Christmas is coming, the wallet is not getting fat....

So after a long drought in postings I'm back. We're getting ready for the holidays and I am finding that the problem is not buying gifts for everyone; rather it's the other things I buy for myself while shopping for others that is breaking the bank. Only around the holidays do you think it’s ok to spending many, many, many dollars on things that you never would. Examples……..$10 boxes of cookies, $2000 televisions, $7 yards of beef, $3000 dining room tables you know the usuals.

Anyway, I guess it all balances out when the credit card statement comes in January and you are forced to eat top raman and hotdogs for the rest of the winter. It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays if my wallet wasn’t empty!

So, happy holidays to everyone and hope the new year brings you joy and a balanced check book!

Al Roker…..you lap dancing fool!

So this morning on the Today show Matt, Meredith and Al were exchanging witty banter about privacy and hidden cameras. I can’t remember exactly what the exchange was about but Meredith commented on being on hidden camera and said something like “You really wouldn’t want to see yourself then would you?” Al then promptly replied with……”No way, not like a stripper on a pole in front of a mirror.”

Result: dead silence, crickets chirping…… Did he really just say "Stripper Pole" in casual converstaion on The Today Show? I swear it was so quiet you could here Katy Couric snickering in her upper west side apartment 50 blocks away.

Despite the tranquility of hearing Meredith Viera shut-up for a few seconds, it was one of the most awkward moments I’ve ever seen on the Today Show, of which there have been quite a few.

Weeds

Because I hate Blockbuster……they are the devil…….Barb and I have a subscription to Netflix. This week we received the first 6 episodes of the Showtime TV show “Weeds”. It is so funny! So wrong, but hilarious. We are addicted to it now. I’m almost tempted to get a subscription to Showtime, just to watch the second season.

It stars Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy as a recently widowed, mother of two, who sells marijuana to support her upper-middle class suburban lifestyle in So Cal. It costars Elizabeth Perkins as Celia, her desperate, uptight, controlling neighbor; who’s discovery that she has breast cancer sends her into a crazy mid-life crisis that includes flashing Nancy’s 15 year old sun and a one night stand with Nancy’s supplier.

Meanwhile, Nancy maintains her lifestyle by selling to other adults in the neighborhood including Celia’s husband and her accountant Doug, played by Kevin Nealon.

This is a fantastic show. A warning, though, don’t watch it to learn any moral lessons, rather to see an innovative plot unravel and excellent and realistic character portrayals by excellent actors.

You can learn more about the show by going to the Showtime website:
http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do

Bored at work? Try this.....

If youÂ’re looking for something to help pass the time, check out the web site of JKrowlingg, the author of the Harry Potter books. The website, http://www.jkrowling.com/, being geared for 12 year olds around the world, is actually quite entertaining for the 12 year old in all of us.

The site is set-up like you are in her house; sitting at her desk, looking at her bulletin board, reading books in her library and looking at her journal. Within the site are many Easter Eggs that will give you snippets into the new book, or character developments. ItÂ’s interesting.

To get you started, when you log in, go to the “Extra Stuff” section by clicking on the hairbrush sitting on the desk. Once there click and drag the eraser to the blank sheet of paper. When you do, it will reveal the ingredients required to gain a special prize. These 3 items can be found all around the website if you look carefully. Once you find an item click on it to store it. Once you have all 3, the secret prize will be revealed.

I Miss Katy

If you are a regular viewer of the Today Show, like me, you may have strong feeling about the Today Show. I am not a morning person, and I definitely have a routine in the morning; part of which is watching the Today Show. A couple weeks ago, the Today Show, introduced their new anchor, Meredith Viera, as well as a new set. It may be that I am just grumpy in the morning, but I think Meredith is just annoying.

She’s trying too hard; things seem forced. It’s like she’s pretending to have this history with Matt, Al and Anne when she doesn’t. Also, you can just tell that Anne wanted that anchor position and just wants to drop-kick Meredith off the set.

I’m not sure if that’s how it was when Katie Couric started, but it seems very forced compared to KC. Katy may be annoying and smug sometimes, but at lease she seems real.I'm not giving up on her yet though. I hope she'll calm down a little and force things a little less in a few months.

