Digging Up the Past

Lately I've been thinking about an old girlfriend of mine. I don't know why. Maybe it's all of Del-V's discussions of old girlfriends. The difference is, his stories are generally funny. This one isn't really. This is the girl that absolutely ripped out my heart and stomped that sucker flat. In fact, she may as well have been this guy...


I have no idea why I would want to dig up old, painful memories. I did, though. I was able to track her down through the internet. Now before you call me some sort of creepy stalker, she did the same thing to me about six years ago, so this is payback, I guess...

Well, we've been e-mailing back and forth for a couple days. She seems well. She's married, house, pets, no kids... I realized, though, how much we went in separate directions after we broke up. Not even sure we'd get along that well now.

I guess it's closure. Not really sure. Not even sure how I feel about getting back in touch with her. I was actually ready to propose to her the night she broke up with me. It pretty much left me walking around like Mikey from Swingers for months on end...

Well, I don't know how getting back in touch with her makes me feel, but I do know how this makes me feel...

Pretty damn good...

I Need to Move

I think it's really getting to be time to get the hell out of Maryland. First of all, it's getting too crowded here. It's a short distance from DC. Therefore, along with northern VA, we're getting more and more overloaded with people in politics. Also, for some reason, living in Maryland has seemed to become some sort of status symbol. Also, our taxes just got increased. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just a 1% increase. But that's an extra 20% I have to pay to this state.

Also, I can't stand the traffic. It's bad enough when the weather is good. When it is raining, people in Maryland suddenly forget how to drive. God forbid it actually snows... And that's another thing. I hate snow. I don't just dislike it, I HATE it. Shoveling it, driving in it, whatever... I could go on and on, but I don't want to bore you.

Anyway, I think I have it nailed down to two places: San Diego or Tucson. What do these places have? Sun. Lots of it. Nice weather, especially San Diego. What do they not have? Snow. Also, the traffic in Tucson can't be nearly as bad as it is here. I think I'd prefer San Diego, because I've always wanted to learn how to surf. I think Tucson would be the better bet, though. My wife is a nurse, and she has always wanted to be a flight nurse. Because of the large amount of open spaces in Arizona, there is a big need for flight nurses. Plus, I think it would be really cool to learn how to fly the helicopters.

Regardless, due to family constraints, I don't think we'll be moving until the kids go to college.

One more thing: Del-V & Rev. Jim, this is for you...

Ahh, to be Rich and Famous

I was bored yesterday at work. Really bored. Our server was down. E-mail was out, and I was only able to effectively do about half of my normal tasks. Also, the boss was freaking out and not really paying attention to his normal habits of passing inane shit over to me to do.

In an attempt to alleviate my boredom, I started looking on Rolling Stone's Daily News section. Someone had published Van Halen's tour rider from this last tour online and RS had a link to it (click here to see it). I remember hearing the stories of their tour demands back in the day, mostly the demand for 1,000 green M&M's. This totally tops it. Some of the stuff makes sense, but it's still weird to see. Like this:



When have you ever heard of a study room needed for a rock band? I realize Little Wolfie is only 16, but it's still funny. However, not nearly as fun as this:

Not only does Diamond Dave need to be as far away from the rest of his bandmates as possible, he needs to practice his Karate before the show. Apparently he needs to get limber for all those high kicks during the show.

Also, it's an absolute fucking miracle none of these guys have had a heart attack yet. Not because of all the drugs they have done and are probably still doing, but all of the Red Bull they drink. These guys order more than any human being should even dream about ingesting. Of course, if they are drinking it all, I don't see a lot of dreaming going on...

Can't... Eat... Any... More...

Thanksgiving has to be my second favorite holiday of the year, with Halloween the only one that ranks higher. There's no other holiday where it is completely acceptable to gorge yourself to the point where you can't eat anymore and watch football all day. I know there is the Super Bowl, but Super Bowl Sunday isn't an official holiday, and there's only one game on. I've been watching non-stop crap games since 12:30 this afternoon.

It was just the four of us this year. It's been so long since we've been able to sit down and have a nice family dinner with just the four of us, we decided to not do the rush around and hit each other's families. Instead of stuffing ourselves by eating two mid-sized meals, we just gorged once where we can crash on the couch and not have to worry about driving anywhere.

Our turkey kicked ass this year. We decided to brine it overnight in a wet mixture of kosher salt and brown sugar. Then, we threw it in the oven at 450 degrees for thirty minutes before dropping the temperature to 325 for the remainder. It left the skin very crispy with a nice sweet taste while the rest of the bird was nice and juicy. I think I've only had one turkey that was better - the Rev. Jim's dad's Cajun fried turkey. I think we might try to fry it next year using the same brine beforehand. Maybe we'll go with a dry rub. I'm too damn stuffed to think that far ahead. A word of advice, though... If there are only four people eating dinner at your house, there is no real reason to bake two pies. Even I'll admit it's overkill.

FREEDOM!!!

I got out of the house for the first time yesterday. I was actually looking forward to going back to work. At least it wasn't being stuck inside all day...

