The ride to work was much cooler. The temperatures came down enough in the night that I wore my fleece on the way to work. The bike rides in the morning help me to relax before I get here. It's quiet, nothing but me and the streetlights. Oh sure, there's the occasional motorist and then there's the group of guys that hang out in front of Roots Spring Scraper. They are just shooting the shit and lounging in chairs in front of the building enjoying the nice quiet and coffee in the cool morning air. I have no idea what they do there, but they are there everyday. I'll have to make it a point to see how they deal with Winter. Probably stay inside and huddle near a heater with their coffee.
So, work was more of the same. Did the finishing touches on this huge job that takes forever to do. This is the second site so I have five more sites to go. Yea!
After work we all got into the new van and headed for the land of school supplies. Dennis and Dandelion got a new zippered binder. For Dennis, the most disorganized boy in the land, this is a good idea. Dandelion just wanted one and they were pretty cheap. Dan got this little pouch that is full of pencils and stencils and a compass and other cool stuff that he said he needed. Delia got a bunch of notebooks and the three littles got pencil boxes. Dennis got a new backpack and they had this one strap over the shoulder one that looked pretty cool and the one I use is falling apart so I traded up and got one of those. K-Mart had a sale on shoes and Dennis has grown out of all of his so we got him a size 10 1/2 Wide!! He's only thirteen. By the time he reaches eighteen he's going to be seven feet tall! Delia wasn't happy with the backpack assortment so we are going out again after work to finish the quest of the school supplies. Should be fun, no not really, but it needs to be done. Delia also needs shoes so we'll be on the lookout for those as well.
We had to beat feet back to The Waltz Compound because people were coming to get the three littles for vacation bible school. The guy driving let out a girl who I assume to be his daughter, she looked about thirteen. Martha was on the front porch with Mickey the dog and when he saw her he headed right for her! Now the rule is that you never run from a dog. Stand your ground, show no fear and dominate the pooch. That's what Ceasar Milan says anyway. This girl ran for the car and dove through the window! Martha told me about it because I missed it. Her dad was laughing something fierce.
While the littles were gone I made dinner, smoked sausage with macaroni and cheese and green beans. I figured since I had oatmeal with cinnamon and flax seed for breakfast and brown rice with Mrs. Dash and a slice of flax seed foccacia bread for lunch, I could have something like this. Yeah, I was wrong. I ate tool much and felt bloated. And to compound that my neck has been killing me. I need to get to the chiropractor and get taken care of. I'll email Ray and see what kind of openings he has.
The kids got home and we watched Who Wants To Be A Superhero. They eliminated the annoyingly gay hero, Parthenon. I was glad to see him go. Not because he was gay, just because he was annoying as Hell.
I made popcorn for that and we all watched the show.
After that it was bedtime. Martha and I watched some David Tennant clips from The Graham Norton Show and it was hilarious. I stayed up too late again and will pay for it in the morning. Just can't seem to sleep.
8/31/07
8/30/07
DAY SIXTY-SIX
Hey! Only two hundred and ninety-nine more days to go for the rest of this year of mine. Sheesh! So, came to work, stumbled through that. Got home and convinced Martha that we needed to go to the bank. We cashed the check that the guy brought for the 69 Olds that he's making payments on and went out to eat. Well, eventually, first we drove aimlessly for a while. I did pick up a lottery ticket because the Mega Million jackpot is up to 350 Million. I can afford a buck at an extremely outside chance of winning that thing.
We went to Checkers to eat. Now, we don't go there very often which is probably a good thing. I'm amazed that they don't have a cardiac team just parked waiting there. I got this monstrosity called a Big Buford. You get the lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, purple onions with two beef patties, cheese on grilled sourdough bread. These can not be good for you and I will probably feel it tomorrow. In my defense, I did have oatmeal with cinnamon and flaxseed for breakfast and a bowl of brown rice with the extra chunky Mrs. Dash on it. It kind of evens out. And Checkers has these astonishing onion rings, but when I got to the last on and saw the pool of brown grease in the carton I got a little sick.
Afterwards we took the kids to vacation bible school. Then, since Dennis didn't go with us, we stopped and got him some McDonalds. It was crap dinner at The Waltz Compound this evening.
Later, the kids got dropped off and I found this recipe for flaxseed foccacia bread online so I decided to try it out. The only bad thing in the recipe was the five eggs, but in the future I could replace them with egg beaters or these Omega-3 eggs that they have at the market. It turned out pretty good. It would make an awesome pizza crust and you could put all kinds of things in the bread to make it even better. And you could go sweet or savory with the recipe which is nice. I'll definitely be making this one again.
We watched Mythbusters before bed because they were debunking some of the things you see in superhero comics. I always like Mythbusters and this one was no exception. Very entertaining and now all my children want grappling hooks for Christmas. They thought grappling hooks were fictitious or something. All my children want to become ninjas.
That put us at ten o'clock and I was ready for some serious snoozing. Thankfully, the temperature had dropped significantly so I was able to sleep in the comfort of my own room.
Ahhhhhh, comfort!
We went to Checkers to eat. Now, we don't go there very often which is probably a good thing. I'm amazed that they don't have a cardiac team just parked waiting there. I got this monstrosity called a Big Buford. You get the lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, purple onions with two beef patties, cheese on grilled sourdough bread. These can not be good for you and I will probably feel it tomorrow. In my defense, I did have oatmeal with cinnamon and flaxseed for breakfast and a bowl of brown rice with the extra chunky Mrs. Dash on it. It kind of evens out. And Checkers has these astonishing onion rings, but when I got to the last on and saw the pool of brown grease in the carton I got a little sick.
Afterwards we took the kids to vacation bible school. Then, since Dennis didn't go with us, we stopped and got him some McDonalds. It was crap dinner at The Waltz Compound this evening.
Later, the kids got dropped off and I found this recipe for flaxseed foccacia bread online so I decided to try it out. The only bad thing in the recipe was the five eggs, but in the future I could replace them with egg beaters or these Omega-3 eggs that they have at the market. It turned out pretty good. It would make an awesome pizza crust and you could put all kinds of things in the bread to make it even better. And you could go sweet or savory with the recipe which is nice. I'll definitely be making this one again.
We watched Mythbusters before bed because they were debunking some of the things you see in superhero comics. I always like Mythbusters and this one was no exception. Very entertaining and now all my children want grappling hooks for Christmas. They thought grappling hooks were fictitious or something. All my children want to become ninjas.
That put us at ten o'clock and I was ready for some serious snoozing. Thankfully, the temperature had dropped significantly so I was able to sleep in the comfort of my own room.
Ahhhhhh, comfort!
8/29/07
DAY SIXTY-FIVE
First day back to work after four days off and it feels weird. The whole day felt like I wasn't supposed to be here like I was supposed to be doing something else. I got through it, but it was wonky at best. Hopefully, tomorrow will fall back into the groove. We'll have to wait and see.
Got home and we had leftover chili and rice. I ate waaaay too much and felt like crap because of it. Probably didn't help that I had a twelve inch veggie sub from Subway for lunch. Definitely got my roughage for the day.
Martha and I had to go to my dad's to see what he had for us to sell. I was amazed at how organized he had already gotten the Playboys. He had them divided by hear and there were quite a few of them. My initial look into places like eBay didn't sound too promising and I think that we will have better luck with the records he has. He even has a Samantha Fox picture disc and, yes she's naked on it. My dad collects some weird stuff that's for sure.
While Martha and I were over there Delia, Dandelion and Daniel went to Praise Baptist for their Vacation Bible School. Dandelion said she didn't have fun, but I don't believe her. Out pastor's wife, Missy took them, but then she had some strangers drop the kids off at home. I wasn't real keen on that so I kinda doubt they will be going again. Maybe if I go with them. We will have to wait and see.
Dennis was left at home because I busted my hump yesterday cleaning the kitchen and he totaled the stove and left dirty dishes on the stove. I'm glad he cooks, but it's okay form to trash the kitchen because I know I have to clean it. Other people doing it kind of ticks me off. So, he got to stay home and do the dishes.
I got a box of porn in the mail today, Yea! I got a box of stuff from Larry's wife, Patti as well. It was a bunch of films and whatnot and while it was cool it felt like one of those packages from beyond the grave. Kinda creepy. Even though Larry is gone I have no intentions of letting his website die out. We will keep it going regardless. Hopefully, the webmaster Ugo feels the same way.
It was hot. Too hot to sleep so I wandered downstairs where the air conditioner was going. Delia was a little ticked that I kicked her off the couch, bu she can sleep on the floor without waking up the next morning feeling like she got beat with a cricket bat. Me, not so much.
Got home and we had leftover chili and rice. I ate waaaay too much and felt like crap because of it. Probably didn't help that I had a twelve inch veggie sub from Subway for lunch. Definitely got my roughage for the day.
Martha and I had to go to my dad's to see what he had for us to sell. I was amazed at how organized he had already gotten the Playboys. He had them divided by hear and there were quite a few of them. My initial look into places like eBay didn't sound too promising and I think that we will have better luck with the records he has. He even has a Samantha Fox picture disc and, yes she's naked on it. My dad collects some weird stuff that's for sure.
While Martha and I were over there Delia, Dandelion and Daniel went to Praise Baptist for their Vacation Bible School. Dandelion said she didn't have fun, but I don't believe her. Out pastor's wife, Missy took them, but then she had some strangers drop the kids off at home. I wasn't real keen on that so I kinda doubt they will be going again. Maybe if I go with them. We will have to wait and see.
Dennis was left at home because I busted my hump yesterday cleaning the kitchen and he totaled the stove and left dirty dishes on the stove. I'm glad he cooks, but it's okay form to trash the kitchen because I know I have to clean it. Other people doing it kind of ticks me off. So, he got to stay home and do the dishes.
I got a box of porn in the mail today, Yea! I got a box of stuff from Larry's wife, Patti as well. It was a bunch of films and whatnot and while it was cool it felt like one of those packages from beyond the grave. Kinda creepy. Even though Larry is gone I have no intentions of letting his website die out. We will keep it going regardless. Hopefully, the webmaster Ugo feels the same way.
It was hot. Too hot to sleep so I wandered downstairs where the air conditioner was going. Delia was a little ticked that I kicked her off the couch, bu she can sleep on the floor without waking up the next morning feeling like she got beat with a cricket bat. Me, not so much.
8/28/07
DAY SIXTY-FOUR
The last day of vacation. I love having Mondays off. It makes the rest of the week seem to fly by a little better. We were supposed to go to my dad's house this morning. He wants help selling a bunch of his crap online. He's got like twenty years of Playboys and a mint condition ET picture disc. That should fetch a pretty penny and even if we sell the Playboys for a buck apiece it should be a pretty good sale for the old man. But, Martha was feeling poorly so we postponed until tomorrow.
This meant that it was time to laze about the house. Yeah, right! I wrote a review of issue two of Madame Mirage. Great comic and the artwork is astounding. I wrote a review of the South Korean flick CINDERELLA. I packaged up a bunch of DVD's I sold and got them ready to ship tomorrow. Then it was clean the kitchen time.
