Yes, there is a winner for the Caption Contest I ran last week. And the winner is my very own K! No there wasn't any favoritism going on. No I'm not expecting any kind of kickbacks for the honor. (And it IS an honor to win one of my caption contests, you know!)
She won with this:
Getting good reception can be challenging, but it was the presidential debates.
How she won was even better. We were in Maryland this past weekend (To read about the trip, you can check it out HERE.) and were just waking up Sunday morning. K goes to the bathroom, I hear a flush, and then she emerges with this glorious look on her face. Shit-eating grin one might say...
She looks right at me and says triumphantly "Getting good reception can be challenging, but it was the presidential debates."
"Huh?"
"Your stupid contest on your blog. I just won."
"THAT is what you were thinking about while taking a dump?"
"I only had to pee. It would have been better if I had to crap. I do my best thinking in the bathroom."
"Well, yea, that is pretty good. You win."
(And I look forward to giving her her prize tonight. Muahahah. )
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Troops don't support the Troops!
After years of hearing that if you don't support the Bush military policy, you don't support the troops, you have to wonder what the neo-cons will try to do or spin now.
A new study released today by the Center for Responsive Politics revealed that members of the military are giving more donations to Senator Obama than Senator McCain, and when you just examine those troops who are deployed, Obama attracts more donations by a 6 to 1 factor. So much for conventional wisdom.
The fact is that our troops aren't much different than most Americans. As such, it's not surprising that they overwhelmingly oppose the Bush military policy that John McCain would continue. The latest AP polls show that 62 percent of the troops disapprove of the Bush policy. And with this latest revelation, we can see that they are beginning to speak with their checkbooks, making it known just how strongly they believe we need to begin to redeploy from Iraq and go on the offense against al Qaeda in Afghanistan where the real enemy is making big gains.
The point is our troops aren't stupid. They know that the current course our military is on is not sustainable, and they're looking for a dramatic change. And even though they don't have a whole lot of money to give, they are voting right now with their wallets. So, do our troops hate the troops? No, of course not. Our troops love America, and that's the point.
A new study released today by the Center for Responsive Politics revealed that members of the military are giving more donations to Senator Obama than Senator McCain, and when you just examine those troops who are deployed, Obama attracts more donations by a 6 to 1 factor. So much for conventional wisdom.
The fact is that our troops aren't much different than most Americans. As such, it's not surprising that they overwhelmingly oppose the Bush military policy that John McCain would continue. The latest AP polls show that 62 percent of the troops disapprove of the Bush policy. And with this latest revelation, we can see that they are beginning to speak with their checkbooks, making it known just how strongly they believe we need to begin to redeploy from Iraq and go on the offense against al Qaeda in Afghanistan where the real enemy is making big gains.
The point is our troops aren't stupid. They know that the current course our military is on is not sustainable, and they're looking for a dramatic change. And even though they don't have a whole lot of money to give, they are voting right now with their wallets. So, do our troops hate the troops? No, of course not. Our troops love America, and that's the point.
Off to the World Cup and then to Maryland
The six of us and the Beast are heading out shortly to visit some of my family in Maryland for the weekend. It will be the first time K gets to meet this batch of people, including my sister. K's all nervous, but she shouldn't be. If my family likes ME, then she has nothing to worry about. *grin*
Before we leave though we have to pick up the girls. They are participating in a soccer camp this week, and as part of it will be having a "World Cup" competition to close out the session. We don't want them to miss it. They have split all the kids into teams and given them each a different country to represent. DQ is playing for the Netherlands, and T2 represents Spain. It'll be fun to watch them play, but then we're going to have to toss them in the shower before we head on out. The last time the girls took their cleats off after a full day of soccer, we had to pull off to the side of the road and bail out it stunk so bad. We will NOT be spending 4-5 hours in a car with that stench...
Have a great weekend everyone!
Before we leave though we have to pick up the girls. They are participating in a soccer camp this week, and as part of it will be having a "World Cup" competition to close out the session. We don't want them to miss it. They have split all the kids into teams and given them each a different country to represent. DQ is playing for the Netherlands, and T2 represents Spain. It'll be fun to watch them play, but then we're going to have to toss them in the shower before we head on out. The last time the girls took their cleats off after a full day of soccer, we had to pull off to the side of the road and bail out it stunk so bad. We will NOT be spending 4-5 hours in a car with that stench...
Have a great weekend everyone!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wilco, etc.
I left off a few things from my previous post, not because they were trivial, but because they deserved a blog post of their own.