On the side note, the new Today Show set is weird. It’s so colorless, like they are transmitting from a saved set from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Everything is all plastic. The camera is also off center due to the HD filming, I don’t like it.

My Mullet and Me

So….for the last couple years I have had relatively long hair. In fact, most of the time I have had a mullet of sorts. It wasn’t intentional and the back of my hair was the same length as the front, but the back has this wicked, trailer park wave to it that makes it look like a mullet when it’s long Today, I finally let go of the Indigo Girl inside me and cut it all off. While I was getting the snip I became reminescent and began to think of all the famous people who have had mullets…..

Kevin Coster
As mentioned above...both of the Indigo Girls
1/3 of the NHL
1/4 of MLB
Michael Bolton
Billy Ray Cyrus
Andre Agassi
Jerry Seinfeld

After bidding farewell to “the party in the back and the business in the front” I was still haunted by it’s memory heading back to work. While exploring the internet I came across this excellent ppt presentations on the history of the mullet.

Click here to view the presentation

Apparently the mullet…or mullette in French…. Has been around for thousands of year and is also genetically passed to children of Mulleters. Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, enjoy the presentation and if the mood hits, observe a moment of silence for the loss of my mullet.

The Buffoons....er The Buffalos

Ok, ok, it’s been a long time since I’ve written. I seem to have focused most of my attention on our wedding website lately. It’s looking pretty good, but I have neglected my outpouring of thoughts into wanderingwithwords.com this summer.
Luckily I had something that inspired me start writing this up again…CU football. We are terrible. We’re 0-3 with 3 convincing losses; one of which was to division 1-AA, (1-2) Montana State, oh yeah that’s right; we are they’re only win so far. Now that’s sad…..

There is just no talent to work with on the team. We all knew Barnett couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag, but it turns out that he really couldn’t recruit either. I mean, our offense had negative yards through the first 5 halves of this season! This being said, our defense looks pretty good actually. This is probably due to all the practice they are getting by being on the field about 45 minutes of every game. The good news is that even though our offense may go 4 and out with negative yards every drive, we are able to hold the other teams….most of the time.
The good news is this year I don’t have to continually be disappointed every game when I hold out hope that we may win. I can focus my energy on things that have a better chance of happening….like Jake Plummer being MVP….or Maurice Clarett starting a recreational football league in the Ohio Penal System. (see Clarett Article here)

Come On.....Flag Burning........Really?

Is a flag burning ban really the most pressing issue for the senate to address? I understand that it is a great “tool” to use when campaigning that your opponent voted it was ok to degrade our flag and, therefore, what it stands for, but I am a little disgusted by this waste of time, tax-payer’s money and senatorial effort. With all the pressing issues at hand, the war in Iraq, social security reform, health care reform, border control, why are all our senators taking time to pass a flag-burning amendment?

I am a patriot; I’m glad to be from America and wouldn’t personally want to degrade our flag and what it stands for, but aren’t we a country founded on freedom? Ironic, that this potential new constitutional amendment, contradicts our very first amendment, freedom of speech. It isn’t “freedom of speech, unless the congress doesn’t like it.” Shouldn’t someone have the right to express their anger at our country by burning the flag? We allow people to burn other country’s flags; it’s ok if someone burns a likeness of our president or a presidential candidate, but our flag…no.

I guess I will just have to sit at home, and watch this fascinating and pressing debate and see what the outcome is…….all the while eating my freedom fries.

Back from Hiatus

I decided to take a little break from blogging while work was particularly busy and we were in the midst of moving, but I am hoping things will be slowing down soon so I can jump back into this. Anyway, here are just a few things that I have been contemplating lately…..

Things on my mind:

• Weddings – Wow, everyone is getting married! Something is in the air for sure; I don’t know about you, but I plan on never getting married.
• Scrubs – What the hell……NBC cancelled Scrubs! I don’t understand? That show is so funny, and NBC has no funny shows anymore. How does a show like “7th Heaven” stay on the air and Scrubs gets cancelled. Now I know the acting on 7th Heaven is suburb and the character development is very complex and three-dimensional, but come on! Scrubs has all those things too; plus an occasional musical montage featuring a string of has-been 80’s pop artists.
• Julia Roberts – She hasn't looked very good in her movies recently; she looked horrible in Oceans 12. Is it me or does her mouth seems to keep getting bigger as she gets older? Anyone else notice that? It’s really strange, she almost has a Joker like grin now.
• Butlers – I think some day I would like a butler. How cool would it be to have someone to butle around for you? I can be sitting in the East Wing of the house and simply yell out “Farnsworth, I would like a snow cone made with ice from the arctic glacial basin and flavoring made from hawaiian pineapple grown on the original Dole farm on the island Oahu, served in the cone brazier worn by Madonna at her London stop of the Blond Ambition Tour” and he would say “Of course, Mr. Martin, right away.” Yes………….that would be excellent.

