Green is Good

The Shocker!!!

2008-09-08T12:24:00.002-04:00

Ever see Dunn from Brooks and Dunn get the shocker?

Kurt Wilson

2008-06-06T14:52:00.002-04:00

wears his mom's underwear......and quite possibly has herpes.

movies

2008-01-14T14:46:00.000-05:00

I've been watching lots of em' lately. And by lots of em', i mean three.

1) The Last King of Scotland

Independently made, and you can tell, by it's uniqueness and different angles it takes with it's camera. Not NEARLY as violent as what I thought it may be going in, which is good, altho violence in films tends to retain my attention, wether warranted or not. However, when set about a king in Uganda who killed over 300,000 people, they did a good job telling the really interesting story of the mad ruler's physician, who Fucked up famously along the way.

Forrest Whitakker has come a long way. He's a really great freakin' actor. he nailed that role and it wasn't an easy role.

2) Resident Evil Extinction

Yep, a zombie movie. I'm a sucker for zombies and anything with the chance of seeing some cheap T & A. No T & A in this, but i still enjoyed it. Always have, always will.

3) 3:10 to Yuma

One of the most entertaining movies i've seen in some time. Well told, unique character dichotomy, plus like zombies, i'm a sucker for russel crowe and that thing that he won't seem to pop that lives between his eyes.... and Christian Bale.

I enjoy westerns too and this is most definitely a classic western remade with more of a modern flare to it. The only bad thing and i mean REALLY bad thing is for some reason, they put Luke wilson in the thing for a cameo. yeah, tha'ts right, the same guy that does straight to dvd releases and comedy sideckicks in anchorman and old school. I don't want to see luke wilson in that stuff. It hurt it. Same time, if you see the movie, his teeth make the worst "over the top obviously i'm wearing fake teeth or i wouldn't have done this motion with my lips" movement in the history of cinema.

You'll know it when you see it.

The holiday rush

2007-12-13T13:37:00.000-05:00

I know everyone gets really busy this time of year, but man, i'm already looking forward to getting my weekend OVER with..and i never want that. It centers around my own stupidity naturally..i'm cramming 5 pounds of shit into a 4 pound bag.

So, here's my upcoming sched...

today..finish work/get dad's Christmas gift (my last freakin' one finally...i'm tired of shopping and wrapping and that's with doing it almost ALL online this year) go to home depot..come home, do laundry and get basement ready for holidays

Friday..work..then work party at night
saturday..cpr/first aid trainng 8-5..all freakin' day. I thought it was a good idea as having little kids and being around little kids a lot, but the timing isn' t the greatest..then i come home, and take the girls next door to the neighbor kids' birthday party from 5-7..then go to another Christmas party from 8-11 at nite, get home and relieve my dad from his babyistting duties.

SAturday..get up, get the girls ready for church and watch them in a play they are at sunday morning...then come home and go to alicia's family party.

Granted, minus the cpr training, this is all fun stuff...just hurries me around and i'm not good at remembering things when i'm busy, so i know this will catch up to me later.

anywho, the following weekend is my family part at my house, which i'm excited about. That's the one main thing i have to focus on tho before Christmas that's left..so it's kinda my landmark day that the holiday rush is done and i can enjoy the actual holidays!

I've been thinking

2007-12-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

In just the last few weeks i've done the following:

*buy and blog about a forcing kit for indoor bulbs
* go to an art gallery to review and purchase a local artist's works
*go to meijer to buy polly pockets
* Master a beef brisket in a crock pot
* Read 700 pages in a novel
*consider it frustrating when my decor doesn't compliment each other in the house
* question why tru green would spray my foilage in the yard same day it had snowed two weeks ago
*ponder if you can't escape fate

All of the above are things i used to make fun of people...now, i've become the person that as a child I used to mock. Don't get me wrong, I still uppercut Mac trucks, wrestle grizzly bears in the yukon and am actually typing this posting with my penis, but man, i've really branched out my interests. Is it age? adventure? boredom? diversity? the need for something more in life that i've been longing for? Am I getting soft?

Bottom line, My penis can tear a phone book in half. That's all the answers you need right there. Case closed.

already, another good link from the game...

2007-12-09T18:49:00.001-05:00

http://thesportshernia.typepad.com/blog/2007/12/approach-this-m.html

So many lions fans...so much pain.

They Are Damned

2007-12-09T18:36:00.000-05:00

The Lions are damned I say. DAMNED! Sometimes, i honestly don't know how or why i love them and stick behind them like i have for all the years I have. To make a VERY long story short, as i could name COUNTLESS episodes of bafoonery on their behalf that has lead to close and heartbreaking defeats, horrible decisions, plays, etc, etc. Here's my exact thoughts while i was watching them play one of their best games of the year against the Cowboys before they lost on a last second touchedown.

Me going into the game : "no way the lions win today. None. The cowboys are too good and the lions will blow it somehow or someway".

Lions up by 7 and get stopped on a first goal from the 1 yard line and have to settle for a field goal : "Well, there it is..that missed touchdown opportunity will HAUNT them. Game over. No chance. They've blown it."

Lions while still playing really well, go up by 13 points in the second half and seem to be moving the ball at will against Dallas: "Hmmmm...they have a 13 point lead...if dallas scores two touchdowns they will win by 1 point and i'll be pissed as fuck. yep, that's exactly what i think will happen, regardless of how good they look right now."

Cowboys score a td..lions march right back down and line up for probably what was Jason hanson's easiest fieldgoal attempt of the year, or one of the easiest at least from 35 yards out this is what was going through my head: "No way Hanson makes this..NO WAY...1) if he makes it, the lions are up by 9 with half a quarter left...basically, i think they'd win the game if he hits it and there's no way i see them beating the cowboys..therefore, he will miss it, irregardless of it being an easy kick and 2) hanson while a tremendous kicker for the lions over his career has missed a SLEW of kicks when they really matter...he rarely ever kicks when it's important over his entire career, he's almost NEVER felt pressure due to the lions perpetual ineptitude. So, guaranteed...he'll miss this cupcake of a kick." Sure fuckin' enuff, wide right.

The cowboys fumble at their own 1 yard line and i'm thinking: "Wow, that's a really un lions like opportune play..so opportune, it's going to UNopportune...i think they punt and give the ball back to dallas now with less time on the clock and dallas will score as the clock expires giving the lions no chance to score themselves, rather then if the cowboys had scored instead of fumbling the ball, the lions would have gotten it back with plenty of time to mount a drive and score." yes, that's deep, but alas, so is the dimensia all lions fans suffer from.

Sure enuff, lions punt, cowboys mount drive, Dallas' QB fumbles and ball bounces RIGHT INTO THE ARMS OF A LIONS LINEBACKER and i think "no way that dumb muther fucker holds onto the ball, NO WAY. He'll fuck this up and flub the gimme for sure." Yep...kicked it right into the arms of the cowboys Kyle kosier, who recovered it for the cowboys and who, of course, also played for the lions just last year (the ironic pain of a lions fan is also off the charts).

Finally, sure enough, cowboys score with 18 seconds left, lions lose. FUCK COCKSUCKER PISSFUCK BALLS!

Okay, i'm back. They need a new coach who knows how to cover on special fucking teams and start drafting some damn players on fucking defense. The linebackker david harris from michigan they passed on in the draft last year was defensive fucking rookie of the month for the jets and probably a a pro bowler in his first freaking year! instead, they took a back up qb who got hurt in the spring and hasn't played a flipping down all year.

The lions. Why can't mike illitch buy them?

Forcing

2007-12-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

What is it you say? Well, it's pretty much most bad ass thing anyone that reads this can ever do at any time in their entire life...that's all.

It's the 'tricking' of a flower bulb to think it's spring to get it to bloom indoors in the winter. I'm using an Amarylis bulb i got at English Gardens. Basically, all you need to do is this: Get a vase with a narrow neck so the bulb can sit up top....fill the vase with rocks of your choice..fill with water and place bulb on top of neck so ONLY the roots hit the water..and VOILA! The bulb drinks the water..enjoys the light on in this case my kitchen table and has grown to over a foot tall already. See pics.

Now, how much does this cost you say? $1,000? $1500? $2000? Nope..you can get the whole setup...bulb included...for around $30. Best part is after the flower blooms in 4-6 weeks, you simply remove the bulb...dry it off completely, do some trimming and it will regenerate again in water.

Coolness 101 is now over. You may return to your normal activities.

One more thing I don't like..

2007-11-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

I went to watch TV and 'Cruel Intentions' came on HBO. I definitely don't like Ryan Phillippe too.....

Things I don't like

2007-11-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Shelly not doing well in school due to MOTIVATION and not smarts.
The fact I just ate an entire Pizza and could eat have eaten more.
The fact I work out HARD every day and still do the above.
Michigan losing ot Ohio state 4 years in a row and still loving football.
Being a Lions fan.
Celebrities that name their babies Goofy fucked up names...like Apple or Starboard or Birch or some other goofy crap.
Stamps. The post office sucks and every machine you try to buy stamps from is taking fate into your own hands.
Not doing HD tv until just recently...it rules and I should have done it much sooner.
People that can't hold their liquor.
People that get snotty when they are uncomfortable *i know i can fit this category*
The fact i always tend to get behind people that are 1,000 years old in whatever line or traffic situation i'm standing in thus increasing my completion time of said task by multiple minutes.
The fact i'm not into fantasy football as much as I have been in past years.
5 day work weeks. We should be 4x10.
Taxes
War. Makes no sense.
Gay sex..same as above.
The fact i've forgotten my coffee mug to work 5 days in a row and each day i vow to never make said travesty again as it's so incredible insufferable each time i do so....yet, i continue to do so.
50 degree weather in November....damn you Al Gore.
Muscle pain in my back and neck for a year straight.
My furniture..i need new shit.
The Blu-ray/Hd-dvd battle...just big business trying to prostitute dollars out of us.
Incomptent people in service based industries I use.

Meh, there's more, but that's what rolled off the tongue. I'll balance this out with what i like soon too.

Crockpotting: verb

2007-11-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

Crockpotting so exciting it has to be a verb. It has no choice. It's also something i've gotten into for a couple reasons.

1) I bought a crockpot
2) I kinda enjoy making different creations for meals.
3) Pretty much everything i make that doesn't either come from a grill or end in the word "sandwich" sucks...however, with a crockpot..it's dummy proof...almost.

It's low maintenance...and pretty damn good. I've thrown in a bunch of sauerkraut..pork chops....sausage...5 hours later on a cold saturday with no work whatsoever i got a good freakin' meal.

Tomorrow i'm trying a brisket..it will cook all day while i'm at work. Big step in crockpot confidence...not home...cooking by itself...smoke detectors all work...should be good.

While i was at Meijer today gettin the ingredients I needed and buying shelly's 2nd fish in as many weeks (this one died before 5pm today...meanwhile carly's goldfish is 7 months and going strong...go figure.) i had a pretty strong random run in episode..which, at Meijer i can't seem to avoid. I saw in the span of 30 minutes...one of Shelly's day care teachers who apparently moonlights there...a douchebag from my golf league...a lady i know from the subdivision...and Steve DeWofle's girlfriend (todd's dad) who also was at breakfast when the girls and I were there. Pretty impressive run for me there.

Let's see..what else..oh i know....Shelly's PT conference didn't go that well...apparently she's not motivated..so, i've been spending an hour every nite i'm with her spelling...counting..reading..writing..etc. Frankly, her teacher did not make a good impression on me..she was describing shelly in a way that someone would who had just gotten home from Iraq would describe their experiences. Exhausted...flustered....unable to really give good solid thoughts...pretty much made her completely suck in my mind. Even compared shelly to her 27 year old son who still lives with her.

Wasn't right...however, Shelly does need to pay more attention...she knows this stuff and it's evident she does when I'm going thru it with her..however i don't think she respects her teacher nor the environment she's in enough to take the work seriously. THat's gonna have to change. OH, and she's kind of a bully. Gets sat down all recess long for pushing down other kids and scratching them. Ugh..i never see that side of her obviously...but it's gonna change if it kills me.

Finally, i'm fn' glad college football is almost over. I"m freakin' sick of it and I can't wait to watch Michigan get clobbered in a bowl game by a superior taught and talented team. ...plus my kids need a break from overreacting to all the little things they do on the weekends during games...and then me making it up at nite to them by taking em' to dinner..staying up late..etc. Unfortunately....the LIons are still going.

Tips

2007-11-16T14:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, i haven't written in awhile, basically cause i'm lazy. However something bugged me Wednesday nite and i wanted to write about it.

I was killing time before Carly's Parent teacher conference (which went well..unlike her sister's..but that's another story) so I decided to get some coffee at the foggy bottom coffee shop in Dexter. I got a pumpkin latte...pretty good too. However, after i paid, the girl looked at me in this.."is that it...??" kinda way. How did i know that was how she was looking at me? Well, because i glanced down in front of her and saw a jar for "tips".

Now, I'm all for tipping at restaurants. I used to bartend and wait tables and NOTHING pissed me off more when a table would stiff you..and it happens. I always tip around 30% if it's good...20% if the waitperson sucks...and never stiff. However, now you see Fn' tip jars EVERYWHERE! For every consumable service...coffee shops...ice cream parlors...bakeries...everyone is looking for tips. They get paid REGULAR WAGES...they don't get tips. You don't tip the lady at the drive thru of McDonald's and you Don't tip the 18 year old girl who i just bought a $4 dollar coffee from for doing her job either!

Makes me pissed cause they are milking money from their customers. If they start making $2.08 an hour like i did when i was bartending/waiting tables..and places of business make if feasible for them to receive tips based on their lower wages..i'll tip ya..till then..take your stupid jar away. This ain't china.

My most recent comparsion

2007-09-14T15:39:00.001-04:00

Frankly, I should write a book about shit like this cause It's borderline a perfect analogy on the subject. I've been hurt this year by Michigan's HORRIBLE football team. I'm a big fan, no secret and it sucks ass knowing they blow and the season is only 2 weeks old.

As a college football fan and football fan in general i look forward to the start of football season ALL year long. When it finally comes it's a glorious day. When your favorite team loses consecutively to a 1-AA team and then gets throttled by a pac-10 team, you're sick to your stomach. Which, brings me to my point.

While watching the end of the oregon/michigan game at TGIF with Alicia, she asks "i'm surprised your'e still watching this game. Isn't it really depressing to see them being this lousy?" To which I responded "you know, I don't know why i'm watching it, but i feel i have to."

I thought about this later...here i am feeling anger, disappointment and frustration at this team that i'm swearing at in public at the bar, yet i stay with them the entire game, don't miss a play, and frankly, am looking forward to watchin' em' play again tomorrow. When else in life does a person act like this? The answer: The douchebag or douchbaggette that keeps taking back their wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever that they know constantly cheating on them.

Much in the same way Alicia didn't understand why I had to watch the end of the Michigan game (nor I for that matter) , from the outside, it makes no sense to an onlooker as to whey someone who is being cheated on, multiple times would continue to take back their significant other. None.

They do it, because it's what they do. Maybe it's the memories of what they used to have with the other person, or in my case, past victories Michigan may have had. Maybe it's the hope that the person will change, or, again in my case, Michigan may win one fuqin' game this year. Maybe it's because it's all they know, which, while i know a lot about sports..football is my favorite. Maybe the alternatives suck, no other good people to date, I can't pull for Michigan State.

Irregardless, the parallel is uncanny. Michigan Sucks and I'm the jilted lover still willing to take them back.

my birthday

2007-09-14T15:35:00.000-04:00

I have pics, i'll try to remember to post later, but i had to comment on the freakin' amazing birthday i had. Best birthday ever.

Alicia completely spoiled me. Came over at 8am and made me a gourmet breakfast..got me a fantastic new golf bag and gift cerfiticate for new club, a terrific array of books and then took me golfing all day. ONLY to be followed up by a fantastic meal at the chop house in AA.

Absolutely awesome. I'm 34 now. Don't feel like it...I always pictured 34 being old, but i pretty much feel the same as when i was 25. I'm def not 16, but frankly, i wouldn't want to be.

People in Development don't poop

2007-08-28T14:13:00.000-04:00

Here at my work pooping can be a challenge. I'll break this down. I'm at the Dexter campus where there are three buildings. I'm in building 3, which has two floors with a total of 6 stalls. Building two has 3 total stalls and building one has 4 stalls spread out over 3 bathrooms.

I'm in sales, and guys in sales poop constantly. I mean CONSTANTLY. We have three stalls down here but one is automatically off limits because it's the handicap stall which our president uses and nobody in their right mind wants to be the A-hole caught in there if he comes in and finds you in it. So,that leaves us 2 poopers we can use.

In other words, it's full all the freakin' time. So, i don't even bother going in there to poop as whenever i do i end up just passing right thru do to over congestion. Plus, the ventilation in this bathroom is HORRID. Smells like old cheese most days in there.

So, I'm a two a day kinda guy. I've gotten into quite a reliable pattern of pooping here that works out with no waits and gives me the solitude i require to poop well. I go upstairs where our development team is around 10ish every day. That bathroom is ALWAYS empty. The seat is always warm for some reason (which i don't like cause it means someone probably just got up and left) but it's always open.

Then around 2ish (or right when i'm done posting this in other words) i walk down to building two where finance and web development poop. Again, always open. Those guys must eat a lot of cheese cause i have no problems in their bathrooms findin space AND in building two there is always a gentle breeze with a hint of cinnamon floating thru the air.

I stay away from building one normally for two reasons. 1) the bathrooms are old and antiquated and 2) there's some hard ball shitters in those buildings and if you walk in on one of em' the stench will knock your shoes off.

Gotta run....!! literally....

Disturbia

2007-08-18T13:19:00.000-04:00

Watched this last nite..it was okay. What was really disturbia-ing was the fact that after trying to place quirkily obnoxious shia lebouf's mom from my past video watching i finally realized who it was. Carrie Ann Moss plays his mom who was "trinity" in the matrix films. I couldn't place her simply because she was now old, beatend down and overweight.

Such a shame...really, she had so much potential...

Side note: I decided to go with this picture of her, cause frankly, it' probably not her. After googling images of her I realized she was really never that hot to begin with , hence the rear shot above.

In other words, ignore this post, it's pure hypocrisy.

So

2007-08-05T19:43:00.000-04:00

my summers are busy. Really, really busy. Which I like, but at the same time..i'm glad it's winding down. Basketball is over..which, after a bad year, i'm especially glad for it to end. I may not play next year..it's fun and all, but a real strain on my weekly schedule with trying to find time with the girls and their lives...it may have to go.

Golf is about a month to go as well..which, while i haven't written about it, has been a strong source of pride for me this year. One of my goals last year was to become respectable at golf and now, after a year of playing I can break into the mid 40's on a fairly regular basis, which, after being able to barely even hit the ball my first year, i feel pretty good about. Same time, it's a scheduled event, which while I love it, will be glad when it's done so i have more time for other things like alicia and myself!

