Holiday Trivia

The average American takes six months to pay off holiday credit-card bills.

Pogonophobia: the fear of beards.

There are currently 78 people named S. Claus living in the U.S. -- and one
Kriss Kringle.

December is the most popular month for nose jobs.

Weight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on
earth: 333,333 tons.

Number of reindeer required to pull a 333,333-ton sleigh: 214,206 --
plus Rudolph.

Average wage of a mall Santa: $11 an hour. With real beard: $20.

To deliver his gifts in one night, Santa would have to make 822.6 visits
per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed,
Santa and his reindeer would burst into flame instantaneously.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Santa carried pedometers on Christmas Eve?


Mostly From Us Magazine

Holiday Trivia

The average American takes six months to pay off holiday credit-card bills.

Pogonophobia: the fear of beards.

There are currently 78 people named S. Claus living in the U.S. -- and one
Kriss Kringle.

December is the most popular month for nose jobs.

Weight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on
earth: 333,333 tons.

Number of reindeer required to pull a 333,333-ton sleigh: 214,206 --
plus Rudolph.

Average wage of a mall Santa: $11 an hour. With real beard: $20.

To deliver his gifts in one night, Santa would have to make 822.6 visits
per second, sleighing at 3,000 times the speed of sound. At that speed,
Santa and his reindeer would burst into flame instantaneously.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Santa carried pedometers on Christmas Eve?


From Us Magazine, Thanks to Keith Sullivan

The Soap Box, Again

Not to belabor the point below but how many times can you honestly tell the difference between real gold and a plastic gold bracelets in the mall? Unless that person stops you and tells you that it is real or you take the time to actually hold it in your hand and examine it, you won't know. So what are you paying the extra $300 for? The satisfaction of having wasted money? Or is it that you just feel bad for all those gold miners out there just trying to make a living? Clearly I'm being a bit absurd because I understand that people have been trained by modern culture to believe that they have to have the real stuff in order to feel important but does it really make sense? Have you ever really stopped to think about that?

I'm being a bit harsh but my point is that we just need to think before we spend sometimes. I've learned that lesson the hard way so I'm a bit solid on this point lately.

Glowing Metal Substance

I'm really getting sick of this ad on the radio for some jewelry store that I can't remember (great ad effectiveness there) that says something like "only gold glows". Not to be a stickler but I'm pretty sure that gold has no luminescent qualities of any kind. It drives me crazy when these guys over sell stuff like this. Gold is a precious metal, that, in my opinion, is relatively worthless when you consider that the fakes look just as good and cost a fraction of the amount. The technology behind the fakes are so advanced that there is no reason to buy the real stuff because no one can tell anyway. The gold chain needs to be broken. As I said in an earlier post, our overpricing of worthless things and ignorance for more important aspects is going to bite us someday. That is not to say that I'm without fault in this but, we do need to rethink things as a society.

Road Trains

I'm reading a really interesting book right now about Australia. (See the what I'm reading section to the right). One of the things that is mentioned is something called a "road train". Basically these are semi trucks with multiple trailers hooked up to them, and they can get up to 150 feet long, or so I'm told. The idea is that the distances are so great between towns that they need to maximize the capacity to make it worth the effort. All I know is that I wouldn't want to be in their way. I'm no lawyer but I'm guessing that that much weight moving at speed is something to be reckoned with.

Mega Drought

I was watching this show the other day about how conditions could be right for a mega drought to occur in the midwest that would dwarf the dustbowl of the 1930's Granted the formula of this show is to take an alarmist stance but the thought that Las Vegas could become a ghost town for lack of water was a rather sobering thought. hotels Las Vegas would no longer be big business.

It probably won't happen but it is rather scary. We in America do take water for granted, while we sell rocks(diamonds) for thousands of dollars. Someday, that will probably bite us.

Long Winter

We got about 2 inches of snow yesterday and today it was 2 degrees outside when I left for work. Around here, we don't normally expect that kind of weather until after Christmas. The result is that this winter is going to feel extremely long.

I like winter, but for some reason I'm just not in the mood this year. I have no idea why. The early darkness and cold just aren't doing much for me. I don't remember ever having minded before until at least late January or early February.

