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tampa day 1

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so today we woke up early (i guess) 7:30 here is 6:30 at home. had a rather good breakfast at the hotel (we are staying in a residence inn...the NFL so far really has done a nice job putting us up both this year and in 2007) and headed out early to busch gardens...we got there 10 min before the park opened and I am really glad i bought a sweatshirt last night because it was raining and cold! we hit the two big coasters within 10 minutes of each other...there were NO lines all day. we rode every coaster once, hit some shows and saw the whole park....all in all as dale said, "it doesnt even feel like we have been here for 8 hours!"

I asserted that since we had no kids to yell at , keep track of, feed, cajole, carry, or help go potty it made ofr a fun day...thanks to Juan and Justin for the hints about the park/weather!

we decided to go out to dinner (as the yling lang beer and doritos in the room were not enought for me) and went to this pizza place called cici's. BEST PIZZA BUFFET EVER.

the traffic down here is mental. the lights take about 5 min between cycles and people drive worse than illinois drivers, if that is possible.

tonight we decided to sit around in our jammies, drink beer (dale) eat baskin robbins (me) and watch Hitman and BSG. Great fraking episode. dont worry, it was a flash bang.

tomorrow we have free tickets (thanks NFL) to the NFL fan experience. plan on doing that all day and then maybe hitting the Mons Venus (best nudie bar in tampa) if i can stomach the $50.00 cover (lets hope ladies enter free)...if not we will hit either the penthouse club or the hard rock.

or neither, i dunno.

dale's dad should be here sunday aruond noon with mum, planning on staying in the room and watching the game with her.

i will post many many pictures after i get home.

chris made me go bowling and get hit on by drunk rednecks

my neighbor Chris (whom I quite like) asked me to go out bowling with her, even after my long ass day at the waterpark i said sure, lets go bowling...it was moonlight bowling which started at 11pm...we got dinner at la estacion before hand and then went bowling...all is good and one irish coffee later i am perked up a bit...a few frames in we notice these horribly creepy guys just standing behind and to the side of our lane staring at us..

chris goes on to describe how whenever she goes out she ALWAYS gets hit on by losers or drunks, even when she is with Dave (her husband).

and about 6 sets later the very hot Goth waitress comes over and says something to Chris as I am bowling yet another gutterbal/spare set.

I ask Chris whats up, she said "i told you so, the waitress said those guys want to buy us a drink!"

I said, "I am pretty sure they want to buy you a drink and feel they have to buy your friend one too."

Chris is tiny, thin, blonde and quite cute; for those who know me, I haven't been cute since sometime in the mid 90s.

Chris tells the waitress no and the waitress says "good call."

we keep bowling...

2 sets later drunk #1 comes over and asks me "can we buy you drinks."

"no im pretty sure we're ok, thanks."

3 frames later drunk #2 comes over and repeats process

"nope, we are all good."

then i bowl and the 1st drunk guy comes over and explains he is from the south, his friend likes chris blah blah.

nope, were good, thanks buh-bye.

then chris goes to bowl and the guy walks over again,
i lead off with "so we are back to the drink thing again huh?"

"awww dont be like that, why cant we buy you drinks?"

"because i dont think our two husbands, 5 kids, 1 dog, 1 cat and 2 mortgages would like us having a drink from you."

so this pretty much caps it off for us and the guys still stood behind us staring all night. chris thought we might have to ask for an escort out since they really couldnt take a hint...we leave about 1:45am and as we are sitting in the van (you know, the large minivan with carseats and cheerios on the floor and blankies) waiting to get warm we see drunk #1 being tossed out of the bowling alley by 4 bouncers.

and hes yelling about something and chris and I are just dying.

now after an irish coffee and a pepsi, I am too wired to sleep.

my kids will be awake in 4 hours.

Bowl

if you seek amy

oh ms. spears, you are sofa king we todd ed.

Movie

uno nugget before i to bed

it is baby birthing season, kelly just popped out her twins...on her birthday (way to start the twin birth process out right by being ORGANIZED and ECONOMICAL!) Kris is @ the hospital now popping out hers (hooray Kris)

i, however will remain chemically barren for the entire length of my fertile days.

weekend wrap up:

today took family over to chris and dave's, had dale help dave put in new dishwasher, watched the kids play with every toy in the place...came home made dinner and magic cookie bars, found two things on craigs list (pushing daisies season one and a bookcase which i need to repaint tomorrow) and then went out and got them.

yesterdy ran errands (mya to doctor, Library, post office, bank, walmart, gas) and corralled matt into babysitting for an hour (i paid in cookies) so dale and I could run to half price books..bought books (shocking for me, I know)

friday, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, everything else was just so much noise. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!!!

tomorrow i have off and have an all day date with my son. we are going to the movies together and seeing something at 12:35, i think bedtime stories with adam sandler. then chris and i are taking the boys to the girl scout counsel shop (weird) we have to get some stuff for the girls.

weekend update on what reading/listening/watching

reading: backup by jim butcher (pretty cool if you like the dresden files and very short) and my annual slog through lord of the rings, still on the fellowship of the ring, book 2....

listening: old 97's "adelaide", two death cab for cutie albums (i am now somewhat very into this emo band), "so what" by pink (she always puts out good poppy rockers)

watching: get smart, fred claus, veronica mars season 3 disc 2, battlestar galactica (sigh...ellen as the final of the final 5)

only 10 days til i leave for Tampa.

addendum, there are now 5 people i went to high school with who have had twins, gretchen, myself, mandy, kelly, and jessica....i also went to school with 3 sets of twins, twins must be my lot in life.

