Cars

Saturday I had to get the oil changed in the Saturn. I noticed the last time that the dealership was a wi-fi hotspot so I decided to take the laptop with me. Of course after getting past the service guy trying to talk me into $500 worth of maintenance on the car that "must be done" I was able to get to the showroom. I grabbed a pop and sat down at a table. I connected pretty easily and was surfing in seconds. There was only one other kid on the computer at the dealership so it kinda surprized me that it was so slow, but then I figured that the other computers in the dealership (probably the whole automall) were sharing this connection. I couldn't blog or do some other stuff so I wasn't sure if there was a setting on my computer or on there server that didn't allow access to some websites and things. Just as my laptop ran out of juice they told me that my car was done. Cool, that worked out. Overall it's good to know that I can take the laptop with me if I ever have any extended service done to the car. You know, the stuff that "must be done".

Speaking of car stuff. I have heard commercials and have seen signs for car dealers who will do you taxes if you buy a car from them. HUH? Let a car dealer do my taxes??? I would never allow a car dealer to do my taxes, especially a used car dealer. What a way of saying that they want to make sure they get all of your return rather than just some of it for that used pinto. I would rather my taxes were prepared by myself or H&R Block rather than Bob's used wrecks. But I am sure there are plenty of people who do this every year, but I just don't understand.....

What?

I have seen this story for the past couple of days about this little 77 sqare foot apartment in London for sale for $330,000 +.

In the story it says:

Tiny London apartment on sale for $335K
LONDON - Location, location, location. Almost anywhere else, the tiny dilapidated studio wouldn't attract much more than mice. But this is London and the 77-square-foot former storage room — slightly bigger than a prison cell and without electricity — is going for $335,000.

No Electricity? then What do you call this thing in the ceiling?




















Later on it says:

A coffin-sized shower is en suite, and storage is provided by a shallow closet and 10-inch-deep shelves cut into the wall. Two hot plates and a small sink make up the kitchen. Two dirty windows allow light to filter into the basement room, and the fire escape could conceivably double as a shared patio.
With no electricity or heating, Scott said it would cost an additional $59,000 to make the room habitable.

Again no electricity according to the story but two hot plates in the kitchen. How exactly are they powered?

I know it's the novelty of the story of how big it is and how much it's going for, but someone should get their facts straight. Either that or there is a language barrier between our countries. Or maybe it's just that the electricity isn't on, but I can't imagine they need $59,000 to flip a switch, but again it is England.

i'm melting... i'm melting

I got hit with a very nasty stomach virus over the weekend, and man it was no fun at all. Lucky for me it hit Thursday night so I had the weekend to rest and try and get over it, but I did end up taking Monday off and going to the doctors. Of course during the day on Monday I started to feel better, but I did end up going to the doctors anyway. Sunday night my stomach was rolling and gurgling so much that I wouldn't have been surprized to see an alien come out of my stomach. I swore I was going to wake the kids up. I know for a fact that it scared the cat. Or maybe that was just the byproduct of it sounding like the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles" around my chair. Don't you hate when you are dealing with an issue like that and you get ready to "let loose" a big one and you just pray it's all gas? (ewww grossss.. yeah I know). We have all been there/done that, I am just saying it....

Why am I writing about this? I don't know.

Low Battery.

So, Sunday night I tried to head to bed early since I was so tired. But I threw in a movie and watched the whole thing, then had to make my lunch, and other assorted crap that I do before bed. By the time I actually hit the sheets its 12:30 or so. Andrew is having an issue so he is waking up and crying. Lucky for me he goes back to sleep very fast, but unlucky for me the baby monitor is still in the room so I wake up every time he does this, which is frequently. Among the other stuff to keep me awake is the pouring rain that is keeping my sump pump activating every 2 or 3 minutes which ends with a "THUMP THUMP THUMP" after every cycle. For some reason I don't trust my sump pump and I am always afraid it's going to stop working and I will be totally hosed, especially since it runs so much. Also, Jenny is still at work so I usually try and keep an ear out to see if I can hear her come home. I think I finally get to sleep and hear "THUMP" at 2:30am. It's not the sump pump "thump" but the "thump" sound of either Jenny coming home from work or William falling out of bed. I don't hear William crying, but I decide to investigate. I find William on the floor of his bedroom asleap. Man, that's pretty tired if you can fall out of bed and not wake up. After all of that I get back to sleep to have the alarm go off in what seems like an hour later and I get up. Work was real fun Monday.

