it was pan-dee-leer-ium....

Saturday morning both of the boys wake up pretty early (of course). William comes into the bedroom around 7:30ish and I can hear Andrew in the baby monitor talking and on the verge of crying, wanting to get up. I decided to take the boys downstairs and give Jen a chance to sleep in a little bit. I like to try and help her out as much as I can after work and during the weekends since she gets to deal with them all day, all week, long. Upon going downstairs I give both boys cereal and their juice, and they are happy. Now the usual string of events is that the boys eat their cereal and drink their juice until Jen or I get out breakfast whereupon they MUST have some of our food since they obviously can't see that it's the same thing that they have and it MUST be better. So I eat my cereal (with help from the boys) and a fix my toast. Now when I fix toast lately I make another piece since they "will help" me with that too. So I am sitting down with my toast and glass of Orange Juice and I notice that William's diaper is full and about to explode. I tell him to lay down so I can get him changed. Now Andrew the one year old is getting real sneaky and is able to reach alot farther on tables that he used to, so with this in mind I put the toast up on a shelf where he can't reach it. Upon taking Williams diaper I find that he has pretty much filled up the whole thing with liquid poop. Ugh. Yuck. Ack. So I am trying to change him quickly but to no avail where I get liquid poop on the clean diaper I am trying to change into as well as on the carpet (there is alot of it). As I am trying to deal with this huge mess I look up to see Andrew take my very full glass of orange juice and try to get a drink and dumps it on himself (I forgot the OJ, shit). So one kid screaming because he is covered head to toe in O.J., another kid with his body weight in liquid poop getting all over the place. I yell up to Jen for assistance.... aaaannnnnndddd.... nothing. Sleeping Beauty claims to have been folding laundry as being the reason for her not hearing me, but the jury is still out on that for me :). So I quickly undress Andrew and wipe him of and go back to dealing with the mess from William. Sleeping Beauty comes down a little while later so see both kids running around in their diapers and I tell her my tales of mass poop destruction where she starts to laugh at me. I for one DID NOT see the humor that she did. After things calmed down the boys went back to playing as normal and I just sat there stunned and watched TV. A short time later I hear Andrew in the kitchen and look up to see that he has grabbed the box of cereal (yeah I forgot to put that away) and is walking across the kitchen with the box..... upside-down. Cereal everywhere. He pretty much dumped an entire full box on the floor. sigh. Is it to early to start drinking????

Blogger Sucks

I have to vent about this. When I sign into blogger it used to ask me if I wanted to upgrade the the new blogger. You know what? No I don't want to. I don't see any benefit of the new blogger and I liked the old one and it worked. But one day signing into blogger I was FORCED to sign up for the new blogger, I was not given the option. It would not let me sign in at all. Now when I sign in I have to use my email account and password, and I don't see what was wrong with the other way. Then I noticed that if I want to comment on anyone elses blog that I cannot use my email account and password to "sign-in" to comment. I have to first go into blogger and sign in, then go to the other blog and then I am able to comment to their blog. Either I am doing something wrong or it is just FU**ED.

WAY TO MAKE IT BETTER DICKS!!!

Man what a drive

Geez what a drive into work today!!!! As I was getting ready for work I notice that it was a little foggy and I was thinking no big deal. Then Jen tells me that school is cancelled for the day and I am thinking there has to be something else. As I am backing out of the garage I hear that it is a freezing fog. I don't remember ever hearing about a freezing fog before, but they warned of black ice and slippery roads especially with overpasses. I get out of the addition without too much trouble and then hit the highway, and Geez it is foggy. I can't see 20 feet in front of my car. I get behind a truck going about 45mph. Now it's pretty bad, but I didn't think it was that bad so I passed him. With that type of fog you go into a different mindset while driving. You have to kinda guess where you are on the road since you can't see any of the usual roadside icons like the Meijer store or highway signs. You also start to look very hard at the fog in front of you scanning for cars, and then all of a sudden you think you see the image of a car, but you don't. That was kinda freaky. You also think that it takes just one idiot to get into a wreck or hit something to block the highway and I could be part of a pile-up since there was no way to stop at that speed with that visibility. Yeah I know I could have went slower, but that can be just as dangerous sometimes.
I noticed that my antenna was waving back and forth. Now usually antennas only do this when they have an antenna topper on them, but I noticed that there was ice actually building up on the antenna. By the time I reached work it was probably at least 3/8 inch thick.
I was getting near the overpasses near New Haven and noticed the road got white all of a sudden and I noticed tire tracks on the side of the road so I immediately threw my car into neutral and got out of the gas since I didn't know what to expect. What I did notice was a truck without much of a front end sitting on the side of the road with no sign of another car. Hopefully it wasn't in a ditch somewhere.
It's now noon and the warmer temperature and sun were supposed to burn this fog away, but as I look outside my window I can't even see across the street, should be a fun ride home.