5 yrs?

from my archives i have been logging time on here since 2003. that is just fucked up.
wil wheaton watch your back-beeotch (i kid, because i love)

i got an email from an old attorney i worked with at GE....he's still litigating the heck out of cases for GE and STILL working on a case i passed to him in early 2001.

god bless the fast movin', always groovy legal system.

on todays theme, its also crazy when i get a call from one of my old attorney buddies about cases we worked years ago.

its even more crazy that i recollect the details.

and if i get one more attorney buddy telling me i should go to law school again, i'm gonna yak. i had a long discussion with one of them once about law school, he said this (and i think it was one of the more intelligent things Id ever heard....or possibly it wasnt and the wine made me think it was) about law school

law school didnt teach me how to become a good lawyer, you can learn how to be a lawyer and pass the bar just from reading books and studying your ass off. you learn how to argue and reason in law school and that carries on in your practice.

which makes sense. i told him i would by pass the law school and take the bar in a state that doesnt require a law degree to practice..i said i bet i could study like an MF-er and pass somewhere and hang my shingle doing estates and trusts. its my contention that death is where the money is...well that and patent attorneys, those guys make boocoo cash.


no matter what, very little makes me miss the days of paralegal-ing/litigation analyst-ing against deadbeat hospitals, imaging centers, and debtors. but it is always fun to tell crazy collection stories and to impress people at cocktail parties by saying things like "yes i have been deposed. yes i have testified in open court. yes i have won all the cases i sent down to trial. why yes i do have an attorney on speed dial, actually i have 5 who i could call if the shit hit the fan (although all of them live in either NY, NJ, or LA)

i have very cold hands

if anyone else does too let me know.
it must be woodwork week in the world 'cause old friends are crawlin' out of it....its very strange the number (which isnt that many) of xboyfriends i now speak with on myspace/facebook...

its funny how people think i'm carrying a grudge or torch you know, like 15-20 years later over shit that happened when i was like 12. dude, i cant even remember what i ate for lunch yesterday much less the details of crap that happened in the late 80s and early 90s.

i really only actively have some hate/dislike/anger/unresolved issues for maybe 3 people/former lovers/former friends. since i think those have been well documented over the years, not really needing to get into it again.

there are prob. more people who i wonder where they are now (and thanks wayne for checking in :) ) and havent been able to track down, or find out anything about (even using all the skip tracing tools at my disposal from back in the day....)

it has been a riot to talk with people from elementary school, kara ann you know i mean you girly girl.

one of the coolest things i ever attended was Dale's elementary school reunion, about 25 people showed up (st agnes was k-8) and we all looked at pictures and chatted and whatnot, it was very fun and i didnt know anyone, but dale. it was still cool to see all those old friends get together.

anyways.....

so we have been sold to morgan stanley at work...nothing should change before 3rd qtr but people are still yippie at work...just hoping i wont get redacted or moved to tosa or mequon. also hoping that our ops mgr doesnt get asked to retire, that would just be horrible.

other crap thats going on:

dale got the final trip details from the NFL: we are flying into orlando since renting a car in tampa: 678.00 for 4 days, renting a car in orlando, 119.00 for 4 days (for the same fucking car!) its only an hour or so to drive to tampa....

superbowl ticks should arrive after this sundays games...

i just want some sunshine and some relaxing away from the kids with possible chocolate martini time.

since it has been so cold i have been watching uber amounts of tv and movies so far:

HELLBOY 2: PRETTY AWESOME
FRED CLAUS: THE KIDS SEEM TO FIND IT FUNNY
XFILES: SEASON 3 OR 4 (GETTING WEIRDER)
VERONICA MARS SEASON 3, THE BOMB YO.
BATTLE-FRAKING-STAR GALACTICA- FINAL SEASON STARTS TONIGHT, GETTING MY GEEK ON.
HANCOCK, NOT HALF BAD, NOT HALF GOOD.

I AM SO COLD DOWN HERE MY HANDS ARE FREEZING AND I AM TOO LAZY TO REMOVE CAPS LOCK, IM OFF TO FIND A PAIR OF MITTIES
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sometimes you feel like a nut...

Nut allergies -- a Yuppie invention
Some kids really do have food allergies. But most just have bad reactions to their parents' mass hysteria.
Joel Stein
January 9, 2009
» Discuss Article (138 Comments)

Your kid doesn't have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special. Your kid also spends recess running and screaming, "No! Stop! Don't rub my head with peanut butter!"

Yes, a tiny number of kids have severe peanut allergies that cause anaphylactic shock, and all their teachers should be warned, handed EpiPens and given a really expensive gift at Christmas. But unless you're a character on "Heroes," genes don't mutate fast enough to have caused an 18% increase in childhood food allergies between 1997 and 2007. And genes certainly don't cause 25% of parents to believe that their kids have food allergies, when 4% do. Yuppiedom does.

I first had this thought seven years ago, when I wrote a short story that very few people read because, unlike most people, I was kind enough not to show it to anyone. In one pointless digression, I described a future allergy epidemic in which not only nuts but malt, guar gum, gluten and corn cause kids to blow up like balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It subsides only after the FDA declares the allergies entirely psychosomatic.

You can see why I didn't send that story to the New Yorker.

But an essay by Harvard doctor and social scientist Nicholas Christakis in the British Medical Journal -- which I read in between my perusal of Classical Philology and the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics -- makes more or less the same argument. Christakis, who did a famous study showing that having fat friends makes you fat, wrote that parental responses "bear many of the hallmarks of mass psychogenic illness."

If you don't think allergic reactions can be caused by mass hysteria, then you don't know about the uncontrollable dancing that gripped thousands of Europeans between the 14th and 18th centuries, or that the South Korean government recently issued a consumer safety alert saying that electric fans can asphyxiate you if left running overnight, after news reports of several deaths. You, in short, have never looked up "mass hysteria" on Wikipedia.

Since food allergies kill about as many people as lightning strikes each year, we probably don't need to ban peanuts from schools or put warnings on every product saying it was "made in a factory that also has a break room where a guy named Dave often sneaks in a King Size Snickers despite this 'diet' he says he's on."

When I talked to Christakis, he made it clear that -- unlike me -- he doesn't think peanut allergies represent a mass hysteria. That's because scientists believe in rigorous study and proof, while opinion columnists believe in saying something outrageous to get attention.

But we did agree that it is strange how peanut allergies are only an issue in rich, lefty communities.

"We don't see this problem much in African American or poor communities. So there's something going on here. We don't see them in Ecuador and Guatemala," Christakis said.

A study of Jews of similar demographics and genetics in Britain and Israel found that British kids were 10 times more likely to have peanut allergies than Israelis. That's probably because Israeli kids have other things to be afraid of. I would like to see a study that measures one's increased likelihood of peanut allergies if you're an American kid named Oliver, Aidan, Spencer or Finn.