It sucked. I had more than 150 e-mails to sort through. I had to make sure that the people doing my job while I was gone didn't fuck everything up. (They didn't.) My boss was acting like I had been in all week, asking me to finish up tasks where I had no idea what was going on. And I got stuck with the four whiniest bitches in the office, one in particular. I haven't wanted to "literally" strangle somebody in a long time. I "literally" wanted to strangle her.

Needless to say, when I got home I was in a pretty shitty mood. Football didn't help. LSU got their asses handed to them by Ole Miss. A short time later, the same happened to Maryland by Florida State.

I hope the NFL games are better this weekend. The Saints actually have a Monday Night game! Here's to them pounding the Packers!!

Cabin Fever

Day 4 of the Appendectomy Recovery Watch. I'm slowly going crazy. Only left the house once since I got her home. I'm being reminded of how much daytime TV sucks. I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Need to get out of here...

What A Week...

I believe these two weeks have been some of the nuttiest I've had in a while. First, work last week was nutty as hell. We've been busy as shit with the upcoming Inauguration, as well as a lot of shows going on sale. Because the only time I get to myself is in my car or when everyone else in the house is asleep, I've been staying up late a lot these days and not getting a lot of sleep. Needless to say, work has been fun near the state of exhaustion.

The weekend was interesting. On Friday, I took the wifey to see Lisa Lampanelli. She's warming up for a new HBO special, so her material was new. That is, the material that didn't include absolutely ripping into the gay, black, Hispanic and/or Asian people in the front rows. Not as funny as Robin Williams - who I saw a couple weeks prior - but she was still funny as hell.

Wifey was happy the rest of the weekend because I let her drag me around shopping all day on Saturday. Apparently the saying is wrong. Money can buy happiness. Just let your wife spend your money at a big fucking mall and everything's cool. At least she watches football, so I got to spend Sunday on the couch all day.

Now, we're at the really fun part. We drag our asses out of bed Monday morning - she has to leave by 6 AM to get to the hospital on time. I get the kids ready for school and head on off to work. Around 3:30, I get a call saying I should meet her at the hospital. We finally left around 5:30 this afternoon...

She was given a bed mid-shift by one of her coworkers with a fever and elevated white blood cell count. To make a long stor short (I know, too late), she spent a lovely evening in the operating room of Baltimore's Sinai Hospital. She was admitted for an emergency appendectomy. The procedure went fine, we slept for a bout three hours that night, and she was discharged this afternoon.

After three days of back-and-forth trips to the hospital the be with her and care for the kids, I'm ficking beat. I'll be here at least one more day to keep an eye on her, then it's back to the normal routine. No rest for the wicked, eh?

I Paid How Much??

I took the family to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tonight. The seats were pretty good. The concert sucked. Maybe it was the fact that it's still 3 weeks until Thanksgiving. Maybe it was the fact that work has been hell the last few days and I was exhausted. Or, maybe it was the fact that they pretty much represent everything I hate about music... The show was nothing but total and complete flash. I don't think The Who use as much smoke and lights as these guys.

For those not familiar, these guys are basically a hair metal band playing rocked-out Christmas music with a couple of their own violinists and a few string players from regional symphonies. I've never been to one, but I get the feeling that this is what it feels like to go to a Poison, Ratt, Skid Row, Insert Crappy 80's Band Here show. Also, to top it off, my daughter fell asleep halfway through the show. It says something about their ability to keep someone's interest, but I think is says more about the fact that she can sleep through ANYTHING!!

The first part of the show was some story about a guy who meets an angel around Christmas and has a drink with said angel. somewhat interesting story, but the music was really slow and pretty boring. Then they brought out the rocking numbers, but it was still pretty dull. Everything sounded the same as they do on the albums, which I never really liked in the first place. In fact, the only reason I bought the tickets was because my wife and her father have been bugging me to go for three years. In my opinion, a waste of my money. At least the female violinist they had was kinda hot. Gave me something to focus on when I didn't have stage lights directly in my eyes...

Say It Ain't So, Joe!

When I was a kid, all my heroes were action figures. I loved playing with my Star Wars and GI Joe toys. It was especially fun when they fought each other, or Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon helped Duke, Hawk and the boys take out Cobra.

As I got older, musicians became my heroes. Joe Strummer has always been a personal hero of mine. The Clash changed my life, both in the music I listened to and the way I thought about how a small group of people can enact change. The Clash were an overtly political band that inspired people to make changes. I short, they were "the only band that matters".

Now old and new are together. I found this set while looking around online. Much like the other artists that have been captured in plastic form (Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Dio in actual size), these four pioneers of music can collect dust on your shelf.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of me wants to rail against this as going against everything The Clash stood for. Part of me wants to get the set, partly because I'm a big fan and partly because they actually look pretty good.

I hope Joe is rolling in his grave over this...

Have Your Cake & Eat it Too

I watched a bit of the Barack Obama PSA this evening, and I was struck by something. During the broadcast, he focused on a family in Louisville, KY, where both parents worked at the local Ford plant. This is a plant that builds Ford trucks. The work had been cut back, and the wife was laid off. Obama used this family as a focus for his plans to boost the economy, create more jobs and increase the quality of life for the middle class.

