Category Anything and Everything

After having a 3 followed by a 4 day weekend, a lousy 2 day weekend seems ridiculously short. On Friday night we got the call from my mom that my brother and sis-in-law had their baby. Caroline is her name. She came about a week earlier than planned. I’m happy for them, this is my 2nd time being an uncle, the first time one was directly blood related. It feels odd realizing that my brother is now a father. My thoughts on fatherhood are still lacking direction. I think I would be a good father but I really don’t know that I am willing to give up my personal freedom. So since there is a sense of doubt I continue down the path I am on, makes sense to me at least. The dog keeps Ali more than entertained and allows her to exhibit motherly tendencies as she pleases.

On Saturday I was on the road before 6am on my way to the east coast to play in another volleyball tournament. The weather was menacing all day but we managed to escape with a couple light showers. Our net was weak, we won each match by around 10 points so we were confident. The highlight of pool play was a team that had a french guy on it. During one of his matches, their team was losing to a team that wasn’t very good. The frenchy turned to his partner and said “Let us try to be more challenging” in his thick frech accent. It sounded very funny and became our catch phrase for the day.

We had a long delay before the playoffs, between 2 and 3 hours. Our first playoff game was against 2 younger kids. It turned out one of the most important plays of the game happened before the match started. They wanted to play with their ball, one of those shitty Wilson white and yellow balls that are light and has no seams like an indoor ball almost. We wanted to play with our conventional, heavier leather ball. So in disputes they are settled with a “roll off” where both guys stand on one side of the court and roll the ball towards the line on the other side. He who gets closest to the line without going over, wins. We lost. It was factor in the game to be sure. Another storm was blowing in so it was windy. The light ball was dancing in the breezes and was bouncing off my forearms when I was passing much further than I was accustomed to. As a result, my passing was erratic and it allowed them to jump to an early lead that we never could overcome. Of course they had to deal with the conditions too but they were accustomed to how that ball reacted. So we were bummed, we had high expectations and to lose in the first playoff game was a major downer. We still had the 3/4 playoff game to play. Again we played some guys that were probably in their early 20’s. My second Monster energy drink really kicked in that game and I was hyper as hell. If the result of the play was good or bad I didn’t care, I was ready for the next one. It was a strange game where we jumped out 3-0, then they ran off 7 straight to put us down 7-3. We responded by running off 8 straight to win 11-7. During that run I had my best hit of the day, the ironic part was I wasn’t hitting. I was blocking. The guy went up to hit, I started blocking line and then leaned back hard into his angle, he hit it hard and it hit right on the beefy part of my palms and rocketed right back into his head. I enjoyed that one. So at least we ended on a winning note. That drive back across the state after a tourney is a long one.

Sunday was busy as it was my only day to tackle any jobs I wanted to get done. I woke up on my own a little after 5am even though I was exhausted. I got ideas in my head about what I wanted to get done that day so I was unable to quiet my mind down to fall back asleep. So I got up.I did some stuff on the computer until the sun came up. Then, I loaded up with bug spray and went outside to start my chores. Even though I sprayed myself up, the mosquitos were ferocious. It was so hot and humid I was sweating profusely which diluted the repellent. I would literally have dozens of mosquitos in landing patterns around my body as I madly swatted to keep them at bay. It truly sucked. So I put on a hat and long pants and sprayed some more. That made it bearable.

I weeded, transplanted some plants, weed whacked and did some car work. Ali mowed with the new mower. The Cub Cadet has an annoying “feature” where if you back up it turns off the mower deck. So everytime you back up you have to restart the blades. This is a large pain in the ass. I researched it and found that this was incorporated because of some lawsuit where a moron hurt himself or someone else mowing backwards. I also found out that it is possible to disable this by doing some unauthorized modifications that I will be performing shortly. I finally discovered that the water in the trunk of the Sentra was coming from the wheel well. I removed the wheel, hit it with a hose and watched the water form in the trunk. I triumphantly wiped up the water with a towel and made an appointment to take it back to the dealer.

Sunday afternoon we went to see I,Robot. I enjoyed the flick. The storyline was good, the effects were amazing. There were a handful of ridiculous Will Smith super hero-like moments that you just had to laugh at. The theater was very full for a flick that has been out a few weeks. I would definitely recommend it if you like techo sci-fi flicks. I always enjoy movies that depict what the future may be like.