Parents may think they are doing their kids a favor by testing them and being hyper-vigilant about monitoring what they eat, but it's not cool to freak kids out. Only 20% of kids who get a positive allergy test result need treatment. And a 2003 study showed that kids who were told they were allergic to peanuts had more anxiety and felt more physically restricted than if they had diabetes. "It's anxiety-producing to imagine that having a snack in kindergarten could be deadly," Christakis said. Remember, this is a demographic so easily panicked that, equipped with only circles and dots, it invented an inoculation to cooties.

A few years ago, I was at a bar without food, so I started downing peanuts. Around the third bowl, I started coughing and felt this itchiness in the back of my throat, which I quickly treated with beer. Still, for a few minutes, I was convinced that a peanut allergy was about to kill me. If the beer had not made me forget the incident, I might have avoided nuts for the rest of my life. Or, worse, bored everyone at the table with my questions about nut allergies.

So bring back nuts to schools. If parents need to panic about a food, at least go with seafood allergies. Those fish sticks are disgusting.


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superbowl here we come (this is not a repeat of 2007 post)

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braille is awesome

Few inventions have been as simple yet liberating as Braille. To mark the 200th birthday of its inventor Louis Braille, former British home secretary David Blunkett explains how it shaped his life by providing him from an early age with a window on the world.

Picture a little boy of four. He arrives at school - boarding school - for the first time. Worried, sometimes even frightened, but determined not to cry.

Picture then a little boy with a contraption in front of him on his desk the following morning. A stylus (to him, a pin with a wooden knob on the top) in which he's expected not only to press downwards to make what he considers to be a "hole" in thick paper, but the daunting prospect of being told that he's going to operate from right to left.

The reason why it was necessary to write from right to left was that, in those days, without the sophistication firstly of mechanical and then of electronic Braille production, the dots had to be pressed downwards and, when turned over, would provide a mirror image.

It was therefore not only necessary to write from right to left, but also to reverse the actual letters so that with the exception of letters like A and C, other parts of the alphabet had to be reversed. D had to be written as an F. In Braille, this is exactly the mirror image - and therefore came out on the opposite side exactly as you'd read it left to right. If all this sounds complicated, it damn well was! Thankfully, new systems were developed as I went through the education system which allowed the production to be bottom-up (with the dots punctured upwards from left to right, immediately readable by the user).

Despite all its difficulties in those early days, this system was nevertheless a liberator for me and hundreds of thousands of blind men and women like me.

Invented by Louis Braille at the age of 15, the idea came from a soldier who had served in the Napoleonic army in Poland and had attempted to devise a system that could, with night-time manoeuvres, allow messages to be sent and instructions to be passed from hand to hand.

It didn't work, because the system was too complex and the soldiers didn't get it. Not surprisingly, because to read Braille without being able to see you need to develop sensitive finger ends.

Finger ends which, unlike mine, need to be protected from burns developed whilst cooking, or rough handling of gardening implements and the like. My fingers have developed what in a sighted person might be called "cataracts", but I still plough on.

Art of oratory

All those years ago, Louis Braille decided that it was crucial that he should be able to read and, above all, to be able to write down his thoughts.

Two hundred years later, when chairing a meeting it is vital that I have an agenda on my own that I can refer to without reference to someone else. It is vital that I have notes even when I shy away from actually reading speeches verbatim.

It's no secret that I found reading statements at the Despatch Box in the Commons a trial. Statements have to be read verbatim because the print version has been handed out, whereas of course speeches are an entirely different matter and much more up my street - as, of course, with answering questions.

With a set of notes you can make a speech having learnt the art of oratory at a very early age. In fact it's probably a question of cause and effect. My own development of oratory came from the fact that by using notes I could overcome the difficulty of not being able quite so fluently as I would wish to skim over a written page of Braille - for Braille doesn't have the opportunity to provide highlights.

You can't simply write Braille in large form so that as with print you can "catch your eye" on something that it is absolutely vital to deliver or to emphasise. Underlining is possible, but more out of technical form than in terms of being able to quickly highlight what needs to be referred to and at what point.

Therefore, for me, Braille has been a method of ensuring that I can work on equal terms, using my own initiative and doing it in my own way.

For others, it has been an absolutely vital way of ensuring private correspondence and, with more recent developments, being able to demand bank statements which allow privacy rather than relying on someone else to read them (perhaps a neighbour) at a time when confidentiality could be crucial.

In the future, so many of the public forms and communications we receive could easily be put in Braille by the use of computer software and the transcription equipment now readily available to public authorities.

My staff use exactly such software, along with Braille embossers, in order to be able to produce material for me on a regular basis.

So, as we celebrate the 200th birthday of Louis Braille, we lift a glass at the New Year to thank him for the ingenuity, the confidence and the determination that ensured that others like him sought and gained independence, equality and dignity.

Whilst doing so, we should recognise the critical role of organisations working with and on behalf of blind people, such as the Royal National Institute of the Blind here in the UK, whose support and resource base is crucial to making this old invention come alive in imaginatively new ways.

The year 2009 will indeed, here and across the world, be a chance to recognise this form of communication as an essential liberator, a window on the world for children reading their books (under their bedcovers, as I did), or adults being able to go about their business with confidence - and with the certainty that very few other people will be able to read their secrets.

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awesome

eek

so according to my mom my brother got up last night in the middle of the night, passed out in the bathroom on the floor and must have hit his face on something so they took him to the er where he got 7 stitches in his chin, an MRI and some fluids...turns out something is weird with his kidneys and he is at home...i am not sure what is going on now, but it seems strange this would come on all of the sudden.


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merry christmas

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.



"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
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do not go softly into this dark night

so corey let us all know that Faith passed on shortly after 8am this morning. for a little girl that wasnt expected to survive for any length of time after birth she toughed it out for 2 days. way to go faith. jessica's sister took some beautiful shots of faith, this one here is my favorite (see below).

addison came out of the NICU today and is back in the room with mom and dad-hooray addison.


today at work was exceptionally hard. along with faith, one of our oldest clients, 3 months shy of his 102nd birthday died last night, according to his daughter he was snug in his bed, blew his caregiver a kiss goodbye, and quietly died, as she said "a true vieneese gentleman til the end."

other that being 101, he was in perfect health-he just died. his daughter said he has been wanting to go, he's outlived all his friends, his wife etc...and thought the time was right. what a way to go..I found out about his passing about 5 min before I heard about faith's and that pretty much caused me to break down at work...then about 5 min after that, another client died, which makes 23 on the year. I was pretty much useless for a few hours today.

tonight i have no plans, nothing i have to do, nothing i need to do, nothing i want to do....

just waiting the start of xmas, waiting for R to get back here, and waiting for the snow to come again (wed and friday another 12-18 inches.)