Between those things, working on projects inside and outside the house and handling the girls, summers are swamped. Hence, not writing much. I did have a great weekend however.

Great idea by alicia, we took the girls to pick blueberries saturday morning at this MASSIVE blueberry farm. Carly freakin' loved it, which is a victory by itself. Both girls had a blast and then with Alicia's help we made a pair of unbelievably tasty blueberry pies. Then, Jeff and Sarah and Ben and Anna came down so we hit the pool sat nite, grilled out, lit some leftover fireworks..good day for sure.

Today, since it rained I took the girls to see Ratatouille..which was your standard disney pixar show. They really enjoyoed it..hit the new big boy restaurant on zeeb road, and then Scot came over which I have to admit was nice. Hadn't seen him since the wedding and he was very excited to start hangin out again which I would like as my friends in the immediate area aren't as plentiful as they once were.

Finally, something happened at big boy which i thought was nice. There was an old guy and his wife sitting kitty corner from us at the restaurant. He reached into this bag he brought and began blowing up balloons and making them into animals. He made one for Carly, one for Shelly and one for every other kid that was in there. Basically, he came to eat with the sole intention of making some kids happy. You don't see that very often from people. Random acts of kindness are rare and what he did I thought was pretty neat..the girls loved it!

copycat

2007-07-02T16:08:00.001-04:00

Well, i'm probably a copy cat...but man, i didn't think this name would be taken by another blog, but apparently it is..and pretty much the exact opposite of mine...and with more of a real attachment of it's content to it's name.

Meh....

http://thegreenagenda.blogspot.com/

Some random pics....

2007-07-01T13:13:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to sex this thing up with some pictures lately...so here's a nice menagerie....including a frog that sticks to my patio door every nite..shelly's dance recital, my garden wall around my deck I JUST finished about 1 hour ago and some other jazz....enjoy.

Google reader

2007-07-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

I discovered Google Reader yesterday and have been tinkering with it ever since. I believe it's only been around for a week or two, but it basically changes the way i use the internet now. You can bookmark all your blogs/articles through their RSS feeds on google reader where you can then organize them and sort them by category into different folders.

So, why this is cool, is that you only have to go to ONE PLACE to see all your favorite sites! Each listing is updated when a new posting is made with a number next to it indicating how many new topics/stories are on your favorite site and you can just click it and it feeds right into google reader OR you can click it and it takes you right to the site. It's fantastic.

You can select different topics right off the bat for the blogs of your interest..ie-sports, celebrity gossip, tech news, etc, etc and you can use thier pre-selected choices or you can customize your own or use both in combination. Heck, you can link this blog to it, so instead of checking for updates you will know when it's been updated by just checking google reader!

Bottom line: It's cool and you should check it out.

The dance recital

2007-06-26T11:13:00.000-04:00

Shelly had her dance recital..a few weeks ago actually now i guess...and it was...an adventure let' say. I have some pics, but frankly, am at work right now and also to lazy to upload them, but they didn't turn out well in any event. Just picture a 6 year old girl in a striped jail outfit and cap dancing to 'jailhouse rock ' by elvis.

The big thing was she went up on stage and danced. There were probably 300 or so people in the chelsea auditorium and I was worried she'd get stage fright, but she went up there and carried on like a trooper..it was awkward, discombobulated and clumsy, but so was every other routine i saw, so i was very proud!

Same time, i'm freakin' done with dance. That thing was a job to get to the recital. I made the mistake of getting shelly dressed BEFORE we left, which, sure as shat...she tore her nylons on the way to the recital. Well, i think she snagged them, then picked at em' till there was a hole the size of an orange over her knee. So, i of course was torked. This happened 50 minutes before the show started and I only had time to scour chelsea for new nylons..i tore through pamida...the drug store..a dance store, which of course was closed for some fn' reason...a grocery store looking for a pair of little girls black nylons...nothing. Finally, in my darkest hour i pull into a cvs as my last resort and found the last pair of 10-12 year old black nylons..SCORE!

So i rip out of the drugstore and get back to the auditorium with about 10 minutes to spare...sweating my balls off and frankly kinda strung out. When i get back there i hear Alicia, who had been with shelly and trying to help her fix the nylons was getting an earful from the dance teacher about the holes in them.."what are you gonna do? you have to get more? we only have 15 minutes? how can you fix it??!!" Seriously..these people are nuts there.

Show was 2 hours of extreme boredom and 2 minutes of entertainment when shelly danced. I needed a severe break from the hundreds of little girls dressed up as hookers and wearing makeup like transexual clown hookers. it was a weird day.

What else..Oh, i've been building a retaining wall around my deck this summer..almost done..been some work, but saved a ton of money doing it myself..it's gonna look sharp. I'm excited to plant some stuff in it..which also is the most rainbow thing i'll ever say on this blog outside of a dancing with the stars running diary.

i'll try to get some pics up of all this....i'm just so lazy and it's so nice being lazy.

It's Legal in Eagle

2007-06-16T17:02:00.000-04:00

Last nite Alicia and I went to Eagle to Chez' Cansfield to visit mh buddy Tim and his gf Nicole. Good time had by all. The drive was LOOOOOOOONG. I can't believe he does that every day...over an hour..each way...and that was with good traffic on the highway. My hats off to him, couldn't do it myself.

Anywho, got up there, drank some beers, they made us a great Chicken Marsala for dinner. Just delish, had some more beers and then we hit the Eagle Inn. Which, as it turns out, Eagle Inn is Applachia for "hilljacks" I think. I have to honestly say, and Tim gave us due notice before hand, which we shook off, that this would be the most redneck place we've ever been. I thought it wouldn't be worse then stivers or katies here in chelsea-dexter area, but man....it blew those out of the water. Everyone was at least 2 bills...EVERYONE. Even the chicks...Tim's postal carrier was wearing a tight fitting skirt/dress of some sort that she kept hiking up while dirty dancing by herelf on the dance floor to karaoke songs. Another 400 pounder was singing' "strokin' it" while walking up and grinding on his equally large girlfriend....and we met 'double d' which was how he introduced himself to us. Why is he called double d? Cause it stands for dumber then dogshit. Really.

The dj's for the karaoke were fantastic. The one guy looked EXACTLY like Todd's dad..the hair, the build...everything, only he threw down karaoke like that japanese guy throws down wet hot dogs. he was hardcore. It was like watching a movie were someone was acting so over the top intentionally, just to be funny, but he wasnt', he was serious...and knew the words to every 70's song that came up...oh, and was wearing a full blown matching MSU basketball jersey and matching shorts. Terrific. His partner wore the standard air brushed wildlife shirt...with two bears on it....and jean shorts naturally. He was kinda the ring leader, but paled in comparison to his partner in my opinion.

Anywho, we went back, went outside, and then, not sure how, we all realized we had locked ourselves out of tim's house. So, there's no spare key....except in Ionia...all the doors and windows were locked but their upstairs bedroom one. So, we tried climbing on the roof in the back...no dice. We tried climbing on the roof in the front...no dice..after about 45 minutes of this Tim went next door to get a ladder. I went around back to take a leak and thought "hey, people on tv use credit cards to break into doors all the time..." so, i tried it on the garage door..it was deadbolted...no dice. I walked around to the back patio door..wasn't dead bolted...I slipped the credit card in..ran it up and down..the lock popped right out, and I walked right in.

Moral of the story here as always is: I rule.

But it was a great time....tim and nicole were awesome hosts and would def hit up there again!

Camo Vests

2007-06-13T22:01:00.000-04:00

Here are the camo vests from the wedding...yes, we had to wear camo vests during the reception. I was stage left...or maybe i was stage right...or in the back...or wrestling tigers while benchpressing volvo's. Not sure. One thing is for sure, whatever it was I was doing, I was looking real good doing it....if you could see me that is...I mean, I was camoflouged from the waist up. And from the waist down i'm basically an african american. Anywho, this is a snapshot of the wedding...in a time capsule...now.

I saw Scot

2007-06-12T19:27:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know..i've been lazy posting lately. However, i've had things to write about, just nothing i've that's made me jump to the computer to write about. Which is good, as this blog has been a filler for me in life when i've been bored, or haven't had much to do. Therefore, i've been good and active!

just got home from basketball..Alicia has been picking up the girls for me so I can play. REALLY appreciative of that. I don't think many people would want to be in a relationship with a devoted father of two girls, let alone make the sacrifices she does to help them out. Pretty unique if you ask me. Oh, and we won...finally. My team sucks, but it's good to get out .....

The one question i've been asked a LOT is what did i think of Scot's wedding? And, the long and the short of it is really simple. I miss Scot and his friendship. He was one of my best friends and frankly, since he's been engaged and at the wedding, it's felt like he only has communicated with me, and our other close friends out of necessity and out of want. Which, when around him, translates into awkwardness. I have lots of instances I could say, that may not even be on his radar, but the bottom line is, i hope the kid is happy, and i hope, someday, he'll want to be friends again.

I saw him last week..him and his dad were driving down the road and waved to me..caught me off guard and i just flashed a half heartedly surprised wave back. Then it dawned on me...that may be the last time i see him. Which, i also thought at the wedding, so, who knows.

My big summer projt this year is building a retaining wall/planters box around my deck. Well, i'm not so much as my handyman Jim is. Having him doing it saving me over a thousand dollars from what a co-worker's brother was gonna charge me. Advantage: JJ. It's gonna pretty much rock. I need to do Sooooo much stuff for the house yet, but it's slooooowly coming along. It's still pretty much a bachelor pad with kids toys everywhere, but it's mine...and that' a-ok in my book. I have to admit, i never thought i'd enjoy decorating or planning things like planters boxes and paint schemes...but man, time really does change all.

Shelly just finished her dance recital! She'd been taking a dance class every saturday and the recital was last week...several good stories with that...which will be mynext post!!! With pics...i hope

almost a month between...

2007-05-01T19:42:00.000-04:00

postings. Not good..i've had several things to write about, just haven't gotten around to em'...

In the past few weeks the following has happened..

shelly had a great birthday at colonial lanes. Party went well...two hours was about perfect and less then half what i thought it would cost! Which is nice. The original price tag made me sick for a freakin' bowling party. I got her the pink nintendo DS she wanted and the game 'nintendogs' were you adopt, train, feed, care for a dog. She loves it. Of course, on her second nite she lost one of her dogs. "Rainbow" is gone and never came back..she was HYSTERICAL in tears...but she's over it now...with the help of some 'videogames aren't real' talk from her dad.

We went to the water park..which was INSANELY jammed. Insanely. There were about 1000 schools on spring break that week which was a huge mistake. Mostly high school kids there. Lousy service..long lines for everything...20 minutes for the FN' hot tub! Oh, and actual GANGS in the water park. Like motley gangsta gangs. Very disappointed in that place...I will go back to great wolf lodge on a slower weekday next year.

My work has gone from DEAD to busy again. Which is good, my days don't drag on for freakin' ever.

I"m starting to plan/think of my summer projects around my house, namely landscaping ideas and painting.

Golfing starts thursday in the creekside league. So that means nice buzz and fun times every thursday for a while.

Scot's wedding is a week from saturday. That will be it's own blog.

bout' it...

I always thought this would be a great way to retire...

2007-04-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

Work some meaningless job, that looked fun, laid back and low stress. Well, because i'm AWFULLY slow till after April 17th at work, i have time to surf the web and waste company bandwidth. I came across this article on 3 guys that worked at a video game store, which has always been one of the jobs i think would be great to retire at (along with being a golf course ranger and champion racehorse put out to stud). It's quite long, but some very great quotes about the daily lives of these toolbags.

I'm not sure if i want that job more now, or if i'm horrified...either way, it's interesting.

http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox360/game/features/article.jsp?articleId=2007040314469812037§ionId=1003&releaseId=20060321132945404017

Boxelder bugs

2007-04-04T15:44:00.000-04:00

I had hoped these little bastards were a thing of my past. When i was growing up my dad's house was literally...COVERED in these MFer's. I mean, they were EVERYWHERE. They used to cling to the window doors on the family room in groups of thousands. THOUSANDS. They are totally harmless, but would get in thru the cracks of the doors and windows and be everywhere.

I mean, more then one of these little cocksuckers ended up in a drink...in my mouth.

My last house, they were nowhere to be seen...my new house...*sigh*..they are back.

They congregate by my front door and belwo my front window and in the corner of my garage sunning themselves. in HORDES. Not as many as my dad had at his house..but just the same...i've got them.

So, i've researched ways to kill them..most pesticides do not work. it's pointless...best thing is soap and water..that seems to burn their exoskeleton...or you can vacuum them up which ironically i used to do at my dad's...that's also very effective.

Basically, they are gross. They crap everywhere...so their dirty. it washes off, but i hate it. I've been walking around my house on the outside with a fly swatter just mashing them by the dozens..my driveway and under my front evergreen bushes is a graveyard of boxelder bugs. Ya know what tho? They are smart? As soon as i start swinging..they move out of the way and NEVER come back to the exact same spot...they learn...like the velociraptors in jurassic park.

Anyways....the cold weather will piss em' off today, so i shouldn't see as many...

The big problem is i've got a female boxelder tree in the woods behind me...someplace...just not sure where...oh, and the cross street in front of my house is "boxelder lane" dummy builder....if i can figure out which tree is the boxelder..it may get chopped down mysteriously.....they SWARM on these trees..then spread to homes to sun themselves...man i hate them. Now i'm just gettign worked up thinking about them.

50% right

2007-04-04T15:40:00.000-04:00

Well, i err'd...specifically in my stereotyping. I was right, in identifying the type of person that took my plant only to have it sit outside their house, only blamed the wrong person. The Black lady with the white boyfriend have been exonerated i saw them come home last nite (with the woman and her child in the back of the bed of the truck) pull into their much nicer and well kept home next door to the trashy lady's home.

The lady that did take my plant i did see...big blue baggy parachute pants..oversized yellow shirt..and the windows on the mini van are tinted. It was her alright....

While talking with my neighbor jeff across the street about the incident last nite he shared with me how she yelled at one of his daughters for dropping her glove on the sidewalk in front of her house. Bottom line: I'm keeping my kids away from there.

Apologies to the wrong lady..and curses to the correct garbage picker!

Garbage Pickers Caught

2007-04-02T09:54:00.000-04:00

I know, i'm not the best when it comes to viewing everyone with an equal eye. By that I mean, i can sterotype on sight. Wether it be the type of person that shops at walmart (the overweight white female with black stretch pants and an oversized mickey mouse shirt), the top three stories on local news will feature poor inner city minorities in one way or another, or how the old lady in front of me at the grocery store is SURE to pull out her checkbook and write a time consuming check to pay for her groceries instead of just cash or a debit card.

Anywho, this brings me to my story. About 3 weeks ago, I decided to throw away a plant I had. It was a large, plant, kinda tropical..about 6 feet tall and basically, a pain in the ass to maintain and deal with. It started to die, it was going down hill, and although i felt a bit guilty about it "you know, i could save this, if i REALLLLLY tried...." I decided it was time to part with it. So, I threw it away.

I took my garbage out that nite around 5:15, which i always do early, or else i forget and my garbage pickup is like the brink of freakin' dawn the next day....and i went to the store to pick up some stuff.

So, I get back around an hour later, and i noticed right away...somebody had taken my plant. Someone had, gone by my house, looked at my garbage, saw my plant and said to themselves, "hey, that guy's garbage would look great in my house!!!"

So, my immediate thought was, "who would have taken it?" I mean, the plant was a decent plant..but the pot it was in, was just the free 50 cent variety..cheap, basically useless for much of anything and it WAS dying....and honestly, it also alleviated my conscience, i didn't feel like quite the plant killer anymore thinking how someone who took it, obviously wanted to save it.

Well, my house is at the back of the sub....the road dead ends and there's a turn right before that..so really, only about 8 or 9 people REALLY ever need to go buy where i live cause of how the sub is played out. Of those 8 or 9 people one of em' jumped to the top of the list....

This is where my stereotype came in to play...

There's a house..up the curve from me that i can see about half of from my yard...There's a black lady that lives there with her white bf i believe ( i think he's the bf cause i see him leaving and going a lot) and her daughter. This is the house that has their Christmas lights hanging down BELOW the frame of their garage door so when they opened it up, they had to physically lift the cord to get the 93 windstar inside, instead of just taking them on the frame...the lights also twinkled multiple colors...while the ones on one window were green..another one was blue..and some around the front door were gold. Just hideous.

The landscaping consists of a single rosebush in the middle of the front yard...no mulch or boarder of anykind around it..unless you count 12 inch high crabgrass as a natural boarder. And the yard in areas has that look of a field where a group of deer have laid for awhile to mat the grass down in places.

So, my initial thoughts were..it's this lady who took my garbage. ...but i have no way of proving it...she A) is trashy from her get up around her house...B) has zero sense of style or taste from again, the getup around her house and C) is one of the few people that would go by my house and see my garbage.

On to the evidence:

On Sunday's, i drop the girls off at their mom's house at 7, then come home, strap on my ipod and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Takes about 25 minutes and i check out everyone's houses..see what they've done for landscaping and try to peak in their homes to get decoration ideas. Anywho, i was walking by the trashy ladie's house and as i was admiring/wondering if her rosebush would come back...i noticed a plant, on the side of her home, tucked behind her air conditioning unit, but clearly visible over the top as it was tall. i thought to myself.."why do people insist on having indoor plants as outdoor decor? They don't make it?" (another DB in the neighborhood had done this for his landscaping..took two indoor plants that looked nice..planted them in his front yard, and left them there all winter..sure enough killing them and looking horrible. Whereas, myself, planted an indoor plant outside to fill a space, then knowing it would die if i left it out there, transplanted it, moved it BACK into my house, and now will use it as a deck plant in the summer, it's already starting to come out of it's dormancy and blossom again...but that's just me stroking my green thumb skill). Well, i kept walking then stopped dead in my tracks.."that plant looked JUST like my plant that someone took from my garbage..." i turned around and just looked at it.

Sure enuff, it was my plant. The unmistakable tall stalk, with the identical but much shorter stalk right next to it. Propped up behind the garbage pickers AC/unit (which surprisingly wasn't a portable...that would have fit the stereotype better if it was) plain as day from the angle i found.

So, this lady, stole my garbage, then just let it die. Why do take the risk of being caught as a garbage picker like that? why do you take garbage unless you want to do something with it and use it? She took my garbage in otherwords, to make herself MORE garbage!! Makes no sense.