Hopefully I will get to do some snowboarding soon which will reconnect me with my love of winter. The obvious thing is that we have a baby due in about 8 weeks so I'm probably just not focusing on things the way I normally would, however I don't remember feeling this way when our first child was born in late December.

So I guess I'm just getting old because I'm complaining about the weather now.

This post sponsored by the Hublot watch

A New Car!!!!!

I've heard a lot of commercials on the radio about car donation. I don't really know a lot about it but I have to imagine that it's a richer man's game. For most people in my situation, the thought of donating a working car that costs nothing and getting another car payment doesn't seem to make much sense. Don't get me wrong, I feel like charity is very important but I can't see how this particular one would be of much use to most people. Clearly it's working so perhaps I just misunderstand it but I don't see myself doing a lot of research on it in the near future.

If you are interested in learning more. Check out Car Angel. They are a not for profit company that uses the donations to make videos for kids and teens.

http://youtube.com/user/boatangel

NFL Network

Well I was one of the lucky few who was able to watch the Packers/Cowboys game last night due to the rift between big cable and the NFL. I feel bad for those folks, hopefully they will get it worked out soon.

Other than seeing Aaron Rogers play, it turned out not to be that interesting. The refs pretty much decided the game. Two long interference penalties and a obvious interception that was taken away from Green Bay made the difference.

I have to say as well that the play by play guy (who's name I can't recall right now) was really hard to listen to. I'm not sure exactly why but his voice just didn't seem to fit.

The next time these two teams play, which will presumably be in the NFC championship game should be different, as Green Bay will have several key injured players back. Plus they might get better refs, in that game.

Cold...

It's really cold today, so hopefully our friends at the ski slopes are pumping out the white stuff. I'd love to get a run or two in before Christmas, which around here is pretty rare. Keep your fingers crossed...

Lights!

As of last night, the outside lights are up and glowing. I finally got the last two strands up there and I think it looks pretty cool.

I love decorating for Christmas. I also love looking at the decorations. It's not one of those neighborhood award winning displays but I like it. I actually decorated some of the trees in the front yard as well.

At some point it would definitely be fun to ramp it up a bit. I'm not sure how exactly but I definitely like to do that. Maybe a giant Santa on the roof, who knows. Any ideas? I'm all ears.

This post sponsored by first communion invitations

Everybody's Got One

I keep hearing things from people online and on the radio about how they don't want OSU to play in the national title game. I'm not the type of fan to flood their mailboxes with complaints about this because that just fuels the fire, and doesn't really accomplish anything helpful at all.

I'm not playing on saturday, and nothing that happens will have a lasting affect on what I do. I'm just a fan. I really hope that the chips fall the right way but if they don't, I'll get over it.

I think sometimes people allow themselves to become too emotionally involved. I've been guilty of that at times, and it seems ridiculous.

Wii Have a Shortage

Some friends of ours have been buying up Wii's lately and reselling them on ebay for $100 plus in profit. It's a good racket because the worst thing that can happen is you take it back to the store and get a refund, so at most you are out a couple bucks of ebay listing fees.

I just got off the phone with about 8 local stores and of course no one has any now. Not hard to believe with Thanksgiving tomorrow and the big shopping season about ready to explode. About the only way we could hope to get one now would be to be lucky enough to be in the store at the moment that the guy brings them up to the counter on the hand truck, but I bet there will be a line even for that. That demand is good and bad, because it drives up the ebay prices which is great, if you can find one at retail prices to sell.

As of midnight tomorrow night there will be people lining up in front of stores, building their sconce and digging in their heals to defend their place in line. And from that point forward, finding one sitting on a shelf will be about as likely as finding a winning lottery ticket on the ground in a casino.

It was a good idea at least. Maybe we can come up with some other toy that we can sell for money but it may be too late to do anything like that this year. I always seem to jump on these bandwagons a bit too late. Hopefully I will finally learn my lesson when it comes to things like this.

Horseless Carriageless Michigan

Lloyd "Horseless Carriage" Carr has left Michigan. Chances are they will get less miles out of their trade-in.