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i have been reading the updates about Faith all day...For those of you not in the know, Faith is one of my high school friends Corey and Jessica's newborn twin daughters. very early on in the pregnancy the dr's (she actually saw the perinatalogist that i saw with all 3 kids) told them that Faith would most likely die either at birth or shortly after as her head did not form properly-her twin sister Addison was fine. Jess has been keeping us all updated on her condition and the twins condition on her caringbridge website...

Jess was supposed to deliver on the 7th of Jan but those girls had other ideas (twins usually do) and late last night (saturday) both girls were born....it's been about 36 hours since birth and Faith is still alive and holding on. According to Corey the hospital has let him take her everywhere, she has been outside and seen snow, met her older sister Elizabeth and spent time with Addison who is in the NICU. Addison was born at the same weight Mya was 4 lbs 14 oz and is lazy as they say (Mya was too-not eating enough etc...) but is not on any major monitors etc..(this too was pretty similar to Mya)....

From what it sounds like from Corey's messages, they are just waiting to see how much longer Faith will keep alive; it sounds like they have both told her its OK to "go home" but she is still here.

I don't think I can think of much else worse in the world than knowing your child is going to die and spending the day(s) with her and waiting for her to die and there is not much you can do about it. as a parent, its a bad thing.

Right after I got the email that the kids had been born and saw their snapshots I pretty much had to hug the 3 monsterrugrats, as much as they tire us out, try our patience, make us miserably happy and cause dale to lose it often, we love them quite a bit...

happy solstice to all and if you are of the praying to a higher power type, feel free to wing a prayer up for the montiho family...

if you arent of the praying to a higher being type maybe just a good thought out in the universe would suffice.

as for me, i lit a candle for faith and for her family.

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first off, congrats to Corey and Jessica and Elizabeth on the arrival of Faith and Addison early this morning. Faith is still hanging in there and hopefully she can stick around on this moral coil for awhile longer. The girls were 3 lbs ish and 4 lbs ish respectively and came a few weeks early but thats OK. Good wishes to the whole Montiho family and hopefully I can get to the hospital if they allow visitors and see them all soon.

secondly I need come coffee badly. However it is -5 outside and feels like -30 and it snowed last night and we are plowed in and i lasted exactly 2 minutes outside trying to shovel, did i also mention there 25-41 mph winds blowing? yeah. i am not shoveling out any time soon. coffee fix will have to wait.

thirdly, back is hurting from bending and wrapping presents for 4 hours last night. thank goodness i am done and that i sent dale out for extra tape yesterday.

today is watching movies with the kids and eecorating cookies day.
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PLAXI-NO!

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why i hate christmas

1. decorating. I have to take a full day off work to put all this stuff up around and outside my house. does anyone help, no. can anyone help, no. then 30 days later, it all comes down and i have to put the stuff i took down to put the stuff up, back up.

2. storage. i have NO storage in my house, zero. we have a bi-level. that means, no basement. all the extra space in my house is used to store the christmas shit. tree, bins of crap, wrapping paper, 87 different kinds of garland.

3. endless family functions. i love my family, on each side. they are all wonderful and good and very very nice. the problem is that by jan 1st, i have had at least 5 christmases. this is, i will admit, partially my fault.. after the disasterous "3 christmases in one day" of 2005 where by the last christmas of the day my girls were THROWING presents at my dad to OPENOPENOPENNOWNOWFASTFASTMOREMOREMOREMORE. and screaming and crying as they were, overtired, overstimulated, overexausted and chrismas overload. i decided "THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THAN ONE CHRISTMAS PER DAY." so this means my schedule is usually as follows:

work christmas party (which I plan)

twins christmas party (which i cook for and bring presents to, and scream at the kids not to wrestle with the other kids and please dont stand on that there and dont step on the baby twinlets crawling around)

christmas eve with my parents, which may or may not include my extended moms side of the family (which is better if it does since my cousins are awesome and this means i dont have to have a separate "that side" of the family christmas) but i could have one so we will throw in:

that side xmas

christmas day with dales family (fun and relaxed with a good breakfast/brunch, its mostly the highlight of the season since its only the few of us)

opening presents at our house (somewhere this happens in between all this and this year we get mr bear, so thats a plus)

baumer family xmas-not too stressful, but we drive to whitewater and there are something like 1982726 people all crammed in aunt margies small house and with all the second cousins (ages 9 to 3 ish and i think there are 4547 of them) it gets a bit cramped, at least if its warm we can send the kids out in the back 40 to run around with the dogs and horses.

then there are random work potlucks, possible dale work functions and 6 days later? owens birthday.

by about this time, i start to hate christmas.

4. gifts. I shop all year, we have approx., 209298298732 people to buy for, and about 232632987 people i feel i should get something small for (neighbors, friends of friends, my 287987391273192743 family members) and its important for the kids they have an EVEN number of presents between them-plus owen has a birthday 6 days later which means even more gifts. i am wrapped out, bowed out, shopped out and broke. plus now that the kids are actually aware of TV and commercials I am innundated with the "iwantthat" over and over and i actually have to buy crap for st nicks-which is fine because we did the "here are new crayons and glue sticks for school" which made them happy but that will only work, at most, another 2 years, then i get into the "i better get _____ since _____ in my class got ____and you must hate me."

5. christmas carols/songs. i love christmas carols. i love christmas songs. i do not like them since oct 31 non stop on 99.1 wmyx. after 2 months of the little drummer boy and that retarded song about a kid who wanted shoes for his dying mom. I WANT TO DIE.

6. Christmas cards. i get mine done before thanksgiving. they sit in a box till dec 1 and then i mail, every year i forget like 5 people and have to dig through all the mostly empty xmas stuff boxes to find the remaining cards and send them out to people i forget. its not a reason to hate christmas per se, it just annoys me to have to dig through boxes.

