Life Times and Sundae Parfaits of me

Updates and whatnot

2009-11-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a few months since I posted, and I'll blame that mostly on work. I'm on a big project that requires a great deal of my time, and so writing mundane entries about my life goes by the wayside. I had to log in today to remove some spam from one of my posts, so I thought I'd give an update:

Halloween #3 was just as fun if not better than last year. Nora had more of an idea what was going on, so she, dressed as Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba, we went straight to the awesome block we found last year, and it did not dissapoint. The first house Nora stared at the lady. I looked down and said "What do you say?", so she turned and said "Thank you" we all laughed and she got candy. I told her that today we say Trick or Treat when we go to a house. She picked that up at house #2 and didn't need reminding thereafter. She did need a nudge to say "thank you" though. We were out for maybe 2 hours, and she went home happy and tired. No meltdown this year.

Did Ren Fest this year three times. Once with the in-laws. wonderfully warm weather. Once with the usual gang in full costume, which was rather chilly. And once more with 1/2 of the crew and my older brother, which we semi-dressed up. (I wore my shirt, my heavy boots, and my cloak) All in all a decent go around. Nora was presented a magic wand at a booth some friends of ours work at. Nora loved it, and Sara & I both were appriciative on the kindness of them to give her that. I'd most definitely plug it here if I remembered the name of the booth. It is the one next to the Sky Chair house, and they sell real neat pewter items and chess sets.

Thanksgiving is next week, and once again I'm going to take a stab at cooking a bird. This year we'll have a few more people than last year, so here's hoping I don't burn the bird.

Follow-up

2009-06-10T04:33:00.000-07:00

Well since it's been a while since I posted, I actually have things to say:

1) the school fixed the culvert and berm, and even the path the water should take from the school to the rain sewers. Yesterday, with it's horrid downpour was a good test. Turns out my backyard will still get swampy with bad weather, and water will pool under my deck, but it took a LOT of water to do that, and even then it didn't really flow down the side of my house like before. Kudos to the school.

House is painted now. Instead of that pale green it once was (only coat on it too) I now have a "coffee" house (base was called Latte, trim is French Roast. Sara's one request was that we have a purple door, so mature Grape was placed there.

After the painting, we had an infestation of flying ants on our bedroom window. Found some ant corpses in the hamper, then found them on the floor, which led me to open the blinds to see a small platoon of them on the window... ick. 2 Applications of Raid appear to have done the trick. a 3rd application of Ortho Max Home defense is underway.

My deck stairs are tilting, due to all that rain and erosion around the deck, the stair landing is now lower on the north side, causing it to bend and crack. It's on my to-do list.

And finally: I had a dream this morning that my brother and I crashed the High school reunion of all the kids I went to school with in Missouri. (Meadowmere Elementary) It was cool (and a bit scary) that I could remember so many faces that at best I haven't seen since 1987.

Grumble Grumble Home Ownership Grumble

2009-03-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

So, my brilliant makeshift plan of digging around the corner of my house didn't work so well. Due to the Storm that dumped freezing rain/hail/sleet/snow on the ground, and it's eventual quick melting the next day, the water flowed back into my house.

WHat's worse is that the path I dug for the dog was unusable due to ... high water. There was a river in my backyard, coming from one side where a divot is in my land, and where the culvert/burm just isn't high enough and the water was flowing over it like a waterfall.

To make this more fun, it's supposed to rain the rest of the week. Yay.
Got a call into the School district to see what can be done about the Culvert, and I'm going to try to call a Civil Engineering company about what to do with my backyard.

My main grumble point on this is that we were saving money this year. Doing a good job at it to.. now all that appears it will go to fixing the lawn. It's necessary I know, and I'll do it, I'm just going to grumble about it.

Remembering Dreams and Garage leakage

2009-03-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

Well I semi-remember another dream. Walking into my house I notice my neighbor's house's lights are blinking. I look at mine and they appear to be doing the same thing, but I right my house as an illusion, whereas the neighbor's have some electrical problems.

I walk in, and my house is now some 19th century pioneer house (huge though) and for dinner we're only having boiled Oxen. Yes boiled Oxen. There was this large vat of water with I guess a flank of Ox in there, and some woman who new how to carve meat was cutting up another flank. That's pretty much what I remember.

I think I know why my garage leaks during heavy rain. Dirt around the corner is now piled up above the concrete line. when it gets wet/saturated, it soaks through the facade wood on the garage, which then pours into the garage itself. The first way I think I need to fix it is lower the dirt line, then hope the wood's not rotted.

Who watches the Watchmen?

2009-03-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

So I had a date day with the missus on Saturday. We went to see Watchmen, and followed it up with lunch out.

First Watchmen: A very well written movie, one that was dark, had heavy subject matter and handled it quite humanly. I was rather impressed. Also, this movie helps me understand the basic differences between a comic book, and a graphic novel (the movie was based on a DC Graphic Novel). Graphic Novels obviously handle more serious subject matter, more adult, they appear darker, and may not end all happy go lucky. The cinematography of the movie felt like they took scenes straight from the book, which I liked, as the graphic novel depicts the events visually more than just textually. Anyway, it's a good watch and I'd recommend it. Just don't bring the kids... it's not a kiddie superhero movie. Also, be prepared to avert your eyes one some scenes. Rorschach is not a kind hero.

Second Lunch: We were going to grab a quick bite at the local Chik-Fil-A when we couldn't get to the drive through... Driving around it we noticed that the line was circling the building. at 1pm. Now, I've tried their sandwhiches once. It's a tasty thing, but still, it's just chicken with pickles on a bun. That's it... I don't understand the extreme draw of it as "OMG this is the best tasting meal I have ever eaten!" but I do think it's a tasty meal. Anyway since I didn't want to wait 45 min just to order, we went to Red Robin, and I had a burger (side note: I know I should avoid eating beef due to the Iron content but took labwork on Friday, and have a followup on the 20th, so either my Iron count is low enough for the burger not to have hurt, or I'll be draining then to remove the iron built in my system) with an egg on it. Interesting taste. The burger was the main flavor, but the egg added an interesting flavor/texture to the meal. I don't know if I want to have a fried egg on my burger from here on out, but it wasn't bad.

I guess I'll end this post with a whiny ponderance on why we need Daylight Saving Time anymore. I mean honestly, losing that hour is a real pain. and I enjoyed waking up in the daytime.... I hate to think it's so entrenched that we can't remove it. "For the farmers" is the arguement I hear to keep it, but 1) They can get up with the sun, they did before, they can again. 2) don't most Farm equipment nowadays have headlights on them?

Dream Journal

2009-03-03T04:25:00.001-08:00

As I've stated before since I rarely remember dreams I like to keep track of the few I do, so here's one I woke up to:

For starters Julia Petersen was there. She was a girl from High School who was in the drama department with us.

Second we were going to play Win, Lose, or Draw/Pictionary. My turn came up and I got "Wizard of Oz" Okay I thought easy. So I drew a rainbow and then drew an arrow going over it.... no one got that....

So next I drew four stick figures next to them.. still no one getting it.

Then I drew these rather elaboarate drawings of Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man, and still no one got it... and my time ran out. I proceeded to yell at those there as to how easy it was to figure out.

Well I was going to sit down and it was Brandon's (another friend) turn and he INSULTED MY SCARECROW. Said it was too poofy or something like that.

Then my alarm went off with "Red Red Wine".

Welcome to the Midwest, I'm Brad I'll bee your host for today

2009-03-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

So on Wednesday, we have 60-70 weather and I let my daughter swing until dark. Two days later, I have 4" of snow on the ground, and I shoveled the driveway and porch a total of 3 times. Gotta love the midwest where it never lets you know when one season is over and another starts.

My baby girl got her 2 year pictures on Sunday. Yes, I need to upload them, Yes I will do that soon. She was VERY photogenic. She didn't fuss and when asked about poses, she just plopped right down into them without any arguement.

She got fussy when we were pickign out the photos, and I think the photographer was getting annoyed with us because we picked like 15 poses, for 313.50... HA yeah right. We whittled that down to 3 (get a CD with all the poses on it) for 75. Still pricey, but WAY cheaper... although she kept telling us of what we were loosing (all those neat poser size pictures of our girl, etc etc.

Well I complain, but they do a bang up job on pictures.

I was going to be so good today and eat my cereal at work. Poured the cereal, topped it off with milk, got my spoon out when I smelled the milk had gone south... bummer, well Eggs/bacon here I come.

Trees still crying, too hell with it.

2009-02-23T05:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I bought pruning seal and sprayed each cut branch for like a week, and the things are still weeping. So I've decided to just let the sap pour out of them like floodgates until it stops. I feel bad, but it's dripping right back into the soil the tree is using, so I try to think of it more as recycling.

The Trees are cyring

2009-02-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

Normally I've trimmed up my trees about early to late June. Mostly because I never remembered until then. However, I've been told by sources (my stepfather and friends at work) that the best time is just before Spring, namely now. So yesterday armed with my trusty Stanley Handsaw and two lawn/leaf paper bags, I went about my task. It took the better part of two hours, mostly because this year I had some decent sized branches to cut off (2" diameter). And I didn't think that it'd be easier to cut them up into pieces while they're still on the tree, so I used my kids' swingset as a makeshift Sawhorse. Anyway, after I got all the cutting done and bagged to be picked up by recycling (which doesn't start until April I think... that's another post) When I noticed the trees dripping. The larger cuts seemed okay, but some of the little branches I trimmed off were "bleeding". Guess sap has started pouring in.

Side Note: The sap from my trees tastes like sweet trees.

Well later in the evening I saw that all of them were pretty much pouring sap out of every cut, which got me worried. Called George who said it'd be fine, mom called back later asking if I called, and she said it'd be fine, but I could get that Pine Tar stuff you can use as a bandage. I know experts out there are saying just let the tree heal on its own, and I"m trying to do that. I just didn't want to have accidentally killed my trees because i pruned them.

This morning I went to check on them, and they all pretty much had frozen over. I'm wondering if that type of protection will help them heal faster.

I know I'm overthinking this.. but I don't want to have to buy 4 new trees....

My backyard, the swamp

2009-02-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

So a construction crew working at the school behind me hit one of their water pipes. It streamed water all down the field between us and into three yards, mine and my two neighbors. Mine appeared to be the worst hit for some reason, as water flowed in, pooled, then streamed down the south side of my house, carving that divot I tried to fix a few years back. To make matters worse, I now found that heavy water flow on that side now seeps into my garage, thus possibly rotting the wood in that corner and ruining the drywall.

Well The City came out to see rather quick to tell me about the water pipe, and that it was the schools pipe, not the cities. Fair enough. But now I'll need to start calling them to work on the drainage in that field, and possibly help fix my lot, as I can't have the water ruining it. In the meantime, I'll hope for decent rain, and not torrential downpours.

What started as an off-weekend ended with a couch.

2009-02-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

Well, we knew we were going to Nebraska Furniture Mart to look for a couch, not necessarily buy one. We wound up buying a nice one. Comfy, we tried all the way we sit on the thing and we felt good. the model was red, but we got a "camel" color to it.

Anyway, we were to go Saturday.... I went in to wake up my kid and there was this odd smell in there. It wasn't what I was used to.. this had a strong sickly sweet tang. Well I turn on the light, and my daughter is calmly talking to herself, covered in vomit. Yup, at some point in the night/early morning, she upchucked her Strawberry Chex dinner and stayed in it.

Well that'll wake you up faster than a pot of black coffee. I got Sara up and she took care of the bedding, where I cleaned off little one. She seemed fine after that, in fact there was no temperature nor any subsequent vomits. Guess something upset her and unlike an adult who'll just complain, she just BLAAAAA in the night.

That all being said, she just got it on her bedding and herself, yet that smell is STILL in her room. Neutra Air, Febreeze, it's still there. I was hoping to air it out at some point, but I'll try another round of Febreeze. Any suggestions?

