So, barely into recording this year and I missed Friday completely. My mistake. It was work and payday and things on Amazon selling okay and coming home and getting stuff for me and Dan's Birthday party on Saturday.
I was whooped.
Saturday rolled around and we got up and took the kids to first session of Judo at Southside. Dennis had a bruise on his foot, but still participated. What a trooper, that one is. Martha and I discussed the kids doing different sessions on Saturdays instead of lumping them all together. After first session we got out of there because we had bunches of stuff to do before the party started at 3:00. We got a table and some chairs from church, went and bought Dan a couple of more things. He got a set of Godzilla toys and a Heroscape set with LavaMen in it. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.
Then the people started to arrive.
Stew and Amy brought their kids, Simon, Charlie and Addison. Joe from the Dojo came. Chris and Heather showed up. Barb brought Jacob. Art brought Nate and Sarah along. And finally my oldest son, Seann came. Seann was full of surprised with four piercings and a tattoo! That came out of left field. Everyone in my family, my mom and dad and my sister and brothers all have tattoos. I'm actually the odd one. No ink no piercings. Sure, there's my ear piercing, but I haven't had anything in there for so long I know it has closed shut. Just don't see the need for it I guess.
Dan got some cool toys and I got an Activision controller from Chris and Heather that plays old school Atari games right on your television. Dan and I also got gift certificates from Joe which was cool because they're from the local comic shop! Very nice. I also got the coolest t-shirt from my buddy Stew with Killdozer on it. Dan got a Cthulu t-shirt from him as well. Probably the nicest thing I got was from my ten year old, Delia. She made me a card in the shape of Captain America's shield and wrote some very nice things on it. She is always telling me to not be grumpy so I think I'll make sure to do that from now on.
It was a busy day and felt much longer than four hours that people were here. I don't mean that in a bad way. It was good to have so many friends over and I got to use my new grill and make dogs and brats. I think all the kids had a good time. They were a pretty tired when they left and a couple of the ones that weren't ours didn't want to leave so, that makes it a success.
And to cap it off, my dad called to wish me a happy birthday late. Seems Donna, my step mom, got in a car wreck down in Florida. While she's banged up she will be fine. He felt bad that he missed our birthdays and apologized. I told him not to sweat it and that it was nice that he called.
All in all a very nice and tiring day.
One last funny thing; When I was naming this blog it was my intention to call it douglasalanwaltz.blogspot.com. Seemed appropriate what with that being my name and all. Yeah, and sometimes I type to fast so it actually is; douglaslanawaltz.blogspot.com. I was going to change it, but it seemed weird and mildly appropriate that I would screw up my blog IP address.
Historical Tidbit of the day - got some terrorists cooling their heels over in the UK. Seems they glued massive amounts of nails to propane and gasoline tanks and were going to blow them up. Ouch! That would make for a nasty anti personnel bomb.
6/30/07
6/28/07
DAY FOUR
We had a much cooler day today. A cold front came in and dropped the temperature by almost fifteen degrees. Work was work. I discovered that my boss is going to have a conference call tomorrow to discuss my raise. On July 1st of this year I will have been a Pitney Bowes employee for one year. It sure doesn't feel like a year. I'm looking forward to the raise because once I get that I can figure out how much cash to allot to the stock purchasing program we have at work. Boring stuff, but important if I don't want to eat cat food when I retire.
One of my friends at church, Sam Hammond came up with the perfect retirement concept. You're children have to give you one percent of their income once they hit the age of eighteen. Not a lot with one kid, but pretty good for people like myself who has five children. I would be in fat city with that kind of income.
Tomorrow is payday and I'm pretty sure it's spent. We have been off our budget for quite some time and we plan on getting back their soon, probably July. The recent plethora of sales I'm having on Amazon.com will help out considerably.
I mowed more of the lawn today in anticipation of the party for Dan and myself on Saturday. And it looks like we'll be going to the drive-in on Friday. The double feature is Ratatouille by Pixar and 1408 with John Cusack based on a Stephen King story. One flick for the kiddies and then one for the adults when the kids fall asleep. Perfection.
Plus The Sunset Drive-In in Hartford has the best concession stand in existence. A full grill with burgers, dogs, you name it and they have it. They even have chili cheese fries.
Doesn't get much better than that.
I had an unplanned nap earlier today so I know that I will be awake too late this evening. Just means I'll need another nap tomorrow for the drive-in. Could be worse, I guess.
Historical tidbit for the day - Seems George W. Bush is fighting with congress about some documentaion concerning the firing of some U.S. attorneys. The man is a joke and has always had me worried from day one. His reign is almost over, though.
One of my friends at church, Sam Hammond came up with the perfect retirement concept. You're children have to give you one percent of their income once they hit the age of eighteen. Not a lot with one kid, but pretty good for people like myself who has five children. I would be in fat city with that kind of income.