Monday night I decide to try and get to bed early, but again with my farting around and TV watching it's well after 11:30 before I finally hit the sheets. Now I go to sleep hard. Around 2:00am again I hear a noise in a subconscious state of mind. I am trying to wake myself up enough to see if I can comprehend what is going on (you know, that kind of sleep). I wake up enough to hear a "beep" and then an electronic voice like Star Trek saying something. I figure that it is one of the kid's toys with the battery going dead and it's freaking out. At this point I am seriously going to find this toy and chuck it out the back door. Usually I kid around that I am going to do that, but this time I meant it. I asked Jenny if she knew what was making the noise so I can get my pitching arm ready. She informs me that the smoke detector downstairs is beeping and saying "battery low". Damn. Both of our smoke detectors are hardwired into the electrical of the house and they are in conjunction with each other so if one goes off they both go off. Unfortunately this beep and voice is something that I can't sleep through, and we are afraid it will wake the boys up. I am still trying to wake up to make my brain work on how to solve the problem. It would be just easy to replace the battery, but I know that if I disconnect the detector downstairs, both of the detectors will go off since they have a backup system in place. Adding to the fun is that we aren't sure if we have a 9 volt battery in the house so we are trying to think of which of the kid's toys to canaballize. Luckily Jen finds a battery and I do the old tongue test on the connectors to make sure that the battery is still good, and it is. I go down and look at the detector and tell Jen to get ready for screaming kids since disconnecting this thing will surely make them go off. Sure as shit as soon as I unplug the detector they both go off. I am trying to change the battery as fast as possible, but it takes a minute to get everything unplugged and plugged. William wakes up screaming so Jen goes to comfort him (maybe we should have woke him up before). Andrew stirs, but never actually wakes up. That's a heavy sleep. Finally after the battery is changed and everything is plugged back in, the detectors have to do a start up procedure which involves more alarms going off and voices. Finally the house falls silent. I do the tounge test on the supposed bad battery and it has a full charge!! WTF? I need to get the instructions out on these detectors and see if they require a monthly test or if they know when it has been a year since their last battery. We have to calm William down and he finally goes to sleep. I have to calm down so I finally go to sleep around 3:30 or so. Of course I sleep through my alarm so I wake up late and get ready at warp speed. I don't know how, but I actually made it to work on time. Needless to say work was fun yesterday. I am not as tired as I should be, maybe I am getting used to interrupted sleep (noooooooooooo).

And Now the news...

Well the year has started out relatively calm so far. The weekends are coming back into things of calm and relaxation rather than pandelerium. I got my Reuben sandwiches which were yummy. The good part is that with the stuff we bought to make our own we actually had quite a few meals from them. If anyone is interested in the recipe it's just basically corn beef, Swiss cheese, thousand island salad dressing and saur kraut on rye bread, toasted like a cheese toasty (Med heat until cheese melts).

I am getting a little antsy for a party so Jen and I are thinking about a superbowl/card party in a few weeks. We haven't seen our friends in quite a while and it would be nice for a visit. Not sure if we are going to do it or not, so stay tuned.

Speaking of Superbowl... it is the dumbest thing that no one on radio or TV can call the game "Superbowl" because the name is trademarked. They have to use other names like the "Big Game" or something else like that, so stupid. How great of a marketing idea is that? You spend millions of dollars on an event, and you don't allow anyone to call it what it is? (Like everyone doesn't know). I can't think of any other event that is nationally recognized that you can't say what it is. And Prince at halftime? uh.. yeah....right.

Football in General - before watching the Colts game Saturday I was watching the pregame show with JB, Shannon,Dan Marino, and some other yahoo. All of these guys gave the game to Baltimore before the game began. If it were up to them they wouldn't have even bothered playing the game. Even the commentators doing the game were extremely pro-Baltimore. At halftime the yahoo's were still trying to will Baltimore to a win. The commentators late into the 4th quarter they were saying what Baltimore had to do to win and beat the Colts. I am sorry, the Colts played very well and deserve some freaking respect. To everyone at CBS sports I would like to say:

Next time we turn on WOWO to listen to the call of the game.

Unfortunate burn out - I was driving home the other day and noticed that the neon sign on the Golden Corral restaurant. Unfortunately the "C" was burnt out on the sign. I don't know about you, but the "Golden Orral" just sounds dirty. And what makes it "Golden"? I AM NOT GOOGLEING THAT.