For some reason, these pesky fruit flies decided to nest in the kitchen and I am sandblasting everything, not really, to see if I can get them, out of there. Wish me luck. After cleaning the kitchen I took a break to see how Martha was. She was the same. Oooky. Then, I was going to mow some of the lawn, but decided to clear a bunch of overhanging branches in the driveway. Most of them were pretty easy, but there's this one behemoth that is only coming down if I climb this tree. I don't mind climbing trees. I'm still pretty nimble and I have always been a tree climber from waaaaay back.
Yeah, I should have done that branch first. By the time I got up the tree with a saw and started hacking away at this thing I was pretty damned pooped. I got a decent cut in it, but there is still a long way to go. Maybe I'll be brave and get up there again this upcoming three day weekend. We'll see.
After that Martha and I had to go over to friends of ours from church, Bruce and Helen. They had a garage sale and there was this computer they didn't get rid of and they said that the boys could have it. Yeah, this thing is a mess. It was in pieces, but Martha is the techno geek so maybe she can fix it.
By the time we got home because Helen likes to talk, I think that she doesn't get a lot of talking in during the day so she was glad for the compnay, it was time for dinner and I decided that were were having chili. I had a loaf of Vienna bread from the store and some cold Rolling Rock in the fridge so it was like fate decided it for me.
We ate chili and watched the Tom Baker Doctor Who in his first appearance. It was called ROBOT and it was very good. After the chili the gang demanded chocolate milkshakes. We still had a ton of ice cream left from Delia's birthday feast so, I made milkshakes.
Then it was time for bed.
Yeah, right. I couldn't sleep to save my butt. I watched some Food Network and burned the Doctor Who disc so I could send it back to Netflix and still, no go. I finally nodded off around midnight. This is pretty late for me so I know I'll be feeling it in the morning.
This meant that it was time to laze about the house. Yeah, right! I wrote a review of issue two of Madame Mirage. Great comic and the artwork is astounding. I wrote a review of the South Korean flick CINDERELLA. I packaged up a bunch of DVD's I sold and got them ready to ship tomorrow. Then it was clean the kitchen time.
For some reason, these pesky fruit flies decided to nest in the kitchen and I am sandblasting everything, not really, to see if I can get them, out of there. Wish me luck. After cleaning the kitchen I took a break to see how Martha was. She was the same. Oooky. Then, I was going to mow some of the lawn, but decided to clear a bunch of overhanging branches in the driveway. Most of them were pretty easy, but there's this one behemoth that is only coming down if I climb this tree. I don't mind climbing trees. I'm still pretty nimble and I have always been a tree climber from waaaaay back.
Yeah, I should have done that branch first. By the time I got up the tree with a saw and started hacking away at this thing I was pretty damned pooped. I got a decent cut in it, but there is still a long way to go. Maybe I'll be brave and get up there again this upcoming three day weekend. We'll see.
After that Martha and I had to go over to friends of ours from church, Bruce and Helen. They had a garage sale and there was this computer they didn't get rid of and they said that the boys could have it. Yeah, this thing is a mess. It was in pieces, but Martha is the techno geek so maybe she can fix it.
By the time we got home because Helen likes to talk, I think that she doesn't get a lot of talking in during the day so she was glad for the compnay, it was time for dinner and I decided that were were having chili. I had a loaf of Vienna bread from the store and some cold Rolling Rock in the fridge so it was like fate decided it for me.
We ate chili and watched the Tom Baker Doctor Who in his first appearance. It was called ROBOT and it was very good. After the chili the gang demanded chocolate milkshakes. We still had a ton of ice cream left from Delia's birthday feast so, I made milkshakes.
Then it was time for bed.
Yeah, right. I couldn't sleep to save my butt. I watched some Food Network and burned the Doctor Who disc so I could send it back to Netflix and still, no go. I finally nodded off around midnight. This is pretty late for me so I know I'll be feeling it in the morning.
8/27/07
THE VACATION (DAYS 60,61,62,63)
I know that I stated in the beginning that I would report on each day as an individual occurrence, but in this case I feel that the entire experience needs to be related as a single narrative.
I left work at three o'clock and headed for home. I got to the Versluis ballfield and my bike made a horrid noise. The chain busted. Thankfully it isn't that far to home. I did stop at the soda machine and got a Coke Zero and drank half of it before I started walking the rest of the way. I did like the noise that the wind made on the top of the open soda bottle. The glass ones make a better noise, but what are you going to do?
I got home and was just taking it easy. We were all watching television when they said that a storm was headed right for us. They mentioned a tornado and Daniel panicked, but we told him not to worry about it. We live in a sturdy old farm house with a basement so were in pretty good shape.
We actually went outside to watch the storm approach. It was moving at about eighty miles an hour so it didn't take long. The rain started coming down in sheets...and then the power went out. And 50,000 Kalamazoo residents were in the darkness.
That night I discovered something. That if there is no ambient noise when I am sleeping I wake up about every hour on the hour. Plus, our room felt like a furnace so I went downstairs with the kids to sleep. Because of that my back is killing me. Too old to sleep on the hard floor I guess.
The next day we still had no power and they were saying Sunday before it would come back on. I had taken a four day weekend and it was turning out to be a big disaster. We decided to do stuff and went out and had some breakfast. We bought things for Delia's birthday which was on Sunday. We decided to give her her gift early because she was wandering through Target looking at plastic crap. When we finally fessed up and told her we were getting her a video camera, she was all for it. It's a cool in that it was designed for kids and with an additional SD card she can get about 80 minutes of video that she can download to the computer and edit. She is happy and mentioned that she will be starting preproduction work on her movie, Secret Pets.
There was no way were sleeping at home again and since we got a new minivan, well, new for us, it's a 95, we loaded up stuff and went to church. Before I continue let me relay a little information about this new minivan.
Our friend from church, Ryan, got us our last car. It is a 81 Olds Cutlass Station Wagon. She's a beast on gas, but a good solid car. Now, he got someone giving him this 95 Plymouth Grand Voyager and he said we could have it as well. Ryan is a really great guy. So, we get the new car legal and go fetch it from Ryan and start driving it home. we get a few miles down the road and Martha pulls over. She is driving the van and I'm in the wagon. She just pulls over on the side of the road. The first thing I can think is that there is something wrong with a car we have had for five minutes. No such luck. It seems there was a huge spider in the car and she needed to pull over so I could kill it for here. Sheesh! Anyway, back to the church campout. Using the pew cushions we made a communal bed and watched the new film by Michale Legge. It's called The Dungeon of Dr. Dreck and it was great. It tells of a horror host who is a real mad scientist and his sidekick is an actual zombie. Our family has been watching the actual Dr. Dreck show for quite some time and it was cool to see him get his own movie. Plus, we sent Michael some lab equipment that I got from Pfizer and not only is it featured in the opening credits, but the entire family got credits and honorary doctorates in the end credits. There are even special glasses to watch for this one segment that is really cool. It was nice to take a bad situation and have a good family time of it regardless. As we got ready for bed I put in the film 300 and played it in a loop so we had the necessary noise to keep us asleep for the night.
We packed up in the morning and made our way home. The power was on! It was a little bittersweet because it was the first time I had been on the computer in a couple of days and I found out that Larry Stanley, my editor and good friend had passed away in the night. He went to be with the Lord and I should rejoice in that, but I am selfish and would rather have him here. We had talked on the phone a couple of times and it would have been nice to meet face to face. I guess I'll have to wait for Heaven.
We went to the store and got things for Delia's feast. Steak, rice, broccoli and carrots. What a good kid! And I got the fixings to make her a cake that I decorated with tiger stripes. Delia loves tigers. It was good to sleep in my own bed again with power and fans and comfort. All was finally right with the world.
Sunday came and we were off to church. It was an exciting day because we were going to do special music. Were doing The Violent Femmes 'Jesus Walking On The Water'. Martha played guitar, Dennis played the bass line on an electric Fender we have, Delia played this little Yamaha keyboard, Dandelion used her kazoo and I played during the musical interlude on my saxophone. We thought it was horrid and Martha even joked about making a joyful 'noise' to The Lord, but the congregation loved us. No accounting for taste.
After church we headed for the M-89 Cinema to watch SUPERBAD. Delia really wanted to see it and it was one of the only places still playing it so we made the short jaunt to Plainwell. I had never been to the theater and it was cool. It used to be a supermarket and they converted it. They are smart about the concessions to. They are, for the most part, self serve. Even the popcorn. You go up to this huge chute and pull a switch and the popcorn goes in the bag. You can get as much fake butter that you want too. Yum! The movie was hilarious and we had a good time.
After the movie we went home and I got started on the birthday feast. It was delicious and I gave Delia a huge steak! Her eyes bulged and she ate steak till it was coming out of her ears. Afterwards we went to the park to play and then it was time to head home. For a Sunday it was extra busy, even for us.
I have Monday off and if all goes well it will be a relaxing day. Who knows, maybe my Bava book will show up in the mail. That will be cool.
This vacation was a definite up and down. From the loss of a good friend to celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my oldest daughter's birth it was a definite emotional roller coaster. Never was fond of roller coasters.
I left work at three o'clock and headed for home. I got to the Versluis ballfield and my bike made a horrid noise. The chain busted. Thankfully it isn't that far to home. I did stop at the soda machine and got a Coke Zero and drank half of it before I started walking the rest of the way. I did like the noise that the wind made on the top of the open soda bottle. The glass ones make a better noise, but what are you going to do?
I got home and was just taking it easy. We were all watching television when they said that a storm was headed right for us. They mentioned a tornado and Daniel panicked, but we told him not to worry about it. We live in a sturdy old farm house with a basement so were in pretty good shape.
We actually went outside to watch the storm approach. It was moving at about eighty miles an hour so it didn't take long. The rain started coming down in sheets...and then the power went out. And 50,000 Kalamazoo residents were in the darkness.
That night I discovered something. That if there is no ambient noise when I am sleeping I wake up about every hour on the hour. Plus, our room felt like a furnace so I went downstairs with the kids to sleep. Because of that my back is killing me. Too old to sleep on the hard floor I guess.
The next day we still had no power and they were saying Sunday before it would come back on. I had taken a four day weekend and it was turning out to be a big disaster. We decided to do stuff and went out and had some breakfast. We bought things for Delia's birthday which was on Sunday. We decided to give her her gift early because she was wandering through Target looking at plastic crap. When we finally fessed up and told her we were getting her a video camera, she was all for it. It's a cool in that it was designed for kids and with an additional SD card she can get about 80 minutes of video that she can download to the computer and edit. She is happy and mentioned that she will be starting preproduction work on her movie, Secret Pets.
There was no way were sleeping at home again and since we got a new minivan, well, new for us, it's a 95, we loaded up stuff and went to church. Before I continue let me relay a little information about this new minivan.
