Happy Halloween

In the fall, daylight savings is a wonderful thing. That extra hour of sleep is always great. Today was a bit of a whirlwind. My soccer game was way out in BFE of course so that saps about 3 hours of the day by itself. Then, the kids and I checked out some new housing divisions. They love to look at them and I desperately want to get out of this neighborhood. This is nothing new, when my wife lived here this was one of our main goals. The lure of shoes, a new car and countless other items were a strong enough lure for her that we could never swing it. I hope that once things are a bit more settled that I can get out of here in a year or so.

My neighbors gangster grandson was pacing around my yard yesterday loudly threatening to do serious bodily harm to a friend of his over the phone all while shirtless and within spitting distance of my kids. There was an apparent dispute over “weed” and he seemed unable to finish a single sentence without using the F-word at least twice, sometimes three. I’m not sure I could do that if I tried. That’s what renewed my interest in house shopping so suddenly.

Anyway, we managed to finally drop by my grandfather’s nursing home so he could see the kids in costume and also by their mom’s for the same reason. I’m suspecting that the massive hail storms we had a few weeks ago seriously affected the pumpkin crop. There was no sign of them anywhere, even last week. I know, we waited until the last minute. Luckily some guy was on the roadside selling large, rather ugly pumpkins. My kids chose the most lopsided of the bunch but they all agreed on something for once so that’s the one we got.

A storm was rolling in so it was rather cold. I insisted on extra layers but I strongly believe that I speak in a frequency not often heard by children. We made it farther than I would have bet before the chill of the night air overtook their desire for candy. We ended up doing the driving through the neighborhood thing where I sit in the car and they hit 3-4 houses and jump back in.

All in all, it was a good night. My first Halloween in the US, much less with my kids, in three years so I’d change that to a great night.

Fej

Party

The party was okay. I thought I was going to a couple’s house for a party. It turned out that this was a single girl recently separated. Was this another attempt at a setup? Possibly but I was able to leave without any problems. I think my sister has more issues with me being single (even though I’m not even officially single yet) than I do. Of course, that’s why I didn’t want to go in the first place, so I’m not exactly issue-free myself.

Fej

Halloween Party

I was invited to a Halloween party tonight. All of my excuses not to go fell away one by one. My parents are watching the kids, that was the big one. The other was that this is a costume party and I don’t have any kind of a costume. My sister, who is pushing me to go, has one for me.

I’ll be a nun. I hope everyone has a good night.

Fej

Yes, I finally went political.

So Osama (Usama) decides to rear his ugly head, just prior to one of the biggest elections in recent history. Not surprising, but how do you read it? He was seemingly ambiguous initially but I think his message could have big implications.

He boldly denies that the president of this country can truly prevent any further terrorist attacks. Actually, I agree entirely.

He also bashes on Bush and says that he has been lying to the American people ever since 9-11. I also agree, I don’t think we could expect any president to give equal time to someone who claims responsibility for the single most devastating (civilian) attack in our history.

Coincidentally, I watched Fahrenheit 9-11 tonight for the first time. My first impression is that Mr. Moore has learned a lot from the Bush administration. Objectivity, lack of sensationalism, avoids propaganda, no not Moore, is he Republican or Democrat? I’m guessing that we can’t give Bush that much credit though, Moore did a very good job of distorting facts, injecting ridiculous conclusions without any shred of evidence, and basically leaving me with the impression that two wrongs most definitely make it right.

I still disagree, and despite my hopes, the opposition to Bush has left me sadly disappointed. There is no good candidate in this race. Both sides have made such ridiculous fools of themselves that (at least in my case) in the year that record voting is expected, I am completely de-motivated. I just hope that some propaganda-infested flunky from either party shows up at my door this weekend. If they aren’t asking for candy they are going to get a load of reason that I don’t think they want to hear.

I haven’t been swayed by anyone in my indecision so far and I doubt anyone will be able to. This isn’t blissful ignorance, it’s just a realistic stance that Bush has screwed up and the Democratic Party has failed to provide a reasonable opponent. Now, I have to decide do I vote at all? I won’t vote for Bush again, but can I live with myself if I vote for Kerry?

If I don’t vote, then can I complain about everyone?

Undecided and disappointed,

For the record, my kids are 2 for Bush and 1 for Kerry. They argue about it more than I do, go figure?

Fej.