Ok so that pun was the whole point of this post, but in reality, it does concern me quite a bit as an OSU fan that Les Miles might be coming to the Big 10. Not only does he bring a fresh approach and optimism to a Michigan program, but it also means possibly more southern SEC type talent coming northward.

The only upside is a possible return of respect to the Big 10.

As long as he loses one specific game every year, I wish him the best...

This post sponsored by billet grille

I Missed It, and It's Not My Fault

I have a problem. I'm a Browns fan and have been as long as I can remember. I lived through John Elway and Ernest Byner and the move and everything else. So naturally when it comes to Browns games I have anger management issues.

The only way that I can maintain my "nice guy" persona is to turn off the games as soon as they are "over". If I were to watch any more from that point on, I tend to have reactions that are not very nice to be around. Not swearing or anything, but definitely yelling combined with a few projectiles.

Yesterday was especially dangerous as I was listening to the game in the car, with a sleeping wife, 2 year old and our 3 year old listening to everything I might say. So as any self respecting Browns fan who is sick of their profound ability to annoy the crud out of their fans would do, I turned the game off as soon as Baltimore had a first down on the Browns 40 yard line with only a minute left in the game.

Clearly Baltimore who had been cutting through the Browns defense like butter would run the ball a few times to get the clock down to about 4 seconds and then kick a chip shot field goal from about the 10. There was no longer any reason to listen, the game was over. (I did turn it on for one brief moment, only to confirm that Stover had indeed made the kick but that was it)

I spent the rest of the afternoon annoyed at how they had blown double digit leads two weeks in a row and now could forget about a shot a the playoffs. I even considered that they might bring in Brady Quinn now that the post season was a serious long shot.

Later my Dad asked me if I saw the game and I told him that I heard enough to know that they lost, and that was about it. He then tells me what really happened. Thanks a lot Browns, this is all your fault. I missed one of the better moments in Browns history because of.......well, Browns history. There was no reason to believe that they would make a comeback like that. None whatsoever. I'm almost angry that they won.

So now guess what? I'm going to feel obliged to watch the end of next weeks game which will probably cause me to throw something and act like an idiot. All because of this craziness. I can't even count on the Browns to stink when they are supposed to. They are just totally unreliable.

In the end, I'll take the win, but I'm going to have to do some serious calming exercises from now on in order to get through the rest of the season.

Today's post sponsored by HDMI switches

Thank Goodness

Finally the barrage of Halloween candy is over. We have a stash that should last us well into next summer and I can take no more. I'm trying to eat well and lose the extra weight I picked up which basically involves not putting bad foods around me as I have no will power to avoid them. Naturally having gobs of candy at the house is not a good thing.

Plus our kids don't eat it. They love getting it, but have no real interest in eating it for some reason. Clearly we aren't going to encourage them otherwise, it just means more for me to have to resist.

Couple that with Thanksgiving coming up and I'm really going to be tested. I will earn my bf% by jove.

This post sponsored by Bose home theater

Fitness Update

Boy it's been a while since I wrote one of these! Frankly I was too ashamed of how far I had fallen to write about it. I was worried about my stomach, and was convinced that I had another hernia. A CT scan showed otherwise and at the moment it is thought that the pain I was having was probably due to scar tissue in that area from my previous surgery. At the very least, I'm not going to worry about it anymore unless a really obvious hernia develops.

I had stopped lifting due to my fears about my stomach and therefore stopped caring about what I ate. For a period of about 3 months I steadily undid a lot of what I had done in the past couple of years. I was back up to 194 pounds and close to 20% body fat.

Now I'm back on the horse and have been watching my diet pretty closely the last 3 weeks. I weighed in at 188 this morning so I'm on the way to recovery. I'll be more interested though in the next bodyfat test to see how far I have really come.

The cool thing is that my body has responded quickly. I feel like I have recovered a lot of the strength and tone that I lost in pretty short order.

At this point I don't really have a specific goal other than ridding myself of the excess fat that I packed on over the last few months. We'll see how it goes. It's still all pretty confusing to me as to how much I should be eating etc. I want to force my body to burn up body fat but I also want to gain muscle at the same time, and I don't know exactly how to do that. For now, I'm lifting and eating less and we'll see how that works out for me.

