Three moments live as one.

I was trying to book plane tickets to go to get back to my grandmothers wake when a package of "struffoli" arrive from my sister as a Christmas gift and my 2 year old daughter started calling out Daddy from the bathroom because she had s#*t in the tub. I would have liked all three of these moments to occupy their own space in the time continuum yet instead they all mashed together to form a bizarre moment that I could only later laugh about.'

(Struffoli picture to be instered at a later date)

I'm still here.

Every once in awhile I disappear from the blogosphere longer than I'd like. I am still here I've just been horrifically busy with work. It's a big time at work and unfortunately do to some issues that I'm intimately involved in I've been under a lot of pressure to deliver on some needed changes and things aren't always going my way. To put it mildly I'm really looking forward to the Holiday break.

The M&D will be in town and we are all looking forward to that. I'm so grateful we got the downstairs redone because four adults, two kids and two dogs is just too much for this house.

After such a long break from the blog I'd hate to leave without really saying much. But that's the type of blog that I have. "It's a blog about nothing" to steal a phrase.

Thanksgiving/Line Rider

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The CEO cooked up a fantastic meal. I was pondering Thanksgivings past and was recalling one in particular which I had such a shameful little thought during. Let it first be known that I love bread. We were at my Aunts and I think someone forgot to pick up bread and all that was available were hamburger rolls (wonder bread style) and I can remember thinking "this sucks." What a jerk I was. My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to provide a good meal with all the fixings and I'm upset that I can't have my precious little piece of bread to soak up my gravey. Although I don't believe anyone was aware of my rude thoughts I am apologizing for them here on my blog. Sorry.

Heard about this game on NPR it is strangely addictive:
LineRider

Bloggin and a Nano

Two big things are going down in the life of the CEO.
1-She has started blogging.
2-She just got an iPod Nano.

1) The blogging is great I'm glad she's going to get some of her writing out there. She's got a pretty strong community of email buddies and I'm sure her blog will quickly see more traffic than Tony-C.blogspot.com does. Here's a question: I've always tried to maintain an air of anonymity to my blog and The CEO is not doing that with her's. Should I link her on my blog and blow my cover or should I not and continue to pretend that I'm an unknown. Any thoughts?

2) It is now a job requirement for her to have one, yes it is true. Anyhow, I've got to admit she has not even turned the device on and it is obvious that it is the best music player ever made. Just the packaging alone is phenomenal and the instructions appear to be simple and clear. Apple is truly one of the greatest product design companies ever. It's interesting that other companies don't follow their model. The iPod is clearly wildly successful, even at such a high price point. It goes to show you that people will purchase a product, that cost more than competing devices, if it delivers a superior experience. Why can't every thing be so good. I remember I once had a cheap teapot that splattered out the first pour of water for every cup. The teapot couldn't even function as a teapot. I mean why make it? Why sell it? That teapot represents a lot of the current high tech gadgets. They are just there to stuff the shelves to try and make a buck for some big company. They company doesn't seem to care to provide the buyer with a good experience. I think we've becoming so used to battling failures with high tech stuff that our level of failure acceptance has become quite high and this must change.

The Cool Kids

First I must thank STLANDAU for responding to the Mac question. It appears to me that it can all be boiled down to the "coolness" factor. And really by now hasn't the Mac become so cool that it should be uncool. I guess the only problem is that there is no other game in town, your either PC or Mac. Well if it is mainly about being cool then I'll stick with the PC and pocket my extra 500 dollars. Coolness has never been an aspiration of mine.

Wardrobe

So shirts started arriving in the mail recently and at first that seemed OK. I started to question where they were coming from. Was it my parents, sisters or in-laws? No one was cracking, everyone had a good poker face. The first shirt was a nice pullover light sweater/sweatshirt thing. Just my style. Then the button down collard pattern numbers started coming. Not my style. What is my style you ask. We'll for years now it's been Timberland T-Shirts and Jeans. Every Christmas I get a box full of long and short sleeve Timberland T-Shirts from The CEO's Godmother. Sounds kind of strange doesn't it. Anyhow, I love it. Who wouldn't. I will admit that I was due for a wardrobe update but when Timberland Tees and Jeans puts you in the "dressed better than most people" category at work what's the rush in upgrading. I'm looking pretty good at my workplace. I gotta guess that it's been at least four years that my family has been hoping I'd upgrade and the more they hoped and teased the less I wanted to do about it. It's not the clothes that make the man. However, the time had really finally arrived that I needed to make some improvements and one stop to Old Navy and three shirts later I'm upgraded, done, complete, improved. I'm sure the family is torn, I'm guessing they are happy to hear that I've picked up some new clothes, yet sad to know that it is only three shirts and all from Old Navy. Hey, what are you gonna do. That's me. I mean who really wants to shop for clothes. I hate it. Shopping is like golf, the fun to time ratio is way out of balance.

