12-02-08

So, been awhile since I have been around. What has happened? I failed at the NaNoWriMo challenge last month, but have a huge chunk of book done. I'm going to let a few people read the finished chunk and see if it's worth following to it's end or not.
Thanksgiving was fabulous. The bird was delicious, Seann brought his girlfriend, Lindsay over and she brought her eight month old daughter, Katara with her. Katara was fascinated with my beard and I lost a few hairs, but I've had kids tig on that thing for so long I'm pretty sure that the nerve endings are shot.
Snow has finally come to Michigan and so the battle with the driveway begins. Bring it on driveway, I can do it.
Yesterday, Martha and I went and got an advance on our taxes from H&R Block to pay for Christmas. Then we went and did waaaay too much shopping. Still plenty of cash and we're trying to find the perfect guitar for Dennis. And we need a drum stool for Delia. Fun, fun, fun.
In the news is Stew and I are going to start our own web comic. I have some ideas that I have been fleshing out at stripgenrator.com and with Stew's art and our macabre senses of humor it should be a lot of fun.
That's it for now. I'll check in again in the near future as it strikes my fancy. Of course then I'll need a bandage because nothing bleeds worse than a struck fancy.
Sheesh!
I gotta go.

11-10-08

So, another weekend has passed. And what a weekend. Martha went to the parade downtown with Dan and I did the parade with Dandelion. We were actually in the parade. She was with the scouts and I was with the Magnet Schools. It seemed to take forever, but it was a lot of fun. After the parade we walked the downtown mall where they had free hot cocoa and soup. I opted for the chili and since Martha brought Sweetie along, I fed her chili to keep her warm. Yeah, it's been nice and balmy for a while and the minute there's an organized event, WHAM! it's cold.
Before the parade we stopped at a coffee shop that I like called The Copy Cup. Seems the owners changed hands recently and I think the prices did too. I got two hot chocolates for the kids and a couple of muffins, a scone and a large coffee. Should that really run 15 bucks? I didn't think so either. Oh well, just know better for next time.
Did I mention that we went to Stew and Amy's new digs? No, well we did and they are mucha cool. The kids seem to like it. I grabbed a six of Stroh's and Stew made some amazing eats.
After the parade we went home, grabbed Seann and Dennis and went to the third annual Metalfest. It was supposed to start at three and have thirteen bands. It had 10 bands and didn't get started until five.
We stayed for five of the bands. I thought it sucked that the really good, high energy bands like Cellsepic and Reinventing Yesterday got stuck in the little room while incredibly sucky bands like Suburban Funeral and Medieval got the big ballroom. At least Amongst Enemies got to use the big room, but their set was so short!
Of the night, Reinventing Yesterday was the best of the bunch. We didn't stay for the rest because we were all tired and starving. We could have gone back, but after feasting on Taco Bell, it seemed like a waste. Especially if there were more sucky bands to endure. Stew showed up for the fun as well and that was uber cool.
Sunday, I made ham and cheese omelets for Sunday School and then we went home and deep cleaned the living room. It was a horrid mess and I am determined to never let that happen again. Dan and I got to hang out while everyone else went to Youth Group. I watched Meat Market and a little of Actress Apocalyspe. Then Dan and I played some Guitar Hero. There was this Slayer song that I could not do and The Cliffs OF Dover song was broken so we're kind of stuck in a certain place until I get better at that damned Slayer song.
I did manage to get the rest of my NaNoWriMo transcribed and set up. Now I need to crank out some serious word count this week to stay on target. Sheesh!
Busy weekend.

11/05/08

Well the smoke has cleared and Obama is president. I did not vote for him so that absolves me of all blame for the next four years.
In other news I got a videograbber so I can edit footage from my camcorder. Yeah, now I need a special cord that no one mentioned. Grrrrr. I'll be getting that soon.
This weekend is MetalFest and Martha and I are taking Dennis and Seann. It will be great fun. I'll be deaf for church, but it will be great fun nonetheless. My biggest issue is that I can't take a dump in that bathroom so I'll be holding it for quite a while. I'll be sure to go before we leave the house. It should be great fun.
Other than that it has been work, home, work, home. Add, rinse, repeat.
Sheesh!