7. "that house is better." this is according to my kids. this grandma is the better grandma. "why?" she gives us gum and has fun toys. "well what about your other grandma?" she always gives us clothes. so i get to explain how each grandma doesnt have to give anyone anything at all if we are going to complain.

8. the santa threat. "be good or santa wont bring you anything." it doesnt work, its never worked and yet i find my self saying it at least 10 times a day.

no more christmas. can we just skip it and move right towards groundhog day?


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wow. wow. wow

wow, all i can say is wow
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i had a bit of a snit the other night, whereby late at night i told dale as much as i understand that because i get home 1st and it makes 100% sense that I should cook dinner every night, I was a bit burned out and wished he knew how to do more than breakfast (waffles or pancakes in toaster) and peanut butter and jelly and it would be nice if he could cook every now and again.

i am teaching him sloppy joes for lunch in about 10 min. i had to show him how to do grilled cheese last week. maybe i can get a whole day off from cooking soon. that would be awesome.

still reeling from my bosses decision to bail from the firm. it doesnt make sense to anyone in the office...if you havent noticed already, we (the usa) doesnt have the best economy right now and its going to be hard to convince clients to jump ship to a new firm during a bad market....and i am convinced that people just dont like change...i dunno, monday at work should be interesting!

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one of my bosses resigned today and went to a different firm (merrill lynch) i was a bit shocked, a bit dismayed, and more than a bit depressed by that. he was a really great boss and it was good working for him for the past year.

but hey, if someone would give me 200% of my base salary (and lets say I made 200k a year) up front to move firms, yeah, i guess i would move too.

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Fire bad.

today at work they let someone go at about 3:50 (we close at 4:30) she had worked there, what would have been 11 years, next tuesday. Honestly, it wasnt unexpected that someone would lose their job and it was nice of the company to do it NOW vs next year (when the severance package would be $0.00 due to the new rules that kick in Jan 1, 2009), but still rather shocking that they didnt go with someone with less senority (AKA, myself, Mike, or Chirag) who have been there less than a year, or a year or so. What really sucks is, that person they let go was my backup, she was just about to go on vacation for 2 days (I guess you get a long vacation now?) and she just moved here from Texas like 6 months ago! Welcome to Wisconsin I guess?

Then i get home and find out that someone else I know just found out his whole company is shutting down as of Dec 31...due to the FANTASTIC auto industry. so If you are in the market for a class A, awesome computer developer tech-y guy...I know a totally wonderful candidate for you....seriously, he is amazing (and also a great cook!)

On the GOOD NEWS front, Owen has gone 2 whole days in a row with NO ACCIDENTS AND DRY UNDERWARE! I am so happy I could just cry. I think we will go to Chuck E Cheese Sat to celebrate!

Keep employed people, keep employed
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its been an odd week, i was off monday, worked yesterday and today, dont work thursday and work a 1/2 day on friday. its like i didnt work at all...

ive been a slug this week due to snow and vacation & slow kids in the AM i havent hit the gym since last week. tomorrow morning, we are so going with the kids. thanksgiving is at my folks place. the kids are sleeping over tomorrow night, so i get to run into Kohls at 7 am and see if anything looks interesting enough to buy...friday night- 0 plans....most likely x files season 3 (crap the cat is puking on the floor...fucking cat)...saturday the inlaws are watching the kids, dale and i are eating at Mr B's (thanks to kevin for the certificate) and staying at a hotel to celebrate his 34th birthday...sunday emily coming over for a playdate and watching the football...

monday for the birthday (32) i went and saw Twilight (meh, but r. pat was cute and all...or something...) then snuck in and watched Zach and Miri make a porno...funny...not clerks 2 funny, but funny. the movie made even better by the editorial comments of the guy and gal behind me...example: "oh no, she aint gonna show her titties......OH Dayum, she showed them titties."

weekly entertainment recap:
reading: the mercedes coffin-faye kellerman
1000 recordings to hear before you die

listening: The Beautiful Girls "la mar"

watching "xfiles: season 3" House (awesome supersized epi. this week), Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Top Chef, The Notebook


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MY BUSY WEEKEND

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hero

Don't Bail Out My State
South Carolina's governor says more debt isn't the answer.
By MARK SANFORD


I find myself in a lonely position. While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts. I may be the only governor to do so.

But I suspect I'm not entirely alone, as there are a lot of taxpayers who aren't pleased with Christmas coming early for politicians. And I hope these taxpayers make their voices heard before Democrats load up the next bailout train for states with budget deficits.

Several questions led me to oppose bailing out the states. They are worth asking, even if you supported bailing out Wall Street.

Who bails out the "bail-outor"?
Washington is short on cash these days and will borrow every dime of the $150 billion to $300 billion for the "stimulus" bill now being worked on. Federal appetites may know no bounds. But the federal government's ability to borrow is not limitless. Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household. There's something very strange about issuing debt to solve a problem caused by too much debt.

Do you now have to be a financial "bad boy" to win?
Community bankers tell me that they are now at a competitive disadvantage for being careful about who to lend to, because others that were less disciplined will get a federal bailout. This is also true for states. Those that have been fiscally responsible will pay for or lose out to the big spenders. California increased spending 95% over the past 10 years (federal spending went up 71% over the same period). To bail out California now seems unfair to fiscally prudent states.

Was the economist Herb Stein wrong when he said that if something cannot go on forever, it won't?
Medicaid grew 9.5% annually over the past 10 years. That's unsustainable. But if Congress opens the checkbook now, there will be no reform.

Isn't government intervention supposed to be the last resort and come only when it can make a difference?
In 2008 bailouts became the first resort. Over the past year the federal government has committed itself to $2.3 trillion (including the tax rebate "stimulus" checks of last February) to "improve" the economy. I don't see how another $150 billion now will make a difference in a global slowdown. We've already unloaded truckloads of sugar in a vain attempt to sweeten a lake. Tossing in a Twinkie will not make the difference.

However, there is something Congress can do: free states from federal mandates. South Carolina will spend about $425 million next year meeting federal unfunded mandates. The increase in the minimum wage alone will cost the state $2.6 million and meeting Homeland Security's REAL ID requirements will cost $8.9 million.

