All posts by Duf

I am out walking Nicki when Alison comes out on the phone and hollers, “Jack’s on the phone, did you call him?” Puzzled, I said “Jack down the street? No.” She relays the message. Evidently Jack called and said his daughter said that I had called and left a message?? What the hell? I could speculate on it I guess but it would be nothing but a huge waste of my time. After Alison told Jack I didn’t call he said “Seriously?”, she said “yep” Then he said “I apologize…” and hung up. I think I hear twilight zone music……

Even with the blowout with the neighbor it was a great weekend. We got a bunch of stuff done around the house, saw 3 different movies, relaxed and had a great 3 days. On Friday evening we started things out by watching Farenheit 911. I snagged it off the net. My PC has a video out connection so with the assistance of a 50 foot rca cable I am able to watch stuff on the PC on the big screen TV. I think the version we saw was a bit different than what is playing in theaters because several key scenes that I saw in the previews did not show up in the version we saw. The video quality wasn’t great but good enough to view. It’s a good flick and further reenforced my ideas about the Bush administration. Their ties to the Saudi’s and the bin Laden family are DISTURBING. I thought the film dwelled a bit too much on the actual war in Iraq. Moore spends lots of time documenting how horrible war is which is already a universal truth and didn’t need to be rehashed as much as he did IMHO. It was a good flick but not quite as good as I thought it would be. Of course if I saw the theater version I may have enjoyed it more.

On Saturday we knocked out a bunch of housework during the day. I was a bit in the obsessive mode as I mopped the tile floors and also ran the steam cleaner throughout the house. Yea it is a lot of work but it looked good when I was done and seeing how dirty the water was that came out of the steam cleaner reenforced that it was time to use it. On Saturday night I had a surprise lined up for Alison. I took her to the Fort Myers dinner theater to see Grease. It was great food and I enjoyed the show much more than Pirates of Penzance. It was a really nice evening out.

On Sunday we ran a few errands and then afterward finally saw The Day After Tomorrow. (spoiler) I was disappointed in this flick. Like 10.5 the special effects were awesome but the storyline was just ludicrous. In a nutshell there is a killer storm descending on NY city. In the eye of the storm temperatures were dropping to -150 degrees. Dennis Quaid was in DC, his son is trapped in NYC. He is going to save him. He can’t drive any further than Philly and has to WALK to NYC in the greatest storm in history. It was just ridiculous. It wasn’t like he was walking there with a kerosene heater, how was his presence there supposed to save his kid? Dumb flick.

When we got home from the movies is when the crazy Jack the neighbor war unfolded. I don’t need to rehash that mess other to say that if the guy thinks I am an a-hole because I didn’t want to see his dog wind up as roadkill, so be it. I have his message archived for safe keeping. I wish I had the 2nd phonecall on tape, it may have set a record for the amount of F’s you can work into a 2 minute conversation. At least he knows I have no intentions of taking his shit. It still amazes me the guy waited almost a month until actually contacting me about it. F’in crazy bastard. My message which was by no means friendly, wasn’t rude, threatening or ridiculous.

Yesterday we mowed all the grass. It was hot and humid as hell. Although it was only 10am I literally had streams of sweat coming off my head as I weed whacked. Times like that make having the pool a godsend. We cleaned up and went out to grab lunch and then see Spiderman 2. Believe the hype, the movie is GREAT. It is better than the first one. The special effects are amazing. The plot is compelling. I loved it. I am so glad we saw this one last. Definitely 2 huge thumbs up from me.

Oh yea I mentioned apples. Our one apple tree actually produced an apple. (several actually) We tried the first one yesterday and it was great. A bit on the small side but it tasted like an apple from the supermarket. So far we have grown and consumed broccoli, pineapples, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant from our garden. Cool stuff.

