Strike Day Six

I have a job interview today, delivery driver. The picket line will have to do without me today as well. I am hoping it won't be long and we will be back to work. I need that stability right now. Yesterday was pretty stressful with my dad but I got through it alright. He got out of the hospital, I was pretty upset with that because I was sure they would keep him a couple of days at least.

Had a great conversation and two cigars with Beersnob in the evening. That really helped to unwind like that. We talked for about four hours and just relaxed. No booze either, I had ice water, he had decaff coffee.

I had a CAO Brazila, Gol size which is a robusto. Dark, lots of flavor. I enjoyed it a lot. Beersnob had a Rocky Patel Edge Maduro, very full flavor. Then I had a Padron, one of the thousand series. It is hard to tell which one it was since I didn't purchase it but I'd guess it was a 2000 or 3000.

Padrons are always good. It is always money well spent.

Strike Day Five

Today the picket line can handle itself. I took my dad to the doctor yesterday for an appointment and they admitted him into the hospital for observation for a couple of days.

He is in bad shape. No way around saying that. They believed they can stabilize his system but the doc just said it was worn out and starting to fail. So this afternoon I'm headed back over there to bring him some things he wants like his cell phone and charger.

I've got an interview later on this morning, a place wants a handful of commercials shot and maybe a delivery driver. I can do those things really well.

Last night one of my friends came over and hung out after I got back into town. He comforted me by saying that he has had a lot of troubles of a similar type to mine in the past week or two. It sucks any of us have to go through what we are going through but during this fire I know I'm going to be stronger when it goes out.

I'm grateful to my family, friends, and especially The Date and The Things, all of whom have been very supportive in ways I couldn't imagine. Thank you.

Strike Day Four

Today is also going to be my busiest day since being on strike. I am on picket duty from eight a.m. until noon. We are in schedules now, four hours per day once a week.

After that I am driving my dad to the doctor to find out why he is so weak other than not eating correctly. It is going to be a long day.

Yesterday I found out very few businesses want to hire someone on a temporary basis. I applied to two places and neither wanted a short commitment. But I would have a job at one place if I decided to make it my full time employment, after seven weeks of training.

The company produced a scare tactic yesterday. They put a big help wanted ad in the paper. Come to find out by a reliable source that checked into it the company is not hiring anyone and not even taking interviews from the ad. It was a bluff to scare people into crossing the line. Nothing more.

That might be the first sign that this is going to turn out ok after all and might end faster than I anticipated. Perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel has made its first appearance.

Strike Day Three

Today I'm going to take a different strategy. Not going to the picket line as I'm thinking this could last a few weeks, maybe a month or longer. They will be coming up with a picket schedule and I'm going to go look for work today.

There are still too many people who have having a ball on the picket line. They really make me ill as I don't believe they understand the gravity of the situation.

My dad is really ill right now on top of everything else. I'm going to have to do something but not exactly sure what yet. He can't hardly get out of bed and if it wasn't for The Date going there daily and making him food and changing his bedding I don't know how he would be getting along.

The upside of the strike is that I have plenty of time to deal with this situation now. I'm going to have to talk to his doctor and see what kind of options I have to get him healthy again. He is very weak and we had to go pick him up last night after midnight because he had fallen.

The good news is that I fixed my Suburban. That and we are going to get through all of this.

A Small Win!

No not in the strike issue although that is the most pressing issue right now, a win nonetheless.

I fixed my truck. Sometime between 1984 and now the top oil line on the 6.2 liter Chevy diesel had been altered to today's standard which means the fittings no longer fit. I ordered two lines for a grand total of a tick over two hundred dollars, something I can ill afford right now but had to be done as I was borrowing a vehicle.

So I got the lines off, put the bottom line on, worked perfectly, went to put the top line on and the fittings were opposites. I took the line back to the dealership as none of the auto parts places carried those lines anymore, and they said it was the right line but in case it wasn't marked correctly they overnighted one more line to see if it would work.

I went in there this morning after picket duty to find that the line was identical to the one that would not work. They suggested a machine shop that had line supplies as a last ditch hope. They cheerfully refunded my money and off I went.

I got there a little after they returned from lunch and they were doubtful they could help but told me they would give it a shot if I wanted to return in an hour. I go back an hour and a half later and they had just finished being busy and hadn't gotten to my line yet.

The owner said if I would hang out a couple of minutes then he would get right on it. He did too! He was making one line before mine and then devoted his full attention to my line. In a matter of two minutes it was finished, I paid and was on my way to see if it would work.

Triumphantly in just a couple of minutes I had the new line bolted on and tight. I filled the oil back up to normal and then fired it up.

NO LEAKS!!!! It worked! I can't accurately tell you how much I needed a small win today. Just a little boost of something that went right after the past few weeks of unexpected expenses piling up. From my beloved little kitty to the oil lines going bad, to even the hot water line yesterday, and ultimately the strike.

This was a good day.

Strike Day Two

I'm showered and headed to the picket line this morning. I'm really hoping something breaks loose pretty soon and negotiations start up again.

There is no news about it happening right now and according to the latest website update, well it hasn't been updated since yesterday which is bad.

People expressed displeasure with not being able to go to work yesterday but right now they are all standing up and are going to stick it out.

Yesterday was just a bad day. My oil cooler hoses had holes worn in them so I had to purchase two new ones, one of them wasn't right so yesterday I took the opportunity to return the wrong one and they ordered hopefully the one I need. Then later on as I was spraying for bugs I broke the hot water line under the kitchen sink. Hot water sprayed until I got the valve shut off and my brother came over with a new part and we got it put back together.

So day two begins. I'm holding my head up and know we are going to get past this.

" When sorrows come they come not single spies but in battalions "
Famous Hamlet quote by William Shakespeare (Act IV - Scene V)

That is what I felt like yesterday.

On The Line

Yep. Here I am.


-- Post From My iPhone

Off To The Picket Line

It is just about a quarter to six and I'm showered and headed off to picket.
I detest this action, I detest a lot of the things unions do, and I detest some of our leadership but this is unfortunately necessary at times.

This is one of those times. The company has not even offered to open up negotiations again. They had all weekend long to come to the table and resolve this and didn't even return calls.

I'll either blog from the line or I'll blog when I get home.

No Progress

So far there has been no progress made on negotiations. I've been keeping up on the news sites and nothing is happening right now. Time is tick tick ticking away here people.

We will see what happens I guess. A lot of people are speculating that who I work for is trying to shed this contract and that this is the best way to do it without hefty fines. I don't know if that is true or not. It seems logical and companies don't bid on contracts like this if they are going to lose money.

One of the negotiators is my friend and told me what kind of contract they would sign off on and it really isn't much more than what we have had in the past. Practically the same language we have used for the last twenty years and 3.5% raises every year.

The insurance was a big issue, I believe it was a mistake as well as the majority of union members however the company never produced anything to the contrary even when asked to say it was a mistake and given the opportunity to correct it. Employee plus family now pays around eighty dollars bi-weekly that cost was going to go to three hundred eighty eight dollars bi-weekly. We assumed it meant monthly but again given the opportunity to correct it they did not. Those numbers even went to HR.

It is frustrating. I want to get a call tonight and learn that things are resolved but again as far as I know right now there is no progress being made.

D-Day Anniversary

I'm watching the D-Day anniversary on Fox. Very moving, very emotional. The Queen should be ticked she wasn't invited.

I don't care if it is Obama singing our national anthem over there today, he is doing a good job of representing us. It is still a proud American moment and the surviving veterans deserve to be recognized.

Take a moment and remember our World War 2 veterans today.

There is a union meeting today at eleven for strike captains. I'm sure that the company has been contacted and are full aware of the vote totals and that we are ready to broker another contract.

I believe we would pass a contract with the same wording that we have now and with a modest 3.5% raise per year. Not the contract they offered which took away even the way we use leave and punished people who never abuse their leave privileges.

Hopefully we will have a contract hammered out by Monday and we will be back to work as normal.

Strike

The vote came back 666-28 to reject the contract, a simple majority was needed to reject and to count the strike votes.

The strike vote came back and it was 655-41 to strike.

I'm on strike now. The negotiation team will go back to work tomorrow.

Stike Is Imminent

No pay, no insurance, no guarantee of a job after it is over. Negotiations broke down over the past week to the point of not talking anymore.

We moved up the strike voting day to today instead of tomorrow. At least now we will have a full weekend to go back to negotiations if we are actually striking on Monday. The city and Air Force have cleared us some land to picket on even. They had it mowed and prepared for a lot of people.

I'm not a big union guy, they do a LOT of things I disagree with in the political realm where they should have no say so whatsoever. But this is unions working on the ground for real people.

The company chose to take many many things away that were negotiated on years ago without striking. I've already endured two big layoffs in the past year that cut everyone right up to me. We are very barebones right now in our staffing, many areas are understaffed. I had friends who were laid off. I kept in contact with them and told them about jobs to sign on that they were qualified for.

I believe a strike vote will get a contract similar to what we have had over the past three years. That's all we are asking for, nothing outrageous, just a comparable contract to what we have been working for. The pay will go up but by about 3% per year, no more than 4%, never has happened that we received more than that.

In contrast our insurance goes up more than our rate of pay each year so we really don't get a monetary raise that is noticeable because of the insurance rates we pay.