My wonderful wife and Double XP

2009-01-26T05:02:00.000-08:00

So my online game City of Heroes had their semi-annual Double XP weekend. I got one character 11 levels over this weekend. yay me. I also give proper thanks to Sara, who let me play an inordinate amount of time on my computer, and handled the rugrat through most of the weekend.

Battlestar Gallactica is getting WAY depressing. I hope the series finale isn't as hopeless as the show we just watched.

Clerks was a funny and decent cartoon, it's a pity it didn't stick around long.

Bought the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends books. I've read the Chronicles twice now, going for a third time. I've never read the Legends, here's hoping they're worth keeping.

Terrible Twos have begun... or have they?

2009-01-21T04:59:00.000-08:00

Well the party was great, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, even the little ones. Sara gave them little treat bags so they could play with those whilst Nora tore through many gifts. I thank everyone for the clothes. She may have tossed them aside like the wrapping paper she was tearing off, but her Mother and I appreciate them.

I'd also recommend cupcake cakes. already portioned so no odd pieces or "I'll have a small slice" nonsense. downside was there was mounds of frosting that went between the cupcakes like insulation.

We also took the gates down to the kitchen, and they've been down for 4 days. We were worried at first about Nora getting into everything in the kitchen, espeically on the stove so we put them up. She runs around in the kitchen now, but she steers pretty clear of the bad stuff (well, usually with a quick "No" tossed at her).

After birthday comes professional pictures. Her 2 year photos will be set up sometime in February.

Double XP weekend is coming up on my game. Sara's probably going to take Nora out with Audrie that weekend. I love my wife.

Posting fo rthe sake of Posting, Part II

2009-01-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

The weather is odd, even for the midwest. One day it feels like spring, the next we're in an Ice Storm Warning. Little one wants to go swing because it's bright and sunny.... and only 10 degrees.

Holidays are now over and the full swing of work is in effect. Next up, birthday #2 is this Saturday. Hard to get her things, as she has a ton of toys, it's hard to find a gift she could use and not loose in the mound of stuffed animals duplos, and little people she garnered from Christmas. Oh well, she gets a cupcake cake and her family over, she'll enjoy it.

Chores still mount in the house, but I think I've found a method to get them worked out. Wish me luck on that.

Heartburn is being a pain in the keester now. well, just when I wake up, aparently my incline isn't doing enough to keep the acid from my esophagus. I have to call in my prescription again to get a refill, and my wife is wanting me to see a specialist. I'm passing it off with the caveat "I don't have the time" which is childish, stupid, yet oh so sadly true. If i have a free day between now and 2010 I'll see about setting up an appointment.

New Year blah blah blah

2009-01-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

So I took the last two weeks off of work because 1)No one was there and 2)I had the vacation so it's a little slower than a normal Monday for me to get into the swing of things. Other than that it's work as usual.

Had a good christmas. My stepfather made my daughter a toybox. Had her name on it and a cute little phrase to the extent of "May this store your treasures" Mom told me he spent a long time trying to think of a phrase to put on it. One he loved, but didn't put on the box, was "If you don't put your toys in here, they'll run away." I love that one, but I think my daughter, at least in early years, would take it literally and cry if they all didn't fit.

She enjoyed her second Christmas. Mostly opening gifts and playing with the boxes. She also was genuinely thrilled to open a present and find "A BOX!" the toy inside was just gravy.

New Years was low-key. Jimmie & Brandon were in town, so we wandered to my brotehrs and played the Wii for most of the night (Wii Music & Mario Kart).

For Sara's birthday I gave her Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, and apparently that was THE gift for the year. I've watched it now like 4 times, (not with commentary, or Commentary, the Musical however) with promise of more on the way.

Nora's birthday is coming up soon. Trying to make it low-key, but it's hard to do with her family. Not that we're loud and obnoxious... well we are, but i mean there's just a decent amount of family we want to come over and say Hi.

It's COLD

2008-12-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

-2. That's without wind chill. It started out today at -2. There is no other description for that degree other than.. COLD. Just COLD.

Cold Days etc

2008-12-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

Kind of a lather,rinse, repeat week so nothing much to write home about. 90% of Christmas shopping is done. Went to Lawrence to buy some gifts for my Daycare provider (she's from London, so we got her some stuff from Brits). Met my friend there. enjoyed the 61 Degree Sunday Morning then holed up in the house to make Potato Salad & Deviled Eggs for today.
My car registered 56 degrees in the garage. By the time I was on the highway, it had plummeted to 8... 8 degrees. That just sounds cold. Eight.

A Sad Day

2008-12-08T04:23:00.001-08:00

I discovered this weekend that Joy Luck Chinese Restaurant and Buffet was closed. They had pretty decent Chinese, and the all you can eat buffet on the weekends. Mostly I remember we wanted some Crab Rangoon but it was all out, so one server brought us over a plate of about 15 of them, shortly followed by that Donut-y type desert they have. Our table was full, but we ate them out of politeness.

SO I take a small silence (and dab of MSG) for the loss of a good eatery.

I want to kiss the man

2008-12-01T04:42:00.000-08:00

who invented the portable DVD player. The trip to Wichita (enjoyable, relaxing, always a hoot to be around her family) is about 3-3.5 hours, and my little on invariably falls asleep for a portion of it, thus not taking an afternoon nap, and either getting REALLY cranky before bedtime, or wearing her parents out with no downtime.

However, this year I decided to try to hook up the portable DVD player Sara's dad gave us for Christmas last year. Played a full DVD of WonderPets! and then most of Winnie the Pooh. She stayed awake, sang during the songs, and took an afternoon nap pretty much once we got to her Grandparents house. God Bless you Portable DVD player Inventor. (Insert Bud Light: Real Men of Genius music here)

Nora was again a smash hit at Thanksgiving. Sara's youngest cousins wanted to ooh and ahh over her, so Daddy got to watch the Lions loose badly and the Cowboys win.. again. Nora got a little "broken" in the sense that everyone eventually became "Grandma" or "Grandpa" during the festivities, but it was a good time. To top it off, we stopped off at Holy Trinity Catholic Gifts and the lady recognized us from the last time we were down, and got me my Kneeling Santa statue I've been wanting ever since I saw it. (He's kneeling before the baby Jesus, and I thought that's a wonderful way to tie good ol' Kris Kringle into my faith.)

That's all I got, now I have to swim through emails and go buy some breakfast as I forgot to bring in milk.

Same ol' Same ol'

2008-11-17T06:04:00.000-08:00

Since the only real thing I could post was the 4+ hours I took to vaccuum my lawn, I decided to talk about my near fatal accident this morning.

Before I go on: No, it didn't happen, I was driving defensively and paying attention so it didn't happen, but it could have.

Simple enough, I'm at an intersection where my office is front right facing me. so i'm nearly at work. My light turns green, the other is very red when I notice a car that's barreling down the street (they are a ways away, and it can easily stop at the light) that isn't slowing down. I begin to move out in the street, keeping my eye on these lights that are going, at rough estimation with no gadgets to actually see, 35-40mph. Sure enough I nose myself just past the crosswalk when I have to stop, because Mr Impatient barrels through the intersection with a VERY red light and keeps going. I didn't think of honking, but I think I heard someone else do it for me.

So that's my story for today.

"He's not MY President"

2008-11-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

This is a political rant of sorts, if you're easily offended by opposing viewpoints, don't read.

Obama won, If memory serves, 52% of the popular vote, and nearly 2:1 of the electoral College, he will be the Next President of the United States of America.

So why is it I'm already seeing & hearing folks proclaim him to be someone else's President?

I heard this from democrats about Bush for 8 years. My first introduction to this flawed piece of logic was from a stalwart Conservative in college who claimed proudly that William Jefferson Clinton was NOT his president.

I asked him if he was an American Citizen, which of course he said yes. I asked if Clinton was President of the USA, he said "not MY president" thus avoiding the logic: A=B, B=C, Therefore A=C.

This leads me to many questions and many gripes. How long has this mentality been around? If the President is not of your political affiliation, you are allowed to denounce him, to say proudly that he doesn't run your country?

When did running for office cease being who could do the job better but "we have to retake the Senate/House/White House from the others? Has reality TV or our addiction to competitive sports clouded our view on how to vote? Is this the evils of a two party system Our first President warned us of?

Then it devolves from there. Democrats will say get over it while the Republicans will refuse. this DESPITE the fact that for the past 8 years the Democrats were whining and complaning while the Republicans said get over it. Where does it end? When does the finger pointing and "But they started it!" or "It's the (other party)'s fault!" quit and they finally say "We're here to govern, not to support our party."

Am I just fooling myself? is it a pipe dream to wish those we elected to govern do that without worrying about their next election or towing the party line?

This is why I liked McCain. The term Maverick suited him well in the Senate. He did what he thought was best for his country, regardless if his Policital party disagreed. That's what a governor should do.

I'm probably hitting all over the map of my complaints of our current system, but to sum up, for the past 8 years I was not happy with who ran the white house. I've disagreed with many of his policies. That being said, he was MY president for those 8 years. Obama will be MY president on January 21st. I'm an American. It seems silly to think otherwise.

Caller ID @ 1:30am

2008-11-11T05:31:00.000-08:00

So last night my cell rang. I didn't recognize the number so I silenced the phone and went to do what one would when they're are woken up in the middle of the night. Whilst doing that, it rang again. i finish and answer the phone to a very irate man demanding my name. Instead of giving him my name, I asked for his. He didn't give me that but wanted to know why I was calling his house. I tried to tell him I didn't, and somewhere I do give him my last name, (I am Mr. Bishop... nice tone to it.) so he calls me Mr Bishop and said this number called him. I patiently informed him that it was my cell phone and it's been charging this whole time. Here he realizes he may have misdialed the caller ID number and said he'll look at that and try again. Not much of an I'm sorry. However, I'm not mad at the man. I'd be ticked too if someone was calling me at 1:30 in the morning. So I understood where he was coming from, and didn't get angry for his tone of voice towards me.

This morning I reverse checked his number to get his name. Seemed fair since he had mine.

Cute Warm Fuzzy for today: My daughter out of the blue turned to me the other day and said, "Daddy, I love you." Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. She also once made it a point to grab my hand and put it around her. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. That's enough cavity inducing sweetness for now.

My daughter's first halloween

2008-11-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

I could rant about the sheer amount of robo-calls I'm getting from both major political parties leading up to Election day, or comment on how my grass is now blanketed with a thick layer of leaves, and there's still more to come, but instead I decide to talk about the year My daughter is old enough to wander the streets in her Piglet outfit gathering candy for looking cute.

Sara stayed home to give out candy (this will probably be the last year for that, as she only got like 2 groups in our area) so I took my friend who came down to visit. We walked in our cul-de-sac first to show her off. Daina and Sara both had been working on her to say Trick-or-treat, so she was decent at that. Later I found that she probably needed to know "Happy Halloween" too, but there's always next year.

Anyway, we walked from house to house, her one hand holding mine, the other clenched on a death grip to her pumpkin bucket. We hit sporadic houses in our area with the light on and door open (we hit one house that had the light on, but door closed. I thought "light on" was a sign for candy, but apparently you need both for it to count.) and one cul-de-sac that had pretty much all houses giving out candy. Then we hit the mother load:

One block up from our house the whole area went from sporadic houses with lights to a Halloween block party. This area was AWESOME!!!! The weather was nice enough for them to be on their porches giving out candy. Kids were everywhere running and screaming et. al. Houses were tremendously decorated, one so much put up a pulley system to move the ghosts around his built cemetary.
The routine became standard, I'd tell Nora to say Trick-or-Treat which she did to awws, then she'd get candy, then I'd tell her to say "Thank you" which she did, then I'd tell her to say "Good bye" which she did. As the night wore on, her reponses became less and less, as we started near 7pm, her bedtime.

Anyway, She let them drop stuff in her bucket until one man let her grab candy. This was her new favorite. She wanted to do this for every house afterwards. That was difficult in the Halloween block party, as kids (yes, the kids some kids stayed home with their folks to pass out candy! AWESOME again!!) would be overeager to give her candy. Confused yes, but she still liked it.

