DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SEVEN

Got up a little early. There's an Easter egg hunt at church and all the kids are pumped to go. Sure, it's the week after Easter, but we had a foot of snow last week so, the kids are up for the hunt. Stew brought his boys, Charlie and Simon along and they got to color Easter eggs and then hunt for the plastic ones full of candy. They had a blast and I took a lot of pictures for the event.
Afterwards we went to the store to pick up supplies. Stew and Amy were bringing all the kids over to play, hang out and cook on the grill. It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop me from getting some bratwurst on the fire and hot dogs for the kids. There were chips and soda and Stew brought along some Oberon to drink. He even grabbed Rolling Rock for Martha which I thought was nice.
We ate too much, talked a lot. I gave Stew some flicks he needed and the kids played until they were exhausted. All in all it was a fun time had by all.
Afterwards I checked out the free movies on our Cable channel and they had Clerks! Very cool. I turned that on and watched the whole thing. I was a clerk for many years and it's cool to see a flick that reminds me of things I had done myself. I was sort of a combination of a responsible Dante who thought the store would fail without me and the screw this Randall who eats the inventory and makes sure to grab some goodies on the way out the door.
Busy day.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX

Friday and it's not a payday so, no Beer Friday this weekend. Oh well, the work week is at an end and that's all that really matters. Home was good. Did very little. Called my chiropractor and he said he was going to be out of town on Saturday so no adjustment for me. I did get to do my Qigong at work today which was nice. I made a copy of the basic forms that I do and will leave it at work.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE

So, less than a hundred entires to go and this year is getting weirder and weirder. I've been at this for so long I can't even remmeber my original reason for delving into this. why the grumpy? Yeah, just found out my father has prostate cancer. He goes in on Monday to see if it's affected his bones or not. He called my sister to tell her so she could pass on the news. At first I was freaking out about it, but then she said that after he told her, he went golfing.
My father is baptized and believes, as do I, that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. Maybe that's why he's t6aking this better tha, well probably everyone else around him.
I decided to embrace this attitude with him and take this one day at a time like he is. The funny thing about my dad is the older he gets the more he looks like Leonard Nimoy. Kooky, huh? I have a lot of my father's attitudes, but look nothing like him. Not really.
So, that little waiting game has been defused because, well because my dad is going golfing. Good for him.
Didn't get to ride my bike because it's crappy outside. Probably be the same problem tomorrow. I will be glad when Winter is over.
If you read this, say a little prayer for my dad. I say I don't worry, but I do. I'm a worrier, it's in my nature. Pretty sure that's my mom's fault.
In the good news, got my David Zuzelo book, Tough To Kill Vol. 1 and a Bette Davis collection to review for Warner Brothers.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOUR

Middle of the week and another boring day. Got a call from Sensei Chris wondering where we have been. I think I'll just force the whole thing and we will get back on the Judo horse next week. well, everyone but me. My shoulder is still killing me. Had some lovely cramps from my irritable bowel syndrome. Try to eat healthy and my innards are rebelling.
I was on the phone with my mom when she screamed she had to go. I waited about half an hour and called back. Her boyfriend, Tom, fell and cut himself in the process. He should be fine. More details as they come.
My friend, Mark's wife, Lina is still in the hospital. She needs a lot of prayers. One of my Eurotrash buddies, Bryan Senn, had a tumor removed from his spine. He's doing alright, but in a lot of pain. Seems that a lot of people need prayers lately.
Martha and I went to the store and I am beginning to hate the self check out. You scan all your own stuff and bag it yourself. Why am I paying the same amount for my groceries as the shmuck waiting for full service? Shouldn't I get like a five percent discount since I'm not utilizing a cashier??
I got to ride my bike to work today and that was great. Tomorrow is supposed to be crappy out so, probably no bike ride tomorrow. Too bad as I like to ride my bike. People are complaining about the weather, but it's March and it's Michigan. It's supposed to be crappy until mid-April. I can remember snow much later in the year when I was a kid.
I remmeber when I was a kid that the big, environmental boogeyman was an impending ice age. Now, it's global warming. Ten years from now it will be Global tepidness. Sheesh!
Kind of wish that this was a pay weekend as I missed out on Beer Friday last week due to the weather. Oh well, it will make next week all the more sweeter.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THREE

So, work was nothing special. I screwed around and ordered free stuff off the internet all day. Fun, fun, fun. Anyway, yesterday the girls had to go to the dentist. No big deal and all was fine. Today was the boys' turn. Yeah, so I got out of work and there was no ride to come and get me. I waited for a little whole and tried to two way Martha. No response. Yeah, it's cold and windy and I got a shitload of stuff that I'm carrying. I waited for a few minutes more. Still no answer from the two way and no answer at The Compound. Now, I was beginning to burn a little. I decided to walk home at that point.
I got to the downtown area and smelled something funny. As I got closer this guy passed me and noticed that I was smelling the air. He said there was a huge gas leak at The Kalamazoo Gazette. Yeah I made an immediate right away from the area and stepped it up a little faster. I almost reached downtown proper when my phone beeped to life. It was Martha looking for me. I explained where I was and that I would meet her at downtown McDonald's. She was cool with that. When she arrived with the two boys in tow I asked what the hold up was. Seems that after the dentist, which took longer than she expected, they decided to get some food. Yeah, and my rocket science of a genius son, Dennis, tried to order it for eating in instead of to go. He'll be getting some extra chores for my lovely, unplanned walk. I don't mind walking, but when I'm not expecting it it makes me old man grumpy.
Anyway, went home, finally and we watched some television. Then Martha and I went to the store to get dinner and filled the gas tank of the new van. Went home and made meatballs, tri color rotini, cheesy garlic bread and some home made tomato sauce to go on the meatballs. Very yummy stuff.
Kind of a weird day. Tomorrow is supposed to be better so I can ride my bike to work. Of course, they are also predicting snow the next two days after that so I might get one bike ride in.
I am officially sick of Winter...again!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWO

Monday and another week at Ye Olde Print Shoppe. Feeling kid of laid back. Not real busy, sort of the calm before the storm as it were. After work was being home with the family at The Waltz Compound. We ate food, watched television and had a laid back day. Kind of glad for a Monday.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE

Sunday morning. It's Easter and we have sunrise service at seven in the AM. Sheesh, is that early! We made it anyway even with stopping off at Meijer to get some fresh fruit for the breakfast thingie that is going on after the service. I helped Missy in the kitchen get everything ready. The morning service was cool. We had a guest speaker who did in the form of a play as the life of Peter and there were songs and he even dressed like the time period. Very cool.
After that there was much eating and I ate waaaay too much.
Then it was time for second service. That was nice too. Kind of sleepy and my shoulder is still bothering me from my fall at Rollerworld yesterday. Man, I better not have torn something in there. I'll give it a couple of days to see what happens.
After church we went home and everyone took a nap.
After nap we went to the store and got stuff for food. We made home made pizza and it was very good. No traditional Easter dinner at The Waltz Compound. No one felt like it after the huige feast at church.
Tehn it was time to get ready for bed and another week. The day went pretty fast.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY

Slept in and then it was time to check out the lovely fallen snow in the driveway. I had shoveled yesterday and you couldn't tell. It was time to start our fun day with the kid of the moment. This time it's Delia. After I spent a half hour shoveling the driveway full of heavy snow, we went to Rollerworld. Man, it was cold in the building. I realize that it's a glorified poll barn, but they could use a little heat in there. We got some snacks and I managed to fall on my butt and jam my shoulder by catching myself on the way down. In other words, all those years of Judo teaching went out the window. Now, my shoulder is throbbing all the time.
After roller skating we went to The Parlor for yummy food. I got the exccellent pulled pork sandwich. Martha got a BLT and Delia got a huge brownie sundae. Then it was off to see Horton Hears A Who. It was alright and some of it was quite funny, but I think I'll stick with the original.
We made a couple stops at stores to get necessities and then made it home pretty late. It was a busy day and we have two weeks until Dandelion's turn comes around. man, I hope she's ncier about her turn than Delia was. She ran us ragged.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE

Friday and sure enough about ten o'clock the snow started and it came with a vengeance. We got the new van a couple of days ago and discovered that it has no balls when it comes to snow. Great. No beer Friday because of the weather. Another strike against this damnable snow. Second day of Spring and we get a foot of snow.
Oh well, could be worse. Not sure how, but it could.
Stayed in and watched the snow fall.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHT

Thursday and all I can think about is this snowstorm that is supposed to be showing up tomorrow. Gee, I just can't wait. Other than that it was business as usual here in The Waltz Compound.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN

Came to work. The bike ride was nice. I have been listening to Kevin Smith's SModcasts on the way and they are quite entertaining. After work I made it home and Martha and I went to Mall City Motors to look at a van. I have great news! We are getting a van! It's a Dodge 2000 conversion van with captains chairs and a TV/VCR combo and it is very cool. Payments are only 300 a month which isn't bad. After that we went to the store to get stuff for food. I bought all the fixings to make BLTs for everyone and that was awesome.
Doesn't take a lot to make me happy. My cold is starting to go away and all is great in the world.
This is an awful lot of good stuff at once. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket tomorrow.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX

So, work was a hoot. Around eleven I was whisked away by Martha to the dentist. Yeah, I know I went yesterday. That was just to chat about what forms of medieval torture they were going to impose on my oral cavity. My own fault really. That and the condition of dental insurance in the United States, but I digress.
I went in for what is called a root scraping and planing. Fancy name for taking a sharp hook to the years of built up plague on my teeth to prevent the progression of horrendous peritonitis. Yippee! Doesn't that sound like fun? Thankfully, they gave me plenty of Novocaine and the lady doing it, Robyn, was very nice and had a cute Southern accent. So for about an hour and a half she went to town with this thing that vibrates and shoots water, then came the hook. My muscles are going to kill me tomorrow because I clenched up so damned hard for the entire time. I tried to relax, but it didn't work. I was more tense than relaxed for the entire thing. When she told me they were doing two quadrants I assumed it would be the entire bottom or top of my mouth. Wrong! She did the right side. So right in the middle of my front teeth you can see that they have been scraped and polished to perfection, then the other side is just nasty in comparison. Not that the clean side is perfect, but it looks waaay better than the other side. It's like my mouth has become Two Face. so, half of my mouth is evil and the other side is good. Maybe that will continue for a while where one side of my mouth likes spicy food and the other side likes sweet food. Yeah, probably not.
So, after an hour and a half of torture, I went back to work and my mouth was numb which is always fun. And I was starving by the time it wore off. No way I was going to try and eat Ramen noodles with a numb mouth. Yeah, that would have looked incredibly dumb.
After work I biked it home. Made some food for the clan. I took a nap because my adrenalin spiked while I was being tortured.
Woke up in time to watch It's The Easter Beagle Charlie Brown! I must say I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem to have the substance of the Christmas or Halloween episodes. Surprising, since it is a religious holiday and Shultz had no problem with his Christianity in the Christmas episode. Wonder what happened along the way?
Oh well. After that got ready for bed, watched some adult cinema that I found in my yard with Martha and hit the hay.
Thankfully, my next dentist appointment isn't until May 9th. That's a long time to have the Two Face teeth, but what are ya gonna do?

