and Lego Darth Mall are an awesome combo to play. Unfortunately Jar Jar is needed way too much for his high jump.

I pray this is the last of the household illnesses for at least a year.

Faith's Hospital Blues

2005-10-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

This past week has marked a difficult time in my tenure as a parent. My daughter was diagnosed with meningitis and had to be hospitalized. I don’t like hospitals or doctors, they tend to make think about my mortality and the fact that at any moment for any number of reasons I could die. That becomes a thousand times more discomforting when my four year old daughter is the target of that worry. Tuesday night was a ban night for her with all of the vomiting and headache and the like. So as good parents go Amy took Faith to the Doctor on Wednesday morning, while I went to work. I get to work about 9am, with a call from the doctor saying Faith needed to go to the hospital to be checked for Meningitis, I was on my way out of work to the hospital by 10:15am. Yes that was a short day even though it felt like a full 8 hours for the worry.
My trip to the hospital was unique for me I had gone to the wrong hospital… Twice. Yes twice, Amy had taken Faith to Primary Children’s Hosp, for most of my life this hospital was in a certain place where I was (in my current state of mind) familiar with, apparently they moved some years ago. I mean it’s not like I spend my free time hanging out at the hospital for kicks. After parking on the far side from the emergency room where there was available parking and working my way through the medical labyrinth I had the unique opportunity to look the fool to a very confused clerk my mistake was realized. The “twice” is due in part to a wrong turn from the half assed directions from said clerk. And in a startling revelation “I knew exactly where I needed to go, I knew because I had been there before for my daughter when she was two and found out the halfway that she is allergic to penicillin.” Now you do have to remember I was panicking about my daughter’s condition.
After another several hours sitting in an emergency room getting to witness the agony of Faith’s spinal tap, I was ready to be done with the emergency room. Then the resident practiceoner told me that the test came back positive for meningitis. This was the middle of the beginning of two and a half long days in a small room watching my little girl get plugged into several machines. This was the worst Matrix remake I have ever witnessed. I was amazed at how many times I kept thinking about that movie while there. Wednesday and Thursday were terrible having to watch Faith look so worn and lifeless knowing how vibrant she spends most of her days. As a parent it is the most painful experience to see you child in pain and discomfort not knowing what misery was ahead. There are two types of meningitis Viral and Bactirial/Fungul.
Viral is what most people get and if you have the choice go with viral. The virus is like a bad cold of flu that takes several days to get over in the normal way of drinking lots of fluid and getting plenty of rest as I discovered on the internet only about 30% of people have symptoms bad enough to see a doctor. Most just dismiss it as being a cold or flu.
Bacterial /fungal is the worse way to go. The treatment is 21 days of strong antibiotics taken by I/V and everyone you’ve come in contact with will have to take antibiotics as well as having the health department get involved.
With the time available in the hospital to ask doctors, nurses and looking up on the internet, it works like this: Your brain and nervous system are surrounded by a fluid to separate the skull and vertebrae from contact and causing pressure. Meningitis is an infection of that fluid, and since that fluid circulates to and from a pool at the bottom of your spine the only way to get a sample is via a spinal tap.
The test is an impatient person’s worst nightmare; the spinal fluid has to be cultivated in two batches. One to test for the virus and the second to test for bacteria. The virus test is long several hours we didn’t find out Faith was sick with the virus until Thursday morning after a hard night of not sleeping until 4am for me. I let Amy sleep until I couldn’t stay awake anymore then she took over watch duty while I slept until 9am.
Though she tested positive for the virus and it’s unlikely that someone get infected by both it is precautionary to wait for the results of the bacterial test that takes 48 hours to run.
By Thursday night Faith was almost back to her normal self as I said before is vibrant and after two days in bed she wanted out. This resulted in her understanding of when she pushes the nurse call button a nice young woman in a mask comes in to see what they can do for her. And my daughter used this new found power to torment and torture at lease three nurses by my count. In any normal situation Faith has the cuteness factor to manipulate the masses. Now with cute, sick and a button to summon minions, the taste of power has corrupted her.
Friday started with the good news of no plague started by my kin, we get to go home without having to be quarantined for meningitis bacterial infection. My little girl felt special one last time by the wheel chair ride out, and then was less than enthused about not getting to take the wheel chair home.

With the hospital stay behind us I take a great sigh that the situation is over and ended without a more stressful ending. And then another sigh in dread of the medical bills to follow for the next 3 to 6 months, but my family is healthy and safe and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Vroom Vroom Vroom!

2005-09-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

After many long and arduous months of looking I have now purchased a new car.
This is my (semi) new 2005 Pontiac Vibe. It's everything I liked in the Matrix, because it's the same car only $4000 less due to the 25000 miles it has from the previous lease.

Who wants a ride?

Way back in my day...

2005-09-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

This week has been my Daughter's first week of school. It's just the Head start program but for her it's getting up getting dressed and going to school. She's been so excited to go for the past several weeks that every morning when she would get up she would ask if she gets to go to school today. For weeks this has been her way to get us to count down the days. Today is her fourth day and she already has the morning routine down, when she gets there she has to hang up her jacket, move her name from a drawing of a house and move it to a drawing of a school and pin her name tag to her shirt, as of this morning she needed no one to assist. All I get to do is walk her to class and sign her in. As paranoid as I am when it comes to my kids it's nice to see that security steps being taken now days. When I was four I was just dropped off in front and had to find my way to class by myself, barefoot in three feet of snow up hill both ways...

Meanwhile my son has far exceeded the need for any help at all. Now that he is in the fourth grade he's an old hand at the school thing.