Changing and stuff

I was a late bloomer. Friends of mine were shaving their faces long before I was growing hair anywhere other than on top of my head. I was also way behind. I may have been a bit on the younger side when I had my first kiss, but when others were talking about “what they had done”, I was still trying to figure out “they were doing what?” I didn’t figure it out until I was probably 13 or so. I didn’t have anything to talk about personally until much later than that.

Now... It’s so much different now. I drop my little “first born” daughter off at school each morning and it’s just so different. There must be a lot of girls being held back for 2, 3, even 4 years at a time, because I don’t remember any of the girls in middle school looking like that. The way they dress is an entirely different story. My daughter on the other hand, is also a late bloomer. She is blooming much too soon for me, but she is behind from most of the girls her age. I hope this is a good thing.

She takes a shower now and runs (covered with a towel) from the bathroom to her room. Her door is always closed thanks to the evil hamster and that we have three cats and a curious dog. But recently, as I barge in asking what she wants for breakfast or why she isn’t ready for school, the first thing I hear is “Hello! Knock before coming in?!”

It was just yesterday I think, that I held her in one hand. Just yesterday that a “foot” was a “thut”, and asking to see here “boots” resulted in her pulling up her shirt (right in the middle of Sears). I dropped her off at preschool for the first time and this weird secretion like stuff crept from my eyes while I drove to work. I wasn’t crying it was just some allergic reaction.

Now, what a good friend of mine warned me about is all I can think of: “We were the best of friends and then one day everything changed.” He is going through a tough time with his adolescent daughter. So, how the heck did my parents get my psycho sister to turn out so good? I need to have a talk with them.

Sorry about the sappy stuff.

Fej

Rice, jobs, and more angst.

The layoff did come after all, but I was lucky enough to avoid being caught up in it this time around. Only a few people were given notice but who they are underscore the future of our location. The few who are not looking for jobs have been there long enough that they know they’ll have a few months of severance to survive. Everyone else is looking.

We did receive notice today that our health coverage premiums will be increasing again by another 27%. Last years increase was also a big one and this will push most family plans to pretty high levels. We were spoiled years ago when we worked for Motorola. The monthly premiums were minimal and the coverage was 100% except for $5 co-pay fees. Those were the days...

I received a call from a polling service asking whom I was going to vote for. The lady was probably tired of making the calls and seemed rather annoyed that I haven’t made up my mind yet. Sorry lady.

My oldest is having problems with hyperventilating. WEBMD.com suggests that this is due to stress and tension. Lovely, my pre-teen is already stressing out. I’ll be the first to admit that she does have several legitimate things to be stressed about. Growing up, middle school, her parent’s marital situation, and her younger siblings give her no end of crap. Not that she minds dealing it right back, but when I try to break things up she typically storms off complaining about how unfair the world is.

I have to fix four lunches tonight as usual. What’s wrong with “breaded beef steak”? Hello!? It’s chicken fried steak! Not for my children of high and rather specific tastes. Granted, the school cafeteria has a way with turning an old favorite into a least favorite. At least they are off of their rice kick. One likes plain white rice and the other likes it with soy sauce. I’d always screw it up some how by not adding enough salt, soy sauce, or forgetting one of the two altogether. Then they don’t even touch it but do manage to remove the lid and I get a lunch box full of rice the next night.

I’ll stop, even I can’t stand anymore.

Fej

Artichokes etc.

I left work and headed in the direction of my wife’s apartment. I called ahead as I always do and she told me she wanted the kids to stay the night. We talked just about the whole time I was driving, close to half an hour (not my “anytime” minutes either).

She is doing much better and does want to start having the kids stay with her a couple days a week. I’m okay with this too. It’s hard for me to be away from them, but I think I need this time too. We’ll have to transition everyone involved into this slowly, the kids especially. If she continues like she has been then hopefully this will start to work out.

We also openly discussed that we need to get the divorce settled soon. I’ve been avoiding this for two main reasons: she has not been emotionally stable enough to deal with this and I have never wanted to get divorced in the first place. I think I’ve said this before but I just don’t want to be married to her. We’ll see how things go...

The house was all my own. Did I clean, did I slack, and did I do anything worth mentioning? Nope. But I’ll tell you what I did anyway.

I organized and filed some bills and paperwork that have been building up. It’s Tuesday so I also sat in on an hour-long conference call to China. I cooked myself an artichoke for dinner too.