Oh yeah and of course it was my parents who were sending the shirts.

Mac?

How good is the Mac really? Any Mac users out there? My company is a PC company we use PC's at home and all is not perfect. Is life really that much better with a Mac? Does it drop wireless connections? Is it faster at browsing? Does it really never get any viruses? Is everything really plug and play?

Good sleeper gone bad...

It used to be that you could rely on The Z to sleep through then night. To go to sleep without a problem. For the last week if not more this hasn't been the case. It's 5 AM and I'm up because I just spent over an hour and a half with The Z trying to get her back to sleep. She seems to be upset when she wakes. She may be starting to have more vivid dreams that are disturbing her. Who knows, her cute little babbling language doesn't lend us any insights as she obviously tries to communicate with us.

Test

I'm testing out the new label feature. Now when I enter a blog I can give it a label like "family" or "book" so if I'm writing an online book all my entries can be categorized with "book" and anything about family. Yes you guessed it, will fall under the "family" category and then my blog can be sorted by these labels. Seems pretty cool. But I don't know if my stuff can really be categorized maybe this will give me something to do and re-energize my blog.

Blogging

I still like blogging. I'm glad I've kept it up but if I look at my stat over on the right side of the blog it shows a steady decline in entries. A couple of years from now I'll be down to one post per year. I mean how can I expect to keep a fan base with so little to entice them with. I'm shocked that any of you still check in on this blog. Shocked! Yet very thankful. I imagine that if I keep this up long enough someday I'll stop wanting to write about how tired I am. Maybe when I retire I'll finally get enough sleep.

I've started reading Vengeance. It's the book the the movie Munich was based on. I hope I finish it. I want to read more yet I don't. The last book I read was The Da Vinci Code. The CEO pointed out how bad the writing was and I have to agree but the story was fun and it moved so fast I couldn't put the book down. That is sort of what I'm looking for in a book. If it doesn't grab me right away I just don't have the energy to keep reading. Anyhow, I'm going to try and push on and read. I'll let you know of my progress, I know you can't wait to find out if I finish it or not.

Disturbed again...

Just when you think you are going to get a good night sleep you don't. We go to bed so late just so we can eek in a little private time after cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry etc... Then the inevitable happens. I keep wondering if I'll ever sleep again. Every once in a while we look back at the life we lived in LA and wonder why we ever thought we were busy or tired.

Food.

I love eating out.
We've eaten out too much lately. Dinner time is such a mad rush around her it sometimes isn't too pleasant. I'm not sure what my favorite "eat out" meal is. I really love a good breakfast on the weekends. I'd love it on the weekdays too, I'm pretty sure, but I know that I would just become poor and fat if I ate breakfast out all the time. Every time I'm out for breakfast I think of ordering something besides an omelet with hash browns. Then I don't, I just love a good omelet. Dinner is nice too. I think I like the home cooking style best or a good rib joint. Don't get me wrong I love the fancy places too but I never leave them feeling as satisfied. A good home cooking joint feeds my body and my soul.

L'alimento è vita.

Potty.

I've got the kids today from 8 am 'till 3 pm. We had a nice morning, tried a new breakfast spot and went on a long walk. When we got home I got lunch ready then fed them and then spent time playing in the basement. I've finally got a moment to myself. The Z went for a nap and The Kid is doing number two on the potty, this can take a long time. I used to hate calling it "the potty" now I love it. She's off the pot. See ya.

Family Life

I'm going to SE Asia soon for two weeks. The business trip fall right between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Could the timing be any worse? It just seems uncanny that after three years on this project and all the slipped schedule changes that it ends up at this time of year. It always seems that there is something critical at work going on around the end of the year. Why does Murphy always rear his ugly head?