Our friend from church, Ryan, got us our last car. It is a 81 Olds Cutlass Station Wagon. She's a beast on gas, but a good solid car. Now, he got someone giving him this 95 Plymouth Grand Voyager and he said we could have it as well. Ryan is a really great guy. So, we get the new car legal and go fetch it from Ryan and start driving it home. we get a few miles down the road and Martha pulls over. She is driving the van and I'm in the wagon. She just pulls over on the side of the road. The first thing I can think is that there is something wrong with a car we have had for five minutes. No such luck. It seems there was a huge spider in the car and she needed to pull over so I could kill it for here. Sheesh! Anyway, back to the church campout. Using the pew cushions we made a communal bed and watched the new film by Michale Legge. It's called The Dungeon of Dr. Dreck and it was great. It tells of a horror host who is a real mad scientist and his sidekick is an actual zombie. Our family has been watching the actual Dr. Dreck show for quite some time and it was cool to see him get his own movie. Plus, we sent Michael some lab equipment that I got from Pfizer and not only is it featured in the opening credits, but the entire family got credits and honorary doctorates in the end credits. There are even special glasses to watch for this one segment that is really cool. It was nice to take a bad situation and have a good family time of it regardless. As we got ready for bed I put in the film 300 and played it in a loop so we had the necessary noise to keep us asleep for the night.
We packed up in the morning and made our way home. The power was on! It was a little bittersweet because it was the first time I had been on the computer in a couple of days and I found out that Larry Stanley, my editor and good friend had passed away in the night. He went to be with the Lord and I should rejoice in that, but I am selfish and would rather have him here. We had talked on the phone a couple of times and it would have been nice to meet face to face. I guess I'll have to wait for Heaven.
We went to the store and got things for Delia's feast. Steak, rice, broccoli and carrots. What a good kid! And I got the fixings to make her a cake that I decorated with tiger stripes. Delia loves tigers. It was good to sleep in my own bed again with power and fans and comfort. All was finally right with the world.
Sunday came and we were off to church. It was an exciting day because we were going to do special music. Were doing The Violent Femmes 'Jesus Walking On The Water'. Martha played guitar, Dennis played the bass line on an electric Fender we have, Delia played this little Yamaha keyboard, Dandelion used her kazoo and I played during the musical interlude on my saxophone. We thought it was horrid and Martha even joked about making a joyful 'noise' to The Lord, but the congregation loved us. No accounting for taste.
After church we headed for the M-89 Cinema to watch SUPERBAD. Delia really wanted to see it and it was one of the only places still playing it so we made the short jaunt to Plainwell. I had never been to the theater and it was cool. It used to be a supermarket and they converted it. They are smart about the concessions to. They are, for the most part, self serve. Even the popcorn. You go up to this huge chute and pull a switch and the popcorn goes in the bag. You can get as much fake butter that you want too. Yum! The movie was hilarious and we had a good time.
After the movie we went home and I got started on the birthday feast. It was delicious and I gave Delia a huge steak! Her eyes bulged and she ate steak till it was coming out of her ears. Afterwards we went to the park to play and then it was time to head home. For a Sunday it was extra busy, even for us.
I have Monday off and if all goes well it will be a relaxing day. Who knows, maybe my Bava book will show up in the mail. That will be cool.
This vacation was a definite up and down. From the loss of a good friend to celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my oldest daughter's birth it was a definite emotional roller coaster. Never was fond of roller coasters.
8/23/07
DAY FIFTY-NINE
I have been trying for two days to make this huge file print at work. The first time someone closed a drawer in the printer with green paper. I made sure it was open and someone closed it. Then I started again and left for the day. Someone turned off the printer and it had to start over again today. I got tired of it because I had other things I had to print on that machine so I cancelled it and spent an hour chopping it up into smaller files thinking that would go faster. Yeah, it went faster, but the machine kept misprinting the damned tabs!!! So, I finally sent the file one last time, plastered the machine with signs (okay one big sign) saying to leave it alone and went home for the day.
That had better be done and pretty when I get into work tomorrow.
I got home, rested for a moment be cause it was pretty hot out and no one thought to turn on the air conditioner at home. So, I went from hot outside to dripping hot inside. Yipee! After cooling off, Dan and I played Heroscape. He handed me my butt. Maybe tomorrow we can play one of the actual scenarios of the game instead of just fighting each other.
I made a crumb crusted Pollock and roasted garlic potatoes with peas for dinner. It must have been good because there was nothing left of it. Then no one felt like doing anything so we watched a movie. Martha voted for Princess Diaries, Dennis wanted The Howling, Delia said we should watch Monty Python And The Holy Grail, I wanted to watch Dune and finally we left it to Dan.
We watched The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan. It's a fun flick and Jennifer Love Hewitt is pretty easy on the eyes.
After that we played a rousing game of Scrabble. Martha won that like she usually does. Then it was time for bed. Martha and I watched a flick called Cinderella. No, not the Disney flick, but this weird thing from Tartan Extreme Video. It was pretty weird stuff.
Busy day. Tomorrow is my last day of work for four days. I plan on doing as little as possible.
Weeeeeeeee!
That had better be done and pretty when I get into work tomorrow.
I got home, rested for a moment be cause it was pretty hot out and no one thought to turn on the air conditioner at home. So, I went from hot outside to dripping hot inside. Yipee! After cooling off, Dan and I played Heroscape. He handed me my butt. Maybe tomorrow we can play one of the actual scenarios of the game instead of just fighting each other.
I made a crumb crusted Pollock and roasted garlic potatoes with peas for dinner. It must have been good because there was nothing left of it. Then no one felt like doing anything so we watched a movie. Martha voted for Princess Diaries, Dennis wanted The Howling, Delia said we should watch Monty Python And The Holy Grail, I wanted to watch Dune and finally we left it to Dan.
We watched The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan. It's a fun flick and Jennifer Love Hewitt is pretty easy on the eyes.
After that we played a rousing game of Scrabble. Martha won that like she usually does. Then it was time for bed. Martha and I watched a flick called Cinderella. No, not the Disney flick, but this weird thing from Tartan Extreme Video. It was pretty weird stuff.
Busy day. Tomorrow is my last day of work for four days. I plan on doing as little as possible.
Weeeeeeeee!
8/21/07
DAY FIFTY-SEVEN
The news of my Monday seems horribly irrelevant at this time. Late in the day I received a email from Patti Stanley. Patti is my friend Larry's wife. Larry is the editor of Penguin Comics on the Internet. It's a site that discusses movies, comics, books, trading cards and whatever else Larry wants to talk about. I have written for Larry's site for years and have always had a good relationship with Larry.
There is something wrong with Larry. He has been hospitalized for quite some time and for a while things were looking good.
Then I got this email from Patti. Seems that Larry has taken a turn for the worse. The doctors say he probably won't last the week.
I never got a chance to meet Larry in person. I talked with him on the phone a few times and corresponded with him constantly via email. Now, it looks like meeting him is going to be out of the question in this lifetime. I really hope the doctors are wrong.
I have been praying for Larry and Patti for so long that it seems like second nature. I see no reason to quit now.
There is something wrong with Larry. He has been hospitalized for quite some time and for a while things were looking good.
Then I got this email from Patti. Seems that Larry has taken a turn for the worse. The doctors say he probably won't last the week.
I never got a chance to meet Larry in person. I talked with him on the phone a few times and corresponded with him constantly via email. Now, it looks like meeting him is going to be out of the question in this lifetime. I really hope the doctors are wrong.
I have been praying for Larry and Patti for so long that it seems like second nature. I see no reason to quit now.
8/20/07
DAY FIFTY-SIX
I got up early because I had to bake that French toast concoction I made the night before. Any worries were allayed by the fact that it was yummy. My first setback was I did not know I was out of aluminum foil and it needed to be covered for the first half of the baking time. A sheet pan took care of the problem. The yummy smell filled the house and then filled the car on the way to church.
The walnuts and flaxseeds on the yummy one baked into a wonderful crust that the other one was missing. I think that one was more popular than the other one. In either case none of it lasted very long.
After church we took the kids to Game Stop to trade in old games for new ones. Delia got a Banjo Kazooie game for her game boy. Dan got a Samurai Jack and Prince Of Persia game for his game boy. Dennis picked up Bloodrayne and True Crime for the Gamecube. When they guy at the counter informed us of the mature rating for blood and gore in Dennis' games, Martha said, that's what makes them so fun! It made the guy grin. And there was still ten bucks left over in credit! We'll save that for later.
Dandelion was still with John and Missy so she missed out on the trip. Afterwards we went back home and I gave the kids some free time before I made them do some chores. Their rooms looked like someone had detonated explosives in there so they spent a lot of time cleaning their rooms.
While they did that I did dishes and cooked some noodles for the lo mein I was making later. I also managed to get my Asian sesame meatballs finished as well. It all turned out well. I made sure the noodles cooled off and added garlic and olive oil to the pan before putting in the noodles and stir fry veggies. I cooked the meatballs separately and they came out really nice. Martha thought they were fantastic.
After dinner things were kind of laid back. Martha has taken the monumental task of putting together music for the entire family so we can sing and play instruments for The Violent Femmes' 'Jesus Walking On The Water'. we're going to sing it at church next week according to her. The first set she did for my saxophone went lower than I could go so she tweaked it and it sounds fine. She got the guitar tabs for her and the bass tabs for Dennis. She came up with notes for Delia to play on her mini organ that she has. The two littles can just shake a tambourine or something. It is shaping up quite well and I'm looking forward to playing it.
After all that we watched a little television. Gene Simmons Family Jewels was hilarious. especially the part where Gene accidentally glues a vibrator to his hand while he's hanging out with carrot top. Funny stuff. I wrote three reviews for some adult flicks and got them posted. After that I was beat.
The walnuts and flaxseeds on the yummy one baked into a wonderful crust that the other one was missing. I think that one was more popular than the other one. In either case none of it lasted very long.
After church we took the kids to Game Stop to trade in old games for new ones. Delia got a Banjo Kazooie game for her game boy. Dan got a Samurai Jack and Prince Of Persia game for his game boy. Dennis picked up Bloodrayne and True Crime for the Gamecube. When they guy at the counter informed us of the mature rating for blood and gore in Dennis' games, Martha said, that's what makes them so fun! It made the guy grin. And there was still ten bucks left over in credit! We'll save that for later.
Dandelion was still with John and Missy so she missed out on the trip. Afterwards we went back home and I gave the kids some free time before I made them do some chores. Their rooms looked like someone had detonated explosives in there so they spent a lot of time cleaning their rooms.
While they did that I did dishes and cooked some noodles for the lo mein I was making later. I also managed to get my Asian sesame meatballs finished as well. It all turned out well. I made sure the noodles cooled off and added garlic and olive oil to the pan before putting in the noodles and stir fry veggies. I cooked the meatballs separately and they came out really nice. Martha thought they were fantastic.
After dinner things were kind of laid back. Martha has taken the monumental task of putting together music for the entire family so we can sing and play instruments for The Violent Femmes' 'Jesus Walking On The Water'. we're going to sing it at church next week according to her. The first set she did for my saxophone went lower than I could go so she tweaked it and it sounds fine. She got the guitar tabs for her and the bass tabs for Dennis. She came up with notes for Delia to play on her mini organ that she has. The two littles can just shake a tambourine or something. It is shaping up quite well and I'm looking forward to playing it.