I’ve always liked artichokes (with lemon-butter sauce of course) and decided to pick a couple up. I was alone and after grabbing a few other non-essentials I looked for the shortest line. I then chose to stand in a significantly longer line because of the strikingly pretty new cashier. I had a little while to wait and noticed she was indeed very pretty. The guy in front of me shamelessly hit on her so I just tried not to look intimidated. The moment took a violent turn when she grabbed for the artichokes. As some of you may know, an un-trimmed artichoke has leaf ends like a cactus. She quickly found this out the hard way and was even bleeding a little too. Great, nice first impression doof-ball. It worked out pretty well in the end though. I explained what “what the hell” they were and she wasn’t mortally wounded. She even laughed about it once my transaction was complete.

Despite how I try to tread lightly, maintain my wallflower like presence, and avoid significant interaction with those I most want to interact with, something usually trips me up.

Fej

Nothing New?

Something profound should occur everyday, right? Well, not today. Maybe I shouldn’t dismiss the fact that I was at work well before 9:00 AM today though. Any of my several bosses over the years would say this was a “profound” day.

Other than my unusual work behavior nothing much else occurred of mention. Whoo Hoo!! A good day for me?

I suppose I still have a few things on my plate that need finishing:

It seems that I’ve been able to convince several people at work that my job is not so safe. The layoff that was supposed to happen last week was apparently called off by corporate due to a temporary increase in orders. A lot of corroborated rumors have frightened a lot of people into finally realizing what is actually happening. Let’s just say that the New Year will bring a lot of “new opportunities” for many of us.

I still haven’t heard from the dealership. My wife is complaining left and right about her crappy rental. If they by some miraculous chance actually total her car it will be a very devastating day for her. The rental is a 2003 Dodge Neon. It doesn’t have power windows or a CD player. It’s hardly even driveable. I mentioned that it should get good gas mileage and she shot back that it’s almost at half-tank and she hasn’t even gone anywhere. I only mean to insult one woman here, this is directed at my wife only, but I don’t think she could calculate MPG if her life depended on it. I’m sure the little four-banger in there does a bit better than the 3.0 liter 255 hp engine that she hammers down all the time.

Parent-teacher conferences are tomorrow and I will have to endure at least one of them with my wife. This is always a difficult time. I think she is much better shape than this time last year (stability-wise) so hopefully it won’t be a fiasco.

I lost it with my little ones tonight. Their room is beyond messy once again. They sponged the entire in-service day away with their mom and her newfound love, Cable. On-Demand to be exact. I’m sure she can afford it no problem. Anyhow I’ve referred back to her and how much she frustrates me three times in one posting, I’ll stop now.

They were full of energy to spare and I had mentioned the night before that they would have to clean tonight. My stupid trash-eating dog set me off, because I forgot to put the trash can on the table. Should I really have too? Breath deeply... he is a great dog but can’t control himself around refuse. I sent them to their rooms to clean and after multiple interventions, a lot of yelling and false threats on my part, they managed to put a dent in their room. Barely, but it was noticeable.

See? Nothing happened today and I’m still frustrated.

Fej

Hamster roll

I just finished taking our extremely active dwarf hamster for a walk (in the hamster ball of course). My daughter complained that she couldn’t get to sleep because it was too active.

I just want to know, at what point in life do most people suddenly realize that nothing you had planned on happening has actually occurred and everything you hoped never would happen is all around you? No? Not really your story? I suppose I should have figured so I’m just going to go to bed now.

Fej

Still a kid.

For a Sunday, it was not that much unlike most of my Sundays. I had my nephew to boot but that has become pretty regular on weekends also. I made four different breakfasts today and then four different lunches. I suppose I am to blame for this but most of the time I don’t mind that much either.

We went to the park and while the kids played, so did I. I brought a skateboard and rode a little. I hadn’t tried a rail slide on a parking block in who-knows-how long. I didn’t break anything and if I wasn’t so worried about my toe I could have landed it... eventually.

I also brought along my son’s new remote control car. We picked it up for $7.00 at a garage sale down the street. I felt bad for him because I had convinced him to spend his saved up money on a RC car awhile back. He spent $25 and the thing can barely make it over a dirty sock in the hallway. If you can’t get over that then you aren’t going anywhere in this house. The lady we bought the used one from said that all it needed was a power pack. That set me back another $20 but that was only $2 above what my son had already spent.

I charged it up the night before. Early that morning before the kids were pulled unwillingly from their beds, I turned it on to see what it could do. Holy crow, that thing is fast. Even in low gear it is much too fast for indoors. This little car can easily do 15-20 mph on open road and unless it gets high centered or flipped over, nothing but a dead power pack can stop it. It only lasts about 20 minutes but it’s 20 minutes of pure fun.

