The Midwest. The place to be.

Back in town after an enjoyable weekend spent in the Midwest. Ka got her Doctorate, what a great accomplishment! It was quite a weekend to have the whole team back together again. It was an interesting dynamic without two of the three spouses present. I think my parents lost some sort of a buffer zone because of this. Pistol once again took it on the chin for his driving habits. Mom, took some good shots too. Mostly aimed at her tea drinking addiction. I'm glad she never tried any powerful mind altering drugs or we would have lost her to that addiction many years ago. Although the tea drinking comes close to running her life I haven't yet seen any indication that she'll be lifting orange peakoe from the local grocery store anytime soon.

The other day at work I ran into someone who has been on assignment overseas and I hadn't seen him for at least a year. He looked at me and I could see all of the wheels clicking as he thought, "who is this guy, oh yeah it's him, what's his name." He was only able to verbalize a "hey, Hey, how you doing." I hate forgetting peoples names. I once worked a job where some guy thought my name was Jack. "Hi Jack!" he said one day as he passed me in the hall. What did he just call me, I thought. Then it happened again "Hi Jack." "Hey, how you doing," I replied. Why did I do it, why let him think my name is Jack. With each "Hi, Jack" I kept digging a deeper hole, I kept thinking I can't tell him my name's not Jack it's been too long he'll be embarrassed. Worse, I'll be embarrassed to have been such an idiot to have let it continue for no good reason. Luckily he was just a temporary employee and I only had to endure this hallway name calling for what turned out to be a couple of weeks. Now I always correct people immediately when I'm called by the wrong name.

I'm back to looking for an angle for the blog.
Let's think on some stuff. How about coffee. No, no good. Oh yeah, how about this little story.

Yesterday I got my haircut. I had about a half an hour wait so I went to the pizza joint and got a slice and a beer as I waited. Sitting behind a large glass wall I viewed the world outside as if I couldn't be seen. It made me want to get out my camera and shoot. I get my haircut at the hipster place down the street. They have the prerequisite "hot waife" taking names and scheduling. They offer me a free Pabst Blue Ribbon or a water while I continue to wait. I've grown out of all the magazines that there are to choose from. I don't even recognize any of the names. Finally I spot GQ with Will Ferrell on the cover, that guy's a riot. I read some of the article and determine the Old School was even funnier than I thought and that we need to rent it again. They call my name and I'm taken to my chair by my hairdresser, Misty. Misty is dressed all in black has died black hair with a medium tight perm down to her shoulders and is on the large side of large (no offense, just trying to paint a picture). She asks me what were going to do I tell her and before she proceeds she sneezes into her hand. She doesn't wash her hand or wipe it as far as I can tell. Why don't I say anything. Well that's just me. I wouldn't want any confrontation, f*#%ing idiot. Anyhow, she continues on and gives me a nice haircut, boogers and all.

I've had trouble writing blog posts this week. Is this the end of the blog.
NEVER!!!
Well, at least I hope not. Maybe this is just some blog down time I'm having.

I showered last night right before I went to bed. When I woke up I almost jumped in the shower. It is such a ritual that I almost don't feel right if I skip a shower in the morning (except on the weekends). Anyhow, I didn't get dirty while I was sleeping, on extremely hot nights I sometimes sweat and maybe then a shower is warranted. It just seems that it is a waste of water to shower in the morning if I showered at night.

The amount of mail we get for pre-approved loans is astronomical. I think this is the worst of all junk mail, spam included. A lot of the letters have wording that actually includes our lending banks and it appears as if the letter is coming from or approved by our bank. These people are real low life's.

I really have nothing to say (see above paragraph). I'm just staring out the window.

"I'm still in that weird place where meat is kind of grossing me out but I eat it everyday."
This is what I said in my last post.
To Ka:
Let's not take everything so literally. I love eating meat, I've yet to find a vegetable that can pack as much flavor and be as filling. My biggest problem lies with the mass production of it. When I think about how it was handled before it got to me it's enough to make me sick.

Speaking of meat, I think last night was the best night I've ever had on the grill. The pork came out great the sweet potatoes were good and the onions were a little crunchy yet not too crunchy. Since we purchased our charcoal grill two years ago I've been nothing but a disaster. Last night I switched my whole game plan and started cooking with the lid on, as recommended in the Weber instruction manual and some grilling book I got out of the library. This is contrary to some massive grilling book that I borrowed from our neighbors. So be it. I have found my path and become a man again! Bring on the meats!

Sometimes I think, what happened to me lately that was funny I need to put funny stuff in the blog. I think all I really want from this blog is to showcase my comedic brilliance. It has yet to happen. My days aren't that funny. Let's take today for instance:
I woke up and organized some bills. Have to make sure everything gets paid on time. Then my wife woke up and we made the coffee together. I never thought I would be one of "those people" the ones who have coffee before they even have anything to eat. We'll that's me. My wife (note: need to find better blog term for "my wife") went off to work for a couple of hours and I stayed with The Kid. We mostly played in her tent, it is tiny and with her and I and both dogs it got way too crowded and way too smelly. My wife came home and I went to work. On my way to work blah, blah, blah....and now I'm writing my blog and it is time to go to sleep. What a funny day I had.