For the first time in 2 months I got to spend some extended time working on the Vette. I did several small fixes and then tackled a job I was putting off. My power antenna never worked on the Vette. I could hear the motor run but the antenna didn’t move. I bought a replacement mast. In order to replace the mast I had to drop the antenna assembly down. To do so I had to rip out some of the trim in the trunk, pull the driver’s side rear wheel, pull back the wheel well and access the motor through there. As I was on my back trying to get some bolts loose I had an old wasp nest and a spider drop on my face. That is one of the negatives of having a car that sits in the garage 90% of the time. After some trial and error I was able to get the old broken mast out and a new one in. I was pysched to see the antenna go up and down as it should. It seems like a simple thing but I really got a kick out of it. The only other car I ever had with a power antenna was the Probe. I just enjoy watching the antenna disappear into the fender as I step out of the car, something from childhood I imagine that still appeals to me. 🙂

Much to blog about but it all can wait till next week, except this. Remember the neighbors 2 doors down that I called and left a message to regarding them letting their dog run down the middle of the road? Well I still have not seen this dog since but it came to a head of all days, today the 4th of July. I never heard a peep back from them. We got back from the movies and I get back inside from walking Nicki where Ali tells me there is a message from Jack and that I wasn’t going to like it. Well she was right, I didn’t. I was infuriated. I immediately called back, they weren’t home, I was shaking with anger but still managed to leave a non-obscenity filled message asking what the point of the message was and asked for a call back. I of course immediately made an electronic copy of it so it could be used later. I was basically stomping around the house for awhile, when the stomping stopped I was still thinking about nothing else besides how ridiculous, ignorant and pointless the message was. If you listened to the message, let me just clear up what he is talking about. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 to 24 MONTHS ago I had my very first RC plane crash into their roof as a storm was approaching. It caused no damage to the roof of course but it destroyed the plane. I went down to retrieve it, his wife came out, I told her my plane crashed into the roof, I apologized and went home. He spoke of that incident like it happened yesterday. I believe since that time I was on their property exactly one time over a year ago when I asked for help unloading the fridge. (which he very nicely offered to help with) So since that time, there has been basically no contact with them at all. The flag rant is unexplainable to me.

About 2 hours later the phone rings and I see it is him on the caller id. I prepare for battle. Within seconds I am barraged with f this f that, you f’in this don’t ever f’in that. As I tried to respond to his rant he simply would continue yelling. I repeatedly tried to get him to stop so we could at least loudly discuss what the issue was. Finally I got out of him that it was all about the call I made regarding the dog being in the street. A call that I made almost exactly one month ago. He again was showering me with F’s and wound down the conversation by inviting me to take “my skinny ass” down there and talk to him face to face if I dare. I said “Fine, I’ll be right down” Click.

I was fuming, really really angry that this moron is attacking me because I had the gall to care about the safety of his dog. I threw on my socks and shoes and marched down to the front of his driveway. Of course all of this was against the will of Alison but there was no way I could let this dope call me out. So I went to the front of his driveway just standing there for a minute or two, knowing damn well he would be out. I wasn’t disappointed. He came out and it was basically more of the same. Immediate F you, keep your nose out of my F’in business, blah blah blah. As mad as I was I made an effort to remain calm enough to try to make my point. I asked him if he wanted to hear the truth. “I already know the truth!” he screams. I said how can that be if you weren’t there? He said “I played your message over and over” So I tried to again explain that I called because I was concerned about the dog’s safety. “F the dog!” He barks out, “It’s none of your f’in business” I wish I had this on tape to record the exchange back and forth. I shortly lost it when I realized there was no way this guy was going to listen to anything. I started firing back the F bomb hot and heavy, using it to accentuate the fact that all I was doing was looking out for the dog, I didn’t give an F about what they do otherwise. It continued for maybe 5 minutes or so. Sometime during the argument I asked him if he wanted to hit me, he said he couldn’t because I was on county property (first 3 feet of the driveway) So I took another step closer and said “How about now?” He mumbled more F’s and started back up the driveway. He said something about “If it happens again I’m calling the cops you pyscho!” *I* am the pyscho? I really had it at this point and wasn’t ready to quit. I yelled “My skinny ass is still standing here!” But even that wasn’t enough to get him to return. So I followed with “You set a fine example for your children!” His witty reply was “At least I have children!” Hehe. A few more F’s followed by “Have a nice day” as he closed the door. Jerk.

I walked back up to my property and see that Ali had called our across the street neighbor to come out just in case things got real bad. I relayed the story to him. His wife is a deputy. Her advice was to call the police to document it but I figure that would be just throwing gas on the fire. I have his original message and if any further incidents happen I will be happy to escalate this further. I am still stupified that this happened. During the exchange I asked Jack if this bothered him so much, why didn’t he call me immediately? He has no answer except that he just kept listening to the message and it was burning him up. Yea, whatever. It’s too bad that I now I have an arch enemy 2 doors down but things could be worse, he could be next door.

