Well, I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. At this point, we're just waiting for the phone call.
To recap the weekend events, after returning home, we managed to spend a little more time with the Mutchler's by taking in the zoo. We took Terri's younger cousins since they were out visiting for the week. It rained in the morning, but by afternoon it had cooled off and made for a really nice relaxing day at the zoo. Although outside of the aquarium, Terri's youngest cousin Lexie saw the Scuba tank that they had set up. Turns out, you could try scuba diving for free. She wanted to go in the worst way, but had to have an accompanying adult. After checking for any loopholes, I reluctantly gave in and went with her. After changing into the wetsuit, we headed into the pool area, which was thankfully only 4 feet, as I'm not the world's greatest swimmer. In fact, I think I've seen rocks and logs do better in the water than I do. Anyway, all turned out well and it was even a little fun.
Saturday we had breakfast and hung out with Susie til it was time for the Mutchler's to head back across the state. A rousing game of scrabble was played whilst Alison and I watched the little ones. For future reference "Fores" - not a word "Re" - a word.
Saturday evening we headed over to Alicia and Jody's house for their party. It was an interesting party. They had a guy who was providing musical entertainment. Gage was fascinated by him for some reason. Not really the best entertainment I've ever heard, but ok.
Sunday Gage was feeling very clingy and since Terri was working from 7 in the morning til early afternoon, he was all mine to deal with. He managed to cling enough so that neither of us could really get ready for church. So we spent most of Sunday dozing until Terri got home. Then we all got cleaned up and headed down to my old boss' house for a small "Lycos" reunion. We hung out and had lunch at her house and then headed over to the Wild Things game. It was fun. The promotions staff tried to recruit Gage for one of the promotions, but he just wasn't feeling up to it. Although he would have beaten the other kids entered with no problem.
And, it was back to work today. And still waiting for a phone call that I don't want to answer.

First off Happy 31st Birthday Tom!!!
Well after an enjoyable weekend of visiting with old friends and new ones and then last night watching children run all over the Warner's backyard you'd think I'd be pretty content. Well, I am, but apparently it has been decided that I shouldn't be. At some point last night, my other Grandmother had a stroke. No one knows what's going on yet, but it certainly threw the rest of my week into turmoil. My mother, relaying information from my aunt, who was relaying information from the doctors said that it doesn't look good. So I will most likely be making the trek back up to the Bradford area a lot sooner than I thought. 2005 is apparently not a good year for Grandmothers.
Several friends that I went to high school with have lost their grandmothers this year. Most recently a set of twins that I graduated with will be attending their grandmother's viewing this evening according to my hometown paper.
I know, I know...way to drag everyone down. Well, if you check out the right hand column, "For we are always what our situations hand us, it's either sadness or euphoria."

So, there were two things that I forgot to mention yesterday.
One of the guys on our multimedia team is a young guy. He recently graduated from the Art Institute and this is his first professional job. He's a nice guy, but rather dim in the ways of the world on occasion. The other morning he ran out of gas on his way to work, and that's not even the best part. In order to remedy his situation he called 911. Yes, 911. Don't worry, he's still being teased about it. In the middle of the day, he was paged over the intercom to extension 911. No one in our group could look at him without bursting into laughter. We all want to know why he called 911, but no one can keep a straight face long enough to ask.
The second comes from Columbia House. They've decided to screw me over one last time. I say one last time, not because I'm cancelling my multiple memberships, but because they are going out of business and shuffling all their customers over to BMG (with whom I already have other multiple memberships). How does this screw me over, you ask? Well even if you didn't ask I'm still going to tell you. Over the years through various complaints and problems that I've had with Columbia House I've amassed a dozen or so free cd vouchers. Now I have to sit down with a catalog and my cd lists and come up with a ton of cds that I'd like to get for free. Well, almost free. By the time they get done ripping me off for processing and shipping it'll be like buying them used.
Speaking of buying used things, thanks to a little memory prodding from Susiezy I managed to make it over to a small alumni run non-profit bookstore for Bryn Mawr and Vassar. They close in August for vacations and inventory so the last couple weeks of July they have increasingly better sales. 11 books less than $5.00. I managed to pick off another six or seven from my book lists. Good day.

There's a house that Terri and I pass on our way to certain stores that we always joke about buying if it ever comes on the market. Well, the last time I drove past it, there was a big honkin' For Sale sign in the front yard. So, when I got home, I looked it up, just to see. Anyone got a spare million or two? Terri estimated 600,000. I said closer to 800,000. Turns out together we were still over half a million off. Such is life. I guess we'll just have to look for something a little more in our price range.
I saw this article in my daily skimming and it almost made me snort dr. pepper out my nose. The first sentence really did me in. "...loud music coming from a buggy..." Through a bizarre set of circumstances and in-jokes, all I could hear was Peaches come from a can. They were put there by a man, in a factory, downtown.
Anyway, moving right down the list of strange stuff I found this morning this guy is accused of neglecting his mother's health in the role of primary care giver. He was providing care in exchange for her social security checks and her pension, which he used to pay his lease. Now, obviously this guy isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. I mean, if your mother struck that deal with you and you were actually benefiting from the money, wouldn't you take extra special care of her? Even if you were a jackass and you were only in it for the money. Wouldn't you want to make sure that the money didn't run out, which is the outcome neglect and death would bring about? Moron.
The Pens released their season schedule today. I can't tell you what I'm doing after work, but I can damn sure tell you where I'm going to be at 7:30 on Saturday October 8th, 2005. And, depending on cash flow issues, as many dates thereafter that I can swing. Lord Stanley is comin' home to Pittsburgh!
Matt sent me this article in response to this, this, and this. Perhaps if Congress had a bit more to take up their time they wouldn't have to bother with video games. Perhaps they should concentrate a little more on the Supreme Court nomination and handling that in a fair, unbiased manner. Perhaps they should tend to the war in Iraq and the growing concerns with terrorist attacks in London and elsewhere. Perhaps they should all stop trying to present themselves as a party candidate for the Presidential race in 2008.
This just falls under the heading, "Bizarre."
Craig had mentioned things in society/pop culture that you personally rail against but the vast majority seem to like. I started thinking about it and the list is way too long to spell it all out, but I'll give it a try.
Some television shows
The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Seinfeld, Ally McBeal, Desperate Housewives...I've seen episodes of all these shows and not one has been able to spark my attention for more than a snippet of dialogue.
Some movies
Oceans 12, Charlie's Angels, Harry Potter 3...how can you take good base material to work from and churn out shit like this?
I'm sure I'll get to more later, but that's enough for now.

Very little going on today. This weekend wasn't too bad. My mother-in-law was recouping from knee replacement surgery so there were the obligatory visits there. We saw Further Down the Road play at a local Starbucks. Gage decided he liked ice cream, but he did not like oreo ice cream. We managed to get the yard mowed and some more work done inside the house.
I also finally managed to finish 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Verne is a good writer and he was a good scientist. I just wish he'd kept the two separate. Much like Moby Dick, if you had removed the classification of every species of fish, it would have been a good adventure story.
After reading back to back Verne novels, it was time to go back and do a little enjoyment reading. And, since I had picked up the 6th Potter novel, that series seemed as good a place as any to start. So, I not only started the first novel, but managed to finish it as well. So, tonight, hopefully I get to start the second novel. Who knows, I may make better time with them than I thought.
On to hockey news...
Crosby will make an excellent addition to the Penguins when they finally draft him on Saturday. In the meantime, I think they could stop selling his jersey. I feel like a jinx is in place or something.
I heard one of the funniest things on Pittsburgh radio this morning and it hasn't nothing to do with my loathing of baseball, it was one of those things that was funny because it's true.
"With hockey back on track, the Pens winning the lottery for Crosby, Patrick having the money to pull in any available players, and Steeler's training camp starting in a week, the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to have to take turns writing letters to the editor in order to get press."
So very true.

Holy Crap!!!! Why can't it be October already?

Yes, I've been noticeably absent. It's due to the fact that once again I managed to finish a semester's worth of work for a class in one week. Of course, the rest of my life got put on hold, but the class is finished. I even managed to pass.
A ton of stuff has happened since the last post, but I'll probably just bore everyone to death relating it. I will say that Gage had a great time in the hotel pool and no we obviously weren't the family reunion that got hit by lightning.
One thing I read in my self-imposed hiatus was this from the imdb headlines...

"Jessica Simpson fears her new movie The Dukes Of Hazzard will flop because people see her as a singer and not a movie star. The pop sensation is one of a growing number of young stars following in the footsteps of icons like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez who want to conquer all aspects of the entertainment industry. Simpson plays sexy heroine Daisy Duke in the big screen adaptation of the cult series and desperately hopes there will be no critical backlash concerning her acting skills. She says, "I don't want people walking out of a movie thinking I was trying to act or be some movie star. I want them to think, 'That might make me like Jessica a little bit more.'"

Oh, Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. This movie is gonna flop for so many other reasons than the fact that people might look at you acting like a dumbass on the big screen and say, "Gee, isn't she just a singer?"