The only nutritional supplements I am using right now is whey protein after workouts. I'm just trying to keep things simple and see what happens.

Until next time...

Fast food really is Fast

Why is it that the best foods are always the hardest to obtain? It's easy to grab a candy bar or a cheeseburger but if you want some whole grains, it's not like you can expect the healthcare cart to pull up at your office door. How cool would it be to go through a drivethru for a wholegrain wheat turkey sandwich and some milk? Not too many places offer that sort of thing. The reason is that there is next to no market for it. People don't want to eat healthy which puts people like me in the minority. I love junk food but I do my best to limit it because I like feeling healthy and not looking fat a lot more. I just don't understand why more people don't feel that way. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me really.

Info cost

Scott Adams was doing some market research on his blog the other day. At least I suppose you could call it that. He wanted people to guess how many copies of his book would be in print by January. He paid a decent amount of money to hear everyone's guesses to which seems odd to me. I wish people paid me to guess about things. I would be glad to give uninformed opinions for cash. If there is a market for that sort of thing, please let me know, because I'm interested. I have plenty of "supply" for that "demand". In fact, as far as supply goes, I've been full of it for as long as I can remember.

Proof that spelling does make a difference!!!

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.
-->

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."


He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery
where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked -->
vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.


So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.

"We missed the R !
We missed the--> R !

We missed the R !"



His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With A choking voice, the old abbot replies,

"The word was...



CELEB-->RATE!"

Time Flies

This pregnancy is going so fast for us. For whatever reason it just seems like the time is flying by. We are nearly 25 weeks along now and that just seems crazy to me. Of course with the holiday season coming up and everything that goes along with it, it will be January before we know it, and then it could be any day! I really feel like this baby will be here before we can blink. In one sense that is pretty cool because, it's always exciting to welcome a new little one, but it will also mean the end of our last pregnancy. It's weird to think about being done having kids because that always seemed like it was so far in the future. I'm guessing though, that I will be too busy to notice, and hopefully I can keep them all from growing up too awfully fast. :)

This post sponsored by home theater carpet

High HorsePower Injun

Wow this has been a cool baseball post season so far! I love it when the Indians make the post season because it is about the only time you will ever see me care much for baseball. I really enjoy postseason baseball when I have a rooting interest and I definitely do this year. I'm sure world series tickets will be selling for a premium in Cleveland if we can get just one more win. I certainly hope that they can finish it off tomorrow night, because I'm afraid of a big momentum swing if we have to go back to Boston. In any case it has been a fun ride.

For HD I need Heavy Donations...

I really really really want someday to have a nice big flat panel 1080p HD TV in my living room. They look so stinking cool and the picture is just ridiculous. There would be no more need for tv stands as this thing could hang proudly on the wall. Seriously, how cool would that be? The only problem is that that is somewhere on page 4,456,826,490 of the list of things that I need use my money for. So chances are it isn't going to happen for a really long time, if at all. I guess I need to play golf in the living room a bit more often and hope that my chipping works like it does on the course.

Mundane but Necessary

Golf balls aren't the kind of jump up and shout Christmas gift that you always dream of but I almost always get some and I'm always grateful. They are expensive but necessary if I want to play so a nice set of free golf balls is always a great gift. So if any of you out there are just totally lost as to what to get me this year than just pick up a box of Nike SuperFar's or MaxFli "Noodle"s and all will be good. Just don't expect me to jump up and down.

Go Go Gadget, Gadgets

I love stuff. I just like having things that are cool even if they won't get used much. For instance, I bought a BB gun last year just because I had always wanted one. How often do I shoot it? Very rarely, but it's just cool to have. I won't sit around all day reading radar detector reviews or anything but if there is a cool inexpensive gadget that I think would be cool to have around, then I might pick it up. Right now I have my eyes on a Swedish firesteel fire starter. That will be very useful if I'm ever lost in the woods, or if I'm just bored when we are camping more likely....