I heard lots of hype regarding the new Pontiac GTO. It has the Corvette motor in it so obviously it will be fast as hell. However when I saw the pictures of it I was not impressed. It basically looks like a streamlined Gran Prix. The rear view of it is really lame. Looks like a low end Sunfire from the rear. The wheels aren’t anything special either. For what they are charging for these suckers they could have put some effort into making the styling more distinctive.

A nice little 3 day week. Since I don’t have to spend my days cramming for my cert tests now I can relax a bit. I have several things I need to get started on but don’t particularly feel like it. I am debating if I want to tackle one of the home projects on my list like building a closet in our bedroom, making a bench/storage seat for the kitchen, buying/hanging a pot rack, tiling one of the 2 bathrooms or buying a shitload of mulch and spread it in our various landscaped areas. Since our weekends have been non-stop busy for the past 2 months we have been basically treading water financially so it would be really advantageous to have a lull in the spending so we can get more cushion in our bank account. I don’t know, I am getting the bug to do SOMETHING. Hell I have a table full of Vette parts that have been sitting around for weeks as well. We’ll see what inspiration hits me.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time since last Wednesday. It’s amazing how just missing that short amount of time makes me feel like I am out of shape. I basically weigh the same but I feel like a slob. My joints weren’t enjoying pushing heavy weight around but it felt good to get back into the routine. A new month is upon us so I will once again be trying to mix up my exercise program. I used to do the same routine for years, what a difference.

The pictures from the weekend are here, I also threw up a few I had taken from when I was over in Deerfield Beach at the beginning of the month.

I wish I took some more pics while I was up there but for whatever reason I didn’t get around to it.

Wow gnome must have finally been reprimanded by his Amish masters for excessive blog commenting. Just as well, you can tell he has been off his game for awhile now.

LAS WARNING (Long as shit)

After my exciting plane ride up to PA who knew what could lie ahead from there. In the morning I went up to my Dad’s place for a little bit in the morning to see the house one last time. He is moving to New Mexico soon and it would be the last chance I would have to see the house with my dad and stepmom living there. I walked around and did a lot of remembering how things used to look and compared them to what they were now. It was amazing to see how large some of the trees that I remember as little saplings have grown to now. I took lots of pictures which I’ll post shortly. My Dad and I stopped by to visit my brother on the job as a playground leader at Brecknock. He was trying to maintain some sort of order in the chaos of 25 kids running around everywhere. I dropped Dad back off at home and pulled out of the driveway for what may very well be the last time, sad….

Later on Friday I met Troy and Rich for a nice lunch at Santino’s. During lunch, during our recollection of some funny moments from the past I almost spit my soda all over the table as I was choking on it from laughing so hard. Afterwards I stopped by the Sovereign office to say hi to a bunch of old co-workers. It was nice to see everyone again. A bit later in the afternoon I met up with Rich at his new place to take a look around and visit. Later, Jim stopped by as well and we all got to catch up a bit. It was a late night again as I didn’t get to sleep until after 11 and the folowing day was the Rumble. I was a bit dehydrated and groggy from drinking the night before when I rolled out of bed Saturday.

The weather forecast for Saturday had flipped back and forth several times, but luckily we wound up on the good side. It was overcast but it did not rain at all. The temperatures stayed down which helped out a bunch. The Rumble is a big deal. The BB division that we played in is the largest one of all the divisions in the tournament. Charlie and I counted there were 108 teams in our division alone, 21 nets full. We had never played doubles together, Charlie never played anything beyond casual pick up doubles before. I didn’t have very high expectations and was more or less just happy to get the chance to play after last years disappointing washout. As promised, I was given a commerative T-shirt for allowing the tournament to keep my entry fee last year even though the event was cancelled. I was also given a couple cans of Invigorate, a Red Bull type of drink. (more on that later) I had brought up my cool pop up shelter that I had only bought a few weeks ago as well to help protect us from the elements.