After all that we watched a little television. Gene Simmons Family Jewels was hilarious. especially the part where Gene accidentally glues a vibrator to his hand while he's hanging out with carrot top. Funny stuff. I wrote three reviews for some adult flicks and got them posted. After that I was beat.
8/19/07
DAY FIFTY-FIVE
Since our sensei quit the dojo that we go to there was no getting up early and rushing the kids off to Judo. It's a shame because I like Judo. Hopefully, our sensei will find a new place to teach Judo before too long. It was a lazy Saturday, up to a point. We had a pot luck at church and I made a big batch of baked sweet potatoes.
After the concert the barbershop guys showed up and sang a bunch of songs for us. It was a lot of fun and I caught Daniel singing along with them. All the kids were good. The potluck was fantastic. Jeff and Sue made this thing that was chicken breasts layered with swiss cheese, cream of chicken soup and stuffing and then baked. I think I went back for thirds. It was very yummy stuff.
The whole thing got over at about eight o'clock. The fun thing was that I can listen to music and do other things so I hunted down some paper and a pen and wrote a huge chunk of my next chapbook. It's called, The Penultimate Machination OF Fu Manchu. It has been simmering in my head for a while now, but it wasn't ready to come out on paper. At church it came out with a vengeance. I stopped more because my thumb hurt from holding the pen than anything else. It is working real well. I already knew the ending and now the middle is falling into pl;ace. This is good because my cover artist, Linc Polderman, has finished the cover for the second chapbook, Attack OF The Creatures From The Unknown. After the concert we went home and the kids got ready for bed.
I started tomorrows breakfast because it was my nturn to bring it to church. I made a stuffed french toast dish using French bread, cream cheese and bananas. I sprinkled flaxseed and crushed walnuts on one of them to help off set the cholesterol from the eggs. It has to soak overnight before I bake it in the morning for an hour. I hope it turns out alright
This weekend has seemed to speed right by.
After the concert the barbershop guys showed up and sang a bunch of songs for us. It was a lot of fun and I caught Daniel singing along with them. All the kids were good. The potluck was fantastic. Jeff and Sue made this thing that was chicken breasts layered with swiss cheese, cream of chicken soup and stuffing and then baked. I think I went back for thirds. It was very yummy stuff.
The whole thing got over at about eight o'clock. The fun thing was that I can listen to music and do other things so I hunted down some paper and a pen and wrote a huge chunk of my next chapbook. It's called, The Penultimate Machination OF Fu Manchu. It has been simmering in my head for a while now, but it wasn't ready to come out on paper. At church it came out with a vengeance. I stopped more because my thumb hurt from holding the pen than anything else. It is working real well. I already knew the ending and now the middle is falling into pl;ace. This is good because my cover artist, Linc Polderman, has finished the cover for the second chapbook, Attack OF The Creatures From The Unknown. After the concert we went home and the kids got ready for bed.
I started tomorrows breakfast because it was my nturn to bring it to church. I made a stuffed french toast dish using French bread, cream cheese and bananas. I sprinkled flaxseed and crushed walnuts on one of them to help off set the cholesterol from the eggs. It has to soak overnight before I bake it in the morning for an hour. I hope it turns out alright
This weekend has seemed to speed right by.
DAY FIFTY-FOUR
Friday and the end of the work week. I took it pretty easy at work today. I'm getting excited about The Bava Book arriving soon It's juts a coincidence that I'm taking a four day weekend next week, but5 it will give me an awful lot of time to peruse the huge volume of Bava. I have been writing reviews for the adult web site for a couple of days now and I think I was working too hard at it. I checked some other reviews and none of them seem to go into the same details that I did. I'll probably keep up with the same style though because I usually just review story porn. The ones that are wall to wall sex are dull as Hell.
After work went home and made some food for the gang. Dandelion is excited because she's going to John and Missy's horse farm tomorrow after the concert at church. We watched Doctor Who and Flash Gordon which pretty much did me in for the night.
A typical Friday at The Waltz Compound.
After work went home and made some food for the gang. Dandelion is excited because she's going to John and Missy's horse farm tomorrow after the concert at church. We watched Doctor Who and Flash Gordon which pretty much did me in for the night.
A typical Friday at The Waltz Compound.
8/17/07
DAY FIFTY-THREE
So, the big news at work was that Josh's mom got to go home. Seems that she's had problems in the past and it might have to do with the two pack a day habit. Funny how Josh can see what his mom is going through, but still smokes. People are funny, aren't they?
I decided instead of overtime to take a half day off. Couple this with the appointment I had at ten o'clock down at ye olde Family Independence Agency or FIA for short, and I wasn't at work a lot today. The appointment went horribly. I thought it was at ten, it was at eight. I was going to bike down there because it was so close to work, but I forgot my wallet. I had identification for everyone else in the family except for me so, Martha had to come and get me. My caseworker was very nice and that made a big difference.
I went back to work for about an hour and a half. I ate my lunch, leftover meatballs and rice, yum! And then biked it to The Waltz Compound.
Man, it was hot! I was dripping by the time I pulled into the drive way. I did a little cool down, made some grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone for lunch, had a little snack my self. Some demi baguette grilled with olive oil and a few meatballs with some low fat mozzarella cheese. I thought everyone would descend on my sandwich like locusts, but they left it alone.
Then, since I got home early, we went to the museum. They had animatronic dinosaurs which were very cool. Dan had the most fun, I think. Then there was an announcement that they were going to replay a broadcast from the space station with the lady who's up there right now. She was going to take questions from kids here on Earth. Man, the sound was terrible! You'd think with all the advancements in technology that they could get rid of that whole, shouting in a tin can effect, that seems to happen whenever we get communications from space.
After that it was home again. The kids cleaned the yard, I mowed part of the yard, Delia did the dishes and then I made some yummy homemade chicken noodle soup with biscuits. Very good stuff. I made the kids watch WAR OF THE ROBOTS with me. man, that flick was dull. Check out my other blog at divineexploitation.blogspot.com for more details soon.
After that it was time for a walk down to the gas station with Martha and Mickey the dog. Martha promised me soda for the walk, but when we got there I really didn't want a soda so, I got her a soda and a candy bar instead.
Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero was on and I had the loser of this round picked the minute that Basura didn't help a lady find her kid. She was the only one who didn't help so, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't staying on the show.
See what happens? I take half a day off and it becomes the busiest day ever. Oh well, it was a blast and I had a lot of fun with Martha and the kids. Tomorrow is Friday so the weekend is coming up. Yea!
I decided instead of overtime to take a half day off. Couple this with the appointment I had at ten o'clock down at ye olde Family Independence Agency or FIA for short, and I wasn't at work a lot today. The appointment went horribly. I thought it was at ten, it was at eight. I was going to bike down there because it was so close to work, but I forgot my wallet. I had identification for everyone else in the family except for me so, Martha had to come and get me. My caseworker was very nice and that made a big difference.
I went back to work for about an hour and a half. I ate my lunch, leftover meatballs and rice, yum! And then biked it to The Waltz Compound.
Man, it was hot! I was dripping by the time I pulled into the drive way. I did a little cool down, made some grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone for lunch, had a little snack my self. Some demi baguette grilled with olive oil and a few meatballs with some low fat mozzarella cheese. I thought everyone would descend on my sandwich like locusts, but they left it alone.
Then, since I got home early, we went to the museum. They had animatronic dinosaurs which were very cool. Dan had the most fun, I think. Then there was an announcement that they were going to replay a broadcast from the space station with the lady who's up there right now. She was going to take questions from kids here on Earth. Man, the sound was terrible! You'd think with all the advancements in technology that they could get rid of that whole, shouting in a tin can effect, that seems to happen whenever we get communications from space.
After that it was home again. The kids cleaned the yard, I mowed part of the yard, Delia did the dishes and then I made some yummy homemade chicken noodle soup with biscuits. Very good stuff. I made the kids watch WAR OF THE ROBOTS with me. man, that flick was dull. Check out my other blog at divineexploitation.blogspot.com for more details soon.
After that it was time for a walk down to the gas station with Martha and Mickey the dog. Martha promised me soda for the walk, but when we got there I really didn't want a soda so, I got her a soda and a candy bar instead.
Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero was on and I had the loser of this round picked the minute that Basura didn't help a lady find her kid. She was the only one who didn't help so, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't staying on the show.
See what happens? I take half a day off and it becomes the busiest day ever. Oh well, it was a blast and I had a lot of fun with Martha and the kids. Tomorrow is Friday so the weekend is coming up. Yea!
DAY FIFTY-TWO
I knew that Josh, regardless of what he said, was not going to make it into work today. There wasn't a lot to do and I managed to crank it all out of the way which was cool. Other than that the day was uneventful and I had to stay late...again!
I got home and had no idea what to make for dinner. Martha suggested that we go to the store to see what was on sale. I grabbed some hamburger to make meatloaf and with meatloaf you must have mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. Gotta have it that way. I knew that we had mashed potatoes at home so we didn't buy any. Yeah, I was wrong. So, plan B was meatballs with mushroom gravy and rice. I made instant rice for the family and whipped up some brown rice for me. It was quite yummy. I made carrots to go on the side and it turned out pretty well.
I wrote a couple of film reviews and that was it. The day kind of whipped by and it was over.
I got home and had no idea what to make for dinner. Martha suggested that we go to the store to see what was on sale. I grabbed some hamburger to make meatloaf and with meatloaf you must have mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. Gotta have it that way. I knew that we had mashed potatoes at home so we didn't buy any. Yeah, I was wrong. So, plan B was meatballs with mushroom gravy and rice. I made instant rice for the family and whipped up some brown rice for me. It was quite yummy. I made carrots to go on the side and it turned out pretty well.
I wrote a couple of film reviews and that was it. The day kind of whipped by and it was over.
8/15/07
DAY FIFTY-ONE
It being a Tuesday and nothing much to do at work, I was in a pretty good mood. Not a lot of work on the agenda. Get it done and hang out until three o'clock. Right? Wrong! Seems that one of our employee's mom has a heart condition that landed her in the emergency ward. Now, Josh has to drive two and a half hours to get there and everyone else knew that he wouldn't be in for work Wednesday regardless of what he said. This meant that I had to stay until four thirty. I didn't mind. Hopefully Josh's mom will be fine. I had a little cash in my account and a discount coupon so I decided that Martha and I were going to go to the hot tubs after work. An impromptu mini vacation.
First, I had to get home and make some yummy baked fish with stir fry vegetables and rice for The Waltz Compound. It was quite yummy.
Then we were on our way to The Oasis, the local hot tub place. We hadn't been in years and I made sure to reserve the Japanese room. It's an outdoor tub with a Japanese theme. You know, little pagodas and oriental stuff strewn about to resemble a Japanese garden with a hot tub in the middle of it.
Before you're allowed in the hot tub you have to shower. You also have to do that after you get out of the tub. The shower seems designed to rip the flesh from your very bones. They have some wicked water pressure down at The Oasis.
The tub was nice and relaxing. I refuse to give more details than that so, use your imagination. I will say that the hour flew by and we will definitely be doing this again. After the tub we went to Starbucks for a Carmel Frappucino for Martha and I got a green tea latte. Good stuff! We picked up some dryer sheets before we made our way home and Martha had me put on a pot of chocolate covered cherry coffee (our own little concoction) and I baked a quick bread, cinnamon thingie to go with it.