Plus, the fact that i've seen it now, if I ever catch her in the proximity of the plant, i'll ask her about it in a nice, yet "hey, i know you pick through my garbage kinda way." I mean, the equivalent of this would be like if i were to see someone throwing away a nice lamp and I needed a lamp, so I took it out of their garbage. The lamp could be great, and have no problems, and look fabulous in my place, but lousy in the person's place that threw it away. However, if that person came over to my house and was like "hey, isn't that my lamp I threw away?" I'd be horrified and quite embarressed.

I'd think the same thing applies here. I understand the saying, and am actually a big fan of sayint it msyelf in social settings, usually in a dating analogy, that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." However, in this case, one man's trash, is another woman's trash.

Oh, i'm taking pictures too..i'll post those as soon as i have them.

Hooch ride

2007-03-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

Well, i've now seen my old car TWICE in the last 3 days...once taking up two lanes in a right hand turn lane cause the 17 year old hoochie that drives it missed the right lane the first time. Second time, driving home from golf last nite with three other pussycat dolls riding with her. I'm sorry car. Really, truly sorry. It's been soooo highschool girl'd out i can't even describe it anymore...stickers on it that say 'superbitch' pink sunglasses hanging from the rearview mirror...beads and necklaces everywhere..i can see these things clearly DRIVING BY...so they ain't exactly unnoticeable.

At least her mom paid with a cashier's check. no car deserves that fate tho.

How could i forget??!!

2007-03-27T16:53:00.000-04:00

The most telling thing about dancing with the stars and the one that has struck me as the oddest is that Laila Ali..muhammed Ali's daughter is a dude. Seriously. She's enormous and has a deeper voice then me. I think i saw the faint signs of an adam's apple too, but that's uncomfirmed...

Sorry for the delay...

2007-03-27T10:46:00.000-04:00

But i've been putting off my thoughts on dancing with the stars. Basically, i'm afraid they are shoving it down our throats. This is the third season of the show in a little over a year...that's too much...even for me.

It's becoming a bit contrite and monotonous. I need a break from the formula of the show and am almost feeling like i HAVE to watch it instead of looking forward to it.

SAme time, i still love the lady dancers. Edyta is the best. But that's really it. I Dvr the show, then fast forward it to get the gist of what happens and basically stop to watch her, the two blonde dancers and the miss america chick. That's it.

It is a victim of higher ratings and abc desperate to compete with the other channels on monday and tuesday nites.

They even have the same type of celebrities..the washed up music singer (billy ray cyrus), the b-list actor (ian ziering) the beauty queen (shandi something) the athletes (clyde drexler and apollo anton ohno) the old guy whos is there for comic relief but shouldn't be there at all (john ratzenberger), etc, etc.

Alright, that's enuff, i'm even growing tired of writing about it. GIVE US SOME TIME BETWEEN SERIES ABC!

A List

2007-03-19T19:31:00.000-04:00

1) While walking through my subdivision this afternoon i realized i'm in kind of a mixing pot. I have a wide variety of neighbors with a wide variety of characteristics..different races, genders, sexual preferences and lifestyles. I've seen em' all, however there also is a an element of trashiness in some of the houses.

One for instance still has the Christmas tree in THEIR FRONT YARD. Others still not only have their Christmas lights up, but they still regularly turn them on as well. Another house has what appears to be corn growing in their front yard.

Sigh...i'm glad they aren't my neighbors.

2) BBQ Bettermade potato chips freakin' rule. Locally made and freakin' scrumptious. Plus, you can get $5 off your next trip to tour the Ford Rouge River Plant!! Stickers right on the bag!! (no joke)

3) I've decided while I enjoy my job and very thankful for it, that is all it is, a job.

4) I'm painting soon.

5) I'm nervous i'm gonna F it up.

6) The chair i'm sitting on is breaking

7) I REALLY enjoyed spending literally, all day, last thursday and friday at the bar watching basketball instead of working. In all my life i'd never done that. Shame on me for waiting that long.

8) Dancing with the Stars debut's in 25 minutes!!

9) I'm not as excited for it as i was last season...it gets good ratings and they are really cramming it down our throats now to compete with Idol i'm guessing. Same time, i love the chick dancers...hot.

10) Shelly asked me yesterday if Spiders poop.

11) It's her birthday soon, i'm getting her a nintendo hand held gaming thing she wants. Pink, of course.

12) Her dance class is going really well, but am afraid she'll turtle when she realizes what a "recital" really is.

13) Carly is getting better on the potty....

14) I still had to deal with her taking a dump in her pants 2 weeks ago at the library.

15) I've been workin' out pretty regularly now for a few months and am getting stronger

16) I'm eating like crap and geting fatter too

End List

Megatron a Tank??

2007-03-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

This Post is gonna really out me, but i'm cool with it. I had an unhealthy mancrush on transformers when i was boy. Loved the cartoon, loved the toys..i think i may have written on it before, but something i saw the other nite made me feel all funny inside..and not good funny...angry funny.

While watching cartoons with shelly and carly the other nite i saw a commercial for new transformers toys. Optimus Prime and Megatron..the two main characters. Optimus (yes, we are on a first name basis) is still a semi-truck, but megatron is no longer his deadly luger type handgun, he's a tank.

WTF?

Megatron is a tank? Seriously..he's a freakin' gun!!! Not a tank!! I want to see the bad ass mo'fo from the picture above!! Not some girly tank!! Anywho, my brother made the note that perhaps it's his logical evolution as a character as he started off transorming into a hangun, then into a three legged laser rifle and now a tank..and that argument does make sense...but that also would be like saying the logical evolution of Soundwave would be to turn into a toaster oven. ugh.

Same time....i watched the old transformers movie on dvd the other nite. And ya know what? Besides the older animation, horrible soundtrack and outdated dialogue, the movie still sucked me in big time. This movie i saw in the theater and still am not over the shock i experienced when I heard Spike utter "Shit!" or Ultra Magnus said "Damn it!" those things just didn't happen in cartoons back then. There was an audible gasp from the audience when that happened! (turns out the reason was they wanted the movie to be pg to get a larger audience, so they included some heavier language and multiple deaths of main characters of the franchise).

Bottom line, i miss that show...the nostalgia, the time my brother and I got Jetscream for Christmas and the other time my brother got a transformer and i got a Gobot. Which was like asking for a Coke and getting an RC Cola at the time. Thanks dad, that still sticks with me.

Anywho, i'm 33. That's enuff of this talk.

Puerta Vallarta

2007-02-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

I'm back..i thought i'd never get home (i'll talk about that at the end) but it was an awesome time! The weather was beautiful for all but about 4 hours...85 degrees and sunny. The people that worked there were VERY friendly and helpful, the hotel was beautiful and clean.

The food was INCREDIBLE! Really one of the best parts of the trip was how every meal was spectacular. Gourmet at it's best. There was an italan restaurant, a seafood restaurant, a grill restaurant, a mexican restaurant and a cafe' which was a huge buffet. At all of these places the food was top notch and as good as anything you could find in the Ann ARbor area....really awesome.

The alcohol was all top notch...all the name brand stuff, no 5 o'clock vodka or anything like that and it was VERY available. They offered it at breakfast for crying out loud. Alicia and I did our share of drinking...tons of frozen drinks...dirty monkey's..passion punches, etc...and TONS of corona. That stuff was like sand to the beach down there. I need a break from Corona. Thursday nite we decided (well, i decided to make sure we each got hammered) to tie one on. We drank from about 9am while we were out on a whale watching tour where we saw some humpback whales and dolphins (sadly, no sperm whales) all the way till we passed out at 9:30pm. At the end of which we alienated ourselves at the seaside grill with our complete drunkeness....great day. Other then that, we drank our share, for sure, but within reason.

The beach was great..it was a private beach, so for guests only and we never had problems with congestion in looking for lounge chairs on the beach, or by any of the 3 pools. OH, speaking ofwhich, the pool bar was great..one of my personal fav's..i never had to get up to go to the bathroom! Speaking of which, peeing in the ocean, ain't easy....even after several beers..the waves were so big that you had to really concentrate on what you were doing out there in order to go.

I would say it's safe to say i spent more time riding the waves then any other 12 year old boy out there this week. They were awesome on wed/thursday and you could ride one 30 yards....of course, cause they were so large, if you miss timed it, you got nailed into the ocean floor, i did both. I was good...that was the closest i'll ever get to being like Patrick Swayze in 'Point Break'..besides with the fact we've each made out with Demi Moore of course.

Overall, Can't say enough good things about the Dreams restort there. I highly recommend it.

What i don't recommend is the PV airport. It's a joke. Each airline had lines that wrapped around the terminal as there weren't enough people working to check everyone in, and at northwest, they don't scan your luggage..they individually search EACH bag before you check in..making the lines worse. OH, and the search? They just check each corner of the main compartment in the bag and let you go..it was a real rouse. Half Ass all the way, anyone could have snuck ANYTHING on board..no problems...unless.....

you were alicia, who, after walking thru the metal detector before the gate (after the 90 minute check in line was over) was told it was no problem to carry her water thru. Well, she went back out later to get us some coffee (as the plane was delayed for another 90 minutes) and upon re entry was told no fluids allowed...serioulsy...they had shops that sold all beverages on BOTH sides of the detectors. Freakin' morons.
Then, the plane, never had a gate, we just saw the boarding was delayed for 90 minutes...then out of the blue, our plane was here and boardin right now 30 later. Which, as best as i can describe it was like waiting to get on the subway, no chairs at the gate, just lines of people waiting to get on a bus. i couldn't wait to get the F out of that mexican flea bag of an airport.

The flight home was only 3.5 hours...it was almost 5 on the way down there..and the last thing i wanted to see when the plane landed...i saw. A snowstorm. The roads were covered...traffic was Uber slow, and, after being awake for nearly 24 hours, no food in my stomach for 13, i had to have my hands at 10 and 2 all the Fn' way home from detroit going no faster then 50 mph...and usually closer to 40...you couldn't see the road..it was totall covered.

Finally got home around 4:30...made myself some eggs and went to bed. I"m tired...but man, other then the return trip, i feel awesome. That vacation was great.

What I did in Mexico

2007-02-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Tuesday 2pm: Plane lands in Mexico...i race past timeshare offers and little kids trying to sell me hand woven bracelets. Make way to bus, head to reort.

Tuesday 4:30pm: Head outside after getting settled at resrot and hit the bar/a bar/mini -bar in room/whatever and start checkin' the place out while acuiring my first buzz of the trip.

Tuesday after 4:30pm: Same thing as above, only start forgetting things, have trouble walking (more then normal) and develop a strange sense of bloated self esteem and worth.

Wednesday Wake up: Hit the mini bar in the fridge, head down for some breakfast..spend all day outside, doing nothing, but drinking, swimming, drinking, swimming..probably getting sunburned, develop that same problem as mentioned above with the trouble walking and bloated sense of self esteem and worth.

Thursday: Same as above

Friday: Same as above

Saturday: I"d like to go golfing this day

Saturday nite: Head home.

Basically, i'm looking forward to a week of no responsibility, stress, obligation or worry. I can't wait. It's been a LOOOOONG time since i've had a trip like this and never one all inclusive. I can't wait.

I downloaded season 1 of the office to watch on my ipod along with texas hold em' to play ( i'm already addicted) so the flight should be manageable.

I'll have a good report and prob some pics on my next post.

24

2007-02-13T14:50:00.000-05:00

I FINALLY got into this show this season. I've been hearing how awesome it is for years, but every year, something came up (usually kid related) and was never able to get into the series. By the time i would be able to it was like 4 episodes in (thanks in large part to the 2 hour back to back season premiere's...that's just a lot 24).

And, I really like it. I look forward to the show. i'm INto the show and can't wait to see what happens next. It's on par with me for prison break....last nite's 2 shows really had me into them from start to finish. So much, that i'm going to back and rent the first 4 seasons from the video store in town and catch up..evenetually. Same time, I think Jack Bauer is a bit over the top corny at times..and i do have a hard time coping with the fact that he's like 5' 2" in real life. Also, Chloe and Morris bug the crap out of me. I can't stand chloe..she looks just weird.

Jack's nephew josh is a douche bag too....but everythign else...especially the bad guys..are sweet characters.

Man, i hate february at work

2007-02-09T14:32:00.000-05:00

so slow this time of year here..the days drag....

anywho, after years of hearing from others like 'hey, if you knew as much about sports as you did about money, you'd be rich!" or "why do you know that and not anything about the stock market?" i'm deciding to get straightened out.

I"m putting in time in learning and understanding in becoming an amatuer investor. And, i have to admit, it's kinda fun. Granted, i don't know much about what i'm doing, but it's coming along. And with things like two girls going to college and getting married one day....i think the more i can save, and earn, the better i'll be.

11 more days till i leave for mexico! can't wait for that. I neeeeeed a vacation. I'm tired of the same old routine and can't wait to drink and be a slob for 5 straight days.

Tomorrow is the company profit sharing dinner....the last one as we are losing profit sharing....which was only a matter of time as we were the only thomson affiliated company with it still. I'll just do the normal "get the check and go" thing.

Can't wait to leave today....i think i'll take the girls to chuck e. cheese tonite....they'll love that..and i love their pizza.

I'm not sure what is happening to me..

2007-01-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

But i've done some really un-me like things lately. I began thinking about this after the encounter I had getting my oil changed yesterday. I went to Uncle Ed's, which by the way i discovered is WAY more expensive then victory lane, and had a gay guy service my car. Yep, no doubts. He was gay. I saw the standard fare at the oil change place that I always see...the grizzled old Black guy, the large lesbian ex softball player working the garage doors in bay 2 and of course the country bumpkin with the southern accent and 7th grade education.

Then, out came the guy that was gonna help me (no pun intended). He was well groomed, clean, and sang and rhymed when he talked. Very well educated and honestly, the first person i've ever talked with while getting my oil change that I felt like i could carry a conversation with. Now, you ask why I think he's gay? Well, like i mentioned above, he sang his words and rhymed his questions to me.

"Here's your old filter, and here's a new,
what would you like us to do??"

He said that while bobbing his head back and forth. Picture, i think his name was Jack on Will and Grace....the guy that wasn't Will or Grace...that's who i'm thinking, but with blonde hair. OH, and when he typed, he did it with flare...each keystroke started from the top of his head, traveled down, made an emphatic click on the keyboard and then returned to his raised hand above his head awaiting the next letter.

He was the complete opposite of every person i've ever had change my oil. He also LOVED my pacifica....cough, cough.

Anywho, it got me thinking about what i've been doing. And in the last week i've had my teeth bleached, bought a tanning package and rented Little Miss Sunshine to watch on dvd. Three things i'd NEVER do. Now they all have good, manly reasons. My teeth had to match my new fake on i'm Finally getting tomorrorw, i wanted to tan cause i'm going to mexico, and i've heard the sunshine movie was actually pretty good. And, it really was. I'd reccomend it. It was like napoleon dynamite but with more of a purpose.

Alright, i think i've just had some unusual circumstances, i'm back now. I"ve gotta run, i'm making barbed wire and twisted steel tonite for dinner.

Oscars

2007-01-24T18:37:00.000-05:00

i saw the list of oscar nominated movies...and i've HEARD of like 2 of em'. The departed which i saw and really enjoyed and Little miss sunshine because Alicia wanted to see it and i labled it a chick flick and there for blasphemous for me to see. (which, now i admit, i somewhat,partially regret as it sounds like a decent movie and not said chick flick)

Ever notice how oscar movies usually follow a certain criteria? They usually have a variety of the finalists from different genre's...1) a mainstream movie that everyone has heard of and did very well at the box office 2) a musical of some sort 3) a depressing flick on the state of the world or society 4) A low budget indy type flick with a big name actor 'taking a risk' by broadening their horizons and getting lucky with the good script and 5) something with a foreign feel to it like the English Patient or something.

Here's my Oscar nominee's if i was on the board

1) James Bond Casino Royale: The new bond Daniel Craig Delivers!

2)Star Ship Troopers: Best movie ever made..deserves perpetual nominations

3) The Departed: really was a good flick and Scorcese has been shot down 5 times for best director..one more and it's a record. Gee, do you think he pissed someone off behind the scenes in Hollywood at some point? Um....Yeah.

4)Aliens: Not the first one by Ridley Scott, but the second James Cameron one with more action..yes, i know this came out in 1986..it's my Oscar show though.

5)Pirates of The Carribean: It's like the highest grossing movie of all time. By LOGIC doesn't that make it the best?

Seriously...instead it's going to probably to go Babel with Brad freakin' Pitt in it cause it shows how depressing the world is...seriously. We are looking at Brad Freakin' Pitt in movie of the year. don't get me wrong, i like me some braddpitt...see true romance..see interview with a vampire..etc...but movie of the year? come on.

The other sign the apocolypse is upon is Eddie Murphy is up for best supporting Actor. Typing that alone is enuff to make my head explode.

MLK Day

2007-01-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

i'm bored. Really, really bored. I'm taking this day off next year. this sucks.

I got into "24" last nite on tv..i think i'm gonna enjoy it. I thought it was okay, until Jack Bauer Bit a terrorists Neck off. Then i got into it.

I also watched the season 2 premiere of Rome on HBO. I love that show..altho, the ending last nite made me sick to my stomach...and that's saying somethign for rome...that's what that show does..it keeps your attention like no other and is over before you know it. Love that series and the characters..really well done.

Ice two days in a row..i'm worried about my young plants and trees i have..i may try some rescue operations on them tonite so the ice doesn't break their branches...

that's it.. i just wanted to ramble on to kill some time..1 hour..15 min till i leave..well..less...i'm leavin' early today. so, so boring.

Passport = Cluster Fuc%

2007-01-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

Seriously.

I decided to go on a trip to Mexico with alicia in February (here's a link of where we're going..it looks pretty frakkin' sweet http://www.dreamsresorts.com/puerto_vallarta/index.html ).

However, new law states you have to have a passport now to go to canada or mexico, which i didn't have. So, i quickly became an expert on the process..

I had to go to the ups store and get my pic taken..this part was actually really smooth. Took my pic..made two copies for me..10 bucks..i was out the door.

Then, on to the clerk's office, which USED to be i thought in the courthouse. So, i went in and emptied my pockets into the metal detector tubs only to be told that since my cell phone takes pictures i have to check it in a locker for 50 cents out in the main lobby...so, i go and do that..come back..and after running thru the detectors..again...i say "so where can i get a passport?" Chuckling, the guard says.."oh, i wish you'd have asked me that before you checked your phone..it's in the other building." Jackass.

So, i go back and get my phone and walk down to the other building, which coincidentally enuff was DIRECTLY across from the ups store. i go in there with my birth certificate...ss card..drivers license..the whole ball of wax..or so i thought. Nope..i needed a personal check. Can't do credit card, bank cards..cash..gotta be a personal check..