Mail Pattern Card Loss

Our mail is still giving us problems. Someone somewhere along the line is stealing anything that remotely resembles a birthday card or the like long before it ever gets to us. We've pretty much had to tell people to stop mailing that stuff and just start giving it to us in person.

The post office folks have no idea what is going on and our claims have been filed with no effect. yet another reason that I will be happy to be moved. I know they are not stealing stuff out of Mailboxes because my wife is home all day and would have noticed that so it must be happening at the sorting places somewhere along the line. It's just amazing that it seems to happen to us so often.

It Burns!!!!

My wife and I differ greatly on the amount of light that is required for a room to be considered adequately lighted. I'm generally ok with a table lamp or less. Sometimes just the ambient light from the tv or another room is plenty for me.

My wife on the other hand prefers a bit more. I've teased her that if they offered those police spotlights for sale to the general public that we would probably have 5 in each room.

It makes sense though considering that my vision is like 20/13 and hers is 20/200 with no contacts. On the other side of the coin, I hear about as well as fly at a rock concert, and she can hear anything.

Go figure...

TV Overload

I'm suffering from tv overload right now. We got Dish Network after a year without anything but local stations and the effect has been pretty immediate. I watch more tv now than I ever did and I don't really like that, but I still find myself doing it. After a year of going without it's just hard not to.

I'm hoping to ween myself back down to a more reasonable level but it will be hard with college football, pro football and the fact that the Indians are in the playoffs.

Into the fray I charge.....

Today's post sponsored by Tropicana Las Vegas

Neener, Neener, Neener...

I'm sure at least a few of you are reading this in the hopes that I will have some crazy lapse of judgment and accidentally reveal the gender of our baby on my blog. Sorry!! You'll just have to wait like everyone else. I'm having a lot of fun driving everyone crazy and playing different parts around different people and getting everyone as confused as I possibly can. That was definitely an unforeseen perk to doing things this way. Obviously half of you will end up being right on your guess, and the other half will have thought it was a.... ha ha, had you going there didn't I? Well don't expect me to give anything away that easily. To be revealed in 08.

This post sponsored by Ingersoll Rand air tools

Slowness

I could have had some Wicked tickets for this weekends Buckeye game but I wasn't fast enough. Somebody around here offered them for sale and I made the mistake of checking with my wife first about whether or not we were busy that day before buying them. So obviously, I was too late. My wife suggested that next time I should buy them, then check with her and if we are busy I can just resell them or tell the guy that I changed my mind. I guess that's why it pays to marry a smart woman. As soon as she said that, I had one of those, "duh" moments that so permeate my life. At least next time I can buy them for sure and then not get to go because of some birthday party or something, but at least I won't be too slow.

Big Tables

Have you ever been in a meeting that was so "exciting" that you found yourself wondering how they managed to get such a big table in the room? I don't normally spend a lot of time thinking about conference tables but I remember being on the 6th floor of a high rise building once, in a meeting room with very solid walls and a normal sized door and a huge one piece wood table that had to weigh 40, 000, 000 pounds. How did they get that in there? It didn't come apart so the elevator is out. Did they drop in via helicopter during building construction and then build the room around it? Seems a bit too precognitive to me. I'm guessing that it probably did come apart somehow even though it did look like one solid piece but hey, it was a boring meeting so I needed something to ponder.

Disney

I never made it to Disney World growing up. My wife did, and we would like to take our kids there someday if we can. I haven't looked into Orlando vacation rental or anything like that, it's just an idea out there on the horizon that I would like to do sometime. Hopefully since our kids are all close in age, we can go at a time that will be meaningful for all of them at once. It might be fun to go back multiple times but typically I don't prefer redoing vacations. In any case, I'm hoping that we can do this at some point and it is one of those things that I will need some help in planning so that I can be sure we see the best parts etc. It would be easy to go and stay busy but still miss all the good stuff due to shear lack of experience.

Failed Fall TV Series

Have you seen all the new commercials for shows that are on death row, uh I mean on this fall's tv schedule? Most of them look totally unwatchable which is amazing considering that you have to figure that they are going to put the funniest moments into the 30 second spot. If the funniest moments aren't funny, then why bother. They come up with really bad ideas more often than not.