Carrie e-mailed us trying to nail down some dates for a possible "Geekfest 2007" (maybe I should trademark that so no one can say what it is). Being low woman on the totem pole at her work, the available dates for vacations in summer are slim pickings since everyone else has first pick. Her first choice is June 21-24 (which is looking more and more like the date). But again like last year she will have to pull Mary out of school or show up late at the destination. The next available date for her is sometime in August. All of this puts the planning committee into full gear trying to figure out where to go, what to do, and try and find out who wants to go. Any ideas would be appreciated. I think it was fun at the Kalahari, but it wouldn't be bad to do something else. If the same number of people want to go again this year I like the Village room that the Kalahari has to offer. I couldn't find anywhere else that offered a room like that, but again, depends on how many want to go. First things first WHO WANTS TO GO???????

That's enough rambling for now..

Tiggergate

I heard about this video a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chance to see it until today. The story that I heard is that a guy in a tigger costume hit a 14 year old kid at Disney. My first thought was "wow, the guy freaked out". I was a bit appauled to think that could happen, but then I saw the video. The guy in the costume is clearly trying to grab this kids hand and just happens to brush his face with his paw. This 14 year old brat claims that he didn't do anything, but I am willing to bet he was trying to unzip his costume or something like that. Tigger reaction was the same that anyone would have. I am sure this will end up with a lawsuit, but I wish someone in the media would get a clue and stop reporting that tigger "hit" this little bastard.

Now I know for a fact that there are some un-Disney things that happen at the parks behind the scenes but this definatly is not one of them.

New Year's Resolution

I have finally decided on my New Year's Resolution

I have resolved to give up self-denial

I hope I make it

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to everyone!! This year we had another laid back kinda weekend, which is becoming what we old people with kids tend to do anymore. I was never really into going out on new years eve that much, but I would look for a party or create one, but now hanging out at home and not having to worry about the other yahoos on the road is getting to become what we do. I still love a good party though.

Saturday I had the time (and decent weather) to get all of the outside lights and decorations taken down. Now usually I will wait until after new years weekend to do this, but I just knew that if I waited until next weekend it would be 10 degrees with a foot of snow. Saturday night we took the whole crew to Meijer to get some snacks and stuff for Sunday night and Monday (and of course beer). I don't know why but a good Reuben sandwich just sounded good for new year's day. I figured we could just do a snack night thing Sunday since we were going to the in-laws for lunch that day and I knew I wouldn't be hungry for a whole meal Sunday night, just snacks.

Just like predicted we got home from the in-laws Sunday night around 8:00 or so and put the kids to bed. I thought about seeing if William wanted to stay up a bit longer, but I could tell he was already tired. By the time the kids were in bed, Jen was downstairs baking up some brownies. These are the best brownies that she found a recipe for. They are kind of a double layered brownie with mini M&M's in it. DE-LIC-IOUS (made from scratch, not a mix). I put together some cream cheese and relish dip and put together some roll-ups that Jen had a taste for. By the time we stopped cooking and putting together the snacks it was almost 9:45 already, so we put the snacks on the table and sat down to watch TV. I had my Corona (with lime) and she had her pop. We both made it past midnight until 1:00 or so then both fell asleep on the couch. I got up around 3:00am and headed to bed where Jen followed sometime later. 7:30am William comes walking into the bedroom. nnnnooooooo. that is way to freaking early. So I got up with him and we went downstairs. The rest of the morning was spent in the lazy boy with an occasional cat nap here and there while the kids played with their stuff. Later in the day we went to my mom's house for a visit and to drop the kids off for a couple of hours while we got some stuff done around the house. One of the tasks was to get rid of the real Christmas tree that we had. It's always so sad to see it come down, but the needles were becoming a real problem. This year Jen did go out looking for a new artificial tree after Christmas but couldn't find anything she liked. By the time we were done with our projects we ended up just grabbing some pizza at mom's house with the kids. The reubens will have to wait until tonight. YEAH!!!!

MR's Christmas Party

Here is the picture from MR's Christmas Party. The night had a very 80's feel to it with us playing 80's trivial persuit. There are 16 things added to the orginal picture. Can you find them all?

What's the deal?

I came back to work after Christmas kinda expecting a eazy 4 day week to another three day weekend only to come back to a couple of huge projects that has put me out on the production floor for two days straight. Don't they know I have a blog to maintain?

The one thing that I love about being in an office this time of the year is that we have a break table that is usually full of stuff to snack on. Every once in a while, during the year, someone might bring in a little something to snack on, but this time of year it's quite the nice display of cookies, cheese and sausage, and candy. Yummmmmmm.

Man, what ANOTHER weekend

WOW. What a busy busy weekend.

