Workin, Babyin, Studyin, Sleepin

OK, three months later, and things are resembling normality again. They tell me that having a kid makes it so your life will never be the same. They didn't tell me what the extent was. I feel like its pretty close to same old same old, just have another friend thats staying at the house (for 18 years!)

My wife sleeps on the recliner with the baby after she wakes up to feed, I have a kingsize bed to myself sometimes.
I now get to act/talk like an idiot to myself and when someone gives me the wierd look I quickly look at the baby and smile and they think I'm a 'cute Dad'.
I love the fact that I have a child and people have to respect that we're raising it our way!
I haven't been to the movies in four months.
I still haven't washed my car (since the Bambi incident below). The blood now passes off as mud. I will do this Saturday morning, unless we get another storm...

Work is going great, was in a nice press release this week (google my name for it).

Working on obtaining my CFP after the wife and kid fall asleep.

Sleeping was never an issue, for that I am fortunate. Having a wife that has to wake up to feed anyways definitely assists in that area. For Clementines day I'm going to attempt to run the baby situation for a night and see if she'll sleep in. I have a feeling she wont.

Clementines day is Valentines for someone who hates commercialism. It is currently sponsored by Darlings, a product of Spain.

I'm feeling pretty good, have been paranoid about illness and have steered away from it thus far (knock on baby).

Been reflective this week after a funeral last Friday of someone taken suddenly and too soon. Love my friends and family, need to spend more time with them and need to tell them this more often. Love you all.

There's a Hole in my Bucket

So while staying up late flipping channels on TV (as I am a common participant) I flip to an infomercial for a "Classic Compact Disc".

These things slay me. The song tracks are from live performances from packed auditoriums. Every time the voiceover mentions a song, it shows a clip from the 'performance'.

Voiceover: With such classic duets as "There's a Hole in my Bucket"
I glance up to see the look of sheer content on the entire crowds face (average age 65 give or take a century) as they look at their spouses knowingly.
Wait... why does this song evoke such responses? Is there a hidden meaning? Why did you just nod at your husband with a wink?
Songs that bring you back to a better time...
A better time??? When your bucket was broken? I'm missing something obviously. Is that auditorium giving off some sexual charge now? If I find out that this song is some ancient version of "Back That Thang Up" I wouldn't be surprised.

But I would.

Till next time.

Bambi's Revenge

Annoying drive out to Tulsa last night.

Two things that annoy me the most about Oklahoma roads... Left-Laners and Roadkill.

On the turnpike last night. I drive a modest 7-8 miles over the speed limit.
85%! of the cars I passed, I passed in the right lane. Why? Because they wont move out of the left lane. Almost all of the time its either an older person who I swear uses the yellow line as the only thing on the road they can see or a genious texting while driving.

Then the deer:

came over a hill, right lane passing a slow person in the left. Stalled car on the shoulder. Dead deer covering 2/3rds of the right lane. Had just enough time to think "don't brake!" so I wouldn't nose down into the carcass. Sticking up a couple of feet though and it still knocked out KennyRoger's foglight and tore up the plastic protector thing under the engine. Get to the tollbooth a mile later, a few cars pulled over looking at their cars. There was no way to dodge it!

We would have stuck it in the trunk to make jerky later, but where would we have put grandma?

A ver, got to see my good friends out in Tulsa. I'm convinced I smell blood every time I start my engine now. Grats to Drew and Lynn.

Till next time.

Doling out Justice - The KennyRogers Way!

So as I reported last post, I've named my new car KennyRogers. Today before lunch, KennyRogers and I thwarted a robbery!

I had come off the highway and was waiting to take a left hand turn onto the main street towards my office. A homeless man or panhandler was on the left side of the offramp collecting some change. There was one car in front of me who gave the guy change. It was raining. Those are the details.

Right after the guy received some change, he spins his head around real quick, drops his sign, drops his change and takes off running. I see another guy yelling at him and pointing the direction I'm getting ready to turn.

The light turns green, and the car in front of me goes straight. I turn left and see about 200 yards away two teenagers with the homeless guys' backpack and bicycle. The one riding the bike was pretty large. The other kid was running along with him.

KennyRogers and I decide to stop them. I gun it and pull around the two of them and in police style action slam on my brakes while trying to get close to the curb. Big-boy runs the bike right into the curb and ends up rolling across the grass. The other kid I guess was too surprised to think and just dropped the backpack and ran. Both ended up running behind some houses.

I waited there for the homeless guy to catch up to his stuff, he nodded at me and I drove off. I didn't feel like calling the police cause I didn't know if he'd want to mess with them. If anything he could go to a payphone if he wanted to file the complaint.

The teens should be glad I wasn't driving Fluffy still, I might have wanted to bump 'em instead of cutting them off.

Anyways there is my good deed for the month. Hope the karma comes back on my trip to Vegas next week!

Till next time.

Fluffy's Last Ride & It's A...!

Well I'm back. I like to come and write a bit now and then. Usually though it's because something in my world is so weird or humourous that I feel the need to share it. Early July my world shrunk when I found out (within five days of each other) that both my mother and my grandmother had cancer. My mother's was a rare form that was inside her gallbladder. All I can thank is God and the doctors though as with surgery and (currently) with chemo both are going to beat it. So a month of not knowing and then a huge weight is lifted.