And my new endeavor as a writer of reviews for adult films officially began when the mailman arrived with a big old box of porn.
Life doesn't get much better than that.
First, I had to get home and make some yummy baked fish with stir fry vegetables and rice for The Waltz Compound. It was quite yummy.
Then we were on our way to The Oasis, the local hot tub place. We hadn't been in years and I made sure to reserve the Japanese room. It's an outdoor tub with a Japanese theme. You know, little pagodas and oriental stuff strewn about to resemble a Japanese garden with a hot tub in the middle of it.
Before you're allowed in the hot tub you have to shower. You also have to do that after you get out of the tub. The shower seems designed to rip the flesh from your very bones. They have some wicked water pressure down at The Oasis.
The tub was nice and relaxing. I refuse to give more details than that so, use your imagination. I will say that the hour flew by and we will definitely be doing this again. After the tub we went to Starbucks for a Carmel Frappucino for Martha and I got a green tea latte. Good stuff! We picked up some dryer sheets before we made our way home and Martha had me put on a pot of chocolate covered cherry coffee (our own little concoction) and I baked a quick bread, cinnamon thingie to go with it.
And my new endeavor as a writer of reviews for adult films officially began when the mailman arrived with a big old box of porn.
Life doesn't get much better than that.
8/14/07
DAY FIFTY
A little chilly this morning on my bike ride to work. A nice change of pace compared to the other day when the humidity level was 92% at six o'clock in the morning. I love riding my bike through town in the morning. Most people are still sleeping, the weirdos haven't crawled out from God knows where. That's my biggest problem with riding my bike to work. The ride home. You see I have been cursed with a thing called a freak magnet. It works like this; If I am walking down the street and there are ten people coming towards me and one of them looks like Rorschach from The Watchmen carrying his The End Is Near sign, guess who is going to want to stop and talk to me? Yup! Every damned time. It doesn't matter age, gender, political affiliation, race, creed or color. When the freaks come out they are looking for yours truly. Martha always jokes that I should run for office. I would win in a landslide because all the freaks would vote for me. Something to consider.
Work was a Monday. I had one job that needed to get done and I spent a long time making the cursed folder work so I would have to fold 800 sheets of 11X17 paper by hand. Thankfully, I am much more stubborn than the folder so I got it to work. Other than that I cleaned up the shop a little to make it look good for the boss. I also shrink wrapped everything in her office that wasn't nailed down. It seemed like the right thing to do.
On the way home I stopped at the market for some chicken to grill along with this wonderful marinade from Mrs. Dash. It was a mesquite flavor with a hint of apple. Perfect for chicken. I also needed some charcoal starter and Martha was having a hectic day so I brought her the perfect gift. No, not flowers. Snickers Ice Cream bars. Needless to say the second half of my bike ride home I was pretty weighted down.
I had no overtime today so I got home, put the marinade on the chicken, sprayed out the trash can and disinfected it with bleach. The outside can. It was getting pretty damned gruesome. Then, while the coals were getting hot on the grill I mowed a section of the lawn. With all the rain we hadn't been getting I haven't had to mow in like two months. Now, the rain is back and so is my grass. Oh well, what ya gonna do? Then I put the chicken on to grill.
While that was going I made a new blog that connects with the Penguin Comics site I write for. My editor, Larry Stanley, is in bad shape and the site is showing the strain. He has been hospitalized and had emergency surgery for quite some time now. I can't write code to save my ass so I had our webmaster Ugo Milani link a blog for Penguin Comics to the site. This way I can keep the site updated properly while Larry is recovering. It's a patch at best, but it should work out. I also wrote a review for Cult Cuts about the 1935 serial The Lost City and one for Askew Reviews for the 1973 flick Anita. Very productive now that the overtime is gone. And the best thing is that since I got that raise I can work less and make more anyway. Very cool.
Then we had dinner. The marinated chicken with macaroni and cheese and stuffing. Yummy stuff. After that we watched Hell's Kitchen. It was the big finale and Rock won. I was glad because Bonnie did so not deserve to win.
It felt good getting out of work today at my normal time. Now I need to get going back to Judo class and all will be well with the world.
Work was a Monday. I had one job that needed to get done and I spent a long time making the cursed folder work so I would have to fold 800 sheets of 11X17 paper by hand. Thankfully, I am much more stubborn than the folder so I got it to work. Other than that I cleaned up the shop a little to make it look good for the boss. I also shrink wrapped everything in her office that wasn't nailed down. It seemed like the right thing to do.
On the way home I stopped at the market for some chicken to grill along with this wonderful marinade from Mrs. Dash. It was a mesquite flavor with a hint of apple. Perfect for chicken. I also needed some charcoal starter and Martha was having a hectic day so I brought her the perfect gift. No, not flowers. Snickers Ice Cream bars. Needless to say the second half of my bike ride home I was pretty weighted down.
I had no overtime today so I got home, put the marinade on the chicken, sprayed out the trash can and disinfected it with bleach. The outside can. It was getting pretty damned gruesome. Then, while the coals were getting hot on the grill I mowed a section of the lawn. With all the rain we hadn't been getting I haven't had to mow in like two months. Now, the rain is back and so is my grass. Oh well, what ya gonna do? Then I put the chicken on to grill.
While that was going I made a new blog that connects with the Penguin Comics site I write for. My editor, Larry Stanley, is in bad shape and the site is showing the strain. He has been hospitalized and had emergency surgery for quite some time now. I can't write code to save my ass so I had our webmaster Ugo Milani link a blog for Penguin Comics to the site. This way I can keep the site updated properly while Larry is recovering. It's a patch at best, but it should work out. I also wrote a review for Cult Cuts about the 1935 serial The Lost City and one for Askew Reviews for the 1973 flick Anita. Very productive now that the overtime is gone. And the best thing is that since I got that raise I can work less and make more anyway. Very cool.
Then we had dinner. The marinated chicken with macaroni and cheese and stuffing. Yummy stuff. After that we watched Hell's Kitchen. It was the big finale and Rock won. I was glad because Bonnie did so not deserve to win.
It felt good getting out of work today at my normal time. Now I need to get going back to Judo class and all will be well with the world.
8/13/07
DAY FORTY-NINE
It was drag my butt out of bed day. After all the fun of Saturday I was whooped, but I like going to church. I might moan about sleeping in, but I do like the fellowship at our church. Besides, I teach the Sunday school class for adults so, I had to be there.
It was funny, too because the lesson came from Malachi and it talked about tithing and being wholeheartedly in church. If it's a chore then going and acting like that is worse than not going at all. A good lesson that drove the point home to me. I get it, God. Thanks for the subtle reminder. Yeah, subtle like a hammer to the forehead.
After church we went home. People were overtired from yesterday and needed to relax. I wasn't tired and we had books that needed to be returned to the library downtown so, I used it as an excuse to ride my bike. I probably should have changed out of the psychedelic, silk, Grateful Dead shirt because it was pretty hot outside. After making it to the library I made a cooling off pit stop at The Michigan News Agency.
The Michigan News Agency is a little hole in the wall that has nothing but books and magazines. If you have a favorite magazine, they have it. They even carry Video Watchdog, which is so cool. I spent a little time in there soaking up the air conditioning before I made my way home.
Now, I mentioned that it was hot. By the time I made it to the Versluis ballfields, I was steaming. Thankfully, they have a soda machine so, one Coke Zero later I was ready to finish my ride.
The kids were loud and obnoxious while I was gone so, Martha informed me that it was time to go shopping. I suggested Walmart because I needed some new DVD-R's. While we were there we saw the coolest video camera for Delia for her birthday. It was only fifty bucks and you could upgrade it;s memory for only twenty bucks. Too cool. She has been working on a movie idea for quite some time so, I think this will be the perfect gift.
It was around this time that I realized we had to go over to Stew's house to pick up some paperwork and my cooler because we were in charge of the sodas for Charlie's party. So, we did that and headed home.
I made a pork fried rice, with brown rice, of course. It turned out good. The pork was leftovers from the pig roast so I made sure to get no fat with the stuff I took home. It turned out quite tasty.
Then I turned on the DVD player and made the kids watch the pilot episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century with Gil Gerard. I thought it held up pretty well for what it was, but the girls got bored quick.
Sunday, for being kind of a lazy day felt like it was as busy as Saturday. Oh well, what can I say? Tomorrow life goes back to normal. No overtime. Just plain old forty hours. But, with that raise I got it will pay off rather well. Yippee!
It was funny, too because the lesson came from Malachi and it talked about tithing and being wholeheartedly in church. If it's a chore then going and acting like that is worse than not going at all. A good lesson that drove the point home to me. I get it, God. Thanks for the subtle reminder. Yeah, subtle like a hammer to the forehead.
After church we went home. People were overtired from yesterday and needed to relax. I wasn't tired and we had books that needed to be returned to the library downtown so, I used it as an excuse to ride my bike. I probably should have changed out of the psychedelic, silk, Grateful Dead shirt because it was pretty hot outside. After making it to the library I made a cooling off pit stop at The Michigan News Agency.
The Michigan News Agency is a little hole in the wall that has nothing but books and magazines. If you have a favorite magazine, they have it. They even carry Video Watchdog, which is so cool. I spent a little time in there soaking up the air conditioning before I made my way home.
Now, I mentioned that it was hot. By the time I made it to the Versluis ballfields, I was steaming. Thankfully, they have a soda machine so, one Coke Zero later I was ready to finish my ride.
The kids were loud and obnoxious while I was gone so, Martha informed me that it was time to go shopping. I suggested Walmart because I needed some new DVD-R's. While we were there we saw the coolest video camera for Delia for her birthday. It was only fifty bucks and you could upgrade it;s memory for only twenty bucks. Too cool. She has been working on a movie idea for quite some time so, I think this will be the perfect gift.
It was around this time that I realized we had to go over to Stew's house to pick up some paperwork and my cooler because we were in charge of the sodas for Charlie's party. So, we did that and headed home.
I made a pork fried rice, with brown rice, of course. It turned out good. The pork was leftovers from the pig roast so I made sure to get no fat with the stuff I took home. It turned out quite tasty.
Then I turned on the DVD player and made the kids watch the pilot episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century with Gil Gerard. I thought it held up pretty well for what it was, but the girls got bored quick.
Sunday, for being kind of a lazy day felt like it was as busy as Saturday. Oh well, what can I say? Tomorrow life goes back to normal. No overtime. Just plain old forty hours. But, with that raise I got it will pay off rather well. Yippee!
DAY FORTY-EIGHT
Saturday! Wooooooooooooo! Got up late, like nine or something. When you're used to getting up at five AM everyday, nine is sleeping in. I made pancakes for Martha and the kiddies. I tried sprinkling some flax seed in my pancakes. Next time I think I need to fold it into the batter to make it work better. I got ahold of some Omega-3 capsules that are the size of a freaking space shuttle. Who do these people think I am, Linda Lovelace? (For everyone reading this that didn't get that reference, leave. Do it right now, you disgust me.)