Friday night - I decided to make Christmas cookies. Yeah the same ones that I was talking about for about a week now, but I needed to get them done since I saw the rest of the weekend getting full fast. Jen had to work, so I started after putting the boys to bed. The recipe that I use is one that has been in our family for years (as long as I can remember). They are a real good sugar "cut-out" cookie with real grated orange peel in the dough. The cookies went together pretty fast, but didn't have the exact taste that I was going for. The recipe calls for butter flavored crisco, but I used regular since it's all that I could find in the pantry. Of course I found the butter flavored crisco after I was done and I dug a little deeper in the pantry. Dang. In keeping with tradition from my grandma, I drank a beer in a regular glass and gave up a nod to grandma. I seem to remember my grandma having a glass of beer handy when she was cooking. While I was making cookies I put in "Christmas Vacation" for atmosphere while baking. After cleaning up my mess (I would frost and decorate Saturday) I decided to get a head start on making caramel corn. Jen decided to make caramel corn for her co-workers as gifts but had to make at least 5 batches to fill the tins that she bought, but in inspecting the pantry, no corn syrup. I had used the last of it for my Hoosier pies at Thanksgiving, so, no caramel corn tonight.

Saturday - The family gets up and Jen heads to Meijer to grab some corn syrup for the caramel corn and to look for honeybuns (another tradition with me). She gets back and I start putting together the stuff to make the caramel corn, but just remembered that we were almost out of popcorn too. Opps, So, Jen head out to Scotts to buy popcorn and look for honeybuns again (none at meijer). She gets back and I start putting together the caramel corn and I make a little routine where one pan is baking while I cook caramel in the stove. The first batch is good, but the caramel seems like it isn't mixed well enough. I call it grainy, but it's like the sugar isn't melting. I thought it might be a fluke so I keep going. Second batch, still not right. Third batch, still not right. We decide to stop. We figure that the corn syrup that she bought is bad somehow, or the brown sugar has an issue. I still say it was because I wasn't stirring the pan well enough before putting the caramel over the corn. SO, a third trip to the store, this time to Kroger's to buy new corn syrup and to look for honeybuns (still can't find them). We start the process again and finally it's starting to go together much better. So with the three first tries, the 5 batches for the co-workers, 1 overcooked batch, and 1 batch for my mom, we ended up making 10 batches of caramel corn. Once Jen and I got into the routine we were able to hammer them out pretty fast. Finally we finished the caramel corn and Jen headed out to deliver the caramel corn and do some other stuff. When she got back I headed out for some last minute shopping. When I got back Tracy and the boys had come over so we visited with them and the boys played until 9:30 or so.

Sunday - The boys kinda slept in since they were up late the night before and we started putting stuff together for the day. Jen continued baking, while it was my job to frost/decorate cookies and get the boys bathed and ready for church. I had to make a Kroger run to get yeast for Jen's next project in the kitchen. We got stuff done around the house and headed out to church around 4:00. Upon arriving at 4:10 for a 4:30 service, it was already standing room only. Lucky for us we found a couple chair in the cry room so we were able to camp out there. William was being difficult. He had his cars, but insisted on kneeling in front of the chair to play with the cars on the chair. Of course with chairs being at a minimum he wanted to play on my chair. Initially we said no, but I finally ended up standing just so I wouldn't have to deal with his whining and pouting. After church we headed over to my mom's house. Mom puts out a great meal with shrimp cocktail and other snacks for an appetizers and then a great pan of Johnny Marzetti that was delicious. We exchanged presents with my mom, uncle, brother, and sister-in-law. We all got some neat presents, of course the kids getting the vast majority. Upon reading my blog about what I wanted for Christmas and my memories of "ULTRAMAN" and other stuff from my childhood, by brother got me the DVD collection of "STARBLAZERS" which is another cartoon/anime thing that we watched at kids. I had stared collecting the VHS copies of the series a few years ago, but at $20 a tape for one or two episodes it became real expensive so I stopped, but now I have the full series. The kids of course were loaded with all kinds of toys and some clothes. Some of the most interesting stuff were the things that my mom brought back from China. We even put the boys in these silk pajamas that mom brought back. My brother presented my sister-in-law with a pendant that he designed and that he created from scratch that brought tears to her eyes. (Stay tuned for pictures and more description about that). We finally headed for home around 9:30 or so again. Upon putting the boys to bed we still had a ton of presents to wrap for the next day so we were up till about 11:00 wrapping presents.