The Kid has been going to school for many weeks now and she loves it. The CEO and I have come to love it too. Initially we had a lot of apprehensions but we see that she is learning and how much she is enjoying the experience and our nerves have settled. But, the amount of stuff that she bring home and the amount we can be come involved in is mind blowing. PTA, fund raisers, field trips etc....

The Z has been going to day care two times per week and that is great too. All she wants is to be exactly like her big sister.

What's funny....

Every once in a while I get an idea that I think would be good for the blog. Then I get to my blog and I forget what it is. I can remember standing on the back steps and thinking that's a funny idea. What is it what is funny....If I remember it I'm sure it wont be funny.

Zipper

I'm sitting here doing some work and I've finally finished and I look down and my fly is open. I'm thirtyblahblahblah years old, shouldn't I have that one figured out by now. Thank God I'm at home. What's wrong with me.

I can't wait to see the Ali G movie "Borat." Check it out:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/borat.html

TV

The new TV shows are back. It was nice to have TV free time in the summer and I hope to keep my TV viewing down to a minimum this year. It is such an easy trap.

It's trash night. I just complained about that one.

Ahhhhhh!

TV the big avoidance tool.

Someone in The Kid's class has a nut allergy. Therefore, no nuts allowed. What's up with this nut allergy crap.?I don't remember kids dropping like flies when I was in grade school. When did nuts become so dangerous.

What's with this new show "Uggly Betty" who the hell named that one. Couldn't you just call it "Betty?"

Trash.

How much trash can we generate?
Gone are the days of the shopping bag under the sink that gets put out on the curb on trash day. Now it's a minimum of one huge trash can and two full recycle bins and we probably average almost two trash bins per week. Since the coming of these kids the amount of trash flowing out of this house is a shame.
Sunday nights, trash night. I hate 'em. The night I have to collect and put out all of the trash. It doesn't take long and I'm always glad to get rid of the stuff but for whatever reason I hate it. And there is so much cardboard in our lives. I hope they are really recycling this stuff.

Pizza.

I know I've mentioned this topic before but I just keep getting sucked in every time I go to citysearch I have to check on the Best Pizza listings. Why? How much of my life do I need to devote to finding good Pizza. We actually have a very good place just up the street from us. Isn't that enough. Maybe I should change course and look for the even more elusive "delicious eggplant parm sub."

Getting old or maybe just feeling old.

I threw my back out on Tuesday. I reached around and grabbed the headrest in my car and gave myself a good twist.
-Stretch, crack, pop.
-Ouch!
I'm walking around like an old man. I can't sleep because every time I roll over my back tightens up and throbs.
Thursday: Got muscle relaxers from Doc.
Saturday: Went to massage therapist.
Feeling much better.
I didn't realize what an ass I had been. One hour at the message therapist and I felt like I had been sleeping for two days. My spirits are lifted. I'm on the road to recovery. I gotta send big thanks out to the CEO for pushing the message therapist on me and taking time off from her busy schedule so I could go. I was just so miserable prior to going I didn't want to do anything, I just wanted to sleep and be left alone. Two things that are hard to come across when the house is dominated by 2 crazy little kids.

New Blogger.

So Blogger has made some upgrades that are supposed to make my blogging more fun and allow me to simply create a more personalized web page. So I switched over to the new blogger and either I'm an idiot or I don't see any improvements.

Well, whatever...

So my in-laws were in town and the big news is that they ordered us a new washer and dryer. The CEO and I are so "Craig's List" in our large appliance shopping that when my father in-law told us that they had got us "The Duet" we just stared back at him blankly. He looked as us kind of not comprehending and said "The Duet" it's "The Duet." He might as well have been speaking Greek. Anyhow, for those of you who are like the CEO and I "The Duet" is the top of the line front loading whirlpool and we can't wait to stuff that thing full with our monster loads of clothes.

Another "Still here posting"

In-laws in town. Having a great time. No time to blog. Be back soon. Please keep checking in.

And one last thing...

I loved getting all those comments. Thanks everyone. I was thinking that it was a good thing that I've started cutting my hair short. The old messy/long hair style could have generated twice the comments from just my sisters alone.

I finally got some sleep. Went to bed at 10:30 woke up at 8:30. It was fantastic. No dogs barking, no kids crying. I had a smile on my face from ear to ear when I rolled over and saw the eight three zero on my clock.