It's that time again

Time for my NFL picks guaranteed to be poo...

AFC East
I'm taking the Pats in this division, big surprise I know. The Jets will have a decent year but it won't be enough.

AFC West
The Broncos will play well but in the end the Chargers are the better team. They will win this division by a game over Denver.

AFC North
I'm taking the Steelers here to bounce back from a dismal year last year. I'm not sold on the Cincy defense and The Ravens have a bunch of fragile guys at key positions (McNair, McGahee)

AFC South
Colts, Colts, Colts, lock it down. Jags will be better but there really is no other competition in this division.

AFC WildCards
Broncos, see above, they will be a good team and will barely lose the division to the Chargers. No one will be able to score on that defense, and now Cutler has some weapons, as long as Travis Henry can stay off of the IR.

Bengals will get the next spot. Their defense isn't great but they will score enough points to secure a wild card spot. The Jets will be close but not close enough and I just don't see any other teams that look playoff worthy right now.

NFC East
The Eagles should have no trouble winning this division although the Cowboys may make it interesting down the stretch.

NFC West
You heard it here first. Steven Jackson will be the MVP this year and the Rams will have one of if not the best record in the nfl.

NFC North
Everyone has the Bears here but traditionally the super bowl loser tanks the following season. Not to mention that they have the most inconsistent QB in the league. There isn't a lot going on in this division though so I'm picking the Lions to be my come out of nowhere surprise team of this season. (Hey, the Saints did it last year)

NFC South
You can't bet against Drew Brees. The Saints will win this division fairly easily and will look like a serious super bowl contender going into the playoffs.

NFC WildCards
Seahawks, will get their act together enough to make the playoffs, but that's not saying much in the nfc.

Bears, same deal. They will get enough wins to get in, but nobody will consider them to be much of a threat as Grossman/Griese will struggle to keep the ball out of the other teams hands.

AFC Champ
Chargers. It's time. They have all the talent and a bad taste in their mouth from last year and I think they will get all cylinders firing going into the playoffs and steam roll their way through.

NFC Champ
Rams. Steven Jackson's dream season will carry them a long way.

Super Bowl Champ
Chargers. They aren't going to mess it up this year. It's their turn and they have more talent than anyone can handle.

Now this is sad

" Tidbit: Even though he failed to live up to his No. 1 overall draft pick status, former quarterback Tim Couch holds the highest winning percentage (.373; 22-37) by a Browns QB since they rejoined the NFL in 1999."

- courtesy Yahoo! Sports

The Classics - Sahara Hare

I really love this cartoon. In my humble opinion the best of the Bugs Bunny episodes.

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Work@Home

I have no idea how true work at home types can do it. I just can't focus at home. I have no idea how they can block out all the distractions and still get things done. If I have my own home based business, it would still have to be somewhere other than my home, or I wouldn't stay in business long. I have worked from home a few times for my current job, and I don't feel anywhere near as productive. I really try to do it as rarely as possible for that reason. I guess self motivation has to be at a pretty high level to make it work, or as I suggested, you have to buy an off site office to make it work.

Terms and Conditions

Does anyone know what the term "term life insurance" means?

I have no idea what it means to have term, whole, partial, secondary, elite or any other types of life insurance that I could make up.

I know that I have it through work and that we have it for my wife but that's about it. Hopefully we have the right kind, assuming that one of the kinds is bad. As it is, I don't really know.

This probably is one of those things that it pays to understand but I've just never taken the time. If anyone has I'd be interested to know in as few words as possible, given that your meaning is still clear. A response of "blue" won't mean much unless you include a few more words, for instance.

Thanks again for keeping me well informed.

Leo's Crib

I saw something about Da Vinci baby furniture today which naturally got my humor synapses firing almost immediately. I know nothing about this product but my initial thought was of the crazy helicopter design you always see in museums and how that could somehow be made into a baby bed. It would be "fly" for sure.

The Vitruvian man would also make a great mobile as long as you don't mind scarring your children for life. I figure that's a small price to pay for instilling a little art and culture into them.