11/03/08

Yeah, I know I said I wouldn't be around much, but I'm actually ahead of the game in the Novel Writing business so, here I am.
Friday night we had many, many kids show up for the youth group's Halloween party. We took the kids trick or treating and they made out like bandits. Then there was stacks of pizza and then I got a ride home with Sam and took the littles home. It was a fun day and I was exhausted.
Saturday we went to get the dryer and now we need a different plug for the wall. Luckily, Hammer aid he would do that for us this week so, that's a good thing. The meeting with the other NaNoWriMo writers was fun. I don't have laptop, but I managed to get ten pages done in longhand. I'm pretty sure that that is over 1667 words for that day and Sunday I managed 1900 words so, good start as long as I can keep up the steam.
So, tomorrow is the election. I think it's funny how people believe that a single person is going to affect change the second he gets into office. Kind of depends on congress, doesn't it? That whole, checks and balances thing that is in place to keep the loonies in control, right? Anyway, tomorrow is the election and this planet of ours will keep spinning regardless. I wish people weren't so hung up on this stuff.
I gotta go!

10/30/08

Kind of busy couple of days. Yesterday we had to take Dan The Man's popcorn in. He sold over three hundred bucks so I was proud of him for that. He gets to get that really cool multi tool he wanted as a prize so, it's a win win situation. After that Martha, Delia and I went to see her perform in a choir concert. It was very much fun and the music was great. The kids did a great job. I forgot to charge the batteries on the camera so I sketched a cartoon of her singing and dated it. It almost counts.
Today I went on my merry way to work and around ten I called MArtha to ask her a question. She wanted me to come home to snuggle.
Not being an idiot, I took an early luch. Yeah for us! Then back to work to get a submission done. Then I came home and we decided to go to Meijer, get some stuff we needed, write the checks over and wing our way to the laundromat. Just got back from that. We got a lot done in a short period of time. It felt good getting that much stuff done. Dennis has been a cleaning whirlwind because his friend Dakota is coming over tomorrow.
Now for an announcement;
I will be attempting the NANoWriMo again this year. What that means is National Novel Writing Month. You spend thirty days trying to get to 50,000 words. It only comes to 1667 a day. I have my idea and should be able to run with it starting Saturday. Because of that I will not be posting her for the next month. I will be back in December to let everyone know how it went. This has been an excellent day.

10/27/08

Kind of a weird, yet fun filled weekend. First up, lots of snuggling with Martha. I mean lots of snuggling. This is always a good thing for any day, but on the weekend it makes those days seem special.
On the way home from church on Sunday we were on Lovell headed home. Lovell is a one way street. So, there we are and a police car pulls up on Rose Street. No problem so far. Then it tried to turn left onto Lovell! Lovell, as I mentioned before, is a one way street! We checked the car a few times and were able to verify that it was, indeed, a Kalamazoo City police car. If this idiot behind the wheel can't remember that Lovell is a one way street, what kind of message does that send to the average joe? Makes me a little concerned.
Church was a blast. I made these two huge potato, egg and cheese casseroles and Tammy Hammond made a metric ton of bacon and sausage. Dennis was on toast detail. When the smoke cleared there was nothing left but a grease spot and crumbs.
The message was a good oen too and one that I will try to better to apply to myself.
We were supposed to go see Stew and Amy's new digs on Saturday, but he cancelled on us. (sniff!) Maybe we can get to see the new hacienda sometime in the near future. We will be in that hood this Halloween so, maybe then.
Last night I turned on the dryer and it started to make a demonic noise. And it heated up waaaaay too quick. I'll be on craigslist today to check out some inexpensive replacements until tax time rolls around. When it rains it pours.
Oh yeah, it also snowed yesterday. Snow before Halloween is never a good thing. Makes for a soggy Halloween.
We got a free organ in the house and everyone is so excited. I spotted it on craigslist and it is a beautiful instrument that is such a throwback to the fifties. All the kids and Martha are constatntly on it. I think that is great. Sure it weighs more than all of my children, my wife, me and all the pets combined, but I don't see moving it, well ever again.
That's it for now, I gotta go.