As she was dressed as piglet, we ran into Pooh and Tigger (another little girl and I belive her baby brother) Nora was happy to see Pooh, and said as much. Pooh's mom asked where we found Piglet, as he appears to be a hard find. (Daina found it on Ebay)

Another house awwed at my daughter, as they were informed by a gaggle of girls before us a "really cute piglet" was coming.

We eventually had to call a point to loop around (I thought it went to a T intersection, which we'd loop around there, but instead it was just a curve to the road) and then wandered back. Bless my little trooper of a girl, once we hit our home street she told me that she was "all done" and "finished" So i carried her into the house were we proceeded to have an overtired meltdown. that ended after the costume was removed and diaper changed, and quit all together once the pacifier was in her mouth. I'm fairly certain she was asleep before I even laid her down in her bed.

All in all I'd say it was a good first halloween. Next year, I plan on taking my wife with us to the halloween block party, cause I think by that time Nora will start having memories of these events :)

Cold weekend

2008-10-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Started out okay I guess, we got (and by we, I mean Sara) the house ready for Nora to learn the potty. Unfortunately, no one told Nora. We tried for pretty much the whole morning to get her to check if she was dry and use the potty. She loved having Pooh go pee, but Nora was still content to wet herself. She even told Mom that she was dry when it was obvious she wasn't. So, Nora's not ready, we'll regroup and try again in a few months.

Mowed the lawn, perhaps for the last time. Next time will just be to vaccuum up the leaves, whenever those bad boys fall.

I still have 20/20 vision, but apparently am starting to suffer from C.U.S. or Computer User Syndrome. Summary: Blink more, get up for 10 min every hour.

Bob Evans makes a good Pumpkin Pie, but careful when they serve it to you... it's hot.

Potty training postponement

2008-10-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

Well, possibly. Nora's got either pretty bad allergies or a fledgling cold. Runny nose, croupy cough, and if she's that out of it come Saturday, we'll postpone again. Yes, she's pretty much ready, but she's still under 2 years and so far every time I've plopped her down on the potty she's not done much. I think when she tells me "potty" she's already done it.

Oh well, if that doesn't happen, then we switch to loading the attic. That was supposed to be this weekend, but a couple of headaches and an afternoon nap threw that out the window.

Lawn's slowing down, and the leaves are dropping, now I debate on either mowing now, or waiting until all the leaves are down to vaccuum them up.

Someone have some extra motivation for us we could borrow?

My car ride home with my daughter

2008-10-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

When I pick Nora up from our babysitter, at least for the past 2 weeks this is our conversation:

Nora: DADDY!
Me: What-ee?
Nora Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Me: Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Nora: DADDY!
Me: What-ee?
Nora: Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Me: Bzz
Nora: DADDY DAAAAADY!
Me: What-ee?
Nora: Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (no response from me) DADDY! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This continues until I stop to get the mail.

and on a sappy note: I have discovered that, as nervous or unsure you may be at becoming a parent, it's all worthwhile when your kids will walk over to you, smile and say "Hi daddy!"

Missouri Town 1855

2008-10-06T05:58:00.001-07:00

This little treasure is not to far from where I live, and this weekend was the Fall Festival. My mom called wanting to visit her granddaughter (not me mind you, her son, but her granddaughter :)) and suggested that. Sara agreed and we went. This is how I remember Missouri Town. Turns out that Mom specifically went to this mostly when there was a festival going on. the rest of the time it's just empty and quiet. Peaceful, but quiet.

This time they had the blacksmith running, all the houses were open and you would wander into them (Side note: all the houses in Missouri town were pulled from various parts of the state, and all from around the mid 1800s, one in particular (the lawyer's house, comes from a town I have roots from, Marysville).

Anyway, the food was delicious (Bratwurst, corn on the cob, and apple cobbler made in a Cast Iron dutch oven) and the crafts were neat (making rope, soap, quilting, yarn, etc) and the houses were always fun to visit.

Now onto Nora. Since it was active she could see more and do more. Her most active things? Looking at the chickens (Mommy-daddy Chickens Hi Chickens Bawk Bawk Bawk) and petting the Ox (to here it was a cow) and looking at the mules (which to her was Horses)

Only downside was a woman, who after my daughter pointed to her dog and said "puppy" to which we agreed, snipped at us saying it was a "service dog that was 6.5 years old". Well la-dee-flippin-da. My dog is 8 and she still calls her a Puppy.. well she calls her Tootsie but still....

Regardless, we had a wonderful time and tuckered poor Nora out. I've never really seen my daughter, who's fighting for any and all independence of the stroller, ask me to put her in it. :)

This coming weekend is Ren Fest Part III: The Final for the Year. Just turns out October is a busy month for us.

Warning: Political Post ahead

2008-09-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

So, Congress listened to America and didn't pass the bail out plan. Democrats who were for it blame Republicans, or they blame the lack of help for the middle class homeowner. Republicans blame Nancy Pelosi's dig at Bush before the vote (which, honestly wasn't needed and a petty partisan attack on her part, but it's also petty to switch a vote, because the Speaker couldn't hold her tounge).

Personally, I'm glad. This bailout did not sit well with me, can't put my finger on why exactly but it was enough of a concern that it shouldn't have gone through. Also, I heard a congressman say Congress was not designed to rush through legislation. This is so true. Gloom and Doom speeches aside, Congress should take a long look at what they're trying to accomplish.

Now that all being said, are we facing the Second Great Depression, or is this just a bunch of panicked CEO's trying to find a way out of their greed? I personally can't tell.

My grandmother has been saying for a couple years now we've moved beyond Recession. She lived through the Great Depression, so I would take her words more than any politican, afraid to utter even the word Recession as it makes their constituents angry. So according to her, we've pretty much been in a Depression, just refuse to admit it.

I have no solutions. I'm a bit for letting the companies go under, as punishment for their greed. I'm also fine with homeowners who went well beyond their means and knew it loose their house. Of course, there's those that didn't go beyond their means and are suffering, so I can't be that cold.

Fiscally speaking, I'm with the Republicans in thinking that the Government should not really get involved. That's tempered with the Democrat side of adding some of the oversight that had been removed in the past 10-12 years.

Well that's my rambling for now. On a lighter note, I bought Lego Star Wars II (the original trilogy) for my PC and it's a fun and cute game.

I've moved

2008-09-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

Offices. Partially. I'm on a new project and as such they want us all in one area for synergistic purposes. There's still people here from the first installment, so we're not all settled. I'm in a temp office until the new layout is finalized.

Anywhoo, it's on the other side of the complex, and it has windows. Big honking windows that I can actually see out of. Also, I have 5' cube walls rather than the 4'.

It's also way quiet over here, and I'm not sure if that's due to the 5' cubicals or the majority of people are on vacation. only time will tell.

Jiffy Lube sponsors Super Bowl III

2008-09-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

So I went to get my oil changed last week, skimming through some yellow magazine named OK when one fella turned to another and said
"Is your name Bobby"
"Yes sir, it is"
"Bobby Bell"
"Yes, was it my beard that gave it away?"
"No it was that ring"

So I turn to see this ring he talks of. It's resting on the pinky of a very tall and elegant man with a graying beard. This ring was ENORMOUS. It would have enveloped my pinky finger, but covered the last segment of his. I cannot describe how big this ring was... it was Super Bowl Ring Sized. With a Red gem in the top. By this time, I surmized that this man played for the Chiefs, at least around Super Bowl III, the last time we were at the bowl,and the only we won.

Sure enough, he was one of the original Chiefs, brought up here as a dallas Texan when Lamar Hunt moved them to KC and created the AFL.

Mr. Bell was a great story teller too. We got him to talk about the original days of football. He didn't talk about the game much as the people that played it.
Highlights:
1) The first game they played in KC had maybe 100-200 fans in the stadium. Coach Straham told them after the game to go up to the stands and thank them all, which they did.
2)The Raiders/Chiefs played 4 times the year we won the super bowl, they beat us the first 3. That last time was right before playoffs, and they were so confident, they brought their suitcases with them to the game so they could go straight to New Orleans afterwards. After the game, the coach told the bus driver NOT to move. They parked near the door the Raiders had to come out of (they waited a long time, hoping the Chiefs would have left by then) to give some good natured ribbing when they left.
3) Chiefs/Radiers rivalry is mostly fan made. ON the field he said it was a game, and it was on, but these were friends of his and he used to go to dinner with them. If a fan caught him out to dinner... with a RAIDER... they'd act betrayed.
4) Always someone talking about someone's momma :)

It was a real treat to listen to him.

Deep Fried OREOS and still overgrown lawn.

2008-09-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Back from the Fair. Found that Deep Fried Oreos aren't that bad, whereas beer battered deep fried Cheese curds kinda are. Couldn't mow when I returned, the lawn was still damp and all I would have accomplished would have been clogging the mower. Then it decided to storm all night and be overcast the rest of the day, thus delaying my lawn mowing until probably this weekend, where I will most definitly have to bag... yeech.

The fair wasn't bad, wet, but not bad. We stayed in the buildings mainly until the rain let up enough to wander around the midway. Little one was a trooper and walked some of the way. She believes both hands have to be held, and won't stop whining to me, my wife, or Daina until that extra hand is held. She zoned badly around 2:45, where I gently pushed her back in the stroller, telling her it was okay to take a nap, which I guess she did 10 seconds after that. She got a powercat temp tatoo on her cheek, my wife got her roasted ear of corn, and her Grandparents got to visit with my talkative, walkative daughter.

Deep Fried Twinkie and overgrown lawn

2008-09-03T07:48:00.001-07:00

We're heading to the KS State Fair this weekend and I'm leaving behind a crabgrass riddled lawn that I cannot mow due to one front from the Rockies and the remnants of Hurricane Gustav. Here's hoping that when I return I'll have enough energy left to mow it, and it'll be dry/short enough to mow w/o bagging.

The Roof The Roof The roof is...

2008-08-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

finally finished! What started in May as a man trying to drum up business whilst I mowed the lawn has finally completed with another company placing on a new 25 year roof, charcoal color with a ridge vent.

Been a real learning experience on the tribulations of trying two people to talk to one another, and my first real dipping into Insurance claims. I'm happy I get to wait another 20 years before I have to do this again (severe weather not withstanding). Now it's back to the attic to floor and add a new lightswitch.

The Olympics are closing and my attic is near completion

2008-08-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I had the Attic Fan hole reconstituted into an Attic Ladder space, complete with ladder. Next up is laying down plywood up their for storage. After I get the roof replaced (hail) which is supposedly this Thursday, I'll start moving everything up there. And by everything I mean crates of CLothes Nora can't wear anymore, luggage we don't use except on long trips, and something to hold all the board games In Nora's closet so that she can actually use her own closet.

After that is painting the attic door and front bannister, then paint the house, then replace the water-heater, stain the deck, stain the swingset and the fence then paint the blue room to a color that Nora would like, then fix the nursery .... man, when did being an adult mean just one chore after another?

Ugh...

2008-08-12T04:34:00.000-07:00

So my alarm goes off nice and loud at 7:10am. What's the matter with this? I wake up at 5am. So, I'm rushing around, awful slowly, to get to work. I seem to be getting nothing done. Finally I'm dressed and packing my lunch, still late for work, when...

... my alarm clock goes off at 5am.

That is NOT a good way to start a day.

One down, so many more to go.

2008-08-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

My Insurance and Roofer have come to a pricing agreement, I pay the deductable plus an upgrade to the felt. Now I'm scheduiling the contractor to come out and alter the Ceiling fan hole in my ceiling to become an attic ladder hole, complete with ladder; possibly putting in flooring in the ceiling.

After that... fixing the wiring to get a switch to the hallway rather than my closet, then picking out colors for the house to paint, oh yes, finally toilet learning my daughter, mowing the lawn, weeding under my deck, and find a way for my family to go from 2 salaries to 1, so not much :)

Doctor Who - The Stolen earth

2008-07-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

Is so far the BEST episode of the new Doctor Who series. I can't wait to see Journey's End, since this is a two parter.