New Kids on the Block

So we bought a house! It’s pretty crazy, we are under contract on a house in Bonnie Brae. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch built in 1952. It has a new kitchen, an awesome backyard and ….wait for it…..a bar! We are really excited. Check out some of the pictures…….

Dining Room

Kitchen

Mmmm....Beer

Backyard

Selling a kidney to buy a home

It’s been insanely busy lately!

For starters – our place is under contract! It only took 2 weeks for an offer to come in. I countered and they accepted. Although I am not making any money on my place (I was never expecting too) I am happy with what I’m getting for it and am getting what I put into it. So now that that is done, Barb and I are frantically looking for a new place. If we can’t find a place before we close on our old place, we have a couple of friends that generously offered to let us stay at their places until we find a new place. I would rather not do that, but it’s a nice offer.

This leads me to my rant for the week…..
How do people afford homes in Denver? The market is so out of whack. I think that with Barb and my combined incomes, we make enough to afford a decent house. Apparently I am wrong. Every place we look at has something wrong with it…like a 1970’s kitchen, a toilet in the middle of the basement or a famly of squirrels living in the fireplace…………. and the sellers are asking an absurd amount of money for it…..squirrels and all. It’s perplexing. We have looked in a handful of different neighborhoods and, on average, the prices of homes has gone up by double-digit percentages per year for the last 5 years. That’s funny because I don’t think inflation, the GDP or my salary has gone up by that much each year. Am I missing something? Is there some secret to buying a home that I don’t know about? Do I have to sell a vital organ in order to afford a decent home?

Ok I’m done now. Thanks for reading

The Last Week or So

I haven’t posted in a week so here is an update on what has been going on.

Race- So the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race was great. The race was pretty easy actually. I think I really noticed the difference in altitude. It was distracting to run past all the monuments so that helped get my mind of the fact that I was running for 100 minutes. I was able to finish in 1:41:40. So 10:10 minute miles. When I first started running I thought I would run it in 11 minute miles so I am pretty happy with that. Barb and Kristen did really well too so it was a good day.

DC – Was beautiful weather and it was great to see all our friends and meet a bunch of Barb’s friends and family who live in the area. The city is really interesting, very historic with all the US monuments and museums. My favorite monument was the FDR memorial. It is very serene with water features, quotes and statues of FDR all along the monument. I like it because instead of just being a attractive structure, it actually traces the events of his terms in office and brings to mind the era he was president. We also went to the Holocaust museum. It was very depressing but so well down, I would recommend it to everyone.

Condo – The condo is on the market and we have had about 8 showings in the first week. It’s a good sign that people are looking so hopefully we’ll hear have an offer before too long. We have been looking at neighborhood that we would potentially like to move to and it has been a little depressing. I can’t believe how expensive some of the neighborhoods in Denver are. People are asking so much money for little, dirty, dinge homes in questionable neighborhoods. If I didn’t hate it so much, I would say we should just move to Highlands Ranch and get a big, new house for less money.

Home Repair Part II

So I have reached the point of diminishing returns when it comes to fixing up the house. Last night, after 2 hours of painting smudges and nicks all over the house, I thought we were finally done with the home repair. Nope, I just had to keep going. First, I went to screw in the face plate on the light switch and broke it by screwing the screw in too far. Then I went to try to fix a crack in the drywall, ended up ripping off a chunk of the wall. Luckily with some superglue it’s back in place :)

We leave tomorrow for DC and the big race! I think I am ready for it. Beside the race, DC should be fun. We’ve never been there and this time of year is supposed to be beautiful with the Cherry Blossoms. I am excited to see some friends from college that live out there now. Should be a good time!

Caulk This!