One other thing that I'll point out is the fact that I saw the Fantastic Four as my annual, "Let's get the hell away from my crazy family movie pick". I wasn't impressed. But for completely different reasons than the ones that Tom mentioned. I thought they moved the plot right along and they found their powers in due time. However, even the wonderfully bright casting of Michael couldn't sustain the mistake they made with her. Sorry, when the casting people ignore the characterization and underlying motivation of a character in order to find someone who's going to look incredible in the latest Victoria's Secret. I don't believe for a second that Sue Richards from the comic books and mind of Stan Lee is anything even remotely close to what was portrayed on screen. The special effects were also kind of a let down. And the "climactic" fight scene was anything but. I'm also a little curious as to how the chamber to change them back doesn't have enough power to accomplish the task without Doom, but Ben is able to remutate himself with the diminished power? And he's instantly remutated instead of the three or four days from the first time? That plothole is big enough to accomodate the driving of the truck that he smashes in the movie.
The inevitable sequel might be able to fix some of the problems but it will be a DVD rental at best. Most likely I'll just wait til Tom buys it and then borrow it off of him.

So, how sad is this?
I now have in my possession not one, but two copies of the new Harry Potter book.
A little backstory maestro...
My family reunion is the 3rd Saturday of July. The publisher also picked this date as the release date which prevented me from pre-ordering from anyone since I wouldn't be around to get it. I figured I'd just wait a week and then pick up a copy. However, my uncle was looking for a picnic table. No one around the Bradford area seemed to have one so I told him that I'd stop at the Wal-Mart in Olean where we were staying. While in the building, we hear the announcement that although the story normally closes at 12:00, they were extending the hours til 1:00 A.M. in order to sell copies of the new Harry Potter book. So, I ask the cashier while we're checking out if you needed to pre-order the book. She said, "No, we're starting to sell them at 12:01 and we'll close at 1:00.
So, I decided to see what the mob would be like. I'm still trying to figure out what the mob would be like. There was none. There were maybe 75 people there. They pulled a pallet of the books out of the back, people lined up, they were handed as many copies as they desired, they went to one of 5 registers open, checked out (at a hugely reduced price I might add. I got two for the MSRP of one), drove back to the hotel (which those in the wedding party will remember is right down the street from the Wal-Mart), booted up the computer, and typed this out by 12:18 according to the time signature below. If I had gone to the Barnes and Nobles in Robinson close to Pittsburgh, in 17 minutes I might have been able to see the parking lot where the store next to the Barnes and Nobles was located.
And now to ruin everyone's day...SPOILER ALERT...
Harry Potter is in this book.
You might say that I had to leave the state to buy the book.
Now it's time to go to bed. I've done enough stupid things for one night apparently.
Oh, and the second copy was for my cousin in case anyone was wondering.

So, we stuck close to home this past weekend. My dad fixed our lawnmower and dropped it off on Saturday. So, while they were playing with Gage, Terri and I took the opportunity to get some housework done. I finally got tired of tripping over the stacks of books that needed to be assimilated into the collection so I bit the bullet and started work in the library. I spent about 6 hours working in there on Saturday, another 3 hours on Sunday, 2 hours Monday, and I finally finished up Tuesday night. My rough count pins about 190-225 new books. Assimilation required some furniture moving and some creative housekeeping. It also required some major diversion in the entertainment department. Which gave me just the excuse I needed to make a dent in all the movies that I borrowed from Tom. So, I managed to clear 6 1/2 movies during my time in the library. Now, keep in mind whose collection these came from when looking at the caliber of cinematic delight.
I'll list these in order watched since enjoyment might be difficult to measure.
1. Dancing at the Blue Iguana I really didn't think that any movie could possibly make the naked female form more unappealing than this movie, but I was wrong. At least Showgirls had Gina to keep me entertained. The only potential redemption for Iguana was Sandra Oh and even she couldn't pull it off unfortunately.
2. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star This was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The cameos of actual child stars put this directly into watchability.
3. Dorm Daze Oddly enough this movie was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. This movie had the plot basis of the older intelligent comedy of hollywood where everything ends up interconnected with a ton of little twists, turns, and of course, misunderstandings. Plus Danielle as a gossip-monger and drug addict.
4. Black Knight This movie was highly disappointing. The premise is quite overdone and even the black angle was done before.
5. Repli-Kate Typical. The premise is old and no new twists really. Although the sidekick, played by him was pretty good.
6. 100 Girls This wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, but it did have it's moments.
While I was looking for some of the links I came across this. Why God Why?!?
Burning Question #2 Why does a radio station that claims to play hits from a catalog of two and a half decades have 3 different DJ's that play the same song (a remake from long ago) when the song itself is almost a year off the charts?
One little spot of corporate idiocy that I noticed (almost used the camera phone on this one). Subaru is touting this in all their new advertising. At the little hotel near our house, there was a trailer for the SUV. The hilarious part was that the trailer was being pulled by a Ford F250 pick-up.

I know I've been absent recently and that's due to lack of sleep. For some reason that's beyond anything that Terri, I, my parents, her parents, co-workers, etc. Gage has developed an abject fear of his crib and more importantly being (or sleeping) in it. It's made for quite a few sleepless nights since he invariably ends up between us on the bed. The poor boy is in for a lifetime of my sleep habits. They'll serve him well in college but are pretty useless otherwise. I finally had enough after 45 minutes of screaming so I grabbed my tool-box (coincidentally a father's day gift from Gage) and headed upstairs. I took the crib apart and turned it into the toddler bed. He thought that was cool for about 5 minutes then he cried and ended up in bed with us. At the moment he's sleeping there, but we'll see if it makes it all night. Then if we've actually solved the problem we're going to end up screwing it all up again this weekend when we travel to the family reunion.
In other news, I actually managed to win the Rare Entries competition that Craig runs during the summer. So, I have to come up with 8 pop culture questions for my entry. I've managed to get one so far. Plus I have to manage to answer this week's questions. For anyone interested in playing, let me know and I'll send you the info and questions for this week's contest. There's no money, it's all about the bragging rights.

Star Wars Horoscope for Scorpio

You are a powerful character. You tend to be possessive and lusty - which explains your greedy nature. You feel threatened when people try to order you around or control you. You are prone to suspicion and jealousy - but your resilience and passion get you what you want. Star wars character you are most like: Han Solo

What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Ok, so I took the weekend off, shoot me. So after posting that we were taking Gage to Idlewild on Friday with my parents, Susiezy IM's me and says, "I know Gage is too little to do this, but Idlewild is where my nephew got lost." I didn't think much about it. Although Gage was walking it was always for a purpose. He was either walking to us, or to a particular place or toy. He hadn't really ever just walked off anywhere. Either there's some sort of force-field around the park or Susiezy was trying to curse me. We were sitting at an outdoor table near the water park and as I turned my head I see Gage talking off across the sidewalk. Thankfully his little legs are too short for him to get any kind of distance yet. But now he just walks when and where he wants. Nobody said that was part of the package. He's just supposed to walk where I want him to walk. None of this running off on his own jazz. Anyway, Gage loved the park. I think he rode the Merry-Go-Round 6 times. He also rode other assorted rides and went into the little baby pool with me. So, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and Gage had fun. Dad even managed to dust off his dart skills for a prize. Damn do I miss having an in-house dart-board though.
We went to my Uncle's house on Sunday for a little 4th of July get-together. The people a couple doors up from them were having a yard sale. They had one of these. Not quite that one, but similar. Apparently their grandchildren had grown out of it and they didn't have any use for it anymore. Terri made some remark about how nice it would be to have one of those for Gage and the next thing we knew my Uncle Bob was thrusting money into the guy's hand. So, on Sunday afternoon they delivered Gage's playhouse and he spent a couple hours going into the house, coming out of the house, opening the door, closing the door. So, Gage had a great weekend.
The 4th was pretty laid-back. Terri had to work so Gage and I hung out at home and tried to get some housework done. Then once it got dark we simply walked outside and watched some fireworks. Next year we might actually take Gage somewhere. Although he did better this year than last year. Last year he slept through everything.
This story has been picked up by every major news organization. I've seen it on ESPN, CNN, Sports Illustrated, MSN, the local papers, local sites, and half a dozen other places. I'd like to think this would vault Pittsburgh to the top of the heap when it comes to loyal sports fans, but I'm fairly certain there had to be crack involved somewhere along the way.
This might require some sort of intervention for Susiezy.
If this makes it into an actual court, I'm gonna start making my list of ridiculous lawsuits. And I think I might want this guy on my team of lawyers. Any idiot who thinks they can use that as a plausible defense is insane enough for me.
Thanks to those who have already donated to the Alzheimer's walk. Still plenty of time and I'll have more details as it gets closer to the actual date of the walk. As always, e-mail me if you're interested in donating.