Sunday night I did the bills. We(I) have spent a staggering amount of money in the past month. It’s not like I am buying lots of toys for myself, it’s mostly legitimate things but my issue is I need to account for what I already have spent for a month before partaking in additional purchases. It’s something I have trouble doing but need to concentrate on more. I informed Ali of the huge expenditures from the last month and she took it as a shot at her. Although she contributes to the spending, most of it is stuff that I got so I tried to explain that I was simply letting her know so we both could keep it in mind in regards to any ideas of future purchases. We need to more seriously consider the immediate need for an item before we lay down the green. I am certainly guilty as charged in not doing so consistently. We certainly don’t live paycheck to paycheck but if we ever want to be able to get away from being reliant on 2 incomes things have to change.

The Murray is sold, I love it when a plan comes together. When I got there, we had gotten ANOTHER inch of rain in the morning. The latest deluge totally flooded out the entrance to the shed where the tractor was. I had to remove my shoes, socks and pull up my jeans to wade across the water. The negotiation was very fast, he looked it over for no more than 15 seconds. He offered 600 I said how bout 650, deal. I helped him load it and he was gone.

Well I went back to the ortho today. As I expected, they decided we needed to redo the aligners. So what that meant was I had to endure them popping off the metal button that was attached, grinding off the 8 attachments I had to various teeth with a drill and then having reproximation done on about a half dozen different spots. Needless to say it wasn’t an enjoyable experience. This redo will retard my treatment at least another month and a half. Invisalign definitely has overpromised and undelivered so far for both myself and Alison.

I placed an ad in the paper to sell the Murray and was excited to get two calls on it already. I am heading home at lunch to show it to one and possibly both of the guys that called. That would be sweet to unload it right away. It also would be nice to get what I asked for it to help take the sting out of buying the Cub Cadet.

The rain this week has been pretty nasty. I bought a pump to move some of the standing water to the back of our property. Everytime it makes headway it pours again and I am back to walking through a lake. I think in the past week or so we may have gotten close to a foot of a rain. Tomorrow I play volleyball on the east coast so I am hoping the rain will hold off. Otherwise it could make for a miserable tourney.

In a related story, I still have been on the case with determining the source of the trunk leak in the Sentra and I think I finally am getting somewhere. After various experiments I think I have determined that the leak actually isn’t the trunk but in the rear wheel well. I left it out in pouring rain and the trunk stayed dry. I drove on wet roads and the water appeared. So I have to locate the exact spot where it is leaking and then return it to the dealer for them to fix it and replace my warped trunk floor. Nothing like doing the mechanics job for him.

I was on the xbox last night playing tennis. It seems that most of the people you play have voice communication turned off because either they don’t want to be bothered with it or they don’t want to expose themselves as morons. Well during one match I was playing some guy that appeared to have his voice disabled. I had mine on. It was frustrating match where I kept making unforced errors. I was yelling very loud at my mistakes, swearing and basically ranting and raving. Well after he beat me, I heard a click and he says “good game”. Evidently he was muted the entire time but was listening to me the entire match. Doh! He was laughing and was good about it. He was from Nebraska. Later I played a guy from the UK that was a much better player than me but let me win anyway and offered me all sorts of tips. He was incredibly polite. Congratulating me on good shots constantly. He told me a bunch of stuff about his job, life in England, stuff like that. He mentioned during our conversation that he was black which amazed me because I couldn’t tell at all by the way he spoke. He was real cool and is now on my “friends” list on xbox live. Some brits may be snobs but we sure could learn a thing about manners from them.

Alison’s plane was delayed until 2:30 am. I took the dog with and picked her up. We probably didn’t get to bed until close to 4. You know it was a late night when you wake up at 10:30 and feel exhausted.

I sprung the tractor on Ali. She was very surprised and likes it a lot. It really is nice. However I kept thinking all day how I could have gotten most of the stuff I need to make the interior of the Vette look decent for the extra I spent on the tractor.
🙁

Speaking of the Vette, I did a quick mini-project , installing a cover for the wires in the footwell of the passenger side.