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE

Back in the groove and it's work as usual. I had a dentist appointment, really just a consultation. It went well. Martha came with me which is always nice. The dentist, Dr. McDougall has a plan of attack on my lovely teeth and I was pretty impressed. I was also impressed at how good my dental insurance is. That's nice. Dr. McDougall is female and very nice. Never had a female dentist before. After all the male ones I've had in there doing a crappy job with my teeth, it's nice to get someone who knows what she's doing and isn't trying to rob me in the process. Dentists and veterinarians I swear are after one thing most of the time, your cash.
After that MArtha and I went to the bank to get some cash. We had some lunch at Wendy's and then put gas in the Caddy.
I went back to work for an hour or so and then it was off to Up And Under.
Why, you ask? Well today is St. Patrick's day and Guinness was a buck a half pint. Reason enough to go.
The beer was fine, I put away four half pints which is nothing to me. The place was too sports bar for me. People seemed nice enough, but it was just too...well, sports bar. Never was a big fan of that particular scene.
Anyway, I rode my bike the rest of the way home and did the dishes and made food for everyone. Nothing fancy. Did a couple of film reviews for Rancho Carne and watched some television before nodding off to sleep.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR

Sunday and off to church. We are operating under a deadline with the car we are borrowing. Seems Alice needs it back by April Second. Yippee! I might have to get a temporary vehicle while we shop for what we really want. My buddy, Stew, offered up his van and that would work. We'll have to see how the car shopping business goes this week and the next.
After church we hit a couple of car lots and were nothing but disappointed. One of those we know what we can spend, but finding what we want in that budget is a little tougher than we thought.
Other than that Sunday was a pretty laid back day. Gearing up for going back to work and school for the littles. Yippee!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE

Ah the weekend! Time to relax and sleep in. Well, sort of. They are having the free movies at the local theater so Martha and all the kids and I went to see Are We Done YEt? It's a sequel to Are We There Yet?, which I have never seen. The movie was fun adn it wasn't too crowded so that was a good thing. Before we left for the movie Dan asked me if I had tickets. I said no what tickets? He popped both little biceps and said, tickets to the gun show. Pretty funny. I'll have to thank Chris for that when I see him next.
Ran into Stew and his two little guys, Simon and Charlie. He's got the same creepy crud I do so that is a real hoot. They went to see Horton Hears A Who. Yeah, I'll probably pass on that one. The original cartoon still works for me.
After the flick we took the kids home and then went to the store.
After store we went home and we all cleaned the yard. The snow is gone so we can find all the crap we left out before the snow fell. It gets a little warmer and it will be time to rake the back forty and get it ready for mowing and planting. Sounds like fun? Yeah, not really.
Other than that a pretty uneventful day where we took it easy. I did watch a documentary called The Nomi Song about Klaus Nomi. Sad and fascinating at the same time.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO

Thank God it's Friday!!!! We are actually getting caught up at work which is nice. I took it easy at work because, well I felt like it.
After work, Martha and I went to Plainwell to look at a van and they had sold it out from under us. Bummer. We are still looking for a vehicle to get us around and the pickings are pretty darned slim.
Other than that it was pretty uneventful. My bike ride home was nice and the weather is getting better. I like it when it's Spring. Love Fall too. Never fond of the other two extremes, but the transition phases are good stuff.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE

Thursday and more work. Still feel under the weather. I rode my bike to work and thought it would be great like yesterday. Yeah, all the muscles that got their workout decided to rebel on the way to work. I still made it, but man, were my legs whupped. It was cute when Martha called me and told me she was comign to get me from work. Seems she forgot that I rode my bike to work. I thought it was sweet and took the ride home.
Other than that it was a typical day of really nothing going on.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY

It was Purge Day at work today. That means we clean the shop in preparation for the big move in May. Yeah, except I had jobs that were due so they got done. I managed to clean a little, but not as much as I would have wanted.
I rode my bike to work and it was great! I didn't realize how much I missed the damn thing. I didn't even want to stop when I got to work. Just wanted to keep on pedaling.
After work it was much nicer and I pedaled home. Martha had taken Dan to a field trip for scouts to the fish hatchery and they had a blast. Then it was time to head out to Holland to check out these vans we scoped out on line. Yeah, they had one van left and it was a little bit of a disappointment. Guess we'll keep on looking.
Now, three hours earlier I told the kids to clean some house while we were gone. No slave labor or anything, just pick up and make it look less like cattle make frequent runs through our house.
Needless to say, when we got back home from our disappointing ride out to Holland and nothing had been done, I was pissed. I went off and started yelling for them to get a move on. It had been three hours and they did nothing but lay there and watch television.
Yeah, I think that habit is on its way to being broken.
I grilled some chicken breasts and made some rice dish and veggies to go with dinner. Martha said she really liked the way the chickn turned out. Nice and crispy on the outside and juicy in the middle.
Watched some Chris Seaver flicks and hit the sack.
Tommorow is another day.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINE

Still working, still sick. Feel like crap and most people tell me that that this creeping crud lasts for about three weeks. I have two weeks to go then and it royally sucks. Other than that, it was a day.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT

Work was exactly that, work. Whooppee! After work, Martha and I went and looked at vehicles. It was at Express Auto that we decided to fill out a credit application. Yeah, big mistake. We found a van we wanted, but they never told us the price of the thing until after we filled out a mountain of paperwork. Sheesh! What a waste of tiem. I blame myself.
After that we went home to discover that it was literacy night at the school and Dandy wanted to go. So, we went. We said hi to all the teachers that we like and they had all these different kind of soups for us to try. Delia had made a bowl in art class and we bought that.
While we were there I saw someone out of the corner of my eye and knew that I knew her. I siad, if I see her again while we are at the school I would go up and say hi. Could not for the life of me remember her name, but I knew the face. We had worked together at Big Boy about fifteen years ago.
Later I did see her and she remembered me and she told me her name is Krista. I knew it the minute she said it. She remembered my name so, she must be better at that kind of thing. I suck at it personally. It was fun to see her again and it added to the fun when she told me that we have seven year olds in the same class. I asked Dan if he knew her son, Nate and he said that Nate was cool.
Small world, eh?
Got home and there was a mountain of videos from various places to watch. From the hardcore, Misty Mundae flick, Vampire Strangler to the complete Pebbles and Bamm Bamm series when they were teeny boppers. Martha said she got like three packages at different times today. When it rains it pours.
After the school function I went home and we made steak and mashed potatoes and broccoli. Then it was time to take it easy. Busy day and wasting time at Express Auto was the real capper. Wednesday we are going to look at vans that are more in our price range. Yippee!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN

Got up and was dragging. Still have the sickness and just wanted to sleep. Got up anyway and made our way to church. Church was good. Sunday school went quickly and breakfast was yummy. Sue made a baked apple french toast thingie that was very good. Service was good. We had communion and I got to help with that. After church we headed home. One of the ladies at church told us that they had a friend who was selling a short bus that we were supposed to go look at.
Went home and did very little. Laid down for a nap around two in the afternoon and Martha woke me up around six-thirty! Some nap!
We drove out to Centreville to look at the bus. It was a wreck as far as I was concerned. We took Delia and Dandelion with us so we stopped at McDonalds for dinner. Then we drove forever to get home and that was the end of our day.
Martha and I watched Ski Wolf before nodding off. It was so late because of that damned daylight savings time. I am still feeling like crud.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX

Saturday morning and our little Dandelion reminded us that we needed to be at the museum for some history thingie. Mrs. Yankee, the principal from the kids' school was there as well as Mr. Brown, Dan's teacher. They had this cool new exhibit of a yurt. A yurt is a dwelling used primarily by Mongolian nomads. I had seen a movie called Cave Of The Yellow Dog that dealt with the nomads of Mongolia and it was fascinating. Kind of cool to get to see a yurt up close after that. I'll have to find that movie and watch it again.
After the museum thing, we went home, dropped off Dandelion and took Dennis out for Chinese food and he got a new video game. It's our new thing that each payday we pick a new kid and go out to do some5thing with the kid. Delia is up next for festivities in two weeks.
After that it was time to grab all the kids and head for Hobby Lobby for craft things to do. I got a new model that should take weeks to put together. Fun, fun, for me anyway. Dan got some space age crystal that you grow. Delia got a rubber prop plane. Dennis got a snap together model and Dandelion got some velvet art to color. Martha found these stuffed keychains that you use yarn to kind of sew them together. Very cool.
We went home and did crafts and then we all got ready for bed. Too bad we lose an hour because of daylight savings time. Bleah!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE

Friday, payday and, most important, BEER DAY! And, to add icing to an already yummy cake, there is my anniversary to my lovely wife, Martha. We went to Harvey's for yummy Guinness and then it was off to grab a few pizzas for the rugrats before we headed out. Needed to stop at Walmart for phone cards and thn we were charged and ready to go! Of course, since there is nothing to do in town, that sort of sucked. The Art Hop was going on, but it was so damned cold! No movies on that were of any interest. We did make it to Applebee's...in Plainwell. There's a cheap theater there and we thought it might be worth a shot. It wasn't. The Applebee's was nice though. Even though we were both sick we still had a nice time.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR

Thursday and I feel pretty good. Wasn't up all night coughing. Feel much, much better than before. Got some flicks to review in the mail that look, well interesting to say the least.
Made some chicken and rice and broccoli for dinner food. Watched some television with Martha. Really did not do a whole lot today. Still like the feeling good thing.
Later in the day I felt a little crappy but nothing like before.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE

Wednesday and, as mentioned before, still sick. Came to work anyway and had multiple coughing fits and felt horrible. Yippee for me! Took the car to the scrap heap and got two hundred and fifty bucks for it. Not too bad for a car with a blown engine. After work, Martha and I went to the store and got some food and medication for illness. I saw these things called Cold-Eeze and it sounded like the way to go. Apparently, large amounts of zinc can act like a dessicant to some people. I didn't know that until halfway through one of those logenzes my whole throat and mouth felt like it was going to cave in. I spit it out and drank lots of water to rehydrate myslef. I contacted the company that makes the things and they offered to reimburse me for them. Cool.
Still feel kind of crappy. I am officially sick of being sick. I am also sick of winter.