Our first match was against one decent player and one outstanding hitter. I immediately proclaimed the guy as a sandbagger as he was just dropping bombs on us left and right. Even when he hit on 2 he could smash the ball. The first game looked like a runaway early with them jumping to a big lead. Charlie and I were not really in sync and we had to go over the basics like the hand signals, were we should try to be position-wise and stuff of the sort. We managed to gain some ground and come back a little in that game but we still lost 11-8. I wasn’t surprised we lost as I assumed these guys were going to win our net since they had such a blatant sandbagger. Game 2 was again close but we managed to claw our way to an 11-8 win!! I was really surprised and that win alone against a team I thought we wouldn’t beat was already enough for me to proclaim the day as good. We actually were a decent team. So after our first match we were 1 and 1. Our next match was against 2 older guys in their 40’s that were pretty good and could sideout if you did not keep pressure on them. We won both of those games, one rather easily, the other one was closer. We were 3 and 1! I would have never imagined that. Our next match was against another couple of older guys. We watched these guys take apart every team they played. The weren’t power players but they served you tough and could both hit the ball where you weren’t. Charlie and I had a bit of confidence at this point and thought we could take them out. The first game they wrecked us. We just couldn’t get anything going. The second game was closer and we hung for awhile but again we lost. So with one match to go we were 3 and 3. The way the pool was working out, if we won our last 2 games, we were going to make the playoffs. The first team we played, that we thought were good, basically fell apart and finished 3-5. The guys that beat us 2 games finished 8-0. The team we played in the final 2 games weren’t bad but Charlie and I were pretty pumped up to have a chance to make the playoffs and we used that excitement to beat them pretty easily in both games. We made the playoffs! Before it all started, making the playoffs was the best I would have thought we could do and to do it I figured we would have needed some help by the aid of a bad pool. However none of our teams were a pushover and we still managed to show well. We were both extremely excited to be moving on.

During our pool play my new shelter broke. It was a bit breezy, nothing extreme but none the less the one joint snapped from the wind pressure. I wasn’t very pleased. So much for shelter. We had the customary long wait for the playoffs to begin but it wasn’t as long as we waited in the past, maybe an hour and a half. Our record while good, wasn’t great which meant we would be seeded in the bottom part of the playoff tree which meant we would more than likely be playing teams ranked high.

By the time the playoffs came around both Charlie and I were a bit tired. Charlie also had starting having some cramping issues. We talked earlier about saving our Invigorates for the playoffs. So just before they were ready to start we both pounded one each. We felt better! SO much better that we had Jim grab us one more each and we pounded that too! Wow that stuff helps, we both had a spring in our step that was welcomed for our playoff effort. The first match came up and I could not believe who our opponent was. It was Kristov. Kristov is an old volleyball nemesis of mine from 4 or 5 years ago. Rich and I played him many times and it was always a tough match. He loves to give me a hard time. I love giving him one too. He actually won the Rumble the year after Rich and I did. He immediately started in on me calling me a sandbagger as I knew he would. When I tried to explain to him that I won the Rumble 5 years, 2 knee surgeries ago with a different partner, he discounted it as meaning nothing. So his heckling was great fuel for me as if the invigorates were not enough. Charlie and I took his team apart 15-5. We did it even though the cramping continued and we had to take some timeouts to try to calm them down. Kristov was more or less silent during the game and begrudgingly shook my hand afterward and filled me in a little on what has been going on. It was actually great to play him again.

Our next opponents were already waiting for us as they had a first round bye and spent the time scouting our match. These guys had steamrolled their net, going 8-0 and having a 62 point positive differential. These huge numbers made them the 2nd ranked team in the playoffs! Great. Charlie still was cramping but we tried to keep him hydrated. He just kept gutting it out. The game was tight for awhile but then we pulled away. During the playoffs we both started serving much better, Charlie was hitting serves they had to run around for. I was hitting harder serves that were cutting across making it tough for the opponents to pass effectively. We both were playing great. For whatever reason, they didn’t take advantage of Charlie’s cramping as much as they could have and served the ball to me a bunch. I was really in a good hitting rhythm and killed almost every opportunity I got. We wound up spanking them 15-5! We were really amazed with what we had just done. To win these first 2 playoff games was out of the realm of possibilities when the day started. Again we had zero rest as our third opponent was waiting for us.