I am so sick of fixing up my house. I have spent all of my spare time the last 3 weeks getting my house ready to sell. This is frustrating since before I started I thought it was already ready. To date I have:

• Replaced the carpet
• Re-caulked all the windows and the bathtubs
• Painted over scuffs on the doors, walls and trim
• Scrubbed the outside of the house
• Cleaned the inside at least 15 times
• Packed and moved out many, many boxes of crap
• Re-arranged the furniture at least 5 times

I don’t think I can do anymore to fix it up. The house goes on the market on Thursday so hopefully the effort will help to sell it.

Wine, Wine, Wine

Apparently, I have an acute sense of smell and taste. For instance, I can taste things in wines that most people can’t. I’m not sure if this is just my imagination or if I can really taste these things, but as I have become more attuned to it, I really enjoy tasting new wines now. Below are a few really good wines that are cheap and great for drinking with dinner….or after work……. or as a 7am morning drink (ok, that might be a sign of a problem). Does anyone else have any recommendations on wines? Having spent most of my drinking years consuming Keystone Ice, I am a novice when it comes to wines. Anyway, on to the wines:


Maribeau – This is so cheap and good. Barb’s parents turned us on to this one. It has a really clean taste, yet has enough body to not feel like you’re drinking . It’s really good with anything and is so cheap! It’s about $6 a bottle and comes in a liter bottle (a standard bottle of wine is 750ml). Both the red and white are good.



Twin Fin Pinot Noir – This is a good pinot that Barb read about and found. Again, it’s not overbearing but has more flavor than the Maribeau. It’s from a small vineyard in California whose motto is “We prefer sunny Days over dark cellars”. The name “Twin Fin” refers to a type of surf board. It’s $9 for a bottle of pinot noir that is better than the more expensive, larger Kendall Jackson type brands. If you don’t want to finish a bottle you can just screw the lid (no quark) back on. They also have Cab, Merlot and Chardonnay which we haven’t tried.

Evolution – Our local wine store, Marczyk’s, recommended this white. It is a bit more pricy but is so good. It’s very crisp and you can definitely taste the pear in the wine. It’s great with dinner, but at $15, it’s a little pricier. Worth the cost though
Strawberry Boones – Ok, just seeing if you are still reading at this point. If you are an 18 year old freshman girl rushing Kappa Kappa Gamma, this is your drink. Otherwise watch out for the wicked hangover the next morning. If you would like to go down this route, like me, you may be fooled into thinking there is only one flavor of Boones, but oh is that wrong. They have many revolting flavors, a sampling of which includes blackberry ridge, sangria and melon ball. Mmmmmmm Yuck!

Oh Brother(s) Where Art Thou?

I’m beginning to think my brother, Danny, doesn’t like his family or Colorado anymore. He moved to New Zealand last August for a year and has decided to stay for, at least, another year and move to Melbourne. In fact, in the last 3 years he has spent more than half his time out of the country. Prior to the trip to New Zealand he spent 6 months in Melbourne.

Maybe it’s all the family functions… birthdays, holidays, anniversaries. With 3 parents, 4 brothers, 3 girlfriends and a dog I guess it can get a little overwhelming. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t jive politically with our amazing President……..unnecessary wars, deficit spending, cronyism out the ying, yang…… I don’t see the problem there. Maybe it's that Australia is amazing and I’m sure New Zealand is just as beautiful?

No, I don’t think those are the reason.

I think there is another, more pressing motive for staying in the Southern Hemisphere. I think that he and his Kiwi girlfriend, Charlotte, who happens to be a great person…….I’m sure she’ll read this………are hiding their love child from the rest of the family. That’s right, I think they have given birth to a beautiful bouncing baby boy…..who’s name is, I assume, Matthew.

On a side note, it’s easier to figure out why one of my other brothers, Joey, moved out of state last summer. I know he likes the family and Colorado, but he just likes money much, much more. Hence the move to Las Vegas.

Run Matt Run!

So tonight I did my last big run before the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race that's in two weeks. We ran 8.25 miles and it was a tough run. It was really cold and very, very windy. I ran a little under 10 minute mile pace so I am psyched about that and think I may try to run the CB at that pace. I figure I will be able to since it is at sea-level.

Tomorrow is NCAA Tourney Day. I am picking UW-Milwaukee as my upset team. This is because they are an underrated team and are going up against an overrated team, Oklahoma…………apparently overrating runs rampant in all Oklahoma sports….