Once the battery died at the park I was ready to go. I didn’t want to push my luck skateboarding anymore since I had a soccer game in a couple hours. I dragged them out of there and after the multi-menu lunch we were off to my game. We finally were up against a team that we could beat but thanks to a bad call (ending up in a PK) and my goal being recalled for me “supposedly” being offside, we lost again. Oh well, it was still fun.

You know your kids are tired when they scream, yell, cry, and argue about going to bed early and then fall asleep before you get the chance to kiss them goodnight.

Fej

Alarm clocks and basketball

It would appear that I cannot be trusted to sleep without setting an alarm clock. My sister’s early morning call was just a mere interruption and I went right back to sleep. I eventually decided to shove my dog aside and upset a cat by lifting my head high enough to see the time. Holy crow it was 11:00 AM. So that’s what my kids are for on the weekends.

On that note, (parents please feel free to back me up here) I have to peel them from their beds at 7:00 AM every morning for school. On Fridays and Saturdays I allow them to stay up way later than I was ever allowed to and they pop up like daisies no later than 7:30. So how does that work? They get 2 hours less sleep but burst out of bed? My youngest still doesn’t know Monday morning from Saturday morning either so it isn’t just the lure of no school.

Here I am now ready to hit the sack at 7:30 PM which makes a whopping 8.5 hours of consciousness. What a wuss. It may also have something to do with me cracking open one of my new beers before 5 PM, always a no-no for me. The three kids plus my nephew however are still running strong.

Health update:

For those still concerned with my son’s health condition, he had a relapse of severe stomach pain. It was pretty bad. Pepto didn’t even dent it and even the cure-all vitamin C also failed to curb the pain. He even requested to go to the doctor. If it wasn’t for dribbling the basketball in the kitchen he may not have made it.

And I quote: “My stomach feels much better dad, it was my arms. I needed to move my arms.”

Fej

I thought this was a nice shot of the mesa.

I thought this was a nice picture of one of the volcanoes.

I heard something like thunder while on our field trip to the volcano. I turned to find this little cloud of dust some 20 + miles away. The local labs must have been playing with some fireworks.

GAP for me!

I picked up my wife and her patient today to get the rental car. This is the guy from my last posting who was brutally mauled by a dog. I met him and had the opportunity to talk to him for a while. He was a nice young guy and seemed rather upbeat considering what he’s been through.

I’m terribly curious to know what really happened but I even went through the precaution of coaching myself to greet him with “nice to meet you” as opposed to my usual “how are you doing?” Given what he went through I think it may have made a world of difference.

Of course the car rental lady was beautiful but I’m not as bothered by those situations as I used to be. My wife was of course trying to capture the attention of the entire rental company but I’ve learned to block her out. There was a message from the lovely Maud on my phone when I got home so I’m figuring it’s a problem. Probably with my wife and her driving record, I can’t think of anything else.

The good news is that I did purchase “GAP” insurance with this car. Now that I know this, I’m asking everyone to hope with me that they total the car. Then, I would gladly purchase her a < $2000 hunk of metal and help her to attain liability coverage in her own name. She’ll be a bit put out with her new ride but I’ll be free of a huge burden and a major liability. I bet my insurance still drops me but whether they total it or not and I should probably be shopping for a new provider.

Our old company dropped us last year after her 4th incident. I couldn’t find anyone that would quote her alone for less than $350 a month. That’s just her and on a single car. I opted to omit her from the policy with my new company and I’m paying considerably less for 3 cars with full coverage. This is the 3rd claim this year where I wasn’t behind the wheel of the car. I knew it couldn’t last but I hoped it would last longer than this.

I ended the week nicely though spending the evening bottling the beer we brewed a couple weeks ago. My birthday present from my parents was a brewing session at a local brewery. Tonight we bottled and took it home. My good friend and I stuck around and had a couple beers.

What are the chances of a small meteor surviving the atmosphere but retaining enough mass to destroy a 2002 Nissan Maxima that happens to be mine? Slim I know, but I’m still an optimist.

Fej

Driving me nuts.

I wish I could say that I was making this stuff up, really I do.

I drove over 130 miles in town yesterday. I had taken a half-day of vacation to accompany my daughter on her field trip. My son had taken ill the night before and while he was actually sick, he was really hamming it up. He went from his head hurting, to his right leg hurting, back to his head hurting and then miraculously to no pain at the sight of fudge. All in 5 minutes. I wanted to drop him off with his mother for the day just in case. She is helping to care for an injured person in their home for part of the week.