Well, now i'm salty. Then, i realized, by the luckiest of twists, i had my checkbook with me!! I was paying a bill at work today and was too lazy to rip a check off at home and just brought the whole thing with me this morning!!........Of course it was all the way back in my car..which was back in the parking structure...one block BACK from where i just was when i was at the wrong courthouse. I uttered about 9 graphic profanities from the time the door to the clerk's office shut till the time i took the 5 steps to exit the lobby and get back to the street.

So, got to my car, go the check..walked all the way back...i had to pay the $140 expedited fee so i could get it back in 2 weeks...well, i "should" get it all back per the clerks' office...they of course were very emphatic about not guaranteeing anything. Man, they suck. They overnighted it with my birth certificate to the department of state. if i don't get it back, after paying the extra money within two weeks, i'll be freakin' hot.

Anywho, it's over. I got it. I got the trip all planned and paid for and i can't wait baby!!

Movie review: Alexander

2007-01-08T15:03:00.000-05:00

Well, after sitting on my dvr for 10 months i finally got around to this movie. It stars Colin Ferrel and Angelina Jolie (as his mom of all people) and details Alexander the Great's conquests over persia, and into asia, all while restling with demons from his past..AKA his dad the drunkard king played by, and this caught me off guard, a rather poorly aging Val Kilmer. Who, while his career has seen way better days (ie- top gun and the doors, oh, and he turned down the part to play morpheous in the matrix..nice move dummy).

Anywho..the movie itself was actually kinda decent. I enjoyed the battle scenes..the scenery...it was okay. I can't really explain why else other then the fact for an over 2 hour and 30 minute movie, it went by kinda quickly. Cause frankly, i should have hated it.

Angelina jolie and colin ferrel had HORRIBLE accents. Angelina Jolie's defy's description, plus she didn't age till 30 years into the movie. She was the same appearance at both the 10 year mark and the 20 year part and we see no skin shots of her. Stupid.

Colin Ferrel has NUMEROUS slips where you can hear his natural irish accent peaking thru. It's freakin' obvious and can't believe nobody else caught it.

Let's see..what esle bothered me..oh, turns out Alexander the Great could also be called Alexander the Gay. Yep, he had a wife, but only so he could have a son. He had a chamber boy and a best friend of whom he loved. They didn't show it, but there was kissing, grouping and a brief shot of colin's apple sack. Nothing that i signed on for during the movie.

Basically, i wouldn't rent it, but am glad i saw it. The action was good, the story, i hated and was too drawn out...and frankly, i don't need to see another guy's man bag for any reason in a film. So, if you are flipping around tv and it happens to come on, check it out for a bit, but if it's not a fighting scene...turn it.

Guess I'm doin' pullups forever

2007-01-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

Well, not forever. But all the back problems i've had? the pressure along my spine? I haven't felt like working out for over two months because of that annoying feeling in my back. I finally decide to say screw it,i'm gonna try and work out. And what happens?

After a 6 sets of pullups, yes,i was/am amazingly sore still from them, but the pain/discomfort in my back is gone. Finally. It was almost like pullups stretched out whatever was causing the problem.

Pullups suck. I hate them. But i'm doin'em' as long as i can. It's AWESOME to have that pain go away...well worth it.

holiday pics

2007-01-04T17:37:00.000-05:00

These are some good ones...

Sean Bean

2007-01-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

Sean Bean has long been one of my favorite actors. He's played in some pretty large movies over the years..Lord of the Rings, Goldeneye, National Treausure, etc...now however i'm seeing previews for his latest film and frankly, i'm a bit stunned.

He's starring as the homicidal maniac killer in "The hitcher" which looks like a cheap knock off of a movie from years ago where he goes around hitchiking and killing those who pick him up.

He's never had a role like this and it smells like career desparation. OR, he's just wanting to play a role he's never had before....to mix things up..i'm hoping it's the latter...i mean, sophia bush is co starring in this thing for crying out loud!

Say it like Gordon Gecko would...

2007-01-03T15:44:00.000-05:00

Green is good...i love that flick..."wall street". one of my favorites, whenever it comes on i always have to watch a little bit of it. If for nothing else then for charlie sheens' overacting, but Michael Douglas nailed Gordon Gecko's character.

I was ready for a change..green is my favorite color..always has been..it's earthy, it fits in with most clothing i own and matches my eyes. Plus, it was time for something different on this site. I needed more visual excitement to mix things up again.

New Years

2007-01-03T15:10:00.000-05:00

Was good. Went out with Alicia and her friends into ann arbor. Went to some bars i'd never been too. First time going out on the "town" so to speak in quite awhile..bad news was Alicia got food poisoning and was sick all nite and the next day. Felt awful for her. She's good now!

We also went to this place called "melange" which i think is french for overpriced food with bad service. They were busy of course and i can understand higher prices on nye..i expect that. But same time, they were hideiously slow and the appetizers were cold on top of it. overall, i don't see myself going back there.

I drank A LOT over the weekend, between nye, a party at rupert's parents house for him and his brother while they were in town and going out to celebrate my best year ever at work on friday....i need some de-tox. At least a few days anyway :)

i'm gonna throw some pics of the girls up here soon...i just need to get around to it...

Christmas

2006-12-26T14:11:00.000-05:00

Was good. Had the family over on the 23rd for our get together..which i cooked for. Went very well, minus me exploding the casserole dish holding my cheesy potatoes, but other then that, it was snag free.

Christmas eve went down to toldedo and to church and had dinner with alicia and her family then came back home. It was kinda weird going to bed all alone in the house..didn't feel like Christmas eve at all after getting home.

Woke up, went to shan's to watch the girls open their gifts, which they slept in for (figures). And then came back home, where i spent the day lounging around..again, kinda weird feeling being so quiet, never felt like Christmas till the girls came over at 4pm. They ran into the house and began screaming "santa was here! santa was here!" really cute. Shelly loved it and was much more into it at my house then she was at shan's it seemed like. i'll do pics later...

I also won my fantasy football league..second year in a row, 3rd out of the last 4 years...i'm a good fantasy baller....

And, finally, my tooth fell out last nite. One of my eye teeth..had a root canal on it a couple years ago, so i knew it would crack eventually, and last nite was the nite...basically, i look like bum, but i think it's pretty freakin' sweet lookin.....Bottom line, it doesn't hurt at all, but i'll need to see a dentist for what i'm sure will not be a cheap appointment...

alright....

2006-12-16T17:47:00.000-05:00

My last bunch of posts has been basically me talking about how uncomfortable the last month and a half has been for me. I'm done with it. I feel better, even my back and neck are finally feeling better. So, on to my normal mindless crap.

Christmas is coming. Well, duh, of course it is. I've got all my shopping done. First time before Christmas eve i've accomplished this ever i think. It's nice. I'm having the family party at my house this year and want to plan on that as well as i can and not have to worry about last minute gift giving. Crap, speaking of which, my grandma is coming over and I have to get her something. I'm not done shopping....son of a bitch. Oh well...she'll take something from the Pharmacy in town no problemo!

Work has been great. Financially, my best year ever, and boy did I need it. i'm almost a full year ahead of my plan to recover financialy from my divorce and be where i was at prior to it money wise. I'm VERY happy with that. IT feels great. I feel very fortunate for that.

Let's see what else...oh, Alicia and I have basically come out of the closet at work..so to speak. It was never something we really 'Hid' as much as it was something we didn't/don't want to draw unnecessary attention to with our relationship at work. Espeically with some of the jackoff's at that place, when i'm at work, i want to work..well for the most part i do :) and i know it's the same for her. Same time, we aren't tip toein' around anyone anymore. She was a lifesaver for me when i was sick and not feeling good the past month. I'm VERY grateful to her....

Just watched the movie Bloodrayne, which quite possibly may be the worst movie of all time. I knew going in it would be bad, what i didn't expect was the all star B movie list of actors it had...Michael Madsen(complete with mullet), Michelle Rodriguez, Kristina Lokennian (sp), The once proud Billy Zane and for some unearthly reason Sir Ben Kingsely. Man, that guy must have really needed a paycheck. Bottom line, don't watch it.

I haven't been working out since i've been recoupperating, and it's been driving me nuts. I am going for walks every nite, but it's not the same, i miss lifting and workin on the stairclimber. I'll get back to it..eventually, but i'm DEFINITELY not gonna rush it...

Big fantasy football weekend!! I"m in the playoffs in both leauges..and want to see a shootout monday nite with Carson Palmer, reggie wayne, joseph addai and tj houszmanzadeh doing all the scoring :)

I'm good...finally

2006-12-15T15:42:00.000-05:00

After 5 weeks of tests, scans..imaging..bloodwork. I'm done. And i'm healthy. I feel good, relieved and frankly like a new person. Very thankful. For a lot of things.

Last test done

2006-12-14T13:11:00.000-05:00

Just gotta wait till i get the call tomorrow with the good news. Which after recieving, and if it's 50 degreesish or so, i've decided i'm going to golf in the afternoon to celebrate. i deserve to unwind after this past month with my health scares. So, that means of course, it will probably rain. Either way, i'll feel WAY better this time tomorrow.

Keeps getting better

2006-12-11T20:57:00.000-05:00

Well,i was premature with my earlier post. My doctor called me about 20 minutes after i wrote it and said my blood cultures came back good, but my high levels are still a major concern. Basically, he's afraid there may be an infection hiding somewhere in my body. So, that means more labwork on Thursday and the worst part, not knowing again until Friday. The waiting game is the worst, and frankly, i'm tired of it. What i want: Lower or normal blood cell counts. What I don't want: What i had last week

Train wreck

2006-12-11T15:48:00.000-05:00

That's the best description of how i've felt. I've been absolutely the most miserable feeling since i've been in a body cast 18 years ago. My run of luck has been staggering on the bad end of the teeter totter healthwise.

First, i start with the afroementioned pain in the head/neck/spine. Well, cat scan shows a large cyst, which shouldn't be a problem....which..has been verified to me multiple times, which...if you've ever seen an mri of your brain with one of these in it is still pretty frightening. Frankly, it's absolutely AMAZING i don't have any problems with this thing, and in fact, all my doctors (yes, plural) seem almost matter of fact about it. I just gotta get it checked about once every 6-12 months..probably forever. Eh, i can live with that, and accepted it..no big deal.

Of course, that wasn't contributing to my problems, SO, i had an mri, which if you've never had one, you don't want one. It's like being in a coffin inside of a fire truck that is blaring all it's horns and sirens and you can't move for 60 minutes while this is going on, which, you can't anyways, cause you are IN A COFFIN.

So, that one came back...my head, brain, and neck are all perfectly fine. SO what the fuck next? i still have problems..altho...my neuro didn't understand me i guess clearly (which he defended quite adamantly at my last meeting with him) SO, we ordered ANOTHER MRI on my spinal cord. Sweet.

SAme time, all this was going on, i noticed the pain was getting really amped up last week..like REALLY amped up. THen, it hit me...some nasty bug. I got a fever of 103 and was taken to the ER for the second time in two weeks. Took xrays of my chest to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. Luckily, they only found NODES GROWING ON MY LUNGS. Seriously, come on. i really didn't need to hear that, altho, that was quickly followed up with 'well, their benign, they aren't cancerous and appear to just be a couple blood vessels..." A-holes. next time, don't eve freakin' tell me. Seriously. I'm at the breaking point of bad health news. At the same time, all i have is a fever, which scares all the doctors, i don't have any other flu symptoms ,but the fever, so, i have lots of tests done. blood drawn. urine given. and finally, the sweet, sweet, shot of pain killing drugs. That was the best i've felt since i was 14...seriously. Nothing hurt. anyplace. for like 5 hours. i miss that shot....

anywho, i was basically bedridden wed nite thru fri afternoon..went to work for 4 hours..back to the doctors and to give blood, then slept for about 40 of the next 48 hours.

Just got back my final mri results on my back and, it's perfectly fine. So, i should be okay...however, my back still hurts. it is WAY better. Today is actually the first day i've been at work where i will leave and not think "thank God i can get out of here to rest my back" which is VERY VERY VERY GOOD. So, i think i'm on up the swing.

Bottom line, i need some good freakin' karma coming my way.....maybe from Santa.

Direct TV CAVED

2006-12-01T15:23:00.000-05:00

So, they came out and finally fixed my satellite. Apparently the original tech didn't fix it firmly on the roof.

So, i called last nite after he left to get my "credit" back from the 5 weeks of sunday ticket i missed due to their goof, only this time, they said, they can't do that. So, naturally, i went off on the rep, after being transferred twice and disconnected once already, i had no qualms about giving someone a minor earful. And, what do you know, the more i complained, the more i got for free. It started as $5 off my bill the next 6 months, then it went to $10 off my hbo the next 6 months, THEN it went to $10 off hbo the next 6 months, PLUS free Starz movie channels for 3 months. i settled there. cost even'd out for what i wanted and now I can watch the Chronicles of Narnia for free anytime I want until march.

AND, i'll never leave the sunday ticket. That was all big talk in my earlier post. i can't . i Love football.

Have to Wait

2006-11-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

Well, people are born with arachnoid cysts, they live their whole lives with arachonid cysts never showing any symptoms whatsoever of having them, and when they die, they die with them never knowing they even had one.

-Dr. Segal

Sounds good eh? Well, basically, my cyst he said where it's at, size, etc, has never been shown to him to cause anyone any problems ever. So, i feel good about that. I do have to go back and get an MRI sunday and follow up meeting next friday with him so he can rule out any other possible things that may be wrong with me that the catscan may have missed..spinal things, really small tumor, etc., etc..Basically, I realy should be fine. Same time, i am still really looking forward to next friday coming and going and me being in a good mood after. Even though the odds of them finding anything, especially after a catscan that shows what's been causing my back/neck discomfort is VERY slim ( i passed every neuro test) i won't feel 100% clear till i hear for certain i will be.

Want to know what was mind boggling? i've had a mental image of this thing for some time now, but had no idea how big it was, so, of course, i asked. It's 3 x 4 cm in scope. Doesn't sound like much does it? But you know about what that size is? If you make an "ok" sign with your thumb and forefinger...the hole you make with you finger and thumb is the size of the cyst. Believe me, i've google imaged LOTS of these..i'm fortunate. Basically, everyone has a gap in the left temporal lobe (where, if you're fortunate) they usually form. Most cases, it fills up with with fluid and that's that. My case, and about 8% of the population's case a cyst forms there around the fluid. That's the only difference. pretty wild.

Personally, i'm almost positive it's muscular, or nerve related..it moves around too much..which, actually could mean it's a huge tapeworm or an embroyo from Alien....either way. i feel too 'perfectly fine' too often to really think it's serious.

2 out of 10

2006-11-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

That's how my family doctor rated my level of concern about my cyst. Which, obviously, made me feel really well. I'm meeting the neurologist tomorrow, which also was the guy who happened to train my family doctor. Also cool. But basically, from the sounds of it, i should be fine. The neuro will give me concrete facts like when i should get another mri, how often, if at all and for how long, but he said he would be VERY surprised if anything ever came of it. He likened it to doing a full mri scan on anyone. Odds are, you will find SOMETHING weird about every single person that isn't anatomically perfect.

That relieved a TON of stress off me. I'll feel really good come wednesday's ending of my appointment and upon hopefully hearing similar good news. They'll have my actual cat scans there so it should be very definitive.

Movies

2006-11-27T11:28:00.000-05:00

I've watched several movies lately...and been meaning to write about em'..I've been cleaning out my dvr and finally got thru some of the ones i've been meaning to see.

Cinderella man: Great flick. Thouroughly enjoyed it...much more then i thought i would. Great backstory and emotional finish. A must see..which is saying something cause i normally don't go for Ron Howard movies.

Assault on Precinct 13: Predictable. Don't waste your time. See Training Day if you want to see a good movie about cops. A couple unexpected deaths in the flick which i think only were made for shock value, which was stupid.

Anaconda Hunt for the Blood orchid: Big Snakes, cheesy plot, poor acting, low budget sequel to surprisingly successful original...so yes, i enjoyed it.

Alien Vs Predator: See above for Anaconda

The Departed: Great movie. Plot was well done...set in Boston, but didn't have the really bad accents you sometimes get when actors try to diversify themselves (ever see Nicholas Cage in conair? if so, you know what i mean). Jack Nicholson is the best in this kind of role and really great story. I knew there would be a surprise ending and still didn't see it coming.

Casino Royale: The new 007 james bond movie....really different direction for this series. MUCH darker and more real feeling then previous james bonds. Very gritty in how they handled his development as a character. REally enjoyed it. Too long though, they could have cut about 30 minutes out and it would have been a perfect flick. But def a must see.

Cat Scan

2006-11-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

My neck and upper back were bothering me a lot the past week. A LOT. I was getting pins and needles like feelings in a lot of different places and said enuff was enuff. After going to my family doctor and him saying it was muscular and getting some pain relievers, it wasn't any better. So, i decided to go to the ER at St. Joe's yesterday morning.

After talking about my symptons, they said i should have a cat scan. Reminded me of something out of a star trek movie. Totally white room, a big rotating circle in the middle you lie in and while it rotates it scans your brain.

So, 4 hours later, and roughly almost 7 total hours at the ER. The doctor (resident dr. that is) came in to finally give the results of the scan.

Now, when you are expecting results about your brain, you want the doctor to have a big grin on his face and give you a high five upon entrance. This doctor didn't..It was easy to tell right off the bat he found something. So, after a deep breath (his) he told me that the good news was, nothing was found causing the problems i've been experiencig and it is probabaly just a nerve ending issue called parathesis (sp) which is just a funny name for unexplained tingling due to inflamed nerves.

Then, he said "now, there is something else we found..unrelated..to your conditions you are having..we found something on accident". Which as it turns out, was something called an Arachnoid cyst. You can read more about it at this link....it's the best one i found which seems to accurately describe the condition.

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/arachnoid-cysts

Basically, I need to get an MRI again in a couple months, and then probably once every year to make sure it isn't growing. Right now it isn't putting any pressure on my brain (it's located between my left temple and ear and affects the area involving memory and personality) and i've probably had it since birth. It's more common in males then in females..and most often, it goes undetected for a person's life and causes no problems. However, it's important to check it at least once a year to be safe.

Basically, I should be fine from talking to the doctor and knowing it's there treatments are available and highlyl successful.

that doctor could use some better bed side manners though...i thought for sure he was going to tell me i was on my death bed from his reactin when he walked into the room.

conversely, they also gave me a better prescription for my current pains, and i am feeling a little more comfortable..i still can't wait till it's all gone and i feel 100%. At nite, i just don't want to do ANYTHING but lay down..i'm useless..BUT again, it is definitely better.

Bottom line, I 've always felt everything happens for a reason. If i hadn't gone in to take care of the issues i have right now, i never would have found out about the cyst. It's a good thing i'm having these pains in other words..while they really suck, they definitely happened for a good reason.