Fix it up...

Every week I try to catch the "this old house" hour on PBS. I like watching "this old house" to see them renovate old buildings and see the newest stuff out on the market for houses. I try and see if I can get ideas for our house with some of the bigger ideas. I have actually started to plan how to build a permanent display case in the basement so Jen can show off her Disney stuff. It might wait until the basement remodel or I could do it earlier if I wanted to. It's fun to lay it out in my mind and think of all the little stuff like lights, electric, accessibility.

The other half of the house is "ask this old house". This is a half hour where Joe Schmo e-mails the guys and ask typical questions of common household projects. Even though our house is only 10 years old it was lived in hard and has some issues. I have actually solved two problems with the house by watching the show. The first was a squeaky second story floor. I should have thrown down a bunch of screws when I had the carpet up, but it wasn't squeaking then (of course). They showed a gadget that allows you to run a screw into the floor (through the carpet) and into the rafters. And when you are done, the screws are designed to break off just below the floor board so nothing sticks up. I am thinking great invention, but it probably costs alot or is only available on-line, but after some research I found out they sold it at Menards and Home Depot for $20. I went to Menards and got it cheaper than that. The screws are a little pricey, but worth it rather than pulling up carpet and all the other hassle. So I threw a bunch of these screws into the floor and pretty much solved the problem. I might have to put in some more screws later on since it seems like the squeak is caused by the weather outside and humidity in the house. The second problem that we had is the door on our bedroom wouldn't stay opened. You can tell by the finish on the door that it wasn't the original door and the hobbled together door frame that doesn't quite match. I believe that the door was kicked in at some point. (Like I said the house was lived in pretty hard.) So the door won't stay opened and we were using a door stop to prop it open, and then all of a sudden I saw an episode of "ask this old house" where he had a similar problem. Turns out the door wasn't squared up when it was installed (like all the other half-assed stuff in this house). I am thinking great, now I have to tear the door apart to square it up, but then the host gave a quick fix for the problem. All I had to do is take the pins out of the door and bang them with a hammer to bend them and lo and behold it worked. A year of dealing with this messed up door and it took 5 minutes to fix. Cool. The other part of the show that makes me laugh is when they send the landscaping guy out to help a viewer with their landscaping project and he puts the shovel blade in the ground and it goes all the way down to the top of the blade. Every time I say to myself, "let see how easy you would have it with some good old Indiana clay".

Snow ....Snow ....S**t

And now my story from the great Valentines Blizzard of '07. First of all I really wouldn't call this a blizzard, it was more of a bad snow storm. Now 1978, that was a blizzard, but I know that people around us got it a lot worse and I would not want to live where Carrie lives for any amount of money. We got to leave work early on Tuesday since the roads were getting worse, and it was a little slow going home. Good news and bad news sorta thing. I go highway pretty much the whole drive where the good news was that there wasn't alot of traffic, but the bad news is that the highway is out in the country so there isn't much keeping the wind from drifting the road pretty bad. When I got home I was able to get some of the snow shoveled. I knew there was more on the way, but with the levels of snow that they predicted I figured I better get ahead of it. I try to get to the driveway as soon as possible for two very good reasons. One is because I try and get the driveway shoveled before we drive on it since there is no worse feeling then shoveling snow and then getting the handle shoved into your stomach with the abrupt stop of a rut. The second reason is that our driveway is uphill and pretty steep so if it isn't cleared it usually takes one or two runs at the driveway to get into the garage (like it did when I got home). Now if it's just a little snow I will just shovel it pretty quick, but with this much snow I decided to fire up the snowblower. It took me a few minutes to get it to fire. All I can say is thank God for electric start since pull starting that thing would have killed me like in the good old days. I took the first pass down the middle of the driveway and got into the thicker stuff the plow had put at the end of the driveway and stalled it (damn). Now when you stall this blower it takes quite a bit to get it restarted since it floods the engine. So back up the garage to plug it back in again and I kept hitting the button to start it. I figured that I would let it sit for a few minutes in case it was flooded. Of course I didn't do what I should of last spring and ran the gas out of it so I was dealing with old gas also. So I begin to shovel, and shovel, and shovel. I get half the driveway done and try and fire up the blower and nothing happens. I am shoveling my driveway and I am thinking a couple of different things as I look at the blower sitting in the garage. "Is the blower mocking me? It sure looks like it is." Like it is a little payback for not draining the gas in the spring or getting fresh gas before this winter. The other thing I am thinking is that people are driving by the house and see me shoveling snow with a blower sitting at the top of the driveway. I was waiting for someone to stop by and say, "you know that thing at the top of the driveway blows the snow for ya." I felt kinda like an idiot, but I was hoping it would eventually start and I could make quick work of the rest of the driveway. I finally got it started and was able to finish up the rest of the drive in a few minutes compared to the half hour it took me to shovel.