Oddly enough this is the same person that I read a news article about a couple weeks ago. I guess he is the friend of a friend or something and somehow she became involved. It’s a horrible injury but the circumstances are suspect. I don’t even think they put the dog down. I'm still cringing.

Anyway, I was running late and was going to drop him off after dropping off my oldest. I drove all the way back across town but she had left her phone at her apartment. I was supposed to meet her at this guy’s house and I didn’t know where it was so I had to drive all the way back still with my son. My sister was able to meet me at the school.

After the field trip out to a local volcano (inactive of course) I dropped my daughter off at school and went to work. I was halfway through lunch and my phone rings. My wife had been in another car accident. Luckily no one was hurt, but this has been her 10th or so car incident in the last two years. This time it wasn’t her fault so that is a plus. The car however is in pretty bad shape. I wouldn’t be surprised if they total it. That wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t owe more than it is worth.

I told my boss I’d just make this a full day of vacation since I had to drive across town to release the car from the towing yard so the dealer could pick it up. Then I had to pick up the kids of course too.

(big sigh)

Fej

Teen angst, gas mileage, and I still have a job.

My oldest daughter has been rapidly changing in a lot of ways. She is quickly approaching 12 and I’m dreading everything about middle school. She has done well so far and compared to her peers she is probably behind. That’s still way too much of a change for my first little one...

Thanks to my wife getting “lost” the other night, it cost me $264 to get her car out of the impound with towing fee’s. So, she paid for this from our shared account of course and changed my surplus into a minus. I could have transferred money from savings or used a card with a little more notice. Since Costco only accepts debit cards or their own cards, I decided it was time to really test the gas mileage of my Suburban. I drove a little over 650-miles on the last fill-up and still had a couple gallons left but I was nervous though. She finally got her SS deposit today and transferred less than $264 but enough for me to get gas at Costco at least. With a 44-galon tank, you’d hold out for Costco prices too.

Not only did I not get laid off today, but also my new boss dropped by and gave me my first assignment in my new position (that I’ve had for nearly a month now). Supposedly there was going to be a layoff today. The rumors are right about 50% of the time, who knows, my story might be different tomorrow.

Fej.

My Job

Today was not an eventful day by my normal definition. Although that is usually a good thing. The rumors are starting to spread again and despite everyone’s reassurance, I think there is a very good chance that my job is on the chopping block.

People have joked for years that I’ll be handed the keys when our location closes. I don’t think this is likely. I think I’d definitely consider laying me off if I were my boss. Actually, I don’t think now would be the appropriate time but that hasn’t stopped them before. We’ll see what happens, supposedly we’ll know by Wednesday.

Fej.

Time

One thing that my wife said today that really caught my attention was that while speaking to my oldest, she wanted to start taking the kids for a week at a time.

You might think that I would be shocked and taken back by this, but if you’ve read any of the recent stuff that has happened with her you’d understand that it isn’t even realistic to expect her to do that. On the other hand it did get me to start thinking. I think I’m beginning to realize that this may be exactly what I will eventually need. I obviously need to start spending more time for myself. I don’t have time to do anything around the house without constant interruption. This is a huge change from my previous thoughts in that I always thought that I had to have the kids all the time and take care of everything. For the last two years it was a necessity and I had to be everything for the kids. While it has been nice on the one hand it has been a bit taxing on me. I don’t want to give up a minute with them but it would be completely unfair to their mother to have them all the time. She is not a bad mother, she is just a person going through a really difficult time.

I hope that spending more time with the kids will help her to get on her own two feet and give me a chance to do whatever it is that I have to do.

Fej.

Weekends

Another weekend like the last two and I’ll request a new assignment at work that will require working weekends.

Friday night was a late one so I didn’t get off to a rapid start. After picking up the kids, closing down the swamp cooler, pulling the really heavy third seat out of the Suburban, we were off to help my wife move into her new apartment. It is in the same complex, she is just moving from a one bedroom into a two bedroom.

After about 6 ½ hours of fun there we made it back home by nearly 10:00 PM. I didn’t bother to set an alarm but it was almost 10:00 AM before I woke up. I had to be at my soccer game in BFE by 11:00. That was another tough game but I don’t think I have any injuries to speak of. There were still a couple boxes left and we had to get a couch from my sister-in-laws also. There were a couple awkward hours of hanging out at her apartment afterwards. The kids wanted to go to the park so we eventually left.

The gym.