The zoo is so different, but it still has MONKEYS!

2008-07-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

The KC zoo has been in a state of flux for the better part of a decade, maybe longer. It looks nothing like the zoo I used to go to. In fact I think the only thing left that resembles that zoo is the sea lion exhibit. The wife and I took our daughter there with a friend and her kid to look around. We knew we wouldn't see the whole zoo, so we took Africa, the longest away from the enterance and largest to walk around. Although hot, there was decent shade so it wasn't that bad. We saw most of the animals. Granted, they were sleeping, but in that heat, who could blame them? Then we saw the chimp exhibit. We nearly passed it because the doors were shut and it looked locked. I opened it up and brought my girl in, and I'm so glad we did. She's been on a Monkey kick mostly because she can say the word. Well here was a whole pack of them, so she sat with her face and hands pressed against the plexiglass hollering MONKEY! MONKEY! with a smile to match.

we got home around 3 that day, and she took no afternoon nap. Well, perhaps a power nap but that's the extent of it. Normally, this would have made the missus and I nervous, cause She gets VERY grumpy without that nap. Well, she proved us wrong, and was in a wonderful mood until night time. She probably could have stayed up later, but Mom & Dad needed some downtime, so she went nigh-nigh at 7.

Dark Knight, Double XP & potties

2008-07-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Well Dark Knight rocked, waiting for movie #3. On City of Heroes/Villains, I gained a level.5 on my Tank, and 3.5, yes 3.5 levels on my Mastermind. I'm a tad burnt on the game, but in .5 levels he gets to 44, and his Mace Power.. yay.

Nora's still showing signs of potty training, although she likes to just sit on the potty for a second and then play in the bathroom. She is knowing when she needs to go/just went and goes to the restroom. I think my wife and I are the ones avoiding this, rather than her :)

Everything's happening fast. My daughter is now moving out of toddler and becoming a full blown kid, We're thinking of the time to start having another, but we don't have any room for him. I need the attic created, the house painted, the lawn weeded, a tree saved from mites... Bit overwhelming when the whole forest drops on you and you're trying to count the trees.

The Time has come

2008-07-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

And I ain't happy.

My daughter is showing interest in the potty. She likes to sit on it (well her S's are coming out as S-H's, but that's another post) but she hasn't actually peed on it yet. Found out yesterday she's showing interest because her friend at daycare is potty learning.

As a parent, you know this day will come, but I don't think even the prospect of "No more diaper changes" prepares you for it. Toilet Learning scares the P-wads out of me. mainly due to accidents. Why would this daunt me, a man who has changed diapers for 18 months now? Well, training pants are cloth, she has her own bowl that doesn't have plumbing, meaning you have to clean it in the toilet, It means I have to stop stalling and fully babyproof the bathroom. It also means my baby is barely a toddler anymore, and she's now a kid.

Top it off, we have a strong feeling she's teething. Fever with no explanation, almost constant crankiness, and she pointed at her mout the other day and said hurt. Poor kid, this is the worst tooth yet, and it's been over a week now, that tooth is being a pain.

Eat Bacon!

2008-07-07T06:02:00.001-07:00

That way God won't have any War Pigs available to send down up on us.

This random thought brought to you by a 15 hour session on Guitar Hero II for the PS2.

Rabbit repellant

2008-06-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

Well, since my large bottle of articficial wolf pee broke, and I have yet to replace the nozzle, My wife found an alternative that might work. Strain crushed red pepper in boiling water. Essentially make a tea out of pepper seeds, and put that in a spray bottle. Spritz this over the areas they eat and viola, the bunnies will avoid it.

Apparently this also has a side effect of making squirrels jump really high in the air.

Father's Day

2008-06-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well this was an interesting Father's Day. It's my second one as a father, first time I got to take my daughter out (last year we went out to a restaurant after she went to sleep) and the first year I have only my step-father to share Father's Day with.

Went to a steakhouse on saturday, but I think my Stepfather enjoyed the Yellow Cake/Chocolate Frosting cupcakes my wife made him better. We were to go to a Restoartion down that's circa 1855 in the neighborhood, but After I mowed the lawn, it felt of rain, which sure enough came to us shortly after 2pm, and then off and on all the way until this morning. Guess I should be somewhat grateful, it wasn't the torrents of water that we've been plagued with as of late, but still, I wanted to go. Well there's next week. Which is my mother's birthday, so maybe she'll go with as she used to take me when I was a kid.

My daughter went to a new babysitter this morning. Our old one had to call it quits because they're moving. She was good to my baby girl, we'll miss her. However our new baby sitter had a note on the board welcoming her to the day care, and a boy let her play with his soccer ball. I'm told that this boy is very possessive about his soccer ball, and lettter her play with it is a very big sign :) It appears she'll have a good time there, but I'm sure there will still be an adjustment period for her to get used to. She'll have a communal sleeping area for starters, that'll be a new one for her. I think she'll try and be sociable rather than sleepy for a while, or forever :) I believe I'm picking her up tonight, so we'll see how her first day went.

This Thursday I get to go to a Minor League Baseball game for a team building exersize on my current project. It's been a few years since I've been to a game period. Here's hoping I remember to bring a cap, sunscreen, and my sunglasses. :)

Noah is my neighbor

2008-06-09T07:35:00.001-07:00

Or he's thinking of moving in across the street. We've been inundated with water. My backyard is almost permanently a pool, and my driveway has become a slip n slide. The good of this is that the tree I'm having problems with looks like it's beginning to thrive. I put some fertilizer stakes in the ground and all this rain is moving that stuff to the tree. Although it killed the grass around it. Either by my hammering those things in, or the over fertilizing of the grass.

Bought a potty yesterday. No, not a toilet a potty. I little one with stickers to begin the acclimation of my girl (and her parents) on the road to potty training. She's still just 1 1/2, so we have a while before we start in earnest, but we need to prepare now.

Iron Chef (the original Japanese version) is on Fine Living Network now, YAY! They removed 90% of the original music and replaced it with synthesized musack that doesn't have the same oomph as the original score. BOO! I sent an email to Food Network YAY! they haven't responded, BOO!

Full sentences and fake pee

2008-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Got your attention? Good, cause this post is pretty boring after that. This weekend we went to the grocery store, twice, to lessen the load and attempt to do it in ashorter window for Nora's sake. Worked nicely actually.
Also, I went to the hardware store and bought some tree spikes for my Cherry-ish tree that's not doing so well, here's hoping that will work. I also bought a large jug of liquid fence to try to keep those rabbits from digging up my yard. Unfortunately I rounded one corner and the spray handle disintegrated, spreading that nasty smelling liquid on my hands. 6 scrubbings, isopropyl alcohol, a shower and a pumice stone later, the smell finally dissapeared.\

Tonight if it's dry I get to weed kill the North section of my back lawn to kill a bunch of weeds that have garnered a foothold in my lawn. I would have thought this to not be a big deal, but learned that it will kill off my regular grass, then they'll die off leaving large patches of dirt in its wake. So off to kill Weeds I go, and hope the Grass can recover until I can afford GreenLawn or ChemLawn or something to help me out.

My daughter's first full sentence was last week. Great Aunt Daina picked her up from me as we went to eat, when Nora pointed at me and said "That's My Dada". She's had a few more now. She's even beginning to nod and shake her head for yes and no. With dinner this is very accurate cause this means she's done. If I don't listen she'll say uh-uh and push my hand away. Other times she just shakes her head even though she knows it true.

Back to the yard, my trash service will no longer pick up my yard waste without a fee. I tried to find other trash services (there were 3 in the area) for comparison, but one moved out, and the other doesn't take yard waste, so here I am having to get a service that used to be included. Their rationale is valid: The landfill is nearing full, so they want to make it last, but still. This was not an expence I was expecting. I guess I can offset it by removing the recycling option, but for now I wait 20+ minutes to talk to a rep.

Tootsie's maintenence is this Friday. Normally it's a couple of shots, but her teeth are terrible, and she won't let me brush them, so I have to have her knocked up and then her teeth cleaned. Hopefully after this rather expensive procedure, the Missus and I can help ward this off with a little cleaning after we brush nora's Tee (she says tee, Nora seems to simply ignore ending consonants).

Driving to Wichita is a test for me

2008-05-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

It always seems to have crappy weather whenever I drive to or from the Wichita area. This past Christmas the snow/slush/salt was so bad I ran out of wiper fluid and had to hobble into the gas stop to buy more fluid, which apparently EVERYONE else was doing. And now for the second time, I had to drive through some pretty torrential rains. People were pulled over to the side under bridges waiting it out. I slowed down but barrelled through, mostly because i didn't want to wait, and had a feeling I could drive through it. Well past Emporia we did. My daughter slept through the whole thing.

Other than that it was a very nice relaxing trip. Went to the Sedgwick County Zoo and saw Penguins. Fun and playful little guys.

Acceptance of Parenthood

2008-05-22T07:43:00.001-07:00

I own a minivan.

Yes, for some reason these beauties of Safety and storage have a stigma in my area "Oh God, Not a minivan, that's what OLD PEOPLE drive". However, as much as I loved the truck, and I probably could have squeezed another year out of him, I needed room to cart my daughter around. Yep, one little 16 month old filled the truck to the breaking point, at Easter! I was afraid for Christmas.

So The Missus and I found online a great deal for a Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. ALL the bells and whistles (automatic everything, normal windows in the sliding doors, "subspace" ambiant lighting down the back, 1 year of Satellite radio, V6 engine, Sto'N'Go seating) and that wonderful new car scent.

I like "sitting up" so it's good for me in that regard, but the van is very open when it's just you in the car.

It also rides way smoother than the truck, and we now have room to fit everyone when we go to the Ren Fest again (well, until another of our friends gets a significant other). Am I ashamed? Hell no, got a great deal on a van with a lot of gadgets and it's a NEW CAR (48 miles on her at selling time) so Yay me.

Get to show it off to My wife's grandparents this weekend.

Only downside I can see is it's black. I wanted beige, and black is notorious for showing any and all dirt spots with pristince accuracy. So looks like lots of washings for me in the future.

Tickling

2008-05-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

Nothing much new that I can think of. Spent some extra hours at work making sure we'd hit our installation deadline, got a few more badges for my main in City of Heroes, and most interestingly:

My daughter apparently has learned to tickle. Now it's not actual tickling as I don't get the giggles from that, but her method of doing it, vocalizations, hand movements, facial features, etc. are just damned adorable.

We were leaving Carrabba's for a Mother's Day lunch when while carrying her to the car, she scrunched up her face with a child's grin, making "Di Di DI DDEE DEE" type noises, and wiggling her fingers on my collarbone. This fully caught me off guard and Sara and I had a very large laugh about this. Later in the day we said the word "tickle" and this would again commence, which is how we're sure she's trying to tickle us.

Kids are cute :)

Dandelions are food?

2008-05-05T07:08:00.001-07:00

My good friend "The Captain" returned from Africa and visited us this weekend. Pretty much we all picked up where we left off. He did show me that the heads of dandelions are edible, and non-toxic. Still not sure on the taste as I'm not game enough to go out and pluck one to give it a try. Not lacking in the weeds this year either. Last year was murder on my lawn and the weeds are taking advantage. Here's hoping it can survive until next year when I can get like Chem-Lawn out there to kill them for me en masse.

Nora knows Bye-Bye better than any other word, and by God she's going to use it. It's a sure fire way to keep her from crying when someone's leaving, just tell her to say bye bye and all stops. She'll wave and say it. And if you're lucky she'll lean in for a kiss. She's adorable.

Grilled this weekend too. Have tonnes (that's a metric tonne, not a Imperial ton) of leftovers from that. I'm so backlogged with leftovers, I don't think I'm going to worry about lunches until June.

Went to see Forbidden Kingdom this weekend too. (Iron Man will be later). I reccommend it. It's quite a good Eastern Fairy Tale of a movie. And good Kung-Fu.