With the temperature being so oppressively hot, it's hard to work upstairs in the library where the majority of my work needs to be done. So, I've been relegated to carrying things downstairs in pieces. So, I've had the TV on in the background, but again tonight I found something on that I had meant to see, but never managed to find the time for. I think most things happen for a purpose and when things like this happen it only confirms it more.
For those of you that haven't seen the movie I won't spoil the plot but one of the main themes is memory loss.
My Project Manager at work sent an e-mail inviting me to join her team to walk in support of research for Alzheimer's. Her step-father is in the very early stages and having read quite a bit about this disease, I know she's in for quite a few painful times in her life. So, Terri and I are signed up to walk with her and her family and help raise money. So, although more details will be forthcoming, if you'd like to donate send me an e-mail. The address is to the right if you just want to click on it.
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."-Walt Whitman

I've noticed that blogger added a photo icon to my post window so maybe the next time I have a disk handy, I'll see if I can put up a picture of the little one so those of you that are out of town can see how he's growing.
So a car flew by me right at the end of the exit ramp on my way home. The first thing I noticed was that the license plate was askew, possibly on purpose. It was an Ohio plate that read "AHED OF U". The second thing I noticed was the spoiler. It was probably two feet high. That was really all I had time to notice before it was out of my sight. However, it got stopped at the first red light and as I pulled up behind it, I noticed two other things. The ground effect lighting and the fact that the car was a Saturn. A freakin' Saturn! There were probably more accessories on the car than the car cost. Ah well, MMTB.
Just one more day at work before I get a nice break of 4 days. Although there will be a lot crammed into those 4 days, but it will still be a nice break from work.

One would think that after 30 years of attempting to put myself to sleep and realizing that it doesn't work til I am completely ready, that having Gage go to sleep at a scheduled time just ain't gonna work. He's been fussing and crying for about 8 minutes now and this is already the second round of bedtime. It would be nice if he would have inherited Terri's ability to be asleep approximately 30 seconds after her head hits the pillow. Occasionally she's asleep before her head hits the pillow. Gage, however, has declared war on his crib. He can sense when you walk near the damn thing. And now he's back in the living room. Round 3 will probably commence in about 20 minutes. Life is never dull.
I'm currently watching this movie. At one point Julie Andrews begins to sing. I wonder if she's finally gotten back the use of her vocal cords. That would be phenomenal. Usually the world only loses a talent like that when someone passes on. To have her still among the population but to lose her singular talent was a sad day.
My parents originally wanted to take Gage here on Friday. Since Terri is on call this weekend she has Friday off. So, I tried investigating our vacation policy at work. According to the handbook there's a six month probation period after which you receive 5 vacation days and 3 sick days. However it never really specifies when the vacation time is awarded. So, I asked my used to be manager/supervisor who now is still a small part of the group, but not really attached to us anymore so she really has no authority over me whatsoever but still knows a crapload about the company since she's been there for a long time. So, according to her the handbook is kind of correct. After the probation period you get 5 days which is half of the normal vacation time. Then on your year anniversary you get your normal two weeks of vacation. Which must make it extremely difficult to keep track of everyone's time since everyone started on different days. So, this was the illusion that I labored under while I decided whether or not I wanted to burn my last vacation day going to an amusement park. In the end I decided to take the day, but now apparently there's a split sanction, apparently according to some managers on January 1st I got a full two weeks of vacation to use by the end of 05. Which makes the probation period completely useless. So, I can spend all day Friday trying to figure out if I have 0 vacation days til the middle of November or 5 vacation days til the end of the year. Having 5 would be nice. It would give us the opportunity to have a day for my family reunion, and some to visit some good friends and have a spare day or two in case something random pops up in the next six months. Oh well, such is life. Perhaps next week I'll actually find out the correct answer to the vacation saga. And thanks again to someone that I spoke to today for that much needed bump of support. It's always good to know that you don't exist in a vaccum and there are safety nets hanging around in case you accidentally, or accidently on purpose, stumble.

So I spent the majority of the weekend thinking that this guy was actually this guy. Which is odd considering he died last year. Oh well, I would say that if there are any remaining cast members left from Winnie the Pooh they might want to take out some extra life insurance. First Tigger and now Piglet, it's a 100 Acre massacre. Christopher Robin must be on Ritalin, whoops now Tom Cruise is going to be on my ass. Well Tom, I may not know the history of psychiatry, but my wife does. Care to play 20 questions? I'd put her education up against your lack of, anyday.
Anyway, enough of that crap and enough of this crap.

Swiped from elsewhere...Burning Question #1 Why does the Kool-Aid man have to wear pants now? Is a naked pitcher of kool-aid really such a big problem?
When I was a youngster in SDC Buggy an older respected member of the organization sat me down and gave me the new mechanic's speech. He could see that I was hooked and wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into. He tried to tell me that the higher I went in the organization, the less fun it would be. I'll be honest, at the time I didn't understand what he was talking about. I couldn't see how it was possible. Having more responsibility in an organization that was such fun couldn't possibly be a bad thing. Then came my senior year. It was my least favorite year in buggy. When I watched the last buggy roll successfully up over the hill to our catcher and the tears started to roll down my cheeks, I had a moment of clarity. Not an epiphany, just clarity. It's common sense that the higher you go, the more responsibility you get, the less enjoyable that it could become due to all the red-tape, etc. It's just something that you forget every once in a while. However, what happens when just the illusion of being in a high place causes you overt grief?
I bring this up to explain something that's being going on for over a decade now. Somehow I've earned the illusion that I'm some sort of whiz at games. Board games, card games, some minor sporting events (bowling, pool, darts, things like that). I'm only about half sure where this reputation came from. Of course my ego perpetuated half of it, but I manage to keep fairly accurate tabs on different gaming things. And, the tally is...I lose a lot more than I win. And that is fairly standard across the board. I've had my ass kicked a lot more often than I'd care to admit, and by opponents far and wide not just one person or a small group. Nowadays since my friends have been scattered here and there, I certainly don't play as much as I used to. But when I do play I like to play things that I enjoy (hey I am human). And my enjoyment for gaming stems from skill and knowledge since I have no luck whatsoever. So while I enjoy most trivia games, I don't hold well with things like poker and scrabble which depend largely on the luck of the draw. However, due to unknown reasons rarely can I get anyone to play a trivia related game and if I do, it's certainly not one that I would prefer, just one that I end up settling for. Which means that win or lose it turns into a big competition. Terri and I used to play frequent games with the same set of friends and somehow it always degraded into some sort of argument and I usually ended up handicapped in some way. For example, I've played a number of rounds of trivial pursuit where it's been me as a solo player against one or more teams. And the results have been typical, 50/50 at best. I'm sure this sounds like a big whiny bitchfest, but I had another moment of clarity playing Scrabble this evening. Games aren't any fun for me anymore. Regardless of what we're playing, who's playing, when we're playing, or where we're playing it just hasn't been fun for me for a long time. This isn't a knock on anyone I've played against, it's just a personal decision that has been a long time in coming. So, I'm announcing my retirement. I've made the decision that I'll be the permanent babysitter for Gage and whatever other children are present so that everyone will have fun. So now maybe the illusion will go away.

Well aren't I just up on things. Looking back I guess I said once a day seven days a week not once every seven days or so. Anyway, due to my OCD with listening to my CD's, for the past couple of weeks I've been listening to things like this, this, and this. If you want to ask I'll explain but it would take too much space right at the moment. So after listening to various people sing various holiday tunes for the majority of the morning I decided it was time to get up and walk around. Now that's not too unusual, Mark and I usually make a circuit of Oakland around 2ish every day. However, Mark had the day off today. So, I decided to walk out on my own.
I realized something on my walk. When you're walking with someone else, there's usually some type of conversation going on. Mark and I talk about everything from work to family to news and back again. However, when I walk alone I find that I tend to be very introspective. Which for me is never good. Instead of walking alone, I find that I walk with all my assorted demons. There's the little yappy one who does circles around me asking why I haven't dropped the number of pounds that I'd like to lose. There's the one who springs out of the rational part of my mind asking why I haven't investigated a mortgage/house yet. There's the one that's constantly reminding me that I'm currently 3 tests and one assignment behind in my Managerial Accounting class. There's the one sitting on my left shoulder reminding me about housework that needs to be done. Of course, his partner on my right shoulder reminds me of all the yardwork that needs to be done as well. There are the twins that bellow "Are you being the best dad you can be?" "Are you being the best husband you can be?" in an alarming cacophony of caterwauling (which is redundant I know, but they're demons). And that doesn't even speak to the thousands of lesser demons all screeching their own little personal message of hell.
Then there's my personal favorite, the one that hangs around my neck on what feels like a 3,000 lb weight swinging back and forth asking why I can't put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, or voice to tape. That's the one that I hit out against today. Metaphysically I wanted to know why the demon hadn't given me a good concept to work with or a bit of story to develop. What did I get back? Lord Byron.
Now, for those of you that don't quite get that, you might want to read this. For a long time (and even to some degree more recently) every time I went into a restaurant or bar I'd inevitably end up scribbling down a few sentences or snippets about "She". I suppose "She" was born three-fold. Part every woman that I'd ever run across, an amalgam of beauty you might say, part Byron and part this.
"She" started out cliched and stayed there. The various napkins, placemats, scraps of paper, and matchbooks reside in a box filled with other assorted "writings" as well as several poems that this guy hated beyond all belief. So, I'm back to arguing with the demon. It's damn near impossible to to develop a concept that at it's core is cliche, at least to the point of selling it to other people. Thankfully the demon didn't win, I arrived back at the office and the majority of the argument was over. However, that nagging residual feeling still remains, so hopefully I can excise one demon by posting this. But I doubt it.