We had a date to go out to Ramona Park for Stew's big guy, Charlie's birthday. Charlie is a big Star Wars fan and we got him an action figure set with Chewbacca and Han Solo in a Stormtrooper outfit. It even came with a comic book. I also finished Stew's Jess Franco set for him. I agonized over the cover and finally got it the way I want it. Hopefully, he will dig the awesomeness that is Jess Franco. Jess, you either get him or you don't.
The party was big fun and the kids had a blast. We left there to go to the pig roast out at Pastor John and Missy's horse farm in Hastings. We were there for a couple of hours and the kids' faces started getting pretty red even with sunscreen and other children were starting to grate my last nerve so, we headed home.
We packed a lot of stuff into a short time of day. It was fun, but exhausting at the same time. My Saturdays always seem to be so busy.
We had a date to go out to Ramona Park for Stew's big guy, Charlie's birthday. Charlie is a big Star Wars fan and we got him an action figure set with Chewbacca and Han Solo in a Stormtrooper outfit. It even came with a comic book. I also finished Stew's Jess Franco set for him. I agonized over the cover and finally got it the way I want it. Hopefully, he will dig the awesomeness that is Jess Franco. Jess, you either get him or you don't.
The party was big fun and the kids had a blast. We left there to go to the pig roast out at Pastor John and Missy's horse farm in Hastings. We were there for a couple of hours and the kids' faces started getting pretty red even with sunscreen and other children were starting to grate my last nerve so, we headed home.
We packed a lot of stuff into a short time of day. It was fun, but exhausting at the same time. My Saturdays always seem to be so busy.
8/11/07
DAY FORTY-SEVEN
Today is the day! I woke up early and hopped on the Internet to order...THE BAVA BOOK! They are supposedly to be shipping them on August 21st. I feel like a kid at Christmas. Work was a little hectic. I had to cut a bunch of stuff because Josh was being flustered with the cutter. It just takes practice, a lot of practice, but just practice. After that, it's a piece of cake. I had a big print job that is being sent to the building next to ours. That means I got to put together a few heavy boxes for the mail room guy who I swear avoids whatever work he can.
I was pleasantly surprised when Martha called me early on in the day. She had taken Dan to the dentist and they were done. I decided to take an early, long lunch. She and Dan picked me up at 10:00. We went to the store and I picked up some Omega-3 capsules. Earlier I had made my way to the Food Co-Op and picked up some ground flax seeds. There is no way I'm taking Crestor. I will just attack this thing by eating right and not being a pig. Plain and simple. We got Dan The Man a new Lego set for being brave at the dentist and then we were off to King Wok Buffet for Chinese food. It was yummy and I stayed away from the deep fried stuff and ate some really great salmon with my rice lo mein.
Then it was back to work and the day seemed to drag. I didn't want to be there past three o'clock, but I had to stay until five. Heck, I didn't want to come back after lunch to be honest. I wanted to spend time with my family.
Next week no more overtime. I'm actually planning a four day weekend for Delia's birthday. No idea what we're doing yet, but it should be fun.
I got home from work and we went out and bought more stuff. I got a replacement toothpick and tweezers for my Swiss Army knife. I thought the knife was lost, but Dandelion found it. I feel naked without that thing. Guess I must be part MacGyver or something. Yeah, right. A pretty small part.
We bought a bunch of other stuff and raced home because a new episode of Doctor Who was coming on and Martha thought it was on at it's normal time of Nine O'clock. They changed it to eight because the premier of the new Flash Gordon was on. Doctor Who was great as always. Flash Gordon...There was a lot of it I liked. You have to take it with the previous stuff. The comics, the old serials, the feature flick. And for a lot of it it felt right. They just got one thing horribly wrong. Ming. The actor, John Ralston, could do it. He has the right, angular face. He looks pretty damned sinister, but they left his hair blonde and kind of feathered or something. Ming need the skullcap. Ming needs the mustache. Ming needs to be pure evil. This Ming comes across as kind of a wuss. One bad thing and it's such an integral part of the whole concept that it could cripple the series as a whole. Other than that it was great fun.
A busy day and now the countdown until the Bava Book arrives. I will be sure to post pictures of it when I get it.
I was pleasantly surprised when Martha called me early on in the day. She had taken Dan to the dentist and they were done. I decided to take an early, long lunch. She and Dan picked me up at 10:00. We went to the store and I picked up some Omega-3 capsules. Earlier I had made my way to the Food Co-Op and picked up some ground flax seeds. There is no way I'm taking Crestor. I will just attack this thing by eating right and not being a pig. Plain and simple. We got Dan The Man a new Lego set for being brave at the dentist and then we were off to King Wok Buffet for Chinese food. It was yummy and I stayed away from the deep fried stuff and ate some really great salmon with my rice lo mein.
Then it was back to work and the day seemed to drag. I didn't want to be there past three o'clock, but I had to stay until five. Heck, I didn't want to come back after lunch to be honest. I wanted to spend time with my family.
Next week no more overtime. I'm actually planning a four day weekend for Delia's birthday. No idea what we're doing yet, but it should be fun.
I got home from work and we went out and bought more stuff. I got a replacement toothpick and tweezers for my Swiss Army knife. I thought the knife was lost, but Dandelion found it. I feel naked without that thing. Guess I must be part MacGyver or something. Yeah, right. A pretty small part.
We bought a bunch of other stuff and raced home because a new episode of Doctor Who was coming on and Martha thought it was on at it's normal time of Nine O'clock. They changed it to eight because the premier of the new Flash Gordon was on. Doctor Who was great as always. Flash Gordon...There was a lot of it I liked. You have to take it with the previous stuff. The comics, the old serials, the feature flick. And for a lot of it it felt right. They just got one thing horribly wrong. Ming. The actor, John Ralston, could do it. He has the right, angular face. He looks pretty damned sinister, but they left his hair blonde and kind of feathered or something. Ming need the skullcap. Ming needs the mustache. Ming needs to be pure evil. This Ming comes across as kind of a wuss. One bad thing and it's such an integral part of the whole concept that it could cripple the series as a whole. Other than that it was great fun.
A busy day and now the countdown until the Bava Book arrives. I will be sure to post pictures of it when I get it.
8/10/07
DAY FORTY-SIX
The day before payday. Boring at work. The boss is gone today so, I guess I'm in charge. Sort of like letting the lunatics run the asylum.
At hoe I made some rice to go with the left over chili I made two days ago. Leftover chili is the best. Tried brown rice and discovered that I still like it even though I haven't eaten it in a while. We watched Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero? I really like that show.
Tomorrow I get to order the Bava book. I am very excited.
At hoe I made some rice to go with the left over chili I made two days ago. Leftover chili is the best. Tried brown rice and discovered that I still like it even though I haven't eaten it in a while. We watched Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero? I really like that show.
Tomorrow I get to order the Bava book. I am very excited.
8/9/07
DAY FORTY-FIVE
Post forty-five of blog forty-five. Pretty cool, huh? My, but it is hot. Now, hot doesn't bother me all that much, but humidity...humidity sucks. We're currently at about 89 percent and it is horrid outside. Thank God I work in air conditioning.
At lunch Martha and I went and filled the car with gas and headed over to pay the electric bill so we wouldn't get that shut off. That's the thing that really sucks about the winter protection program. All winter long your bill is about 50 buck and then in the summer they jack it up to two hundred and eighty. Martha came up with a plan to pay about two hundred a month regardless of what time of year it is and then we'll be caught up in no time. Sounds pretty good to me. Two more days until I can order the Bava book! I am super excited. All that overtime the past few weeks have paid off. My check on Friday will be about three hundred more than the usual so, it won't bite into our regular spending at all.
I got approved to write reviews for another movie site. It's all adult films, but I can resell those at quite a lot so it will be like a second job. They let you review ten at a time and with about three paragraphs per flick and the fact that you can watch a lot of these in no time flat it should be quite a money maker. Fun, fun, fun.
After work I baked my butt off pedaling home. Then Martha and I went to the store and bought stuff we would need for the house for a couple of days. I made some crab dip with some of that imitation crab and some fat free cream cheese. Threw some celery and carrots on the table with a seedless watermelon and some black bean and salsa bread and called it dinner. After dinner I started looking at the malfunctioning air conditioner and removed the air filter. Sort of. It had disintegrated in some areas and I gently wiped it off so as not to grind it into the coils. Then it was back to the store for air conditioner filters. Thankfully, those are about eighty-eight cents apiece so it wasn't too bad. And they're the kind you cut to fit so I bought three of them and three of them equals about nine filters for our unit.
I tried sleeping upstairs while the rest of the family were downstairs in the new and improved air conditioner. Martha, little trooper that she is, even tried with me. Yeah, she abandoned ship pretty early and I wasn't too far behind her.
Man, it is too hot!
At lunch Martha and I went and filled the car with gas and headed over to pay the electric bill so we wouldn't get that shut off. That's the thing that really sucks about the winter protection program. All winter long your bill is about 50 buck and then in the summer they jack it up to two hundred and eighty. Martha came up with a plan to pay about two hundred a month regardless of what time of year it is and then we'll be caught up in no time. Sounds pretty good to me. Two more days until I can order the Bava book! I am super excited. All that overtime the past few weeks have paid off. My check on Friday will be about three hundred more than the usual so, it won't bite into our regular spending at all.
I got approved to write reviews for another movie site. It's all adult films, but I can resell those at quite a lot so it will be like a second job. They let you review ten at a time and with about three paragraphs per flick and the fact that you can watch a lot of these in no time flat it should be quite a money maker. Fun, fun, fun.
After work I baked my butt off pedaling home. Then Martha and I went to the store and bought stuff we would need for the house for a couple of days. I made some crab dip with some of that imitation crab and some fat free cream cheese. Threw some celery and carrots on the table with a seedless watermelon and some black bean and salsa bread and called it dinner. After dinner I started looking at the malfunctioning air conditioner and removed the air filter. Sort of. It had disintegrated in some areas and I gently wiped it off so as not to grind it into the coils. Then it was back to the store for air conditioner filters. Thankfully, those are about eighty-eight cents apiece so it wasn't too bad. And they're the kind you cut to fit so I bought three of them and three of them equals about nine filters for our unit.
I tried sleeping upstairs while the rest of the family were downstairs in the new and improved air conditioner. Martha, little trooper that she is, even tried with me. Yeah, she abandoned ship pretty early and I wasn't too far behind her.
Man, it is too hot!
8/8/07
DAY FORTY-FOUR
Sometimes I cheat on these and write a couple of them in a row. The day gets away from me and it's really my only resort. I will try to avoid this in the future, but no promises. The only promise I can make is that every day of my Forty-fifth year will be chronicled here.
Last night I made some magnificent turkey meatballs (gotta watch that cholesterol!) with a tomato sauce and pasta. I even picked up a loaf of french bread and toasted it with some olive oil and Mrs. Dash to go with it. So, I brought some of that for lunch today. I think the meatballs heat up better a second time.