The first was the Wilco concert that K took me to. It was "nice". That's exactly how the band described it. The crowd was "nice". The venue was "nice". We smelled "nice". Wilco's music was "nice". Not great. Nice. Wilco is good, but by no means a Led Zeppelin. (Guess you had to be there!)
On the other hand, my date for the evening was amazing. I haven't really had the time or the energy to explain just how taxing my job has been over the past few weeks. I think K has an inkling, but even that doesn't do it justice. It has sucked. So much so that I've been seriously considering a job or career change.
Anyway, I'm off track. In a wonderful twist of irony, I was sitting there at the concert, probably being less than a stellar companion to K (off in my own little world of computer hell) and thinking how nice it was to have someone like her to be with and do stuff with at times like this. Of course, being in my own little world I didn't take the time to tell her that. Or to thank her for putting up with me while I'm partially somewhere else. I'm an ass. (Baby, in case you are reading this before I talk to you tonight, you're the best!)
Another thing I didn't post about was our date night Saturday night. After an early evening of boxing up K's gameroom we decided to get showered and head over to a little hole in the wall bar called "The Flip Side". From the outside, it's in the middle of downtown and doesn't merit a second glance. But inside they bring in great live bands, have a nice selection of beer, drinks, and wine, and to top it off, it's a non-smoking bar. We like it because it's also quite a diverse crowd. It ranges from a spattering of college aged kids all the way up to a fairly good number of senior citizens. And the senior crowd tends to be the most lively. Anyway, it was a beautiful night out so we sat on their patio and told stories about our pasts back and forth to each other all night long. It was so nice to be able to get away from the kids, appreciate each other, relax, unwind, and laugh. On top of that, we drove the Beast. The Beast was happy.
There's more, but it'll have to wait.
The first was the Wilco concert that K took me to. It was "nice". That's exactly how the band described it. The crowd was "nice". The venue was "nice". We smelled "nice". Wilco's music was "nice". Not great. Nice. Wilco is good, but by no means a Led Zeppelin. (Guess you had to be there!)
On the other hand, my date for the evening was amazing. I haven't really had the time or the energy to explain just how taxing my job has been over the past few weeks. I think K has an inkling, but even that doesn't do it justice. It has sucked. So much so that I've been seriously considering a job or career change.
Anyway, I'm off track. In a wonderful twist of irony, I was sitting there at the concert, probably being less than a stellar companion to K (off in my own little world of computer hell) and thinking how nice it was to have someone like her to be with and do stuff with at times like this. Of course, being in my own little world I didn't take the time to tell her that. Or to thank her for putting up with me while I'm partially somewhere else. I'm an ass. (Baby, in case you are reading this before I talk to you tonight, you're the best!)
Another thing I didn't post about was our date night Saturday night. After an early evening of boxing up K's gameroom we decided to get showered and head over to a little hole in the wall bar called "The Flip Side". From the outside, it's in the middle of downtown and doesn't merit a second glance. But inside they bring in great live bands, have a nice selection of beer, drinks, and wine, and to top it off, it's a non-smoking bar. We like it because it's also quite a diverse crowd. It ranges from a spattering of college aged kids all the way up to a fairly good number of senior citizens. And the senior crowd tends to be the most lively. Anyway, it was a beautiful night out so we sat on their patio and told stories about our pasts back and forth to each other all night long. It was so nice to be able to get away from the kids, appreciate each other, relax, unwind, and laugh. On top of that, we drove the Beast. The Beast was happy.
There's more, but it'll have to wait.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Blogging 23/6
I should rename this blog to "23/6". That would be short for "Some of the details, most of the time!"
Yep, it's been close to two weeks since my last post. I'll blame this one on the Chinese and all their little virus and trojan creating punks. My company has been bombarded with intrusion and hack attempts over the past month, and the last two weeks have been relentless. At first we (and by we, I mean ME) were able to block about 98% of them, but the two percent that got in caused massive chaos. Since then we (and by we, I mean ME) have been able to pretty solidly slam the door shut on them. And it's been cleanup, both of our data, and of our reputation ever since.
On the upside, I no longer need to blog as often. I showed K my blog the other day for the first time. She had no idea what a blog was. But since then, she's not only read and critiqued mine from top to bottom, she's started her own. (Over HERE. Go check it out.) And she's good at it. Better than I am. So if I'm not telling you what's going on, you can hop over there and she'll fill you in.