Happy Birthday Nathan! Gage can't wait to see you again. With the two of you being mobile, all the mommies and daddies involved will have their hands full.
It's hard to believe that a year has gone by. Terri and I were having dinner last night at the same restaurant where we found out that Matt and Alison told us that Alison was pregnant with Nathan. Seems like just a month or so ago that we were passing each other on the mall or in the UC. Now we're supposedly all "adults" and some of us have families to be responsible for. Scary.
And since I won't spoil Nathan's day with any negativity I'll just say Happy Birthday once again.

Tomorrow will be someone's first birthday. And, since I'm posting this so late, I'm guessing that most of you will be reading this tomorrow anyway. Any idea who it might be?
Terri thinks I should blog about the weeble rant that I had in the care on the way home. However, I refuse to give space to the imposter pieces of crap that they are churning out nowadays.
I finally got my new toy today, but without the proper time to explore and set up, I think I'll wait for the first post tomorrow.

Okay, I have two days to get all the negativity out since the 16th is a special day for some people.
Wal-mart has fallen to a distant fourth on my corporate hate list. Want to know who managed to bump the House of Satan not one spot but two and who managed to catapult over my other #1? No, you probably don't, but since it's my blog I'm going to tell you anyway. This company and this company are tied for first although I believe the former is going to claim the number one slot solo.
I'm sure the full story will follow but for now if you have a few minutes, call 1-800-833-9943, run the gauntlet til you get a live operator and then lodge a complaint for poor service against the San Antonio call center and Derrick Perry.
Oh and for an entirely different reason Damn you Joe Wright!

In 1791 a statute was written in a small town in Massachusetts to protect the newly finished town building from the little kids who used a "stick" and a "ball" to play on the lawn. It wouldn't be for almost another 50 years that the shape of the game was laid out by a man in a small New York town.
You know the names, probably a whole hell of a lot better than I do since I'm a confessed non-fan. Why am I a non-fan when there are people like Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Heinie Manush, Christy Mathewson, Cy Young, Roberto Clemente, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey, Jr., and numerous other storied players? I'm a non-fan because baseball (yes I hope you gleaned the subject was baseball by now) isn't baseball anymore. At least not in the same way it was played when Bill Mazeroski stepped onto Forbes Field. Not in the same way movies like Major League, The Natural, A League Of Their Own, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Necessary Roughness (I know that was a football movie, but it was such a bad football movie it made you want to watch baseball) depicted the hallowed sport of America's pasttime. It's not the same game that Chabon glorified in his children's book, Summerland. A book, I might add, that almost made me a fan.
So, why the hatred? Why now? Well I'll tell those of you that are left (I'm assuming everyone else has given up and left by now).
The headline from this article. Not the actual story, just the headline. 1960. 45 years since the Pittsburgh Pirates have played baseball in Yankee Stadium. That's approximately 7,300 games that the Pirates OR the Yankees have played. 7,300 is more games than BOTH the Penguins and the Flyers have played since they joined the National Hockey League. And yet in that 162 game schedule with only 30 teams in the league they can't find the time to schedule 1 lousy stinkin' game against every team.
One theory postulated by a fan says that the league's don't play the same kind of baseball. Between the different rule set, the DH, and long ball vs. short ball it would never work. I'm sorry, don't all 30 teams play baseball? The Western Conference vs. the Eastern Conference in hockey play very different styles of the same game, but it makes the game that much more entertaining watching the team, coaches and players alike, try to adapt to the other's style. Now I'm sorry I keep comparing baseball to hockey when football is just as flawed schedule wise, but football at least has the excuse of a very limited schedule. Baseball at it's very heart is a simple game. Stand by the plate, swing the bat, hit the ball, run for the base. You're either safe or you're out. It's so simple, it's usually the first sport that little children play. From T-ball to little league to pony to mustang little kids are fed a steady diet of baseball. So why is the sport so out of whack?
Why is one of the most hotly debated sports topics for baseball a scandal ridden blotch on the sport? Why are player's salaries and contracts more than the GNP for several countries (most not even the impoverished third world). Baseball just barely ranks above hockey in the ratings and that's not saying much. When you're outwatched by a fake sport, and a bunch of guys going left what does that say about the shape of your sport?
If you read my last post you know I was subjected to the Pirates game. I watched a "professional" athlete make the same mistake that the third graders my dad used to coach during their first couple games. The difference, the third graders stopped making the mistake and they were only paid a hot dog and a can of pop per game. Back then that was less than $1.00. All told the entire team probably cleared about $100.00 on paper. Of course since most of the pop was donated, it was simply on paper. This guy is making at least $300,000 probably more. That's almost 2 grand per game. That's a lot of hot dogs and pop. The funny thing is, the series against the Yankees is going to end up being the season series for both teams. The Yankees aren't playing as well as they could and the Pirates are playing better than expected. That will change once they play each other. The Yankees will beat on the Pirates and rally their season, while the Pirates will attempt to bounce back from the beating by going to Boston only to be beat again and slump for the rest of the season.
Steroids, inter-league play, scandals, Barry Bonds, A-Rod's outrageous salary, bored fans, and even more boring games. The days of watching the underdog come back to turn the mythical double play and beat the first place team have long since fallen by the wayside. Teams that are near the bottom usually stay there and owners simply spend more money to try and entice them to play the game that they used to play for free in their childhood. Hell, more than once I've heard fans (actual fans) say that they were just going to grab a cheap ticket, go into the park, grab the giveaway, and then head out to do something better. And these people are the fans. I think it's time to start over. Level the league for a year, take a step back, look at the bigger picture, and find some people who care...if you can. And while you're on that hiatus, donate a fraction of the league's salaries to a charity. I'll bet they can cure a disease with all that money. Just one non-fan's opinion (though oddly enough I'm not alone on this one).

Like I said, not much going on today. We did end up going to Terri's Uncle's house. I had to watch the last seven innings of the Pirates game only to have them lose anyway. Typical.
Now I'm trying to fill out the Physical Unit Flow so that I can compute the Equivalent Units of Production so that I'm able to compute Unit Production Costs so that I can fill out a damn Cost Production Report which is what my assignment is in the first place. Good fun for a Sunday night I tell you.

I think I'm going to attempt the seven day a week posting again, we'll see how long that lasts. I usually don't have enough interesting things to fill one post a week let alone seven. But hey, most of this blog hasn't been interesting so far, why start now?
I was saddened to hear of Dana Elcar's passing. MacGyver was one of my favorite TV shows and I can't even tell you how many trivia questions I've been able to answer because of all the science on that show. See, watching TV can make you smarter. I had a lot of respect for him because he didn't let his disability stop him from acting. He started going blind while he was working on MacGyver and they just turned around and made it part of his character. Nowadays they try and hush it up and start plotting your character's demise.
Anyway, I guess that means there won't be any commentary on future DVD releases.
Not much else is going on today. We took the opportunity to get stuff done around the house and get some yardwork done. We managed to get most of the grass cut and even some of it raked. Maybe we'll accomplish more tomorrow, but I doubt it. We're tentatively scheduled to go see Terri's uncle tomorrow and I'm sure that will take precedence over getting actual work done.

Okay, I now seem to have everything under control thanks to a little bit of programming help. After embarking on a few new tasks at work, a web course, and just general stubbornness on my part I've realized that code (be it HTML, Flash, Java, whatever) is no different than learning a foreign language. There are rules, exceptions, a vocabulary set, and various other familiarities, but it's basically the same. And since I had gotten good grades in five languages I figured with a little persistance I'd master this crap too.

Alright, I solved one problem but created another.
If anyone has any ideas as to why the text gets mind-numbingly small halfway down the page, let me know. I installed a new comment system, but I can't find anything wrong with the code...yet. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon. I have a couple things I haven't tried yet.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Well there's a lot rattling around in my head, but not a lot of time to get it out. Gage's party went fairly well and I have a lot of observations about the party and the whole first year of parenthood thing and the passage of time. I also had a bunch of links to things that I thought were fairly funny at the time but now have kind of dimmed. Such as the Viagra linked to blindness articles. Those simply screamed "Masturbation Joke" when I first read them, but now with a week's perspective...well they still scream the same thing, just not quite as loud.
Anyway, hopefully over the course of the next couple days, I'll have some time on my hands at home to get everything up and keep everyone up to date on the oh-so exciting things going on in case de us.

Sorry, posting is going to be a little sparse (read nonexistent) for the rest of this week. In addition to trying build a toybox, procur party supplies, clean for out of town relatives, and be a full time parent, part time student and full time worker, we also have to deal with the added bonuses of my father's retirement dinner and extra grocery shopping.
So, I apologize if this is going to break anyone's heart, but c'est la vie, que sera sera, etc.