This morning was rainy. Very rainy, but I was determined to ride my bike. My previous experience with rain was nothing compared to this. My fedora kept my head dry, but the rest of me was soaked and the rain on my glasses tended to distort street lights somewhat, but I made it to work in one piece. I'm seriously considering getting a light for my bike. The days will start to get shorter around here and I plan on riding unless there is snow that I am unable to navigate through.
The rain was almost bathwater warm because of the heat wave we've been having. I walked into the building at work and almost froze they had the air conditioner cranked up. A nice warm shower later and I was good to go. My poor, soaked shoes had to spend the day on the shrink wrapper and I walked around in my sock covered feet. I have a very cool boss and she thought it was pretty funny when she came in and saw my shoes on the shrink wrapper. I might need a second pair of shoes when the weather becomes too inclement for my footwear. Walking around on my flat feet for the day played havoc with my flat feet.
The ride home was dry and hot. I changed back into my shorts and Killdozer t shirt and they were still quite damp and nice and chilly from being in an air conditioned building for eleven hours.
It didn't take too long for them to heat up though and I think I saw steam come off of them on my ride home. In the morning I thought it was to have chili for dinner. I found a great deal on rolls of ground turkey at the store and it sounded good. After that hot twenty minute bike ride it didn't sound as good, but I was determined to make it anyway.
While it simmered I ran down to the local gas station and picked up some milk. Martha loves milk with her chili. Me, not so much, but she likes it and she has felt really crappy the past few days so, I thought she should get what makes her happy. I like it when she's happy.
The chili was great. The first two discs of Season Two of Doctor Who arrived and we watched all of those so, that took up a lot of time.
Dandelion got a new backpack today from summer school. She and Dan will be done with that tomorrow. I think they are looking forward to a few weeks off of school before the real thing starts over.
Last night I made some magnificent turkey meatballs (gotta watch that cholesterol!) with a tomato sauce and pasta. I even picked up a loaf of french bread and toasted it with some olive oil and Mrs. Dash to go with it. So, I brought some of that for lunch today. I think the meatballs heat up better a second time.
This morning was rainy. Very rainy, but I was determined to ride my bike. My previous experience with rain was nothing compared to this. My fedora kept my head dry, but the rest of me was soaked and the rain on my glasses tended to distort street lights somewhat, but I made it to work in one piece. I'm seriously considering getting a light for my bike. The days will start to get shorter around here and I plan on riding unless there is snow that I am unable to navigate through.
The rain was almost bathwater warm because of the heat wave we've been having. I walked into the building at work and almost froze they had the air conditioner cranked up. A nice warm shower later and I was good to go. My poor, soaked shoes had to spend the day on the shrink wrapper and I walked around in my sock covered feet. I have a very cool boss and she thought it was pretty funny when she came in and saw my shoes on the shrink wrapper. I might need a second pair of shoes when the weather becomes too inclement for my footwear. Walking around on my flat feet for the day played havoc with my flat feet.
The ride home was dry and hot. I changed back into my shorts and Killdozer t shirt and they were still quite damp and nice and chilly from being in an air conditioned building for eleven hours.
It didn't take too long for them to heat up though and I think I saw steam come off of them on my ride home. In the morning I thought it was to have chili for dinner. I found a great deal on rolls of ground turkey at the store and it sounded good. After that hot twenty minute bike ride it didn't sound as good, but I was determined to make it anyway.
While it simmered I ran down to the local gas station and picked up some milk. Martha loves milk with her chili. Me, not so much, but she likes it and she has felt really crappy the past few days so, I thought she should get what makes her happy. I like it when she's happy.
The chili was great. The first two discs of Season Two of Doctor Who arrived and we watched all of those so, that took up a lot of time.
Dandelion got a new backpack today from summer school. She and Dan will be done with that tomorrow. I think they are looking forward to a few weeks off of school before the real thing starts over.
DAY FORTY-THREE
Another glorious Monday! Actually, we're getting a new guy today at work so, one week of showing him the ropes and then no more overtime for a while. Unless we get swamped in which case I'll be here for the long haul. That's cool though. They pay pretty well around here and my raise is supposed to rear it's ugly head in the very near future.
Monday at home was Hell's Kitchen. I can't believe that they split the season finale into two weeks! They never did that before and it kind of sucks. Still hard to tell who's gonna win this one.
Another scorcher here in Michigan. August is always the humid month. Sometimes it passes into September and, October if it feels like it. It's always been like that so I'm afraid that the global warming junkies are gonna have to stuff it.
Monday at home was Hell's Kitchen. I can't believe that they split the season finale into two weeks! They never did that before and it kind of sucks. Still hard to tell who's gonna win this one.
Another scorcher here in Michigan. August is always the humid month. Sometimes it passes into September and, October if it feels like it. It's always been like that so I'm afraid that the global warming junkies are gonna have to stuff it.
8/6/07
DAY FORTY-TWO
Sunday and we were off and running to church. Martha hadn't been feeling well and I thought we might not make it, but we did. While were were at church, Dennis didn't feel well so I went and got him some Tylenol and a Jones Soda to cheer him up. Myu kids don't take much in the way of medication so it did a pretty good job on him.
Afterwards we went to B&G Store. It's a warehouse just south of Schoolcraft that sells lots of stuff cheap. It was another place where the kids hadn't been in a while and Martha and I thought we could find a new doorknob for our bedroom door and maybe a glass cover for the upstairs hall light. Dandelion had broken it about a week ago.
Dennis got this thing that looked like an antenna with a magnet on the end of it. Delia got a book light that I know she'll use for Game Boy more than books. Dandelion got a ceramic elephant bank that she can paint herself. She was very excited about that. And Dan got a little thing to put his money it, but we can't call it a coin purse because it has the word 'purse' in it.
On our way down Westnedge in Portage we noticed that traffic was backed up at the intersection of Milham and Westnedge. I looked and saw something lying in the intersection that looked a lot like a baby carriage. I immediately got sick. We were about five or six cars back from the intersection and it took a minute before I realized that it was actually a bicycle and there was someone lying in the road. Now, we have a car full of kids and the last thing they really need to see is a road pancake. I dialed 911 on my cell phone and they said that it was already called in multiple times and help was on the way.
Then I saw the figure on the ground trying to sit up and the knot of people surrounding him weren't doing much to dissuade him. I knew that this was wrong and took off out of the car telling them to keep him on the ground. Now, I do not do well around the sight of real blood. Fake movie blood, no problem. Real blood, problem. I had no idea what I was in for, but knew that if he got hit by a car it was good to lie still.
The kid must have been fifteen at the most. He had been hit so hard that his shoes were knocked off and his baseball cap was lying in the middle of the intersection. His face was a bloody mess and his arms were spattered with blood. I also noticed that he had lost control of his bladder as the ground was soaked. The guys that were there with him told me they weren't helping him up he was doing it on his own. The poor kid looked terrified and disoriented at the same time. The guys were trying to keep him down, but he was sitting up on his own. One of the guys there said the kid shot his bike out into the intersection while the light was green and hit an SUV full blast. A few seconds later the ambulance arrived and I left it in the hands of professionals. I also knew that the intersection was going to be swamped with all sorts of emergency vehicles in seconds and the best thing would be for us to get out of there so, I ran back to the car and we took off and got out of the way.
The accident made me think of something. You know ho the car commercials brag about how quiet their rides are? They show where you don't hear any outside noise at all? Maybe that isn't a good thing. How preoccupied do you have to be to not feel and/or hear a full grown teenager slam his BMX bike into the side of your car because, get ready for it, THE DAMNED CAR DIDN'T STOP!!!! Sure, it might not have legitimately been his fault, but My God! What kind of world do we live in where this would happen. I ride my bike back and forth to work five days a week through downtown Kalamazoo. Now, I'm paranoid and that helps, plus I ride my bike like a twelve year old. Through parking lots, down sidewalks, whatever it takes to avoid traffic because as big as I am I know that me versus a car the car will always win. The whole thing seemed very sad to me.
My little guy, Dan was very upset. He doesn't like it when people get hurt. He gets mad and cries. I explained that the kid wasn't dead and that seemed to help a little, but he was still pretty upset about it. I offered to pray with him about it and he wasn't interested. He's seven and has a huge temper so, it was just best to let him calm down.
We went home and I started in on making some lunch from leftover chicken and rice from the day before. Later that night I made salmon patties and broccoli and baked french fries for dinner. Dennis used his new magnet thin to grab a fork and eat french fries from across the table.
I called my buddy Stew and apologized for not going to the lake after church. It had rained and was still kind of nasty out so I didn't want to take the kids if they couldn't swim. While I was talking to Stew it seems that Dennis had been feeding the three dogs french fries. First Mickey got one, then Sweetie and then Cassidy. Dennis went to pet Mickey and Mickey mistook Dennis' fingers for french fries. Thankfully, he realized his mistake and didn't even bite Dennis, just put his hand in his mouth. It was actually pretty funny.
This might have been the wildest Sunday we've had in quite some time. I hope the kid on the bike turned out alright. He looked pretty messed up. I checked the Internet to see if the incident made the news, but there was nothing. Maybe I'll check tomorrow.
Afterwards we went to B&G Store. It's a warehouse just south of Schoolcraft that sells lots of stuff cheap. It was another place where the kids hadn't been in a while and Martha and I thought we could find a new doorknob for our bedroom door and maybe a glass cover for the upstairs hall light. Dandelion had broken it about a week ago.
Dennis got this thing that looked like an antenna with a magnet on the end of it. Delia got a book light that I know she'll use for Game Boy more than books. Dandelion got a ceramic elephant bank that she can paint herself. She was very excited about that. And Dan got a little thing to put his money it, but we can't call it a coin purse because it has the word 'purse' in it.
On our way down Westnedge in Portage we noticed that traffic was backed up at the intersection of Milham and Westnedge. I looked and saw something lying in the intersection that looked a lot like a baby carriage. I immediately got sick. We were about five or six cars back from the intersection and it took a minute before I realized that it was actually a bicycle and there was someone lying in the road. Now, we have a car full of kids and the last thing they really need to see is a road pancake. I dialed 911 on my cell phone and they said that it was already called in multiple times and help was on the way.
Then I saw the figure on the ground trying to sit up and the knot of people surrounding him weren't doing much to dissuade him. I knew that this was wrong and took off out of the car telling them to keep him on the ground. Now, I do not do well around the sight of real blood. Fake movie blood, no problem. Real blood, problem. I had no idea what I was in for, but knew that if he got hit by a car it was good to lie still.
The kid must have been fifteen at the most. He had been hit so hard that his shoes were knocked off and his baseball cap was lying in the middle of the intersection. His face was a bloody mess and his arms were spattered with blood. I also noticed that he had lost control of his bladder as the ground was soaked. The guys that were there with him told me they weren't helping him up he was doing it on his own. The poor kid looked terrified and disoriented at the same time. The guys were trying to keep him down, but he was sitting up on his own. One of the guys there said the kid shot his bike out into the intersection while the light was green and hit an SUV full blast. A few seconds later the ambulance arrived and I left it in the hands of professionals. I also knew that the intersection was going to be swamped with all sorts of emergency vehicles in seconds and the best thing would be for us to get out of there so, I ran back to the car and we took off and got out of the way.