10/23/08

So, yesterday was the Scout trip to Verhage Farms. They make their own cider there and we got to watch them do it. Pretty amazing stuff. We also got to do a hayride and I made a new friend named Nikki. She's four and was absolutely fascinated with my beard and thought that everything I said was hilarious. Sigh! I wish I was four again sometimes.
We all got fresh picked apples and donuts and it was a good time. One bad part was that we were supposed to meet at the school at 3:30. See 99% of the scouts in the troop go to St. Augustine Catholic School. My son is one of the two who doesn't. So, the pack took off on us early which really cheesed both Martha and myself right off. I have to write to the Pack leader and explain that if you have a plan that you really should stick to it. Especially since the other kid that doesn't get go to that school doesn't get out of class until 3:45.
So, Martha spent all that time cleaning up the van and making it look gorgeous and fixing the television VCR combo so we could take extra kids and ...nothing.
Oh well, it was still a great time and Dan had fun.
After that we hit the store for some Halloween necessities. I got this uber creepy mask that I'm going to wear on my bike for Halloween. There are four or five little kids that walk the bike path to school and this is going to be a blast. I can hardly wait!
That's it for now. I gotta go pretend to work now.
Seeya!

10/21/08

So, that thing I alluded to earlier. That's going well. Still no info on that.
This morning I was biking down the Kalamazoo Mall when I saw the strangest thing. Going down Michigan Avenue is one of those bucket things where the guy can stand i the bucket and then the hydrallics lift him up to do whatever. Not a bad thing and they move of their own accord. You can actually drive the thing, albeit not very fast. That's what this guy was doing. Then I noticed the other guy in the hard hat and yellow, reflective vest chasing after it. Didn't catch if the driver was just another one of the crew or some maniac who thought it would be a good idea to steal one of those.
Later on in the morning I was in the men's room getting some reading done. That's when I heard this splashing, sloshing sound. I thought that was odd until I realized that the urinals were forcibly ejecting water and it was headed for the drain in the floor by my feet. I finished up and got out before the deluge. Also, what if my toliet had decided to do the same thing. This building I work in does some strange things.
That's it for now. If something else weird pops up before the end of the day I'll post it. Otherwise, you'll hear from me when you hear from me.
Ciao!

10/17/08

So, got up to my wife poking me in the back with her new fingernails. They are very sharp. It was time for me to get up, though so that was cool. all week has been Spirit Week at Dennis' school and today was school colors day. I helped him by putting maroon face paint on his face and then he sprayed his hair white for the school colors. It made me a little late for work, but I really didn't care. I had more fun making up Dennis than anything I would do at school.
So, yesterday my daughter, Delia was supposed to wait at school until 3 for Martha to pick her up. Yeah, she got done early and decided to walk home through the scary part of town. Yeah, Martha and I read her the riot act. That won't be happening again.
Tonight Martha and Stew and I and Seann are going to go to see Crawlspace Eviction. That should be big fun.
Gotta go!

10/16/08

Been awhile since I have posted. I have taken the proverbial bull by the horns and am taking steps to opening The Video Cafe. Seems that I need a business plan first so that lending institutions won't think I'm a total idiot and will give me money to realize my dream. I'm pretty sure I know where I want to put it if the price is right. It's that old, Chinese restaurant half way up Westnedge Hill. Nice location for a coffe shop/video store if you ask me. Close enough to campus to get the college students, but not too close so I'm over run with college students! :0)
On other news I have made a spectacular decision. What is it? Can't tell and might never tell. It would ruin it and this is one of those things that I would rather not ruin. Kind of mean of me to even mention it, but this blog is for me primarily so I need to put this down on virtual paper.
Dan has Scouts tonight and we get to do that. Last night Martha, Dan and I went to the store and bought many food things and attending Delia's conferences. Seems that she is a bright girl, which I knew, and could care less about school, which I also knew. Kind of a dilemma, but her English teacher told me that she can write about whatever she wants to write about and is not restricted to the topic she gives the rest of the students.
Busy weekend coming up so I do not plan on being back here anytime soon.
For the lot of you, go check out my other blogs. I'm there all the time.
Seeya! And be good!

10/07/08 Part 2

I love sequels, don't you? Anyway, it just struck me that yestrday one of the youngsters that works here at the print shop was watching Family Guy and in it Peter is obsessed by the song Surfin' Bird by The Trashmen.
Yeah, she thought it was a song that they made up for the show.
It's offical I'm too damned old.