We are not UAW workers with lifetime insurance, massive pensions, or atmospheric rates of pay. We do get paid more than average for this area, that's a fact. We are not rich by any way of measuring but we do get to make a decent living. Most of us live paycheck to paycheck, some have new vehicles. Others like me have twenty year old plus vehicles.

We are just asking for a fair deal, something reasonable we can work for in the next three years.

3G!

They turned on our 3G network yesterday! Not only is my iPhone now at its full potential but I also have a much stronger signal strength. I'm getting four to five bars where I used to get one and none.

It's amazing! I turn off the 3G option and it will go back to the Edge network and there it is, the one tiny little bar of signal strength. I have noticed a big drop in battery life when 3G is on though. I'll have to pay close attention to that.

I've got ninety six hours until I find out if we are going to strike or not. AS predicted the company gave us their last, best, and final offer yesterday. I don't even know if they will go in today for the final round of negotiations. We will vote on Saturday. It will take a simple majority to accept or reject the contract and then a two thirds majority to strike or not. If the two thirds is not met then we automatically accept the contract no matter what that vote is.

This has been one of the most stressful times at work in a long time for me. Tensions are very high and as anyone who knows me knows I have no taste for drama, especially where my job is concerned.

The Art Of Manliness

I don't usually do site reviews but as this one seems like a subject I am fond of, I decided to look over artofmanliness.com and give you a look of their idea of what manliness is.

This site was born over the discussion of what happened to the men between The Greatest Generation and The Baby Boomers. The Greatest Generation, full of maturity at a young age, brimming with confidence, and a wisdom and self sacrifice that isn't in sync with their years. A rugged individualism that had spirit and craved freedom as a politician craves a tax dollar.

Contrast that with The Baby Boomers who took over congress and ruined the future for all of us Gen-Xers and beyond. The most self centered generation that borders on French entitlement arrogance. The generation that believes everything should be handed to them on a silver platter while neutering the younger men of our generation, saddling us with guilt for being men.

While I am not the dapper Frank Sinatra style of dresser I do appreciate an individualist lifestyle. Dependent upon your labor and living within your means. I'm handy around vehicles, I can cook, I'm prepared for the Zombie Holocaust of Doom, and I'd like to have a cabin in Montana that is off the grid. I have no idea who is on American Idol, I love John Wayne (as he was my first induction into my Man Hall of Fame) and feel that the creators of The Art of Manliness are right that generations since The Greatest fail to take the mantle adequately. Perhaps the previous generations failed to train young men adequately as well.

I quote, "as I looked around at the men my age, it seemed to me that many were shirking responsibility and refusing to grow up. They had lost the confidence, focus, skills, and virtues that men of the past had embodied and were a little lost. The feminism movement did some great things, but it also made men confused about their role and no longer proud of the virtues of manliness"

While I am sure that the generation before The Greatest thought the same thing as well as the generation of pioneers who braved the wilderness of the West to tame the rustic new country thought the same thing of the generation that followed them, all the way back to the Founding Fathers, the Pilgrims, and further back.

I do know that The Baby Boomers have done more damage to a great country and masculinity than all of the previous generations before it. It will take a few generations to recover from them but I do believe that my Gen-X generation is entrepreneurial, rugged, and chock full of individualists. The generation that follows us will be able to build upon that thanks to sites like The Art of Manliness.

Yes we also have our girly men, no dispute at all with that argument. We have too many single mothers, too many men who have not lived up to their responsibilities. Too many fatherless children who will not get the benefit of a male influence and the balance they need in life.

We also have our Proud and Fearless who have liberated two countries from Islamic Fascists. I have to believe that those of The Greatest Generation that have passed on are proudly looking down upon our members of the military now and the deeds they have accomplished.

I've browsed over The Art of Manliness and think it is a good if not great site, worthy of any of you who would like something beyond the six pack abs and sex articles that are rampant in today's world that caters to "men".

One gripe about the site it is that there is a lack of stuff that really caters to a lot of men such as cigars, drinks other than their "Five cocktails every man should know" which are kind of unmanlike (A sidecar? Really?!), and the lack of a Man Hall of Fame such as mine. They do have fine articles about manly men very often though and an email list of subscribers that is very manly in size.

I do appreciate their guide to Scotch as I do enjoy a good single malt as I've detailed in my blog many times.

Throw in some cigars and grilling/cooking how to's for men who don't know how to cook yet and you have a great site!

No Not Never's Revenge

Yesterday I get to work and Johnny Friendly has made up about three hundred "No Not Never" buttons to pin on your shirt to show solidarity among the rank and file.

I get out the white out and try to white out the "N" of Never so at least it would make a little grammatical sense. I'm convinced that Johnny Friendly believes it is an actual sentence.

The white out fails to work so I rub it off and rationalize that it is a sign of his intelligence and he proudly wants us to show the world such. Then the bleakness of him being in charge of the negotiations on our side sets in....

So I busy myself with work and go to clear my work in the computer when I get an email from the program manager who says we can't wear the buttons! It is a violation and I don't even care what the rest says!

I have an excuse not to wear them!!!! They are embarrassing and I don't have to wear them anymore! Woohooooo! So I'm happy about that!

Ok ok so those of you who think I'm not a very loyal person, I'll vote on Saturday on the new contract if it is a reasonable and fair contract I'll vote to ratify it. That's all the loyalty I would get from both the company and the union, not one shred more.

I do my job, get paid a fair wage, go home and forget my job exists until the next day. I'm grateful I am employed and do have a good job with great benefits and as such I don't abuse the system. I do a good job when I'm there and screw off less than many others. I'm aware of how blessed I am to be working in this time of the Obama administration's war on prosperity.

Not only that but I do pay a hefty monthly fee for the union services which they do take against my will and donate to political campaigns which I'm opposed to. I don't have to pay them but then I wouldn't get to vote or have a say in the contract as I do now.

GM: Bankrupt

Nearly twenty billion dollars, your dollars, printed dollars is down the drain this morning. GM will file bankruptcy. The government and the UAW will own large percentages of the once proud company.

You'll never be paid back for the money they were loaned, it was forgiven two weeks ago by the Obama administration. At least the Bush administration consulted congress on all of this before acting. Obama is unilaterally doing this himself along with his tax cheat puppet Tim Geithner.

I do blame the Bush administration for starting the bailout madness, it just put off what is going to happen this morning. It would have been over with by now and GM would have been coming out of bankruptcy a better and stronger company and not the government owned mess it will become in a few weeks. TARP was never used as it was intended, we believe since no one will tell the taxpaying public how it was used. That is about as closely held a secret as who shot JFK.

The government should NOT own a private industry and dictate standards as it will be doing. I don't believe it says anywhere in the Constitution that a government can take over a private industry and yet Government Motors is a reality.

As we are driven headlong into Marxism at breakneck speed even Pravda is wondering what in the world we are doing and when the Russians are impressed with our descent into Marxism maybe we should take notice.

Lakers Vs. Magic

The Cavs made a not so graceful exit out of the Eastern Conference Finals last night being beat by the Magic 103-90. The message is clear, make the one man band into an orchestra.

LeBron just has no help. Up until last night he was the only player in NBA history that averaged forty plus points and eight plus rebounds and eight plus assists! Not even his Airness did that.

LeBron needs help if Cleveland is ever going to be a contender. They are going to need a dominate point guard to distribute the ball and take that pressure off of LeBron. Mo Williams just isn't cutting it. He's good not great.

The Lakers and Magic should match up well and be a compelling series. I'm looking forward to it! Kobe vs. Dwight, the greatest closer in the game against Superman. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sweep or a seven game series.

If it is short the Magic will take it in a sweep. If it is a seven game series it'll be the Lakers as they might stumble out of the gate but solve the Magic over time. It will be interesting though!

"No Not Never!"

Ok in a moment of brilliance our own Johnny Friendly came up with a response for many proposals for the companies proposals in contract negotiations.

"No Not Never!"

Yeah, a triple negative is our response. Not only is it a grammatical disaster but it is just about as bad as you can possibly get as far as a motto. You want your motto to be a war cry of positivity. Something to rally behind.

Instead we get "No Not Never!"

Epic Fail....

Kobe Vs,?

I'm sticking with Dwight Howard. The Lakers dismantled the Nuggets for the second straight game last night. Every time Denver tried to close the gap L.A. poured it on.

Cleveland would not have a chance. Don't fool yourself. They are a one man band and the Lakers would sweep them. They solved the Denver problem in six games, they would solve the Cleveland problem in four, I don't know how many it would take to solve the Orlando problem, maybe seven very compelling games!

I've got a union meeting this morning to give us an update on the negotiations and to vote on opening up the strike fund. I'd say it is going as expected right now. Both sides are refusing to budge and giving up their smoke screen items but nothing of substance yet. Those things are done at the last apparently.

The strike fund supports the walking picketers. Buys them sandwiches and stuff like that I guess. Big help that is....

Again I'd like to say I'm not a big union guy. Unions have killed the golden goose more than nurtured it. Unions have killed off two of the Big Three and now own portions of those once great companies as well as the government. So will they be better off? HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!! Yeah...

Anyway back to my union. Not a big union guy, just want job security in this very insecure economy. The company has a seven year contract with the government that gives them a set amount they will earn plus adjustments for inflation and added expenses on a yearly basis...including our projected raises which usually average out to 3.5% per year.