NCAA Tournee

All the pressure, I am frantically filling out my brackets today before office poll deadlines. No time to really write in the blog. I would like to pose the question though? Who is going to win it all?

Spring In Denver

For everyone who lives in Denver, they know that there is really no such thing as Spring here. It’s either 75 and sunny, like a nice June day, or it’s 29 and overcast, like a cold day in January. I’m not sure how any flowers grow here as they start to bloom when we have a few warm days in a row and then they freeze the next week when the frost comes in. I’ve lived in Colorado for almost 25 years and I still can’t get used to it. It tricks me every year.

Also, I think I may be regressing to my college drinking days. In the last week I have been debilitating hung-over twice. That Maker’s Mark, though very tasty the night before, slaps me around like I’m Glass Joe and it’s Mike Tyson while I sleep. (Note my little homage to Nintendo).

Thirdly, Just to follow up on my last entry, I bought some new carpet this week at Lowes. They had the best selection of carpet and much better prices than Home Depot. However, I did end up selling one of my kidneys to pay for it still.

Preparing for the Future

Barb and I are getting ready to sell my place and I can’t believe how much money you can drop on replacing stuff in your house. It makes me wish I was a carpet manufacturer. I am going to easily drop $2000 into my house to just get it ready for selling. It’s a little crazy. Apparently my Formica countertop isn’t very desirable????

Anyone have any suggestions on where to get cheap carpet or counter top? These decisions I’m making are way too serious and have lasting impacts. I liked it better when my biggest decision was “Malt Liquor or not”

By the way, do you like the picture below? It’s my white trash look, I look freakishly natural huh?

Hooooooo Weeeeee

Diarrhea of the Mind

Here's some random thoughts.

Many friends from out of town visited this weekend, it was good to see them all. Hopefully they all got home, with all their new, large, fragile gifts  Sorry K and R, couldn’t be helped, everything you registered for was huge!

I ran a lot this weekend training for the Cherry Blossom…….7 miles……. I am a little sore today, but I ran at an 11 minute pace and could have kept going so I am feeling good about the race; especially because it’s at sea-level.

I am haunted by Gray’s Anatomy, now that people say I remind them of O’Malley I feel a kinship with him. As a result I was really disturbed by the episode last night. He was basically crushed by his crush. George is so sad, at least he did something about it at the end.

I haven’t boarded in 3 weeks; I have a serious need to get to the mountains. Maybe I will come down with some 24 hour illness this week that can only be cured by a trip to a higher altitude and fast speeds on a snowboard?? Has anyone ever come down with something like that? I think it’s going around.

In addition, I keep hearing more and more people actually read my strange, pointless, yet....hopefully.... entertaining blog. So that's cool. Maybe if you're reading you leave a comment? Let me know what you think or that you're out there??

Matt O'Malley?

So people keep telling me that I remind them of George O’Malley from the show Grey’s Anatomy. I’m not sure what to think of it as he is kind of this dorky, awkward, always single doctor. Apparently he is very endearing and a nice guy, ah yes my life curse…the nice guy. Though we do have the same haircut and, ironically, are both from Minnesota.

I guess it’s better than being compared to someone like Jason Alexander, yes someone has told me that before…..nice huh?

Check out this article about TR Knight, the actor who places O’Malley:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11371432/

To Netflix or Not?

Reading a recent article about Netflix:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/10/netflix.penalty.ap/

I began to ponder my existence….. Really, most of the movies we see on Netflix aren’t that great. Basically, Barb or I will see a trailer for a movie coming to a theatre, get all excited about it and, unless we are dying to see it immediately, add it to the Netflix queue. Then when we get the movie on Netflix 9 months later, it’s not that great. As a result, I think Hollywood has gotten so good at making interesting and compelling trailers for mediocre movies. I would say 4 out of 5 movies I see on Netflix aren’t that great. The trailers make them look amazing, but in reality they’re not. Case in Point; take a look at the last 10 Netflix movies we’ve seen:

1. Happy Endings – Slow start, but actually a good flick
2. The Brothers Grimm – So strange, so strange
3. Crimes and Misdemeanors – Overrated Woody Allen babble; makes me think the newly added “Match Point” will suck too.
4. The Wedding Date – This was an entertaining plane movie.
5. Madagascar – A good cartoon, but…..it’s a cartoon.
6. Constantine – Horrendous, Despite Keanu Reeves amazing acting skills, the dialogue and story was horrible.
7. War of the Worlds – Very anti-climatic ending, would have also been better if Tom Cruise wasn’t so looney.
8. Crash – Totally overrated, too many actors makes for one-dimensional characters.
9. Monster-In-Law – Only a couple good scenes where Jane Fonda is batshit crazy.
10. The Interpreter – Sooooooo Boring, oh my god, this is the cure for insomnia.
    