This team was one older guy and a young kid. They were a very good team. By this time Charlie’s cramping was pretty much non-stop and unlike our earlier opponents, these guys worked it to their advantage. They served almost exclusively to Charlie. Even with the cramping he managed to sideout more than not. Late into the game we realized that we shouldn’t have been serving the older guy as he handled almost everything. We started to go at the kid more and that got us some points. However we wound up losing the game something like 15-5 or 15-6. Although the final score was lopsided, the game took forever as the points only came one at a time, not in bunches. We really battled till the very end. I was very happy to get where we did and the only thing that bothered me about losing to these guys were that the older player was basically an asshole. He questioned a couple calls that were ridiculous and even though we would always offer congrats on nice hits, nice serves, etc, not once did the jerk say anything nice to us. If Charlie was 100 percent and we would have decided to go after the kid earlier, I think we could have taken these guys out as well. It was 8pm by the time we finished.

Regardless the accomplishment was huge. Outside of my win in 99, this was my best finish at the Rumble ever in the 10 years I have been playing. Charlie has no quit in him and that attitude helped me as well. We packed up my broken shelter, our chairs and cooler and limped back to the car tired, sore and dirty but triumphant even in defeat. It really was a special day.

Saturday night Charlie and I grabbed sandwiches from A&M, my favorite sandwich shop from when we lived in Wernersville. The old greek owner was still there, no different than I remembered him. We watched Bad Boys 2 that evening. Damn that movie is GREAT. It’s graphic, has some limited nudity in it but it is jam packed with action you would not believe. I would recommend it to anyone. Sunday morning I packed up at Charlie’s, said my goodbye’s and thanked them for their hospitality.

I made arrangements to stop by my brothers place for a quick visit. I got to see my favorite neice-dog Katie and my bro, sis-in-law and I went to a nice breakfast at Dempsey’s. Afterwards Todd and I went to give my grandma a surprise visit at the home. She was sleeping when we got there but didn’t mind that I grabbed her toe and woke her up. I haven’t seen her in at least a year and even though I really hate nursing homes I needed to see her. She was in good spirits and although she repeated herself a few times, she seemed to still have it more or less “together”. I’m glad she is content. We went back to Todd’s for a bit for some more visiting and I helped him out with a little computer project. Then it was on the road again to head down to my brother-in-laws to have a dinner with them as well as my mother and father in law and my grandfather in law (Pop Pop). I got to see their newly built house. It’s huge and should be more room than they ever need, I’m happy for them. Dinner was good and everyone had a fun time playing with Lauryn, my neice. I spent a lot of the evening working on Mike’s computer. It has some of that resilient spyware embedded on it that I just could not get rid of. I’d kill it only to have it reinstall itself on reboot. I just didn’t have all the weapons at my disposal as I would normally so I had to just clean it up the best I could. Frustrated me.

Monay morning I was up at 5 to hit the airport. I left early to avoid the Monday morning commuter rush. I got there in plenty of time and it was a good thing I did because my flight was delayed to the point where it could have made me miss my connection. So because I was early I was able to jump on a flight that left an hour earlier. In Atlanta our flight was delayed but it was not so bad because I ran into some friends of ours that were returning from vacation up north. Talking with them helped make the time pass quickly. On the last leg of my flight I scored the ultimate seat, bulkhead, lots of legroom. My excitement was a but dampened by the fact there was an infant in the seat next to me. But she was basically well behaved and didn’t make much fuss. During the ride I also finished the first Harry Potter book. I am not much of a reader, but I really enjoyed the book. So much so that I plan to knock out the other 4.

We landed and I helped my firends pull their luggage off the belt. Somehow in the mess I wound up losing my sunglasses. No luck at lost and found, some schmoo must have just figured it was his lucky day. I was picked up by Ali and Nicki who greeted me by promptly peeing with excitement, I’m used to it by now. I told Ali about everything that happened during the long weekend on the drive home. Monday afternoon and evening I just unpacked, ate leftovers from Ali’s Pampered Chef open house that never was and relaxed. Today I am off from work but have a bunch to do, of course. Back to the routine. It was quite a weekend. It seems like I passed that shitty certification test a month ago.

I had a few minutes to kill so I wanted to mention some things regarding the flight before I forget them. When I was packing for the trip I was debating whether I wanted to take a 3rd bag along to check, my volleyball bag. I knew that normally they say just 2 bags but I figure hey maybe they charge me an extra 5 bucks or so, big deal. Well luckily, I reconsidered and went with only 2. When I got to the airport I immediately took notice of what appears to be an industry wide change, luggage surcharges. Not only do they charge you for an extra bag to the tune of 80 DOLLARS, they also charge you if the bag weighs over 50 lbs! I guess the airlines are struggling to find ways to make ends meet but damn that pissed me off. 80 dollars to take an extra bag is lunacy.