This should be the last day of renovation in the basement (sort of) there is still a lot to do but this is the last day of construction related work for a while. That makes me smile. Tomorrow it will be a great big freshly painted carpeted room.

I just ran the spell check and it said no spelling errors found. There is a first time for everything

End of wardrobe discussion.

Men who wear fanny packs only because they are very convenient
====Jon Pack Approves====

I rest my case. I can once again proudly wear my fanny pack. Thanks Jon and jb.

"Seems that my wardrobe caused quite a commotion." Said the man currently wearing a Timberland T-shirt and Kirkland (read: Costco Brand) Jeans. I think a famous cartoon character once said "I yam what I yam" that seem to sum the whole tony-c wardrobe situation up.


This topic is now offically closed.

Wardrobe.

Yes I do wear too many "jeans and t-shirt" combos and yes Timberland does dominate my t-shirt collection. What can I say, I get them for free. I know myself well enough to know that as long as I have clothes to wear it will be a slow process to replace my wardrobe and more importantly I'm a jean's and t-shirt type of guy.

And for those of you who are against the fanny pack. Drop some advice instead of criticisms. With a kid or backpack on my back the need to securely carry and have quick access to my wallet, digital, camera and cell phone the much maligned fanny pack was the best solution I could come up with. Can anyone do any better.

Sunday Morning

I've been waking up much too early the past two mornings. It's 6:30 AM right now and it's Sunday morning. Ugh... However, I do enjoy the quiet and it allows me some nice personal time which I'll fill with the ever important blog entry.

So it has been all work and no play for Tony-C as of late. Running electrical wire, installing ceiling can lights, hanging drywall. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it does feel rewarding but man is it time consuming.

This is just one picture of many from the faerieworld festival. It was quiet an experience. We all had a great time, and The Kid had an especially great time. Although she is getting older and on the ride home, when talking about her experience of seeing the baby dragon born, she said I think that dragon was really a person inside. It's both exciting yet a little sad to see her growing up so fast.

Still here.

I'm still out here. Haven't had time to blog, been working on house remodel stuff. Trying to pull wire through the finished basement ceiling. How come using a snake and pulling wire looked so fun when I was a little kid. I remember how excited I used to get when Dad would "get out the snake."

We've got like 280 pictures from our east coast trip sitting on the camera. It's gonna be a while before those suckers are organized. The trip was huge fun and it will be great to look at the photos. I wonder how many we'll end up deleting it is always so many less than we should. The one thing missing from the trip was that my pizza consumption was not high enough. You just can't get good pizza on the left coast. Although I did split an awesome steak and cheese and an eggplant parm with the CEO.

The Kid makes me so proud.

The kid has made me so proud these past few days. She really wants to be part of the family. She sincerely wants to know her cousins, aunts and uncles. There has been so much moving around and visiting and each place we go she doesn't want to leave because I think she's afraid of leaving her family behind. She's talking with everyone she meets not because her Mom and Dad may want or hope that she does but because she wants to and it is so touching for us to see. She's really trying to figure out where she is from she's asking such deep and probing questions of us.

"Where did the first baby come from?"
"What does foster child mean?"

She's asking other more complex questions to try and understand how two people who come from one persons belly are called sisters and how two people who come from different bellies can also be called sisters. It is beautiful to watch.

From Curve Balls to Doughnuts.

Have the kids to myself this weekend. CEO is out of town. Got a two and a half hour break today when JB took the kids. Had one of those weird brain flips when driving JB's car. It was like my memory got wiped out completely for a fraction of a fraction of a second. I still know who I am but for a tiny moment my mind is like "whoooa, holy shit...." where are you, who's car are you driving who is this JB and why is she watching your kids. I told JB about this and she said it happens to her occasionally when it hits her that she's a grandma "who got pregnant, when did that happen?"

Life is just wild. I remember when I left the rock to move to the left coast and the Pistol imparted his wisdom to me: "Sometimes life throws you a curve ball."

I agree. However I think it's an understatement. Maybe it should be "Life is like a curve ball" This is getting too heavy to be a Tony-C blog post. I'm suppose to write about things like my favorite doughnut. Which is actually the "The Old Fashioned Cake" doomsday. I love the one Dunkin makes because it has a little bulge to one area so you can hold it for dipping. Although I'm not a dipper when it comes to any food really, I just like the fact that you get more doughnut.

