An infrequent update

I'm alive. I'm still blogging. (Sort of.) And I'm trying to figure out what or what not to write here. I still believe in jinxes. The type of jinxes that occur when you mention something good, it immediately comes crashing down. For this reason I'm going to play it cool, at least for a little while longer.

So what can I talk about?

Well, how about I start with my bad haircut. I went in to get my hair done since the afro look wasn't working any longer. Normally I have them use a #3 set of clippers on the sides and then blend it in with the rest of my hair which are done with scissors. Well, while I was sitting in the chair she spun me away from the mirror so she could get to the other side of me without dragging the cord across my chest. Shortly thereafter I feel her run those clippers right across the top of my head. I never saw it coming. So now I could either leave this big stripe down my head or I could go with the buzz cut. Not much of an option either way.



What else can I talk about safely? Well, GB's birthday is coming up and he wants to take his friends to play paintball. Bad idea. I'm going to soooo wax his ass. Everything he's done wrong over the past year? He's going to pay for it on the field. The place uses yellow and blue paint for the two teams. I plan on being on the yellow team and having GB look like a giant banana by the time I'm through with him.

On a related note, Barbie and I decided against getting him any presents this year. Instead we're going to open him up his own bank account with his own ATM card. He's been very good at saving and managing his money. This way he can take it to the next level and learn some real responsibility in a controlled environment.

Next safe topic? Last weekend K and I took 3 of our 4 kids to the Durham Life and Science Museum. (K's daughter had a date with her dad.) The rest of us had a great time, and then afterwards we went back to her place and had a bonfire in her backyard.

Side note: If you're looking for extra things to throw on a fire and your neighbor still has their Christmas tree by the side of the road, it's not as good an idea as it sounds to steal it. And if you ignore this advice and decide to steal it anyway and put it on the fire, keep in mind that by late January the tree will be REALLY dead wood and the needles will burn faster and higher than you think they might. Just saying...

Here are a few pictures from the museum:

I've been called out!

Two Dogs noted in my last post my lack of updates. And you know what? He's right. I've been busy. And it's been a fun sort of busy. The kind that's sort of hard to blog about without having to resort to pictures of oversized beavers.

I've also been hesitant to blog more about K because I'm afraid of jinxing myself. Over the past few years, every time I've started talking about a new relationship it came to a crashing halt shortly thereafter for one reason or another. This relationship has been very different right from the get-go. An instant chemistry that was a totally a new experience for me, and for her. I'll clarify that we're both very happy. But as for anything further, I'll have to ease myself into it.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of some workers who are finishing up after a long, hard day of installing a series of car barriers. If you're like me, you're wondering how they're going to get themselves home...

Is Hell Freezing Over?

It's snowing in Baghdad for the first time in memory...



Source: MSNBC

Just for Terri...

... because she thought this site was becoming a bit spicy and she liked it.

In her honor, I'm going to provide a gratuitous random giant hairy beaver shot for everyone:

Candid Camera

I just got back to my office after going to lunch with K. She works downtown so we walked to a little cajun place called The Big Easy. (great food, BTW) Afterwards I walked her to the back door of her building since it was closer to both the restaurant and where I parked. The doorway is set back in a little alcove off the street, so we snuck a few minutes of together time in seclusion before she went back inside.

Anyway, when I returned to my office there was an e-mail from her waiting for me...

"I just got a call from the receptionist and we were apparently being watched on camera in the back doorway!! I was laughing so hard when she buzzed me and asked me if that was me. She told me that her and another person were watching and wondering who was kissing etc in the doorway in back. Needless to say, I did not know there was a camera there and I'm sitting here completely beet red! Too funny!"

Well, K was wearing a fairly short black skirt, thigh high nylons, and high heels so she was looking really good. I'm just glad a couple of people had walked by the alcove at the same time I was thinking about running my hands up those legs to check for a garter. If they hadn't walked by, the people in her office might have had a better show...

Hockey Fun...

This video was from the Buffalo Sabres alumni event where they played the alumni from their minor league affiliate. Rob Ray - a longtime NHL tough guy - got into a "scuffle" with Shawn Legault for the crowd, and one of the linesman, the son of one the other players tried to break it up. Pretty funny.

The WAY BACK machine

I know many people think South Carolina ahead of only West Virginia and Mississippi when it comes to living in the past, but this is ridiculous.



Actually, it was a fantastic weekend. We got to Myrtle Beach around 8:30 Friday evening, had a late dinner, and checked into the hotel.