Flexerill (sp)

2006-11-15T16:21:00.000-05:00

Went to the doctor...gave me a prescription of this stuff, which i haven't had in awhile. I do remember feeling reallhy good when i take it tho...

Advantage: Josh

Neck

2006-11-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

Man, my neck has been a mess the past week. Wasn't quite sure where/when i hurt it, but i put it together finally the other day. I was doing too much lifting weights with shrugs. I strained it...for sure. I have a heating pad on it non stop when i'm home and about 30 minutes after i wake up till when i go to bed, it burns with that exhausted feeling like a muscle is completely fatigued.

i'm going to the doctor tomorrow..it gives me little shooting pains in my back and arms occasionaly and even causes head aches..and don't want to mess with it. It's hard to keep my head up, so, even tho i know there isn't anything they can do besdies prescribe ibuprofen and rest, i'll feel better knowing i'm doing something about it.

it blows. don't strain your neck. not fun.

Dr. Denzin

2006-11-09T10:56:00.000-05:00

Well, i needed a new lift for the inside of my shoe...my old one had worn away and was leaving me with FEROCIOUS blisters on my heel. I mean blisters the size of a silver dollar. not cool. So, i called the orthopedic office at St. Joe i use to get those things made. Only, now, they need a prescription in order to do it for me, which, i haven't had since I last saw my surgeon which was probably 17 years ago.

So, i had to make an appointment with my old doctor, Dr. Denzin. I can't say i've thought a whole lot about him the last 17 years..but for about 3 years in my life he was one of the most influential people in it. So, needless to say, i was really curious to see him again.

I'm the only person I know with a hip fusion. I just recently googled it and actually found others with the exact same thing i had, which was really cool. I always thought i was the only one. It was cool reading about other people and the "little" things they have to do exactly like i do on a daily basis which most people take for granted and do with no problem.

So, i was curious to see his thoughts on me i guess is the bottom line. Well, that lasted all of about 2 minutes. I could tell he was busy, came in, gave me a prescription and had just about zero real discussion. He did ask if i feel any pain in my hip, which i said i don't really....not anymore, just used to the discomfort at this point for having the decreased mobility for so long, that i don't notice it anymore. It was funny how i noticed things about him which i remembered from when i was 15 and first meeting him again. His hair was jet white now, but he still sat like he just got off a horse..his huge hands when we shook hands...the grimace on his face when he's thinking of something..funny how those things stuck out again to me...a lot of memories came back seeing him again.

Then he said something interesting in that

"well, you are doing much better then I would have anticipated if I hadn't talked with you." to which of course i said..

"um, what do you mean?"

He went on to say that he would have expected me to have back pain, or weakness in my knee from the procedure by now...that most people experience that to a larger degree. I do experience back pain...but ONLY when i've been extremely active playing basketball or working out..then it goes away within a matter of minutes. He seemed genuinely surprised that i have about no pain whatsoever. I think being active, and staying active has played a HUGE part in that.

Basically, i felt grateful i'm doing as well as i have been with it. He did comment that eventually i will need to do something again probably..and i knew that going into the original surgery that others, one day will follow. But man, i'm great. All things considered. i workout..weights and cardio..play basketball..tennis..golf...i'm limited of course in all of these things...but i have become so used to the limitations that the inconvenience barely bothers me anymore.

He did a good job..that's for sure. Got my new lift....life is good.

Direct TV

2006-11-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

So, i've talked about it before here, but i have the Sunday ticket on direct tv which gives me access to ALL the games in the NFL. Well, last sunday, all the games were pixelated and blurry, they couldn't come in. That sometimes happens when there's bad weather, but last sunday was beautiful. Today, same thing. I cant watch the games. So, i called..and after waiting on hold for 30 minutes, and running thru some troubele shooting, they realized my dish wasn't getting a good signal. WHy that only affects my premium nfl channels, i have no idea.

Bottom line, i had to schedule a service appt. They said it would cost me $70 to come out and reallign the dish..AND they couldn't get here until NOVEMBER 30TH!!! Seriously!! I told em' "let me get this straight...i bought the sunday ticket package for $250, it's a premuim and really, the only reason i have directv. I get all my NORMAL channels for free. Now, you are telling me to continue to get the PREMIUM channels i paid for i have to pay MORE to get my dish fixed???!! AND i have to wait until NOVEMBER 30th??!!!"

They waived the fee and are going to credit me back for the time i haven't been able to watch the sunday ticket.

HOWEVER, that's ridiculous. I have a 2 year contract with directv. I'm dumping it and going to comcast. I really love the sunday ticket, but that's the only reason i have satellite. The fact is, if they were a monopoly, i could understand the poor service better. But there are NUMEROUS offers and vendors that offer all the same things and usually, cheaper than directv. Waiting a month to get this fixed is just crazy.

Two years, and i'm off..and back to a place i never thought i'd go....Cable.

Good bye sweet, sweet nfl tickets....hello combined bargains on comcast ON DEMAND and high speed internet.

Jackasses.

Halloween

2006-11-04T12:02:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit late with these pics...but here's some pics from Halloween i wanted to post. WE had it at shan's..which was alright. Not like what it used to be with 20 people..but instead about 7. I still filled up my water bottle with 3 beers and went out trick or treating with elaine and the girls. Shelly tripped in front of her friends about 20 minutes in..got embarressed and i had to take her home..but CARLY loved it! Surprising enuff...she even was passing out candy at the end of the nite...they were cute kids..

Visitor

2006-10-31T08:24:00.000-05:00

So, i'm asleep, and as normal per a tuesday evening i have carly and shelly in bed with me. All of a sudden i hear "daddy...daddy..." and i look up and Shelly is looking at me...i look at the clock which says '4am'..shelly is standing up on the side of my bed...with a scared look on her face. I go "shelly, what's wrong honey..it's late." she says " i heard something daddy, then a man poked his head around the corner into the bedroom and i saw him."

I immediately sat straight up...my heart went to like 300 Beats per minute. I said in a whisper.."Are you sure you saw a man honey??" and shelly said "yes..i really, really did..i'm not lying daddy!!" Which, when she is that passionate about something usually means she at least believes in what she did or saw. So, i'll be honest, i was nervous.

I woke up carly...and made her and shelly hide behind my bed between the frame and aganist the wall. They were both really scared..but shelly was great. She held carly and patted her hair to keep her calm. i was kicking myself, cause just before i fell asleep i was thinking how i should bring my cell phone upstairs and keep it handy in case i need it for an emergency and man, i wish i had it right up there last nite...figures.

So, i realize i'm just wearing my boxers and think i need a weapon..just in case..shelly didn't say anything about what the guy looked like or how big he was and i didn't think to ask, but i wanted something in case i needed it. My mind was racing, but the options for weapons in my room sucked. So, i had to settl for taking the glass shade off my bed lamp and grabbed the stand so i could swing it as a bat if i needed it.

I went to the door on an angle so i could peek out in the hallway but saw nothing. ALL The doors upstairs were open, which made me nervous cause i couldn't see into em' without going right up to them. I started to the left and peeked VERY fast into the laundry room...clear. I moved to shelly's room..clear. Then to the closet..clear. Then, i could have sworn i felt someone behind me and whirled around..but it was just my imagination...then I heard the alarm on my deck door go off...someone was either entering or leaving the house.

The alarm is this magnetic sensor that when the 'seal' is broken or in other words, space is between the two bases, an alarm goes off. Someone tripped it. I heard some fumbling with piece of hard plastic i keep between the open slot at the bottom of the door , which is there strangely enuff to keep people from getting in the house, but in this case was keeping someone from GETTING out of the house. I ran downstairs..not thinking someone could still be upstairs..my nervousness was gone and i was just flat out going on rage. Rage on the fact someone would come into MY house where MY girls were sleeping and endanger them.

I did a dukes of hazard leap over the bottom wall of my stairwell..landed on the chair in the kitchen..which i completely destroyed..caught my left hip on the corner of the table which hurt like a son of a bitch..the door alarm was still blaring in my ears...I jumped up and looked at the slilding door. It was open...the screen door was demolished, from the inside out. I turned around and some splattering of blood on the floor...it was mine though..cut my leg pretty good when it went thru the chair. I then saw some brown paper on the kitchen table...in the tray i keep my placemats in. Something was inside of it, it was the kind of paper grocery stores use to wrap deli meat in..it was dirty..and lumpy. Somethign was inside of it.. I opened it up, there was a dead bird...not like a robin, or sparrow, but a parakeet. I called the cops.

Before they came over..i noticed there was writing on the inside of the wrapper that held the bird...it said..

"None of this really happened, i made it all up. Have a happy halloween!!"

I wasn't ready for this....

2006-10-22T14:42:00.000-04:00

So, as is most Sunday mornings, Elaine comes over to get shelly to go to church. She picks her up and leaves. So, it's just me and Carly, and we are getting ready to go to Big Boy for breakfast, which we normally do (she loves the buffet and eats for free on it).

However, before we set sail, i feel what i normally feel around 10:30am and head upstairs to sit on the pot. I sit down, open up my 'Simpsons forever' book, which is a really cool assembly of all the info from All the shows ever created and settle down for a warm winters slumber. Well, really, take a ferocious poop is what i really began to do.

Anywho, I'm about 1 paragraph in, or in bowel movement terms about half way through when all of a sudden my car alarm goes screaming off. I chucked my book straight up in the air as it startled me and began yellling "Carly!! Carly!! Carly!!" as i knew she was behind it.

I force out the rest of my refuse with the tenacity of a kid throwing playdoh in one of those toys with the lever on it that when you push down on it, the playdoh squeezes through in different shapes. Best analogy i could come up with..wipe up as best i could and go flying down stairs with my pants around my knees and my hand clinging to the back holdin' em' up. The alarm had been going off for over a minute at this point...i fly down there..grab my keys and turn it off. Carly is sitting in the big chair in the living room..head down..ready to cry. She was scared, but after we talked about how daddy's keys aren't a toy, she was better.

Obviously, i really enjoy my reading time in the john, so this wasn't the most relaxing time i'd ever had. However, in the aftermath, we did make it to big boy, and after a mere 4 combined trips through the restaurant and back and forth from the breakfast bar for me and Carly, i also realized i hadn't zipped up. I couldn't believe I didn't get one courtesy "xyz" or "barn door is open" comment..it was WIDE open...like one of those national geographic channel shows with the fisherman trying to pet the noses of sharks as they feed and you see the shark open up and can see all it's teeth...that's what my zipper looked like.

Moral of the story: Be ready for anything when you poop.

Moral moral of the story: Why does it seem like all the stories about my kids on this blog involve poop?

Trips R Good

2006-10-20T20:18:00.000-04:00

I had a great time in Seattle. Rupert and Monica were great hosts, especially considering they had a 2 year old living with them out there...we did a TON.

Went to the pikes market again...pretty much like i remember it..lots of new stuff, but a lot of the same too...if you ever go, the weekends are packed, but the most lively. If you want to see and enjoy the spectacle..go during the week..WAY less busier...

Went to about 15 different bars..that was fun. Seattle allows you to walk about everywhere. So, we barhopped a lot. Great fun. The downtown area is really cool in that it's jammed full of commerce everywhere. Total opposite of Detroit. Really makes you realize how lousy a city detroit really is.

We walked RIGHT by Dave Matthews. The singer. Pretty cool...still can't believe he lives across the street from Rupert. All I said was "good morning" i really am still kicking myself for it...i could have really knocked something out of the park with him there on the comedy scale..but i choked. *sigh*.

Monica's family bought a house on one of the many nearby islands. It made me realize her parents are LOADED. HUGE home on top of a huge hill surrounded by enormous pines with a view of the Fuget Sound on one side and a lake on the other...in other words.. a million dollar home. Ridiculous.

Sunday nite got REALLY bombed...which was not good considering i was up at 7 to get ready to go to the airport to come home on MOnday....stupid, stupid, stupid...but well worth it.

Both flights were great...little turbulence...i just get too antsy on planes...i get bored...can't read, can't sleep..just sux.

In any event, i'll definitely go back again..probably not in the near future as i want to visit other places...but it's for sure a place i could see myself living at when the girls grow up and move out and get on with their lives...we'll see.

Back From Seattle

2006-10-19T11:27:00.000-04:00

Had a great time..i love that place. I'll talk about it later..i have lots of stuff to get out on that but not enuff time to formulate all my thoughts.

I do have time to talk about how i went to Buschs' last nite and dropped 160 bones on a shatload of groceries. i like that place...it's a tad more money then country markup across the street..but the produce and meat selection is WAY better. Plus, the kicker is..they ALWAYS give you a coupon when you walk out that basically makes you come back to the store. I've gotten $5 off...a free pound of gourmet coffee...a 24 pack of bottled water..and on my next trip a free rotissiere chicken!!

Oh, and i've now been there 4 times and have NEVER NOT bumped into at LEAST 3 people I know each time. last time was Chuck..my friend Andrew's brother in law who sings in a barbershop quartet...couldn't remember my name..but invited me to play poker..so i gave him my number...i'll never play though. Chuck is a tad different...if you know him..you know what i mean. Andy..who married a girl i went to highschool with and golfs in the Bishop outing every year and who sold me life insurance 4 years ago...another BIG talker....and Ben and Jen boyce friends of mine..went to the tigers game with ben against the yankees a couple weeks back..heck, i even saw one of my waitresses from the lighthouse cafe' there...it's like a freakin' singles bar in that store. Every trip is like that..man, i need to get out of dexter..but i'm not sure anyone else is....

Oh, and i got home, had left over olive garden from the nite before and promptly spent the next 60 minutes in the bathroom. Let's just say i wasn't exactly brushing my teeth while i was in there....so word to the wise... Olive garden is good for one day only

DRAMA on Dancing with the Stars!!

2006-10-17T22:34:00.000-04:00

Check out this link...she probably would have been voted off this week or next. However, she came on tonight and did an emotional invterview with the guy that hosts the show..and america's home videos'..which frankly was just awkward and weird. Check the link.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2563441

I had McDonalds

2006-10-08T20:32:00.000-04:00

i decided to treat myself today..so i went out and had mcdonalds. first time in a LOOOONG Time. and ya know what..it wasn't really good. I'm so NOT used to it, that it was a letdown...of course i felt immediately guilty afterward, so i made myself go outside and cleanup ALL the wood scraps under my deck. If you saw the compilation of wood down there you'd really know how big of a guilt trip i was on. It was no small task. about 6 full whell barrell's full into the back of the pacifica later (is there anything that car can't do?) and 3 illegal dumps of said scrap in an unspecified spot..i was done.

The deck is done. Totally, and completely. I'm calling tomorrow to get the inspector out..and it's over. Hallefreakinluliah.

Rainbow Star

2006-10-08T11:21:00.000-04:00

Rainbow Star is the alter ego of Carly when she's a "dog". Which is her new thing. She runs around on all 4's barking like a poodle and licking things. It's cute.

Also, today we are potty training. BIG day..no diapers or pullups today..so far so good...i'm sure i'll be breaking out the clean up supplies at some point..but it will be VERY sweet when she gets out of her diapers....it's well worth it.

Triggers

2006-10-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

The Tigers are in the playoffs. First time since 1987. They last won the world series in 1984. Haven't really even been close since then. I used to LOVE baseball..absolutely loved it. I would bring up a 10 inch black and white rabbit eared tv to catch the tigers SPRING TRAINING GAMES for crying out loud..i couldnt' get enuff of em'. I can remember all 4 games i went to as a child at the old tiger stadium. One with my grandparents that we suffered through a rain delay before we could see the end of it...one with my uncle and his ex-detroit cop buddy (who showed me all the bullet wounds on him..he had 11..it was AWESOME..guy was just sheer muscle)...also note of that game Jose Canseco was playing for the other team and he put a homerun that game over our heads in the upper deck in straight away centerfield..monster shot..can't believe nobody suspected steroids back then....one with my neighbor Bill..and one with my mom and dad and brother.

The last one was probably the most memorable as i made everyone get there early so I could try to go down to the field and get autographs from the players...i was probably about 10. I got snubbed, by all of em'. i was crushed. But when i got back to my seat my mom had taken a notebook and signed her name and some phony tigers names down for me.. so i would have some autographs. At the time i was like "mom...this is you..." and just shrugged it away. Never thought about it again for years and years....

Short time after that game my mom got sick with cancer...she never was herself afterward and died 6 years ago on this October 10th. That phony autograph book is one of the few things I really remember about her and what kind of person she was. Don't get me wrong, i have lots of memories of her from behind the eyes of a little boy...but that one is one where I can look back on it and realize how good of a parent she was and how good of a grandparent she would have been for my daughter's now.

Hadn't thought about that till just recently again...with the Tigers making the playoffs my thoughts went back to my life when they last were a really good team. Being a little boy, watching the world series in our newly finished basement when they clinched it against the padres...the old tiger stadium and how it smelled when i would walk inside..how mesmerized i was by the first time i walked down the tunnel and thought how beautiful the field looked ...and the memories of my mom.

So, no matter what happens to the tigers in the playoffs, and frankly, i think they will lose to the Yankees, i'm glad for the season they had, without it, some cherished thoughts would have faded more into the distance. Thank you Tigers.

The Sunday Ticket

2006-10-01T20:53:00.000-04:00

Rules. It's the best thing ever. Having control over EVERY nfl game on sundays is really more fun then any one person should have. Heck, i barely watched tv today..betwween finishing up on the deck and cutting the lawn and playin with the girls..i didn't do much except watch the lions handle their limited success the way they always do...by blowing a game.

Still, the sunday ticket has the following features which make it like crack to a football junky like myself...

1) player stats: you can select 10 players each week. whenever they do ANYTHING..a highlight bar pops up on whatever game you are watching telling you what happened with that player. So, i could be watching the lions and rams play when a bar pops up on the bottom of the screen telling me carson palmer completed a 10 yard pass to chad johnson. It's sick. Incredible for fantasy football....which, oddly enuff....i haven't been as into this year as in the past..but tha'ts another blog.

2) the Redzone channel. Last year it was a premium..this year..it may be...not sure...buti have it and absolutely can't believe how great it is. Basically, there's a studio host who all he does is CONSTANTLY zip you from one game to the next putting you to the game that has the best chance of producing a score....if a score happens while you're on the olther game, they show you the highlilght IMMEDIATELY. it's incredible..it's all i watch. I just sit on channel 703 and become comatose..

Oh, and who is the studio host you ask me? Well, if you're familiar with the short lived fantasy football show on FSN last year, thenyou'll know him when you see him. But it's the one...the only..Andrew Sicilliano!!! (pronounced in an Italian stereotypical impression). This guy, is the best studio host on tv for one reason only....he has the goofiest face with the deepest voice of all time. His ears are obnoxiously delicious. They are like, and i'm not kidding 7 inches from top to bottom. He's worth the price of the subscription..trust me...

i'm not sure why is highschool senior pic was on the web...but here it is..it's from the side...and for good reason.. a head on shot looks like a pair of waffles are tacked to each side of his head.