The next day I was one of the few who made it into work and when I got home Jen and I went out for Valentines day. We originally were going out, then we weren't, then we were, then we weren't, freaking weather. I was attempting to be real slick with Valentines day when we were planning on going out. I put a change of clothes in the car (nice clothes, tie, etc) earlier in the week and thought that I would change at work and we would meet at the restaurant and I would surprise her in my nice clothes. Nope. Wednesday when I went to work I took the Jeep since it is a 4x4 and left my clothes in the car. damn. We ended up having a nice dinner at Triangle Park and then headed home (Grandma watched the kids, but we had to be home before Idol came on so grandma could watch, she is hooked).

Thursday by the time I got home from work we had driven on the driveway for two days so the tire ruts were really built up. damn. I tried staring up the blower and couldn't get it to fire. So I break out the shovel and do the driveway again with the blower mocking me again (much like Wilson in Castaway). Abrupt stops of hitting the tire ruts pissing me off. I tried occasionally to start it, but it wouldn't fire so I ended up shoveling the whole thing by hand. I ended up getting out an actual shovel to knock down the ruts to make the driveway all pretty. One thing for sure, I am definitely going to drain the gas this spring and get fresh gas next winter. Either that or a can of Ether. (Good note for MR)

I don't know why

Having two kids I am sometimes forced to watch cartoons almost every day. PBS actually has a pretty good line-up of cartoons that the boys really enjoy watching. But there is one called "Arthur" that I have an issue with. Arthur is a cartoon where the characters are all animals of some kind. It wasn't until only recently that Jen told me that Arthur was an aardvark.

There is one character on Arthur that really pisses me off. It is Arthur's little sister D.W. She is a whiney little brat who constantly is screaming and whining and telling on her brother even when it is her fault. And her voice is at the perfect octive to hit the "parent" nerve that gives you a facial tick. Why does this character annoy me so much? I don't know. I haven't seen one episode where she isn't a whiney little bitch where she constantly complains. Finally I saw an episode where the ticks off Arthur so much that he actually hits her. YES!! HIT HER AGAIN!! I actually kind of enjoyed that. I might get the episode on tape so I can play it over and over again. Of course he is the one that gets into trouble and gets the full wrath of his stupid parents who don't have a clue to what is going on. I know I will have to deal with these issues with my kids in the near future, but hopefully I will have a clue and keep the whining to a minimum

Personal Crusade

I am on a personal crusade. Everyone who tells me Happy Valentines day, I quickly reply Happy SAINT Valentines day. The day, like St. Patrick's day, celebrates the life of St. Valentine. You don't go around saying Happy Patrick's Day. But the card industry has gotten ahold of this holiday and turned into a Halmark Holiday.

So today wish someone a HAPPY SAINT VALENTINES DAY !!!!

Superbowl

Yeah I know it's been over a week ago, but it's been nuts busy at work so I haven't had the chance to blog.

Jen and I went to the store to stock up for the Superbowl party. We were picking up a few things to make snacks. Now I am not the one that usually goes to the market, at least not since I have been married, so I am not really in my element at the market. Add to that the fact that it is real busy and hard to maneuver a cart through the store. I used to go shopping at midnight to avoid the crowds when I was single. So, we are in the cracker isle and I notice that every type of cracker is now flavored with all kinds of different flavors and combinations. Marcus brought some interesting flavored snacks from Snyders at the last guys night. My simple wheat thins now have 7 different flavors including Parmesan and basil (?). I am noticing all the different crackers and flavors and I notice a box that makes me stop. Applesauce crackers? who in the hell would want applesauce crackers? I make this comment to Jen who looks at me like "you idiot". Upon closer review, and her sarcasm she points out that they are applause crackers. Maybe I am a bit dyslexic.

Anyhow, we start assembling snacks on Sunday and are surprisingly ready to go by 3:30ish. I told everyone we start the party at 4:00pm thinking that no one will show up until at least 4:30 or so. Then it becomes 5:00pm. Then 5:30pm. Superbowl starts in an hour. I am having a flashback of the Quinmore incident and thinking Sh*t I am never having another party. Then all of a sudden everyone shows up at the same time. Whew. We ended up having a good time with a good game and pretty good commercials. I noticed that I was the only one drinking. Oh well more beer for me. It would be nice if they started the game earlier in the day so you don't have to be out late on a Sunday night. I noticed the footage of previous superbowls and they were played in the daytime, that would be nice. Also, I wish there was a way that true fans would get tickets to the game rather than the uber-rich or priveledged who don't give a crap about the game. Indy is about to get a fantastic new stadium, but they will never get a superbowl since there isn't enough places to pamper these yahoos or a beach nearby, so sad.