Based on what I saw in Washington, the bailout train is being loaded up. Taxpayers will have to speak up now to change its freight, tab or departure.

Mr. Sanford, a Republican, is the governor of South Carolina.
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fixing a hole?

ublished on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
'Too Big To Fail' Has an Easy Answer: Anti-Trust or Public Control
by Dave Lindorff
The one thing we are not hearing from Congress or from incoming president Barack Obama in the current economic crisis facing the country are the words "anti-trust" and "public ownership."

From the moment the crisis first struck, with the near collapse of AIG, the mantra has been that companies like AIG, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, etc.--and more recently General Motors Corp. and Ford--are "too big to fail." That is, it is argued that these companies are so huge that if they were to collapse into the rubble they deserve to be, it would damage the nation irreparably.

The question is, if that is genuinely the case, why were they allowed to be that big in the first place, and why aren't we rethinking that policy?

It's not as though they got that way through organic growth by being successful at what they did. Hardly. GM was the quintessential result of a merger of smaller automakers. Ford grew too, by acquiring the competition, most recently Volvo. Most, if not all of those acquisitions were first vetted and approved by the Federal Trade Commission and found to be acceptable as a matter of economics and public policy.

In the banking industry, which is regulated, the picture is even worse, with the government first opening the door to the creation of national banking companies, and then routinely approving the gobbling up of one after another regional or even national bank by another. At some point we reached the point where the giants in the industry--Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.--were able to say, when they ran into trouble, that allowing them to fail would have dire consequences for the national economy. This kind of extortion should never have been allowed to happen.

First of all, the argument for national banks never made sense for ordinary people, and wasn't necessary for large customers either. Large corporate fundings have always been done by bank consortia, and this could have been accomplished with the nation's banking industry fragmented into small state-chartered institutions. Meanwhile, small businesses and individuals always lose when a bank is national in scale. It is much more costly to handle the banking business of small enterprises and individual families than it is to handle the business of huge corporate clients, with the result that the major banks have made it costlier and costlier for small customers to do business with them.

The answer is clear. Bigness is fundamentally bad when it comes to capitalism. There is a point where any company in any industry becomes too big for it to be socially acceptable. Big companies not only attempt to behave in a monopolistic fashion by destroying or buying up the competition, both nationally or, as in the case of a retailer like WalMart or a bank like Citibank, locally, using their huge financial power to locally underprice the competition and drive them out of business (after which they are free to gouge the local customer base). They also ride roughshod over local political interests, demanding tax breaks, zoning waivers, etc. This being the case, the government should simply not be allowing corporations to achieve such scale and market dominance.

Companies, whether banks, car makers, or media companies, should never be allowed to grow to a point that they become "too big to fail." If that can be said about any company, whether because of the assets it holds, or because of the number of people it employs, it is time to break it up.

Think of GM. If GM were ripped up into six or seven competing companies, it is certain that at least one of those smaller entities would be producing electric cars by next year. The Saturn plant already made one, the Impact, that was wildly popular (see the excellent documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car"), and if left to its own devices to sink or swim, could probably be cranking those out in volume for the 2010 model year.

Some companies would certainly fail. But that's what is supposed to happen in a capitalist system.
This piece is not meant to be a paen to capitalism. But having said that, if you're going to have capitalism, which is the ruling ideology here in the US of A, you have to let it function as intended. As soon as the government comes in and starts encouraging the establishment of monopolies or quasi-monopolies, and preventing the failure of poorly managed enterprises or dying industries, as it is doing in the case of the banking and automotive sectors, it is no longer true capitalism.

That could work, too. Many democratic countries, including Japan, Sweden, France and Germany, have the concept of shared governance of corporations, in which large corporate entities are partially owned and run by government, and of planned economies, in which certain sectors are deliberately protected and promoted by government policy. The US has moved in that direction with the investment by the government in nine of the country's largest banks, and in discussions to provide $25-50 billion in financial assistance to the major US auto companies. But in the US case, the government is studiously avoiding demanding a role in running those companies. It is by design only a "passive" investor.

This is the triumph of ideology over rationality and the public interest. I recently interviewed a number of investment strategists in the course of working on an article for an investment magazine. They all had the same advice for worried investors: invest in shares of the "magic nine" banks that are recipients of tens of billions of dollars in bail-out money from the federal government. As they all point out, the government's stake in these banks means that they will not be allowed to fail, and moreover, they are in a unique position to use their flush capital reserves to acquire, at fire sale prices, the assets of smaller banks that are being left to sink or swim in the current credit crisis and recession. That is not a free market. It's a government program to reduce the competition in the banking sector and hand all the business over to a favored few giant banks.

Now that would be okay if the government, in return for its investment, were taking a management role in those favored banks. But it is not. Congress, the Bush administration, and, so far at least, the incoming administration of Barack Obama, have not been demanding a management stake in any of the companies that are getting bail-out funding. If the government takes ownership positions at all, it is taking non-voting shares in those companies, solely in the hope of someday getting some of the invested money back by selling those shares.

This is not just a rip-off of the taxpayer. It is a craven program to enrich big investors in the bailed-out enterprises, while putting control of the nation's economic destiny increasingly into a smaller number of hands of people whose interests are not even aligned with the national intereest (these are, after all, all transnational corporations only nominally headquartered in the US).

There is, of course, another reason that companies should never be allowed to become "too big to fail." That is political clout. The US political system is already largely an owned-and-operated subisidiary of corporate America. When companies become as large as AIG or GM or Bank of America, they also gain a disproportionate influence over the political apparatus that is an order of magnitude larger than their share of the national GDP. It's not just that they have limitless money to donate to political campaigns. They also, by their size, are able to dispense political favors in virtually every congressional district, much as the Pentagon has been doing for the past half century, and also to threaten national havoc if they don't get their way.

Don't expect much in the way of scrutiny of this bailout process from the corporate media, by the way, which has been engaged in the same process of national consolidation for the past few decades. But clearly, the public needs to wake up and start demanding that if our money is going to be used to bail out these corrupt and horrifically managed enterprises, we the people need to have a controlling interest in running them, so that they are run in our interest. Better yet, we should be demanding that these bumbling colossuses be broken up into little pieces, and then left to sink or swim on their own like the rest of us.

Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

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epic fucking fail

so i get home tonight, go about my normal making dinner, looking through backpacks, reading the paper, etc... and dale gets home etc.... then i walk back to my bedroom and water drops on my head from the ceiling. WTF? the ceiling under the air intake vent is dripping water down on my new hardwood floor...not good since-long time readers will remember-the ceiling caved in due to the FUCKING AIR CONDITIONER this summer. so I make dale go up in the attic and poke around while I call the guys that put it in basically demanding Jay call me to figure this out or come over and FIGURE OUT WHY I ONCE AGAIN HAVE WATER IN MY CEILING COMING DOWN ON MY HEAD! dale talks to the guy for 15 minutes, (no small feat as dale hates the phone) and closes all the vents in the walls and runs our dehumidifier...i guess our house is just extra humid or something, i dunno. this whole thing makes me so irritated and annoyed. At least it didnt cost me anything and nothing has collapsed, this time. work was sad again today...I am on dead client number 18 for the year and the 2nd in less than a week. sucks when the clients die and you have to talk their family members through the MOUNTAIN of paperwork being dead and having money entails. It's endless...and the more money you have, the more paperwork it takes to get your $$ to the people who you said should get it...and god forbid you leave it to like 76 different charities...one of our clients left her entire fortune to her church, her entire 5.6 million dollars. this little tiny church whose largest gift prior to that was less than 100k...I say that the church just got paid...eek. thankfully they are leaving the money at the firm. the cold is not getting better...if chaba reads this, it is much like the awful cold I had freshman year. Dale said I was sitting straight up in bed last night coughing in my sleep...i dont remember that one. i dont feel bad, i just cough a lot...and have used up like 900 boxes of kleenex blowing my nose. this week is shaping up to be slow and steady and uneventful. that is awesome..

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Ugg snow

weird + random=whatever so today i had lunch with an old friend (and together we decided to be pals again and in public....no secret friends here) and we caught up with "people we used to know." found out a group of people who are firmly in the "used to know" camp are no longer friends with my husband because he married me.

nice. stay classy guys.
after my lunch (which was excellent by the way...I recommend stir crazy in brookfield) i called dale and apologized..."hey im sorry we havent spoken to these people in 4 years....and its all my fault."

my husband "that's ok...they all kind of suck anyways...i havent missed anything."

yea dale.

so upon reflecting on those people we used to know...we know way cooler people now..besides my ryan (mr bear to the kids), we have awesome neighbors (chris and dave and their 2 kids), i have a lot of women in my twins club who i like...shannon, my owen clothes hook up (and who needs to call me pronto!)
i work with awesome people...like my lunch date jena (who always pays and won't let me...one of these days I am buying her lunch!!!) and my coworker Mike (who kicks ass)...why should i be sad that I don't speak to people stuck in the same rut they have been in for the past 15 years? as damon said "its not that they arent grown up, its just that they are not growing" (or something profound like that...i dunno, we both had wine at lunch) what would i do with them today? get drunk at some bar and play video games? i think not...i would rather hang out with people who don't suck.

people who don't suck...that's who I like.

I like talking to the people i talk to from high school, some more now than i ever did in the 90s...i miss a few people i met in college...some more than others...i like to believe i miss a certain person more than i think i actually do...(especially after hearing what he's up to now...)

meh....anyways, i am full on s'mores (thanks chris and dave) and i have 800 lbs of candy upstairs (mini butterfinger and ind. skittles packages call to me, and i will resist the call)

night all friends, happy Samhain and Halloween folks.
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winter

is now snowing out. I have not yet trick or treated. I am also sick. If things do not get better, I am not going to work tomorrow.
I have a busy arse week, running around to like 487 places doing 56327 things. I am finishing listening to Eclipse on ipod, reading "Lost" still listening to tons of Ben Harper and Joshua Radin and we finally watched Zohan last night: Dale's assessment, "that chick is really hot."
Happy Halloween
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catch ya up

i have a cold. it is a horrible cold and i feel like death...so i havent written much lately. I am at dunn brothers now and fortified with a large skim white choc. mocha i will try to catch you all up...

this week has been the slowest week for "stuff" in the last month (stuff being defined as outside work and school stuff that i have to schedule, do, run around for etc...) Thankfully I can breathe at the end of the day instead of wondering what/where i have to go.

this weekend is busy. i have two birthday parties, one playdate, and i really should clean up the house and finish painting my hallway. we shall see how this cold takes me down.

work has been a bit busy, nothing special, nothing interesting. at least i have wonderful bosses who rock. it could be worse. I just celebrated my 1 yr anniversary with the company last month.

whatcha reading/watching/listening to?:

reading: Lost by gregory mcguire and the fellowship of the ring by JRR Tolkien.
watching: pushing daisies (last night), ugly betty and the office (tonight), xfiles season 3 disc 3 & dont mess with the zohan (friday nite i think)
listening to: a lot of ben harper/ben harper and the innocent criminals, billy joel, and I am listening to eclipse on my ipod (3rd book in the twilight series)
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ive had a long day off. somehow my vacation day turned into running errands, painting, painting the wrong color which will necessitate more painting, fixing a costume that malinda tore 5 min after she put it on and then going to bed.
im really tired.
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New haircut

we wont get fooled again!

the brewers slugged one out and we are on to game 4...way to go guys. i couldnt watch the game, i watched "forgetting sarah marshall." i cant remember seeing that much male full frontal nudity since the last time i had to watch caligula....it wasnt a bad movie, russel brand is pretty awesome...the outtakes with russell brand and with paul rudd were money.

dale has some sort of mysterious cold/virus/thing which means he is as useless to me as tits on a bull...thankfully MIL took the kids today and i was able to clean the house, dust the ceiling fans (joy and fun and sneezing) and head to ben franklin in oconomowoc...i needed some linen and dmc floss and mill hill beads/ yes this means i finished a cross stitch and am starting another one. had to place special order for more linnen and hand dyed threads lucky me.

tomorrow is the pumpkin farm, depending on dale feeling up to it...its in ixonia and is a great farm.

thats about it...good luck to the west band as they head up north for the weekend...

my cat is having sex with a cardboard box and im going to go pour water on her....

night all

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the wonder of myspace you reconnect with people who you were sure that:
1. you would never speak to again
2. would never speak to you again
3. you would never see again
4. you thought they died

reconnected with an old friend tonight, very strange in a 2 sort of way. Time and distance I suppose are enough to cover up old tracks.

hey to you old friend, hope we talk again.

it's wierd. there are people who I miss from my life not so much for the hanging out and assorted other crap, but because I had wonderful back and forth letters/emails/talks with them for so long that once they stopped I had a Shel Silverstein sized missing piece taken out of my life.