Of course we ask for much more and negotiate it away, they take money away and negotiate it up. That's the way the game is played. Opening the strike fund is just part of that game.

The finished contract will be similar to what it has always been in my seventeen years of service.

Cavs Win

On the back of LeBron's triple double Cleveland rose to the occasion and staved off elimination last night. Their formula? Feed LeBron the ball.

His supporting cast has disappeared on him in this series. Now they have to go back to Orlando and try it again there. Good luck.

North Korea is still firing missiles that are suited for a nuclear weapon. They have been firing missiles since Monday now. The latest was a short range missile.

I'm betting they are breaking the seals on their nuclear reactor and firing it back up to produce more weapons grade material. The UN will be very displeased with them and might impose a sanction on them or even two! Yep...the UN....our current administrations best hope.........yep...

If I were President there would have been tomahawks in the air or a team on the ground to take out that pot bellied dictator who is ruining his country and starving his people. North Korea would come to understand prosperity and freedom instead of an iron handed communist rule and oppression.

Lakers Go Up 3-2

While watching last night I had the revelation that the NBA Finals will likely be Lakers/Magic.

Everyone on sports radio had the Finals as an either Lakers/Cavs (which is what the NBA could hype more) or Magic/Nuggets. That is the matchup I was hoping for. It seems no one allowed for Lakers/Magic as the Nuggets seem to be faltering a little now.

With last night's win Denver has to win two games back to back to make it to the finals while Cleveland has to win three straight against the much better Magic and superstar Dwight Howard.

Kobe vs. Dwight Howard will be a great Finals. Kobe who is arguably the best closer in the game today and a little past his peak years against a superstar who has got a couple of years to go before he gets to his peak years. Fresh legs vs. experience. Yeah LeBron against Kobe would be a great matchup to watch but really would it be that great if the series only went four games?

Cleveland is a matchup nightmare against the Lakers, they would dominate three out of five positions while the Nuggets really maybe have one out of five now and are down in the series. Billups owns whomever the Lakers throw at him. They have no answer for Billups at all.

Look for a Lakers/Magic Finals and for it to go to seven games. It might very well be one of the more interesting Finals in a few seasons. You will be witness (to borrow a marketing phrase) to the rise of one of the NBA's best superstars in waiting in Dwight Howard.

Wow Wednesday!

I like how quickly the week goes when you have Monday off. Well it is contract negotiation season at work. This is one of the most stressful times my job has to offer.

We have a contract negotiation team in place and yesterday was also the first full day of negotiations. As expected it isn't looking well right now. Both sides are putting what they want on the table. We want raises and job security, they want to cut pay and people. We will meet somewhere in the middle and then vote on it.

The union, though I despise a lot about them, is paid by me to represent my best interests at work. Its like a service I pay for, yes similar to extortion, but its like the cable bill or water bill.

More than likely this is what will happen this time around. The negotiations will make little progress, the working members will vote to reject the companies offer (which received a seven year extension so they know how profitable they will be over the long term) and vote to strike. The two sides will meet one more time in an emergency session and come to a temporary agreement and we will go to work the next day without a contract.

Our client needs to have their planes in the air, they frown upon work stoppages, and amazingly they take labor's side 95% of the time and pressure the company to fix it. There is a tiny percentage of chance that we will actually form a strike line (again something I despise, especially in these tough economic times) and be out even one day.

It could happen though.

Memorial Day 2009

Yesterday was a very good day.
First of all we went to see Star Trek. The reboot of the series was really really good. Yes they disregarded canon but they also explained how they could do that. It is really no more far fetched than any of the original series when they did the time travel episodes. It worked. It was good. I'm looking forward to more of the series!

Then we went to Beersnob's house for a Memorial Day cookout and movie. We had burgers and brats. A more traditional American cookout. Then next up was the movie Taking Chance.

This was the story of a USMC escort who escorted PFC Chance Phelps back home after he was killed in action in Iraq. This really detailed the loving care that the military puts into taking care of our war dead. Eight people watched this movie and I believe that every single one had tears most of the movie. Kevin Bacon was spot on in this very moving movie. I'd highly recommend every single American watch it. It is a Memorial Day must from now on.

Then the rest of the evening was spent outside talking over the world over cigars and scotch. Beersnob was kind enough to offer two Davidoff Millennium Blends. DAvidoff is a high end cigar. Very pricey and very good. The quality of the cigar is evident even when you get past the wrapping. It paired well with Dalmore Cigar Blend scotch. Smoking time was just over an hour for me. It was a real pleasure too.

It was a great weekend, I hope you reflected on why Memorial Day is important.

Great Cookout!

Happy Memorial Day. Be sure you take some time to think about those who gave everything in defense of our country and freedom today. This is their day.

Yesterday The Date, The Things, and I attended a great cookout! It was a Mediterranean themed cookout with grilled skewers of lamb, chicken, and pork with onions and red peppers. There was tabouli, an awesome avocado salad, and various side dishes like mini doners. It was an amazing feast! Generous in proportions and the sheer amount of preparation time invested in putting this on!

It was an awesome day with awesome friends! Everyone had a great time and there were over twenty attending! I brought along two cigars and had a couple of requests so I asked The Date to bring me about three more which she brought some good ones.

I had a Man O' War Torpedo, a full flavored and very robust cigar. Not really for the feint of heart at all. Great billows of creamy smoke kept the gnats at bay for a while.

Off! was a very popular condiment along with the spectacular food. About ten I had been there close to six hours and I was tired. The Date had left a couple of hours earlier to write a paper for one of her classes that was due. So I made my way home to catch the last five minutes of the Orlando/Cleveland game.

Orlando was up by eight when I started watching, Cleveland closed the gap to four but couldn't do anything with the momentum. Orlando goes up two to one in the series and is looking like they really want to be in the Finals while Cleveland is being knocked around some.

In more serious news, North Korea has issued a claim that they tested a nuclear weapon last night, a few weeks after test firing a long range nuclear capable missile. This is going to cause some serious meetings at the highest levels in the next day or two.

Obamacide

Obamacide - When the government oversteps its Constitutional bounds and takes over private industries.

In this case the auto industry are Obamacide victims. Soon the health care industry will have its sights turned onto it and be the next victims in the Obama mortuary.

Every business the government touches fails. They cannot run a business efficiently or effectively. Post office anyone? Which of you who are my age expect to get social security? Medicare? Come on people wake up here.

This past week the Obama industry mandated new CAFE standards which say fuel economy will be forced to increase by 5% until 2016 which would be Obama's last year of his eight year presidency which I'm sure he has penciled himself in for.

It isn't that fuel economy is a bad thing, its a good thing but shouldn't I have a choice in what I buy too? If I don't want a car that is so light as to be unsafe on a windy day then am I still forced to drive it?

Admittedly the last administration was not nearly as fiscally conservative as I and a lot of other red staters had hoped for. He also initiated the TARP bailout which started a lot of this mess. To me George Bush is equally culpable in that regard only. He also did a lot of good things which I won't get into now. I just wanted to point out even though he was a good president he also had his fiscal faults.

We have the government dictating to UAW/GM and they are taking government money so they are quiet on the issue with their collective hands out. Obama forgave the 15.4 billion dollar loan that you and I gave UAW/GM this week. Then he gave them a line of credit on top of that which again you and I are on the hook for.

The California voters told their legislature in a very loud voice that they were tired of the endless spending by their government and to reel it in. Guess who will be next in line for federal government bailout money to close their budget....you and I? NO! California, then New Jersey, Michigan....you name it! All of the states that have spent like there was no tomorrow on the backs of the taxpayers.

Fortunately citizens are starting to wake up to the fact that they are tired of reckless spending and want them to live within their means as you and I have to do.

So the next Obamacide victim will be the states themselves...just watch it happen.

Magic Cavs 1-1

So the first half was about the same as game one. The Cavs get up by double digits, the Magic chips away at them and makes it a close game late.

The Cavs had a last minute shot that banked off the rim and went out losing them the game. Last night the Cavs were down by two with one second to go! They inbound the ball, pass to LeBron....BANG! Three pointer with the buzzer going off to win by one point!

Exciting game! It is hard to say who is going to win this series. I really don't have a dog in the fight. Or even in the Lakers/Nuggets series either. I know who the NBA wants to see in the finals, their two high profile stars in LeBron and Kobe.

The best teams are likely Orlando and Denver though throwing a wet blanket on the NBA's plans. I really believe the Lakers are in trouble for sure. Denver is just out hustling them, they are a more physical team, and they can't guard Chauncy Billups.

It all spells trouble for the finesse laden Lakers. I'm actually interested in these playoffs. These storylines are gripping, intriguing, and compelling.

Payday And A Three Day Weekend!!!!

What could be better?!?!
Well a five day weekend of course but one thing at a time!

This don't show up often during the year but when it does you can bet that there are about 75% of the people I work with who won't be at work today. They have either taken off already or they are going to call in this morning.

There is a big cookout for the Into The Woods cast and crew on Sunday. I am hoping the weather holds and we have more beautiful days like we have had this week. Yeah it is getting hot but who cares, this week was nice!

I've been playing a lot of Football Tycoon on My Space and Facebook. Great game! You manage your own franchise and upgrade your players by winning games which allows you to upgrade more stats. It is kind of a vicious circle but its football so I don't care how much I chase my tail.