The accident made me think of something. You know ho the car commercials brag about how quiet their rides are? They show where you don't hear any outside noise at all? Maybe that isn't a good thing. How preoccupied do you have to be to not feel and/or hear a full grown teenager slam his BMX bike into the side of your car because, get ready for it, THE DAMNED CAR DIDN'T STOP!!!! Sure, it might not have legitimately been his fault, but My God! What kind of world do we live in where this would happen. I ride my bike back and forth to work five days a week through downtown Kalamazoo. Now, I'm paranoid and that helps, plus I ride my bike like a twelve year old. Through parking lots, down sidewalks, whatever it takes to avoid traffic because as big as I am I know that me versus a car the car will always win. The whole thing seemed very sad to me.
My little guy, Dan was very upset. He doesn't like it when people get hurt. He gets mad and cries. I explained that the kid wasn't dead and that seemed to help a little, but he was still pretty upset about it. I offered to pray with him about it and he wasn't interested. He's seven and has a huge temper so, it was just best to let him calm down.
We went home and I started in on making some lunch from leftover chicken and rice from the day before. Later that night I made salmon patties and broccoli and baked french fries for dinner. Dennis used his new magnet thin to grab a fork and eat french fries from across the table.
I called my buddy Stew and apologized for not going to the lake after church. It had rained and was still kind of nasty out so I didn't want to take the kids if they couldn't swim. While I was talking to Stew it seems that Dennis had been feeding the three dogs french fries. First Mickey got one, then Sweetie and then Cassidy. Dennis went to pet Mickey and Mickey mistook Dennis' fingers for french fries. Thankfully, he realized his mistake and didn't even bite Dennis, just put his hand in his mouth. It was actually pretty funny.
This might have been the wildest Sunday we've had in quite some time. I hope the kid on the bike turned out alright. He looked pretty messed up. I checked the Internet to see if the incident made the news, but there was nothing. Maybe I'll check tomorrow.
DAY FORTY-ONE
Saturday and we weren't taking the kids to Judo. They were doing testing and we don't think they were ready for it so, there was no real reason for them to go. Martha thought we should take a trip out to the flea market in Paw Paw and I thought that would be super. The kids hadn't been since they were little so it would be an adventure for them.
It was hot and dusty and there was tons of stuff to look at. I spotted a bike for Dennis, but we wanted to keep looking in case we got a better deal. Long story short. we didn't find a better deal and the bike was sold by the time we got back to that stall.
Dan bought a pair of wooden cobras, Dandelion got a new airsoft gun with a laser sight and Dennis thought they were pretty cool so he got one too. Delia, as usual, wanted nothing. She was saving her cash for something good. I saw this four pack of superheroes that were knock offs of Marvel and DC characters in the same package. I almost got them, but forgot. I figured we would get out there again this year so why bother?
After the flea market we went to this bike repair shop off of Oakland Drive that I had remembered seeing earlier. The guy was cool. Sort of a cross between a surfer and Gary Busey. He had some cool bikes, but they were out of our price range. He even let Dennis ride a bike worth eleven hundred dollars! I didn't know bikes got that expensive!
We made a couple more stops before heading home, but the kids got cranky so we went back to The Waltz Compound and I made marinated chicken thighs with rice and broccoli. I found this really great garlic herb with orange marinade that Mrs. Dash makes. Good stuff. It made the whole house smell good.
Even though we hadn't done any of our usual Saturday stuff it was still a pretty busy day.
It was hot and dusty and there was tons of stuff to look at. I spotted a bike for Dennis, but we wanted to keep looking in case we got a better deal. Long story short. we didn't find a better deal and the bike was sold by the time we got back to that stall.
Dan bought a pair of wooden cobras, Dandelion got a new airsoft gun with a laser sight and Dennis thought they were pretty cool so he got one too. Delia, as usual, wanted nothing. She was saving her cash for something good. I saw this four pack of superheroes that were knock offs of Marvel and DC characters in the same package. I almost got them, but forgot. I figured we would get out there again this year so why bother?
After the flea market we went to this bike repair shop off of Oakland Drive that I had remembered seeing earlier. The guy was cool. Sort of a cross between a surfer and Gary Busey. He had some cool bikes, but they were out of our price range. He even let Dennis ride a bike worth eleven hundred dollars! I didn't know bikes got that expensive!
We made a couple more stops before heading home, but the kids got cranky so we went back to The Waltz Compound and I made marinated chicken thighs with rice and broccoli. I found this really great garlic herb with orange marinade that Mrs. Dash makes. Good stuff. It made the whole house smell good.
Even though we hadn't done any of our usual Saturday stuff it was still a pretty busy day.
DAY FORTY
Friday! Thank God! After all this overtime it will be sweet to get that Bava book by Tim Lucas, but, man! Do I hate working overtime. There is supposed to be a new guy starting and I will show him the ropes next week so, one more week of overtime unless we get slammed.
I got a call on Wednesday that I needed to call my doctor back. Seems my cholesterol is still bad. I'm not too surprised. Sure, I've been taking meds for it, but I haven't done anything to change my diet. The wanted to put me on Crestor, but I read up on that and I think I'll go with the diet thing and add a little more exercise to the program instead. I've been slouching on my Qigong so I'll be sure to add that in the morning from now on. I went online and discovered that while the oatmeal I start my day with is good I need to up the ante with some flaxseed, extra cinnamon, omega 3 fatty acids and read every label of everything I eat. This will have the side effect of dropping some pounds which I wanted to do anyway, so it will be cool.
Got home and made baked fish with leftover goulash and broccoli. We have been eating in the living room of late, but I think it's time to use our dining room table in the way that it was intended. Kids will hate it for a while, but oh well.
Caught the second half of the Doctor Who episode that was on SciFi and it was pretty cool. They do a good job with sticking to all the past Doctor Who history while making it pretty exciting stuff. Starting next week it should be even better because the new Flash Gordon series starts and it will be on right after Doctor Who. Man, I hope they don't screw it up.
The cholesterol thing bothered me, but I can't let it keep doing that. Change the diet and keep on the meds I have been taking and it should be cool.
I got a call on Wednesday that I needed to call my doctor back. Seems my cholesterol is still bad. I'm not too surprised. Sure, I've been taking meds for it, but I haven't done anything to change my diet. The wanted to put me on Crestor, but I read up on that and I think I'll go with the diet thing and add a little more exercise to the program instead. I've been slouching on my Qigong so I'll be sure to add that in the morning from now on. I went online and discovered that while the oatmeal I start my day with is good I need to up the ante with some flaxseed, extra cinnamon, omega 3 fatty acids and read every label of everything I eat. This will have the side effect of dropping some pounds which I wanted to do anyway, so it will be cool.
Got home and made baked fish with leftover goulash and broccoli. We have been eating in the living room of late, but I think it's time to use our dining room table in the way that it was intended. Kids will hate it for a while, but oh well.
Caught the second half of the Doctor Who episode that was on SciFi and it was pretty cool. They do a good job with sticking to all the past Doctor Who history while making it pretty exciting stuff. Starting next week it should be even better because the new Flash Gordon series starts and it will be on right after Doctor Who. Man, I hope they don't screw it up.
The cholesterol thing bothered me, but I can't let it keep doing that. Change the diet and keep on the meds I have been taking and it should be cool.
8/3/07
DAY THIRTY-NINE
Today was the boss' birthday so we made her a card at work and then later snuck off to Meijer and got her a cake. I also found out that I'm being promoted to team lead just no idea what that will entail salary wise, but I hope it's good. we will have to see. Seems to be taking a while, but that's life in the corporate world.
When I got home we went and bought groceries at Sav A Lot. And then we came home and I made goulash and the kids had some crappy, little frozen dinners that they loved, but I thought they were lame. After that Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero was on so we watched that and then made our way to bed.
Another uneventful day in a series of many.
Oh yeah, it was hot today. Very hot.
When I got home we went and bought groceries at Sav A Lot. And then we came home and I made goulash and the kids had some crappy, little frozen dinners that they loved, but I thought they were lame. After that Stan Lee's Who Wants To Be A Superhero was on so we watched that and then made our way to bed.
Another uneventful day in a series of many.
Oh yeah, it was hot today. Very hot.
8/2/07
DAY THIRTY-EIGHT
So, none of the machines at work felt like working today. The 6100 and the Nuvera both went down so it was a pretty slow day for us. The guy came to fix it and that made it better for the afternoon.
I got home and it was pretty hot. Were supposed to get a couple weeks of heat with no rain and that is going to suck. Thankfully, it does cool off at night so that's pretty cool.
I did another day of coming home, eating a sandwich and we watched all the extras on the 300 disc. Then we watched the flick.
I got bored with that so I went outside and discovered that the ground nest of bees were unaffected by the half gallon of bleach that I poured down there a few days ago. Delia and I drowned them out with about fifteen minutes of the garden hose shoved down the hole. Hopefully, that will do the trick because Dandelion is allergic to bee stings.
Kind of a boring, uneventful day.
I got home and it was pretty hot. Were supposed to get a couple weeks of heat with no rain and that is going to suck. Thankfully, it does cool off at night so that's pretty cool.
I did another day of coming home, eating a sandwich and we watched all the extras on the 300 disc. Then we watched the flick.
I got bored with that so I went outside and discovered that the ground nest of bees were unaffected by the half gallon of bleach that I poured down there a few days ago. Delia and I drowned them out with about fifteen minutes of the garden hose shoved down the hole. Hopefully, that will do the trick because Dandelion is allergic to bee stings.
Kind of a boring, uneventful day.
8/1/07
DAY THIRTY-SEVEN
Things are a little less hectic at work, which is a good thing. Most of the jobs that needed to be done were finished by three this afternoon. My boss told me I would know more about the promotion and what that will entail as far as cash goes. I hope it will be a lot, but I know better than to get my hopes up.
Went home and it was so hot I actually changed back into my shorts and t shirt for the ride home. I was still dripping sweat by the time I got home. I had a sandwich and a soda and crashed for a little while. The kids all had dentist appointments today and all went well. The only one going back is Dan who needs some sealant put on his teeth. Martha woke me up and we jetted to Walmart to get the new releases of 300 and HOT FUZZ. we also picked up stuff to make salads since it was too hot to cook anything.
We went home and made monster salads for everyone except for picky eater, Dandelion. By then it was late enough that we fed the dogs, let them out and retired to bed. Martha and I watched all the extras on the HOT FUZZ DVD. Those guys are hilarious.
Went home and it was so hot I actually changed back into my shorts and t shirt for the ride home. I was still dripping sweat by the time I got home. I had a sandwich and a soda and crashed for a little while. The kids all had dentist appointments today and all went well. The only one going back is Dan who needs some sealant put on his teeth. Martha woke me up and we jetted to Walmart to get the new releases of 300 and HOT FUZZ. we also picked up stuff to make salads since it was too hot to cook anything.
We went home and made monster salads for everyone except for picky eater, Dandelion. By then it was late enough that we fed the dogs, let them out and retired to bed. Martha and I watched all the extras on the HOT FUZZ DVD. Those guys are hilarious.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