So two years ago I had the "dreaded" high school reunion which I really enjoyed. I was on the planning committee and even the extremely drunken meeting was fun (though I wasn't much use at work the next day). Anyway, it all culminated in a really fun evening for everyone.
Today we found out that Terri's class is planning their reunion. The date...August 27th. We'll be here on August 27th. So as the people in Terri's class are sitting down to a dinner of warmed over chicken (they've done no fundraising) we'll be seated in the Waltrip section on Turn 4 watching 43 very determined drivers trying to tame the beast that is Bristol Motor Speedway. Those tickets aren't looking so bad now, huh hon?
So, I know everyone is expecting a big review of Star Wars. Well, you can go here. Or here. If you're interested in some in-depth analysis of the movie head to any of the numerous message boards or click here.
I have no spoilers to give other than the one that's been known since Episode II came out. And, that's my one big gripe in the movie. There's no mention of Han Solo. Not a glimpse, not a glimmer, nothing.
And, other than the fact that I had a very good lunch with friends and family on Saturday before seeing the movie and a relaxing evening afterwards, I have nothing else to say on the subject of Star Wars. It will not surpass any of the other 5 as my favorite of the six. A good movie experience.
Sunday among other things we went to get ice cream and this time we got Gage a baby cone. Let's just say that taste sensation will not be a problem for that little boy.

I just don't understand why nothing is easy anymore. Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes ago I set out on a 20 mile roundtrip to the all night House of Satan. Including the actual errand I was running it should have taken me about 25-30 minutes. Instead I sat in traffic for a detour that shouldn't be occurring, got re-routed right back to my original spot, and I'll have to get up somewhat early this morning to finish watching Episode II in preparation for the 3:00 showing of Episode III.
If anyone's interested I can actually recount the events, but I'm still a little too steamed at the moment.

Well, based on the comments received for yesterday's post and through conversations held today...I'm right again. Man, you'd think I'd get tired of being right all the time.
Well, I'm through 4 and 5. Tomorrow night hopefully all of 6 and then Saturday morning for 1 and 2. I've also set aside the soundtracks to accompany me in the car for the next week or so.
This is another one of those times that I wouldn't mind having the 24 hour camera rolling on myself and my surroundings. I started Episode 4 before we put Gage to bed. When the Star Wars logo came on the screen and the music started to play, Gage stared at the screen and started applauding. He is my son. Then when the text scroll started he went over to the screen and pointed to the words as they crawled by. Serendipity. I was so wonderfully proud.
Hopefully he'll love them as much as Mark and Robyn's little boy Jacob. He has seen all 5 of them and he's not even 5.
My project manager was back in the office after a two day absence, but she was still in pain and kind of looped on painkillers so I felt like this guy. "Pay no attention to the man at the other desk, I am the great and powerful Project Manager" I'm hoping the weekend will give her some more time to sleep and hopefully recover to a larger capacity. I barely enjoy doing one job let alone two. It cuts into my slacker reputation.

Well let's see. In about 10 minutes the theater will dim and the trailers (5 or less by contractual obligation) will start flickering across the screen. As soon as those are finished the familiar John Williams score will start through the speakers causing an involuntary hush to fall over the crowd as the entire audience draws breath all at once only to exhale in unison and spontaneous applause as the score crescendoes into the the familiar Star Wars logo.
Can you tell I'm going to be missing the midnight showing in more ways than one? Hell, when I purchased my tickets online today, I left the web browser confirmation up til 6:30 when I logged off my computer. Even though I printed it twice and got an e-mail confirming my confirmation.
So, I need reader's input on two issues. The first is dealing with my wife and Star Wars. The second is dealing with my son and Star Wars...noting the recurring theme of this post?
First issue...As noted above, we have tickets that are confirmed and reconfirmed. Between now and the time listed on the tickets, I feel that the proper way to reconnect with the Star Wars universe and "suck up" for the show is to watch the DVD's. Starting with 4, progressing to 5, onto 6, then to 1, and finally 2. That will carry me to the theater showing of 3. At which point, the showings will begin again upon returning home in the same order 4-5-6-1-2. And, if time, babysitters, and cash permit a potential second showing of 3 to soak up the subtle points that may have been missed in the first viewing. Terri feels that if any viewings are to take place, it should be 1 and 2 then the showing of 3 home to 4, 5, and 6. So, feel free to chime in on which situation is right or wrong and what you might do.
Second issue...As many of you know my son is turning 1 at the end of the month. This means that there will have to be a decision made as to which order to view the Star Wars movies. Granted, there are only two choices. Release order or Episode order. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. So, I'd like to hear those arguments as well.
In fact the only Star Wars thing that I don't want to hear or see is any reviews, commentary, plot points, etc until 6:00 on Saturday after I've walked out of the theater...then...let me have it.

Is every school in this country stupid? It's not like this girl went in to have her boobs enlarged and missed school. What kills me is that everyone knew where she was and why she was there. She's been in the district her entire life. I remember the people running our high school making some questionable decisions when I was there, but nothing quite that stupid. At least the kid they are appointing valedictorian has asked them to reconsider. That is a spot of class in the school.
Speaking of stupid. I can't even decide where to throw down blame on this one. I guess I'll just blame the parents. Well, the magazine can't be held responsible, their fact checkers are overworked. And the fact checkers can't be held responsible, the reporters are idiots. And the reporters can't be held responsible, they have to sensationalize the news because average folks need that Springer angle. And Springer can't be blamed since he has real folks on his show to help them with their problems. And the folks on Springer can't be blamed because it's all their parents fault for allowing them to watch Springer in the first place. See, I told you it was the parents.
Not much else is going on today. My project manager skipped out on work today because of her problem. She says she should be in tomorrow. We'll see when I get there. They are usually hovering around my desk to give me the bad news as quickly as possible.
Here's something I wished I would have had the foresight to get a picture of. The girl that works in the marketing department for our company ran out of gas about 20 feet from the garage door entrance to our company. So, a bunch of guys had to go out onto the road and push her into the lot. It did get me a free lunch, but perhaps I'll just blame the parents for her too.

Please, can someone point me to the place where "what happens there, doesn't stay there?" It was slightly funny for the Vegas set of commercials. I'm not buying it for Cabo, Mexico, Canada, the kitchen, the backyard, or wherever else an action takes place that might be compromising, embarrassing, or deceitful.
Thankfully tomorrow is the election in Pittsburgh and then it will take at least a week for the winning candidates to re-group and start campaigning again.
Tomorrow also marks the start of the semi-finals in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. The six champions get a two day playoff to determine the two winners that will face Ken Jennings in the final round. I'm personally rooting for Chris and Brad to make it to the finals. Jerome looks like an even more cartoonish version of Jon Lovitz than Lovitz himself. Frank has the knowledge, but not the speed, so unless the board is lopsided to his particular knowledge I don't think he's going to make it. John and Pam will end up being the two middle podium people who stand there and try not to look like idiots as they answer 4 or 5 questions the whole game.
Anyway, I also realized that today was 6 months at my new job. No more probation. Of course, I got that information coupled with the fact that my project manager has to have a minor surgical procedure and no one is sure of the recovery process yet. Which means I may get thrown into a busier position by default.
The weekend wasn't too bad. It rained just enough time for just enough duration that we got absolutely no yard work done.
Saturday we just kind of hung out in the morning then went to see the Paterson lecture. She told several stories, read from some of her books, and did the requisite Q&A period. However, since this is primarily a children's lecture series the questions weren't quite the caliber that you would expect. It was still fun. One of the questions was about her path to becoming a writer. She talked about a graduate professor that told her that she should become a writer. She didn't feel that she had the talent and didn't want to add another "mediocre writer" to the field. The professor persisted in her claim and Paterson realized that if you don't dare to be mediocre, how are you ever going to be great?
After the lecture, they moved everyone that was interested into the children's area of the Carnegie Library, Paterson set up shop in the corner and proceeded to autograph anything that people had available, very patiently I might add. She posed for pictures and was thrilled that Gage might be a fan one day soon. I met a gentlemen who is in the MFA program at Chatham for children's writing. So, in case you notice it before I do, his nom de plume is "Syracuse Todd".
Sunday after church we headed down to the hospital where my Grandmother passed away. It turns out that every six months they hold a memorial service for everyone that died in the hospital. It sounds morbid and silly at the same time and since it was held in the main lobby, my first thought was that it was a little insensitive to those visiting the sick, but it was a touching service anyway. We then stopped by my parent's house so Gage could spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa.
I guess that's about all for today. I'll hit the treadmill for a couple of miles and then hit the bed.

Well what's left of Friday the 13th will be gone by the time you read this. Hopefully you're not a paraskevidekatriaphobe. I figured since I own a black cat, really...how much worse can it get?
This article struck me for three reasons. One, this guy brutally murdered 8 little girls and later realized the consequences of his actions. To this end, he refused all appeals and tried to speed up his execution. Sure, he should have probably been made to suffer a little more, but I can't believe how many people tried to override his wishes and keep him alive. I can almost guarantee that if somehow they had succeeded he would have attempted to hang himself in his own cell. It's like some bizarre twist on the Schiavo case. Two the state of execution. And, three the man's alma mater.
Not much else going on today. Terri and I made it through one whole week of yard work. I went out Mon, Wed, and today. She went out Tues and Thurs. So far, we've weedwhacked the hillside, moved off all the loose rocks off the sidewalk, cut about 1/4 of the lawn and pulled a small section of weeds by the patio. We'll get there eventually.
Tomorrow afternoon we're off to see Katherine Paterson give a lecture at the Carnegie Library. The series is for children, but if you listen to anyone's opinion of me, I'm still a big kid.