Another factor of my physical pain this weekend was how sore I was. I don’t know how to work out at a gym. Apparently the bench press bar is a lot heavier than I thought. I added way too much weight. Then I started in on sit-ups and leg lifts. Now, 3 days later it still hurts. This happened the week before also. I think it’s a combination of unfamiliar equipment and pushing myself a little harder. At home I must wimp out a little easier with no one around. At the gym, when I realized a little late that I had selected a bit too much weight, I pushed myself to put in a decent amount of repetitions before changing weights. I just hope I end up in better shape to handle any future weekends like these.

Fej.

Friday Nite

Friday started off way early, like 1:30 AM early. I was awoken by a phone call from a police officer in a nearby town. He wanted to know what medications my wife was taking. I was still trying to wake up and she had just changed them recently so I didn’t really know. Apparently, she was at a hospital after having wrecked her car. He gave me some general directions and I got a phone number. After we hung up, what I had to do finally sank in. It was about 1:45 AM and I had to drive some 50 miles to pick up my wife who was in trouble, wrecked her really expensive car again, and it was freaking 1:45 AM!!

I decided the kids shouldn’t be disturbed and hoped they would just sleep through. I drove the 50 + miles, found the hospital where she was the only patient, got her loaded in my car, and we headed back. The cop had left and all we had was a phone number for her car. I started to get pretty sleepy on the way back but managed to make it. I asked my wife why she was out here and she said that she had got lost. How you get that lost is beyond me. Okay, no it’s not. She also at one point mentioned trying to find Disneyland and was completely delirious. Her medication is out of control or she is self-medicating a bit more than the doctor recommends.

I got her back to her apartment and at 3:45 AM I was also back in bed.

Friday night went well. I made it out of work and to the bar. My kids were staying with my parents. My friend and I hung out and talked while waiting for the rest to show up. Eventually everyone was there. The girl I’ve been mentioning brought a friend a long. It was a pretty fun night. We ended up talking to a lot of people who were just at the nearby tables. I got a call from my wife needing keys to her apartment (since hers were impounded with her car) so I drove across town and gave her mine. Note: I’m really pissed off at this point. I was even rude to her friend that was with her and that is not like me. Her and I have always got along but this was a bad moment. I think she understood and won’t likely hold it against me. I don’t really care either way, also not like me.

Everyone was still at the bar and we decided to head to a casino. Just about every Indian reservation has one now. At this point its just me with three women. We ordered drinks and watched a pretty bad band. Then they wanted to dance. Background info: I don’t dance. I don’t like to dance. I’m a really bad dancer when I actualy do. I have to have several drinks in me before I will dance. Since that was the case, I found myself on the dance floor several times. It wasn’t so bad and I figured they would not have continued to ask me to dance if it was really that bad. The closest I came to anything of mention with the girl from work was a little close contact while dancing. Other than that we talked about our kids and separation status. In the end we hugged and called it a night. I rolled in my garage at just after 2:00 AM.

Fej.

Another Thursday night

Well, another week is just about gone. I’ve survived so far and that is all I can hope for. I fired up my Jeep today with a helpful jumpstart from the Suburban and the kids and I went old school today. How we all fit in that little thing all last year I do not know. I swear it took my 20 minutes to get everything out of the Jeep tonight. Even after the kids swore up and down that they got all their stuff, I found several days worth of socks and a bunch of trash (of course). It drove well and started after each stop. I decided to disconnect the negative battery cable to keep the battery fresh but that of course went wrong.

Loosening the bolt was excessively difficult and then I noticed that the entire negative terminal attachment was twisting around as I moved the bolt. It then broke off and I’ll now have to replace my negative cable prior to driving it again. Lovely.

Tomorrow is Friday and the setup between the girl at work and I is still on. I don’t really know what to think and I’m worried about how she expects tomorrow night to end. I plan on having a few drinks and hanging out with friends. I don’t think she is really looking to “hook up” tomorrow night either, just a guess, but I don’t need any more trouble than I already have.

Off I go, hoping to avoid a catastrophe like a rhino charging through the dinner-ware section of Dillards.

Fej.

Nothing

I spent most of tonight, watching the debate and cleaning the living room, making dinner, filling out the stupid Entertainment book form (and buying one), making lunches, prodding the kids to clean up, blogging, and now relaxing by writing this.

I slacked on going to the gym today as I had promised myself. My foot is feeling better but we were cleaning out my old boss’s office and by the time that was done it would have been a really really late lunch to include hitting the gym. I’ll go tomorrow for sure.

It’s only a day from Friday now, and I’m wondering how to get out of it while still having a couple drinks.

I didn’t have time to stop by and get more cheese popcorn so I’m still a bit cranky too.