Meanwhile, the government - the same government that Obama is trying to run - has instituted policy that creates a minimum on gas mileage for vehicles. This means that trucks such as those that this gentleman builds every day will not meet the required fuel efficiency standards that will take effect in the next few years. Car companies can still produce and sell these vehicles, but at a significant fine. Sales of larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles are already down, and the car companies are not going to incur the fines without passing them along to the consumer. As people struggle to pay their mortgages, put food on their tables and fuel the vehicles they use to drive to their increasingly less-stable jobs, they are going to cut back on costs. Costs like larger vehicles that use more fuel.

Plants are shutting down. Daimler recently shut down a truck processing plant, effectively putting everyone there out of work. What will happen when Ford decides that this plant in Kentucky is no longer cost-efficient? This man, along with the rest of his coworkers will be out of work. I'm sure that this man was excited to be a focal point of this production, but how will he feel about things when he is no longer working? Will he feel the same way about Obama as he did a few weeks ago when this thing was put together?

Obama wants to increase the tax cuts for small business while making the large companies pay the same, if not more in taxes. Higher taxes mean increased costs which mean profit losses. I understand the meaning behind his cuts, and even support the idea. However, with the economy the way it is these days, larger corporations don't need reasons to shut down divisions, or even close up shop. This country was built on small business, and I agree with supporting them. However, small businesses cannot provide the jobs on the scale of large corporations or the breadth and quantity of products. While McCain has been painted as the bad guy in the media for wanting to cut taxes for the large corporations (among other things), I think his plan will work better for the American economy in the long run.

I don't think McCain will win the election, and frankly I don't give a shit who you vote for. However, my wife said something very smart the other day - if you don't take part in the election, you can't bitch about the result. So, take part and vote so you can bitch about the problems or be blamed for being part of the cause.

Freaks & Geeks 2008

So, my plans of football and cooking were canceled when the wife decided that the family needed to go the the Renaissance festival on Sunday. White two of my favorite activities were pretty much thrown to the wolves, I did get to enjoy another favorite activity of mine - watching and making fun of freaky people. A long time ago, before we could drink, we would drive down to this little coffee shop. Hanging outside the chop were generally your goth and geek kind of people. Because when they hang out in packs, they're stronger. There was even one guy who, at one point in time thought he was a werewolf. These are the kind of people I'm talking about...

Well, the Renaissance Festival offers all of these kinds of people, just on a much larger scale. (Plus, they serve beer!) I realize that they are getting paid for this, but these people are dressed in costume, speaking in English accents in period-speak, and really way too into this. And that's just the people who work there. There are also people who do this without getting paid for it. They just seem to think it's fun to dress in a kilt in mid-October when I'm freezing in a jacket and a wool hat.

I did learn something, however, on Sunday. Apparently, the Renaissance people were really into S&M. I saw more than a few people in full bondage gear, including some freak in all black leather, buckles and zippers and a gas mask. So, not only did the Renaissance people really like freaky sex, they also existed after World War II. Kind of like how the Civil War happened a few years after the dinosaurs became extinct...

The day wasn't a wash, though. Both the wife and the kids had a good time and got some souvenirs. I go to watch jousting, and while I find it confusing that this is our official state sport, it is actually kind of fun to watch. Also, I can't have a completely bad time when there's good food and good beer involved. All in all, while there were things I would have rather done yesterday, I didn't have a totally bad time.

I should be in bed...

It's after 11, and I have to get up early tomorrow. It seems the fun day I had planned of watching football and cooking gumbo (a 4-hour process when done right) has been canceled, as the Wife decided we are going to the Maryland Renaissance Fair tomorrow. It's the last day and all, but this is the first weekend where I haven't had something to do on Sunday. It could be fun though. It's kind of like the Comicon - I don't get many opportunities to walk into a situation and know that I am one of the 2 or 3 coolest guys there...

Anyway, the reason I'm still awake, other than trying to amuse you, is that LSU is playing tonight. There are few things that I like more than watching them play football. There are also few things that frustrate the living hell out of me. Their defense hasn't been nearly as good this season as in the past, and they started the season with 2 quarterbacks who had thrown a total of 2 meaningful passes. But, they're 4-1, about to go to 5-1, thankfully. At least I get to watch Steve Spurrier throw a fit every time LSU's defense does something good.

Anyway, the game is almost over and LSU is up by 7. Guess I'll be sleeping okay tonight. I hope I get to watch some of the Saints-Panthers game tomorrow. It should be good. (I love the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV!!!) Time to get some sleep so I can get up early and go look at the beer wenches in the cold weather.

What This is About...

After reading some other people's blogs, I thought it might be interesting to post my own random thoughts and views from a different perspective. A little about me - I'm married with kids and work six days a week. Therefore, by the time I have some time to myself during the day, I'm pretty much fried. I thought it might make for some interesting observations. Please feel free to let me know what you think. In short, I think the title of this blog says it all...