Well in keeping with learning something new every day, today I did something that I've never done before. I ripped a CD. It took about 4 1/2 minutes. I almost fell off my chair. Two clicks. Now I'm in the market for a new computer and the hard drive space to hold all my music. Here's where I could use some help. I'm looking for computer suggestions, storage suggestions, any kind of help.
I have approximately 2,000 CD's 1,000 or so tapes, 400 Vinyl albums, and about 200 8-
Tracks. Obviously I'm not going to be able to contain all that on one computer. So, is an external drive the way to go? So the computer have any special features or should I just get a barebones from here? Is this a PC or a Mac venture? Laptop, desktop? HP, Dell, Gateway, Apple? As you can tell...I'm clueless here.
Not much else going on here. A couple of people from work stopped over this evening and they're going to take some plant life out of my yard. I can't tell you how wonderful that is. Anything removed from the yard is one less thing that I may have to potentially take care of.
This is certainly a switch. (Although I'll preface this with the fact that the list has changed since I read it this morning and may change again). However, right now English, a major near and dear to my heart, is 2nd on the list. Computer Science...nowhere to be found. Sweet justice.

Not much is going on today. I'm posting a little earlier than normal because I decided to skip the daily walk on the treadmill. I figured that finishing the weedwhacking on the hillside qualifies as quite enough exercise for today. So, a quick post and then it's off to bed.
So, I finished all of my old Entertainment Weekly magazines and I'm even caught up, having finished the most recent issue last night. Now, not including all the hype within the articles themselves (too numerous to count) there were 4 full page ads with various vendors hawking their products with some sort of Star Wars tie-in. The number of Star Wars themed commercials are beginning to rival the first week of November 2004. Now, granted I'm going to see the movie at least once in the theater and the DVD will be out in time for Christmas. I also have Darth Tater sitting on my desk at work next to my Yoda and Darth Vader Slurpee cups from 7-11, but there's even a limit to what I can take hype-wise. They are building the movie so high, it's bound to crash in some way or another. I've seen at least 3 articles postulating on what the movie is or isn't going to resolve. And, since I already have it on pretty good authority that Han Solo makes no appearance whatsoever, I'm curious as to what other disappointments lie ahead. I've not read much of the press. If the article looks like it might contain spoilers, I've avoided it. I haven't bought the soundtrack, the book, or the video game (not that I have the right system to play it on anyway). I haven't looked at Kevin Smith's review (although that might be the only one to trust). Anyway, only a week to go til opening day so it will probably be at least a week more than that before I can find space in the theater to see the movie. And now it's time to go to bed to see if I can divine as to how Leia has memories of her mother, but Anakin has no memories of Leia.

Well, I once heard that you are supposed to learn one new thing every day. Today, I simply relearned something that I already knew. I'm always right.
Take this entry for example (taken straight from The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual p.146)
Over It generally refers to spatial relationships: The plane flew over the city. Over can, at times, be used with numerals: She is over 30. I paid over $200 for this suit. But, more than may be better: Their salaries went up more than $20 a week. Let your ear be your guide.
Style isn't always grammatically correct. Or, as I also learned today "grammatically schrammatically."

Whether it was intended to be a counterpart to my late night/early morning Saturday post, Adam's post was exactly what I needed. I guess it's not the destination, it's the journey that takes us there. And, to badly paraphrase, What a short strange trip it's been. Hopefully with good friends and family by my side, the rest of my journey will have the same sweet moments the journey has held so far. Maybe a little less of the scary ones, though.
For those that knew me in college, I tried a lot of things to extend deadlines and generally shirk classroom responsibility, but I can honestly say it never crossed my mind to set my house on fire.
And, since my son hasn't learned the value of sleeping in yet, I'm headed to bed for my eventual 6 am wake-up call...are we really sure he's my son? Surely my sleep gene should have kicked in by now.

Well it was pointed out to me that it's been over a week since I last posted. That it has. And, it made me focus on why I haven't posted. It's not like I haven't had the opportunity. I've been on the computer numerous times at home. I've certainly kept up with the blog reading. I think it has something to do with my last big lapse in posting around mid-march.
Anyway, a couple of quick notes before I completely delve into wallowing self-pity or whatever the hell it is. This holds great promise for me. It has the potential to bring about balance in the force.
Ok, here's where the casual reader can stop, in fact everyone can stop here if they'd like. The rest of this is sure to be long, rambling, full of self-loathing and inconclusive bs.
After dinner on Thursday the 28th with Susie and the Warners I went about my normal nightly routine. Terri and I (mostly Terri) put Gage to bed, Terri soon followed and I caught up on some paperwork and magazine reading. Being afflicted with insomnia, or an overactive thought process, sometimes keeps me up even when I don't want to be. Sure, it was wonderful during those all nighters in college, but nowadays with Gage getting up at 6:30 occasionally, it's not so pleasant. Anyway, I always have some noise coming from the television whether I'm actually watching or not. That night it happened to be
this. I'm pretty sure everyone I know has seen this movie. And, if you haven't, I'm sure you can buy it from Target the moment they open. There's nothing earth shattering about watching that particular movie. Hell, I've done it numerous times before. However, the last several times I've seen the movie I've been left with a little nagging feeling in me. That movie combined with the news the next day of Mr. Bell's death kind of brought that nagging to the surface. Til now I haven't really figured out what it means. Hell, I'm still not sure I have it figured out. Anyway, the movie left me with that vague feeling. Which I realized also had occurred earlier in March after watching this movie. And that feeling was intensified by seeing Terri's colleague play at the coffee house and singing the song "Lucky One" by Alison Krauss. There's a line in the song that says "Jack of all trades, master of none." That really sunk it home for me. When you think about that in conjunction with "Carpe Diem" and "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'" I wonder exactly what the hell I've been doing with my life. I have two writing degrees. Do I write? No. Do I want to? I think so. I used to be a fairly proficient actor. Do I act? No. Do I want to? I think so. The list is endless. Things that I'm fairly good at. Nothing that I excel at. Nothing that drives me to neglect reading the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly in favor of sitting at the typewriter. Perhaps I'm afraid of rejection. Perhaps I'm afraid that after devoting a little over half my life to my chosen profession, I'll find out that I don't belong there. That my six figure school loan debt was just a chance to build two and a half kick-ass buggies and earn me perhaps the oddest wedding gift ever seen. Speaking of EW, the last couple issues have had book reviews with Jonathan Safran Foer and his wife Nicole Krauss. Both have just recently published their second novels. Not that remarkable all things considered. Except that both of them are younger than I am. (Now we hit the crux of the matter) Not only do I feel old, but I'm too old to be the whiz kid that I always thought I was. Hell, I was once even hired to be the company whiz kid. I'm also wondering if perhaps I'm too old to try and break as a novelist (especially considering my novel resembles the "naked page" project that Jonathan once ran in another magazine that I read regularly. I rarely put together pieces as coherent as Susie. I'm not as ironic as Dwight. I certainly haven't been on Jeopardy like Craig. Or, even on any game show like Joe. I'm not making disposable income or breaking out on my own like The Mutchlers or Tom. I'm not really doing much of anything. I'm on the phone and people ask what's new. I have no answer, and I haven't for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy with my family, just my situation. I love Terri and Gage and I don't know how I'd get along without them. It's just this overwhelming frustration that keeps creeping back. This frustration all built into this post due to all the overwhelming signs that hammered at me this evening. I had problems getting a simple CSS sheet to work for my Web Development test. I was flipping through the channels and Dead Poet's Society was on (in fact when I started this post, Neil had just committed suicide). Once I saw my favorite scene (with half the class standing on their desks proclaiming O Captain, My Captain and having Robin Williams simply look up in an understated and, for him, completely uncharacteristic manner, to say, "Thank you boys. Thank you.), I flipped around the channels and sure enough there was Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. And yes, I flipped on the country station just to check and it wasn't Alison Krauss, but it was close. They were playing Lee Ann Womack's I Hope You Dance. So anyway, I have no closing...it was long, rambling, and mostly incoherent bs, but there it is anyway. Who knows, maybe someday I'll end up like Ron McLarty with the best book you can't read and then you can. Until then, I guess you'll just have to deal with my frustrations and ramblings here.

Since not one but two people have already posted this ahead of me, Happy Birthday Terri.
Also, Happy Birthday to my Uncle David and Happy Birthday a day late to my Uncle Bob.
That's all with the Birthday announcements.