Fej.

Home Invasion

Not only did she come over and install the damn Yahoo companion tool bar on my computer but my cheese popcorn that I’m totally addicted to is gone. No, not almost gone, but completely gone. There was at least two nights of snacking left in that bag.

Granted, this is still her house too. However, I have a key to her apartment and every time she is at the hospital or not at home and I have the rare need to go there, I don’t rifle through her crap. Usually I don’t have to; it’s strewn everywhere already. My house is far from clean, but she rifles through everything leaving it in worse condition and then completely drains my favorite snack supply.

On this subject though, today she called requesting a “quit claim deed” form. This is a legal document that allows her to remove herself from the Title. She wants this in order to increase her housing benefits. I’m (as you might surmise) just fine with this. I gave her all the information I could find about what she needed to do.

What the heck am I supposed to eat now? Regular popcorn isn’t even in the same league...

Fej

Confused

Other than being extremely sore today nothing was much out of the ordinary. Actually, work was pretty normal everything else was a little weird. First off, I was way more than sore, I was limping the first half of the day. I was beginning to wonder if I should take off my shoe to look for the telltale signs of a fractured bone. Then after lunch I noticed that I was walking much better and while it certainly still hurt I was obviously getting better quickly.

I went to lunch with a friend of mine. Not only did I buy a gas guzzling SUV, but also I’ve taken it a step further and influenced another person to do so. We shopped around a few places and it’s too late, he will buy one. He’s got 4 kids to my 3 and is still married so it would be hard to argue that he doesn’t need that sort of vehicle anyway. Plus, I don’t think I told anyone that after moving to full synthetic oil I’m now getting a whopping 15.1 MPG city and 18+ MPG on the highway. Not bad for nearly 6,000 lbs. and this is way over the manufacturer’s expected performance. But I also drive like I’m 40 years older than I really am.

The other weird thing today was the slowly but surely progressing issue (as I see it) developing. A woman that our company laid off a while back was re-hired recently. I really never took a lot of notice of her then because not only was I still married and living with my wife, but she had just given birth to her third child and appeared happily married also. We talked a little and had worked together for several years but that was about it. Now, she is back and apparently also going through a divorce. Lots of guys here had lusted over her before and were the first to inform me that she was back. Now it’s just different.

I’m not ready, but she has been looking at me and I’ve definitely been looking at her and they invited me out last weekend and I couldn’t go and now I’ve put all the pieces together and my friend has explicitly told me that “I’m going to hook you two up.” Of course then today when they asked if I could make it on Friday I said yes. But I’m not so sure.

Then again, I can fit her and her kids, myself and my kids all in the Suburban with room for luggage and towing capacity to spare. Go figure.

Fej.

Not 16 anymore...

I am beat. My youngest daughter had a friend sleep over last night. This basically translated to me having to bounce 4 instead of only 3 kids on the trampoline. In my brilliance I came up with a new game called “get the penny”. I throw a penny on the trampoline and the kids try to pick it up while I bounce them into oblivion. It usually ends with me collapsing in total exhaustion and whoever is closest finally picks up the damn penny.

Then today I had my usual soccer game that was unusually exhausting and painful. I have some road rash thanks to a patch of dirt and a push from behind. My toe (that I’ve already broken twice) hurts and my ankle is sore for whatever reason. Then of course we went straight to the neighborhood Skate Park. (Why MS Word insists on capitalizing Skate Park I don’t know, they never built them when I was a kid). I couldn’t help but to attempt to show up the little 10-year-olds and managed to do okay. It must look funny to see a 32-year-old on a skateboard wearing a polo shirt and Teva’s. Oh well, at least I didn’t break anything and my daughter and nephew loved every minute of it.

It sure feels like I broke something though, I can hardly move. Good night.

Fej.

Isn't this a wild color combo on this tree?

We went to the balloon fiesta this morning.

EDG

Our EDG (evil dwarf gerbil) is coming around quickly. After consulting the all-knowing Internet, I learned a few techniques to quell this evil rodent’s dislike for gnawing on fingers. We now have leather gloves near by the cage that she has become acquainted with. She nearly chewed through at first and almost drew blood even with the glove on. Now, if you stick you gloved hand into the cage she won’t even attack. She will even crawl into the glove and let you pick her up. We’ve progressed to the point where we can handle her with bare hands after initially getting her trust with the glove. She’ll still bite bare skin a little but it seems more out of habit then like before when she was trying to reach bone.