Monday - Sunday morning we hear the sound of William leaving his bedroom around 8:00 or so and we are waiting for him to come into the bedroom, but he doesn't. After a few minutes we go to the balcony where we see him downstairs playing with the toys he got the night before. He didn't even notice that there were presents around the tree and in the stockings. The morning was busy with opening presents and having breakfast. Jen had made cinnamon rolls since we couldn't find the honeybuns, and they were pretty good. So we get the crew cleaned up and head for the in-laws house whereupon we have more food and present opening. We hung out there for most of the day and stared to head for home around 6:00. We ended up hitting my mom's house one more time to give her a chance to see the boys on Christmas, and because we had forgotten a present for her the night before. Finally home around 8:00 and kids quickly to bed. Jen and I just looked at the carnage in the living room. She likes to say that it looks like Radiator Springs exploded in our living room. After trying to clean up a little bit I headed to bed. One more holiday down. The plan for New Years? Not a F##&*ng thing.

Man what a weekend

Friday - I took Friday off to get my shopping done, or at least a good dent into it. I had an idea of what I wanted to get so I figured a good trip to Wal-mart would take care of it. About an hour and $100 later I left the store with a good dent put into my list. On the way home I decided to run to a hardware store to buy stuff to strip the paint and stain off those old kitchen cabinets. You know, the project I started 6 months ago. I found some goo that was working really good, but I ran out, so I stopped to get more goo. I noticed when I went into this hardware store that they cut car keys with computer chips in them. SCORE!! I talked to the guy and he told me that it would be around $30 for a key to be made, that is so much better than the $80 the dealership was going to charge. I ran home and grabbed the jeep, and went back to the hardware store to have a key made on the way for an oil change. They put my key in their machine and pushed a few buttons and then started pulling off key blanks on the regular key display. I had a copy of the jeep keys made before without the chip and it didn't work and they were getting ready to cut another key like this and I stopped them. Upon talking to the hardware employee (later confirmed by the dealership) Jeep's have a special system that requires only the dealership to copy keys. Damn. it's nice to have that security, but why is it so expensive? I guess that goes back on the christmas wish list. After the oil change I went out and about to do some more shopping, but didn't really find anything. Either that or I was just too tired to continue.

Saturday - Saturday started with a lazy kind of morning, but we noticed that Andrew had the sniffles, so that translates to preparing ourselves for everyone getting the sniffles. We packed the crew up and headed to Bell's rink in New Haven for a 5th birthday party for Charlie. This is a nice gathering of friends and family that is also pretty fun. I was chasing the boys around and actually got William to try rollerskating for the first time ever. He actually did very well and was having a fun time, but found the video games much more interesting. I have a feeling that he will want to try this more every year if we keep going back so I might have to refresh myself on rollerskating too. Let's seeeee... it's only beeeeeenn.... mmmmf... years. After the party ended and we were given last call we headed home where Jen made dinner rolls and I got a bit of a cat nap (I needed that) We packed up the crew again and headed for the mall. We had pictures taken of the boys a few weeks ago and the studio informed us that one of the pictures that we ordered with Andrew (his 1 year) was blurry and required a retake. So we took or lives in our hands and took the crew to the mall on a Saturday night (mistake). We got to the portrait studio and had to wait. I was trying to figure out why since they were only using one of the two studios and the photographer and 2 other people were behind the counter making plans for the night. Anywhooo, we get Andrew's picture taken and we are waiting for the pictures to appear on the screen and we get the pictures from the first photo session and lo and behold there is the picture that they said was blurry as clean as if we were looking into a window. They later explained that when they were printing the 8"x10" they must have bumped the machine. yeah, right. It's a good thing we weren't charged anything for the retake. Being the foolish people that we are we decided to do a little shopping while we were at the mall (mistake again). Nothing like trying to push a stroller through the mall on a saturday night the week before christmas. One, idiots just stop in front of you to look around for no reason. Two, just trying to get a stroller through some of these stores with the tight fixture placement is a nightmare, especially if you are trying to chase the 3 year old. Three, the three year old now has the sniffles and is looking like he caught the cold that Andrew had, so he wants to ride in the stroller and tries to kick out the 1 year old. Four, they were hungry. Five, we didn't have an idea of what we wanted. I am such a guy where I want to get stuff and get out. I am not a wandering shopper, especially not with two kids in tow. So we buy one thing and call it a night. Of course William now with the cold in full effect wakes up at least 6 times during the night screaming and crying. So much for sleep that night.