Our room had an Oceanfront view and balcony, so when the sun came up around 7am (or whenever it was) we pulled back the curtains and watched it from bed. There is something special about knowing that we were among the very first people in this country to see the sun rise for the day as it rose up over the Atlantic. At around 7:05 we had enough and turned our attention to other things...

We spent the day at Broadway on the Beach, walking the shops, visiting the Aquarium, and getting the above picture taken. From there we went back to the hotel to go swim and hang in the hot tub. We had a late dinner at a really nice Italian place and then went to Crocodile Rocks to sing along with the dueling pianos for the rest of the evening.

Then this morning we slept late, checked out of the hotel, then walked on the beach until it was time to leave. Overall it was an incredible weekend. So much so that I don't want to go to work tomorrow!

I'm off...

... to Myrtle Beach. The redneck Riviera. K and I are leaving after work for a child-free weekend getaway. Read between the lines and you'll catch the reason why I haven't been posting as much recently! See you Monday!

What we learned in Iowa

First of all, we learned that we have a lot of reasons to be optimistic. If the fact that lilly white (92%) Iowa could vote convincingly for a black man isn't proof this country is finally ready for change, then maybe the fact that there was almost double the turnout for the caucuses this time around than there was in 2004, and so many of them were first time voters will do it. Combine that with the fact that 57% of those young and new voters voted for Obama and it sounds like people wanted to be heard.

(Now before you go and say "But Joe, you were for Biden" let me state I promise I'll get to that...)

Next, lets note just how many Independants and defecting GOP members voted Democratic this time around. The turnout for the Democratic caucuses was more than double the turnout for the GOP. The GOP is in serious trouble at the moment for two reasons. The obvious one is that Bush is killing them. People want to not only distance themselves from him, but anyone they perceive to be like him. The GOP tag itself is an albatross, and one that the claim "Bush isn't conservative" doesn't seem to be helping. But more than that, the pool of Democratic candidates is far better this time around. The Dems aren't burdened with the likes of Gephardt and Kerry. Kerry wasn't the epitome of change last time around, nor was he the best choice. He was the compromise candidate that came back and bit the Democrats in the butt.

Furthermore, note that John Edwards finished second on the Dem side, and Huckabee ran away with the GOP vote and it's clear that people are tired of the same old-same old. Hillary is seen as an extenstion of Bill and by proxy, an extension of old Washington, and Romney is seen as Bush's choice as a successor. Both got beat badly.

Hillary counted on name recognition, her husband, and the fact that she was a woman to carry her to victory. But not only did she lose the female vote outright, it wasn't even close in the under 30 category. And Romney with all his charm, swagger, and money, got trounced by a guy he outspent 20-1. What does all this mean? It means that (at least in Iowa) people remember the past and have decided they don't want to go back. And it means that it may stand as the day that fear mongering as a winning political tactic died, and it reminded America of it's youth and it's optimism that we seem to have lost somewhere in the past quarter century.

With that said, let's turn back to Biden. The one thing that still needs to change is how the media controls public opinion. Tier 2 candidates like Biden, Dodd, and to a lesser extent Paul and even Richardson have been doomed to failure because the media focuses so heavily on the perceived front runners. I strongly believe that if all the candidates got the same amount of airtime, the outcome of the vote would look vastly different.

Biden could not get himself over the 15% viability threshold in Iowa in the vast majority of precincts. So whether he had 4% of 14%, it still showed up as 0% when his supporters were required to stand with their second choice. As such, Biden dropped out of the race last night. And that left me with the question "Who to support now?" My answer is this: I am now going to back Obama.

Why? Because a new direction in our foreign policy and a true turnover in Washington is necessary. I simply cannot support Hillary because she continued to stand with Bush on Iraq when candidates like Obama voted against it and Biden was drawing up plans to get us out. Hillary is not change when it comes to foreign policy. She is also too well entrenched in Washington, and has too many ties to special interest groups that have been financing her campaign. Edwards is my only other real choice. His angry populist message is tempting, and it's obvious he geniunely believes what he says. But being from North Carolina and noting he couldn't even win his home state last time around gives me pause. Obama is simply the better choice for me. And if you didn't see it, his speech last night convinced me I am backing the right candidate by switching to him...

I got flowers!

Two dozen roses were just delivered to my office. 2008 is looking up!



(I promise, details SOON. No really... I mean it this time!)