I never really looked at my itinerary after I bought the tickets a month or two ago. Upon looking at them yesterday I realized my flight went from Fort Myers, to DETROIT to Philly. Yuck. Talk about going a roundabout way. The flight to Detroit was full but ok. I was impressed with the Detroit airport. The terminal we were in was ultra-modern. It had an elevated tram system that I never saw before. It also was the first time I saw a FULLY automatic bathroom. Not only did it have automatic flushing toilets, automatic water faucets, autotmatic soap dispensers and the GRAND FINALE, automatic paper towel dispensers! Stick your hand in front of the unit and it shoots out a decent size chunk of paper towel. Cool!

I ate my dinner there. As I was finishing up I heard down towards my gate an announcement about needing volunteers to get bumped from the flight because they were overbooked. I was all over that. I immediately headed down there and put my name on the list. Since I didn’t HAVE to be in PA Thursday and I was traveling alone it was the perfect bumping situation. In reward I would get a free ticket anywhere as well as being put up in a hotel and be booked on a 7 am flight the next morning. Awesome!! By the time I got there a couple had already volunteered but the lady said I was on the list and depending how things turned out they very well may need to bump me. Cool.

So they call for boarding, all the volunteers were told to hang tight since the final decision couldn’t be made until everyone else had checked in. I almost felt like I was holding a lottery ticket I hoped I could cash in. After much studying of the seating, the clerk said they only needed one person to bump, so that eliminated the 3 couples that had volunteered. I eagerly rose my hand and said THAT’s ME! Immediately the women a few seats down said that’s me too! Then I realized that I saw this woman in line in front of me when I offered to be bumped! Ah crap. She was one ahead of me on the list. Oh well, I boarded the plane reluctantly thinking how excited Ali would have been if I told her I just earned us a free ticket. My seat was all the way in the back of the plane and since I was waiting out there to get bumped, all overhead storage was full so I jammed my bag under the seat in front of me, eliminating what little foot room there was. Things got worse when I saw and smelled my next seat neighbors, 2 big black women, one of whom was munching away on a big smelly taco bell meal that stunk like onions. Argh. Even after she was done eating the smell never really left. I spent most of the flight in my aisle seat, leaning out with my little air jet at full blast to help minimize the stench. She was also one of these people that had no problems claiming the entire mutual armrest as her own. To be honest it didn’t bother me all that much since I was leaning away from her so much that I wouldn’t have used the armrest anyway.

Luckily the flight was only an hour, it seemed like two. In true Philly airport fashion, the luggage took forever to arrive. At baggage claim, I saw the woman that was ahead of me on the bump list! I asked her what happened. She said last second they didn’t even need her to bump. Oh well that made me feel a little better. 🙂 I rented my car, some Suzuki sedan (much nicer than expected) and drove to my buddy’s place where I am shacking up. I didn’t get here until close to 12:30 am, I didn’t go to sleep till closer to 1:30 and I STILL woke up on my own at 6 AM. Crazy.

Charlie told me last night the forecast for Saturday was great, upper 70’s and partly cloudy! Perfect!!!! I wake up this morning and now it is supposed to pour tonight with a chance of lingering showers tomorrow morning. This was one of the things I hated about PA. The weather forecast is NEVER right. Down in Florida it is almost always consistent because the weather patterns are so set in stone. So anyway, the best I can hope for is that they mess up this forecast as well. If not it will mean the last 3 events I came to PA for will all have been rainy or rained out.

My test failure from Tuesday was eating at me. So I crammed all day yesterday and then retook it today before my flight up to PA. I was wrong about having to wait a few days. I passed. Thank goodness, I would have been miserable for my trip if I went 0 for 2. If I would have failed again I would have had to wait at least 2 weeks until taking it again which have REALLY sucked.

I took the Vette for the test, topless. It was fun on the way up. On the way back the outside temperature was 95 or 96 degrees. It wasn’t so fun then. I cursed any stop in traffic as it meant instant oven for me. I leave for PA at 4:30, get to Philly at 10:30, yawn…….