Seeing my kids off to school lately has made me feel very old, and I'm not even thirty yet.

A serious lack of labor in my Labor Day

2005-09-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

For a lack of funds and the ungodly price of gas, I did as little as possible from Saturday to Monday. Mostly I watched CNN, Fox News and The Weather Channel for the off chance I might see Colton in the background of footage from the Astrodome, no such luck. After 168 hours of rescue scenes and serious government f#$% up, the depression started to get to me. The two people I really feel for, are Mike Meyers for standing next to Kayne West and Chris Tucker for being the person the cameras cut to trying to avoid any further statements. Now don't get me wrong, I feel Kayne west was completely just expressing his feelings, but the environment was changed from "please help those in need" to "Bush does not care about black people." I feel his statements would have received less criticism from an interview setting than a charity fund raiser.
On the lighter side, I bought a Printer/Scanner/Fax machine on Saturday. The pictures of my ass will be up later. I know every one is now really excited, especially Colton. Amy thinks I'm just lashing out for attention.

"Only you can prevent office fires."

2005-08-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about my day.
My day is like a bear wondering into the campground. You don't want to make eye contact because he'll think you want to play, he doesn't know his own strength and starts beating the living S#!% out of you.
Today is "month end" at work, so I need to finish as much of my work today so the monthly totals can be as high as possible, almost as high as management. My conundrum is this; my work isn't finished by just me working on it, but I am the only one accountable for it not being done.

Adventures in Arts and Crafts

2005-08-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

For the past two months Amy and I have been podging old cheap comic book pages to a dresser for my son. It was Amy's idea and I for one am very happy with the end result. Though I couldtn't bring my self to actually cut up any of the comics, Amy did that part of the job for me. So, here are some pictures of the end result. I hope Chance likes it, because I figure we put in at least 25 hours over the past 7 weekends (Last weekend excluded)

Children sold separately.

My sympathies to Michelangelo

2005-08-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was volunteered by my wife to paint our living room, which I believe was last done in 1982. So yeah, it needed it… a lot.
Saturday started with Amy and I test driving the Toyota Matrix. I’m in love with this car, sadly the $18,000 price tag is $3,000 over what I’m budgeting to spend. Working in the auto finance field from a banks perspective allows me to know many inside loop holes, yet I’m still amazed at how much pressure a dealer is still able to inflict on a knowledgeable buyer such as myself. After I gnawed my foot off to get out of the trap in order to leave the dealership Amy and started our three day paint extravaganza.
Let me tell you this; Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, and all those other home improvement shows are full of S#!T. This was the most tedious, agonizing pain in the ass I’ve had to deal with in years. First we had to move all the furniture, re: chalk the window seals, apply the primer, which was the first real pain. By the time we started to use real paint on Sunday the walls looked horrible I don’t know why but the paint didn’t seem thick enough to cover all the brush and roller marks from the primer. Monday morning I decided to call in sick so I could finish the many coats of paint it has taken for my perfectionist mentality to be happy enough with the room.
And on Tuesday I rested, read comics, watched Sin City, and with the children to my mother-in-law’s, I spent some quality time with the wife.

Now That I’m back to work I wish I had another room to paint

Save a tree, go insane.

2005-08-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

This weeks secret word is... AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
This week marks another brilliant change at work, we’re going paperless... Almost.On our magical journey from the 19th to the 21st century of using tree products to keep track of our customer’s credit to the wondrous window boxes on our desks has proven painful. In an attempt to wean us from our safe and familiar ways has caste us into chaos. In a nut shell, what they've taken from us they have not put back in full. Instead of having a key to unlock the door I have to take the lock and the door apart and put back together every time I want to enter or exit. I hope this analogy works for you, because it's pissing me off.
Aside from the wonderland that is not my job, I have been car shopping. I don't yet know what kind of new car I'm going to get yet, but I know the Batmobile is not available, or in my budget, on in real life. The Fantasticar is not looking so good either. My wife, Amy is leaning toward the Invisible Jet; I told if she can find it she can have it.

Mr. Peabodys Improbable History

2005-08-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

That was the end of a long week. Due to an overabundance of work this last week I worked Monday 9am to 9pm and Thursday 9am to 9pm and additional overtime Tuesday and Wednesday, and I didn't get to sleep before 1am all week. I am now REALLY worried about the insomnia. Today(Saturday) I spent the morning mowing the lawn and trying to teach my son Chance how to mow. He's 9 and needs to start pulling his own weight, cleaning his room and taking out the trash is just not enough any more. Why, when I was his age I mowed the lawn, washed the dishes, cleaned and vacuumed the house, painted the fence, milked the cows, walked to school up hill both ways bare foot in four feet of snow every day. No wonder why I can't sleep now, I used to tire myself out. Anyway, this after noon I helped my sister-in-law Anne paint the exterior of her house, she's having it appraised. The sun was too much for me, by 3pm I came home and slept until almost 6pm. After all that Chance and I watched Jurassic Park 3 before his bed time, and now I'm the only one left awake in the house(probably until after 1am)
My son is very funny, he's also calm, quiet, and bookish, he gets those last 3 from my wife. As he and I watched JP3 he fetched one of his many Dinosaur books and we looked up all of the Dino's shown in the movie. I'm still trying to pronounce Compsognathus, commonly referred to in the movie as "Compy's". I've been noticing more and more how inquisitive Chance is, he always needs and answer, now that he gets from me. Luckily I know everything so when he asks me a question we turn into Mr. Peabody and Sherman, I just wish I remembered where I put the Wayback Machine.