THE ILLNESS (DAYS TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE & TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO

So, this is being written on Wednesday morning. I'm better, but not a lot better. Saturday morning we got the car towed to Muffler Man where they proclaimed its death sentence. Somehow, the oil pump went out and the engine seized up. The car was dead. Now, living paycheck to paycheck this meant that we were really screwed. Really screwed. Then Missy, from church called and asked about church. I told her that we were without a car and unable to make it. She said to give her a minute and she would call us back. When she did call us back she had a ride to church for us in the morning and our friend Alice, also from church, was letting us borrow one of her many cars. I guess it's true what they say about leaving it in God's hands.
The rest of Saturday went by without incident and I noticed that I had a little cough, no big deal.
Sunday we got our ride to church and waiting for us was a nice, white Cadillac courtesy of our personal angel, Alice. Had some fellowship and breakfast and service and still felt pretty good. I mentioned my friend Mark's wife, Lina for the prayer chain. She is still very sick. Then it was off to the homestead.
Later, Martha and Dennis and Delia went to youth group. That went off without a hitch until they tried o come home. The cops decided to put up a speed trap and, while she wasn't speeding, the pretty, white Caddy had expired plates. They let her off with a warning and she came home very flustered. Coincidentally, I started feeling worse with congestion, fever and a cough.
I called Alice and informed her of the situation and she said she would take care of it. Problem solved.
Monday morning came and I felt like crap and went to work. Unfortunately, my coughing fits made it impossible to work so I went home to be ill. Martha was also sick by this time. Not a lot happened for the rest of that day.
Tuesday morning and I knew that I wasn't going to work so I called Josh and he agreed to open for me. Very nice. I could wallow in my misery in peace. Well, except for when Alice came over with the new tags and Martha was still also sick and now Dennis had what we had and Dandelion said she wasn't feeling well either.
To help compound matters I noticed Dennis picking at something on his foot. He had complained about this for a few weeks now and I thought it might have been a wart or some such thing. Then I looked at it. It was oozing pus and there was a hole in the middle. In the hole was something black. Okay, this was not good. He offered to get it out so I let him. He pulled out a quarter inch piece of stiff wire and it was off to the doctor's for a tetanus shot. Thankfully, the doctor's office is only five minutes away. Kids! Sheesh!
I managed to watch a lot of movies in the four days this has taken place. I have to review a lot of them, but just haven't had the effort to sit there and do it. I will tonight most likely. I have managed to cough hard enough and long enough that my ribs are killing me. I still have the worse sinus congestion ever and the coughing isn't so bad if I sit up. Even though I would rather lay down.
As I said in the beginning, it's Wednesday morning and after work Martha and I have to get the old car towed to the junkyard for some much needed cash and clean out the old beast before they come and get it. Not looking forward to that in the slightest. That's it for now. I'll keep everyone posted.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT

Friday, got up, started the car and then shoveled the driveway. Yup, you guessed it. More snow. I am sick of snow. After I was done shoveling I noticed that the car wasn't running. Tried to start it. No go. Jumped it, nothing. Finally, I had to hoof it to work and was very very late. And my beard was full of icicles. The boss called shortly afterward and she had been in a car wreck and, while not hurt, was going to not make it to work. I know what you're thinking. What a crappy day.
That was until lunch when Josh came back from lunch and discovered that a nearby bar was serving twenty nine cent beers in celebration of leap year. Only, he wasn't sure which bar it was. The hunt was on! We finally discovered it was Burdicks Bar and Grill inside The Radisson Hotel. Kind of a fancy place for twenty nine cent glasses of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Yup, PBR is what was on tap.
Josh and I hit the place and seven beers later, staggered out and only spent five bucks including tip. We actually tipped more than we paid for beer.
Went home and tried banging on the starter. That didn't work. We ordered Domino's pizza and watched television.

Stupid car. Tommorow we will get it towed to Muffler Man to see if they can fix it.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN

More work and had to saty late because of this job I am working on. That and Martha had to go to the school and have a conference with the music teacher because Dan The Man is, well, Dan The Man. What can ya do? Then it was off to home where I made whole wheat pasta and sauce. Everyone hated it. Well, except for me, but I'm not that picky of an eater.
Martha went out and did stuff with her buddy Barb so the kids and I watched Horton Hears A Who (the original) and then I watched a Eurospy flick called Target Goldseven. It was pretty damned cool! Very sixties feel to it with that unique European vibe.
After that we fed the doggies, let them out and I got everyone off to bed. Then it was my turn for sleep. Very tired and my eyes are burning. The unique Michigan weather is playing havoc with my sinuses. I am officially ready for Winter to end.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX

Hump Day and another day in paradise. Work was work. Got stuck with this one demanding project so, nothing else got done. Another yippee for that one. After work went home and made some chicken stir fry that turned out quite nice. Then it was off to Judo. Noth really up for Judo, but did it anyway and did the low impact version. In other words, if I didn't want to do it, I didn't do it and our sensei is fine with that. I don't compete and am not looking for belt advancement.
Back home and we watched some television. Watched the new Justice League animated flick. It was pretty awesome.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE

Had snow today so I had to shovel the driveway from Hell and salt it. I should invest in a salt mine or something with the amount of that crap I go through every winter. Got a ride from Martha to work. Work was busy...AGAIN! After work I was informed that we needed to go to the store. We went and got stuff and then zoomed home so I could make the feast of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and Italian style vegetables. It was very good. Even Dan The Man ate huge portions of stuff. I'm not sure where he was putting it.
Then there's the bad news. John Polonia passed away today. Don't know who he is? That's a shame. He and his twin brother, Mark, are two independent film makers. They started with a gore and twisted fest called SPLATTER FARM back in the shot on video glory days of the eighties. Since then they went on to make over thirty films. They did them all in house and they, while being micro budget, still managed to entertain. Not a bad thing. He was thirty-nine and died of a heart aneurysm. I can express no better who this makes me feel other than saying it sucks. Death is never good, but this really sucks. I was just getting to know these guys. Their films and I interviewed them, for my zine. And now half the team is gone. While I truly hope that Mark will continue to make films, I wouldn't blame him if he didn't.
What a shitty capper to a relatively good day.

DAY TWO HUNDREED AND FORTY-FOUR

Monday and another day in paradise! Yippee! Hey, at least I'm working and have possession of all my faculties. Right? Wait, let me check. Yup, all faculties present and accounted for.
We are getting hammered with work at work. Guess that's why they call it work.
After work I went home and made some yummy food stuff and then it was off to Judo. We did the Judo thing, well I didn't. My toe still hurts and I just didn't feel like it getting worse. Martha didn't either because she felt icky and that's cool.
Came home after Judo, made a snack and watched wrestling for bed.
Kind of busy, but not really busy.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-THREE

Sunday and up early for church. Stomach still feels oogy and I blame the antibiotics. We'll have to wait and see. If it gets worse I'll have to call the doctor and tell them to think of something else.
Church was fun, hadn't been there in two weeks due to weather and it was good seeing everyone. I finished the Sunday School curriculum for this quarter and we start the new stuff next week. It's actually continuing the study of Genesis so that is cool. Usually these prepared lessons are pretty scattershot so it's nice to see it continuing with Genesis.
After church Martha practiced some music with Sam and they worked out some songs that they might do next week. They want to set up a regular practice day and that would be cool.
After church we went out for Chinese food at Stir Max and then headed to Fanfare Comics to check out all the goodies.
After food we went home and everyone did their own thing. Later, Martha and Delia and Dennis went to church for youth group and the kids had a belated Valentine's thing. Dan and I stayed home. He played Playstation and I wrote some entries for various blogs throughout the net.
Martha and the kids came home and they played SingStar while I wrote some more. Feeling very prolific lately which is a good thing since I have had days where I don't write at all.
Then it was time for sleepy time and we hit the sack.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO

Saturday and had to get up early. Chiropractor appointment at nine in the AM. Ray is my chiropractor and it was good to get back to seeing him.After the appointment we went out to Big Apple Bagel for coffee and bagels. Martha and I, that is.
Then it was home to work, cleaning the house and whatnot.
We took a break to watch Good Luck Chuck. It was funny and man did it have a lot of tits in it or what?
Kind of an easy day with housework and taking it easy. Oh, I also watched Legend Of The Chupacabra. Funny stuff. I can't wait for the rest of the chupacabra flicks I have in my queue.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-ONE

Friday and it's payday! I won an auction to get Martha a TARDIS alarm clock and that w3as cool. The fact that it was twnety bucks because it's coming from England kind of blew, but it's still worth it. I paid my Netflix bill and took sixty bucks out of the bank. Yeah, I'm broke.
Made the mistake of taking an antibiotic in the morning on an empty stomach. yeah, tore me up pretty good. probably not a great plan to have the chili for lunch on top of that.
After work Martha and I went to get foody things for the household. She dropped me off at Olde Peninsula to have drinks with Josh and Savannah and her boyfriend, Rich. He seems very nice.
I will never drink that damned Sunset Red beer again. Gave me a wicked hangover, but it's my own damned fault. That will teach me not to stray from the sweet beverage that is Guiness. Blech!
While I was at the bar I noticed that someone had brought a baby into the bar. Now it was after nine in the PM and the smoke was in full force and drinking was in full swing. Would you bring a baby into that? What kind of a moron would do that?
I think I'm headed back to Harvey's on next beer day in two weeks. Go with what is safe I always say.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY

So, Seann came over in the morning to give me a ride to work. I made pancakes for everyone and made sure the coffee was on. Then Seann took me to work and Dennis to school. He came back and took Martha to pick up the car. We made payment arrangements with Mike at Muffler Man, but when she got there at eight in the AM there was just some red headed dipshit that knew nothing of this and she had to wait an hour for Mike to show so she could get the car. Unbelievable!
Work was work, did a bunch of tiny jobs to help clear off the counter.
I had a doctor's appointment for my infected toe and he looked at it said, yup, it's infected. Here's some huge antibiotics. Good thing about antibiotics at Meijer is that they are free. Martha and I had some lunch at Arby's and put some gas in the car. I noticed the new gas cap so I had to look at the new tank. It is very pretty.
Went back to work and did stuff until it was time to go.
Got home and Dennis' friend Torren was there. Delia and those two decided to go over to see Delia's friend, Mariah. I made meatless lasagna and a pot of rice for the picky people in the house for dinner.
These damned antibiotics are drying me out! Guess I'll have to chug the fluids for the next ten days. Yeesh!
Martha and I cleaned our room a little and I went through my film cabinet to see if I could consolidate anything. I threw out a few really crappy movies and discovered that I have three copies of Dracula's Dirty Daughter. Hell, I don't even want one copy of this flick and I have three. Oh well.
Went to sleep watching Heather and Puggly Crucify The Devil. Great flick.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE

Still have the cold, yippee! Work was work. Martha took the car down to the shop for it's new gas tank that is going to cost five hundred dollars!!! Around noon thirty I decided to call and see how it was going on the tank since they had the car since eight in the AM. Yeah, seems they ordered the wrong part and now the new part wouldn't be there until one in the PM. Crap! That means finding a ride home from work. I would have walked but I couldn't find a hat this morning. And that's another thing. I buy what seems like tens of stocking caps from the dollar store. I buy enough for every member of the household to have one or two of the damned things. Why is it thn that I can never find one. This morning I had to wear my daughter's purple Blue's Clues hat to shovel the driveway. No way I was wearing that thing to work. Are the children eating them or what.
Anyway, I decide to call Seann, my oldest, and ask him for a ride. Yeah, he left his phoen at home and he was at work. I eventually got ahold of him, but it took a little while. He gave me a ride back to The Waltz Compound. Tomorrow he's even going to take me to work and take Martha to get the car in the morning. He'sa good kid.
Dinner was leftover chicken and dumplings and then I just l;aid in bed with Martha and dozed while television was on. After feeding the dogs and getting the littles off to bed Martha and I watched Mr. Bean's Holiday. Funny flick and Rowan Atkinson is a hoot. I was still kind of awake so I decided to see what free flicks were on cable's On Demand service. I fell asleep to the melodious strains of From Dusk Til Dawn. Didn't make it past Benny's World Of Liquor blowing up.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT

Tuesday and still have the coughing sniffles thing going on. I also have an infected hangnail or some such thing on my big toe and I've soaked it and covered it in anti bionic ointment (Yes, I did the typo on purpose) and it's still red. Martha told me to go to the doctors so, I'll be making that call in the morning. Yippee!
Got a lot of writing done. Did a piece of flash fiction for Askew Reviews, did a scene for the movie, wrote a review for Askew and did a piece for both the Penguin Comics blog and the Divine Exploitation blog. I was pretty happy with all the writing I got done as I hadn't done much of that recently. Well, besides this damned thing.
Had a shot of Imperial Whiskey for bed with a little orange juice to help me sleep. Now I am out of Imperial Whiskey and will need to get some more. For medicinal purposes you understand.
Martha is taking the car in for a new gas tank tomorrow and tha should be fun. Fun to the tune of five hundred bucks. Yeesh!
And does anyone know why the spell check is not working here on Blogger? I hit the damned button and get some weird error message. This means I have to go and check what I wrote myself which sucks.
In good news I took the, Which Smurf are you? test and discovered that I am Lazy Smurf. Kinda saw that one coming.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN

Back to work and my cold is killing me. Coughing, congestion and a wicked back ache if I sit wrong, which is always enjoyable with a job where, sometimes, you have to sit for a while. Sheesh!
Went home and made yummy food for the clan. Nothing special. Then it was time to sit in place and vibrate until eight o'clock rolled around. You see I have an addiction. It's a television series called Prison Break and this was the season finale of season three. It is bad enough that because of the writer's strike I was only getting thirteen episodes this season instead of the more normal twnety-one, but there is nothing I can do about it.
In the end, how was the episode? It was good. There was a lot left open for season four, but there was a lot of closure as well. If they ended it here, would it work? Kind of. I wouldn't be happy about it, but it would work. Man, I hope they come back next season.
Watched a little wrestling before nodding off. Coughing sucks.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX

All night coughing and we did not go to church. The roads seemed pretty treacherous and it rained all day. Maybe that will melt some of the damnable ice that seems to want to choke the life out of my poor driveway. We were supposed to take Dennis and his girlfriend Mariah to the movies, but her mom made her do chores and they had to cancel. Martha and I went out for Chinese food and did a little shopping. Then we brought home pizza to the kiddies.
We watched HOT ROD which was very funny and silly and then it was time to hit the hay. Still have this lovely congestion and cough, but I did pick up some Ricola and Vitamin C drops. Along with some green tea to sip on. Hopefully, I will get more sleep tonight because tomorrow is work and we have to take the car into the shop. Oh, I didn't mention that the car has a leak in the bottom of the gas tank? Yeah, of course it does. Now we need to see what that is going to cost us.
Sheesh!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE

Okay, got to sleep in. Still feel a little crappy, but it's date night so that will be fun. Of course we had to run to the store and we had Dandelion with us. She needed new boots for the remainder of winter and Meijer had a sale where you buy one pair of shoes, boots included, and you get the second pair for a buck. I got a nice pair of brown, leather loafers.
We had to go get Dennis from his girlfriends house. He was trying to get to go to the movies before we left, but it was again lack of planning that worked against him.
we went to the park to meet Dawn then we went to The Metro to meet Chris and Heather. They brought along Chris' cousin, Mandy and we all ate really yummy food. I had the fish and chips and a couple of pints of Guiness. A few of us decided to do this shot called Pussy Pants. It's a girl drink with lemon vodka, Chambord and some sour mix. Tasted like kool aid to me.
After Dinner, Dawn and Martha and I went to The Whole Art Theater to watch an improv group called Crawlspace Eviction. They were funny as always. After that we headed to Harvey's and had a couple of drinks. I saw Neil Bryer there and we chatted for a minute. One of my old work buddies, Jenny, was there as well and we talked for a while. It was good seeing those guys again.
After that it was home again, home again where I had a coughing fit for most of the night and not much in the way of sleep. Yipee! I blame the cold air and the smoky bar for most of it.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR

Friday, but no payday. Martha and I are going out tomorrow night with Chris, Heather and Dawn so it's sort of a quiet laid back sort of day. Work was work and then we went to the store for some stuff. Back home was quiet, well as quiet as you can get with four kids in the house. Netflix showed up so there is some weekend entertainment there. Still feel a little crappy.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE

Back to work after two days off due to illness. I busted my hump to get a bunch of stuff done. My back is still killing me and I still have the lovely cough and congestion so, wheeee! Oh well, work was hectic, but I cruised at three no matter what.
Got stuff at the store to make steak. Martha made these amazing stuffed mushroom caps with cream cheese, curry powder and walnuts to name a few ingredients. Ate yummy food and then I was ready to hit the sack. The day wore me out. I am recuperating, but it ain't happening overnight.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO

Wow! Still feel like crap! Got a wicked congestion cough going on and I did something to my lower back. No running around today. I stayed in bed and recuperated as best as I could. I know that I am going to work tomorrow so I need the rest. Watched a lot of movies and just vegetated

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE

Woke up and felt like shit. Shoveled the driveway and felt worse. I had to jump the car to get it to start. That was when something in my lower back said I was done and my throat was killing me and I felt feverish.
I called in sick. Josh was good enough to open for me. Later Martha had to run a couple of errands so, I decided to go along for the ride. Yeah, I was pretty much dying halfway through that. We got licenses for the doggies and she bought me lunch at this little place called Julianne's that makes hot roast beef sandwiches with actual chunks of roast beef not that sliced crap.
Then it was off to the store to get things and then back home to rest. The little trip took a lot out of me. We'll have to see how tomorrow is.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY

Monday and back at the grind. Tarcie wasn't there, she had the day off. I had a rush job that took my entire shift which was no fun. After work it was still monumentaily shitty outside. I walked to work, which concerned me with the wind chill, but turned out fine. The walk home was better, but I knew with that much walking I was no way going to Judo. Just stayed home and made food for everyone and watched Prison Break. Prison Break is that one show that I always watch. I haven't missed an episode in three seasons and we only get one more episode for this season. I do not see how they can wrap it all up in one more hour, but you know nthere will be a major cliffhanger for season four.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE

Yup, crappy weather, 20 degrees below zero with the wind chill. Yup, no chruch today. We took it major easy. I made food a couple of times through the day and I watched a lot of movies and wrote some reviews for the people I write for. Hopefully, it will be nicer for work tomorrow, but I ain't holding my breath.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT

Saturday started pretty slow. I was in the living room and the phone started ringing. MArtha grabbed it, looked at the caller ID and told me it was Seann. Now, before I go on, let me explain something;
Seann's friend George got ahold of his cell phone and left a message so that when you call it explains that while Seann can't come to the phone right now he does indeed love the cock. So, when Seann calls I say, "Hey, cocklover!" And I think this is pretty damned funny. Anyway, Martha hands me the phone and says it's Seann and I answer it with the cocklover phrase.
Yeah, then Dennis' thirteen year old girlfriend says in a really quiet voice. "Is Dennis there?" Yeah, that wasn't good. Martha thought it was fuinnier than Hell however. Later we took the kids out to buy video games and then they turned into obnoxious jerks so we took them home and Martha and I went out instead. Man, for some reason all the restaurants were busy!
We ended up at Applebee's and the snow was coming down pretty fast and furious. For some reason our service blew and he headed out as quickly as possible. I wrote a letter to Applebee's explaining how it was the worst experience that we ever had there. Have to wait and see how that goes.
We went to Walmart and bought a few things then stopped at Starbucks. MArtha got a Vanilla Latte and I got some Komodo Dragon coffee. We shared some banna walnut cake and a piece of lemon pound cake. It was nice and relaxing and the best time of the day for me.
Then we made it home through the ever increasing snow...almost.
Going up Patterson we noticed that a couple of cars couldn't make it up the small hill. We needed to turn around and cut through the Life Center Church's parking lot to get back on Douglas and away from people that can't drive up a hill. As went to turn around we saw a car trying to make a left and it went straight and crashed onto the little traffic island. What a shmuck! Martha and I thought.
We made it onto Douglas and were headed past the crash site. That was when Martha pointed out that it was Seann!
The car was fine and there were a lot of people there so we were able to push it out. Some of the people there offered to give me a ride home, but I thought it was safer to walk the block instead of risking getting into someone's car. Especially Seann's!
I fell three times on the way home which was not good, but the road was that slippery.
I got home and said that with the incoming Arctic wind we would probably have no church in the morning.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN

Okay, it's payday and the day starts off with a hoot. First I get to work and there is this box of stuff that I was scanning. Yeah, it's missing. Come to find out that since I left it on the trash can it was fair game for our janitorial staff. Seems that since it wasn't in the damned can they could have asked, but it's too late for that now.
So, that put me in a foul mood. Then I realized that Dan The Man had a field trip after I got out of work so there went beers after work. Oh the day just keeps getting better and better.
Rob brought in donuts so that was a ray of sunshine.
After work Martha and Dan and I went to the airport so that the scouts could learn about airplanes. Yeah, there was about seventy five of us there and it was, without a doubt, the most disorganized thing we have ever been to. We actually snuck out early by bribing Dan with candy.
We stopped at the Circle K and Dan got some candy as did Martha and then I got some Red Stripe lager.
We went home and talked about goig out, but by then it was too late and the dogs needed feeding.
I drank the Red Stripe, the a Bell's Winter White Ale followed up with two Rolling Rocks. We are now officially out of beer at the house.
Martha and Dan and Delia and Dandelion and I decided to sing every song in the Singstar '80s game. It's fun. If you haven't played it, it comes with two microphones and it plays music videos with the words and you have to hit the proper pitch to score points. I rocked out a couple of them, particularly You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive and Tainted Love by Soft Cell. Of course I owned I Ran by Flock OF Seagulls and by the time we finished it was around eleven in the PM and we were all very hoarse from all that singing. I don't know how rock stars do it.
So, Martha salvaged what could have ended on a very sour note for me and that is why she is the best wife in all of creation. I'll have a headache tomorrow from mixing all those beers, but it was still a lot of fun.
Sleep now.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX

One more day to payday. Yippee! Work was more of the same and then I went home to being with the family. Nothing really stuck out to make the day anything more exceptional than the others so I think I'll leave it at that.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE

Wednesday and hump day. I walked to work which is fine. Good exercise and I get to listen to my Smodcast. Those are very entertaining and I will be sad when I have burnt through the backlog. Sure, Kevin and Scott could do more of them, but they are in production on a movie so, I'm not holding my breath.
Work was another day of printing a lot of stuff. Yup, printing stuff, who would have thought, huh?
The weather was nasty and slippery and crappy so there was no Judo after work which sucked. Stayed home and did a whole lot of nothing.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR

So, I'm a good doobie at work. I have oatmeal with ground flaxseed for breakfast, sardines and celery for lunch. But, then I have this overwhelming urge for burgers after work. Martha agrees and we go to Burger King. Now, they weren't really busy, but they were busy enough and there were only three people working, including the manager. My order took forever. Of course I was ordering for six people, but come on! Maybe they should have more people working in case they do get busy. Minimum of five. Three didn't really cut it.
Anyway, We went home and ate waaaay too much and then Martha went upsatirs to sleep and I hung out with the kids and fell asleep on the couch. Felt good, but I woke up pretty stiff.
After the kids went to bed I signed up for the Disney's Pirates Of The Carribbean online game. It was fun and free which is always nice. Sure, they want you to upgrade to a premimum package, but I'm happy with the basic game. Martha designed a character as well and she really liked the game.
Did I emntion that there was porn in the mail? Life is good.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE

Back to work and I feel like crap. Went home and did the dishes and made food and didn't go to Judo. Just wanted to sleep, but couldn't. Just a bleah kind of day where nothing happened.
The only thing that I remember sticking out was that the new episode of Prison Break was on and it was good as always. The bad girl, Gretchen fascinates me in that she is drop dead gorgeous, but so damned evil that there is no attraction there at all. But then there is. Weird, huh? All I know that the woman in smoking and I want to see her dead at the same time. Just good television I guess

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO

Sunday morning and we have to go to church. Well, don't 'have' to go, but want to go. I made a huge breakfast casserole for Sunday School and hopefully , everyone will like it.
After church we went home and took it easy befofre the Super Bowl. We were invited out to Alice's house because Brooke, who teaches youth group, wanted the kids to come out there.
Alice showed me her basement and everything in it and she even gave me some of those lurid true crime magazines from the fities. She said that she has more of them and when she finds them they are mine. I'm considering doing a series of articles on the magazines for Curt's Groovy Age blog. They would fit right in with the whole feel of the blog.
Then after half time the kids started to get cranky and we decided to go home. The commercials were the best part of the half of the game that I saw.
Got home and called it a night.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE

Saturday and we have absolutely nothing to do. Later we need to go to the store to get stuff for church breakfast, but that ain't until later so, it's being lazy and hanging out at The Waltz Compound.
I tried making Dazzle work to edit videotape and that went horribly. I'll keep plugging away at it and taking a class at cable access will make a huge difference. Later we did go to the store.
Have I mentioned that Dennis has a girlfriend. Yeah, she's twelve and looks sixteen. Thankfully, Dennis has had the talk, but I still bought him some condoms. It's one of those I would rather he didn't, but if he does then he needs to not have any little Dennis' walking around the world. At least not until after college. He was slightly embarrassed, but I could see that he thought it was funny that his old dad worried about that sort of thing.
Man, this is one of those rather avoid it kind of things, but avoiding it leads to my premature grandparenthood. Not ready for that yet.
Church tomorrow. Need sleep.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY

Friday and no payday so no Guiness day. Insert sad face here. Lots of snow and school got cancelled again. I decided that since no one but me had to be out in this crap that I would hoof it to work. Man, the snow was heavy! I do love my mp3 player and that I can listen to SModcasts on the way to work. Kind of makes my day.
Work was work, nothing special to report. They had a free pizza thing and it was pizza from the cafeteria so, it was pretty good. I ate three pieces and it sat in my stomach like a brick and made me loggy for the rest of the day. Bleah!
Went home and hung out with Martha and the kids. Watched some television. Pretty normal kind of day.

TWO HUNDRED AND NINETEEN

It snowed a lot during the night and kids had school so, I needed to shovel the driveway. This meant that I would not have time to walk to work so, I got in the shower and got ready for work. I was done with my shower and headed downstairs for clothes when I spied our cat, Pashmina, on the stairs. She was just sitting their staring intently at something. At first glance I saw that it was a piece of carpet that must have frayed loose and was sticking out on the stairs.
Then I looked again.
Have I mentioned that we have a cornsnake named Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla? Yeah, it was the damn snake and they were having a stare down contest and neither of them was giving an inch. I have to give the snake props since he weighs a couple of ounces in comparison to the pounds that the cat tips the scales at. I scooped him up and went to take him to Martha.
That was it as far as I was concerned. I went back down the stairs and thought it a little odd that Pashmina hadn't moved from her spot. I called her name and went to pet her at the same time. Yeah, the second my hand made contact with her fur she shot up in the air like a rocket. Man, she was in the zone.
Work was work and really, the rest of the day paled in comparison to my early morning adrenaline rush. It makes me wonder how long Rufus had been out of his cage and what else he had done. I mean, he had to get out of the tank, down the cabinet it rests on out of the room past three dogs and under the door. And why pick the stairs? We have an upstairs bathroom wih plenty of reptile friendly places. I also have no idea how long he had been out. He got lucky that Pashmina decided that he wasn't kibble.

TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

Okay, the Arctic wind I mentioned yesterday came on us liek a vengeance here in Michigan. Five hundred schools closed across the state and we got a pretty big state. With the wind chill it was around negative fifteen degrees outside.
Yeah, so I decided to walk to work.
YEah, I know, crazy, but I had on sufficient layers to make sure I was warm and toasty. I had my huge scarf and really warm gloves so, coupled with my beard I had part of one cheek get a little chilly. Not to damned shabby if you ask me. Plus, I had my mp3 player so all was well in the winter wonderland we call Michigan.
Besides, I'll let you in on a secret.
I wasn't the craziest person out in it yesterday.
Picture this, it's cold as I mentioned, there's snow and the wind is hitting around forty miles an hour. Thankfully, I had the wind at my back. As I get downtown I see the one thing that clinches that I wasn't crazy for walking.
There on one of the main streets of Kalamazoo which is also a one way street, headed the wrong way down the street is.....a guy on a bicycle.
Yup, just when you think you've done all you can to get the crazy award, along comes some crazier bastard to snatch it from your hand.
Work was okay and I managed a little overtime which is always nice. Savannah gave me a ride home which was very nice of her.
I got home and did the dishes, made a huge steaming pot of chicken and noodles which was yummy and Martha and I put the boys' furniture back in their room. After all that busy I made a choclate cake which was a big hit and then Martha and I went to bed and watched RESIDENT EVIL:EXTINCTION. I thought it was pretty good and really would like to see how they manage to pull off another one. They left it open for one and I, for one, can not wait to see what's next. What can I say? You get gtore, zombies and the incredibly hot Milla Jovovich. Doesn't get much better than that in movie land if you ask me.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN

Tuesday and work is, well it's work. Not too hard or challenging, but it pays me money to be out of the cold. Of course, today it wasn't cold. It's actually in the forties. The walk to work was nice because of my new mp3 player. I get to listen to Kevin Smith's Smodcast and that definitely makes the walk for me. He and Scott Mosier are pretty funny guys and they ramble about nothing for about an hour.
We have a wicked Arctic front heading this way that is supposed to make tomorrow unbearable. Yeah, they always say that. I can still remember the blizzard of 1977 vividly and the feet of snow that we got then. Haven't seen feet of snow since and it would be kind of nice to be winter locked for a few days. Oh well, what are ya gonna do?
After work Martha came and got me so we could pick up more tiles for the boys bedroom.
As God is my witness I really thought that four boxes would be more than enough to cover their bedroom. It ain't that big! Yeah, try four more boxes to finish it. So, there I am covered in floor adhesive and even got some in my beard! Blech! The floor looks nice, though. I'll let it set for a day to get a good bond and then the boys can return to their domicile.
We went and got pizza because I was up to my armpits in floor work. Little Ceasers. It's cheap and it's pizza so I guess that was alright.
After that I was pretty whipped and we hit the hay.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN

Back to work and it went pretty fast. No overtime for me because of Judo. I was more than a little upset that PRISON BREAK wouldn't be on because ofn the State Of The Union address. All George W. needed to tell me was when I was getting my free money so I can spend it post haste. Needless to say, I did not watch the State Of The Union address. Judo was fun. The kids were a little busy during the adult calss so I ran roughshod over them. That was okay because we were doing line throws and I didn't feel like being thrown through the air.
After Judo we stopped at the gas station for milk and they were out! Now, this is Meijer gas station so they have a damned Meijer in the same parking lot. I wanted to tell the guy to grab and cart and get his fat ass over there and get me some milk, but I didn't.
Instead I had to navigate Meijer and then they had no gallons of Vitamin D milk?!?! What the Hell? Isn't that the milk that's the easiest to make beacuse you're not leeching all the fat, yummy goodness out of it? Why would they be out of that? So, I got a couple of half gallons and we made our way back to The Waltz Compound.
Martha got her CAsanova movie with David Tennant and what I did watch of it was very good. I've really only seen him do Doctor Who so it was hard to seperate him from the character, but it was a lot of fun. Then it was sleepy time

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN

Sunday came and we slept in and missed church. We hardly ever miss church so I didn't feel too bad about it. I started the tile the boys' room floor project and that was when the fun began. See, the box of tiles said it covered twelve feet by twelve feet square. I bought four boxes so, this should be plenty of tile to cover their whole floor, right? Wrong! I was three short on the HALF of the floor that I did get done. So, gotta go back to Big Lots for more tile. Sheesh!
We also went to see MEET THE SPARTANS which I thought was hilarious. And by us I mean the boys. The womenfolk went to see NATIONAL TREASURE 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. They said it was good. I figured I could wait for DVD release on that one.
I will say that the half, minus three tiles, of the room that is done looks magnificent so I can hardly wait to get to the other half.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN

Once in a while we invite our buddy Chris and his girlfriend Heather over for food and stuff because, well he's the sensei of our dojo and we do stuff for his dojo and we get to have Judo lessons for free. So, we like to feed them and have them over. Another of our Judo buddies, Dawn came along and she brought her little boy, George.
The whole day was pretty much making lasagna and pasta and sald and stuff. It was pretty hectic, but it all came out okay.
Then we sat around and chatted and played Singstar on the Playstation 2. Dan The Man is awesome at the game.
After a night of pasta and wine it was time for beddy bye.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN

Friday and it's payday! Whoopee! That means Harvey's On The Mall and pints of Guiness. Martha showed up to get me at three and all the kids excpet for Dan The Man were with friends so the three of us went for Chinese food before we had to go pick up Dennis to watch Dan while Martha and I went out for drinks.
Before I get too far, did I mention that I walked to work today? well, I did and about halfway there the cold really started getting to me. Now, I'm not a sissy or anything, but it was really cold! My mp3 player was in full Smodcast mode and that was cool, but I was freezing. I stopped at McDonalds for some coffee and breakfast to see if that would help. It actually made it worse. My hands were getting frozen!
I made it to work and started the warming up process. Then I went online to see what the temperature was.
Yewah it was negative two degrees! That explained a lot. The keeping warm process coupled with the walk made me useless at work, though.
Anyway, Martha and I went for drinks. We brought the new girl, Savannah and Josh from work. Josh, mastermind that he is, forgot his wallet and this was the one time they decided to card him. To be fair, she carded all of us. Josh only stayed for about an hour and then he and Ellie went to go to her dad's house.
Savannah stuck around and we had some drinks.
Then it was off for home. We had a busy day planned for tomorrow so we needed the rest.
Did I mention there was Guiness? Yup, good stuff that Guiness.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWELVE

Can you believe how many of these things I have written? Has it really been two thirds of a year since I started this thing? well, roughly two thirds. Don't ask me to do fractions, man. It could get ugly super quick.
My friend Lina is still in the hospital and needs our prayers. I will be saying this until she is out of the hospital so get used to it.
after work the family decided to do some shopping. Martha and Delia got new bras and Delia got boots. Dan the Man got some toys and Dennis got an MP3 player.
Speaking of MP3 players, I got mine and Martha's from Overstock.com and already one of them don't work and I gotta send the damned thing back. Sheesh! The other one works great and I downloaded the recent Smodcast from Kevin Smith to listen to on my walk to work tomorrow. That's right, I got me some entertainment so I can walk my chubby butt to work everyday until the snow clears. Then I can ride my bike. Kind of sick of paying three bucks plus a gallon at the pumps so my walking and biking sort of tells big oil they can shove it. Well, I doubt that my little contribution will actually make a difference, but it makes me happy to think I'm doing something.
Martha also got her new gizmo that will enable her to transfer all the vinyl in the house to MP3's. That is so damned cool! I can hardly wait to see how it goes for her and then I will have to beg her to convert my Laurie Anderson United States Live for me. I hope the whole thing will fit on my MP3 player.
Busy day and ready for sleep and walking to work again starting tomorrow!

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND ELEVEN

Hump Day! Well, sort of. Since I didn't work Monday this is a four day work week and there isn't officially a middle day to call Hump Day, but I digress.
My friend Lina Engle that I mentioned yesterday is still on life support and still needs your prayers for her. That is really the most important thing right now. We didn't make it to Judo because of a number of reasons including the weather. Stayed home and cleaned house was the war cry for the day. Yeah! Housecleaning rules! Yeah, not really, but what are ya gonna do?
Time for the bed and the sleeping and what not.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TEN

Back to work after a three day weekend. Blech! Anyway, I managed to get a rush job done in record time. Martha and I ran some errands during lunch and that took a little longer than expected so, I'll be staying late to work tomorrow. After work we went home and finished up Dan's Pinewood Derby car. It looks pretty cool and he did most of the work on it. I would say ninety percent.
The Pinewood Derby was chaos. I got a chance to use the new video camera to tape Dan's races, well the first one. On the second one some cow in a pink coat got in the way of my shot and I missed that one. Dan didn't do well in the race, but I pointed out to him that he did more work on his car than most of the boys there. You could tell the ones where the dad brings in the shoebox and doesn't let the kid touch it. I explained to Dan that his car was infinitely better because he made it and he seemed happy with that. Plus, they had milk and cookies and he got a really cool patch for being in the race.
After that we went home to eat and catch some of American Idol. I think the trainwrecks are my favorite part.
Now for the bad news;
First Heath Ledger is dead. This really doesn't affect me in anyway except we will see how they play it out against the new Batman movie. Never was a big fan of the young man, but it's a shame that he thought it was necessary to do that to himself. Hollywood has been killing people for decades and this is just another body on the pyre.
Second, and this is waaaay more important, I got a letter from my editor over at Cult Cuts. Mark and his lovely wife, Lina, have been long distance friends of mine for a long time. Cult Cuts was the site where I started reviewing movies on the internet. They gave me my start at reviewing flicks and I was the guy who would review anything. Didn't matter what it was or what the budget was. I would watch it and give it my honest opinion. Because of me Mark got threatened with litigation and bodily violence at least a couple of times that I know of.
Anyway, Lina was found at their home and officially pronounced dead, but the paramedics, bless their souls, managed to revive her after fifteen minutes. She is not in good shape and her kidneys do not work at all. The doctors are working on her to see what the damage was and if their has been anything affecting brain function. Now, Lina is as smart and sharp as they come so, hopefully, all is well in the Engle household. But, never one to leave things to chance I would like to ask a favor from any and all of my faithful readers.
Say a prayer for Lina and for Mark and all their children. I realize that God's will is the deciding factor in all things, but in a selfish way I would like to see Lina make a full recovery and remain at the side of her loving husband, Mark. So, while I have no real right to ask this of anyone, I would like prayers said to see her get a full recovery and retain that beautiful brain of hers. Thank you if you will and I understand if you can't. She's going on the prayer list at church as is her entire family.
Last year I lost my editor and friend Larry Stanley and I really would not like to see this become some sort of trend.
I'll be back tomorrow.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINE

In celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday I didn't have to go to work, but the kids did have school. That meant that after they were on the bus we were free to do what we wanted. First, there was laundry and then we went out to Water Street Coffee Shop for coffee and muffins. We played some cards while we drank our steamy beverages.
Then we ran to the store and got a new mattress for Dan's bed and some other things at Meijer. Martha found a sale on shirts for Dandelion and bought a pile of the damned things.
Then we ran back home to get Dennis' gym clothes out of the dryer and the huge box of tissues we were donating to the school. School was fun because we got to take the time to stop into each kids classroom and say hi. Actually, the only one in their classroom was Dan. Delia was off roaming the halls with her class and Dandelion was in art class.
After that we went shopping some more. We got more stuff and stopped for Chinese food. The big thing for me was the trip to Best Buy for a new video camera! We even got a spare battery and a camera case and some DV tapes. NOw we can start in on that low budget picture we planned to do.
After all that running we got home before the kids and Martha assembled a new stereo rack for our room and installed the new printer for the computer. She was on a roll and replaced the doorknobs and deadbolts for both doors as well. Needless to say we didn't make it to Judo. Ah well, it was a holiday.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHT

Sunday and off to church. We had two baptisms today and that was cool as it always is. The heater on the baptismal was a little wonky so we had to adjust it to prevent parboiling anyone.
After church we went down the street for breakfast. After that we hit a few stores to do some shopping with the kids. I think I may officially be sick of shopping at this point.
Then it was hoem where Martha did many things around the house while I did some dinner for the family.
It started out busy and then finished with a nice calm.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SEVEN

Saturday and lots to do! We went and got new tires on the car and she runs like a dream. After that we went to Colonial Kitchen to get some breakfast/ Dan ordered blueberry pancakes and the waitress made a smiley face with cherries and a half slice of pineapple. She used the scoop of butter as a nose.
I thought that was cool and then looked away for a second. When I looked back the nose was gone and Dan had a horride face. I asked him where the butter went and he said,
"I thought it was butter."
I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud.
After breakfast we went and paid the guys at Muffler Man for the brake work. Then we went shopping! We actually took it pretty easy and didn't get out of hand or anything.
Later that night we went with our friend Dawn to a place called Wild Bull Saloon. I was happy because they had Guiness on tap. We sat at this thing that surrounded the mechanical bull. Dawn kept getting Martha to try it and she finally did. She liked it and she was very good at it. When she fell she even remembered to slap like we do when we take Judo falls. Our sensei would be proud.
Man, the place was crowded! I had so many women pressed up against me that I felt a little naughty, but I wasn't. One young lady fell in love with Martha's long hair and my bald head. If she wasn't sroking Martha's long hair she was rubbing my bald head. Then she made us do the group hug thing. Like I said...friendly. She also informed us that she was not drunk. Yeah, that's pretty much a sign she was wasted.
There were some big women that got on the bull and I started feeling sorry for the poor thing.
On one of my last trips to the bar for a Guiness a lady decided she need to touch my beard. I get that a lot so I let her have a go at it. She was pretty lit as well.
There was a almost fight that never got going. The place is huge. It has three bars and a couple of spots where you can buy beers and there was a live band and a mechanical bull. The place was busy.
I did think it was odd that the band played The Violent Femmes 'Blister In The Sun'. I even got a laugh when I yelled,
"That ain't no Hank Williams Jr. song!"
The woman to man ratio in the place was about four or five to one.
Dandelion called once to tell me she threw up but she was fine and just wanted to sleep downstairs. I told her to go ahead. Conversations were held in the bathroom otherwise I coudn't hear the phone.
A little after midnight we made our way to where we parked the car and it was cold! If it wasn't covered my clothing or beard it felt like it was burning.
We made our way home and hit the hay. Had to get up early tomorrow for church.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND SIX

Friday and good news. Martha called me to let me know that my W-2 arrived. So, I made an appointment to get the taxes done. After work we headed home for a while and then went to get the taxes done. We got a tidy sum back and they put it all on a Master Card debit card. Kind of handy. The two big kids were at a friends house so we just had the littles. We went out and had some Applebees for dinner and then went home to get some sleep. It was getting really crappy outside so I'm glad we went home.
Called it a night early and got some sleep.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIVE

So, my morning was off to a rousing start. I woke up and didn't hear my alarm clock so I thought I could sleep some more, so I did. Yeah, then I woke up again and thought to myself, "Five thirty is looking awfully damned bright." I grabbed my glasses and the glowing, orange numbers on the cable box told me it was seven thirty. CRAP!
I launched myself from bed and woke up all the kids. Martha and I managed to get the littles to the bus on time and then Dennis and I went to our respective places. He and I were both late.
While I was getting ready, Miss Katie from work, called the house thinking I was dead in a ditch. You see, I am never, ever late for work. Oh sure, maybe a few minutes here and occasionally there, but this was well over an hour. I called the boss and told her what had happened and she thought it was funny.
So, what did happen?
See, my alarm clock is broken, but the computer is in our room and we found this online thingie called The Naked Alarm Clock. No, there's no naked, it's just a simple, stripped down alarm clock. Problem is that the damnable device defaults to PM instead of AM. Who needs help getting up in the PM???
So, my entire day felt weird, especially the part where I missed my shower. And then I was stuck at work until five to make up the time.
After work, Martha, Dan and Dandelion came and picked me up. Dan had bought himself a motorcycle helmet and has taken to wearing it all the time. He is truly The Man. We stopped and grabbed some pizza for home and I ate too much and ended up with these godawful pizza burps all night because of it.
After that I burnt some movies and watched some television and we called it a night. At least tomorrow is Friday and I have a three day weekend.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR

MIddle of the week and still training on the new machine. If you can call it training. I find excuses to go do other stuff while the trainer is there. I can't sit still for this kind of thing and since we have a print shop to run there are plenty of excuses to run off.
After work we all headed to our Wednesday night Judo thingie. I felt a little tired so I didn't put a lot of effort into it and after smacking my head on Monday, line throws were defintiely out for me.
Afterwards we headed home. On the way to the dojo the car was acting up. I popped the hood and discovered that some of the hoses were not attachjed properly and a 1981 Cutlass don't like to work if it ain't all attached properly. While the kids were doing their class I put it all back together with the exception of one thing that Martha said she would take care of.
Then it was home for sleepy time.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THREE

More work and today we are learning a new program for the new black and white machine. Well, as soon as they get the programming bugs worked out I'll learn the new machine. Seems that by the time that happened it was time for me to go! Hurray! Seann and Dennis picked me up and we went to Young's to get something for Seann. A belated birthday present if you will. He got a set of steel throwing knives that he really liked.
Then I got home to a house full of teenagers. Dennis and Delia had their friwends over and with Seann that made a house full. I cooked a huge quantity of vittles for everyone and then half the little bastards didn't even eat! Grrrrrrrrrr!
Anyway, later Martha wanted candy bars so we took a trip to Big Rock Phillips 66 to score some sweet treats for her and a caffeine free diet Coke for me. What can I say? I'm a party animal.
I installed Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on the computer and burnt a couple of flicks before hitting the hay. Couldn't fall asleep right away and I will be paying for this in the morning. Yippee!

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND TWO

Monday, Monday. New week, new temp at work. This one seems like she will actually work out. It only stings a little that I'm older than her,...MOM! Yeah, you heard me right. Older than her mom. Sheesh! Other than that work was work. I finally finished up that huge project I was doing and I can do little, insignificant jobs for a while. More fun to get four or five things done in a day as opposed to a little chunk of one big job. Of course I was informed that the next big job will be this summer and instead of twenty or thirty books, there will be....TWO HUNDRED OF THE DAMNED THINGS!!! Again, I'm gonna have to go with Sheesh!
After work the Waltzes made their way to the dojo for more fun Judo. It was fun. Seann came along and had a good time as well.
Then it was home to the new episode of Prison Break. I can't help it, I'm hooked. The show keeps getting me everytime I watch it. I wouldn't care if it went on for ten years as long as they could keep this level of suspense and intrigue up.
Then, busy day over I went to bed. Tired.

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND ONE

Had to leave The Waltz Compound early today because we had to pick up Dennis, Delia and Seann from where they were at to go to church. It was nice having Seann come to church. I think that I'll just make him come along unless he gets a job where he can't make it. Since he's currently unemployed that shouldn't be a problem.
Church was good. There is some progress being made on the men's room. It's been out of commission for a little while, but Ryan put in the new floor so next up is insulation and drywall. I always joke that I am helping by not being there. You really don't want me to be in on the construction if you want it to be done correctly.
After church we went out to B7G Warehouse and the kids blew some of their money on stuff. We wanted to go to Young's Army Surplus, but they were closed.
Went home and had some yummy food and watched some television. I watched all the extras on ANTENA CRIMINAL and that was cool.
Then it was back to church for youth group. Martha, Dandelion and I did a separate study on the Dead Sea Scrolls and learned a little about that. I brought another Templar book for Sam to read.
Then it was home for rest and getting ready for bed. Busy day and we seemed to be running everywhere. I was glad for the couple of hours of down time to watch my Franco flick. I really appreciated that.

DAY TWO HUNDRED

Wow! Another milestone in the blog! Two hundred posts and still going strong. Saturday and Martha, Dandelion and I went on a grocery shop to get all the essentials for the next couple of weeks. We also went and got insurance for the beast. It's nice to have the car running better, not perfect, but definitely better. We also made a trip to the bread store to stock up. The little food grubbers loves them some carbs.
Seann came over and that was nice. We played a little Dungeons and Dragons and I had fun with it. Later Seann went honme and Dennis and Delia went over to Josh and Mariah's house. They are all buddies from school and they stayed over there for the night.
That left Martha, Dan and Dandelion with me to watch Santa's Slay with Bill Goldberg. Funny, funny movie.
It was a nice day and pretty laid back. Good stuff.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE

Friday and payday! Went to work and stopped to fill up the beast with gas. Yeah, that was another sixty bucks down the tubes. Sheesh! Then around 8:30 Martha came and got me and we went to take the car to get it fixed. The cool cats at Muffler Man deferred the payment until we get our income tax refund in the near future. Nice guys for sure. Martha and I walked back. We parted at Wets Main and Douglas and she went home while I went back to work.
After work Josh, Martha and I went to Harvey's to have some drinks. Josh's girlfriend Ellie joined us. I convinced Johs to saty away from the piss water of Bud Light and got him to drink some Bell's White Winter Ale. He liked it enough to have about five of them. Martha drank her traditional Captain Morgan and Sierra Mist and I started out with a Winter White Ale and then in the two seconds it took to down that light beer I switched to pints of Guiness. We had some yummy deep fried snacks and Ellie smoked a cigar. She let me smoke some of it as well. After about three pints we noticed an ad for something called Arrogant Bastard Ale. Seemed like I was going to try this beer. Yeah, the bottle was huge and the beer had quite a bite to it. Other than thsat it wasn't all that special. I washed the taste out of my mouth with some more yummy Guniness.
Then Ellie was our designated driver and went home where Seann was there. We yakked it up for a bit and then he took off and we all made our ways to bed. It was fun going out and Martha had fun as well which was cool. We'll have to do it again in the future.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT

Went to work. We were low on gas so I decided to hike to work. Seemed like a good idea. It's pretty cold outside and most of the downtown dwelling freaks tend to stay inside where it's warm or at least stick to warm air vents throughout the city. I had my walkman on and was blaring Eurotrash pop music all the way there.
I get downtown and, sure enough, some guy comes up to me and says;
"I'm homeless and hungry can you buy me some food for my birfday."
See how I spelled 'birthday' there? It ain't a misspelling. And I'm pretty sure that this guy wasn't having his birthday. Usually the beggars leave me alone because one, big white guy with a beard looks like a biker and two, well I had headphones on and shouldn't be able to hear them.
I told him that I had no cash and kept moving.
Work was work, nothing there to tell. We're getting a new temp who has a name like a porn star. Savannah Draper. Porn star or not? You decide. I'll keep everyone abreast (yeah, that was a pun.) of the situation here.
Walked home and it was hailing this ice that was shaped like little ice half spheres. If you took a perfectly round piece of ice and split it down the middle, this is what these things looked like. Kind of cool if you ask me.
Went home and made black beans and brown rice for dinner.
After wards Martha and I watched my new flick I got in the mail. It's a documentary about Jess Franco called ANTENA CRIMINAL. It was awesome to say the least.
Busy day and tomorrow will be busier.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SEVEN

So, my alarm clock died the other day. I did find this online alram clock that works pretty well. Martha told me to turn it up all the way so I could hear it. Yeah, that was a little too loud. It went off and scared all the dogs. It was actually pretty funny.
I did my Qigong, hpped in the shower and then got ready to go to work. I started the car to give it warm up time and then was just sort of waiting on Martha to take me to work. And then it got a little later and she still had not descended from the upstairs. I decided I had better see what the hold up was.
There she was on the bedroom floor doing something with Rufus' new tank that we got him last Saturday at the Reptile Show.
Rufus' is our pet corn snake and it seems that he managed to get to the top of the tank and get stuck to a piece of duct tape that was up there. See, the tank had a small hole in the back and we didn't want him to escape so, I used some tape to seal the hole. I had no idea that snakes stuck to duct tape. And he was stuck on there good. So, sweating bullets we used little scissors and carefully cut away as much tape as we could without bothering the snake. He still has a little tape on him, but thankfully, snakes shed their skin quite often so, the tape should be gone in the near future.
What a way to start a morning.
Wait, it gets better.
Martha and Dan went to scouts this afternoon and I walked down there to meet them. Martha was ticked! Seems that she went to pick up Dennis and he didn't come out there to meet him as he always did. Fearing the worst, she left and went to get Dan. Then she found out that Dennis had decided out of the blue to stay after school to help tutor his friend. Yeah, kinda picked a bad day for that one. Martha says he's grounded for life. So, when I got to the meeting she had to run back home to meet Dandelion getting off the bus. By then Dennis was home and goofing off. She put him to work and brought Dandelion back to the scout meeting.
Delia was going to a friend's house and she was supposed to call when she got there. She didn't and now she's in trouble as well. Scouts was fun. The boys got to make bubble gum racers and they raced them down this makeshift ramp that the guys put together.
After Scouts we ran hiome for a quick bite to eat and then it was off to Judo. Judo was fun, but the kids acted like jerks when it wasn't their turn on the mat. Fun, fun!
After Judo we went home and everyone who was hungry ate something while the rest of us got ready for bed. Martha and I watched SHOOT 'EM UP for bed. I really like that flick.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SIX

Tuesday and another all day at work thing. I set up a nice pork roast and had Dennis put it in the oven when he got home from school. By the time I got home the house smelled wonderful. I did up the dishes and then we got into eating yummy food and watching television.
After that I played for a while on my Resevoir Dogs game and there is this one driving level that is making me crazy! Oh well, if I beat it all in a day what fun would that be, right?

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE

I have the best wife in the whole world. Today is her birthday and the kids and I got her the best present she could ever ask for. The kids went to school and I went to work. She had the house to herself to do what she wanted when she wanted to. I also ordered her a new pit pack. A pit pack is a bag of cherry pits that you microwave and they retain the heat and the pits rubbed against your skin through their cloth bag feels quite nice.
But that isn't the reason I have the best wife in the world.
Yesterday, I was pretty ticked about author Brian Keene having nothing better to do than bash me on his blog. See yesterday's blog for a full update. When I told her about it her response was;
"Why do you care?"
I was immediately dumbfounded. Why did I care? Maybe because he was getting his facts wrong and I really don't like being called names. Then she said something else.
"How many sites do you write for?"
Well, this seemed off the beaten path of what I was complaining about, but then I took a moment to tick them all off in my head;
There is Askew Reviews, Exploitation Retrospect, Beyond The Groovy Age Of Horror, Cult Cuts, B-Independent, Divine Exploitation, Penguin Comics and a few others that friends would invite me to lend my meager expertise in films to.
Then she said;
"How many people do you think read what you write in total from all the places you write for?" And before I could respond she added, "And that doesn't include the fiction that you write that has been published and you publish yourself."
Hmmm, that would probably be quite a lot. See, I primarily write about film. I'm the guy who watches that micro budget crap so a lot of people don't have to. I also discover gems in the rough and recommend them to people all over the world. I'm a minor expert in the films of Jess Franco. I'm no Tim Lucas, but I know the difference between Soledad Miranda and Lina Romay. I get to see films like CHOKING HAZARD before the general public. An awesome film by the way. Hunt it down and watch it as soon as you can. You won't be sorry.
So, as I mentioned before, I have the best wife in the world. So what if I don't fit in the narrow concept of what Brian Keene deems famous? So what? In the end I get to write what I want and sometimes it gets published and I make a couple of bucks. When it comes to film reviews and interviews I always get published. Sometimes for free, sometimes for screeners. And if you consider that I usually sell most of my screeners on Amazon it's not a bad way to make a couple of bucks doing something I like to do.
And then my wife said one last thing that really drove it home for me.
"I don't even know who Brian Keene is. He's not important."
I have the best wife in the world.
Yesterday I made up a fake email so I could post comments on Brian Keene's blog. It worked because my harmless comment got posted. Now I can see what a waste of time it was. So, I'm off to write reviews and things that I'm working on for me and whoever wants to read it.
I finished the first draft of a humor piece called My Vasectomy. A couple more polishes and it should look pretty good and damn funny. My chapbook The Penultimate MAchinations OF Fu Manchu is done and off to my cover artist Linc Polderman to work his infinite magic. Now I have to start working on the next one entitled Two Fisted Cthulu Tales. It's kind of a sequel to The Shadow Over Innsmouth if it had been printed in a men's adventure magazine from the 40's crossed with Toho Godzilla movies. Should be fun.
So, no more Hail Saten blog for me. Because who is Brian Keene anyway? And I have the best wife in the world.
I love you Martha.

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE

Sunday. Day of rest and worship. Day of relaxing and taking it easy.
Yeah, then I read Brian Keene's blog. For those of you that are new to the blog, seems that I irritated Brian Keene in some way and he decided to take to name calling and making false and derogatory assumptions about me on his blog. At first, this really ticked me off. Then I let it go. If you go back to day 171 here you can see that I was finished. I posted that on December 15th of last year.
Yeah, it seems that Mr. Keene had a dull day and decided that he wasn't finished with me.
The following, in quotation marks, is the sole property of Brian Keene with all the legal mumbo jumbo that goes with that.

"There was a writer who showed up on my message board about a month before we shut it down. Despite having never heard of the guy, and despite not being able to find anything in print by him, we all knew he was a writer because his screen name said so. Because I don't want to give him attention, we'll call him Nitwit #1 (and you'll see why I don't want to give him attention in a moment). Nitwit #1 had himself a Blog. He posted a new entry every single day for an entire year, and had absolutely no comments. Frustrated, Nitwit #1 decided to create some controversy and thus, gain some readers to his Blog. He did this by starting shit on the message board. When I mentioned it in passing here, he posted an entry about how he was dedicating his Blog to fucking with me, and each day would contain a new entry about how evil Brian Keene is. He also spammed the comments section of this Blog, inviting myself and everyone else to come visit his Blog. Of course, Big Joe did not approve those comments. And when, after a few days, he still had absolutely no readers, do you know what Nitwit #1 did?

He let the whole thing drop, and hasn't mentioned me again.

This type of desperation that drives our first type of nitwit. Here's the thing, kids. You can have a Blog and an LJ and MySpace and Facebook pages, and a website and message board and profile at Author's Den. You can flood the message boards at Amazon.com, Fangoria, Dread Central, Horror World, and elsewhere with spam for your self-published book or latest Lulu.com offering. You can run around and call yourself "best-seller" or whatever other lie you want to tell. But unless you've written a good book, none of that matters. Your prose, whether good or bad, is the great equalizer, and in the end, that's all they'll remember."

Okay, first he makes an assumption that I'm a wannabe writer. I do write, quite a lot, in fact, but realize that I am far from being what anyone would call famous. I have fun writing and it does nothing to pay the bills. Therefore, I would call my writing a hobby at best. And I have fun at this. Second, he thinks I'm drumming up business for this blog. Um, the statement to the right tells you all the rationale for this blog. I'm just chronicling a year in the life. I'm not doing it for anyone but myself. There are a few people who read it, but it really doesn't lend itself well to comments. To be honest, I didn't even have the comments on for the first few months because I didn't realize that I needed to program that myself.
The controversy I created was no ones fault but Mr. Keene and his friends. I assume that the people who run his message boards are his friends. Who knows? If you go back to day 165 or so it will chronicle the entire, messy affair for you. I feel no reason to reiterate the entire thing again.
So, I was finished with this and Mr. Keene brings it up weeks later for really no good reason. Maybe he just felt it necessary to have the last word. Beats me. If that's what makes him happy then so be it. Being a first time father as well as trying to quit smoking can be more than enough stress for many people so, he might just be fraying at the edges. Once again, I make no assumptions, unlike Mr. Keene. I have no idea what his current condition at home is nor do I really care anymore.
I felt it was necessary to air this out because I thought it was unnecessarily cruel to bring something up that I had considered a dead issue.
Part of me would like an apology. The saner part of me realizes that this will never happen. I will continue to read his blog and continue to comment on it. He will continue to read my comments and not put them in his blog. That's his right and I respect it no matter how one sided it makes things.

So, after church, we went home and cleaned house. I got to play Yahtzee with Martha and I watched a horrid movie called King Of Kong Island. You would think I would learn not to buy these dollar DVDs anymore. Must be some kind of sickness.