After a good 2 weeks of effort I took the test today and failed. Failing doesn’t bother me if I had no clue about the questions but I thought I passed, rather easily. I had seen at least 80% of the questions on my practice exams and I am sure I answered almost every one correct based on the answer provided in the practice exams. The few I hadn’t seen before were not terribly hard and I was confident I got most of those right too. So when I saw the 663 score come up, (needed 700 to pass) I was pissed. Evidently a boatload of those practice questions have incorrect answers. I was pissed all the way home and am still pissed as I sit here pounding out this entry. What really sucks is you have to wait a few days to retake and since I am going away Thursday, the earliest I can retake is late next week which means I will have to review a bunch of it. My frustration level is off the charts, this is the first MSFT cert exam I didn’t pass the first time through. Grrrrrrrrr.

Our merry go round of company continued this weekend. My brother-in-law & sister-in-law and my neice were down to visit for the weekend. We have never had a toddler in our house before. She is 14 or 15 months old. On Friday afternoon they drove over from Miami. We decided to just cook out on the grill and hang out. For whatever reason I drank a lot (for me) I think I had about a six pack. I wasn’t stupid drunk but it made me very tired. We were watching Matrix and during the last third of it I was passing in and out of consciousness.

On Saturday I was happy to hear that my brother-in-law was into going to the dog track. It was a good time. I started off hot on the first race. A 2 dollar quinella bet hit for 32 bucks. Yes!! I then hit an extended dry spell and only hit one small bet for the next 6 or 7 races. Then I caught on fire and won on the last 6 races. In the end I turned my initial 20 bucks into 75. A good day in my book. I REALLY like the track. The funniest track moment was after one of the last few races, the winning dog was out on the track after all the other dogs had left. It looked like his trainer was trying to take his muzzle off. Closer examination revealed that the dog had ripped one of the pacer rabbits off the pole and had a death grip on it. Finally the trainer got it away from the canine. It promptly went after the other rabbit that was still on the pole and attacked it. It was funny as hell. Evidently the dog has a deep hatred of “Sparky” the pace rabbit. No wonder he won.

Saturday evening we went to a restaurant we were never at before. I made a bad choice for an entre but everyone else liked their meal. It was a nice enough place, but pricy. I always have a hard time justifying spending a fortune on a meal. Eating just isn’t a big enough turn on for me for it to make sense. My brother-in-law paid for the meal. I felt bad because I knew it was steep. I had the least expensive entre and we used our entertainment card to get one of the meals for free, a small consolation. This is always one of the tough parts of having company down. When you go out to dinner there is always that uncomfortable moment when the check arrives when the “I’ll pay, we”ll pay” stuff starts. I really hate that. It would be much simpler if we could just agree to go dutch and each couple pays for their stuff. Then there is no need to keep mental score of who spent what and it would just make things simpler. Oh well that is unlikely to happen.

Sunday was a low key day. We spent most of it hanging out by the pool relaxing. Usually for me, a “day” spent at the pool means I hang out there an hour or two. We were out there for the better part of 5 hours, a record for me. As a result we all got a bit toasted. It is always a weird thing to me that after a day spent doing next to nothing lying by or in the pool, it can actually make you feel tired like you actually did something. We cleaned up, went to dinner at Snook’s where we had a good but not outstanding dinner. Our waitress wasn’t great and by Sunday we had caught up about most things so most of the time was spent paying attention to my neice. I picked up the check this time since I was in a dinner “deficit” because they paid the night before. We came home and were all tired. They left early this morning.

Like I said earlier, this is the first time we have had a baby in the house for any period of time. She is very cute but I can’t honestly say it turned on any feelings that I suddenly wanted a child. My sister-in-law basically spent 99.9% of her waking moments making sure the baby was content. Having a baby in the house sort of has an oil spill effect. Baby stuff slowly spreads everywhere. Going anywhere is quite laborious, all the supplies have to be loaded, checked, maintained and carried with you at all times. It also seems that the parents become primarily servants to the baby’s every need and most other aspects of themselves get pushed into the background. It definitely was an eye opener. We have one more scheduled visitor next month and then we will be back to normal.

3 day work week then up to PA to play in the Rumble. For whatever reason, my bad knee must know the Rumble is coming because it has started to ache on cue. Annoying. My big test is tomorrow so 2 more days of cramming is on the schedule.