Really, I would say 1 of these flicks was really a good movie and maybe 3 or 4 more were mildly entertaining. As critics are usually so jaded they don't like anything that isn't about a gay cowboy or stars an oscar winner, my question is where do I go to find out which movies to weed out and which ones to watch?

Migrains Suck

I usually get one or two migraines a year. This weekend I had two. It was miserable. It basically destroyed the weekend. While everyone else, boarded/skied, I slept. In fact, I think I slept about 25 hours this weekend. So, at least, I am rested. Anyway, I hear it was so cold that it wasn’t too fun.

This week I am tracking my spending to see where all my money goes. It always seems like I run out of my weekly allowance by about Wednesday, without anything to show for it. I’ve done this before and the results were depressing. It turned out I spetd all my money on food and booze…..Hmmmm, think I may have a problem?????

Anyway, I’ll update with the results next week. Hope everyone who reads this has a great week.
Also, don’t forget to get your Powerball ticket before Wednesday night, the jackpot is $300 million!

Nothing to Write About

I find that I feel an urge to write, yet I have nothing to write about. When I was writing
book reports in 3rd grade, I would sometimes feel like this. That’s when I discovered
double spacing.

It makes everything you write seem longer.

Using a slightly larger font was one of my favorites too.

When you love Math and not English you learn how to

s t r e t c h

your words so that you have to write less.

Holy Weddings Batman!

I just have to share for a minute. I thought the window to add weddings on to the summer closed with the new year? Apparently not, in the last 2 weeks I’ve learned that two more couples have decided to get engaged and married this summer. This brings our total of weddings this summer to a whopping 7………pause for dramatic effect…..yes 7; 4 of which are out of state, 1 out of the country and 3 that I am in. Our whole summer is going to be spent going and planning on weddings. I am excited for all the couples and all the weddings as they will be a lot of fun, but wow. I’m thinking of buying a tux and using at all the weddings this summer. Below is the link to the one I like, it matches my eyes:

http://www.uglydress.com/powblutux.html

What do you think? Sexy huh?

Tired

I’m tired………

So apparently, I have severe sleep apnea. From what my doctor said, most people have some form of sleep apnea, but mine is “extreme.” Now most conditions people have can be fixed by taking a pill or something easy like that, not sleep apnea. The “cure” for sleep apnea is actually to sleep with a large mask that looks like a gas mask called a CPAP, continues positive air pressure. It wraps around your head and fits over your nose. The mask then has a 6 foot tube that connects to a humidifier type thing that blows constant air through your nose, it’s not too comfortable. Then, if that isn’t bad enough, you have to wear a chin strap that prevents your mouth from opening up when you sleep. It’s great, I know that although it takes 4 hours to fall asleep, since you have to always sleep on your back, those 4 hours left in the night are the best hours of sleep I’ve had in years.

I’m still tired…………

Cheese & Running

Last night, Barb and I went on the first of my long training runs. It went pretty well! I ran about 5.4 miles in 59 minutes so that is slightly under an 11 minute mile average. I am happy with that right now. My legs are a little sore today though; 5.4 miles is a lot for me. I think I’ll be ready for the Cherry Blossom. It’s almost double what I ran yesterday, but I could have run further last night and it’s at sea level.

After running went to Costco and bought 15 boxes of Mac & Cheese…..not an exaggeration. Sadly, it will probably be gone within a month and a half. Mmmmmm powdered cheese!

R2D2's Progeny

Wow, it’s like someone is reading my mind. For those of you that have been to my parent’s place in Mexico, you know we named our friendly, sliver cooler on wheels R2D2.
Check out this article; it’s like someone has tapped into our minds and executed our thoughts..........freaky!