Drought.

It's been a real drought for the blog lately. Sorry.
I've just been so damn tired and we are with it staying light until past 9:30 these kids don't want to go to sleep. So by the time they are in bed we've got just enough time to pick up the house before we stumble off to sleep.

Today was a four cup coffee day, two to get me started and two to keep me running after lunch. The caffeine actually did a pretty good job. Most days it keeps me awake but just makes me feel all jittery. I'm thinking Jon Pack would approve of four cups of coffee per day. Maybe I'll ask.

Thanks biG

Thanks to biG we can all enjoy perhaps the greatest blog ever?

http://www.jonpackapproves.blogspot.com/

Play Structure

The Z is a crazy climber and we've been searching like mad for a used play structure on Craigslist. Anyone that is priced right goes really fast. Anyhow, the CEO and I weren't seeing eye to eye on the cost. So she says "What if it were a gift, how would you feel about that?" Of course if someone gave us one that solves any cost concerns. By now I should know what she's up to but I can't get a read on her. Then she calls her Dad and asks him to buy the girls a gift.....Checks in the mail. End of story.

Random...

We were married and living in sunny SoCal for about five years before we had kids. Why were we tired? What were we busy doing? Who were we and who have we become?

If anything food should be organic it should be a mushroom.

Soparanos rocks:
I love Paulie Walnuts. "My motha's a whowa!"

Kids are back. More later.....

Am I really Sirius about this thing...

So I've got Sirius Satellite Radio. Yeah my guilty pleasure is Howard Stern, I don't feel so bad about it anymore after seeing Ira Glass speak about how he rushed out and got Sirius right away so he could keep listening to Howard. So I feel that it puts me in good company. Anyhow, I keep debating whether I should keep this thing or not. Sometimes I feel like it is just another subscription service and why should I have yet another when I've already got cable and DSL etc.. and the radio device isn't that great either. With traditional radio I can be anywhere in the house and turn on a radio and get the station I was just listening to downstairs or in my car or whatever. With this thing I'd have to wire the whole house if I wanted to pipe it into any room. God knows that's not happening anytime soon. Then the other thing that kind of bothers me is that they play all this great public radio stuff from stations across the US, how are those stations suppose to make money off of me. What I'm saying is that why would I give to my local public radio affiliate anymore. I'm not listening to any of their programming, where is their cash stream going to come from. I know the satellite radio market is tiny and probably currently has no impact on the locals but what if it does someday. Then am I just part of the problem that is making America this giant homogeneous place where everything is the same no matter where you go?

Ughhh...

Birth order smirth order....

I always find birth order research and findings interesting. Of course this article may just provide more information for the "firsties" to think they are the best.


Link:
Does Birth Order Determine Success?

Magic....

Growing up I loved watching Doug Henning Magic specials on TV. When David Copperfield came along I had kind of lost interest. Then David Blaine came along much latter and I saw him a couple of times and thought his tricks were amazing and his low key "man on the street" style made them even better. But now he's doing more and more of these strange stunts that I don't really call "magic tricks." The CEO and I watched him jump on to a pile of cardboard boxes from some ridiculous height from which he had spent the last week or so standing on. Now he's spending nine days submerged in water then he's going to hold his breath for nine minutes while escaping from chains for the grand finale.

Why do I love magic so much?
And why do I care what David Blaine is doing?

Fruit

Watermelon, Pineapple and Mango.
Those I believe are my three favorite fruits. If I had to choose a favorite I don't think I could. Mango is a pain to peel and eat. Watermelon is probably the easiest to prepare. Pineapple is probably the most reliable as far as taste goes. I hate it when I'm looking forward to a good watermelon and it's old and mealy. I can't say that I've ever had a bad pineapple. Based on these facts if I was stranded on a desert and could only have access to one fruit I might just have go with pineapple.

Sweets and treats....

Yet another holiday has come and gone and there are too many sweets and treats left in our house. Just as soon as we finish these off another holiday or visitor or something will come to give us a "legitimate" excuse for having this stuff in the house. I guess it really isn't that bad but it certainly feels that way especially when your in the midst of a holiday sugar smack down.