Dead Bunnies and lawn care

2008-04-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Mowing my lawn yesterday I found I had nicked a baby bunny with the blade. IN a panic I thought I had terminated all three of the little guys I saw, but on closer inspection, I had not hit the other two. I'm guessing they died due to theheavy rains earlier this week or just weren't healthy enough to survive. I had to put them in the field behind us, because my dog is an inquisitive animal, and Bunny Gore on her face would surely turn off my wife, and nauseate me a bit.

Nora loves spring. At least the grass on her feet was a new sensation she appreciated. Giggled and laughed while roaming about the backyard.

Mary Sue Scavenger Hunt

2008-04-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

My wife pointed me to this Mary Sue YouTube (specifically Potter Sue for the genre) and it's a very pretty song, and a good parody of Mary Sue's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldDpr02g-TM

Look up on Wikipedia on what a Mary Sue is if you do not know.

Now, I'm considering asking my readers (all 1.8 of you) to find some good Mary Sue fiction. Like the best of the worst. From there I can pick a Top Pick from each and then get a Grand prize.

Either that or have a Scavenger Hunt for pieces in fan fiction-dom that you can find in a story.
A) Two or more males fighting over her
B) Pink Hair (or another hair color that isn't found in nature but they have it naturally)
C) Cat ears
D) Wings where people shouldn' t have wings.
E) Magic in a Science Tech story (like a mage on the bridge of the Enterprise)
F) 3+ paragraphs on one kiss.
G) Most convoluted background.
H) Ability to talk to animals (think Snow White)
etc.

Rules:
1) Keep it clean. PG or better.
2) keep it short (if this is possible)

Genres to look for:
Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, Torchwood, Doctor Who, Stargate SG1, Buffy, Angel, Firefly,
Lord of the Rings, Superheroes (justice league, Superfriends), MMORPG (CoH/CoV, WoW, DAoC, EverQuest)

Legality stuff
I make no claim on any of the stories presented to me. They are not mine, I cannot and will not use them for any profit. If they are copyrighted, let me know and I will remove them.

If people pick, make sure they are from public boards like Fanfiction.net, and not personal blogs.

Opinions will vary. Few will enter. Many will be offended. I will remove any and all personal attacks or name calling on my blog. Any response to said deleted responses will be deleted. This is not a message board people.

Behold! and Bask in my manlyness

2008-04-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

I fixed the toilet.

Yes, settle down, let me explain so I can truely receive your gratitude.

Thing's been leaking since we moved in, but this past week it was worse than it ever was. Like every 5 minutes the bowl would refill itself. So I buy a new flapper and look at the old one. The plastic had softened to the point of warping, and it would have never kept a decent seal. SO I trim the new one, place it in, attach the chain to the handle, and Viola! no more leaky toilet! You may kiss the ring now.

Oh and I got my lawn mowed before the FROST LAST NIGHT! Midwest weather...

Nothing New so Stream of Conscience post

2008-04-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing out of the ordinary in my life so I post just thougths and ramblings:

1) My grass (what remained from last year's scorcher) is getting long enough to mow. Looks like next weekend I get to pull out ol' Bessie and go for a lawn chewing.
2) My daughter woke up crying today at 2a, didn't go back to sleep until 4:45a. At this point I should mention I get up at 5a. Ah Monday, you are so cruel.
3) Speaking of poor sleep, one day last week, can't remember when, I got to bed around 11:30p, then got up at 12:15a with a full bladder, and again at 2a. Then at 2a, my mind decided to Rick Roll me until 4a. At that point either I just succumbed to exhaustion or stopped listening to that song.
4) I don't think I've ever made a list on my blog before... yay me.
5) Bought new Roman Shades for the living room. We reorganized to keep the youngun from climbing on the couch and over the bannister raling. worked decently so far, except the bookcase we moved has harsh edges which she can bonk her head on, so back to the Baby store to find some cushions for those, but back to the Shades. Since we've moved everything we put the TV on a different wall. Needed an amplifier to get a decent signal, but we're still not getting all of the channels we want, so it'll either have to move back, or we need to find a way to run the cable over to the TV area so that Little One won't mess with it (a tall request).... BACK to the shades. The new TV faces our bay window, and the blinds there are nice, but not very private. Everyone can see in. SO we went looking for possible replacements and JCPenney was having a helluva sale on them (buy 1 get 1 for a buck) and so I got three new blinds that would have cost around 125 for about 60. :) But now I get to hang them up.
6) Federal Return came in. Yay. now I can pay nora's Anisthetic bill, renew the Home Owner's warranty, and finally start on the attic storage project. Home painting is still on the list.

Blah blah blah

2008-03-31T04:59:00.000-07:00

Nothing newish or anything going on here. Nora loves the Wonder Pets (although sometimes I wonder if Sara loves them more, and that is Sewious!) My main on City of Heroes is now 47, 3 levels away from max level.
Rained yesterday, dashing our plans of a cookout, so I got KFC instead. Took 20-30 minutes to get it too. Apparently, they ran out of cooked chicken. I have to wonder how a place that sells pretty much only chicken runs out of it, but it was tasty so I didn't mind.
We recorded Cold Case instead of Dexter from last Sunday, so I learned how to run the "Play it now" feature on Netflix. And since it was DVD, saw it unedited for Network TV.
it was 62 all the way to work this morning. I'd jump for joy, but we're supposed to have pretty severe thunderstorms today, and then the temp will drop back into the 50s.

Well, that's all the boring bits of my weekend. Toodles.

Post Toasties

2008-03-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Don't have much to report except we went to the in-laws for Easter. Nora was adorable. She had an easter egg hunt at Great Grandma Bonnies. She caught on that you take the little egg and put it in the basket. "OOOOOH"ing each time.

Then a large familial gathering at Great Grandparents Gruenbacher. she got to play with her cousins Haley (12) and Kylie (9) who had as much fun watching her. She also started whistling while playing, which we caught on camera. She had on a pretty little yellow easter dress that poofed out when she had her sweater zipped up. We have plenty of photos, none of her really as she's too mobile to get a decent picture of her currently.

She got a couple large stuffed animals, and her parents got a big eared chocolate bunny. It was a nice weekend, with a few bumps. Nora was overstimulated and overtired on Easter Sunday, so she didn't wqant to sleep, less she miss something important, so that took an hour to calm her down. Also, the ride back, the last hour she really wanted out of her carseat, so she whined and cried and screamed until we hit Lee's Summit. Once out of the seat she was just fine.

Gordon Ramsay and my new DVR

2008-03-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

I have to thank Gordon Ramsay (and Kim & Aggie, the Doctor and Captain Jack too) for our new DVR box in our upstairs living room. Why? Simple, BBC America went from a basic channel to premium (28-263) so we really had no way to watch our shows upstairs anymore. This irritated both Sara and myself rather severely, so I looked into getting a new box for upstairs. It was then that Sara asked that it be DVR, so she could record shows she falls asleep to anymore. Well, It's not THAT much more, and with some bills being paid off the money will show up soon, so we now have a DVR upstairs. First recorded show? The Covenant: Sara wanted to rewatch some scenes. Second show? Yo Gabba Gabba. Apparently Nora likes to dance to this.
After a few months we'll probably get one more box to go in the master bedroom, and then We'll be set.

New Post new week

2008-03-10T05:11:00.000-07:00

I missed putting up a mundane post last week because last week was anything but mundane. My daughter got her first real illness last week and Lord, was it a doozy. It started by large amounts of crankiness followed by vommiting up her breakfast during her mid-morning nap, and again after that was cleared up. (Note: Regurgitated Bananas smell awful in your daughters hair, and are a pain to clear out of ear canals.)

This was followed by more vommiting the next day. Then no more vomit. Yay? no, then came the diahrrea or however that's spelled (here on referred to as the trots). This wasn't terrible until Monday noonish, where I would go through 4-5 diapers at one changing, and changing happened every 10 minutes. Odd colored, no consistency, and very potent on the smell guage, this set of trots lasted until Thursday. I would have billed her as well on Wednesday, but we didn't get a normal bowel movement until Saturday.

This all being said, she got her tubes in on Friday. That was a quick and easy surgery. She was happy and playful all before, and then was REALLY mad when she woke up and was around people she didn't know. the face on her was cute "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHERE ARE MY PARENTS?! THERE YOU ARE! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME HERE WITH THESE PEOPLE?"

Found out this week that when Nora takes a nap, I get much needed downtime. It was bad for both of us when she decided to miss one of them. She'd be cranky because she's tired. I'd be cranky because I didn't get a battery recharge. Taking care of a kid is tough :)

Going to sign tax forms tonight, then ship them off. Yay refunds

Nora went to Grandma's today, as our babysitter now has 2 kids with the bug Nora caught. Before anyone blames Nora, she caught it from another ward in our babysitter's care, so blame her :) no. The parents didn't see any problems with her for over 24 hours and thought she was okay to go back to daycare. Well the little one showed her parents wrong, didn't she? :)

Great Grandma's

2008-02-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went to visit my Grandmother for her 90th Birthday. Mom had apparently asked the family over (both uncles, my brothers etc) and then at the last minute realized she organized this at lunchtime, so thank the Lord for Sam's Club.

It was fun, and nerve wracking. Fun because my family can just yammer away about anything, and they all got a kick out of Nora, who was (after a short while) used to the attention. It was nerve wracking because even though Grandma did semi-child proof the house, it's been a while since that house has seen babies, and so I was needing to watch her.

Or at least partially watch her, "Grandma" (My mom) was getting after me on not letting her in the kitchen or dining roomm, and shooed me away so she could watch after her.

All in all though, it was a fun Saturday.

PS. My daughter is the cutest, smartest, prettiest, best baby on the planet, ever. The only ones that could even rival her are my future children :) (There that ought to get some comments)

I'm boring

2008-02-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

and I'm okay with that, really. Well, okay not 100% but I can accept some facts about myself that are boring, mainly with my blog. I see the majority of my posts concern of one topic or another to some begnin degree, and I write a paragraph about it. No one comments, and I continue week to week.

This is not to say I don't have opinions, far from it. I have strong opinions about a great many things. I guess I just don't want my blog to become a political/sociological battleground on the topic of the day (Abortion, Gay rights, War, shoe sizes, etc) so I tend to avoid them, and I guess that does make me a bit of a dull read.

That being said, the weather this weekend was ODD. Sunday I woke up to freezing rain, which turned to sleet, then to a BUNCH of snow, which then melted the rest of the day (turning to ice this morning, where I slid at two stop signs with cars coming, fun stuff).

Nora got her 1 year pictures on Saturday. we did whittle it down from 50 poses to 5. Should have done less but she's too damn cute for her own good. We have a few 8x10s for us and grandparents, 5x7 for uncles and what not, and a decent amount of wallets. We miss one? well we have the CD of ALL the poses we got of her so we can run to the Wal*Mart and have one printed off. Those will be posted to my Photobucket sometime this week(end).

I cringe now everytime I get a haircut. Why? because my hairlines receding. While I think I've accepted it to a certain degree, there's a patch of hair at the front that is currently a penninsula, and it appears to be forming into an island. This is a whole new level of "I'm getting old" depression. I just accepted that I now have a widow's peak and my forehead is longer than it used to be... now I'm having to consider shaving a part so it doesn't look lost? C'mon! I mean my dad kep this hair, hell even his hair color, and he was 64.. Can't I have that?

I have to run over my taxes once more but it looks like Im receivng a refund from both states and Federal, so now I get to turn my attic into storage, and either have the house painted, or look into siding :). Also, pay off the computer and look into a nice vacation for the family. Branson again? Silver Dollar City was fun.

Well that's all I'm thinking for now. Oh, one more, a very good friend of mine who's been in the Peace Corps for the last 2.5 years will be home in Mid-March. Yay! He gets to meet my daughter now.

Double XP Weekend!

2008-02-11T05:11:00.000-08:00

My current MMORPG, City Of Heroes, had a weekend where every villian, every mission, was double the normal amount of Experience earned. So, after letting my wife know for 2 weeks, I spent my weekend huddled around my computer getting my 35 Blaster to 38, my 18 Mastermind to 21, and my 8 Defender to 10. All in all a very fun weekend.