Tomorrow is payday and I'm pretty sure it's spent. We have been off our budget for quite some time and we plan on getting back their soon, probably July. The recent plethora of sales I'm having on Amazon.com will help out considerably.
I mowed more of the lawn today in anticipation of the party for Dan and myself on Saturday. And it looks like we'll be going to the drive-in on Friday. The double feature is Ratatouille by Pixar and 1408 with John Cusack based on a Stephen King story. One flick for the kiddies and then one for the adults when the kids fall asleep. Perfection.
Plus The Sunset Drive-In in Hartford has the best concession stand in existence. A full grill with burgers, dogs, you name it and they have it. They even have chili cheese fries.
Doesn't get much better than that.
I had an unplanned nap earlier today so I know that I will be awake too late this evening. Just means I'll need another nap tomorrow for the drive-in. Could be worse, I guess.
Historical tidbit for the day - Seems George W. Bush is fighting with congress about some documentaion concerning the firing of some U.S. attorneys. The man is a joke and has always had me worried from day one. His reign is almost over, though.
6/27/07
DAY 3
Another day at Pitney Bowes/Pfizer in the print shop. I had a print job that actually took most of they day so you just keep feeding the machine paper and play on the internet a lot. Good work if you can find it. Another steamy day here in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but there is relief on the horizon. We had a storm front come in, but just got a little rain. It helped bring down the temperature, which is good. I was trying my hand at this whole bit torrent thing and have decided against it. The burning to DVD process is annoying the heck out of me so, I have my subscription to NetFlix and I just buy other movies that I want. It works for me.
I got fifty buck from my mother for my birthday which was cool. I went to the bank and cashed the check and spent some of the money on pizza and soda for the whole family. It was too hot to cook and nothing at home sounded good. Made a wise investment at Fanfare Comics and Cards. I bought a used DVD of the 80's movie, Flash Gordon for 4.99 and then sold it on Amazon for thirty bucks. Not a bad little profit if you ask me.
Last night I put a bunch of stuff on Amazon.com and was amazed at the value of some of it. I'm trying to get the cash together to buy a video camera so that we can shoot the movie that the whole family is involved in. The title, thanks to Dan The Man, is ATTACK OF THE KILLER CYBORGS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Pretty snappy title, if I do say so myself. Now, we just need to get it off the ground. If the summer stays this balmy we will be shooting in the fall.
I got to ride my bike to the gas station for some ice and it just started to rain. With the incredibly hot day it felt good tooling around on my bike with rain coming down. The lightning worried me a little bit, but I managed to avoid electrocution.
Historical Tidbit For The Day - The sheriff's department in Panama City, Florida discovered a new way to locate and identify illegal immigrants. They pull up to construction sites and just wait to see who runs. Sounds kind of mean, but when the word gets out they'll figure a way around this too.
I got fifty buck from my mother for my birthday which was cool. I went to the bank and cashed the check and spent some of the money on pizza and soda for the whole family. It was too hot to cook and nothing at home sounded good. Made a wise investment at Fanfare Comics and Cards. I bought a used DVD of the 80's movie, Flash Gordon for 4.99 and then sold it on Amazon for thirty bucks. Not a bad little profit if you ask me.
Last night I put a bunch of stuff on Amazon.com and was amazed at the value of some of it. I'm trying to get the cash together to buy a video camera so that we can shoot the movie that the whole family is involved in. The title, thanks to Dan The Man, is ATTACK OF THE KILLER CYBORGS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Pretty snappy title, if I do say so myself. Now, we just need to get it off the ground. If the summer stays this balmy we will be shooting in the fall.
I got to ride my bike to the gas station for some ice and it just started to rain. With the incredibly hot day it felt good tooling around on my bike with rain coming down. The lightning worried me a little bit, but I managed to avoid electrocution.
Historical Tidbit For The Day - The sheriff's department in Panama City, Florida discovered a new way to locate and identify illegal immigrants. They pull up to construction sites and just wait to see who runs. Sounds kind of mean, but when the word gets out they'll figure a way around this too.
6/26/07
DAY 2
A few weeks ago I decided to get a bicycle. Nothing fancy, an eighty five dollar special from Wal-Mart. No hand brakes, no gears, just a good, sturdy cruising bike. I ride it to work and back everyday of the week, excluding weekends. I'm fortunate that where I work in downtown Kalamazoo has showers so I can clean up before reporting to duty at the print shop.
I think that I like the rides into work better than the ones home. On the way to work it's just before 6AM. The air is nice and cool and there isn't a lot of traffic. Not a lot of people either. I take the same route everyday and I pass by a warehouse/factory called Root Spring Scraper Co. I have no idea what they do there, but they have five huge bay doors open every morning. The place is filled with a wide variety of machinery and there is a little group of guys in chairs just sitting outside, chatting and relaxing before the day of work begins. They always give me the nod as I pass.