I still have one more day off from work but thought I would drop in a recap while I had a few minutes to do so. My wife has been gone since Friday so I have had free reign. I enjoyed my time alone but am ready for her to come home.

On Saturday I had my to do list all ready to go, it wasn’t pages long but enough to keep me busy. I cleaned up the house which took me the morning. Then in the afternoon I had some things I wanted to pick up. I got a replacement XBOX and a new UPS for my office PC at home. I was absolutely sick and tired of the old broken UPS giving me .5 seconds of battery runtime before the unit would die. The XBOX served two purposes. My old one while functional, was one of the earlier units that has an older DVD drive that doesn’t read all the DVD formats the newer ones do. Second, I wanted to give my old XBOX to Keener so he could hop on XBoX live and do some gaming with me. He isn’t motivated enough to go out and get one on his own.

On Saturday night I decided to go to the Firecats Arena football game solo. I had asked a few buddies but they either weren’t interested or were busy. So what the heck I’d go myself. I had a stroke of luck when as I was approaching the box office, an older guy stopped me and asked if I needed a ticket. I immediately thought to myself how I couldn’t believe someone would be trying to scalp for this game, the Firecats are lucky to fill half the building. To my surprise he was offering the ticket to me for free! Evidently someone else had given him 2 free ones and he only needed one. So I triumphantly entered the arena without paying a cent (except 5 bucks for parking) I grabbed my first 20 oz draft beer and headed up the aisle towards my section. The guy that had given me the ticket was standing there so I just hung out and gabbed with him for awhile. He is a retired guy that loves sports. He goes to sporting events by himself often as his wife doesn’t want to be bothered by it. We talked a lot, mostly about sports. We talked long enough that I finished my 20 oz beer and got a second. By the time we found our seats I had almost finished that one. I was drinking all of this on barren, empty stomach. I was feeling it. But that didn’t stop me from going for number 3. The game started and I had that one gone before halfway through the first quarter. So I had pounded 60 oz of beer on an empty stomach. I wasn’t stupid drunk, but I could tell I was starting to run words together a bit when I talked with the old guy. I knew I had enough beer as another 20 ouncer would have flattened me. This was reenforced when I tried to get up to go get some food. As I stood, I wobbled and half fell into the row in front of me! I was embarrassed and said something like “Woops, I lost my balance…” When I came back with my diet coke I admitted that it was enough beer for me. The old guy smiled. The game itself was ok. AF2 football is rather lame in comparison to the NFL. There is very little defense. In fact, other than a fumble, the Firecats did not stop the other team from scoring the entire game. The final score was 76-60, Firecats lose. Oh well. By the time the game was over I had drank the 60 oz of beer and eaten a big slice of pizza, a hot dog, a soft pretzel and a cup of ice cream. What a pig, plus I bet it cost me at least 35 bucks. At least all the food helped sober me up and I got home without incident.

I didn’t get home till after 11 so I took a shower and then instead of going to sleep like I should have, I decided to throw on the Van Damme movie IN HELL which was on the Tivo. This movie was only released in 2003 and it was on broadcast TV already so you know it couldn’t have been popular. It actually wasn’t bad. It followed the same plot as all Van Damme movies, kick ass for revenge. It also had Lawrence Taylor in it. Claude is looking a bit beat down after all of this years but he still is in decent shape. The movie had enough action in it to keep me awake until the end. So I didn’t click off the TV till almost 1 am.

Yesterday I got up early and mowed the grass. It was my first time mowing the grass on the new mower and it was not fun. It works fine but using the 6 speed is cumbersome beyond belief on a property like ours. We use only the tractor and a weed whacker to mow everything. So we need to manuever around, change directions and speeds constantly on our yard. Well anytime you need to do a speed change or direction change you have to engage the clutch/brake which jerks you to a stop, change gears and then jerk to a start. I now understand what Ali meant when she said mowing wasn’t fun. Mowing actually really sucked. It is enough of a pain in the ass to have to spend 2 hours on the tractor every week without having to fight it to do what you used to be able to do so easily with the hydro static transmission. So I started running ideas through my head. Before you knew it I was down at the Home Depot and Lowes in the afternoon comparing my options. I thought this would be a huge surprise for Ali when she gets back. So I found one that was impressive, a Cub Cadet at Lowe’s. If a Murray is a Chevy Cavalier the Cub Cadet is a Cadillac. It is much heavier duty and is sure to last much longer. However I wanted to get a deal. I knew that Home Depot and Lowes routinely hand out 10% off anything coupons to new home owners. On a big ticket item like a mower the savings could be well worth it. When I got home I jumped on the internet and did some research on how to get these coupons. I found out that all I had to do is go on Lowe’s web site, tell them I was moving and they would send me a link to print a coupon! I signed up last night and hoped I would get the coupon quick so I could surprise Ali.