Also, I think I need to take a bit of abreak from the game, because the marathon gaming session this weekend has me dreaming of point-click fighting in warehouses.

Rainstorm, in February?

2008-02-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

After getting groceries on Sunday the wind felt like it was going to rain. This didnt seem to bug me much, except that despite it being only in the upper 30s, the day felt like a spring day.
The fun part came when the rain fell. It rained for a short while, then turned into very small hail, then back to rain, then back to hail, lather, rinse repeat.

Nothing much more going on in my life other than my car needs its oil changed and a good wash, Sara's car needs to have the wiper fluid tubes looked at, and next week we get our regular day care provider back (Yay!)

Go State!

2008-01-31T05:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of a basketball fan. Never really have been, but I will stop and watch College Basketball over Professional easily.Well last night I found out that my Alma Mater (Kansas State University) has been having a good run so far with their basketball team. SO much so that after 24 years of home turf beating, we finally defeated Kansas University in Basket ball, something like 82 to 75. I caught the aftermath, where Willie the Wildcat was bodysurfing and there were fans all over the court.So I just wanted to post and gloat about our basketball team, and I hope to run into some KU fans here at work.Also, this does empasize the truth I found in college: We cannot have more than one good sports team at a time. While I was at KSU, our football team was a powerhouse, our men's basketball team was pitiful, now our Football team has moved to mediocre, and our baskeball team is now 1st in the Big XII (or Big XII North, or just the region, but they're top somewhere in the Big XII) and undefeated.

Parenting is tiring

2008-01-29T07:23:00.000-08:00

Went to visit the In-laws this past weekend, so they could wish Nora a Happy Birthday. She enjoyed the time, especially exploring all the new areas. This is where the tiring part comes in. She's walking, walking well in fact and she'd just up and go in one direction. Since the houses we visited weren't 100% baby-proof, that means you follow her to make sure she's not getting into anything. Well she went everywhere twice and tried to touch the light sockets. this wouldn't be that bad except for some reason she thought sucking on her fingers first would be a good idea.

Other than that it was a fun weekend, She's a hoot and isn't afraid of family anymore. Also, it reached near 60 degrees this weekend so it was nice and Spring like. Today however it's dropped to low 30s and we're expecting sleet/ice/snow today. Yay midwest weather.

I'm still in the process of uploading birthday pictures, and have to plan on getting her 1 year photos taken sometime soon.

I used to think I had a decent immune system

2008-01-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

and then I had a child. Wow. For her what was a simple sniffle, and perhaps a cough laid me flat for 3 days, set my Acid Reflux up 3 notches and 2 weeks of attempting to reorient myself back to normal life. Just wow.

She celebrated her 12th Month this past weekend. Many pictures, and it was very cute. Gave her her own cake. She looked at it, then grabbed it with her hands, taking back a large amount of frosting. This you could see in her eyes confused her, as she had no clue as to what she had in her hands. Well, she soon found out that frosting is tasty and had more of that than her cake, but still, plenty of pictures for it.

No more stranger danger and shoelaces

2008-01-09T13:04:00.001-08:00

Well our babysitter who's temping for our babysitter who is on maternity leave had to go to court on Monday and then Tuesday, so we had to drop little one off at Grandma's. This worried the both of us, because Nora has this habit of wailing when she's not with Mom, Dad or Jami.

Well, after the initial "MOMMY DON'T LEAVE" cryfest, she settled down and had a grand ol' time with Grandma. So much so that she got to go there again today even though the new babysitter didn't have jury duty.

Mom has a physical tomorrow so she'll go back, but still it's good to see her laugh and babble and talk with people other than the 3 of us.

This morning I was getting ready to tie my shoes, when the lace snapped off. I've had these shoes 8 years now, so i guess it's time SOMETHING on them started to fail (Dr. Marten's may be an expensive shoe, but by God, they have proven to be a very decent investment). So now I have to figure out how to buy a pair of shoelaces that aren't too short. That's been my problem in the past, buy a pair of laces, come home, and they barely go 1/2way up the shoe... So looks like I'll be searching on Saturday.

Gotta clean house this weekend too, since next weekend is Nora's 1st Birthday party :)

New Year and so on and so forth

2008-01-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Had a nice vacation. Went to the in-laws for Christmas, the worst part being the drive down. I ran out of wiper fluid about 1/2 way there, but that's okay, because everyone else at the rest stop did as well. I just had to hope the trucks slopped enough water on my windshield to wipe off the muck they were flying. (side note, we had a real bad ice/sleet/snow storm the day before, and the roads were meh at best. Before I hopped on the toll road I saw at least 9 cars off the highway, and about 4 other spots were cars were). I washed the car as soon as we were down there, yes in 20 degree weather I had to wash my car.

Nora was cute, she even got a photo with Santa where she wasn't crying :) She wore a little Helper Elf outfit and was cute. Unfortunatley she also got an ear infection (both ears) on Christmas that we found out about this past Sunday. Poor little thing.

New Years wasn't all that, went to bed at 10, woke up to fireworks at midnight, wished Sara a Happy new year and went back to bed.

Now I'm back at work and swimming through emails, voice mails and getting ready for a meeting. yay.

If it's not Ice

2007-12-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

It's snow.

Winter's here, just in case anyone wasn't sure about the 20 degree days without sun, freezing rain, sleet, snow and more freezing rain...

But it turns out well, I got to eat really REALLY good Chinese food on Sunday, and I don't work next week ( I babysit, so it's not a vacation per se) so it evens itself out.

Lovely Ice laden weekend

2007-12-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

I probably had stuff I wanted to post about during the week, but since I've really been only posting once a week, the weekends are what I remember best. This time was Saturday.. Nora got up from her nap and then off to Wal*Mart we were to go......

.. Until I left the sanctuary of my garage and got onto my driveway. I noticed that I was moving even though the brake was fully applied. There was ice on the driveway. Street too. So after some slipping & sliding we made a decision to not go to Wal*Mart. However, we needed to get back in the garage. I couldn't make a straight go at it due to fishtailing, so I parked in the street (where I found ice there) and slowly scooted towards teh driveway to walk in. Bad Idea. My truck couldn't handle it, so why should I? Landed painfully on my knee. Then I realized that snow was on the grass, and even with ice on it, that gave traction. So I walked up (hobbled, limped) to the garage.

I got my rock salt from there (really wish i didn't have to, it'll destroy your concrete, but what was I to do?) and salted the driveway as well as some of the street. This gave me enough traction to get back in.

Wife & I went a bit stir crazy the rest of the day, since we knew we couldnt' leave the house.

We were able to go to Wal*Mart on Sunday, it sleeted at 4:30 am that morning (10 points to anyone who figures out how I know the time). and that put grit on the ground for my tires to lock onto.

NOW I'm hearing a 6pm-12am Tues-Thurs Winter/Ice Weather warning for the area..... joy.....

The Tree is up

2007-12-03T04:38:00.000-08:00

Friday while I was at home I put up the Christmas tree. It's a new one, all pre-lit and no more me using 4 letter words during the Holiday while stringing them. The only grip i have is "Fluffing" up the tree took about 2 hours, and I'm hoping I won't have to take that long again. Waited until Saturday to put up ornaments so sara could help. I don't want the tree to become a chore, and me doing it by myself feels like a chore. Nora watched, (and so far have left the tree alone) while we put up all the ornaments, even the ones Mom gave to me as she no longer puts them on her tree.

I forgot I also had lighted Garland that wove around the bannister, that was easy to put up. I have a wreath I used to put on my door but can't now (too thick to fit between the door and the screen). It's still currently in Narnia, but if I find some string I could hang it on the railing over the stairs.

now, I just need to get presents under there so it doesn't look so naked.

Thanksgiving Parts I & II

2007-11-26T05:08:00.000-08:00

Well This past thursday was Thanksgiving, and I had a really good time this year. That's not to say that I never have a good time, it's just that this year I really enjoyed myself. Nora wasn't stranger-danger to anyone, Grandma & Great Grandma got to hold her, she walked all over, and slept well during the big meal.

When we were leaving, I was packing up her stuff, and decided to be cute with the monitor. I started whispering "Get out" in it. Turns out my 3 year old nephew thought that I was an alien, and started having a conversation with me. Sara ran so she could relay what he was saying, so I could respond. Turns out I was from Nebulon XI and I came for turkey. :)

Saturday I did what I've never done before: I cooked a turkey. A little 12 pounder to start off to see if I'm really capable of it. Turns out I am. Real moist turkey and good flavor to it. I don't know if that'll become annual as long as Mom's still making her turkey, but at least I know that when it becomes my family tradition, we can handle it.

Vaccuuming the Lawn

2007-11-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well, all the leaves were down, so I had no excuse not to rake them up. So at 12:30 on saturday I got in my work clothes and put on my hat (side note: guess it's a good thing I'm wearing a hat outdoors now, not only is my hairline receding, but I'm developing male pattern baldness.... :( ) and went to vaccuum them up.

Now I know I could have raked them up and then put them in a bag, but 1) the mower chops them up so I can put more in a bag, 2) the lawn was only covered really heavy in the back 1/10 of the lawn, so the rest of the lawn would have been a pain to rake and 3) I feel it's easier.

Easier, yes, but not shorter. Once I was finished, I discovered I had spend 4+ hours outisde bagging that up. But wait, there's more! the leaves were 1-2 weeks old, so most were brittle and dry... that meant DUST. Everywhere dust went, and the bag spewed it out every time I emptied it. I didn't think much of it until I had to blow my nose (warning: it gets a little icky here) and i noticed my snot was black... that's right, pure black. So I blew the rest of that crap out of my nasal passages and spent the rest of the eveining wondering what my lungs looked like. The dust also settled on the pores on my arms, making me look very freckly. My clothes and shoes were covered in a nice reddish-brown soot.

At about 8pm I realized that 4 hours of lawn work took a lot out of me. Standing up felt like a chore, and my mind worked slowly, so I went to bed at 9 and pretty much slept until 6 when Nora needed to be woken up.

Other than that I've let go of my WoW account and now am back to playing City of Heroes (CoH). Started on Friday, and my Natural Blaster is Level 13. :) Level 50 here I come.

Stranger Danger Averted

2007-11-12T05:10:00.000-08:00

My daughter, bless her bald round little head, is not very fond of anyone outside of Mom, Dad, Jami (the babysitter). Anyone else who tries to hold her is met with a very frowny face and crying until Mommy or Daddy come to the rescue. My Mother is especially affected by this, because apparently none of her kids had this type of Stranger Danger. We'd just say hi to anyone I guess.

Well this past weekend I had a friend visit, and he was just "around" her for a few hours before he even tried to hold her.... Well Lo and Behold, she didn't cry. In fact, the rest of the weekend she smiled and giggled at him.

EUREKA! So Grandma & Grandpa (still having trouble remembering the new naming system) stopped by this weekend and we let her know to just let Nora get used to you before you hold her. About 30-45 min in we let Grandma hold Nora. Guess what? Yes! That's It.. she bawled until one of us took her back.. No, that's not true, Nora was just hunky dory with Grandma, and you could tell Grandma was very pleased with this.

Grandma & Nora came out to visit me while I was grilling, and so Grandma got to see Nora in her little hooded jacket. I bet it's all babies, but my daughter gets a +10 to cuteness every time she's wearing that little hood.

Yay! No more stringing lights!

2007-11-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I'll start by saying I really dislike how Corporate America is pushing Christmas season on us before halloween. I know the secular version of the holiday expects us to spend lavish amounts of money on presents to everyone in existance, and I know they can't get much out of Thanksgiving, a season of eating at home with family, but come on man, let us have our holidays seperate!

Okay after all that's said, Sara & I went to look for a new tree. My old one got damp in Narnia, and it was the push I needed to get rid of it and look for a pre-lit tree. Never has the Christmas spirit left me faster than putting up and taking down Christmas lights.