Lately, we have been cursed with the Michigan Mugginess. Being surrounded by water on three sides can make for a pretty soggy state, especially here in Southwest Michigan. We're one step removed from swampland as it is. Kalamazoo is so swampy that we were known for growing celery in the good old days. Seems you need a lot of swamp for that kind of thing. At least that's what I hear.
Anyway, we have one more hot day tomorrow and then the undependable weather people will change their forecasts. I hope it's nice on Saturday, though. My youngest son, Dan and I have a party planned for our respective birthdays. I even made up some invitation flyers at work yesterday. I did a riff on the poster for the movie 300. They turned out pretty good, in my opinion, of course.
Everyone in the house is pretty sluggish this evening. My buddy, Stew, showed me the ropes of this whole bittorrent downloading. I think I have it, but I'm waiting to see what happens when I try to burn the files to a disc. So far I'm just downloading some Eurotrash flicks. I leave the mainstream stuff up to Stew. Good pirate that Stew.
I wrote this one a little earlier than planned, but by the time it gets late enough to encompass the entire day I will have melted away from the humidity. I never mind the heat. The heat warms my bones and feels pretty good. It's the humidity that really messes with me.
Today in History: This is one of those horrible news things that make me sad when I hear them. It seems that Chris Benoit, a wrestler for WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) murdered his wife and their 7 year old son and then hung himself in his weight room. While they have not blamed anabolic steroids, the well known side effect known as 'Roid Rage seems to be what happened in this case. What a waste! And why can't these suicides just take themselves? Why do they think they need to take others with them. We are not the masters of other people's destinies no matter what we think. If you want to be self destructive, that's your choice. Just leave others out of it. What a waste!
I think that I like the rides into work better than the ones home. On the way to work it's just before 6AM. The air is nice and cool and there isn't a lot of traffic. Not a lot of people either. I take the same route everyday and I pass by a warehouse/factory called Root Spring Scraper Co. I have no idea what they do there, but they have five huge bay doors open every morning. The place is filled with a wide variety of machinery and there is a little group of guys in chairs just sitting outside, chatting and relaxing before the day of work begins. They always give me the nod as I pass.
Lately, we have been cursed with the Michigan Mugginess. Being surrounded by water on three sides can make for a pretty soggy state, especially here in Southwest Michigan. We're one step removed from swampland as it is. Kalamazoo is so swampy that we were known for growing celery in the good old days. Seems you need a lot of swamp for that kind of thing. At least that's what I hear.
Anyway, we have one more hot day tomorrow and then the undependable weather people will change their forecasts. I hope it's nice on Saturday, though. My youngest son, Dan and I have a party planned for our respective birthdays. I even made up some invitation flyers at work yesterday. I did a riff on the poster for the movie 300. They turned out pretty good, in my opinion, of course.
Everyone in the house is pretty sluggish this evening. My buddy, Stew, showed me the ropes of this whole bittorrent downloading. I think I have it, but I'm waiting to see what happens when I try to burn the files to a disc. So far I'm just downloading some Eurotrash flicks. I leave the mainstream stuff up to Stew. Good pirate that Stew.
I wrote this one a little earlier than planned, but by the time it gets late enough to encompass the entire day I will have melted away from the humidity. I never mind the heat. The heat warms my bones and feels pretty good. It's the humidity that really messes with me.
Today in History: This is one of those horrible news things that make me sad when I hear them. It seems that Chris Benoit, a wrestler for WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) murdered his wife and their 7 year old son and then hung himself in his weight room. While they have not blamed anabolic steroids, the well known side effect known as 'Roid Rage seems to be what happened in this case. What a waste! And why can't these suicides just take themselves? Why do they think they need to take others with them. We are not the masters of other people's destinies no matter what we think. If you want to be self destructive, that's your choice. Just leave others out of it. What a waste!
6/25/07
Day One
Today is the forty fifth anniversary of my birth. My youngest son, Dan and I have Birthdays that are five days apart so we thought we would try something different this year and have one big party on the 30th. I still got spoiled today with junk food, a new shirt and an incredible new hat that I really like. I did go to work anyway just because it was Monday and if the crap is going to hit the fan at Print Services at Pfizer, Monday is the day for that to happen. Fortunately, today wasn't one of those days. After work I went with my four children Dennis, Delia, Dandelion (that's right, her name is Dandelion and Dan, to their Monday Judo class. They have been doing much better and even Dan is starting to do better in class and not blow his top so frequently. After Judo we went to Meijer and got the aforementioned junk food and new clothes for me. Martha suggested a new movie, but Meijer has such a pathetic selection that I decided for new duds instead.
A quiet beginning to a new year for me. We will have to see how the rest of the time plays out for me.
Historical Fact for the day: A spoiled rotten heiress named Paris Hilton is still in jail as I write this. While being incredibly rich you can't dodge the law forever.
A quiet beginning to a new year for me. We will have to see how the rest of the time plays out for me.
Historical Fact for the day: A spoiled rotten heiress named Paris Hilton is still in jail as I write this. While being incredibly rich you can't dodge the law forever.
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