The coupon didn’t arrive as of this morning so I proceded with my plans for today. First I took Nicki to the dog beach. She had a great time running around, chasing birds, and swimming in the gulf. When we first got there, there was only one other couple there so she had pretty much free reign of the place. Shortly afterward others started to show so she got a bit timid as she normally does but she still had a fun time. I got back late morning and checked my email again. Cool, there was the coupon! So I had to make one more decision if I really wanted to do it or not and I decided I would. The plan was to get the new mower, sell the one I just got to help offset the costs and all would be well. Plus just imagine the look of surprise on Ali’s face when she realizes mowing can be fun again.

I went down and picked it up with little fuss. I knew the woman in the department because she runs our neighborhood crime watch and lives right down the road. We loaded it up and I proudly transported my new Cub Cadet home and pulled up into the driveway. Then I did something stupid. I have ramps to load and unload things into the truck. I had the truck pulled up close to the garage which is a bit of an INCLINE. I put the ramps on the truck tailgate and lined them up with the tractor wheels. I remember thinking to myself for a brief moment how it may not be a smart move to unload it with the rear of the truck facing downhill a bit. I thought, wouldn’t it suck if it somehow fell off the ramps? I dismissed the thought quickly. I mean I had already cheated the injury gods last week by pressure washing the shed roof in flip flops, surely I would be fine. Wrong. I start the tractor up and start to inch it back onto the ramps. As I do I can feel one of the ramps move a bit. I take a second to think of what would be a good course of action since I am alone. I decide to try to slowly pull forward again. It was a bad move. The wheels turning forward served to push the one ramp totally off the tailgate! What happened next was blur. Basically The tractor fell off the tailgate, rear first, with me in the drivers seat. All I remember is me going down hard and then having the tractor more or less laying on me. I lay there for a second trying to understand if this really just happened to me. If my stupidity indeed did catch up to me this time. Well it definitely did. I was on my back with my legs in a weird position while the tractor was on 2 wheels on top of me. I was able to push it over and have it go back on all 4 wheels with a bang. My next series of concerns went like this, FIRST I hurriedly looked across the street to make sure our next door neighbor who had gotten home a few minutes earlier did not view my act of extreme stupidity. SECOND I quickly surveyed the mower, I immediately feared that I had just wrecked the equipment that I didn’t even cut a blade of grass with yet. It appeared to be intact other than some paint that was scratched off the rear fender where it had rolled onto. FINALLY I remembered that I basically cushioned the tractors fall and hadn’t even thought about what I did to myself. Everything still moved but I had some cuts on my elbows as well as some bad bruises on my lower back. I even felt some tingling in my one leg for a bit but that subsided. Once these three things were addressed I could turn to being angry at myself for being such a dipshit. I picked up the ramps and threw them with disgust. I hopped on the tractor and turned the key, praying it would start up. It did. I did a quick mow test and everything appeared to work, whew. So I drove it around a bit, it is impressive by tractor standards. It rides well, cuts with authority and makes the Murray seem like it should have pedals. So I parked it in the shed and I plan to spring it on Ali when she gets home tonight. Then once she knows I can explain to her why I have these bruises on my back. Every once in awhile when I start to feel invincible I always manage to give myself a cold slap in the face somehow. I was a lucky man today, I could have been one bad angle of impact away from being in a wheel chair or worse.

Ali’s flight isn’t scheduled to come in ntil 11 pm. There is a strong possibility of further delays because of the bad weather around here as well as the heightened security alerts causing additinal delays. Going to be another late night, yawn….