Surprisingly enough, a good multi-colored Pre-lit tree is hard to come by. We saw quite a few really nice trees that had all white lighting, and most of the trees with multi-colored lights were sparse or too narrow. We found one at Lowe's that we would get if we couldn't find a better one for 220, but before we went home we looked at Michael's. And there it was, with Joy to the world playing in the backround was this not too narrow, well filled out Multi-colored pre-lit tree. and it was on sale for 180! Yippee! So after some creative packing in my truck, we brought it home and it now rests in Narnia, ready to be taken out either for this christmas, or next (depending on how "hands-on" nora is.)

New Phone

2007-10-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well, after 7 years, I finally admitted that my cell phone needed an upgrade. It's battery lasted at most a day, I'd drop calls anywhere, and it just took forever to find a signal. So I went to the Sprint store and got myself a newer phone. It can have ringtones on it and everything, but that costs a lot of money to download.

The only thing that irked me with the phone selling experience was that I was informed I had to enroll in some Data Packet/Sprint TV thing. The rep said it was mandatory, but I could call Customer Service to cancel it. Seemed like a lot of runaround for something I didnt' want. So I called Customer Service to cancel, and the lady over the phone was quite nice on it. So much so it sounded like I may have gotten My local Sprint Store in trouble... she didnt' seem to understand the Mandatory enrollment either.

So close to 70...

2007-10-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

I play WoW (World of Warcraft) for those that don't know, and I am level 69 (hehehehehe) about 12 bubbles in, 8 to go. For some reason, this last level feels like it's taking FOREVER. I just want my flying mount, is that so much to ask? Well Tuesday & Wednesday are open (after Nora goes to bed, nothing much I sit and watch on those days) so here's hoping I can get to it then.

Course, with the project I'm on at work going to system testing this week, here's hoping I can get home on time this week to play.

Nora hit 9 months this friday, and it feels like an eternity since she was just a wee lass that did nothing much more than cry,eat,sleep. She's quite mobile, and very wiggly. Giggles a whole bunch and is learning quite quickly that liquid comes out of a sippy cup. It's really hard for me to remember the early days of her childhood. Perhaps this is ingrained into the human psyche, so those of us who had a hard time adjusting forget and say "let's have another kid :)"

Something a bit lighter than shredding a snake by mower

2007-10-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

I'll talk about my recent foray into the world of our Judicial System.
Picture it, July 30, 2007 I receive in the mail from the Judicial System a parking ticket for 38.50, for parking somewhere downtown. Baffled I looked at my car and saw it was not mine, but my wife's tags. After some talking with her, we both realized we have NEVER been down that far into downtown, so are clueless as to why we are paying 38.50 for a ticket.

I call the number, and the first lady wasn't much help. Called again, and this time the woman realized what I was saying and asked what type of car are these plates on. I say White Ford, she says the ticket is for a Blue Pontiac.

GREAT! it's a type-o, they'll look it up, give me an extension, and get back with me to see if it can be outright dismissed.

Called back about a month later to find out that "The tags belong to me and if i want to argue it more, I'll have to go to court". This irritated me, as I already know the tags are mine, the car they have them attached to is not. So I called again, got the runaround, called one more time and this lady, very helpful wrote my complaint down again and said her supervisor would let me know. Got the call later that day with the same answer "Set up a court date".

So I did. This past thursday I drove downtown to the courthouse (actually a lot easier to get to than I expected) Got accosted by a homeless man for cash, walked through a metal detector, hand my ankles checked for metal and off I went.

My first impression was that I was the best dressed defendant there. Everyone came in with whatever they were wearing the night before. Here I am in a Pinstripe suit & Tie, looking better than a few of the Lawyers :)

Second was how business-like the whole atmosphere was. My court time was at 11, I was there at 10, so I sat and watched the 10 o'clock proceedings. I believe 10am was for Moving violations rather than parking, as there were quite a few Continuances, a lot of accepting Pleas, and three men in orange jumpsuits who pled guilty to lesser pleas, most of them were 155 fines plus some time served.
All the while this is going on, the Prosecution was sitting at their table doing paper work and occasionally uttering "Yes, Judge/No, Judge" when the Judge asked a question. Organized Chaos.
Okay, so 11am turns around and Parking problems surface. I sit and listen to one "Trial" (it wasn't Law & Order courtroom trial, just the guy up there, the Officer who assigned the ticket, and the Prosecutor [ side note: I'm getting old, the Prosecutor was my age] talking to the Judge. This guy had his adult son own a car that needed to be tagged and fixed. So this brilliant son fixed the tires, then went into his dad's garage, found an old expired license plate, and put it on the car, thus getting the ticket. He was found Not-guilty.

My turn, I stand up and say "Here, your Honor" because it seemed like the right thing to do. Pleaded not guilty, and went to trial. after swearing in the prosecutor read from the ticket with what felt like standard questions on how the ticket was served, how they found my name etc. Judge asked if I had any questions, I did not, then asked me how I wanted to prove I was not guilty.

I said simply, "The plates are mine, the car is not" and produced my registration. The judge asked if the plates were stolen, I told him no. He asked the officer if she could have transposed some of the numbers, she did not think so, but the Judge said, well this is pretty solid here so Not guilty, you're free to go. I left the courthouse, got accosted by the same homeless person, and went back to work.

So basically the ticket, instead of costing me 38.50, cost me 2 hours of work and 4.50 for parking.

As an addendum: wearing a suit at work is asking for a lot of questions. We just don't wear them anymore so you always get asked one of three questions:

Wedding?
Funeral?
Meeting?

I liked some of the looks on peoples faces when I said "I have to go to court today".

My first death by lawnmower

2007-10-15T04:41:00.000-07:00

Mowed the lawn this past weekend. It was a tad overdue because of the amount of rain we've been having, but not to worry, I used the clippings as mulch around some areas of the house that needed some filling up, and under my porch which apparently is a low spot and becomes a lake during heavy rains.

Anyway, whilst mowing I saw a field snake in my lawn. This would not be a concern of mine except I have an overly inquisitive dog that would have irritated it, and a baby girl that will eventually play out there. While I debated on what to do with the snake, he decided to slither under my mower and BAM decision made. Well mostly. I had to take the remainder of the snake and toss it over my fence, and take that round of clippings and put it out front, away from the dog...

Other than that it was a Sunday with part clouds and we had the house open all day.

By Request

2007-10-11T04:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the last four months of my baby girl.. I hope:

http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=582101192063732703/l=8647588/g=8138344/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Ren Fest 07 - Finale

2007-10-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

Well Nora's first foray into her parent's idiosyncrasies ended with a third and final visit to the rennaisance Festival. This past weekend was Pirate Weekend, so Sara had made a costume likening to a wench/pirate. I altered mine just enough to look like a pirate as well. Place was awful hot, humid too, bu tmostly hot. So hot that Nora sat with a frozen bottle of water in her lap, licking the condensation off of the bottle and enjoying ourselves.

During the walkabout we found none other than Captain Jack Sparrow, so the Missus and I went and got a picture with him. He had to go shortly after that, because the Rum was calling. Anyone want to see the pictures, they're in my photobucket album.

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b34/Bishniak/Ren%20Fest%2007/

New Shoes

2007-10-01T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well New costume shoes. There's a Spirit Halloween store that opened temporarily in my area and Sara wanted to go to look for a Pirate Sash. She didn't find anything, but I finally found a parae of Shin High Boots that would hopefully look good with my Ren Fest Costume. My other boots, while good, wind up causing me great pain by the end of the day. Steeled toed Engineer Boots, hard stuff.

Sara wound up buying material and will make her own sash.

Mobile Baby means more work for Dad

2007-09-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Yup, my daughter is crawling. Sort of... She'll get faster as time goes by, but she's mobile now, which means I need to babyproof the house. Plug guards, door guards, and the baby gate. This thing is not difficult to use, but constant: Take it down put it back up action will drive me batty, so I'll probalby have to secure it. Don't think it'll be difficult, which means it will be a pain in the keester.

It's also fall now, the two trees I worked hard with this summer to keep alive (at the cost of my lawn) are starting to turn. I'm hoping that means they're okay, and not just dying but I'll just have to wait and see come Springtime.

Cleaned out my BBQ Grill Grease Trap this weekend too. Never really done that before or ever really. I need to get a new grill cover though.. the intense sunlight has completely disintegraged the cover, so it sheds all over my grill now. I don't know why I keep it on the grill, I guess it's better than nothing.

Applebee's Desert Shooters

2007-09-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

If anyone has not tried these yet, I do reccommend them. Sara had a coupon for 2 free ones with the purchase of an entree (one per shooter), so we had lunch there. They were just the right amount of dessert after a meal so you don't have to split or share it, or just leave a portion on the table.

Nora made a friend there in the form of a 1-2 year old girl who was just fascinated by Nora, and vice versa.

I was suckered by an internet troll

2007-09-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

and it's really chapping my hide.

On another site, I got into a debate about homosexuality.. a topic I usually avoid largely due to the heated topic material, and refusal of both sides to see any common ground.

Nevertheless i started on my side, and someone started theirs. Unbeknownst to me, after she made her point, she saw (long before I did) we'd have to agree to disagree and left it at that.

Now this is where it gets fun, This allows anonymous posting, which she and I were doing. Not that we were hiding our names, just that we didn't think of adding it at the end.

After she stopped posting, another Anonymous poster continued the fight. Since they were not leaving their name, I naively believed it ws the poster from before.

I don't think my "voice" ever raised but I could see them not particularly answering any of my responses, but only repeating their stance over and over, so I left a long post ending it with Agree to disagree.

Then the original poster I THOUGHT I was having this debate with chimed in, and said none of the latter half was her.....

I got suckered by a damn internet troll. And I used to think I could stay above that. Grr.

So as I said on that board I say here "I apologize for placing the words of an anonymous poster into your mouth. "

and one more time for good measure... Grrrrrr

Mowing weeds and celebrating 31 years

2007-09-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Who would think that mowing the lawn (what's left of it) would be so draining. Granted, the sun is on me for most of the time, as my trees aren't old enough to cover the backyard but still. Spent most of the time pulling up Crabgrass. I've ignored the rest of the weeds that have taken root in my once fertile lawn, mostly because they grow up. Since Crabgrass grows out, it doesn't really get mowed, and I want my lawn to at least have a fighting chance of coming back next spring.

Went to my mom's last night and had the whole family over. My stepfater, my brother and I all have the same birthday, so we had a family hoopla over it. Pork Country Style Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Potato Salad, fruit, chips dip etc. Also Mom made each of us our own cake. My Stepdad's special (Yellow sheetcake/ Chocolate frosting) My brother got a cheesecake, and I had a funfetti cake with sprinkles :). it was a good evening. Nora also didn't cry when Grandma & Grandpa held her YAY! We're making progress!

Tomorrow is my actual birthday and Sara plans on taking me out to dinner. Here's hoping the Cold we caught from our daughter doesn't keep us from going. Although since NEITHER of us got really any sleep last night, we may have to postpone until we're a bit back on the weather.

Labor Day

2007-09-04T05:23:00.000-07:00

I had the in-laws in town and I brought my parents over for a BBQ at about 11am. So Early! yes, I know, but after noon, the sun pours all over my deck and it's pretty much unbearable to go out on that thing until after sunset.

Anyway, I think I grill better for a group of like 8-10 than I do 2-4. the grill is covered in meat & corn, and all of it came off juicy. Nummy Nummy.

Ren Fest started this weekend too. All of us went and most of us got sinus/allergy headaches. Mostly because it's been so dry here for months, the dust there is off the charts.

Going to go again this weekend, and do our traditional Olive garden Never Ending Pasta Bowls dinner.

Nora's now sleeping swaddler-less, mostly from this weekend. We went to dinner and didn't get home until 8ish. SHe didn't nap much during the day, and zonked out in the car. DID NOT wake up when I got her out of her seat, and I just decided it was best to lay her in her crib, where she slept well to 6am.

yadda yadda yadda

2007-08-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

Nothing really new on my front, but since i post practially every monday, i felt obligated to say something.