The move is probably 95% done now. There is still a lot of organizing to do and a few more boxes to unpack but overall the other house is empty except for some things The Date is going to sell and a final cleanup.

It's the start of Memorial Day Weekend, is you see a member of the military out and about or know a veteran, show them your appreciation. Buy them lunch, a cup of coffee, what ever it is just show them you are thinking about them and care.

NBA Playoffs

The playoffs have been really good this year. The Celtics/Bulls series was among the best of all time with the exception of the last game which was a let down. Last night the Cavs/Magic game was just outstanding. The Magic came from way behind to tie and take the lead in the fourth.

The last five minutes was some of the best basketball I've seen in a long time. The Magic pulled it out after lots of clutch shooting but the Cavs had a chance when Mo Williams caught a jump ball in mid air and shot with one second left, it banked off of the rim but wow if it would have gone in that would have been a very Jordanesqe shot.

The Lakers/Nuggets game was also down to a couple of points in the end. Denver had plenty of missed opportunity from the line, if they would have converted a bit better I don't know if the Lakers would have held onto homecourt advantage.

The NBA really wants a LeBron/Kobe match up in the Finals, I'd like to see that as well. Not sure if the Magic and the Nuggets aren't the best teams though.

Busy Evening

It was all moving, heat, more moving, and more heat last night. I hit the bed exhausted just a little after ten.

Got to see part of Deadliest Catch and watched some of game one of the Western Conference Finals. The Nuggets had a slight lead when I went to bed. I see now that the Lakers held off Denver for a game one win.

I'm pretty sure that Denver is going to win this series and face LeBron in the finals. Just think that the Nuggets are too tough for the finesse Lakers to handle over a seven game series.

Tonight the Eastern Conference Finals start with LeBron vs. Dwight Howard. While not as intriguing a match up as the Western Conference it might be entertaining anyway.

The Date has a kitty that has FIV. She was breaking down last night just like I was over Patch. He has been with her through all of the tough times. He looks to be roughly the same age too as Patch. Poor thing can't hold any food down anymore. She can't bring herself to take him into the vet, I don't blame her. It took a while for me to sit down and think about if I could put Patch down when she was already in the vet. I didn't have to make that decision.

Her kitty was enjoying the sunshine outside last night when she left the house so she just left him outside to enjoy it and be happy. Nothing wrong with increasing their quality of life, pets increase your quality of life for years. It is really worth a few days of pain for years of happiness with them.

I'd make that trade off every time.

Unpacking

The move has gone fairly smoothly thus far. A few more boxes were moved last night and a a handful of items remain, just a matter of a little more manpower to get them moved.

The dining room is full of boxes and are being unpacked and placed. Even though my house is over two thousand square feet I'm starting to realize it is a pretty small house.

The cabinets are getting full now of things I never had or really didn't know existed. They are actually organized even! Freaky! You should see the fridge....it hasn't been this clean and organized since I first bought it!

She has done an amazing job so far! Moving sucks but she has made the best of it and it really is going well.

Over Half Way

I'd say that The Date and Things 1 and 2 are now over half way moved in, maybe as close as seventy five percent!

Yesterday was amazingly busy. Started off with a few loads of moving stuff until about two o'clock then I was headed to the theatre to help strike the Broadway Bound set which was a big set and took nearly four hours to dismantle. Chianti was kind enough to help out in my absence and they tackled some essential things like beds.

Then it was back home where essentially all of the moving for the day was finished except for moving some beds around and stuff like that. Last night was the first night everyone stayed here. It felt good to have everyone at one place finally!

There are still things like washer and dryer, dining room table, a couple of chairs, a deep freeze, stuff like that left. The Date is off work today and is going back over to start the final clean up.

I'm headed back to work. Three days off is very nice! Wish we had that every week! Work ten hour days and get three days off in a row every week? I'd do that in a minute!

Show's Over

It was a good run. The show wore on me quite a bit after seeing it a few times. The actors got better and better but to me the writing and show premise was mediocre for a Neil Simon show.

This wasn't one of his best. I enjoyed doing the lights though and will be doing the same on the next show. That'll be a great Summer project. As I've blogged before it is the big Summer musical Into The Woods, search on You Tube for show clips from the Broadway production.

We took all of the props and put them back up last night after the show which is quite a chore since you have to take a prop from the stage, walk through the auditorium, through the forum and out the front and then upstairs to the storage facility which are some old apartments above the box office. It is quite a trek while you are holding heavy furniture.

We had the whole cast helping as well as a couple of others and it went really quickly! It was nice!

Rehearsals have started for the musical but I won't be needed for close to a month from now. Maybe a couple of evenings in between to set the lights but that's about it for me in the pre-show.

Good Show

Last night was a pretty good show. The actors were on, the audience was laughing, the storm brief, no tornadoes!

I was fully expecting to stop the show last night and tell people to run to the tornado safe part of the theatre. It was a good day off too. I enjoyed it and needed it:)

Today will involve lots of moving and then the last show of the run tonight. I'm kind of hungry this morning. I know The Date bought Lucky Charms.....that sounds pretty good.

It's a bit dreary outside right now. Not really rainy but wet looking. I feel pretty good though. A day off can really make you feel a lot better!

Off Today!

It was a busy week at work and I decided to take a day off. Eight hours of my pto, no big deal. I built my leave up to nearly eighty hours now. I am going for two hundred but I figured something out at work that might prevent me from doing that.

People who have under one hundred hours are generally happier than those who have tons of leave built up! That means that those people take the occasional day off and it puts people in a better mood. Those who have tons of leave built up are unhappier and tend to be a little more high strung at work!

Chianti invited The Date and I to the Blue Note last night after they got out of rehearsal. That was a lot of fun! I have a show tonight and the closing show tomorrow night. It'll be a good day off and needed:)

Rainy Night

Last night there were tornadoes North and East of here. Late last night a brief thunderstorm, noisy, lots of rain but didn't last long.

This is all part of living here. You get used to it. I imagine this is what it is like when you live on the Gulf and see a hurricane coming in. At least you get a few days warning with a hurricane. Tornadoes are really fast developing and if it weren't for the storm trackers around here we wouldn't have nearly the warning we do.

These guys do an amazing job. They really have a dangerous job and do it so people can have some warning. It was a good evening though overall. Today will probably be quieter.

Life Goes On

Is it worth a few days of pain to have years of loving devotion from a pet? The pain is pretty intense to be sure. The years of loving devotion are just as intense though.

Without a doubt yes it is worth it to me. From being a puppy or kitten, hatchling, or whatever kind of pet you decide on it is worth all of the happiness, joy, and trouble they give you. It is endearing in hindsight.

Pets are a bargain when you compare them with human friends. Not mine mind you, my friends are like family. I'd do anything for them and frequently tell them that. However I hear tales of friends from coworkers, in public, and when I read things. Some friends just have agendas when it comes to you.

A pet never will. You feed them, clean after them, and in return they will sleep on you, want you to pet them, pull over the trash, and generally make your life far more interesting than it previously was.

I have one cat now. Rocket. Anyone who knows me has probably seen a glimpse of him, he hides from company. Patch would have jumped right up in your lap though and laid down. Rocket is just as loving, just shy though.

When The Date moves in she is bringing a cat that is a lot more playful than either of my two cats. It should be interesting to see how Rocket takes it. I know how it is going to happen for a while. He is going to be very upset. I've been reading on how to introduce them with the least amount of stress for me....it will take some time but it can be done!

Patch Rest In Peace

You were a wonderful, friendly, loving, fun family member. I'll miss you Patch.


-- Post From My iPhone

Busted Up

My John Wayne exterior was generally broken up last night as I broke down crying over my kitty Patch to The Date. Things one and two were very sympathetic but stayed outside the house and did lawn work.

Meanwhile I contented myself with a Zaya and Coke. I wanted to go scotch but after seeing the limited supply I had of Jura Superstition I chose the Zaya. If you haven't tried Zaya rum go now to the liquor store and have them order it, I doubt if they have it in stock. It is hard to come by. It really needs no Coke to compliment it and really didn't have a lot of Coke in my two mixed drinks but I didn't want to think of my kitty. This was the first time in quite a while I've actually caught a buzz from drinking. Usually I go with a drink from the pub or Blue Note. They aren't usually full strength as I had last night.

I instead bundled up in a blanket on the couch, held Rocket (Patch's brother) to my chest and watched playoff hockey (something I usually don't watch unless I am gambling on it). The Date comforted me as she has grown to love Patch as well. Things one and two know what is going on but likely not the severity of the situation.

Patch is suffering from heart failure. I've done a lot of research on the situation. Many kitty cats live through it and can have normal lives. Patch is in bad shape though.

She has been in an oxygen cage since I took her back into the vet on Sunday morning. She is alive and somewhat responding to treatment. I'm prepared to have her put to sleep though as I would never let my pets suffer. If she can't live a healthy life and on the vet's recommendation I will have them put her down.

If on the other hand she can have a healthy life and I have to monitor her and give her medication I'm also prepared to do that, every single day.

Clark Gable was once asked when he was filming Gone With The Wind if he could actually cry when his onscreen daughter was injured after a horse accident, I believe he responded, "If you can't cry over a hurt little girl, what can you cry over?" I've badly butchered it and took great liberties with the paraphrasing but the sentiment is the same.