Just been lazy

2006-09-26T09:04:00.000-04:00

haven't felt much like writing here lately...girls were sick over the weekend..which means emergency room on sunday. Sucks cause the doctor office isn't open on weekends which means no matter what....you have to go to the er. They are great today...just felt bad for the litle beaners cause they def weren't feeling well.

Getting into the fall lineup of my favorite shows quite nicely...Nip/Tuck...Dancing with the stars and Prison Break. I'm just waiting for LOST and the OC..then my schedule will be complete.

STILL haven't finished the railing on my deck..*sigh*..everytime i plan on it, it rains, the girls get sick..ted's kids get sick..it's always something that pops up. I'm SOOOO close to getting it done..freakin' sucks. I did get some light fixtures replaced, a garage door opener (a must have in winter in michigan) and a kickass ceiling fan (with a hook up from AL at Gross electric). So, i haven't been completely comatose around the house. I even went shopping for towels and a new bathroom ensemble..however, Macy's sucks. They don't have any towels that go with any combo of shower curtain/bathmats. When you find some that come close to matching, they only carry 3 of the 4 items you need in the store and must order the 4th through a catalog. I don't work that way. If it ain't there, i ain't buyin' it. Fn' macy's...i'm still angry about that....

alright..i'm at work..but wanted to kill some time...my days are becoming less and less busy and i'm finding i have more time, which is terrific..golf is over (did an outing two weekends ago where my last two shots were a 205 yard 4 iron 4 feet from the cup and then the follow up birdie..great way to end my golf season) and since it's getting darker earlier..i'm not as busy outside doing yardwork...of course, as i write this, the last of my sod should be laid on my property...so i can have fun bitchin' about that next week.....fn' builders.

anywho, the more i ramble..the more likely i am to keep finding things to talk about...Shelly is doing GREAT in kindergarten incidentally..i'm more proud of her every day..alright..i'm done.

It's back..sweet, sweet ballroom dancing

2006-09-13T14:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, as i'm sure everyone else with a tv watched this too last nite, but in case you didn't, here's my thoughts on season 3 of dancing with the stars...and yes, i did have it dvr'd in case an emergency came up and i wasn't able to see it...

The dancers are still hot. The women ones. They brought back the same ones as last year and gave some a few favors. Namely, the chick that had master p last year (who didn't give a crap the whole competition and was out in round 1) got harry hamlin (more on him in a minute) who's wife was in it last year (lisa rinna, who i still feel was on anti-depression medicine during the whole show) and was really excited to do it himself. Total reversal. Cheryl burke, who won it last year with drew lachey got emmit smith (more on him too) and looks likeshe's got a shot at winning it again. However, the root of this show is the smoking hot dancers and the way they move thier butts and legs and boobs. It's great when you pair that with some random B-list celebreties looking for any time in the sun after their glory days have long gone in most cases. So..here we go...random thoughts from through out the nite.

1) cheryl burke chunked up in the offseason..but her acne cleared up. She's still hot, but definitely heavier and she wore so much foundation as it was last year that the acne only came out during the rehearsal's...so, that was disappointing.

2) Every other dancer got hotter and more europey. What's europey you ask? The fact they all have that accent that you normally only hear in a james bond movie when hes trying to defend a stolen apache helicopter off an aircraft carrier in the mediterranean. You know the accent. It's awesome.

3)the hosts and judges are almost exactly the same. Solid, sometimes so cheesy it's hard to watch, basically meat puppets.

4) the contestants...

Emmit Smith-really surprised me here on this one. last year jerry rice made the finals basically on popularity alone. The first dance emmitt did with cheryl burke was better then anything jerry rice did all last year. Between that, the judges loving him and the fact half their vote is based on fan call in's....he's my early favorite to win along with....

mario lopez-he broke out the old school moves from kids incorporated and was definitely the best overall dancer in the competition...not sure he can win the fans over like emmit can tho..plus, i really think he may be gay. yes, that's right. I think AC Slater is gay. Watch him tonite and i dare you to argue with me....

Tucker Carlson-The news show host. Awful. He's gone tonight.

Jerry Springer- he too was awful...but he's jerry springer. Not bad for as old as he was really...i was kinda impressed in fact. he'll hang around for the simple fact the entire audience chants "jerry ,jerry, jerry..." when he dances...

Sarah evans-country singer....eh, nothing real spectacular here..really bland...she wont hang around long either.

Vivica a. Fox- Did anyone else know she's over 40? Yeah, me either. THat was kinda disappointing really. She went from really hot to Pam Grier overnite. I can't get over that. Anywho, she was alright...nothin special either

Monique somebody- some actress from a highschool musical movie..she may do alright.

Shanna Barker-former miss usa and married to blink 182 singer Travis Barker...who along with her starred in meet the barkers' on mtv. Well, she's getting divorced from him and her whole appearance centered around that. She too was just 'alright'. Altho, i'm guessin gwhy she's getting divrced. She didn't look like no miss usa anymore...but she had a nice smile.

Joey Lawrence- Whoaaaa..Blossom! Well, where do i start here. 1) he shaved his head 2) apparently he's married his highschool sweetheart 3) He wore a sleeveless shirt the whole time 4) he OILED up before his routine

nuff said

Willa Ford-She's my early favorite to pull a kristy swanson and bang her partner. She and her guy were all over each other. It's obvious. She wasn't nearly as hot as i remembered her being in that "bad" video she had when she was dating that kid from one of the boy bands. But still...she's good lookin'. Probably one of the best women...she's high on the list to win it from the woman's side.

I'm sure i'm forgetting someone...but that's what stuck out. The show still captivates me..obviously. Tonite someone goes down (tucker carlson i'm sure of it). I'll have updates i'm sure through out the season...can't wait.

What is a "major" holiday?

2006-09-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

So, today is my birthday. I decided to take the girls to TGIF's which is one my favorite places. Never had a bad meal at that place. I had the cheesy bacon cheeseburger which features FRIED PROVOLONE on top of all the other goodness it offers. Here's my list of things that are better then Fried Provolone, or any other cheese for that matter:

1. Sex

That's it.

So, anywho, we got our free dessert there and went to PUTTERZ for some mini-golf with the girls. They've never been and it sounded like a good thing to do on a birthday with two little kids. So, we get there, with a free one round coupon in tow. On the coupon I noted it said "excluding major holidays". Of which, I thought "labor day is a holiday..but is it like Christmas? No. Is it like Easter? No. Is it like Fourth of July? No. I'd put it behind Memorial Day too...The reason I thought it would be good though is that the coupon actually mentions two holiday's it's not good for. Valentine's Day and Mother's Day of all things. So, I figure Labor day, it would be good.

Nope.

Apparently it's been an issue as they had an exact copy of the coupon BLOWN UP and photo copied with the words "MAJOR HOLIDAYS EXCLUDED" Circled in red. So i asked the natural question.."Labor Day is a major Holiday?" To which the owner, which i've seen before said "yes, i guess it is." Which frankly made me angry as the coupon obviously has done them some good business or else they wouldn't have made it a point to showcase it the way they had on the main counter. So, i followed up with the next most natural question "What's a Minor Holiday? Like Sweetet Day?" He just shrugged and said "I don't know." It's only $5, not exactly a death blow to my financial future. It was the principal. Again, they had the coupon front and center so it's been a common issue obviously and to make it a point NOT to honor it just kinda sucks i think. Shame on you Putterz.

Shelly got a hole in one though. MAde her day. It was pretty cute. So, i'm sure we'll go back. I'll just make sure we go on Flag Day or Boxing Day or something that is sure to be considered a "minor holiday".

Oh, Shan, the girls and Elaine and all chipped in and got me a vacuum for my birthday..and quite frankly..i'm excited. Yes, i hire someone to come clean my house cause i'm HORRIBLE at it, but i still need to vaccum and this thing freakin' rocks. I've already got a name for the ole' gal. I call her "Cinnamon" as it's red and sounds like a strippers name cause if my vacuum were a hooker it could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. It's that good. I thought my floors were pretty clean, but after "Cinnamon" got through with em' her dual twister oxygenation method picked up about 1 cubic pound of dirt and fuzz. PHENOMENAL.

It's easy to use...no bags...just detach the plastic cannister, dump out the dirt and re-attach it. It's awesome.

Yes, that was two paragraphs on a vacuum. And yes, it's sad I get excited for a vacuum...but hey, I needed it.

I also got two tickets for a tigers game (looking forward to that!) and $100 from my dad for a garage door opener which i need to make my next project. Oh, and Shelly got me a mum. It's purple. She was very proud of it.

That's it. I'm takin' a birthday nap and then wakin' up, making dinner, and having 4 or 5 birthday beers!

150th post

2006-09-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

That's a lot of posts..I guess I like blogging.

Todd, loved the 'guest blog'. It met my expectations and exceeded them. Good stuff. I still chuckle when i think of that story...

Saw a GREAT movie last nite. What made it great to me i think is simply the fact i wanted to see it, thought i'd enjoy it, but didn't think it would be great. And it was. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's chest was WAYYYY better then the first. I enjoyed the first, but the second was just a really good flick from top to bottom. I won't go into it if anyone hasn't seen it....but trust me, it ain't starship troopers or army of darkness, but it's a keeper. I called the ending, but i'm sure others did too...plus keira knightley is hot. I've always had a soft spot for her and natalie portman...they look so much alike...

Tonite is my first nite with nothing to do. No girls, no work, no going out, just some good ole' fashioned Josh Time. I'm gonna rip thru some dvr shows i've been meaning too and RELAX!!!

Tomorrow is my birthday so i'm treating tonite as a gift to myself and just chill. Tomorrow i've got nothing really planned...i'd like to take shelly golfing with me, i think she'd like the carts, but no way am i taking her AND carly...that would be a too much for the little dinks to handle together i think. So, we'll probably just hang out and go to dinner together somewhere so i can take advantage of the free birthday dinner thing at a restaurant!!

Thank you Conquestador of the Pull Up

2006-08-29T15:56:00.000-04:00

I wanted to take these first few sentences, before I completely degrade myself and any respect you have for me, to say that JJ is my best friend and I admire him as much as I admire anyone in my life. He's been thru more in life at 32 yrs old than many of us will ever go thru. I've never had a brother, but if I did, I'd want it to be him. Your a lucky man Jeff. Normally, you save that for a female, but in this case, Jeff your close enough.

Now, I have the utmost respect for this blog and how JJ uses it. Anyone reading this blog and taking potshots at JJ by going thru his ex-wife, who to my understanding hasn't read the blog, should be ashamed and I hope that you know we know who you are. Just kidding. No I'm not....

Okay, to my painful story...the fantasy football draft like Christmas morning. Well, we're so cool we have two drafts. One's a keeper league and the other league has been around since Filet O'Fish sandwiches came in light blue cartons. I know, because I'd get two for the draft. Drafts are times to get together with 9 other good buds and match wits, throw in a chew, eat pizza, fan farts, criticize pics and for that one day, your team is equal to everyone elses. Unless your last name is Wilson, his teams always do the most with the least...but usually that doesn't amount to much. The Keeper Draft was a week and a half ago on a Wed night at JJ's house. I got there early to hang with JJ...hit a few golf balls, watched him dry hump a wrachet trying to drive in a anchor for his new deck into the house foundation (only to watch a guy half his size and weight feminize his form) and just plain see my boy. Kudo's on the deck by the way. Well, we got to the topic of lifting weights and how ungodly huge his trycepts are, some complimentary banter back and forth and then the bomb from the Leutenant of the Lat that will change my life for the next 6 months....JJ asks "How many pull ups can you do?" which I know was a set up...he knew I wasn't doing pull ups....

The draft goes smoothly, I hate my team, 50 bucks down the drain. I invested in the Lions Kevin Jones last year and it's gonna kill me for years to come. The next day I take my girls for a bike ride to my 5 yr old daughter Kaitlyn's new school to burn some energy on the playground. Kaitlyn and my 2 year old Meghan are playing nicely when out of the corner of my eye I see an old jungle gym. The kind no kids played on except girls who could hang by there legs upside down and do the tricks that as kids we'd pray to see any peek of a training bra. Flashback to JJ "How many pull ups can you do?" Well, I get four sets of five each. Not bad for my first time, JJ previously let me know he can do 5 sets of 10 or 12 of course. It's a start. Head home, no problem.

The next day:

Sat morning, my lovely wife's been up north at Boyne for 4 days and she arrives home this afternoon. I wake up in pain. Like food poisoning pain. Like I got beat up by Stacey Gall pain. My whole stomach hurts...I push around until I find the one spot that kills...it feels like a golf ball popping out of my stomach. Sue gets home and I start whining. My cousin Nicole's husband Daniel is a General Surgeon, I give him a call and he checks me out late Saturday...he can't push the golf ball back into it's hole. By the way I scream like unnamed friend at the site of a Connelly arriving at his graduation party..schwing, or a couple of other unnamed friends at the site of a phone call from a Cincinnati area code. I'm a cat on the wall...what the hell was that? An incarcerated hernia I'm told, maybe a double. I have no idea if I spelled that right but I don't care. It hurts and I'm trying to be tough. Daniel suggests surgery the next day. Apparently incarcerated hernias are the worst, whatever the golf ball is has attached itself to the stomach wall and won't go back in, it's the most painful type of hernia. If an organ is what's attached, it could die. Pretty serious. He says it's most likely fat, ha ha, but it needs to be operated on immediately. I call JJ on the way home, he can't stop laughing as I trace this whole mess back to the conversation in his kitchen. Two 30 somethings guys trying to be kids, f'n 33 doing pull ups..great idea.

Sunday morning at 8:30 I'm under the knife. Double Hernia...two holes..and appearantly I was fighting the nurse who wanted me on my back, to which I screamed "I sleep on my side"...great stories for Christmas time w/ the family surgeon...Head home and I hate JJ. Pure hatred. My stomach feels like a M-80 goes off in there every time I move.

My restrictions: I have a 20 lbs lifting limit for 3 months and no workouts for 4 months. I hate you Pompador of the Pull Up. So, on wednesday Kaitlyn has her tonsils, adnoids and turbenaits removed or coderized that wednseday...she won't eat or drink for two days. Friday we spend 9 hours in ER with her in an IV an me in a chair nursing my baby, aka the hernia. I am not allowed to pick up either kid, to which I've thrown caution and another surgery to the wind. Our fantasy draft for the Dexter league is Sunday...I can't go. I am crying inside...I've never missed a draft in the 12 yrs...Mark McKillen drafts for me, I like my team but it sucked not being at the lake and going golfing after words with my other best friends Scot. Chad Darnell another great friend was there as well...memories lost..it's my Myrtle Beach. Can't golf for 4 months either..that's tradeshow season which I am on the road in a sunny part of the USA, aka Anaheim, Orlando, Vegas, Dallas...you get the picture, for half the winter...thanks again oh Mark Lavine of the Pull Up. Then I need to have two table spoons of blood drained from it on Monday which puts me to today typing this ranting guest blog...

The short of it is, if your 33 act 33. Don't try to do something that you couldn't do at 23. Stick to the river and streams that your used to.

Thanks for the time JJ...it helped..

Todder

Rain, plus i'm bored

2006-08-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

Well, i'm at work and bored right now. Looking outside the window it's raining for like the 5th day in a row, or basically, ever since i got back from Vegas. Getting old pretty quick. Getting colder, darker earlier, leaves are starting to fall...man, it's already almost fall.

Which, i'm MORE then ready for. Summer has been crazy. Lots of fun, but very hectic. Tonight is my last game in basketball league and for the first time i'm actually really glad it's almost over. I have 2 more nites of golf league then the banquet and as much as i've grown to love golf this year (which was one of my goals this summer!) I'm ready for it to end too. I want a more relaxed schedule. I'm going on a vaca out to see Rupert in Seattle in October, which i'm really excited for and outside of that, i don't think i have too much else going on.

I can start actually planning some things i've wanted to get to around the house...like decor..paint...drapes..that kind of crap that i occasionaly think about and always say, "eh, i'll do it later when i have more time". Oh, and i'm going to find some high maintenance plants to have around the house. I really miss trimming back my rose bushes for some reason i used to have..i need something that needs regular pruning. Don't know why, but i enjoy it. Plus, i'm looking forward to seeing just what does survive the winter that i planted this summer and what doesn't. I'm sure i'll lose some plants....but man i hope that tree stays.

yeah, this is a real lame blog..but i just wanted to pass some time..done and done.

Las Vegas

2006-08-26T23:15:00.000-04:00

Vegas is in incredible place. Really just a complete spectacle unto itself. Amazing things to see and do. Unfortunately, I worked almost the entire time i was there. I got out for some fun a couple times, don't get me wrong, but not the kind of fun i'd necessarily want to have if i was in vegas for a 'vacation'..ie- no strip clubs or huge bars, but still, fun nonetheless. Some observations:

1) The hotels are incredible. I was at the Rio which was a pretty nice place, but then i went into new york new york, caesars palace and most notably the Venetician and was like "wow...". Just massive structures with incredible amounts of things to do inside all of em'.

2) It's hot..like sitting on top of a lawnmower that's been running all day kinda hot. It's dry heat tho...totally different then here in mich. We walked all over the place and I never once broke a sweat...i was wearing khaki's too!

3) Tons of hookers/hot chicks/fake boobs..people wanting to do anything they can to get attention. I had no problems with seeing any of this...

4) Shit there is expensive. Food, drinks, merchandise...stuff ain't cheap in vegas.

5) I got a blister the size of a silver dollar on the heel of my foot from standing and walking down there. It's nasty. Really, really nasty.

I def want to go back there, we got stuck with people we worked with late every nite and after working 12 hours days and those people leaving, my buddy and i there (joffe) were each just whipped. We didn't have NEARLY enuff time to do everything we wanted...but that's what return trips are for....

Speaking of which, my return flight home was one for the ages. After flying out there on a perfect flight, the return trip was brutal. We took the red eye..by choice, figuing we could sleep. Well, 3 babies got on board..yep....3. Sure enuff, one of em' screamed the ENTIRE time..all 3 hours. First off, who would put their baby on a red eye flight?? That's just cruel...Secondly, everyone wanted to kill this lady..it was her, her 10 year old son and infant daughter. What a dumb bitch...people all over were just ready to lay her out. So..no sleep. Plus, there was turbulence the ENTIRE flight...just a steady bevy of ups and downs and backs and forths. Oh, and the whole airplane smelled like piss...not any old piss...CAT PISS!! The entire cabin reeked. Just awful. Then, While the plane was in decent....and i was enjoying my seat RIGHT next to the on board bathroom, an old korean lady decides she can't hold her turd 5 more minutes and drops a deuce right before landing which stunk up the whole plane. Smelled like old lady poop..you know the kind, like cat poop, the smell you get when you walk into the bathroom at your grandma's house. Oh, and korean food, it smelled like korean food.