Sunday - Now Jen and I are also feeling the full effects of the cold with sore throats, sniffles, and sinus drainage. We are able to hobble the boys together enough to go to my mom's house for lunch. The food was very good and we had a good visit with my Aunt and my brother, but all of us were felling like dookie. After a few hours there we packed the crew up and headed to the other side of town for another gathering of Jenny's family. By the time we get there I am feeling the full effects of the cold and I am fading fast. I spend the next couple of hours chasing Andrew all over the house since he loves the stairs. Upon the first mention of leaving, I quickly pack up the kids and throw on their coats, (since leaving usually entails at least half an hour of us saying "we are going now") but I expedited that since I was beat. We get home and get a few things done where I head to bed. Of course William wakes up again at 3am and won't go back to sleep for an hour and a half. So I sit here at work Monday trying to stay awake and trying to think of when to get my shopping done and things baked, and drugs to take. Nose running, head pounding, eyes burning. Man what a weekend, and it's only the week before christmas.

Quinmores come to Visit

I have finally posted pictures from the Quinmores visit in November. I have put them on my new flickr account (since I filled the other account up). More pictures can be seen here.

De Plane ! De Plane!

I was working out in the production floor when something caught my eye. It looked like there was a problem with my co-workers arm. I looked a little closer and saw that he now had a tatoo on his forarm. Not just his forarm, but the WHOLE top of his forarm from wrist to elbow. It's a real mecabre dragon tatoo. Tatoo's are certainly not the taboo that they used to be, but still there are still certain types of people and types of tatoo's that you kind of expect on people. You know, like a school teacher having a little butterfly or dolphin on their ankle. Or like Carrie's tatoo on her lower back, some tatoo's just meet my exepctations, but this one blew me away. This guy seems pretty normal and a quazi computer geek. He drives a freaking BMW for christ's sake!! I can see a little something like the Dell logo on his upper arm, but I just can't put my mind around a full forarm "dragon" tatoo on him. But then I got to thinking, in a few months the hair is going to grow back on his forarm and he is going to have a harry tatoo of a dragon. I really don't try and stereotype people, but sometimes I wonder about peoples decisions.

What's in a Name?

Saturday afternoon my two boys and I met a couple of friends over at Casa's Italian restaurant. Now I didn't want to stuff myself on food since I was heading over to MR's party in a few hours, but I knew the boys would like to eat, or at least Andrew the human vacuum cleaner would for sure. I look at the special kids menu, and like all restaurants in the world they have the usual fare of hot dogs, grilled cheese, and macaroni and cheese. All restaurants offer these same dishes since the know that kids don't like anything new and will only eat the same basic things. Some restaurants we have been to might change things up a little bit to make it more like their restaurant, like toasting the bun for the hot dog or grilling the cheese sandwich a little different (if that is possible). So I order macaroni and cheese for the boys and milk. I forget to tell the waiter to bring the milk with the meal and he brings it right away whereupon my boys both drink themselves silly on milk before the meal gets there, dang. William actually shakes his empty milk cup at our waiter (behind my back) like he is telling the waiter "Milk, Boy". I am embarrassed that my child would do this, but lucky for us the waiter thinks it's cute. After waiting for a while the food finally arrives, where I see a plate of pasta shells in an Alfredo sauce much like the quatro formaggi that I usually get. I think that it's a dish for my friends, but no, the waiter hands it to me. I say "excuse me, is this the macaroni and cheese?" and the waiter says "yes". OK. A few things come to mind. How do you not put MACARONI in the macaroni and cheese? The name of the noodle is right in the title!!! Oh wait, maybe they don't have macaroni in this ITALIAN restaurant!! God only knows what they would have brought me if I ordered the hot dog... they probably would have brought me steak. Lucky for me, Andrew the human vacuum cleaner could care less about it as long as it is food, and William was being a pain in the butt anyway so he didn't want to eat since he was filled with two glasses of milk.

In other food news.... Wednesday we took Andrew down to Indy for another checkup on his eye. (Everything is going well, but he will probably need another surgery next year to tweak things up a little more.) Now usually when we leave Indianapolis we hit the cheesecake factory to grab something to eat and bring back some cheesecake to snack on the next couple of days. After our last trip to the cheesecake factory and the $60 bill for lunch and bring home cheesecake, we decided to eat somewhere else. I saw a restaurant by the highway called "cheeseburger in paradise" and went to the website the last time down there. It's a Jimmy Buffet Margarittaville type of franchise with a tropical theme and food. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty cool and the food was delicious. The crab cake sandwiches were fantastic and Jen's wrap sandwich was very tasty too. I got 6 mini cheeseburgers that were a little dry but tasty. The funny part of the day was when we were waiting for our food there was tropical type music playing in the background. When a Regee song came on Andrew started to giggle and didn't stop until the end of the song. So it looks like we have a little Rasta in the family. Can you have Blonde dreadlocks?