Why? Why must this dog sit right behind my chair and make all these awful lip smacking noises and why does it drive me crazy? The poor dogs have really taken one for the team ever since the kids arrived and I should be so hard on them but I'm sorry they just drive me crazy sometimes! Not to mention that the older timer has got breath that smells like he's keeping a dead fish under his tongue.

Nail that little F'er.

That's all I can think when I see the news about W's approving of leaking information. I don't even dig any deeper into the story to find out what it is all about. I just read the head line and think "they better nail this little f*%ker." The guy is a joke.

We've started on a basement upgrade job. We are just not made for this stuff. I mean we can do it but it's not fun. The effort we put in is worth it and the money savings is worth it but I wish this remodel stuff was fun.

There was a short period of time in HS where my scalp was extremely dry. I would close the door to my room and scratch and scratch my head and it would feel so good and the dandruff would fall like rain. Also once something happened to the underside of my tongue where it turned all white and I scraped of the white layer with my fingernail. It was like a layer of dead tongue skin. I've always waited for that to happen again (still waiting).

Best song ever?

Perhaps Gigantic by The Pixies is my favorite song ever. I just never get sick of it.

Hobbies....

Wine and Cheese.
I love wine and cheese. Once upon a time I thought I would read up on these subjects and become an aficionado. Negative. Didn't happen. I just don't have the patience to do it or maybe the interest really isn't that great. Also, why. Why do it when there are all these experts around at the specialty shops to guide me in the right direction. I guess if I really loved it then it could become a hobby. The hobby I'm hoping and striving to get back into is photography. I just have to remember to bring that little camera with me wherever I go. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of this year to take "serious" pictures at least once per week (hasn't been achieved yet). If I did this and showed that I was serious then I could justify upgrading to a "real" 35mm digital camera. The little one I have is a lot of fun but it just doesn't give me the control that a more professional camera would, like my old Canon AE1. But there is no going back to film digital is just to great.

The Kid and I are going to work on building a toy box for her school. There's another great hobby for me: woodworking. I love it. It's all about time and commitment with these hobbies. I've got to commit damn it (I'm starting to feel like the boy who cried wolf when it comes to this stuff, all talk no action)

NCAA

I love the NCAA hoops tournament but it's not so big out here. I tried to get a pool going a work and got little interest. I'm going to check out if any games are on right now.

The Kid and I are hitting the slopes on Sunday. Should be fun.

44-22-38 (HS)
7-21-36 (JR HS)
15-35-15 (JR HS)

Those numbers are the combinations to my HS locker, JR HS locker and JR HS gym locker. I was so paranoid of not remembering those numbers I devised a scheme to help me memorize them. Every Sunday while I waited in line for communion at church I would run the combination over and over in my head right up until the point I said amen. It's been a while since I've received holy communion but I do recall that I went on auto pilot and started repeating my HS combination at Christmas mass with M & D sometime in the recent past.

Smelly little golf ball.

Probably around the same year as the ear wax incident I coughed up what looked like a tiny little golf ball but a bit more off white in color. Maybe about two and a half peas in size. I smooshed it between my fingers. What ever it was smooshed with a consistency somewhere between peanut butter cookie dough and mashed potatoes. I can't remember if this happened around the same time as some illness or not. It smelled really bad too.

The first thing I can ever remember stealing was a match box car from my friend Jon Whitney. We were lying on his floor playing with cars and somehow I was able to grab the car I wanted with my toes, transfer it to my hand and into my pants pocket. I had exactly the same car at home. Why did I need to steal his. For years to come I'd see that car and think "I stole that from Jon Whitney, why?" I seem to recall seeing that car around well into my high school years, probably every time I had to clean my room I'd come across it.

More Bologna...

The CEO noticed that the Blog about Bologna solicited some nice inputs but the one about the president and our schools...nothing. Conclusion: The people want Bologna.

OK!

I was a sophomore in HS and sitting in geometry class when I stuck my finger in my right ear and my fingernail scraped something deep inside. Something it had never scraped before. I was obsessed. I couldn't figure out what is was even with my finger probing the area an unnatural amount of time. When I got home I took a pair of tweezers reached inside my ear and pulled out a wondrously big piece of hard wax, probably the size of a pea. Then sensation was fantastic.

Next Blog: I cough up what looks like a pea sized golf ball.