The Fn' Deck is Fn' Done!!!.......

2006-08-20T18:38:00.000-04:00

......basically. Ted came over today and we did the other half..the step down section that is considerably larger then the top section. It looks fantastic. Really does. We aren't gonna be able to get to the stairs and railing for a few weeks...(i'm leaving for las vegas tomorrow, then he leaves for disney world the next day, then i leave for seattle 3 days after he comes back)...but it's awesome. I really can't believe someone as industrial arts challenged as myself participated in the construction as much as i did.
Plus...my deck is huge!!! I have a huge deck...it's a massively strong, powerfully constructed deck that can seat 20 people comfortably! There's a joke in there...but seriously, it turned out and looks way bigger then i thought which really is cool.

Tomorrow Vegas baby...Vegas. That will be a blog in it's own right for sure. And, i'm going to have a GUEST BLOG soon as well...Hey! It's my blog, i can do with it as I want too!! It will rule...i'm sure of that.

ALSO...This blog is something i started for me. Something that I enjoy using as a tool to vent, relieve, relax with and enjoy because I truly enjoy writing..always have. However, I know many others read it and i'm TOTALLY cool with that. Really am. In fact, it motivates me to write more which i really love. The down side is that some people read things on here and miscontstrue them and report to others..namely my ex-wife that "i have a blog and on it I write how i bad mouth her, the divorce we went thru and how hard a time i have with my girls". Anyone who reads this with a clear mind would know that is about as far from the truth as it can get with my views on shan, my divorce and the girls thru this blog. I have said not one bad thing about any of them...especially the girls!! This has been a borderline Shrine to Shelly and Carly!!

Whoever you are, you suck. I know when people are down it's easy to take pot shots at em' from behind their back...just because you think you are doing someone a favor, doesn't necessarily mean you really are. Stay out of my business AND my daughter's business.

The Beer Tent

2006-08-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

After the wiggles concert..i needed a drink..well, multiple drinks. So, as luck would have it, it was dexter daze...which really means, the beer tent was open. Always a big day. Growing up around here it's been something of local folklore for many years..and this year wasn't any different.

1) The beer always sounds like a great idea when you go into the tent..but always plays out poorly. i don't know what happens in there to that beer, but after 1/2 milk carton in, it always begins to taste like shit. And, for some reason, i get rcoked off that beer. QUICK. I came in saying, alright, i'm only drinking two 1/2 gallon milk containers and heading home..however, i never count on getting constant refills from people walking by and other friends....so, i usually end up with double that. And yep, i felt like butt the next day for doing so.

2) none of my 'best' friends were there, but a lot of other friends and acquaintenances, which meant, i never had that "homebase" to return too and talk with someone when you get bored, instead, i just bounced from group to group until one got stale and i went to another. Which, was alright, but same time, marginally fun. Again, growing up around here you see literally a 100 people you know and it starts to get annoying by the end of the nite

3) I left at 10:30!! A new record early time for me! i was driving home and had a plan to leave early and stuck to it!

4) i came to the conclusion...it's starting to get old...it's just not as fun as what it used to be..it's alright still...but not like what it was when i was 21 and everyone i hung out with would go there....

Next year i may actually try seeing some of the other events there...they have elephant ears. i love those..i may hang out by that booth more.

THE WIGGLES

2006-08-15T21:08:00.000-04:00

Well, my camera is in my car and i'm wayyyyy to lazy and tired to go out there and get it...so i'll put some pics up when i remember to pull it out. However, in the meantime, the Wiggles concert was.....(drumroll please)....alright.

Carly and Shelly did well...considering it was the first time in a stadium environment it could have gone a lot worse then it did. Both of em' were great, of course that meant i had to keep shoving food in front of em'..cotton candy, snocones..pizza..pop...and spend $15 EACH on two flashlights with the wiggles on em' that probably cost $1 to make. They had a good time..carly got scared when the lights dimmed, but shelly loved every second, which i could tell as i got numerous "i love you daddy's" for no good reason!

The show itself..starts off with some dancers, then the big red car comes out.."toot toot chugga chugga big red car..." and in it, Jeff (purple and the scary looking one..he's the one that's usually linked to the badboy if the wiggles..if there was one) Murray (red and also weird looking) Greg ( yellow and the singer..he really could go out on his own and make more jack by himself...) and Anthony (blue who is the hardest worker on stage). Basically, what it is, is 90 minutes of characters in costumes, goofy songs, big props, lighting effects and cheesy lines.

Really, nothing really out of the ordinary. THere were an ABUNDANCE of MILF's there...that's for sure, but i expected that. I'd bet the wiggles tag some serious milf tail back in the dressing room...(speaking of which...i missed a story about them on 95.5 the other day about something scandalous with them..if anyone heard it please tell me) Those guys make some serious jack...SERIOUS jack...it's gross. You can buy shirts, hats, balloons, flashlights, swords, blah blah blah...

It was strange at the palace..prob about 10 thousand people there...and when we took a bathroom break half way thru the show, the bathroom was empty besides some guy takin' a deuce..that's it. Just strange...normally at the palace in the bathroom the floor is covered in piss and it smells like warm taco...not today. Plus, parking and driving was A BREEZE. Nothing like the normal events you go too there..everyone was considerate and patient...kinda like bizzaro world.

Anywho, i'll get to those pics...after battling traffic i couldn't WAIT to get to the beer tent later that nite...which will be tomorrow's spout off i'm sure here...

GRADE ON THE WIGGLES: B

NEWSBREAK!!

2006-08-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

I have MUCH more to blog about..including the all encompassing Wiggles concert..but i just saw this and wanted to make sure i gave it the due it's deserved. Yes, That's right...we are within a month of the next installment of dancing with the stars...my oh my has it been a cold summer..well, it's gonna heat up!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_en_tv/tv_dancing_with_the_stars

well, it sucked

2006-08-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

hoops last nite was brutal...just brutal. The first game i was actually great stamina wise ( which i attribute to my starimastering) until about the last5 min when i began to feel my body turning to jello. We won the first game 31-28...the second game we played another team that had also played earlier...however..2 big differences. Their first opponent only had 2 players..so they played 3 on 2, which in halfcourt means "LAYUP DRILL". didn't even break a sweat...Secondly, they have 5 guys..we have 3..which means they can substitute and stay fresh..we can't..needless to say..none of it mattered..all of us, me and my teammates were basically meatsticks out there...couldn't move..couldn't shoot...didn't care. We lost like 30-16 i think...wasn't even fun. I didn't want to be there and frankly, i felt kinda sick from the heat, not cool. I'm glad that's over.

I'm still tired today..it's weird...i'm getting more and more sore as the day goes on too...b-ball really racks on my shoulder for some reason and takes a couple days to recoup...plus, i slivered all the skin off my two little toes on my right foot..my sock last nite was ruined with blood..really nasty. i need some neosporin..or , just better socks..that happens every game.

Hotter than Piss

2006-08-01T16:38:00.000-04:00

That's hot...Or how about hotter then two dogs humpin in a wool sock? that's hot too...97 degrees today..and of course, i've got basketball leauge tonight..and of course, i've got a doubleheader. If this is my last post, then i can honestly say i've enjoyed blogging. I should have given plasma before hand to be ready for the IV i'll need afterward. I may not be able to pee for days...or if i do it will be like applesauce from dehydration. I'm nervous, i really don't care if we win or lose..i just want the games over without coughing up any blood..OH and no sub either tonight, which means zero breaks. Figures.

I read a book!! Really!! Animal Farm...the George Orwell classic..and ya know what? i really enjoyed it. Very short, i read it in two sittings and just a few hours of total time. Fast read and really interesting to compare it with what was going on at the time with politics, socialism, ..communism...etc..etc...highly recommended!

AND get this..I've started..i hope you are all sitting down...A SECOND BOOK!! Called "Manhunt" by James Swenson. So far, i've been incredibly impressed. i'll have a full review when i finish the book, but basically, it's the detailed storytelling of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. I'm only 100 pages in as of now and i have been VERY pleasantly suprised with the book. VERY enteretaining.okay, i'm gonna start reviewing it if i don't stop talking about it, which i shouldn't cause again, i'm only 100 pages in..

alright..off to hoops...

So...this is what i'm thinkin' right now

2006-07-26T20:18:00.000-04:00

My cleaning lady is a real bitch. But ya know what? I like it. Life's about checks and balances and she keeps me grounded. She does an amazing job on my house, the place freakin' shines. Here's two convo's we've had though in the past month...

me: hey, i've got this stain on my carpet..it's just dirty water from overwatering a plant. You think you could get that up for me?

Her: Um, no. And do you know why that stain is there?
me: yeah, i overfilled the plant when i was watering it, but i...
her: no, because you didn't use 50% vinegar solution with a 50% warm water base with a terricloth scrubbing device did you??!!
me: (looking down at my feet while kicking the dirt) um, no...i'm sorry.

convo 2)

Her: Can i ask you a question?
me: sure
her: i'm only asking you this because i KNOW you didn't do it...it was done too well, but who decorated your daughters' rooms?
me: *sigh* my friends' mom did it.....

Nice lady, but a bulldog..cracks me up really. My friend Amanda offered to clean it for less money..which, i'm more then willing to give her a crack at it...but gosh, it's gonna be tuff to dethrone the incumbent.

I'm also thinkin' i'm getting really frustrated with my yard. They came out and FINALLY moved the storm sewer pipe off the house and sodded about 3/4 of the remaining property..however, it rained hard today and now i have a HUGE pond directly off my sliding glass door from the sewer cap overlowing...AND a FLOWING RIVER from the street thru the sewer pipe thru the middle of my yard. I mean a river too..it's actually bigger then the REAL river i have behind my house. I guess they are gonna talk more about it tomorrow...broken record...i ain't holdin' my breath for the a-holes.

Golf, I love it. I'm still awful...but those few wondrous shots i nail and/or crush make it all the worth while.

Remember my pet peeve about people that write checks at the grocery store? Well i got absolutely skull porked by it last week. I got in line behind a lady, who, as i had mentally predicted, being a middle aged woman with a kid on her side (which, is the sterotype i have developed for check writers) whipped out her checkbook. I was cool with it....no hurry, i had the girls with me and they were busy loading up the counter with my food to get rung out. HOWEVER, after she had wrote the check, and the cashier called over a manager to approve it, verified her drivers license, adjusted the new balance of her checking account RIGHT THERE BEFORE MOVING FORWARD and finally processed the sonofabitch, they realized she forgot to put the 12 pack of pop she had on the bottom of her cart on the check out counter. Which means..yep, you guessed it..A SEPARATE CHECK FOR THE POP!!! Thus repeating the carnivale' of crap all over again. I mentally vomitted when i saw her go back to the check book. GET A FN' CHECK CARD!! It's the same freakin thing!!! And why do people adjust the checkbooks right there?? They give you a receipt!! Take it home and do it there! Seriously!! Alright, i'm getting worked up.

The good news i'm thinkin' right now is Shan is in vegas for the week, so i have my girls for the week. The whole week. First time i've had them this long since the divorce so for that i'm grateful. I'll have had them 10 straight days before i go a day without seeing them. It will be good.

Needless to say, i'm really starting to get sick of that pool in the sub...those girls LOVE it...So, i'm there constantly. Speaking of which..when i was getting my will redone this week (for a GROSS amount of money for such little work...) i found out my lawyer owns a home down the road too...her daughter stays there. We talked about this pool...small world.

Alright, i'm done talkin' for a nite..i needed to get that out. I feel better now. Like i lost some weight or something.

Carly's party

2006-07-26T20:02:00.000-04:00

It went really well...no awkward moments, no drama..no uncomfortable situations..just good clean 3 year old birthday party fun. The house, as i'm writing this, still has the decorations up as the girls won't let me take them down. It was a Dora the Explorer theme...everywhere.

Carly made out quite well, as i figured she would...play doh..two tricycles..wiggles and blues clues dvd's...a nice recliner...little people stuff...a nice haul all together!

Really, a really uneventful party, which was great. Shan's family and my family still got along well and her family was still more then nice with me, so I was really happy with that. The highlight of the day probably came when I went to pick up the sandwiches from Izzy's sub shop on stadium. The kid that took the order wrote it down wrong...he had it for sunday, when i needed subs for 30 people on saturday. The owner BLEW up at this kid. GD this..GD that..Mother F this..Mother F that..right in front of me..with his fists clenched like he was gonna blast the poor kid. Needless to say, i felt bad for the kid, but happy for me cause he made em' on the spot and charged me half price.

Oh, and it was also pretty sweet when Shelly was whacking the Dora pinata and knocked it's body off..so there was just a head swingin' in the breeze from my garage....

Slow bloggin month'

2006-07-21T15:55:00.000-04:00

This has been ...without a doubt..the busiest summer i've ever had. Past week alone i've been preparing for carly's third birthday at my house tomorrow..had the builders come over 3 different times to help fix and repair things in my house...had my dead tree re-planted by the nursery, dug the holes and laid set the posts in concrete for my deck (that deserves it's own blog when i have more time), cleaned out the garage and the house...got the rest of sod laid down on MOST of my yard..stillnot all of it..and basically haven't had time to take a dump.

After saturday, shan goes on vacation, i have the girls for 12 days straight and should have more time to blog..i miss it. i'm full of things to write about ( i'm pinchin' em' back like a ruff turd right now for the sake of time and future ramblings), but will tackle em' more after this weekend. Smooth sailing from there...

I'll talk about Carly's party..which should be interesting to say the least...my forthcoming trip to las vegas for work...my deck...work...golf...my cleaning lady...she'll have a good one..and more i'm sure...till then'..i have one more hour to make it thru work without blowing my head off..wish me luck.

Josh Day

2006-07-12T18:22:00.000-04:00

What is a josh day you ask? No, it's not sitting in front of my computer in just my boxer shorts and stiff glass of jack and coke by my side...but good guess.

Basically, it's a day that I needed to take to do a bajillion things i've been needing to do. I've been overwhelmed lately and it's been affecting me in weird ways..namely i have been forgetful, which i can't stand. I've always been the kind of guy that never forgets a thing..is always prompt on time and first to be able to make plans to do something. Lately, i don't remember what i had for lunch today, am late for everything and don't seem to be able to plan my next bathroom break.

So, I'd had it. I took off work yesterday and went to target and birthday express to buy carly's birthday stuff for the party at my house next saturday...went to mc sporting goods to buy golf shoes i needed for an outing this weekend...went to kohls to buy some new shorts for said outing (it's a nice course..radrick farms at UM...snobby bastards)..went to linen's and things to buy a fan for carly's room and some motion sensors that you stick to the windows and doors of your home so if someone tries to open them a squealing high pitched sound goes off...i needed those. From there i went to meijer to order the birthday cake..izzy's sub shop to order sandwiches for the party..lowes to get pricing on my deck and buy yet more plants for my yard...back home to plant said plants and mulch the rest of my yard...then to sylvan township to pick up my permit....(that's a different blog...freakin' nazi's...it's an fn' scam if you ask me...like dentistry, but with less legitimacy..again, another blog down the road i'm sure on that). Then back home, for a quick workout before i picked up the girls and went to olga's and the play area at the mall.

And ya know what? I feel 10 times better.

Of course, 100% of my forgetfullness could probably be eased if i just wrote shit down....i need a calendar to mark things on..i need it...yet i don't do a thing about it...i was gonna get one yesterday...but forgot...ironic, i know.

Anywho, Josh day was great. I feel MUCH better and frankly, quite refreshed..my summer has been too busy...next summer the house will be more under control and i'm gonna try not to be in so many fn' leauges of different things...I need winter to get here so i can sit down in front of my tv..and watch football...glorious, glorious football!!!

Cedar Point Part II

2006-07-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

Ah yes...the much awaited sequel to Part I. Well, that's a lie, besides the fact it is a sequel.

Alright, The park itself: There's stuff everywhere to take your money..from the all the food stands..beverage carts..restaurants..( i hit the sports grille..which had a very average club...which in the world of club sandwiches is really not good) and johnny rockets..where the waiters and waitresses either are former cheerleaders or gay men who probably also were former cheerleaders)...coffee shops...snocone booths...guys wanting to take your picture...etc, etc..

( another sidenote here..i'm a flaming sucker for a good snocone and a softpretzel...like that's pretty much what i'd have chosen for my last meal if i was lincoln burrows in one of my favorite shows "prison break" on FOX instead of the blueberry pancakes he requested and never even ate...my point on this was the snocones down there are served in a freakin' wheelbarrel...ridiculously large..and there is a gourmet soft pretzel shop too! Yet, i had neither....strange for me to pass on those..just an idol thought there..back to the blog).

Bottom line..it's an easy place to drop your jack...WHICH brings me to the carnie games...if there's a third thing i'd want to do along with my snocone and pretzel dinner on my deathbed it would be to play a line up of carnie games run by some realy schysters. At CP i played the basketball game...you know the one..where the hoop is literally the exact same size as the ball, so you basically have to nail the shot. Plus the ball is harder then Rosie O'Donnell's nipples at a Pussycat Doll's concert. HOWEVER..this one was different...the guy..leans over and says "hey, brother, check this ball out...it's flat..take a squeeze..." which i did..and yep, it was flat.."now, the bank is always open...i'm giving you a break...try it out"..so at $2 bucks a shot, what do i got to lose right? Sure enuff, i hit my first two shots...which gets you a "medium prize" which is basically a normal sized stuffed animal...i miss the next..hit the third..which is a "large" stuffed animal...i need to hit one more for "your choice" which in this case was a giant alaskan husky. And as you can imagine..i missed my next 7 shots till i finally drained the 8th...still...no way i do that without a flat ball...it made the difference and after a little song and dance by the carnie guy i walked away with a giant novelty sized stuffed animal for about 20 bones. Love me some HCA (hot carnie action).

Now, the highlight of any good trip to cedar point has to include the momentous amount of white trash that visit the area and/or live there. Actually, the trash isn't limited to just white people. As I typed that last sentence i think back to the indian family who's father was trying to take a nice picture of his 10 year old son but his son refused to stop showing a GANG symbol for the pic..thus creating some tension in the photo process.

There was a couple in line in front of me at the raptor..who had hillbilly twangs to em'...they could have been from the tip of cincinnati, but i don't feel like giving them the benefit of the doubt..i'm pretty sure they were kentucky residents or possibly west virginia. Anywho, these two..loved cedar point. It was their second MULTIPLE day trip of the year to the park and they had oodles and oodles of unsolicited information to help make the 40 minute wait in line not only reek of deer scent and mudflaps, but also of annoying comments and educationally limited conversation.