With that said I'm going to still try to keep up. Here's the summary for the past two weeks, in reverse order:
1. We're going to visit family in Maryland this upcoming weekend. Depending on the weather, we'll be swimming, boating, and hanging out at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
2. My uncle is coming to pick up K's Volkswagon Beetle to keep until we finish with the move.
3. My cousin just got engaged two days ago, and her fiance is a mechanic who offered to help get the aforementioned Beetle running for us.
4. We are just about finished with our wedding invitations and they will be mailed tomorrow. No really. We mean it. There's a long story here, but it will have to wait.
5. We need to mow K's lawn. It's a mess. It's also an acre and a half. And the riding lawnmower is broken. Another long story.
6. DQ and T2 are in soccer camp this week. They seem to like it. Especially the salads for lunch. (Yes, another long story.)
7. GB bought himself an XBox 360 with the money he has been saving. Forza 2 Motorsports is a really cool game in case you were wondering.
8. The beach was fun. Except for the jellyfish. Ask GB. (Or everyone who wanted to pee on him.)
9. GB and I went to play paintball. That was also fun. Until some guys on my team thought I wasn't on their team. And four of them unloaded into my back from about 15 feet away. Nevermind.
10. The Beast doesn't like the Lexus. It gets mad when we drive the car instead of the truck to save gas. One of these days we're going to come home and it is going to have eaten it. Or driven over it. No, really.
10. There's more, but I don't remember it all right now. And I do need to get back to work.
Yep, it's been close to two weeks since my last post. I'll blame this one on the Chinese and all their little virus and trojan creating punks. My company has been bombarded with intrusion and hack attempts over the past month, and the last two weeks have been relentless. At first we (and by we, I mean ME) were able to block about 98% of them, but the two percent that got in caused massive chaos. Since then we (and by we, I mean ME) have been able to pretty solidly slam the door shut on them. And it's been cleanup, both of our data, and of our reputation ever since.
On the upside, I no longer need to blog as often. I showed K my blog the other day for the first time. She had no idea what a blog was. But since then, she's not only read and critiqued mine from top to bottom, she's started her own. (Over HERE. Go check it out.) And she's good at it. Better than I am. So if I'm not telling you what's going on, you can hop over there and she'll fill you in.
With that said I'm going to still try to keep up. Here's the summary for the past two weeks, in reverse order:
1. We're going to visit family in Maryland this upcoming weekend. Depending on the weather, we'll be swimming, boating, and hanging out at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
2. My uncle is coming to pick up K's Volkswagon Beetle to keep until we finish with the move.
3. My cousin just got engaged two days ago, and her fiance is a mechanic who offered to help get the aforementioned Beetle running for us.
4. We are just about finished with our wedding invitations and they will be mailed tomorrow. No really. We mean it. There's a long story here, but it will have to wait.
5. We need to mow K's lawn. It's a mess. It's also an acre and a half. And the riding lawnmower is broken. Another long story.
6. DQ and T2 are in soccer camp this week. They seem to like it. Especially the salads for lunch. (Yes, another long story.)
7. GB bought himself an XBox 360 with the money he has been saving. Forza 2 Motorsports is a really cool game in case you were wondering.
8. The beach was fun. Except for the jellyfish. Ask GB. (Or everyone who wanted to pee on him.)
9. GB and I went to play paintball. That was also fun. Until some guys on my team thought I wasn't on their team. And four of them unloaded into my back from about 15 feet away. Nevermind.
10. The Beast doesn't like the Lexus. It gets mad when we drive the car instead of the truck to save gas. One of these days we're going to come home and it is going to have eaten it. Or driven over it. No, really.
10. There's more, but I don't remember it all right now. And I do need to get back to work.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Our 2nd big purchase
Now that the house is out of the way, it has come time for us to figure out how to move 6 of us at once without having to get a minivan. So, we researched, and we thought, and we planned, and then we bought, a Ford Expedition.
Gone is my Azera in the trade, and after all the dust has settled not only did our payments go down, so did our insurance. In fact it looks like it went down enough to cover the added cost of gas. No, really!
K took the "Beast" (as it has now been named) to work today and shortly thereafter I got an e-mail letting me know how she loved how everyone moved out of the way for her. She also loved how she got to sit up high and look down on everyone else.
I'm guessing I'm not going to get to drive it very much...
Gone is my Azera in the trade, and after all the dust has settled not only did our payments go down, so did our insurance. In fact it looks like it went down enough to cover the added cost of gas. No, really!
K took the "Beast" (as it has now been named) to work today and shortly thereafter I got an e-mail letting me know how she loved how everyone moved out of the way for her. She also loved how she got to sit up high and look down on everyone else.
I'm guessing I'm not going to get to drive it very much...
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