Swiss Cheese Memory

Me and my swiss cheese memory. My brother commented on my last post about Christmas gifts and he pointed out some toys that we had as kids that I remember as clear as if it was yesterday. All of our GI Joe stuff and the ghost gun were as clear as his first drum set.



WHY DO I REMEMBER THAT KIND OF STUFF? Thinking about that stuff got my Swiss cheese memory working again and I came upon a mental picture of a movie that I saw when I was a kid. I think my parents took my brother and I to see this fine cinema. I vaguely recall it being a superhero type of person with a silver and red outfit with a facemask that fought monsters like the old Godzilla type of monsters with the typical Japanese genre of monster movies. I recall a huge satellite dish with an octopus type monster wrecking it. My brother and I were both into the Godzilla/Mothra/King Kong thing back in the 70's and 80's so it kinda makes sense that we would have seen a movie like this. (Actually I still love the genre and looked forward to AMC's Monsterfest around Halloween.) I kinda remember this movie/superhero being called Ultraman, and lo and behold, through the modern marvel of the internet I actually found the movie. According to www.imdb.com the movie was released in 1979 (I would have been 12 years old, that's about right), but doesn't say that there was an english version. Ultraman is still a popular character with tons of listings on eBay. You can actually watch some of the tv series on www.youtube.com. Was it really a movie in the theatre that we saw? Don't remember. Why do I remember it? Don't know. Would I want to see this bad Japanese movie again? Hell yeah!

What do I want for Christmas???

With Christmas being under a month away Jen asked me what I wanted for Christmas. She needed ideas for a list to give the in-laws and another to give her ideas for me. This year I am really stumped on what I want. For years it was easy. GI Joe with the kung foo grip and assorted toys, as I got older it might have been clothes, and now it's more like some electronic toy. But nothing is screaming "BUY ME" yet. Every year it gets to be more about the kids, which it totally fine with me, but it's nice to be a little selfish every year and to be able to let other know what you want. I think this year it more be stuff that isn't quite as normal. Maybe have someone make a copy of the Jeep keys so I don't end up taking them to work with me again (happened twice this year). This would make me happy so I don't have to worry in the long run. Maybe new controllers for our garage door opener since the ones we got from the house's previous owners were trashed with one not having a door on the battery compartment and neither one having clips on them so they get lost in the change dish/catchall. Gift Cards are so impersonal, and I hate giving them, but dang they come in handy, so load me up with gift cards to home improvement stores and restaurants.

I really enjoy giving presents alot more than getting them, but I am drawing a total blank on what to get anyone else this year either. I have one idea for Jen, but that's about it. She is taking care of getting stuff for the kids with a few ideas from me, but besides that I don't have a clue. Since money is a little tight this year Jen and I decided to put a budget on spending for each other this year. (OK every year Jen tries to put a spending limit for us and I always blow it. But this year I am really going to try). Our first year together she put a spending limit for us. I went to the mall at the same time she was working and I kept going back to her store asking if we could increase the budget a little more since I kept finding stuff. After a while she just told me not to spend it all. I did the same last year with that Lord of the Rings autographed poster which was way out of the "budget". I think I am going to take my one remaining day off for the year and just go shopping. It would be nice to do something else with the day, but it would also be nice to be done with shopping and not have to worry about it. I usually get in the christmas mode later in the month, but I think I will try to kick start it a little bit.

How embarrassing

Last year we had to live with my mom for about 5 months while we were looking for a new house about this same time last year. We had our mail forwarded to my mom's house for that short period, and now to our new house. For some reason she still gets junk mail for us at her house. I keep telling her that if it doesn't look important to just throw it away, but she insists on bringing it to our house to let us throw it away just in case we would actually like to look at.

Fast forward to last night. Usually I rarely get a chance to see the mail in our house since Jen takes care of it, but she does leave the catalogs out for me to look over. Usually this is my "Creative Irish Gifts" catalog and such. Last night I see a pile of catalogs and start looking through them. The last one that I come upon is a Playboy catalog. WOO HOOO!!. Just like the Victoria Secret's catalog, but a bit more edgy with videos on "self pleasure" and a few other swings and such that aren't for the kids. So of course I am looking through the catalog, for possible Christmas gifts let's say :). All of a sudden I realize that all of this mail came from my mom's house since it was all had my mom's address but our names. Great, now my mom thinks I am a sex freak that orders this stuff from Playboy. (OK once from the Adam and Eve catalog, but that was years ago.) Nothing like being 39 years old and still dreading the thought of your mom busting you with a dirty magazine, or thinking you are a freak. Damn how embarrassing. How do you let your mom know that you have no idea why you got the catalog without looking like you are trying to cover something? How in the world did I get on this mailing list? I think I will just ignore it and pretend like I didn't even see it.