So I cried over a eight pound kitty cat who gave me nothing but love and devotion for eight years who might not be with me much longer.

Good Weekend!

Mother's day came and went, I had an hour long talk with my mom on the phone. My friends Bob and Wendy were at Braum's last night and asked if The Date and I wanted to hang out with them for a while.

So we went there and talked for about an hour. It was fun! I'm planning on getting a phone call from the vet today. Not sure how I'm going to pay the bill yet but I'm hoping they will bill me. The last bill nearly tapped me out and it was just payday too! My next payday I'll only have my utilities on it and stuff like that, over half of my paycheck will be free for things like this.

The moving is going slowly. The Date has most of her house packed up now and boxes will start finding their way over tonight. I don't have any rehearsals this week and she doesn't have to work evenings this week!

It'll be good for getting a lot done!

A Week Off

Last night was the half time point of the show's run. I have the entire week off now and will go back next Friday night for the third and fourth show.

Last night went well. I was hungry so I went with the cast to the pub and grab a bite to eat after the show.

My kitteh was having problems breathing again this morning. Nothing like Friday evening though. I called the vet and he said to bring her in immediately which I just did.

The vet said she was having some buildup in her air ways but she was ok. He gave her a cortisone shot and wanted to keep her and observe her today to make sure she was breathing freely. He is going to call me this afternoon or evening to either keep her over night or so I can pick her up.

Patch Is Ok!

I called the vet and they said she was fine this morning and I can pick her up at eleven!
She will be home soon!

Sick Kitty

So Thing 2 and I are at home last night before going to the theatre. Patch is playing on the floor with Thing 2, perfectly normal.

Then not long after that Patch is laying down, not breathing right, and just listless. I rush her to the vet and they take her in. I have to go in this morning and pay a four hundred dollar deposit.

Hopefully she just got into something and had a reaction. They are going to do blood work and catch her up on her shots. It is just weird that she had a reaction all of a sudden. We are all worried about her, everyone loves Patch. Patch will just jump up into your lap and just love you.

She gets into everything, I have my cabinets taped up so she won't be getting into them all night. They said if I didn't hear from them last night that she is fine. I didn't hear from them.

The show went pretty well last night. There were a couple of flubs and a mishap with one of the swinging doors that knocked a dish of nuts out of one of the actor's hand. She carried on though and got every line in there!

Happy Friday!!!!

These days of getting up at six and getting home at eleven are wearing me out. The show went pretty well last night. The audience enjoyed the show. It goes on for real tonight.

Everyone had their lines pretty well down. Nothing major was missed at all. It went well.

Payday now and two days off. I'm so close to calling in today and going back to bed but I'm already up, showered, and have half a sandwich with me. My head is still a little foggy but it'll go away. The weather radio woke me up around midnight which made me think the alarm was going off at six which made me cranky but then happy because it wasn't six.

I went back to sleep.

I'll have a good amount of time off until the musical now. The show is in July. It'll be settling in time, find that daily routine time. It'll be nice.

Post Office Blues

No wonder the post office loses tons of money! At lunch time for most Americans they had two clerks helping an entire line of people! They are jacking up their rates come Monday on top of bad service!

I will not be using the post office ever again unless there is no altervative. I pay all of my bills online anyway, send email and texts. If it is a package I'm going Federal Express or UPS from now on.

The post office needs to privitize or go away.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friendly Rehearsal

Tonight the show goes on with a friendly crowd. The friends of the directors, actors and crew (well both of us) go out and the actors get a chance to see how the show plays with a live audience for the first time.

It's a good chance to see what works live and what is close enough to work it so it does work live. The show is coming together better than I thought it would have after seeing it last Friday night. The actors are getting the lines down cold and didn't miss hardly anything last night! Its impressive to see especially when you see how wordy the script is.

I'm really in need of a weekend. Late nights at the theatre and long days at work have me a little worn out. If I wasn't trying to build my leave back up from our Vegas trip then I would have taken a day off or two. I want to have around two hundred hours but now I've got less than half that.

Time though, it'll get better with time.

The next show, "Into the Woods" cast list was released yesterday. Facebook was exploding with all of the who got what part and everything. Lots of excited people out there! It will be a big challenge to light this show like it should be. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan of theatre at all, I particularly don't care for musicals but I enjoy a good challenge more than my distaste for a music laden show and this will probably be a harder show to do than Yes Virginia. I had over seventy cues in that show and it was barely over an hour long.

By contrast I have right at thirty one cues in this show and it is running over two hours. Into the Woods will likely have closer to seventy than thirty. It's a big show, hence my love for a good challenge comes in.

Another Late Night

I was able to get out of the theatre just a little before eleven last night. Tomorrow night is the full on public rehearsal with a friendly audience. The cast was a lot better last night. They had their lines down except for one big skip which threw off another actor they were good.

It's running time is going to be a problem if they can't speed up the pace though. It keeps running at over an hour per act. I believe the director wants it cut down a lot closer to just one hour per act.

It is getting there though. Two more rehearsals is all they have then it's showtime. The past two nights I've had Thing 2 with me and last night Things 1 and 2 and The Date were there to watch and help out with the rehearsal. She had some sheets that the stage manager wanted to use in the show.

All in all this is an ok show. It wasn't quite the Neil Simon comedy I was expecting, it is more of a dramedy I guess. My booth partner who is running the sound is really enjoying it though. We've got the cues ironed out now and it will be a smooth show for us from here until the closing show. It took us three rehearsals from no cues to having every cue down cold...that's pretty good!

Late Night

Rehearsal went to almost eleven last night. It's alright though, we have the cues down cold. Two rehearsals down and we have our cues. This is a fairly easy show to do. There are two parts of the stage. We light one part or the other part.

There are about thirty cues all together. In Yes Virginia there were at least twice that many and it was a shorter show. This one is running over two hours long.

The actors are doing a great job with dealing with a massive amount of lines. There are some hesitations now but with this being the final week of rehearsal they will be good when Friday rolls around.

I'm tired. Work was busy yesterday and will be just as busy today. We got some good news though, a guy who is over seventy is retiring. He has three retirement checks coming in already and showed no signs of wanting to retire even though he told a much younger man who has a family to take care of he was going to retire late last year, then January...then February....then July because he was going to get an extra amount of money in his retirement check.

I believe he never intended to retire at all and honestly I lost all respect for the man. He is pretty well off, the man who was laid off was struggling. We had three more older and past retirement age people who took a voluntary lay off last year so they could save the jobs of the younger with less seniority people. A very noble thing to do.

With this man it was just greed. He filled out his retirement papers yesterday because he was mad that the company had turned down his temporary lead pay of .40 cents per hour as the lead was off on medical leave. So out of pure anger of missing out of .40 cents he quits.

Goodbye and welcome back to the man who will get his job back. Well maybe, the old man might change his mind as he cools off, who knows. I hope he leaves.

Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses

Yesterday was one amazing day! Take a picture of this, friends, everyone bringing something to eat, a grill, a deck, nice weather, cigars, and scotch.

It all came together for a spectacular day of bonding and intense friendship. This is one incredible family, my circle is like no others. These are the people I plan on taking care of on lottery winning day! Well and a handful of others besides my blood relatives and my northern brothers!

To start off with it was raining in the morning. Beersnob texted me and said it would be better to wait until three because the weather would be as good as it will be at that point. He was right!

We spent the day out on his deck, I manned the grill and boiled and grilled bratwurst and ground chuck hamburger patties. There was homemade baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad, dessert, chips, and drinks!

Then I broke out the cigars! The highlight for me was the Padron 1926 40th anniversary that I bought a while back for Beersnob's homecoming from Qatar. Well since that was during a time it was really cold out I decided to hold off until the weather was better. These cigars were magnificent. Very well constructed and held the ash to over two inches. They had a peppery, leathery, sweetness that made this absolutely the best cigar I've ever had!

Beersnob went out of his way and purchased a bottle of Dalmore Cigar Malt scotch which really complimented our cigars! I had enjoyed Jura Superstition before while I was cooking but that might not have paired as well as the Dalmore.

Yesterday was a perfect day! We all ate, drank, and had cigars. Kings and queens of all we surveyed! Princes and Princesses of all they will learn and inherit from us as friends, loyal and true.

Saturday Was A Long Day

It started when I got up a little after seven. I woke up a little, wrote my blog, and fixed some hot tea to knock the chill off. At ten I went to the theatre to help with the set call. The turn out was a little thin. It took longer than expected so we finished with the list around two.

Then I was off to auditions for a short project that Chris is ready to shoot. That lasted close to three hours. By then I was starving as I hadn't had anything to eat since a couple of doughnut holes that were back stage at the theatre.

We headed to a local eating spot and I ordered The Date some food and got myself something to eat. A little after six I got a text from Skate asking where I was at. It was Skate's Date's graduation party! So I headed over there until about two A.M.

Now I'm up and ready to go get meat for a BBQ we are having today at Beersnob's house. We are also having cigars so I'm going to dub it Cigar-B-Que. This is going to be fun even though it is a little rainy outside. Nothing a garage can't fix!

Yeaaaaaaa! Saturday!!!!

As I've blogged about most of the week, this was one of the busiest weeks I've had at work in a long time. I'm glad it's over. I'm enjoying a rainy morning and a hot tea to wake up with.