For the past two or three days the left side of my head has been throbbing and pulsing with what I assume is a sinus infection. I guess I'm too stubborn or too busy to go to the doctor so I've been dosing up on Sudafed and Tylenol. I must say, it's an interesting feeling being completely clearheaded and functioning on one side and full of pain, blockage, and swelling on the other side. It's kind of like the badly done split screen image at the beginning of the Incredible Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Pretty much like this. Anyway, it's made work interesting for the past two days.
Craig has been keeping everyone posted on the current playoff situation. I really thought the Pens had a chance to make it back into the playoffs this year. Maybe he's just a little confused.
This doesn't surprise me at all considering the University it came from. That place is full of scholars I tell you.
Anyway, it's off to more Tylenol and Sudafed.

I guess I'm slowly coming to the realization that it just won't be possible for me to see the midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie. I've run out of scenarios that will allow me to a) find tickets and b) attend. When Lucas did his re-tooling and re-release of the original trilogy, we managed to scrounge tickets for the first showing on the first day. When Episode I was released, a small group of us waited outside overnight. Terri even got her hands in USA Today and at some point or another, we were all on television. Episode II saw me on a scaffold 25 feet in the air running a brush over Nicole Kidman to barter my way to tickets. And now, I've just run out of options. I know, woe is me. It's not like the movie only plays one day. Still, 5 out of 6 is a pretty good record. It's a shame to have it broken.
Speaking of Star Wars...
We were home visiting our respective parents this weekend (amidst the April snow) and my dad was watching The Empire Strikes Back. Now, I'm willing to cut Lucas quite a bit of slack...after Jar Jar Binks I have to. But this is truly going to have to be one kick-ass script to take that whiny adolescent wuss from Episode II and transform him into the galaxy's most powerful villian. Vader's presence in, what is now, Episode V is forceful. He takes charge, he deals with no one. Hayden has a long way to go. I mean most people thought Luke was the whiniest of the bunch til they met Hayden. At least you can see where Luke got it from.
Oh well, Happy Belated Birthday (by a week) to Mitch.

Nothing much going on today. The webcast broadcast went well so that was a bonus. I had good intentions of coming home, rebuilding the lawnmower, and hitting some of the grass tonight, but due to the rain and severe thunderstorm warnings that didn't happen. How much does lawn service cost again?
I've been branching out a tad since I've had a couple minutes here and there so you might see some new blogs pop up on the little menu on the side. I can't promise, but I'm sure I'll find something that I like.
Oddly enough, I have nothing else to say except...goodnight.

Well, after yesterday's big catch-up post I'll keep it short. I have a whole big rant on a certain store (actually not the House of Satan this time), but I'll save that for another day...with good reason of course.
Tomorrow at the office we're holding a rebroadcast of a live seminar because there were technical difficulties with the company we hired and the company sponsoring the event. Hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow. I would invite you to check it out, but I've already seen it three times and that was five times too many so I won't bore you with it too.
The Catholic church found themselves a new Pope according to the news. He's 78. That means that we'll be going through this process again a lot sooner than we did last time.
Anyway, not much else has been going on so I'll leave it at that.

Those who are in the know realized that this was Carnival weekend at Carnegie Mellon. That means scantily clad women get into tiny penis shaped objects and have men shove them down a hill at break-neck speeds. Or buggy, as we called it.
That would explain the lack of posting recently. That and a completely jammed weekend.
Thursday night I manage to stumble home from work and I went straight to bed. My stomach was queasy, I had a whomping headache, and felt like I was going to hurl everytime I moved. Fun state to be in. Hell, that used to be Saturday night not Thursday night. Anyway, after a pretty sleepless night, I got up at 5:45 to get ready to go out to buggy. Oh, did I forget to mention for everyone that buggy begins at sun up? Oddly enough, I think that Carnegie Mellon may be the only campus in the United States that gets more alumni back for Carnival than they do for homecoming.
Anyway, Gage was going with me out to his first race day. We parked in the lot for my office which is about a 1/2 mile walk from campus. So, I packed the camera, his diaper bag, his food bag, extra clothes, a jacket, the Snugli, and his toys into the stroller and we set off. I was hoping the stroller ride would put him to sleep, but no such luck. And, to top it off as we got close to campus he decided that he was done riding. So, now I'm carrying him in one arm and pushing the stroller full of crap with the other. We finally got to campus, met up with Tom and I stashed the stroller near the buggy truck. We put Gage on my back in the Snugli and proceeded to watch the races and mingle with alumni. That morning went by without too much incident. We saw Mel, Madler, Stengel, Abby, Billy, Karen, Sheby, Virginia, and a ton of other alumni. Unfortunately, at the end of the morning, instead of three teams returning for second day SDC only had one because of some DQ's. But it was still a decent day. Everyone loved Gage. We even had some random girls stop us for a picture. After the races, during which we covered about 6 miles or so, we headed the 1/2 mile back to the car so Gage could get dropped off at Aunt Jenny's house.
Then I headed into work. After work, Susie, Tom, Terri, Jenny, and Gage met me at my office and we headed down to PNC Park for the Pirates Game. Gage's first Pirate game actually. By the time we got to the ballpark to find a place to park Gage decided his stomach had enough. He puked four times in a row covering himself, the car seat, and anything within range. Thankfully, I was a) in the front seat and b) in someone else's car. Anyway, once we got into the stadium the game wasn't bad. They actually won. The crowd was stunned. They hadn't seen a Pirate win in a decade or so. After the game we had to get out of the traffic, straigten out the cars, and get home so I didn't get to bed til after midnight.
Then it was back up at 6:00 the next morning. Terri, Gage, and I got out to buggy and the first thing they told me was that they were running exhibition heats and they wanted to know what hill I was going to push. So, at 7:30 in the morning I found myself sprinting up Hill 5 on Frew Street. Thankfully I beat the person I was racing against. And, I got to push Rage, which is the last buggy that I helped to build when I was at Carnegie Mellon. Then we watched the rest of the races, saw more alumni (some from the late 50's and early 60's) and took a big alumni picture on the hill like we used to.
After leaving the races we decided to have lunch and then walk down to Pitt where Joe, Dwight, and Craig were involved in various postions at the 8th Annual Trashionals tournament. We got there while most everyone was out to lunch, but we did finally manage to find someone who was able to tell us what room Joe was reading in. So, we settled in to wait for him to return. By a complete fluke one of the teams competing in his room in the first round after lunch was composed of only one person. Apparently there aren't many hard fast rules about picking people up along the way so Tom and I ended up competing with The Jimmy Stewart Experience for the rest of the day. I was Harvey the Rabbit in case anyone was wondering. Trash is very different from any other type of trivia competition that I've ever competed in. Tom got the hang of it much quicker than I did. And, he's much more up to date on the latest pop culture which is 75% of Trash.
After we finished competing, we headed back to campus to pick up the car. Then everyone met at our house and we ended up playing Trivial Pursuit til after midnight.
Sunday morning it was up early again (though not quite as early) for church. After church we headed straight home, changed our clothes, and then headed over to help Susie move into her new apartment. Two words...disposable furniture. I'd say something about the number of books, but I keep hearing this voice in my saying, "Hello Pot, this is Kettle." Anyway, we got everything unloaded thanks to Susie's parents, her sister Jackie, and Randy. Then most of us crashed in the living room and watched the end of the Nascar race on the free cable. I don't understand why Biffle is having such a good year. I wish it would stop. After getting cleaned up from the move, we headed over to Randy and Elizabeth's and met up with Hoss and headed out to Quaker Steak and Lube for two huge buckets of wings. Then a stop for ice cream and we were headed home.
Let's just say I woke up this morning and there wasn't a muscle that wasn't screaming, "You Bastard! What have you done to us!" Thankfully the pain subsided to a dull thud pretty quickly, but my stomach apparently didn't care for the combination of Louisianna Lickers, Golden Garlic, Parmesan and Pepper, Onion Rings, and Orange Sherbet. And it wasn't shy about reminding me all day. In fact, it's still a little touchy. I guess some of the iron must have worn out or rusted or something.
Anyway, I guess that's enough for now.