The article is compliments of Mr. Barbeau:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8642

Great Musician, Great Words

Mike Doughty is one of my favorite musicians. In one of his songs he uses the word "decathecting". I am no english major, but I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't know what this means. Below is a definition provide on www.mikedoughty.com
Turns out it's a great, made-up word.

...................................................................................
What does "decathecting" mean?
We get a lot of emails here at Mike Doughty HQ asking what the word “decathecting,” from the bridge section of “Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well,” means.

Our good friends at Dictionary.com define the verb “cathect” as meaning “To invest emotional energy in (a person, object or idea).” So “decathecting” would then be the divestment, or letting go, of said emotional energy.

Geekin’ out—FOR THE FANS!

HQ

Faster than the speed of............a turtle

This weekend I kick into high-gear with training for the Cherry Blossom 10 mile run Barb and I are doing in April. For those of you who are runners, 10 miles probably doesn't seem like that far, but for me it might as well be a marathon. I am not a runner by nature. The type of races I am best at are boat races, the drinking kind. I can usually run about 3 miles and then I am done. I think I can do this though. I have been getting in better shape over the last year and every race I have run in, I have increased my speed. However, my races are mostly 5ks, 4mile runs and one 10k, The Bolder Boulder. So this is a loooooooong run. My goal is to finish the race, I would prefer to run it no slower than 11 minute miles, but we'll see. Anyway, this weekend we are starting with a 5 mile run, not too much for most, but a pretty good distance for me. My "coach".....Barb......is pretty good at helping me keep going, she'll probably run about 10 miles before our run so she can treat the 5 mile as a cool down :) Wish me luck with the training!

I really, really, really, really, really want a puppy.....she said

If any of you have met Barb, you know that she is very focused and knows what she likes and doesn't like. When she gets an idea in her head, it doesn't go away. Don't get me wrong, part of the reason I love her is because she is very opinionated and knows who she is. Sometimes though, logic doesn't rule; for example.....Puppies

She wants a puppy so much. I love dogs and would like to get one when the timing is right, however below are 4 reasons why I don't think we can get a puppy right now.

1. We have no yard. Although it would be tiny now and doesn't need a lot of running space, I think it's cruel to have a dog and not allow it to have a backyard to run around in all day.
2. Barb already has a dog. She has an Australian Shepherd, Bomboo, who lives at her mother's house. However, she live with her mother because she is insane and continually tries to eat me. Apparently I am very tasty.
3. Since we both work, no one will be at home with it for the first 2 months. That time is really important for socialization and I don't think a puppy should be alone all day during that time.
4. Puppies are expensive and we are trying to save money right now.

So as much as I would love to get a dog right now, it just doesn't make sense.

At the same time, check out these golden puppies that are available right now. They are hard to resist.

By the way....here is her quote from this morning....
"I just want a HUGE dog that weighs more than me! Is that so wrong? Think how cute it would be."

I think.....err I hope.......she was kidding.

The Digital Ball & Chain

In light of the recent rejection by the Supreme Court to hear the copy write infringement ruling against In Motion Ltd, the company responsible for Blackberries, you have to ask: Is the world a better place without Blackberries?

True they are very convenient for getting your emails, surfing the internet or talking on the phone simultaneously in any location, but do we really need to be that connected? If you ask any of my friends that have one they’ll say “Yes, of course it is.”, or rather, “Yes”…..a pause to quickly check an email and respond and then continue……”of course it is.”

Like a cell phone, I think you become addicted to the ability to always be connected, you never miss a call, an email or a breaking news story. But at the same time, you are ALWAYS connected. It seems to me, almost like a digital ball and chain. You can always be reached by work, or your mother or an annoying friend you’re avoiding.

True, it’s great, at the drop of a hat, to be able to find out a sports score or who was the actor that played Blossom’s best friend, Jenna Van Oy by the way, but how annoying is it to be in mid-sentence when someone stops engaging you and checks a new text message they received?

I’m sure that when I get a blackberry, I will become an addict like everyone else, but it’s just a question to ponder before I go to the dark side……or should I say blackberry side.

Poetry....I think not

To get in touch with my Japanese Ancestry, I have taken up Haiku, tell me what you think?