I ordered The Date a microbatch of roasted gourmet coffee beans from here. I found this guy on Twitter and read his tweets so I decided to order from him. His is a veteran too so that's twice as good!

He makes small batches, blends and roasts them himself, then ships it all out (with a hand written thank you note and a postcard). This the American Dream! To make a living doing something you love! I'd encourage anyone out there to give his coffee a shot. He'll email you back and ask for a review and maybe some pictures so he can build his brand and get feedback.

The price is reasonable and likely cheaper than you'll find from Starbucks. The batch I received was roasted Tuesday! How's that for fresh?!

Had my first lighting rehearsal last night for Broadway Bound. I believe after one run the lighting plot is fairly simple. There appear to be two main areas, bring the lights up on one and fade it to the other and back again. I'll get the exact cues down this week.

Facebook

It seems appropriate that I spend my 1,500 post anniversary by giving you my impressions of Facebook. For somethings I'm a long time resister while others I'm an early adopter.

I resisted cell phones for years and years until last year. Now I wish I could get my iPhone implanted into my arm somehow. Well removable so I can upgrade to the next best one of course but implanted nonetheless.

Usually resist fads. I don't plan on getting sleeves of tattoos. Not jumping onto the swine flu epidemic train yet either. In fact I'm kind of wondering why it is this big of a story. There are a little over one hundred cases in the US...that doesn't seem all that bad. I bet there are more cases of tuberculosis out there than swine flu. Sheesh, its ridiculous.

Well I finally adopted the Facebook trend. My Space might be my first social site love but Facebook is more like a slow motion chat with friends (which I enjoy better)....which also has a great iPhone app. Now if something crosses your mind, you Facebook it and see what your friends think about it.

The interface uses the thread style of comments. One of the older bulletin board models on the web before VBulletin took over the message board world. No knock against VBulletin, that is my favorite design by far. The thread Facebook style is more updated than its yesteryear counterparts but still a classic design model that was eventually replaced.

It works though. It is fun, can be exciting, and without a doubt I'll find myself spending more time there in the future. So there it is my friends, fifteen hundred posts down. I've got no idea what the next fifteen hundred have in store but I'm sure it'll be a wild ride some of the time....the others will be pretty mundane as most of my posts are.

Big Meeting

I attended a big meeting last night about the next Summer show, Into The Woods. You can find some clips on You Tube. It is a complex fairy tale taken from the classic fairy tales.

It is a musical and anyone who knows me knows I hate musicals but this is also really complex and a complicated challenge so I guess I love challenges more than I hate musicals.

I'm going to start learning the light plot Friday night on this show, Broadway Bound. Then rehearsals with me start next week. After that it is full ahead for Woods.

This will be a very interesting (well I shouldn't say interesting as much as intensive show) show. There is very little dialogue and it's over two hours long. There will be five shows as there will be a producer's matinee on top of the regular run. Yep, it'll be a big project for sure.

Wednesday

The Date is going through a particularly stressful week with finals and all. Meanwhile back at the ranch so am I at work. They set my priorities to do a certain kind of part last week and that is all we did to the neglect of everything else.

So now as you suspect everything else is now a priority and it is taking a tremendous effort to catch everything else up. However for both of us this might be the last really stressful week we'll both have in a while.

Things are bound to settle down in a couple of weeks or less and it'll be all good. It is raining out and looks like it will be for a while. My yard is already becoming pretty tall but I paid a guy to mow it a while back and he hasn't gotten to it yet.

My shower drain is also starting to drain really slowly. That means that I've got roots in my sewer pipe. I've been to this rodeo a few times already. I'm going to have to call someone to pull them all out with a machine. Just have to put it off until next payday now.

Still Smilin'!!

Yep! Feels good!

Even though I know today is going to be super busy at work it'll still feel pretty darn good! It also means I'm one drawing closer to winning a jackpot!!!!

Woohooooo!!!!

I Won The Lottery!

Well not the jackpot but I did win one hundred fifty dollars! Not bad at all especially when you consider I was two numbers away from a four point three million dollar jackpot!!!!

Woohoooo!!!!!

Power Is Back On

It came back on around 2 AM.

I had my iPhone set as an alarm just in case. It worked pretty good! The morning smells like a brand new day. Clean and fresh. It rained a lot last night but it's still alright.

It's off to work now.

Power Outage

With more severe and tornadic storms bearing down on me the power decided to go out!

I heard the transformer blow up down the street. At least it waited until Daisy of Love was over with. The newest in the long line of insecure, shallow people searching for a new hookup shows.

Yes this is more of the same. People who have the time to take a few weeks off and spend it in the same recycled VH1 reality show house must find love as well...I guess.

Maybe the gene pool is better off without them.


-- Post From My iPhone

Quite A Saturday!

It all started off normal enough, Thing 2 and my mom had planned to buy some flowers and plant them. Thing 2 had a spot all cleared out in the back yard and was ready for some plant life.

So they go to the place where they grow plants and pick out some really nice ones. They get that done and it looks really really good. It is impressive looking and will be amazing when they start growing. They decide to go back for mulch and I head off to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the draft with friends.

Skate and I play trivia until Jdub shows up. We did pretty good! I got two top ten scores for April in Countdown! The draft comes on and I'm two mojitos in and feeling good. Jdub arrives and orders a Tuaca and Red Bull. To start they misunderstand and get his order wrong and repeat back to him vodka and Red Bull. Jdub didn't catch it so I mentioned to him what I heard her say. He corrects her and she asks if he wants ice to which he says no.

With the order straightened out they now bring him a shot of Tuaca. No Red Bull. He repeats his order to her patiently. She then brings him a can of Red Bull....no glass to put the shot of Tuaca in. So she takes the can back and brings him a full glass of Red Bull and ice....frustrated Jdub now considers complaining or not. So he digs out some of the unordered ice and drops his Tuaca into the Red Bull. He does a great job of restraining himself as his order was screwed up three times now.

So we play trivia and watch the draft and all is good. Jdub then tries to order a Tanqueray and tonic which the waitress can't even pronounce and tells Jdub she will go to the bar and ask if they can make it...and so it went.

The first round of the draft comes to a close and I order The Date some wings to go and take them to her while at work. I head home and see Thing 2's new garden which she is very proud of. Everything goes well until the tornadic storms hit that evening.

Naturally around ten they roll in and sirens go off. The storm sirens go off and my weather radio goes off every couple of minutes with updates. They report a tornado on the ground North of us but since it is dark they have a hard time spotting it. It is headed away from us though. We are safe and we all go to bed.

Then the sirens go off again about two am. We get up and go turn on the tv. Another storm with tornadic activity has taken the exact same path! This time a tornado has hit the Expo Center. Well it might have been the first tornado. I'm not sure but the Expo Center is torn up now. The Date got a call this morning saying she doesn't have to work the show again today because it is canceled due to damage.

We are safe though. The garden is in perfect shape and the flowers that were starting to wilt yesterday are strong and growing!

Yes! Draft Day!!!!

The 0-16 Lions signed quarterback Matthew Stafford to a record deal last night. This pretty much guarantees he will be the next Joey Harrington. The Lions gave up a massive amount of sacks over the past two seasons. So what do you do?

Draft a rookie QB and let him get killed behind a sieve of a line after giving him a record amount of money. You have a potential perennial Pro Bowl tackle in Jason Smith that would protect anyone you put in the backfield. Being a lineman he also would be cheaper.

There is a huge crop of quarterbacks coming out next season that are far superior to Stafford and probably a half dozen that I don't know about that would be as good as Stafford.

So now the Rams are on the clock. They have been putting up a smoke screen for Mark Sanchez who I believe will be going to the Redskins! Well they better draft him, I bet Skate a Mojito that they will. He is a Skins fan.

So here we go, one of the high holy days of the NFL season and it is a few hours away now!

Busy Week!!!!

This week has been one of the busiest in recent memory at work. Since the last round of layoffs this is really the first time we have been getting behind.

Think of it like McDonalds, if there were a grill, a person manning the grill, and a person assembling the Big Mac.

Well here is what my work place did to us. They still have the one person assembling the Big Mac but they added three grills and three people cooking three times the food but expect the poor guy assembling the Big Mac to keep up.

Anyway that's work. I trade eight hours of my time to them in exchange for a good living outside of work. I turn off my emotions, turn off my brain because thinking isn't allowed, and just do what I can do.

I'm grateful for my job. I know it is hard to find a job like I have that pays as well as mine does, let alone the tremendous benefits I earn. Just wish they would hire some of the laid off people back so the job would go smoother sometimes.

Perfect Evening!

I had a glass of water, a Taboo Twist robusto, and great weather! So I sat outside listening to the radio on my iPhone and smoked a great cigar.

The evening couldn't be better! Things 1 and 2 were at their soon to be former house packing things up. The Date was at work and we texted back and forth until around eight o'clock and then Ghost Hunters came on.

Jason and Grant have purchased an inn and they are remodeling it. Apparently that has stirred up lots of activity so they called in GH International to investigate it in an unbiased way. Turns out they found activity as well.

It was quite a show, next week is an insane asylum! That'll be a good show!!!!

Saturday NFL Draft Day!!!!

Skate and Jdub are going to meet me at Buffalo Wild Wings Saturday for one of the holy days of the NFL year!