10/7/08

Beginning of a new week, well Tuesday and I will be at work forever. Seems that overtime is in abundance and we can all use the long green. Got to see a movie with Martha and the kids this weekend. Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was good. Funny and the actors were all good in it.
We all managed to see the flick, Seann included for seventeen bucks. Not too shabby if I say so myself. Dennis picked up doing the dishes yesterday and I was very happy with that.
Friday Marth and I busted Delia skipping school. She is now in an infinite amount of trouble and the trust issue is out the window. Until she can earn it back, I suppose.
Prison Break was cool last night. See more of that over at Divine Exploitation.
I gotta go get a proof done this morning so, seeya!

10/05/08

Back on the curb for another Life Chain. We more than tripled our numbers from last year and that was super cool. Here are some lovely pics to commerate the event. Be sure to look at all of them. Oh, and we got yelled at and people flipped us off and everything! It was a very fun time.

9/23/08

So, yesterday was the first day of Autumn and it was nearly eighty degrees outside. The lunatics would have you believe this is global warming. I prefer to call it what we called it when I was a kid..Indian Summer. Happens all the time. We live in Michigan, if you don't like the weather, wait for five minutes. It'll change.
So, finished a proof for a job and accidentally paginated a tab so I get to start from where I made the mistake. Did I mention that the mistake was on the first book? Yeah, yippee for me.
Watched Prison Break instead of Heroes last night and was happy for the choice. Even Martha who feels the show jumped the shark two seasons ago was shocked when the hour flew by. I for one think it's one of the more inventive things on television and could watch it for years and years. Of course, FOX is playing it up against Heroes so it might not make it for another season. That would be too bad. If that happens they at least owe us the closing of the storyline. Will that happen? Probably not.
In my day I read a lot of webcomics. A lot of them are quite funny, but I have noticed this disturbing trend. All of them have comments akin to a blog attached with them. Some of them are so opinionated that they actually make me think of dropping the comic. My intelligent half of the brain tells me to just read the comic, laugh and move on, but then I read everything put in front of me so, that's not as easy as it sounds. I'll have to see what I can do about it in the coming weeks.
Everyone was doing there own thing at the house yesterday and I was going to trot upstairs and watch a Jess Franco flick. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Then Dandelion asked me where I was going and I told her what I was up to. She asked me in her ten year old voice,
"Wouldn't you rather stay down here with me and watch Drake & Josh?"
Yeah, I ended up watching Drake & Josh. It was funny, I had seen it before, but it was still funny. Plus, I spent some time with Dandelion.
I fell asleep to Michael Legge's LOONS. Great flick.
Oh and I managed to get my qiqong workout in.
That's it for me. I gotta go pretend to work some more on a job that I thought was finished.
Seeya!

9/18/08

So, this is just one of those things that you have to get down on virtual paper so you don't forget it. As many of my faithful readers know, I ride my bike to work and, no, I didn't fall off the damned thing again. Anyway, there is this gate to work that all bicycle riders use. You swipe your badge, the light turns green and you are on your merry way. You do actually have to move the gate yourself, it's not automated or anything like that. So, to get out of the same gate there is this huge, blue button you press and then take about three to five steps to the gate and open it. Pushing the big blue button gives you plenty of time to accomplish this.
Yesterday, I pushed the button, wheeled my bike to the gate and nothing. It wouldn't open. Hmmm, I tried again and the same thing happened. Now, contrary to popular belief, I am not an idiot. This was the way I had opened the gate for years. Why should it change now?
I pressed the button again and listened. It was definitely making a noise that sounded like the magnetic lock was being released, but only for a second. Hmmm again. I decided to approach the situation from a MacGyver standpoint. I parked my bike near the gate, took my bike lock cable off my bike and wrapped it around the gate. Then I pulled it towards the button and realized that even with the extra added footage from the cable, my hand would not reach the button. That's when I decided to ninja kick the button. The gate swung open and all was good in the world. Of course, I probably made the security guards day with that particular piece of footage.
That's it for me.
Gotta go!

9/14/08

So, went to see Motorhead last night. Pretty damned cool if I say so myself. The Orbit Room is a great venue. The first band was a local one since The Misfits cancelled. ASG is their name and I thought they were pretty good. Year Long Disaster sucked and Valient Thorr was awesome and the most fun. Motorhead was legendary and I want to be in as good a shape as Lemmy when I'm his age. The man was awesome!
Today, got up for church. Did stuff with the kids downstairs so I missed the message.
Afterwards it was back to The Waltz Compound to do chores and then Dan and I made a short film. He came up with the whole thing and I just shot it. Now I have to figure out how to edit the darned ting so we can burn it to DVD so he can show it off. The uncut version is still pretty good. Especially after the cat showed up. You can't buy special effects like that!
Martha took the kids to youth group so that left me home with the littles.
I am officially sick of the rain.