A Haiku for Barb
This speedy lady
Running always, day and night
She can’t get enough

A Haiku for Snowboarding
Roaring down the hill
Wind is blowing, face is cold
Smash! One more bruised rib

A Haiku for Ketchup
This tomato sauce
No condiment is better
Than lovely ketchup

I can't feel my face cold

Holy Shit… I have spent many cold winters in Minnesota but this blows that out of the water.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/01/20/russia.cold.ap/index.html


So I have a simple question to pose to Conner…….
Why do you visit this bastion of ice so often?

I know they have excellent vodka and the legal age of consent is 15, thinking pre-Jenna of course, but that is just silly cold.

Wouldn’t it be much better to have an infatuation with a country like Tahiti or The Virgin Islands?

Running in circles????

Looking back at my 6 ½ years in the working world, I realize that I have added slim to no value to most of my clients/employers. Here is a quick synopsis

First at Anderson Consulting/Accenture I worked on 4 projects in my 4 years there.

Large billing replacement for Telco
The project was cancelled as the company was bought by another company that didn’t think billing was important. I think this should have been a little red flag as the CEO of this company is most likely headed to prison for insider trading

Siebel Implementation for a start-up SAN
The project was completed; however the company went out of business within 6 months of the go live. This company received 20 million in capital investment and blew it all on expensive consultants, high salaries and hot, new hardware and software. The problem was they didn’t have a clear business plan or a defined customer base.

Siebel Implementation for a subsidiary of a Telco
The project was cancelled as the subsidiary we were working for was shut down due to lack of market share. Again, lots of cash with no business plan or analysis of a customer base.

Siebel Implementation for a satellite television company
Worked on 2 systems, one of which went live and is still in production, the second was cancelled after the prototype phase.

Value Added: 9 months


Then I moved on to Level 3; for 10 months of the 18 months I worked at Level 3, I worked on an OE Entry system. It was, of course, cancelled.

Value Added: 8 months


Then I went to my current company. Everything started off well and I was able to design, develop and implement enhancements for 4 months. Great start right……..For the last 7 months though, our leadership has changed their minds 3 times and have shelved everything my whole team has done 3 different times.

Value Added: 4 months


So basically, over the last 6 years, I have added value for 21 months. That is crazy! I have learned a bunch and have been able to teach and mentor others, so I don’t consider the time wasted, but it just shows a good picture of how wasteful large corporate America is.

Who’s ready to open up that tiki bar in Tahiti with me?

Potential Career Changes

One of the issues with being in IT development is that occationally you are on call. This weekend I was on call, now in the past I have never been awoken with a page in the middle of the night, so I figured if I went to the mountains, there was a slim chance I would get paged at night. Yea, I know, you can guess what happens next.....

Murphy's Law, of course I got a page at midnight on Saturday. I was able to resolve it, with the help of a teammember that I had to wake up, but it sucked. I hate IT. Here are some alternative careers I was thinking about......

1. Britney Spear's husband - I think KFed is on his way out, so if I just start rapping really badly, impregnating women and then leave them after spending all their money, I have a pretty good chance. Just embrace the trailer park
2.President of the United States - I think I can take the criticism that goes with it as long as I can also have the 2 months of vacation, a vice president that makes all the decisions and the complete certainty that I am always right. Plus I can annunciate correctly.
3.A Homeless Man - The easiest way to sleep in late and drink all day

Here's To Not Having an Ignominous Year

Happy New Year, I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year. So far so good for me.

Although I believe that New Year's Resolutions are only made to be broken, I have decided to give in to popular culture, which I usually do, and make a few new year's resolutions.

1. Buy a new house, Barb and I are looking to buy a house this spring, partially because I want to sell my place and Barb wants to start building some equity, but also because we want a dog. Silly reason I know, but it's just an extra perk of living in a place with a yard.
2. Sell my car. I hate the Jetta, always have. Time to get rid of it.
3. Run a 10 mile race, unfortunately this will be happening in April :( I hate running, but I have to do it.
4. Read more, Me feels ignorant cause i ain't reading much. By doing this I can expand my vocabulary and use such words and ignominy

Quotes from the ski house form New Year's Weekend....Well actually just one, the others I had just didn't compare to this one

B: Does it get it done for you if a girl swallows?
S: It's not that, I just like to keep the sheets clean.