Then things started getting funny again.

Two part post here tonight.

Cash for Clunkers works for me! I decided that my car of sixteen years (with no A/C, rust, torn seats, etc.) was definitely worth $3500 and thankfully so did the government. I got myself a new Pontiac G6. However Fluffy, the name of my old car, wasn't happy to go.

As I drove her to Guthrie, I started getting a little misty eyed. Called my wife who was visiting DC and told her how it felt like I was getting ready to put my dog down. She laughed at me. She didn't understand. Right after the conversation and looked over at the car pulling up next to me. 2009 Mustang Shelby GT500. I scream out FLUFFY'S LAST STAND! Flip off the Shelby and down-shift to 3rd gear. Unfortunately the Shelby didn't take the bait and I promptly left it in the dust.

I have never got Fluffy up to max speed so I was a little curious what she could do. At 4pm on a Friday I was going through South Guthrie at about 126 when I backed off. (I think the A/C started working for a second and it scared me). All I know is that was a hell of a car and I miss it already. However the new G6, which I named KennyRogers, is going to be a great car for my future family.

This leads to the second part of my post.

My wife is pregnant! The due date is four months from today and we're so very excited. A while back we decided that we would love to find out the results in an unconventional way but were certain we wanted our family to be there. I called up a friend of mine (who is an amazing baker trapped in a banking job) and asked her if she wanted to bake a cake with the results as the color of the cake itself. Pics on her blog! http://e-hummel.blogspot.com/2009/08/baby-story.html

Here's a good shot (from her site)

Anyways, we all got together in Norman, gathered round and the Mrs. cut the cake...
peeked into it... stood straight up with a smile and said "I know what it is". I was so close to screaming out "FINISH CUTTING THE #$#@@%(*& THING SO I CAN KNOW TOO" but I just stood there.

PINK!

PINK!!!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

Harper Lily. I'm jacked. Hopefully will get some pics soon of the celebration.

Till next time.

Turquoise, Turquoise! & I Love Hops!

Two part entry tonight while I watch the end of the Lakers/Magic game 4.

Went to dinner last weekend with two other couples. We went to see "The Hangover" (which as an aside was one of the most brilliantly vulgar and hilarious films I've EVER seen). Before the movie we went to Earls for some BBQ.

As a backstory, one of the girls I'm with works on capital hill and was recently seen at one of the tea parties that were a big story then. Now I'm the type of person that loves to people-watch. Now I know that there are a lot who would attribute this characteristic to themselves as well, but the difference between me and them is that I'm watching them people-watch. This night I'm watching this big group of blue-collar good-ole-boys sitting at the table near us.

Anyways, as we get up to leave, I hang back. I know that the girl I'm with is attractive (and wearing a short dress) and am looking forward to the reaction of the guys as she walks past. Sure enough, all five pairs of eyes do the slow raise and watch the leggy blonde walk by. Then it happens. One guy gets so overly excited he about spills his beer on his friend. "Turquoise! Turquoise! (regarding the color of her dress), that's the girl from the tea party!"

Good to know I'm hanging with a mini-celebrity.


Last night I'm meeting a good friend of mine for a quick happy hour after work since he is in the area. We go to The Lobby Bar at Will Roger's and have a couple DNR's. DNR is a beer from the Coop Aleworks brewery which I am a huge fan of. This beer is a comparitive to Chimay but I think it blows it away.

After The Lobby Bar, we go by 51st Street Speakeasy to see if his friend is at the bar. She's not there but we notice the four taps of Coop beer and decide to have another. As we're sitting there, the brewmaster and co-founder of Coop arrive and we end up having yet another with them. We get an offer to tour the brewery! Accepted! It's right next door! Fantastic!

I should note that DNR is very high point (I think about 10.5%) and I've had four. Needless to say, what started as an innocent happy hour has turned into me being a little obnoxious. However my friend, being a slighter build than myself is having a great time and has fallen in love with the brewery. Here is his attempt to bring it home...


So after some quality control, we go back to the Speakeasy and have yet another DNR.
I look down at my phone. "Ooooohhhh Nooooo" it's 8:15 and I have three missed texts from the Mrs.

1: 7:00 Getting hungry, can you pick up some food on your way home?

2: 7:30 I'm going to go ahead and order some food, what would you like?

3: 8:00 I got you some pad thai, it's here when you are!

I come home with the tail between my legs and my lovely wife has bought me some spicy pad thai. Delicious!...

Note to whom it may concern. Five belgian creamy beers and a half pound of spicy pad thai is NOT MEANT TO BE CONSUMED TOGETHER. About 15 minutes later I ask my wife (sweetly of course) for a peanut butter sandwich while I go pay my tithe to the porcelain god.

Taking it easy tonight. Heading to another happy hour tomorrow! I could almost get used to this...

Till next time (and the game is in overtime!)

The Freedom of Boredom

Two weeks since graduation. I have given myself exactly zero obligations and it has been fantastic. Spending the last three weekends at the pool and clearing my 67 percent full DVR in about four days. What next? I'm going to start writing now. I've got some plans that have been brewing for a few years, time to get to work.

It's a double feature weekend!

Going to see Up today. Going to Hell tomorrow (after church of course). Both these films look pretty good. Will follow up with thoughts.

Till next time.