Also spotted there was a 12 year old girl with dollar bills sticking out of her shorts like she was a stripper while she carried her cell phone inside of the front clasp on her bra. It was scenes like that as a father of two little girls made me cringe and vow out loud to beat the crap out of my kids if they ever come close to looking like that much of a whore. Scares the shit out of me....

The best tho..was first ride of the day...Demon Drop. Look up..there's a guy wearing a captain morgan's shirt..half mullet..nascar hat..and she shirt had the actualy price sticker still on it...which can happen...but when it's the size of my forearm and says $9.44 on it...it took the cake as the WTMOTD (white trash moment of the day).

Alright..that's more cedar point than any sane person would right...

Cedar Point...PART I

2006-07-04T18:28:00.000-04:00

I went to Cedar Point yesterday.

Fun time. Haven't been there in probably 8 or 9 years. It has changed quite a bit..and for the better. I really enjoyed myself...barring the off and on small showers from early in the day..they cleared up to a beautiful night. Here's my thoughts and highlights of what some was expected and some wasn't as much.

I should preface with this...when I was young, i could go to cedar point and ride anything and everything all day and all nite. NO problems. I was fearless..tireless and seemingly ageless. Yesterday, I was fearful of some rides, pretty flat out tired by the end of the day and totally felt my age. Ah..father time, we meet again. In relation to this, since my last operation essentially fused my leg together, I don't bend like i used to. SO...there are some rides i don't 'think' i will be able to fit into..IE- the small ones where the bar crosses your lap. I have trouble with those and my biggest fear about going to the park is waiting in a long line for the ride, get up there..try to get into the car built for a 12 year old and realize i can't fit into it. So, there are rides i purposely avoid. It works out in my favor tho as a couple that i saw, i will admit, were downright terrifying in appearance.

The Millineum Force, seriously...looks absolutely frightening. I wanted no part of it...looking at the seats i was pretty sure i'd have trouble fitting, but frankly speaking, after seeing the coaster, i was fine leaving it off the schedule. Secondly, the thrill ride dragster. That one i can't even believe. You go up STRAIGHT up in the air...complete 90 degree angle..and then come STRAIGHT back down..oh, and you do a twist on the way down..i was nervous watching it go while i was in line for the other rides...again, avoided it. Sheer terror.

The park is big. I forgot how big. Never even got to go toward the back where the gemini is for instance. Just no time.

What I did ride:

The Raptor 2X: Great ride. Your feet dangle..you do about 6 loops and there's a nice little hill to taste your lunch on when you first go on....probably my favorite ride of the day

The Mantis: This was the second ride and probably the biggest mistake for a couple reasons..(some which will be addressed in my "trashy" section forthcoming) but mainly cause they only had one car running. Which meant the line didn't move. 2 hours from start to finish of the ride. The ride itself was good...except for the fact you sit on a bicycle seat that basically, if you're a guy like me, means you end up having to phsyically push your nuts back down from your abodomen at the end of the ride. Oh, plus it was raining...and when it rains on a roller coaster and you're on a rollercoaster...it hurts.

The Wicked Twister: AGain, really enjoyed this one as well. Shoots you upwards at 66 mph and you twist around completely parallel to the ground..go shooting straight backwards and do the same thing backwards. Good stuff.

The Power Tower: This one I was really nervous about heading into. Never had done it and everyone on it just screams their heads off. Went up first...where basically it feels like it will blast you into "outer space". You literally are pressed against the top of your shoulder harness from the lack of gravity as you go up so fast. Secondly, tried going down. This one was a bit more nerve racking..but surprisingly not as scary...they shoot you up again, but much more slowly...then they leave you there..for like 10 seconds..at the top of the tower..hanging on the edge...that part is the worst..then, they drop you and you free fall for about 75 feet...good stuff. Of course, I had a random run-in as i was getting ready to get shot up...The Hollis family got a ringside seat just WAITING to see my goofy expression on the ride as it shot me up. All of em' were there. So we chit chatted for awhile and went on our merry ways after the ride. I've always liked em'..super nice family. Man, i get those run -in's everywhere i go..

The Iron dragon: Adult Version of the Wildcat. Sorry Todder...it ain't as badass as it was when were 16.

Matterhorn: Adult version of a fast ferris whell indoors...fun.

The sky ride: You always have to do the skyride. Relaxing and nice just getting a load off your feet while you jetted across the park.

I'm forgetting a couple more rides in here...but thats's only because i want to conclude Part I with my thoughts on MAXAIR.

Maxair: By far, the scariest ride of the day. Seriously, i've never wanted a ride to just plain end as much as i wanted this one too. It looks pretty simple. It's just a large pendulum with about 50 seats on the end that form a giant circle which rotates around while the pendulum swings like a clock. Well, from the ground, it looks easy..once you're on it. The fun stops and the pantcrapping begins. You are way the F up there. One second you are rotating at the peak of the swing facing the sky while rotating on the way back down so by the time you reach the apex of the next swing you are completely parallel and facing the ground about 100ft up..just dangling there. The thing is..if the ride did it just once or twice, i would have loved it...really would have..however it did it 8 times!! I thought i was going to die. It wasn't fun anymore, It was scary. I got off feeling good to be alive. I've attached some pictures for your humbling amusment.

If you go to Cedar point, you MUST TRY THIS RIDE!! lol....you'll see what i mean..it's a doozy.

Part II will come soon, where i'll address the idiosyncricies of the park, the carnie games, the food, and most importantly, all the white trash that was overflowing the grounds.

The Greatest Video Game of all time

2006-07-02T17:33:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across this on Youtube the other day and it brought back some outstanding memories. I used to play super tecmo bowl constantly growing up. All through school, high school and even to college. Myself and my friends used to have all nite tecmo tournaments. Yes, we were cool. Heck, we even used to set it up to have the computer play itself and place bets on which team would win.....

We used to close our eyes and smash the little arrow with our controller feverishly until we would randomly stop and wherever the little arrow stopped on whatever little helmet it stopped on...that was our team to we HAD to play with (actually, we got to do it 2 times and could pick the best of 2). This made for some outstanding matchups and some hideous ones..but also made us familiar with EVERY player on EVERY team on offense and defense. Some guys were basically unstoppable on off and on def...but nobody, and i mean nobody was as unstoppable as Bo Jackson for the raiders. All the great players on both sides of the ball had thier little glitches you could capitalize on that would draw your opponent to sanity when they worked...ala the 100 yard pass to jerry rice which was indefensible.... but nobody could beat Bo. You had to call the correct play every time or else he was gone...below is an example....

I've heard they are bringin out a new nintendo with the ability to play all the old games off it...if it's true...i dearly hope they bring back tecmo..that would be a no brainer purchase for me if they did..sigh..this video is outstanding for tecmo fans...we've all been there...

I have the worst luck with poop

2006-07-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

I think i've well documented my past incidents of mishaps with the girls and their random deuces. Well, yesterday i had yet another. I swear if there is an inopportune time for one of em' to have take the Browns back to the superbowl it's gonna happen with me.

Let's digress...First off, there was a minor incident involving Carly about 10 days ago. Minor really, but still one of those that just wasn't a well placed dump. I had just played basketball and had picked up Carly from her grandma's house. Shelly was at safety town...(Thank God that is over...different blog posting one day) and I had 45 minutes to kill until i had to get her. So, i take Carly to the park across the street and figure we can just play there. So, of course with 20 minutes to go...she is climbing up a little ladder when she stops dead in her tracks. Freezes. Completely...right in mid stride. And then i see it...the look on the face every kid gets when they are takin' a dump. It's a mix of "i hope nobody is seeing this" and EXTREME concentration. So, of course, i have no diapers and Carly has a load in her drawers. Long story short, i had to fly home...change her, and fly right back where i was to perfectly time the pickup of Shelly.

Now, to the real awful story. If you don't want to be disgusted, don't scroll down...

Okay, Well i leave work early yesterday cause Shan put em' in daycare for the day so she could go golfing at her boyfriend's golf tournament or something or other. And i felt bad for em' cause they normally don't have to to go to school friday's and KNOW they would rather be home. So, i get em' up and say "Hey! Who wants to go the pool!!" To which they both explode like a pair of pogo sticks.

We change up go to the pool..and it's pretty much status quo. I'm tossin' shelly thru the air into the water and carly gets out to go play with the little water fountain people use to wash their feet off with clean water.

Then, all of a sudden..i hear the water fountain stop. I look over..Carly is looking straight ahead...i say "honey, what are you doing??" She says "DON'T LOOK AT ME!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" She was focused...grunting and completely motionless. She was takin' a poop.

Now, of course, smart parents put their kids in "swimmers" Which are like psuedo diapers meant for toddlers not yet potty trained to wear in pools. Well..SMART parents do that..i of course am not one of those.

She comes over to me..just reeking of chlorine mixed with wet kid poop. Running down her legs...damn near blew out a hole in the back of her suit....just hideous. I wrap her in a towel with just wet caramel dropping running all down her and consequently all down me...throw her and shell in the car..race home...repeat the trip upstairs to the tub...and spend the next 15 minutes de-toxin' her and the unsusupecting bath tub.

Of course the deuce was massive making it all the more awful. Her swimsuit has a flotation divce built inside the liner which means...no machine wash. OF COURSE i tried too anyways...and nothing came out....so , that meant handscrubbing again.

I think i bring on these dump stories due to the fact i don't EVER plan for these worst case scenarios, so when they happen..i'm basically F'd. However, i seem to have these happen all the time and still don't prepare for em'. As always, the lesson to be learned here is i'm an idiot.

The best day i've had in a long time..

2006-06-30T09:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday from start to finish was the best day i've had in a while. I've had TONS of great days with the girls of course, taking in their day to day little quips and adventures. However, yesterday was good for just me. I needed it and absolutely loved it.

First off, i had my best day at work. Ever. Brought in the most sales i had ever brought in a day and had the best month i've ever had. Over 7 years this day and month were my most successful. So, of course, that made me happy.

Then, the coup de gras or the "tom lafleur" if you will happened...my golf league came about. I was late to it due to being busy here at work...but they waited for me anywho to tee off...so i didn't miss nothing. on the third hole..the 11th at Reddeman Farms in chelsea, Michigan, i had my first par. Felt absofuckinterrific. Before i lined up for my potential par putt i told joffe that he was gonna see some HHA (Hot Hole Action) right there on that poor little unsuspecting 11th green if it went in. Sure enuff, i lined it up..hit it a bit too hard..but it was dead nuts straight and in the cup. I did a little dance....joffe glanced at me in muffled horror on the slim chance i may actually deliver on my promise and make love to the 11th hole...and onto the next tee we went.

As great as i felt for having my best sales day ever and month ever...that par 4 felt better. Which is probably sickly misguided and a classic example of not having priorities in order. However, when i started to golf this summer...which you may remember from earlier posts..i was beyond horrible. Missing the ball...no clue at what would happen when i did hit it...really, just flat out embarressing and dreaded even playing. To actually say i got a par 4 is the biggest accomplishment i've had on a personal growth level in any area in my life in a long time. I know, it sounds petty, but i'm really beaming over that !!

heck, i even bough 2 clubs off one of my golf partners last nite..said he never uses em'...so for 50 bones i got a really good 5 wood and 3 wood..which i NEEDED. I can't use my current ones..i just borrow joffes cause mine are too wobbly. I love golf. love it. love it. love it.

PT

2006-06-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

Nope, i don't mean playing time..i mean physical therapy. I've meant to write about this before now as i've been doing it for several weeks...but frankly, it's pretty uneventful. I'm guessing mostly due to the fact that it's 7am when i'm there and i'm basically just a warm meat stick in the gym at that time of day. Like wet clay...easily molded...i go with the flow...not willed in any particular direction..you get the point.

So, basically, what happens is I go in there..do this hand bicycle thing for 5 minutes to warm up and go to my therapist. I've had 3 different ones so far. The first one..this blond chick who's name i can't think of and is also SUPER perky was the first. She was the one that put together my 'workout plan. My workout plan consists of exercises to strengthen these little muscles in the middle upper back region. She hit it off right away with me when she said..and i quote "Well, after running these muscle tests with you...here's the problem...your chest is so massively strong that the AC joing in your shoulder doesn't like the disproportionate strength so we need to build up the smaller muscles that don't get used as often." For those of you who have heard that quote many times already..i apologize....but i needed to put it in print. That chest comment pretty much made my week.

So, anywho, after her, I go to this girl Jess....have you ever encountered someone who is obviously a girl, but you can't tell if they are gay or straight?? I'm sure we all have...but this girl is perplexing to me. Not to be stereotypical, but she has a pretty heavy 'softball player' kinda look goin...the squarish face features...pony tail at all times..boxed shoulders...no makeup.etc..etc...Then however, she'll say and do little things that are defintiely flirtatious with me (goofy smiles..batting her eyes...stretches out her back to show her chest..etc, etc..) and i think "wait a second..is she flirting? Why is she looking that way at me?? She's gay." Then, after that happens she'll tell me how she's spending her weekend at her dad's house to wax cars and re-callibrate small engines..so basically, i have no clue. She's my favorite tho so far of the three therapists.

Thirdly there's a guy called Tom LaFleur..aka: The flower..or, that's what i think of when i see his name..Well..that and the 'fleur de lils' from the davinci code. Anywho, he's this young heavier guy who frankly is awkward to have do these things with me. PT gets kinda hands on at times and i can't say i really like it with "the flower". For instance...the pt's at the end give me this arm massage type thing to loosen up my shoulder. They hold my arm and hand and tell me to relax then basically softly shake the arm and muscles for like 5 minutes to stimulate the blood flow and help the joints relax. Now, when Jess does this...it's no problem. I enjoy it..in fact it borderline puts me to sleep..esp at 7am. However, when "the flower" does this...it's the longest 5 minutes of my day. Number one..i don't like him touching or holding me. Frankly, it's flat out umcomfortable for both of us..i know it is...i can see it in his eyes. When one man starts off a sentence to another man "Okay, now while i'm holding your arm slooowwllly roll over the table onto your side and press against my stomach...." there are no winners unless you either A) Are wearing assless chaps and are gay B) Completely comfortable with man touching and are either a girl or you are gay and C) if you are just gay. The kicker is..and i know i just wrote this..I KNOW it's uncomfortable for him too. So, after that sentence gets utterd he'll say.."okay, now josh, relax your arm..just let it go..i've got it...". Only, I can't. He'll repeat it..again, and again..and again...and i always say "i'm ...trying.....tom....." but i can't do it...With Jess and the other girl, no probs...with "the flower" you could use my arm as a weather vane...stiff as a board.

Overall i enjoy my PT. I even have a littel routine now where i get cup of coffee at the coffee place on the way home every thursday and friday morning where i try a different kind of coffee type thing each time. I've only got about 3 more sessions...and while i think it is helping..it ain't REALLY helping. I've come to the conclusion i just need summer to end..i'm doing too many thigns that I KNOW aren't good for my shoulder, yet i do them anyway because, well, it's summer!!!

Toad Smashing

2006-06-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

So, not sure if i've posted this before, but my yard is infested with frogs and toads. They are freakin' everywhere. These little critters are the size of a dime and can be found everytime you take a step in my yard.

Shelly and Carly love it...they collect em' and put em' in the whellbarrel in the garage to torment them till' i make them release em' back to the yard (besides the one big green "slimey" one i found...that one terrified them). Anywho, We've come across DOZENS and DOZENS of these...literally. So, today i'm going through the yard and come across another one...no surprise there..so call to shelly, she comes over and picks it up and puts in the whellbarrel.

Sooooo a few mintues pass and it's time to go in..i tell her to release the toad again..which she does...then, a moment later i look over and see her TAKING A ROCK AND SMASING IT ON THE TOAD!! I say "shelly, what are you doing that for???!!!" She said "i didn't like that toad...it was bugging me."

As a young man who as a boy had more then one misadventure with another creature, i can understand a reaction to that. HOWEVER, as a parent, Shelly needed to learn right from wrong. I came down on her hard.

LONG talk about how that was wrong and how it's not right to kill other living creatures and after 30 minutes of her crying listening to me chew her out..it sunk in. SOOOO...tonight, she has to say her prayers and ask God to forgive her....consequently, i don't think this will happen again....

My weeping cherry tree....

2006-06-25T19:34:00.000-04:00

is weeping. In fact, it's going through shock. I thought this may happen, but it's gonna bug me all summer until either A) it pulls out of it or B) croaks. Either way, i've got a 1 year warranty...but am really pulling for this tree to make it..it's the centerpiece of my landscaping mastery....cough, cough

Grand Am Random Run in

2006-06-22T09:24:00.000-04:00

You know how sometimes you pass a car on the road and you think.."man, that looks JUST like my old car i used to drive..". Well, I saw THE EXACT car i used to drive. Happened the other day outside of Mancino's. I was walking out of there after a nice Club Grinder and saw this white grand am and thought pretty much exactly what I wrote above.

Only, this one had a bunch of mardi gras beads hanging from the rear view mirror...one of those decals with that "T" shaped wave like symbol that i have no idea what it means, but i see it on a lot of high schoolers cars..looks like the symbol for Tulane University to me (if anyone knows or understands what i'm talkin' about please let me know..that symbol has been bugging me what the hell it is for years..i'm sure it's something hip that i'm too obtuse to realize), one of those feather bolo's in the back over the rear seat...basically it looked like it had been slutted out by a high school girl.

So, i thought.."you know, i sold this car to a lady who bought it for her highschool aged daughter about 3 years ago..." it was a vivid memory of mine as after she bought it there immediately turned out about 10 high school kids with half shirts and wife beaters on that all looked about 13 years old to me.

So, then i go closer to look at the car..and i see the fimiliar "Red Holzman" red decal sticker on the lower right hand corner of the windshield that my car had...and then i noticed the distinguishable scratch/nick on the middle of the front fender...the two things i was looking for to prove it's identity. They were the confirmation of the dental records in otherwords for me.

This was my old car.

No doubts..pretty wild. I always felt owning a white car was kinda girlish..(unlike driving a pacifica which absolutley REEKS of manliness..seriously, that car is like Helen of Troy..it attracts people from all over and can start wars)..but i felt bad for the poor car. It had been COMPLETELY Fu-Fu'd...

RIP: Josh's 1997 Grand AM GT...1997-2006

Seriously, my kids are freakin' cute

2006-06-19T20:47:00.000-04:00

As much as they drive me up the fn' wall at times i love these little beaners to death. These pics are great. I took them at the same time and were totally spontaneous....Carly is learning how to go potty on the big girl potty and was taking no chances at falling in. Shelly was just running around waiting for me to give her a bath and threw this outfit together while she was waiting for me to finish with carly.

Yes, that is an inflatable rubber duck around Carly and yes...that is a pair of hello kitty underwear on shelly's head.

What a couple hams...