You can try to reshape new people into those pieces and it kind of works, but at the end of the day, no matter how awesome those new pieces are, can't help but miss the old ones.....For me personally I have had 3 missing pieces who loss I always felt beyond shit about.

1 person I have talked to, and apologized to (even though I didnt think it was really my fault, but after 5 years of thinking about it, I didnt see the harm in doing so) and will most likely not speak to again

1 person expects to see me someday in an airport

1 person i just emailed back 10 min ago


and after rereading that I must have gone back in time to my old journals because it all sounds so very emo and 11th grade ish....im going to post this and go check my back for a flannel shirt and backpack and see if i have a lot of black eyeliner on....

fucking packers. and fucking romo for not throwing that TD to T.O. Baby needs some more points this week since she sat TJ Houshmanzada on the bench.
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first day of school!

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happy birthday girls

Happy Birthday Girls!
Current mood: awake

so today at 9:23 and 9:30 am (respectively) the girls turned 5 years old. We celebrated by letting me sleep in and going to the Milwaukee Public Museum. A place which has not changed in the past 32 years. really I swear. Same shit, different day. The kids had fun and we held butterflys and watched the "Butterfly Guide Volunteer" chastise the guests to NOT step on any butterflies.....and then watched him step on a Postman Butterfly. (nice job-asshole)

we ate lunchables at the patio for lunch (cheap and easy for me) and stopped at Toys R Us for Birthday present pick out (2 stuffed golden retrievers and a stuffed collie)...now we are at home and dale is stipping walpaper as we prepare to paint the library. I would like to get my 6 bookshelves out of our temporary library (before its current incarnation it was formally known as, my bathroom) and into here. We are painting one wall the same tannish orange as the big room and 3 walls a nice cream color.

Brewers are winning, cubs losing. suck it cubs, cardinals are losing...suck it cardinals.

tonight its birthday dinner at dennys (free) with the twins and painting.

I may even get a breather to play some diablo tonight (although not likely)



tomorrow: borrowing truck to get couches from inlaws and for the love of Mike, relaxing,
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Purple

Round 2

lexie wedding

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20 things porn believes (none of which are true)

20 things porn believes (none of which are true)

1.) Every man's body is hairless
2.) Moving from one sexual position to another is a breeze
3.) Sex can happen two minutes after meeting someone for the first time. Three minutes if either person has something to say
4.) Sex can last for hours and will always feel good
5.) Women MUST talk or groan every moment of intercourse and every sentence must end with the word 'yeah'
6.) Everyone lives in, or knows someone with, a huge mansion
7.) Private detectives are easy to find and all have a large penis
8.) Everyone is bare backing it
9.) Sex at work is easy to pull off
10.) But not as easy as threesomes and orgies
11.) Friendships don't matter when sex is involved. Neither do bloodlines.
12.) Every guy lives in the gym and sleeps in a tanning booth.
13.) Everyone woman has a little lesbian in her..(wait, that might be true)
14.) Anal is normal and never needs to be asked for
15.) Expect greatness when the UPS guy says he has a "package" for you
16.) Most women wear garters. All day. Every day. Even with bathing suits
17.) Aqua Net is still a popular hair care product
18.) Every popular movie must be satired in a porno (i.e.- The Dark Nuts and Edward Penishands)
19.) People are having sex multiple times a day, everyday
20.) That we are interested in a plot
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Too much birthday cake

you are a huge douche

1. brett favre
2. this guy i know from work...we shall call him sam. this guy owns a HUGE house he just built, two new cars and a home stereo/theatre/game room/entertainment center which he spent roughly 25-30k on, has HUGE student loan and credit card debt and a couple of young kids....but he went on a tear the other day about his wife "not allowing" him to buy another home audio thingy for the house because it was "her turn" and she wanted a full set of riding gear for horseback riding. He said no one should ever let their wife pull rank etc.. rant rant rant.

you fucking tool. you are the #1 reason our econ. is the way it is. the american who builds a 350k house, and has two new cars (with 7 year!! loans) and credit card debt, and student loan debt and who keeps buying more shit he doesnt need and making more debt which he will most likely never repay and has 2 fucking kids who will in turn, learn shitty spending habits from their crappy parents, be saddled with student loans, etc. etc...

some days you just have to fucking hate people

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I got the girls 5th birthday pictures back. even though i wanted to die (from strep) at the shoot and they were uncooperative, the shots turned out OK

A person I work with gave me state fair tickets, so we are taking the kids today, it is supposed to be HOT HOT HOT but we are going early. we also have to get malinda to the denist (i think she has a cavety) this morning.

i'm feeling blue for my boy down there in hot-lanta. sorry you are losing your woman next week. stay strong brother man....or better yet, come up here for your birthday and we will take you to chuck e cheese.

work has been LONG and boring this week. I am back to my 5 minutes of real work and 7 hrs and 55 minutes of time with nothing to do. if i could only play video games or something while i am there it would be so money.

owen is working at being potty trained. he had two days this week with 0 accidents, that is HUGE for him. i am comitted to no more diapers in 2009. which would be great since he will be 4 this year.

stuff i am watching this week:

be kind rewind-very boring movie except the part where they recreate ghostbusters (they call this "sweeding" the movie, you would really have to watch to understand) i rewatched that 4 times i laughed so hard/

six feet under season 4-ah so good.

reading:

and eternity by piers anthony, the last incarnation of immortality book. im sad.

listening:

a son of the circus by john irving & starting over with piers in audiobooks with death rides a pale horse (which is what dead like me is based on)

also listening to katy perry, the perishers, the weepies & some sonic youth.

kudos to me: for cleaning my bathroom this morning and mowing the lawn yesterday.

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