Today was pretty hectic at work, but even through it all one thing remained crystal clear. I should be logging on to post this after the Penguins dropped Game 1 of the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Washington Capitals on their ice. I should have been relaxing in my recliner, with Gage sitting beside me watching Lemieux skate around Jeff Halpern like his left skate was stuck in the ice. I should have gotten that familiar knot in my stomach that the Pens give me every time they go down by a game or two in the first round. And, I should be listening to the west coast game, most likely Colorado against San Jose, in the background while I'm typing this...just to keep tabs on who the Penguins would meet in the final round. Instead, I left work and drove home. I made sure that Gage was doing better and his fever was still down. I went out to the shed, hauled out the lawnmower and tried to fire it up. It worked briefly so I spent the next half-hour dismantling most of the engine to see what would need replaced before it was ready to attach the jungle that is my yard. Then I spent another half-hour hacking out rose bushes and dead grape vines. I came inside and started doing some clean up stuff from work. And not one mention of hockey or the lack thereof. Shame on the greedy bastards that brought this about.
Now to the answers. Ten out of twenty. Not bad I guess.
1. Barry Manilow- No one got this...A Linda Song
2. Prince- Tom Darling Nikki
3. Britney Spears- Matt I should award double points to Matt for getting this one. I didn't think anyone would get it. It was a trick question. He is correct in the fact that this one doesn't belong here. I can't stand her.
4. R.E.M.- Susie Nightswimming is correct.
5. Billy Joel- Susie Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
6. Elton John- No one got this...Someone Saved My Life Tonight
7. Tori Amos- No one got this...Winter
8. Johnny Cash- No one got this...25 Minutes To Go
9. Frank Sinatra- No one got this...Winchester Cathedral
10. Alison Krauss- Susie This was damn close. I like a lot of her songs and rarely does a newer one win out, but Whiskey Lullaby is damn good.
11. U2- No one got this...Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
12. Aerosmith- Tom Hole In My Soul Solely for the line "Tell me how it feels to be the one who turns the knife inside of me."
13. Bon Jovi- Tom Bang a Drum
14. The Beatles- No one got this...Let It Be
15. They Might Be Giants- Tom Particle Man...and he doesn't even win the fight at the end.
16. The Dead Milkmen- Tom Stuart. In the liner notes of the album where the lyrics should be it says, "Make up your own lyrics. Stuart would." And based on the article below..."I know it's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God."
17. The Eagles- No one got this...Seven Bridges Road
18. Martina McBride- No one got this...Phones Are Ringing All Over Town
19. Harry Connick, Jr.- No one got this...Honestly Now (Safety's Just Danger...Out of Place)
20. Bryan Adams- Tom Do I Have To Say The Words?

There you have it. For better or worse. I'm sure I'll take flak over the choices, and to tell you the truth...I could have easily picked five songs for some, if not most, of the artists.

I'm very proud of the fact that I attended Carnegie Mellon University, but part of me really wants to send this article to Central Michigan University just to see if they have anything to say about the unauthorized and incorrect use of the acronymn CMU.

Alright, one last shot before I reveal the answers. I'll post the answers tomorrow night, probably around this time.

1. Barry Manilow--no one has even been close yet
2. Prince- Tom Darling Nikki
3. Britney Spears- Matt I should award double points to Matt for getting this one. I didn't think anyone would get it. It was a trick question. He is correct in the fact that this one doesn't belong here. I can't stand her.
4. R.E.M.- Susie Nightswimming is correct.
5. Billy Joel- Susie Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
6. Elton John--not even close
7. Tori Amos--no close ones
8. Johnny Cash--although those are all good songs, not even in the ballpark
9. Frank Sinatra--you have to guess to get it right
10. Alison Krauss- Susie This was damn close. I like a lot of her songs and rarely does a newer one win out, but Whiskey Lullaby is damn good.
11. U2--not even close on this one
12. Aerosmith- Tom Hole In My Soul Solely for the line "Tell me how it feels to be the one who turns the knife inside of me."
13. Bon Jovi- Tom Bang a Drum
14. The Beatles
15. They Might Be Giants- Tom Particle Man...and he doesn't even win the fight at the end.
16. The Dead Milkmen- Tom Stuart. In the liner notes of the album where the lyrics should be it says, "Make up your own lyrics. Stuart would." And based on the article below..."I know it's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God."
17. The Eagles
18. Martina McBride--She was very difficult to pick just one song. Which, considering she doesn't write any of her own material, is pretty good.
19. Harry Connick, Jr.--good songs, probably in the top 5, but not #1
20. Bryan Adams- Tom Do I Have To Say The Words?

Score now stands Tom-6 Susie-3 Matt-1

Since my mother is coming over to visit the little one tonight, I figured I wouldn't have time to make it onto the computer. So, I'll post this now.

1. Barry Manilow--no one has even been close yet
2. Prince--at least one of you picked the same album
3. Britney Spears- Matt I should award double points to Matt for getting this one. I didn't think anyone would get it. It was a trick question. He is correct in the fact that this one doesn't belong here. I can't stand her.
4. R.E.M.- Susie Nightswimming is correct.
5. Billy Joel- Susie Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
6. Elton John--not even close
7. Tori Amos--no close ones
8. Johnny Cash--although those are all good songs, not even in the ballpark
9. Frank Sinatra--you have to guess to get it right
10. Alison Krauss- Susie This was damn close. I like a lot of her songs and rarely does a newer one win out, but Whiskey Lullaby is damn good.
11. U2--not even close on this one
12. Aerosmith--no, this is not the same answer as #3 (though it probably should be)
13. Bon Jovi- Tom Bang a Drum
14. The Beatles
15. They Might Be Giants- Tom Particle Man...and he doesn't even win the fight at the end.
16. The Dead Milkmen- Tom Stuart. In the liner notes of the album where the lyrics should be it says, "Make up your own lyrics. Stuart would." And based on the article below..."I know it's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God."
17. The Eagles
18. Martina McBride--She was very difficult to pick just one song. Which, considering she doesn't write any of her own material, is pretty good.
19. Harry Connick, Jr.--good songs, probably in the top 5, but not #1
20. Bryan Adams- Tom Do I Have To Say The Words?

Score now stands Tom-4 Susie-3 Matt-1

Well, let's see. I guess I'll report on the progress of the little music quiz and leave the rest open a little longer to see if any more guesses come across. The guesses have been decent thus far...
1. Barry Manilow
2. Prince (although I have talked frequently about "Sometimes It Snows In April", alas it's probably my 2nd possibly 3rd favorite)
3. Britney Spears- Matt I should award double points to Matt for getting this one. I didn't think anyone would get it. It was a trick question. He is correct in the fact that this one doesn't belong here. I can't stand her.
4. R.E.M.- Susie Nightswimming is correct.
5. Billy Joel
6. Elton John
7. Tori Amos
8. Johnny Cash
9. Frank Sinatra
10. Alison Krauss- Susie This was damn close. I like a lot of her songs and rarely does a newer one win out, but Whiskey Lullaby is damn good.
11. U2
12. Aerosmith
13. Bon Jovi
14. The Beatles
15. They Might Be Giants- Tom Particle Man...and he doesn't even win the fight at the end.
16. The Dead Milkmen- Tom Stuart. In the liner notes of the album where the lyrics should be it says, "Make up your own lyrics. Stuart would." And based on the article below..."I know it's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God."
17. The Eagles
18. Martina McBride
19. Harry Connick, Jr.
20. Bryan Adams

That's the update. The score is currently Susie-2 Tom-2 and Matt-1.
I don't even want to get into this article. I went off on a nice 4 letter tirade for close to an hour this morning and I'm still seething just thinking about it. Think about the implications.
Today, Cookie Monster decides to eat healthy...Tomorrow, Gonzo decides on rhinoplasty to "fit-in"...Next thing you know, Animal has a prescription for Ritalin. The list is endless.

Though I almost missed it...
Happy Birthday to my blog
Happy Birthday to my blog
Happy Birthday dear blog
Happy Birthday to my blog

Two years ago today I started this little venture. For better or worse, it's still around.

I'm fairly certain after reading this that I have a good case for my odd chewing of gum products. First, I put it in my mouth and then I chew it until it's a little wad. Then I continue chewing, blowing bubbles if applicable, until the gum loses it's flavor. I wonder what I'd do with a patent. I wouldn't be the first in my family to have one, but mine probably wouldn't be as helpful as my Uncle's.
The scary thing is, that's not the oddest thing I saw today. We went to pick up a couple of warmer weather outfits for Gage. We just headed over the hill to the House of Satan since it's close (don't you wonder what that's like?). While we were in the little kids clothing section, I turned a corner and there was a whole display of little white t-shirts with the slogan, "My first Wal-Mart T-shirt" The implications are astounding.
And, that's still not the scariest thing I've seen or heard today. That would have to be this. There are no words, at least none that aren't 4 letters. I'd love to find the sob over at UPN and lock him in a room with Michael Jackson, OJ, Robert Blake, a stack of Bob the Builder videos, some knives and gloves, and a cockatoo.
Finally, a music game that I can participate in. Lifted from Craig's blog, which he lifted from another blog. Here are the instructions...
The rules: I pick 20 bands/artists I like, and you try to guess my favorite song in the comments section. Correct answers get bolded and credited. Woo!
So, here's the list...in no particular order or genre.
1. Barry Manilow
2. Prince
3. Britney Spears
4. R.E.M.
5. Billy Joel
6. Elton John
7. Tori Amos
8. Johnny Cash
9. Frank Sinatra
10. Alison Krauss
11. U2
12. Aerosmith
13. Bon Jovi
14. The Beatles
15. They Might Be Giants
16. The Dead Milkmen
17. The Eagles
18. Martina McBride
19. Harry Connick, Jr.
20. Bryan Adams

There's the list, good luck. And, I'm working on installing a more reliable comments system since mine seems to have been down all day.

I meant to add this yesterday but blogger was being uncooperative.
I always scan the referring links to my page just in case I find something interesting and guess what and/or who I found?
Adam! Just hangin' out in the blog world. So, welcome to the madness Adam. His blog, located here and in a link on the side, is fairly new, but he seems to post more often than I do, which isn't hard to do these days.