The NFL Draft!!!! Woohooooo!!!!! This is the day where you start to formulate your fantasy drafting strategy, you start to learn where the teams will be performance wise when training camp opens, and you try to find that one rookie that you can take late that will make your team rock!

Yes this is a huge day and I can't wait!

Deadliest Catch Night!!!!

Love that show! It is by far the best drama on television now that The Shield is off the air.

Not only that but it is real. You feel for these guys. You don't really want to be on the ships with them but you really want them to do good. Like when Captain Phil had the blood clot problem. He had to go to the hospital and was close to dying.

You love all of the crazy pranks that Captain Jonathan pulls. You love it when Captain Sig looses his temper and how his brother Edgar tries to get over on his own brother.

You feel like you could go hang out with these guys in a pub and have a great time. I love this show and if you have never seen it then shame on you! Watch it!!!! It is amazing and amazingly dangerous! You'll have a hard time looking at crab the same way again.

The Cleaning Has Begun

This has gone way beyond a simple Spring cleaning. I went to help friends at the theatre to put up a new set yesterday while The Date stayed here at the house and did homework assignments.

Upon my return the bathroom was spotless and much of my laundry was done. She mentioned cleaning up the cleanest room of the house, the dining room. It is clean because there really isn't anything in there except packing boxes from stuff I've ordered.

Things 1 and 2 have the upstairs looking good. I can only imagine what is going to happen to the kitchen when they get to it.

Not only that but The Date said that Saturdays were for cleaning! A full day every week!!!!

Brilliant!!!!

Ok so I'm going through the supermarket yesterday right? Going over the meat counter and I see Johnsonville Bratwurst patties! Flat bratwurst!!!! Really?!?!?!

I love me some bratwurst! I usually boil in beer and garlic first and then grill. Now having the same meat in a convenient patty is just insanely smart!!!! I picked up a package and some charcoal and went home!

Have to say these were pretty good! I grilled two of them, no boiling, just grilling. Fixed them just like a burger. There was quite a bit more grease so I did grill them a little extra and let them rest a bit to drain.

I enjoyed eating them with some potato salad though! Tasty! I will be grilling more of these this coming grilling season.

Had coffee with a friend later that day. Got Things 1 and 2 before a big thunderstorm hit. That was pretty cool. It really poured! Watched the NASCAR race. Still in second place. The first place team picked the same drivers I did! AARRGGHHH! I couldn't gain on his team!

I will though, I will!

Packing Day

Thing 1 and Thing 2 will have several boxes at their house today for packing. I've got my brother's saw and plan on cutting up the couch this morning.

Went to watch three of my circle compete in a rib eating contest last night. Skate had the best chance of winning and came in second according to the judges however I believe that Skate won the contest. He practically cleaned off all of the meat on the bones. The winner didn't. He was taking about three bites off of each rib and throwing them down.

One judge even said Skate has cleaner bones. They both ate four boxes of ribs over two three minute rounds! Four boxes!!!! My bud Skate can eat! Jdub and Chianti's Beau were likely four and five respectively as the other competitors were really also rans and really didn't have much chance against the mighty eating power of Skate, Jdub, and Chianti's Beau.

Anyway it was a lot of fun! Love my friends! They are really great!

Hooorrraayyyy!!!!

It's Friday!!!!
Last night was spent finishing up preparations for The Date and daughters to start their move in. Talk about cleaning! I've never been good at housekeeping....or attempted it much. Heard it was dangerous to your health so why take a chance?

However the daughters rock when it comes to cleaning! Point them in a direction and off they go! It's incredible! I'll have to come up with a nick name. The Date said they were like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Cat in the Hat. That might work.

I do have to cut up and remove a couch that was upstairs when I bought this house. It is a couch bed and very heavy so I'm removing the bed frame part first, which I've done some of. Then I'm going to cut the couch with a saw which my brother is dropping by my house today. So the formula is Couch-bedframe-couchframe+saw=an easily removed couch.

So that will be tomorrow's project. Tonight if it isn't raining much, I'll be headed down town for the Bar-B-Que contest. Some of my friends will likely be in the rib eating contest! That'll be a hoot!

Fight My Brute!

Come on! I dare you! You know you've wanted to take a whack at me for a long time now, well here is your chance!

It's a fun little guy you create in like twenty seconds and then they go and fight with another guy someone has created. The stats and stuff like that is randomly generated.

You earn experience points for fights you win. The fights are automatic too, no skill involved. You just find someone with stats that look lower than yours and hope they don't have a pet bear they attack you with!

As much as I enjoy Mafia Wars this is a lot of fun! You can only have three fights per day so it is a good office time waster but it won't get you into trouble.

So fight my brute!

Bo Obama

Today Bo Obama the official First Dog was introduced to the public. What is unusual is that President Obama promised that he was going to get a rescue dog instead of a pure bred dog gifted to him by the Kennedy clan.

Not that Senator Kennedy knows a lot about swimming but he gave the Obamas a Portuguese Water dog. Not quite the rescue dog. Not that this is a major deal or anything but I do feel it is blog worthy.

Here is why:
1. Major financial crisis.
2. Lots of overseas drama including a potentially nuclear armed Iran, Somali pirates attacking ships, North Korea threatening to start up their nuclear reactor again after launching a missile, Afghanistan, Iraq, and our President apologizing for America on foreign soil.
3. There is no 3! Good grief you'd think that this was the Second Coming or something the way the press has treated this dog! Do you know what it would have been like if the President had went to a rescue shelter and picked a mutt?

We are Americans! A nation of mutts. Remember the Great American Melting Pot?!?! No neither do I. We have become a nation of hyphens! Portuguese Water Dog indeed!

Nothing against the dog, he would have found a good home without the help of clan Kennedy. A shelter dog might not. People would have flocked to shelters to find a mutt of their own because Obama did it! With one compassionate gesture he would have galvanized pet owners in America to look at these dogs closely and to take a chance on a dog who might be a little bit older than a puppy. A dog to whom you might be their last chance.

Instead we get an elitist in Ted Kennedy giving the Obamas a dog. I'm a pet owner, long time readers will know that my dog died last Summer and can search back to that blog post. I don't feel I'm ready for another dog right now, I've got two cats to give me their undying love and affection.

I'm not so much criticizing Obama in this as I am the media. They have some really important things to cover right now that kind of trump the First Dog story. My point remains however, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of shelter dogs could have been saved if the President would have taken that one step.

You can pretty much chalk it up that if I were President I would have gone to the shelter and found a mutt. A big, unruly, mangy, older mutt and that would be my First Dog.

I'll get to the Peeps vs. Cadbury Cream Eggs eventually....

Big Changes Coming My Way

I'm going to interrupt my regularly scheduled blog on Peeps vs. Cadbury Cream Eggs to let my Iowa brothers know what is going on. Soon enough I'm going to have permanent company in the house. Yesterday I asked The Date and girls to move in.

Its going to take some work and adjustment on my part as I have my own little quirks but overall this has been the best and easiest relationship I've been in, well out of the handful of so called serious relationships I've been in that is.

Those of you who know me know I don't do anything this quick but this feels good and right. You also know how bachelorish I've lived over the years. It's going to take a lot of adjustment on my part. I'm willing to do that though. Going to have to buy a robe as I usually leave my clothes in the dryer and heat them up in the mornings. Which means I'm usually standing outside the dryer naked after showering.

But warm clothes in the mornings....mmmmmm, nice!

Anyway, I've been giving this some thought over the past two to three weeks so you can see the time involved. I've bounced it off of some of my sage friends in conversations over drinks, which turned out very well and got blessings all around.

Now for the not so romantic part but I did incorporate my iPhone! I asked by texting. I know I know. But I thought it was kinda cool the way I did it, I worked it into a conversation and I think it really surprised her! Not exactly what was expected!

So soon enough I'll be making a pilgrimage to Wal-Mart in search of a robe to wear in the mornings. I'm wondering how I can keep my clothes in the dryer too....

Taya

For those Rock of Love Bus 3 viewers it was not a shocking night for me. The Date was adamantly behind Mindy in the finale. Meanwhile I was on Mindy's side but saw that the preview had some editing that tipped me off that Taya was this year's Rock of Love.

Nothing specific but it played up that Taya wasn't the choice, dead ringer for me. She was one of the lightning rods that really polarized viewers this season. I'm almost positive that there will be a next season since he didn't immediately propose there on the spot.

The ratings are big for this show. Everyone loves to see the antics and as you long time readers know it is one of my guilty pleasures.

There is good news though. Rock of Love castoff Daisy will get her shot at twenty psycho horndogs in a couple of weeks. She isn't looking for a husband but just a boyfriend. She is the white trash version of Flavor of Love castoff New York, a show I just could not watch.

I Love New York, I tried to watch it, I really did. I felt like I had to scrub myself with Comet and acetone after the credits rolled. Guess I have my VH1 limits...

I'd LOVE to see everyone's favorite reality villain Dustin Diamond have one of these shows! D'Man of Love in all of his high maintenance, bi-polar psychosis trying to find love with twenty issue laden women of questionable standards and morals.

Man sometimes I hate myself that I want to see this trainwreck programming....

Triscuits And Easy Cheese

Talk about a little slice of junk food heaven. I've been trying different combinations of Triscuits and Easy Cheese lately.