I have had problems with a-holes blog spamming for quite a while but it was never more than 10-15 at a shot so I just went in and cleaned them up. I really don’t understand the point of it. Basically they would add comments to entries that promoted porn, penis growth, cheap drugs and so on. Well today I got blasted, when I got home I had over 500 spam comments that were posted on the blog! I did some quick research and found a plug-in that not only will block known spammers with a blacklist, if some jerk does manage to get through, I can clean up his garbage in a matter of seconds. So to any and all blog spammers EAT SHIT and DIE!! The ride here is over. That is all.

Could Jack be ready for round 2 or could this simply be a hoax by someone looking to find humor in my unfortunate neighbor arrangements? You decide. 🙂

All entries in the “Imitate Jack” contest are welcome!

I feel bad. Last night on my way home from doing some side work I decided to stop and get gas and grab a couple burgers from McD’s for supper. As I was waiting in the drive thru line I noticed there was a bigger woman in an early 90’s mustang backed into a parking space with the car running. As I sat there I saw white smoke start to trickle from under the hood. Soon the smoke was heavy and I could see coolant dripping from underneath it. More than likely a radiator hose broke. She did not even notice the problem until it was steaming like a locomotive. Just as I got my order she had gotten out of the car and observed the mess and was just kind of standing there looking pissed off. At that moment I had to decide if I was going to stop and assist or not. On the con side I just got my food, I was already late for being home, and we were in a crowded parking lot so there was a good chance someone else could at the very least let her use their cell phone to call for assistance. I also have to be honest and admit if the woman was attractive I probably would have ignored the cons and came to the rescue. So in the space of 10 seconds I weighed everything and decided to head out of the parking lot. I felt guilty about my decision and the reality that her looks affected my decision making process. Now if it was an emergency, like her car was on fire or she was in a threatening situation there is no question I would have jumped to her aid even if she looked like the elephant woman. Still, I feel bad about it. I’m sure other then the inconvenience it caused her, everything worked out fine. Hell when my Buick was burning it took a dozen cars ignoring my frantic waves for assistance until someone actually stopped. I guess normally I would expect better of myself so it will bother me for awhile.

Ali flew out for PA this morning for a visit with her family. The trip is basically because she wants to see her Pop Pop. He is 91 and although he still is kicking and has his wits about him, you never know when that could change at his age. So I am solo for 3 days. I have no huge plans other than busting my ass on Saturday getting the house related work done so I have the other 3 days to do as I please.

I am a bit tired this morning because I stayed up and watch the Kerry acceptance speech. I thought he came off well. The speech was a bit corny in spots but overall I think he addressed the issues very well and attacked Bush without resorting to name calling. He also had a demeanor that made me feel like I can imagine him as president. That is a feeling that I never had about W. Kerry delivered the speech without sounding like he never heard some of the words before. I can only pray there will be debates between him and W. However when Gore ran against W, Gore mauled him in the debates and made W look like a dumb ass and W still won. (kind of) I’m sure a lot of what Kerry said made the rich cringe like 200k plus a year people getting tax breaks rolled back. It’s tough to go against the big money since they have so much influence but hopefully that influence can be beat down by sheer numbers of people coming out to vote against Bush. Did I mention am a registered republican? I can never remember there being such anger regarding a sitting president. Has any other sitting pres had a movie made about the deception going on throughout his administration? If he manages to win despite it all there really is little hope for progress for our country for the next 4 years.

Mr Ricci was the woodshop teacher I had in 7th grade. Mr Ricci had quite the reputation. He had been at the school forever, my dad even had him. His nickname was the “CHeese” I believe the nickname came about because he sort of looked like a mouse in the face with his pudgy disposition along with a bushy moustache. The reason he was famous was because he had a bad temper and used to yell and even sometimes assault students. If someone was out of line it wasn’t unusual for Mr Ricci to “chop” the offender. What he would do is put his fingers together so his hand looked sort of like a spatula and then he would deliver a short blow to the sternum with the end of his fingers. It left no mark but was painful enough to make you remember it. Of course this sort of behavior would be outlawed nowadays in our politically correct world. However. although I feared getting the chop, when I compare that to the general disregard students have for their teachers today I think exisiting under the threat of mild physical punishment was a better option. Kids behaved in Mr Ricci’s class and by the end of the year, most actually came to like him.