So after showing my oldest daughter how to handle the EDG I left her alone. My oldest beckoned the little ones to come see. I returned to laundry and vacuuming. Eventually I was summoned by yelling and screaming back to the room where the EDG was. My oldest was in tears and the EDG was on its side, breathing, but obviously in some sort of “not normal” condition. Apparently while walking around, the gerbil pooped in my daughters’ hand and then shrieked out loud. They put her back in the cage and at that point is where I found it in whatever shock-like state she was.

In just a few minutes the EDG was back in action, drinking water, eating, and clawing at the sides of her cage. I’m leaning towards too much excitement and it had a little anxiety attack or something. If I’m right, it figures. I would get the emotionally disturbed gerbil. If anyone who knows about these things happens to fall upon this site then please let me know what you think.

Fej.

Gym and dinner

Today I joined a gym. No, I didn’t actually do anything other than write a check but it’s a good first step. I’ve been trying to workout regularly for a little over a year now. I was only doing so on weekends initially and progressed to the point where I had a daily routine. Three trips to China and everything else in-between and I just can’t seem to get back on schedule.

A new club opened up just one industrial block (way too far to walk of course) down the street from work. I checked it out yesterday and decided today that I should sign up. It’s a month to month place so if I don’t use it, I’ve wasted a lot more than $35 on a lot less. It’s really nice and doesn’t seem to be crowded at all. We’ll see how it goes.

The other big thing today was buying Chinese food for dinner. I’m normally strictly against it but my kids love it and I was actually in the mood for the egg drop soup stuff. Chinese food in China is nowhere near like it is here. I have never been a big fan of Chinese food here for some reason. I think the real stuff is much better, except for the weird things like elbows, donkey, odd fish, and some other strange varieties. Goat however is pretty good though technically it was goat on a stick. Sorry, when in Rome...

Fej.

I'm the 52,162,565 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

I somehow think this is rigged. The only explanation I can think of is that I'm also the 52,162,565 biggest spender in the world, cause I'm still broke.

I've got nothing tonight, so here is a picture. I plan on making it (on foot) to the meadow/forest in the center of the photo one of these days. Then I'll take another picture 180 degrees from this one.

She looks cute enough now, but just stick your finger in there...

One of my cats running for her life.

The freak hail storm we just had.

Update

I haven’t posted anything in a couple days. That is kind of rare for me unless I’m out of town. I’ve been busy of course and here are a few highlights:

While attempting to complete the reimbursement process for my oldest daughter’s out of district school status, I was informed (by a really irate lady with a lot of built up tension) that the last transfer she got was unapproved. I tried to calm her down and explain that it must have been approved, she’s been going there for nearly 3 weeks. To make a long story short, my daughter shouldn’t have been transferred and it sounds like the principle might get in trouble for letting her in. I’m just concerned that they might try to send her back to the other school. That would completely devastate her. I haven’t heard anything so far, I left it at "I’ll call back later", since the administrator was busy.

My wife is not stable at all on her new medication. She will probably need to go back sometime soon. On the plus side, it looks like her and her boyfriend (?) have made up. She can’t be alone even when she is doing fine, that is just who she is and he seems nice.

I have new (to me) bedroom furniture but I can’t say the house is any cleaner after a lot of work this weekend.

Had a few beers with a good friend on Saturday.

We have an evil dwarf gerbil. I don’t even want to talk about, but I caved. The thing looks really cute and fun until you stick an appendage in the cage. Then it’s like that little white bunny in that Monty Python movie... Another freaking animal! I am a wuss.

Fej.

Shampoo

Shampoo is one of those things that you don’t really give much thought to, or at least I never did. It’s always there in the shower or under the sink. Even when you run out there was always the bottle of the weird scalp-cleansing-massaging-thickening- for-oily-hair stuff that no one ever used. Well it was all gone the other day and as I realized at the store, I had never bought shampoo before. Well, not at least without an explicit description of brand, strength, and scent already dictated (in writing) prior to departure.

There are so many frigging different kinds of shampoo out there! So I decide just to get the cheapest kind. That narrowed the choices down to about 40 or so below $3.00. Then I decided I’d get something that didn’t smell too weird. Good luck, there is no such thing. Can’t you just buy shampoo that doesn’t have to smell like some flower that I couldn’t recognize to save my life? Then, like a flicker of light at the end what appeared to be a never-ending tunnel of darkness, I saw the V05 Normal Shampoo. And it smelled just like soap too!


Sorry, it’s Friday night and the only inspiration strong enough to pull me away from a losing game of solitaire was this shampoo story.

Fej.