I really like the sharp cheddar right now. I can't find the roasted garlic cheddar flavor yet but I'd like to try that on the roasted garlic Triscuits. They are sneaky because of the Triscuits seem vaguely healthy but I can't have much of that in my diet so the spray cheese really helps add that extra layer of flavor.

The textures of the Triscuits along with the smoothness of the cheese is truly a marvel to behold, setting loose a chain reaction of flavor goodness. Right now I'm munching on the Fire Roasted Tomato & Olive Oil Triscuits and the Sharp Cheddar Easy Cheese.

I really like the Roasted Garlic Triscuits but didn't want to limit myself to just those. Be careful! These are sneaky good and before you know it your whole box will be gone!

Fun Friday Night!

Being how yesterday was payday I hung out with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings and then we headed over to my favorite club. The Blue Note for drinks and frivolity until midnight.

It was a great evening! The Date came our way after she got off of work and everyone enjoyed the epic evening!

We exchanged our needs in the new gifting part of Mafia Wars so we can boost our stats! Unfortunately I only have a couple of things that my Mafia Family need! I'm going to have to go back and hunt for some of the older collections and get some of that loot.

Good Friday!

Today is one of the most important days along with Easter on the Christian calendar. Christ was tortured and killed this morning only to rise on the third day.
I happen to have plans this evening in being with Friends until The Date gets off work later in the evening.

Fortunately it is also payday and I'm thrilled about that as well! I've been living off of my last few Vegas dollars:) Budgeted yes but still the budget was running dry! It's all good now though! Every two weeks it gets fixed!

A Disgusting Display

American Presidents do not bow or defer to royalty. As Americans we have a built in allergy towards the royal cast. We fought for our independence against the super power of its day and we won it.

Those days are apparently long gone now. President Obama has decided to bow to the King of Saudi Arabia in London no less. No matter what you think or feel about President Bush's relationship to the royal family he never ever would have bowed and showed fealty towards a royal.

Of course the White House is denying it.

I suggest you judge for yourself and make your own opinion. The alleged bow comes about fifty five seconds into the video.

I'm sick of the "America apologizes to the world" tour that has been going on.
It's going to be a long four years my friends. Just yesterday Somali pirates attacked a US flagged cargo ship. Over the weekend North Korea launched a missile after Obama told them not to. I'm sure Iran has kicked their nuclear weapons program into overdrive.

Welcome back Carter....

Fantasy NASCAR

I'm in a Yahoo fantasy league from a message board I'm involved in. www.cigarasylum.com
Lot of good guys there. Well out of seven races I'm in second place. I've also had four first places and one top five.

So I've won over half of the races this season and yet I'm in second place. This is out of seventeen teams mind you. The competition is tough!

Why I'm not in first is because in two weeks my team had bad showings. Week one in Daytona and I believe I was third from last. I followed that up with back to back wins which put me way up in the rankings. Week four my team collapsed again and I fell to ninth. Again back to back wins and I was in second place.

Then this weeks race. I scored over three hundred points and got a top five. The third place team got first this week in Texas and leapfrogged me. He beat me by less than thirty points and holds a seventeen point lead over me.

I have a twenty six point lead over third and it falls from there as we are the only three teams with at least nineteen hundred points.

If I can stay consistent I'll be a strong contender for the title! It cost five cigars to enter. The leader at the end of the Spring races wins fifteen cigars, same with the Summer races. The overall winner at the end of the season will win thirty five premium cigars!

Doing ok so far! I like my chances! No other team has even two wins this season and I have four.

Excellent Supper!

The Date and daughters came over last night and cooked me a spectacular supper consisting of T-bone steak, pasta salad, scalloped potatoes, and chocolate cake!

I also enjoyed a drink of Jura Superstition, an Islay malt Scotch. I have to say that it was one of the smoothest Scotches I've ever had and I've had some smooth Scotch. In a word it was incredible! It wasn't near as smoky as my favorite Lagavulin however it had so much more to offer in terms of flavor!

Very complex to my palate, I was at first disappointed about the lack of smoke being an Islay. Then I was overwhelmed by the other flavors which I can't even begin to identify. Yes there was a lot of peat. Don't get me wrong, there was some smoke but not what I'm accustomed to, if I had to identify that flavor it would be closest to hickory, a sweet hickory.

This might very well have taken over my favorite scotch spot bumping Lagavulin from number one! I was going to pair it with a cigar however I had company and the weather outside didn't lend to cigar smoking as there were thirty mile per hour winds and I didn't want to run off to my bedroom and leave my company alone.

I'll do that soon as this really deserves a great cigar to go with.

William. P. Young Part Two

I took The Date and her fine daughters to the second evening of Mr. Young's service. It was more amazing than the first evening.

He is quite the man, gracious and generous. I plan on purchasing the CDs of all four services he spoke at and storing them permanently on my iPhone.

He said to make us feel better about ourselves we find someone who has more pain to deal with than we do and compare it. I've done that. I've suggested others do that as well. My theory was always at least then you know things aren't as bad as they could be and you have less than that other person to go before you feel better. It is just a way to put off dealing with what needs to be dealt with. Eventually you'll have to deal with it.

Start there. Find someone and deal with it. I'd suggest reading The Shack first. It's almost a blueprint for anyone who has been hurt. My childhood and teen years were pretty good actually. I had a great foundation to build on, my hurts came after I was out on my own. I really think most people's have.

As a teen you can't wait to get out on your own but you really have no idea how ill prepared you really are for dealing with the pitfalls life will throw at you, and then kick you when you are down.

Now at the age of thirty nine I think I've got it down but in reality I know I've got a long way to go. I've got my quirks yet. They might just be a part of who I am now though. My journey of self discovery is a long way from being over but over the past two evenings I believe I've walked a hard mile or two and I think that there is some easier ground up ahead for a while now.

William. P. Young

Went to see Mr. Young last night. If you aren't familiar he wrote The Shack. Excellent speaker. Good book even though for some it is pretty controversial. He addressed a lot of that last night and cleared most of it up in his Q&A session.

He talked about how he was working three jobs and how he wrote the story for his kids for Christmas. The first and only planned run was fifteen copies from Office Depot in spiral bound, single spaced format.

From there friends passed it to friends and on and on it went. Two friends formed their own publishing company since it was rejected by twenty six publishers. So with no distribution deal it has now sold nearly seven million copies worldwide.

My church is very conservative theologically. My pastor took a lot of heat by bringing Mr. Young here to talk as well. As I said the concerns were explained and he pointed out where the controversial parts were and what he intended to say and how it came off and backfired on him.

Mr. Young is a very humble and gracious man. I was honored to listen to him talk and how the book had changed many people's lives. It was a good evening.

While Obama

Is embarrassing us abroad and calling America arrogant, I decided to finish watching season three of Dexter yesterday. It is such a good show! I can't emphasize that enough! Then I turned my sites to True Blood!

A vampire series that takes place after a synthetic blood has come into existence by the Japanese. The stunningly cute Anna Paquin stars. I made it through three episodes last night! Nine more to go!

Tonight I have plans to go see the author of The Shack. He is in town and speaking at my church. Its odd that my church would invite this author since they are pretty conservative in biblical interpretation.

The Shack is a very controversial book in the Christian community. There are several places where it is in stark contrast of Christianity however I do believe that my church has offered the invite as a learning experience.

Regardless I know for a fact that someone can become a bible believing Christian by watching something even as blasphemous as TBN or even heretics such as Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland. That might be the gate to get someone on the right path that God uses.

Tonight is a question and answer service. That should be very interesting! I can't wait!

Dexter Season Three

I watched the first half of Dexter season three yesterday. Love this show! The characters are always so well acted and thought out! The plots are usually a season long arc and hour long arcs that end at the end of the episode.

For those of you not familiar with Dexter, Dexter is a serial killer who also works for the Miami police department. He preys on the guilty who escape justice via loopholes in the law.

It's an interesting concept and has worked well for the past two seasons. The second half is on tap for today!

Yawwnnnn

I'm glad I'm off after my Las Vegas trip. I need to recoup and recharge after being totally drained.

I went and got some groceries yesterday and then decided to watch the rest of season four of My Name Is Earl. Not as good of a season as three but it was good.

Snacking on roasted garlic Triscuits now. It's going to be a good day!

Home

Las Vegas was a lot of fun. We did everything we pretty much wanted. I went four of eight on my sports bets and blew my gambling budget by Sunday. That meant I had two days left to budget the rest of my money.

Las Vegas is an odd town. I am pretty sure you can't judge the entire town by just the strip area however I'm still pretty happy that I made the right decision when I turned down the job at Nellis AFB a few weeks ago. I don't see myself living there at all now.

It is a style of living that I don't think I could handle. I do think I can handle visiting there on a shorter term basis like two days instead of five. I was worn out by day five and ready to come home for sure.

A lot of the strip is very claustrophobic, it is tall and something is built on every square inch. Along with the people and cars it is a very weird feeling. There is also a big project that might not be finished called Citycenter.

It is in a ton of financial trouble. It is weird to see it half way built and the cranes just sitting there. It is MASSIVE! You can read about it here.

Las Vegas might be a city in transition or it might not. I'm not sure because I saw people everywhere. It didn't seem as hard it to me as the numbers say though I guess.
There were globs of people everywhere! The Criss Angel show was sold out that we went to, the strip was packed, the Luxor was full. I guess we will see what happens to Vegas in the future but I'm glad that I am not living there and confident I made the right decision:)