09/13/08

So, the previous post. 2009, huh? That's what I get for posting so damned early in the morning. So, anyway it's early on a Saturday. Guess I'll never learn. Seems that we will be having rain and more rain due to good old Hurricane Ike. Remember when Hurricanes knew their business and stayed by the shores where people got what they deserved? Last I heard this damned thing is going to hit Cleveland by Monday. Weird, huh?
Anyway, The Misfits cancelled out of today's show. That sucks. While Motorhead will be huge fun, I was really looking forward to seeing The Misfits. Oh well, I wrote them a shitty email and left it at that. They won't even respond knowing how my luck runs.
Got pizza for the kids last night when Martha and I ran to get gas and pay the rent. Dennis' friend Thomas was over and they played much XBOX and had a lot of fun. Martha made a delicious cherry cheesecake for dessert. All in all a great evening. Got up early to be with Martha and then made some breakfast. Martha's watching a Toshiro Mifune movie that is a riff on Cyrano DeBergerac. Very cool stuff.
Alright, that's it for me for the day. I'll report in on how the concert went when I get back. Probably tomorrow.
I gotta go.

09/09/09

Oooooooo! All nines! What is that? The Upside-Down Anti-Christ?!?! Anyway, yesterday I forgot to mention that Saturday had me and Martha going to Hooter's to watch the UFC fights. Our sensei Chris and his girl, Heather were there along with others from the dojo. The dojo sponsors the fight so it's pretty cool to be there.
Anyway, yesterday went to wrok and then after wrok got to go with Martha up to Grand Rapids to get our tickets for Motorhead. Went to a head shop called Shakedown Street on Leonard. Very cool place and lots of other cool places on Leonard Street. A place called Jukes that does live music that I might actually listen to as well as many other cool looking shops.
Martha decided that she would just bring me home instead of fetching my bike. Since it rained the entire time we were on the road I had no arguement whatsoever. Priosn Break was on and it was fabulous. This might be as good as season one.
I have been keeping up on my exercises that my new chiropractor has me on. They are making my triceps ache, but last night I used the huge ice pack he gave me and it worked wonders.
Got up this morning and got to snuggle with MArtha before work. Always a good thing. I have to make my way to the post office to send off a couple of movies. I wish that more of my inventory would move through Amazon, but it's been kind of slow. Hopefully, the holidays will pick up and people will buy weird flicks for their loved ones. Who knows?
Still early and waiting for my tea water to get ready.
Gotta go!

09/08/08

So, back to work and too early for me! This weekend was fun. Had peeps over for Beer Friday. Got to drink some Fosters, some Negra Modelo and some Kalamazoo Cream Stout. That's always a good thing.
I made those cheddar biscuits you can get from Red Lobster because I used to work at Red Lobster and know the recipe. They went over really well.
Saturday we went to Betty's for a little get together. That was fun as well. Afterwards we went to get some things for Dandelion because it was her birthday. She spent the day with Miss Ivy from church and had a blast. She said she ate the biggest elephant ear she had ever seen.
We got her a new game boy SP and a Yoshi game along with some clothes, and mp3 player and other assorted goodies. Martha and I got her a severed arm that wiggles and crawls along the floor and she loves that thing!
Sunday was church and then we went over to see Robert and get ready for buying tickets to see Motorhead and The Misfits. That's this Saturday and it is going to rock!!
Okay, enough of that, gotta go pretend to work.
I'll be back.

9/3/08

So, four days off and back to work. After the ton of overtime it felt weird to only work until three. I hope the overtime comes back real soon because we can use the cash. Got up early and did my qigong, made french toast for the kids and biked my way to work.
Got to go with Martha and the kids to Judo and give Chris and Heather a bunch of stuff for Bronco Bash. Stopped at Dairy Queen for a Banana Cream Pie Blizzard. Too many cookies, not enough bananas.
Martha and Dandy made banana bread and now I am off to hawk my wares on Amazon. Wish me luck. I'm raising cash to go see Motorhead and The Misfits next week.