Blessing went very quickly. 10 min tops, then spent the next hour with finger foods at my house. Nora stayed up until 2pm, so she slept very well in the afternoon. Finished "Act I" of X-Men II Legengs: The Rise of Apocalypse with my friends. That's about it.

Groceries are slowly blowing my estimations out of the water. This time it wasn't really my daughter's fault. Just ran out of a lot of non-edibles, which is always expensive. However, we saived 24.48 in coupons, I think that's a personal record.

Next week or the week after I have to take my cars in to have their cruise control fixed, so my car doesn't spontaneously combust and burn my house down. Somewhere in there I'm supposed to go to Ren Fest and celebrate 31 years of existence, but I'll figure out how that one works.

New Suit

2007-08-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

The missus and I are having our wedding blessed by the church (the Catholic Seal of Approval for vegas weddings) So I had to go buy a suit. My last one didn't fit anymore, so I gave it to Goodwill when we moved. Since I've been lucky to not have to go to a funeral, and most weddings a tie/shirt/slacks is acceptable, I've never needed one. Well Getting a blessing in the church deemed it important so off we went.
Turns out this was the best time to do it, as JCPenney was having a really good sale on suits. Like, buy the jacket, and pants were a dollar for some brands, or suit/pants for 150. Turns out I bought my suit, pants & shirt for 166. Then comes the tie.

I want a purple tie to match the dress Sara wants to wear, and I wanted it in a soid color, not stripey or dotted etc. Jauque Penney did not have one so off the mall we searched.

Went into Dillards and Eureka! we found a solid purple... little dark but still. Bought it.... for 63! Really took my "Great sale" high away for buying such an expensive Tie. But all was not lost... we had to go to Kohls to get some clothes for Nora (got a $10 coupon in the mail, so 4 outfits for 2 bucks.. Yay) and nothing there. There IS a Men's Warehouse closeby so we go in. Luck upon Luck there's a lavender tie (turns out it's closer to a match to Sara's dress) thats' 20 dollars cheaper! So we buy that and return the 63 dollar tie.

so I bought what I believe was a 400 suit set for around 200. I never thought saving that type of money would make me feel proud. and look so smart.

Bacon Sandwiches

2007-08-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

I do believe the Good Lord smiled upon man the moment he gave us the idea to take bacon, and put it on bread with some mayonaise and lettuce. Tomato was an afterthought for those that can eat them.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm Bacon.

My lawn is so dead

2007-08-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

Not dormant, not the normal "all brown but will be back next year" but "patches are starting to show dirt and cracked earth.

I could water yes, but I'm home sporadically, and it would last well past 10 to water my whole lawn, and I'd like to be asleep by then. Also the need to take the dog out makes it interesting. I am also busy keeping my trees and bushes alive, which is no easy task either.

So funny, that earlier this year we had so much rain it was pouring down the sides of my house in rivers, and now it's so blasted hot you'd think we were in Pheonix.

Fate?

2007-08-06T10:08:00.001-07:00

I'm not a big believer in it, but there are times when you have to sit and wonder.

Did my normal walk at lunchtime, when my brother and I were making the turn when someone hollered my last name. Turned and it was an old high school buddy names Wes. his family was up here from texas visiting his relatives.

What are the odds of that scenario actually coming to fruition? Anyone? like 1:anything? He has a boy roughly the same age as Nora, and his older daughter was more than happy to show us the incoming teeth, to with the boy allowed much more readily than Nora does.

I'm not big into Westerns

2007-08-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

Really not. My dad was. Loved The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and many other "Spaghetti Westerns" but not me, just wasn't my thing.

That all being said, TNT was showing Tombstone, and That is a Western I like.

To sleep, perchance to dream

2007-07-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

The gross misuse of the Hamlet quote is not in reference to dying, but the fact that I can now get a full nights sleep (theoretically). Nora for three nights acted as if the 10pm bottle was unnecessary. So saturday night we dropped it. Poof gone, once she's in bed, she's in bed! YAY! So to celebrate the missus and I fell asleep at 8:30pm (Long day of driving everywhere for groceries, and to get her 6month pictures & family portrait done; all three of us were tired.) Unfortunately, my body's not used to that much rest, so I was up at 4am without much hope of going back to bed.

Also, best investment I've got for my daughter is one of those play seats she can swivel in and see toys all around her. She occupies herself in that for 30-60 minutes at a time, and for a 6 month old, that's a LONG time.

Grass is very dead.. it scares me how much won't come back next year, and if weeds'll replace them or I'll have to reseed. I'm more worried about one of my tries that doesn't like dry weather, I'm having to water it every other day to make sure it isn't dying... although it doesn't look all that healthy. Haven't mowed in 2 weeks, but you'd never notice. Need to liquid fence the lawn again, we had enough rain to wash that away, so now the bunnies are back.

Have the audio of Harry Potter VII, read by Jim Dale. I noticed the intro music is different than the previous 6.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - No Spoilers

2007-07-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

Never have I read a book faster in my life. Sara finished it Sunday 2:30am, and I picked it up from there. Early on Monday I completed it, just couldn't put the thing down. Also, I have never, NEVER been moved to tears in a book before. Just not my thing. However, there was one part in this that just broke me up. I'm tempted to write Ms. Rowling to inform her of this.

In other news, I sprayed Liquid Fence around my backyard to keep the bunnies out... that stuff STINKS, but so far haven't seen any bunnies, so it's good. Lawn is still dying, no rain now for a month, very hard to remember that in April I had rivers of water flowing down the side of my house and my backyard became a swamp.

Nora's 6 months now, pictures will be coming shortly. She's 19lbs 9 oz, which means she's about to outgrow her current carseat. Doc says that they have to be 20lbs, and 1 year before they face forward, so we need to find a conversion chair. Sara's found one that hopefully won't be too expensive.

New computer at home is awesome, WoW loaded in record time and lag was unheard of. I need to raise the monitor up (19" flat panel.. sweet) because after I ran my friends through the Deadmines, I noticed my eyes were hurting and my neck was stiff.

That's all from my world.

My life is complete

2007-07-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

last night my baby girl finally learned how to say "Da-da".

In other news, my lawn in dying from the 95 weather (Heat index: 160) and my poor dog is running like mad in an out of the house to avoid burning her paws on the deck that's been sitting in the baking sun since 1pm.

Stupid Weed Eater

2007-07-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Or, wait, that's a name brad, the term is Electric Trimmer. Anyway, my Weed Eater ran out of wire a couple week's ago, so I bought more. Now I can't unlock the stupid spool to put the new wire in. I used brute force, pliers, wrench, the thing is fastened on tight. So now I'm wondering if I should just fork over another 35 and buy a new trimmer.

My Daughter's first words

2007-07-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

She's been rolling the "ma-ma" around for a couple days now, and for me it was hard to tell if she was actually saying ma-ma or just babbling. This morning Sara called me at work and eventually I got to hear her second word. "ba-ba" which, of course is baby for "Bottle". Now we have to work on "da-da", then "Jami" for our babysitter.

I've been to San Diego the first half of this week. My dad's not in the greatest of health, and on Sunday he fell in the bathroom, and banged his head on the countertop. He's having low blood platelets, which means he has trouble clotting. So the bang on the head got bleeding in the brain, and the doctors weren't sure if they could do anything. Essentially, my step-brother heard this and started dialing the phone to let us know Dad was in terminal condition.

The next day dad was becoming coherent and lucid, and we got to see him that afternoon. The next day we visited with my father all day, and I think it did him a world of good. He was scheduled to move out of the ICU into the PCU, and I guess they upgraded his condition to Critical.

That all being said, and obviously the trip wasn't a fun in the sun one, I got to see the Pacific Ocean, beautiful. and San Diego weather is very nice, perennially 70 and sunny.

Transformers Rocked!

2007-07-05T04:54:00.000-07:00

Side note: the weeds under my patio appear to have taken a hit from the weed killer, but don't appear dead yet, another application may be necessary.

Next: As much trepidation as I had with seeing the new Transformers before the movie, I was very much impressed with the show. I do think the fact that Peter Cullen voicing once again Optimus Prime helped in that transition. Its going on my DVD must own list.

A veritable forest is growing under my deck.

2007-07-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

I know I need to stir up the dirt and add more mulch under there, but in the meantime I'm getting weeds and fast growing grasslike crap. It's becoming to much of a pain (metaphorically and literally) to Weed-Eat it every 2 weeks, so I want to kill it. I bought Ortho Weed-B-Gone for the hose and sprayed it rather liberally. However, it doesn't look like it's dying. I'm a bit afraid to try like Round up or anything, because I don't want to kill my grass. So I'll perhaps try another round of that stuff after I mow tonight to see if it'll destroy my weed patch.

No flooding this time round. I found that the caulking on the door to the concrete step had pretty much eroded to nothing, so I replaced that. Wound up replacing it with a Silicone instead of standard caulk, which made it very messy to try, but the rain showed up on Friday and didn't leave until Sunday, and no rain in the basement. Yay.

Starving Artists my left foot

2007-06-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

So Sara found a commercial for a "Starving Artist" sale from 10-5. We did go, and bought two really nice paintings, frames, and hanging kits for about x amount, which, since I didn't do the math in my head, really shocked me. That all being said, they're pretty and look well in our kitchen/bedroom.

The Kitchen one I picked out. It's a still life, a Cannister (Dark brown/black) in the background, with a well worn stoneware yellow water pitcher. On each side of the pitcher is tomatoes of varying ripeness ( Sara & I thought they were apples when we got it, but closer inspection showed them to be 'maters), One side they're in a green stoneware bowl, the other a steel/silver tray. Quite simple but pretty.

The bedroom picture is one that looks like two Roman Statues. Except they're not actual statues, it's a Roman Couple in an "awww" huggy pose. I spect Sara could explain it better, but it looks real nice in the bedroom, and since it's mostly shades of white (for the marble of a statue) it compliments the purple wall.

In other news:
Nearly saw an accident happen this morning on the way to work. Apparently a truck didn't want to be in the right-turn only lane, and shifted one to the left. Well the blue car in that lane wasn't real appreciative, and blared his horn, understandably. Mr. Truck didn't seem to mind or care, cause he kept right on coming. So the two shared that lane (we were at a red light), with Mr. Blue car mostly over the double yellows. Well Light turns green and Blue Car forces his way back into the lane, shoving Mr. Truck behind him. I stayed 1.5 car lengths behind all this so My car would be safe.

My daughter woke up this morning 30 min before my alarm was to go off. A rather hearty cry, as I correctly interpreted as "Why on God's Green Pasture am I awake?! I want to go back to sleep"
Reswaddle, and one pacifier later, I got 25 min of naptime before I needed to face the day.

My First Father's Day

2007-06-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Guess I didn't know what to expect on this day, and probably still don't since I'm kinda new at this whole "Dad" thing.

My wife took me out to a Japanese Steakhouse on Saturday, whilst Mom came over and babysat Little One. We had a wonderful, tasty, and filling meal. We also saw what I will assume were brothers (not twins, although I guess I couldn't rule out fraternal) with their respective wives and 3.5 month olds. One had a baby girl, one had a baby boy. Both were cute. Little girl fell asleep, while little boy stared wide eyed at everything that was there. Sara turned to me and said, "Is that what people see when they see Nora?" Nora has the same "wide-eyed gotta see everything or else I'll miss it" look to her.

Sunday I took my stepfather out for breakfast, then we went to Nelson-Atkins to see the new addition they put on the place. Not bad. it's mostly contemporary art, which I've never fully understood, but most of it could be considered art. Well, except one piece. Two lightbulbs on sockets that plug into the wall.. that's it... that was "art". I asked if that was art to Sara, and a woman turned and laughed at me, pointing at her husband. Apparently I'm not the only one that asked that question.

Now I don't know what's sadder, the fact that the person who made that thinks that's art (It's hardware) or thte fact that the Nelson's probably had to pay to get that piece.

After the museum, I went to see Fantastic Four II: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Not a bad little flick.