Let's Talk Turkey

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. Every year we do the same thing. Lunch at the in-laws at 1:00pm with Jen's side of the family. Now it's nice to know exactly what we are doing every year, but you count on it being a stress free fun family event, of course it wasn't this year. We show up to the in-laws a little after noon and enter the house to some new faces this year. It's not unusual to see some new people at the lunch since there are still a few single members of the family and EVERYONE is invited to lunch. There are three kids in the living room (around 7 or 8 years old) playing on the floor. Upon seeing that I have a Disney Scene-It game in hand comes up to me and grabs the game. Doesn't ask, Doesn't know me, Doesn't care. I will call this oldest brat... brat (and that is being kind compared to what I was thinking). He opens the game (it was still shrink wrapped) and proceeds to layout the game and get the DVD into the player, and then starts yelling that it isn't working. OK, One: It's not your house Two:It's not your TV Three: Ask someone to help him. Finally my father in-law helps him get the DVD working, but I could see that he was really thinking about not letting him play at all since he was being such a shit, but he let him play. This brat was horrible, yelling at his brother and sister because they didn't know the answers and calling them stupid. I was about to get vocal with this brat, but hey it's not my kid and I don't know his parents (or what trailer park they were from). I was trying to leave the room, find a beer, and a quiet corner near the food, but no, my kids want to be in the same room. Andrew actually started chewing their pokemon cards and I was thinking "you go kid". Besides the brat, my day was basically spent chasing kids around the house. I miss the days when Andew wasn't moble since it made watching him so much easier. Man, Andrew was all over the place. Usually when we are at the in-laws I get help from them watching the kids, but they had 30+ people to take care of so it was up to us.

I was milling around the food having a few snacks and I look down the hallway to see a bunch of kids. I see the brat and another kid (who I know) around the same age wrestling with each other. And then I see his mother heading down the hallway toward the kids and I soon realize that they are fighting!! The mother yells at them to stop and they don't. MY TURN, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. I say one word "HEY!!" and they immediately stop, and the parents pull them aside to have talks with both of them. I finally see the brat's mother and she seems pretty normal, but I can tell that she has little to no control over this brat.

In comes my next issue. Tradition is that the kids get their food first and then everyone else. We get food for both my boys and finally head toward the line after 10 minutes or so (30+ people you know) By the time I get my food and sit down, the kids are done eating and want to go outside and play. Damn. So I am trying to shovel down my food with my son trying to hand me his shoes and coat. I sure am not going to let my kid outside alone and especially with the brat. So I go outside with William and he is playing with the other kids, basicly just chasing them around. I soon realize that I am the only adult outside with these 8 kids. I guess I am the only one that cares. Granted they were all around 8 years old so parental supervision isn't really necessary. So I am watching William and keeping an eye on the other kids so they don't get into trouble or destroy my in-laws place. The brat finds my in-laws burn pile and starts throwing sticks from the pile into the pond where I have to stop them. Then all of the kids are around the pond and going into the woods to find sticks to throw into the pond. WHAT PART OF DON'T THROW STICKS INTO THE POND DIDN'T THEY UNDERSTAND!! It sucks that I end up being a babysiter for all these kids and I am not even getting paid for it. I don't know how many times I yelled at the brat to stop doing stuff. I figured that I was just making sure William doesn't get to close to the pond and I guess I can fish a kid out of the pond if he falls in too. I would have taken William inside but he was having so much fun, and who knows what would have happened to the other kids if I left them alone with the Lord of the Flies. Finally after a half hour, the brat's mother comes out and yells at them because they were told to stay away from the pond. HUH? No one told me that. Opps. So I feel bad since I let them play around the pond, but hey that's what kids their age do. My saving grace is that the brat was leaving to go to his father's house, but that got delayed by "tattoo talk" with they guy she was with (classy). Finally things calmed down a little and it was back to chasing kids inside. Then we packed up and headed to my brother's house for dessert. That was surpisingly the normal part of the day. After a visit there back to the house to pass out and get ready for work the next day for both Jen and I at 6:00am. Damn. Of course Andew has an issue so we end up being up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Man I need a nap.

ChristmasWeb

Yeah, I have been playing again. Here is the daveandjj.com Christmas page. Hopefully I can get together with Keith so we can make it the home page for the site. I was going to tweak the design some more but my mac died and took my files with it, so this will do for this year at least.

www.daveandjj.com/christmas

Now I am trying to decide what holiday to do next. After new years it will be valentines day. Maybe a sexy daveandjj.com website.