It seems that Bush just has way too much time left in office. I mean this guy has got to go. The problem I have is that he is leaving such a mess that who ever takes over is going to be in a world of hurt trying to straighten things out. And another thing if we can spend so much on the war in Iraq can we spend more on education. Why should our schools be hurting like they are, this is ridiculous.

"-Question:
How much money does the U.S. spend on public elementary and secondary schools?
-Response:
Total expenditures for public education, including school construction, debt financing, community services, and adult education programs, came to $455 billion."
-The National Center for Education Statistics

"The War In Iraq Costs

$245,856,530,66

Instead, we could have provided
11,918,583 students four-year scholarships at public universities."
-National Priorities Project

Check out my new web page:

http://big.gouda.googlepages.com/home

The sick house!!!

We are all sick.
We are always sick.
These kids are something....
I had to get a post out today in celebration of the 2yr anniversary of the blog.
Kudos to Tony-C (and a wink to the CEO).

See ya it's time to go lay on the floor and quietly moan.

4something am she starts coughing soon after she's in our room.
"I can't sleep, someone needs to get my elephant."
Then she flicks my hair or rubs my face. It's sweet but not conducive to sleep.
5:30am I'm up and downstairs watching some c-span news show and surfing the web. I have come to the realization that I shall never get enough sleep again. I don't like traveling much for work but it is a wonderful way to catch up on my sleep. My poor wife doesn't even get that luxury and has insomnia on top of it all.

Bologna

I was probably around 12 when it happened. Our family was on vacation somewhere, New Hampshire maybe. We were in some small town and it must have been past lunch time and there was no place to eat. We had to resort to buying sandwiches in some little convenient store, you know the ones cut in half and pre-packed and sealed in plastic with the sandwich meet prominently displayed so you know exactly what quality you are in for. Well I picked my self out a Bologna sandwich and the thin slices of Bologna must have added up to about 1/2 an inch in thickness. I can still clearly remember thinking "that was the greatest Bologna sandwich ever" and in fact I made it know to my parents how much I enjoyed it. I think Mom said something like "that's good Hun, I'm glad you enjoyed it." She probably could barely manage to stomach her own.

Super Bowl 40

Tony-C's third annual super bowl party has come to an end. This year I produced my best chicken wings yet. Still, you need a deep fry'er to get 'em perfect and we can't go there. A deep fry'er would be the end of us. Well engouh about my wings the CEO is sick of hearing about them. I like hosting this party every year. Well, it is hardly a party when it is just one set of friends and their kids. But anyhow, I like hosting it.

(No Title)

It's 8:15 and the house is completely quiet. It feels kind of strange. It's nice. When it is like this we often say "I wish we could keep it quiet like this more often."

I need a good book. Any recommendations out there. I'm tending toward non-fiction. Months ago I picked up "The assassination of Julius Caesar," the subject matter seemed so interesting and I really was looking forward to learning more but I just can't get into the book. It is not presented in enough of a story type of style it's way to text bookie for me. I keep picking it up and reading about 5 to 10 pages in hopes that I will turn the corner and get hooked. I don't think it is going to happen.

The Z and The Kid are both sick. Kiss sleep goodbye.

What can I say....

What can I say to my poor blog. Are you dying? It has been too long. I know the dogs have benefited from my new morning routine (get up early, walk dogs, make breakfast and lunch for The Kid). But you my blog have suffered, I have given you no love.

So here is another one of my OCD things. You know the table lamps that have the twist switch. Many of these lamps have an extra click before the light goes on or off. What I'm saying is that on and off has two positions. This I do not like. Therefore I must leave the light in the 2nd position whether it is on or off so the next time it is used one click will change the state. It must be this way. It must...

The search.

Why....
Why am I constantly searching for less expensive phone and internet plans. No matter how I slice them up they all cost about the same.

---------------------------------------------

Is this a great story or what?
Age ban on Stones fans is lifted

Actually this will be the third annual super bowl party at Tony-C's pad. I'm working hard to perfect my hot wings.

Restroom

I just recently realized that before I enter any public bathroom I stare at that little man icon until I'm inside the bathroom at which point I immediately check for urinals. God forbid I make a mistake and end up in the ladies room.

It's things like this I will try and make note of in 2006. What other weird idiosyncrasies do I have that I don't know of? (No need for the CEO to provide a list, the question was rhetorical.)