End of day at work. My wife called as I was about to leave, "what are we going to do for dinner?" We are out of ideas and sick of pasta and my calzones. We're having cold cuts. I don't know if that is how it is really spelled. Is it coldcuts or cold-cuts. Growing up I thought they were called co-cuts. I'm still in that weird place where meat is kind of grossing me out but I eat it everyday. What's up with that?

Our damn mini-van still isn't registered. I tried to avoid going to the DMV as best I could. We paid some crappy service $55 dollars to do everything for us. Now they are telling me they have done all they can, submitted all the correct paper work and I've got to figure out the rest. The DMV sent us an incomplete registration without any paperwork, the service is like "huh..never seen that before." What am I supposed to do with this crap. I'm going to the DMV before work today. Wish me luck! I think I'll ask for my $55 dollars back.

The paperwork has just gotten out of control. Sometimes I feel like we are running a business not a family. All the bank stuff for the house and all the insurance paperwork is just overwhelming. We got some medical bills that our insurance mistakenly didn't pay. I contact them and they say "we'll try to resolve this if it isn't resolved in 60 days please call us back." Meanwhile I keep getting nasty letters from the medical providers asking that we promptly pay up. Keeping track of all this stuff, forget it, it's a nightmare.

I try to read the news on the web each morning but I've yet to master this task. There are just too many options and before I realize it I'm reading some piece of entertainment junk that has no relation to the serious headline that I originally intended to read. Our local paper the pretty much sucks the NYTimes is available but they charge way too much. The Times is printed within 200 miles of here and they charge $5.00 for the Sunday edition. Give me a break!

I imagine that as the web develops and my web habits develop it will become easier to read stuff online. However, my fear is that the web is soon going to be overrun by the corporations and that I'll have to pay a subscription fee to read things on any of the major news outlets. We've gotta bring the man down! I keep toying with the idea of purchasing my next pair of sneakers from adbusters. They got a sneaker that they are promoting in hopes of bringing down Nike. Good luck. Anyhow, it seems like I could support a good cause and be way out in front on the cool curve. Check it out: blackspotsneaker.org.

I've been listening to internet radio a lot at work. I recently tried to shift back to FM on my ride home. Usually I listen to NPR on the way home and H. Stern on the way in. Anyhow, I tried to listen to some music on FM radio what a disaster. What the hell is going on out there. On the internet I mostly listen to KCRW.org they are a great L.A. public radio station and they have an all music portion to their web site and I listen to radioio.com. I get to both of these stations through the I-tunes player. The I-tunes player is pretty cool, they have done a nice job in breaking down a lot of free internet radio into different genres and you just click and listen.

I haven't spent much time thinking about my lists of favorites. When I start to think about it I just draw a big blank. Maybe I wont list my favorites or perhaps my favorites of things that have little importance such as soap. We use Dove for sensitive skin at home and I do like it, however, I think my all time favorite is Ivory soap. I always felt like it never left any sort of residue. Also, it is 99 44/100% pure which is not only the make up of its purity but is the combination to enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. To this day I'm still amazed at the year book quotes that Shannon and I wrote in our high school year books. She wrote "Schnozberry who ever heard of schnozberry." This is what Veruca Salt says to Willy Wonka when they are licking the wall paper. I wrote "We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams," which is how Willy Wonka responds to Veruca. It just seems so odd. Doesn't it? I generally don't believe in things like fate but I just find this coincidence to be too strange to chalk up to anything else. Now they are going to go ahead and remake the master piece. I'm sure Tim Burton and Johnny Depp will do a wonderful job, but I'm also sure that it will be a darker movie. I think the real issue I have with it is that the original is so damn good why, why would you do it over. How about a special re-release. Hollywood, the bastards.

I'm afraid to write that the kid is sleeping late. I wrote it, now she is bound to wake up and this will be yet another short entry. Short is relative when it comes to my posts.

Last night we went down to the local carnival, which is part of a whole summer festival down by the river. It is a pretty big setup with lots of rides and now that The Kid is older she can go on some of the bigger rides. We started to get her all pumped up for it until we arrived and found out that everything was closed until tomorrow evening. Oops. The Kid would have none of it. She would catch a glimpse of someone setting up for tomorrow and she'd say "There, I see people! It's open. I wanna go in now." We would try to explain that it was closed but she didn't completely get it or more likely she wouldn't accept it. My favorite was "How bout go for walk, then come back, then go in."

So I've added a little more to my blog by making my profile available. There is an option to list your favorite movies, books and music. I mentioned this in an earlier blog that I don't have these lists anymore. But I think the web has made these sort of things popular. I'm going to give them some thought. Hold on to your hats my lists are coming!

Last night The Kid and I walked by what was obviously a dead fir tree. She asked what's wrong with it. I said the tree was sick.
"How it get sick." She said.
We talked about how she gets a cold and sometimes doesn't feel good and that the tree probaly had a cold like her. She seemed to understand. Then we were about 10 feet beyond the tree and she said, "I want to hug it." I told that would be nice. So she walked over to the dead tree and put her arms around its small trunk. As we walked away she said "It feels better now?"
"Yes, it feels better." I assured her.
I don't know if the tree really felt better but I sure did. What a great little kid.

It is just too much.
I don't want to pick up another pile of dog crap for as long as I live!