Lastly, you could read the Dan Brown novel to them each night. It would be a version without all the made up stories and falsified facts in it so it would only be about 10 pages long.

Traditional Changeup

Have you ever been to a wedding and thought that the bride and groom should get a bit more creative when the pastor asks them "what symbol have they brought to signify their union".

Everyone does wedding bands. I tried to convince my wife that we should use bandannas just to get a good laugh out of the crowd but she was against the idea for some reason.

But wouldn't it be funny to hear:

"Tatoos", or "I'm with stupid, T-shirts", or "play-doh".

It would be a quick and easy way to release the tension and get a good laugh out of the audience, assuming you didn't mind sleeping on the couch on your wedding night.

House Market, bouse shmarket

Things aren't good on the home selling front. We will be wrapping up year 2 in our attempt here soon and still no takers. Perhaps if this was Tampa real estate we were trying to sell we'd be ok but backwoods Ohio just doesn't seem to be in high demand. Shocking, I know...

In any case we will keep trying. Hopefully we can get the job done before our oldest starts school but you never know. If not it will present some problems down the road. Already we are all but guaranteed to have to make the girls share a room when the baby is born.

Oh well, what can you do?

What's Up Doc

Our obgyn told us this funny story the other day. He was using the handheld doplar to listen for the baby's heart beat. The funny thing was, the office was very close to the freeway, and just as he put the mic on her stomach they heard:

"breaker 1-9, breaker 1-9" come through the speaker.

No word on whether the baby is on his/her way to becoming a trucker.

Have a Heart

Well for another 28 hours I will be wearing a halter monitor. They put it on my yesterday to verify what they call PVC's. Which are basically intermediate beats that my heart has sometimes. Supposedly they are harmless but this test is necessary to determine for sure that that is what they are and not something else. Of course, I haven't felt any since they put the monitor on me.

I'm anxious to get this thing off so that I can get back to working out. I stopped doing that because of these symptoms and I miss it a lot. Golf is over after next Tuesday so I can work out hard without the worry of messing up my swing. I still haven't decided if I am going to take another shot at the half marathon next year.

The other thing I need to do is get my stomach checked. I had a naval hernia repaired about 6 or 7 years ago so I am worried about that sort of thing, but I've got a spot or two on my stomach that are really tender at times and especially when I do certain lifts. The doctor said that he felt no bulges there, but could have and ultrasound done on my stomach to be sure that there wasn't any damage. I'm really hoping that there won't be any reason that I can't continue to lift and that I'll be able to put all this behind me soon and get back to it. I really miss it as it was a big source of pride and recreation for me.

Here's hoping I'll be back in the gym soon.

Busy Much?

I haven't really used my fire pit much this year. And apparently it is very true about ashes being good fertilizer because the weeds sticking out of it looked like they belonged in another Jurassic Park sequel.

It wasn't really sunny enough to use RoundUp on them so I just decided to start a fire and let it burn them out. This would have the added benefit of making the pit appear to have been used so that prospective buyers at our house would understand that we had cookouts there, instead of thinking that we were paleobiologists.

Well apparently these weeds were bred to have flame retardant in them because I couldn't get a fire going for anything.

Finally after nearly exhausting my stack of newspaper kindling, I got it going. Not exactly a roaring bonfire but a Miracle burn nonetheless.

I don't think I even put a dent in the weeds.

Quick Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

Awesome, just totally great. Next....

Seriously though, this is a great game to have if you own a wii. It took me about 55 hours of playing time to work my way through, but I didn't really rush it. In fact, I still have some things left to finish that aren't part of the main quest.

The wii may not have the XBox graphics or mega IBM memory or anything, but if this game is any indicator of what's to come, then I'm pumped.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail for spoiler reasons but if you own a wii and don't have this game, you are truly missing out on a great gaming experience.

The Empress's New Clothes

Recently I got the opportunity to get a maternity shirt for my wife to try out thanks to Kiki's Fashions. They sell a lot of different maternity clothes, and were looking for some opinions from bloggers like me.

We received the shirt about a week ago, and I have to say that despite the fact that it was free for me, I did really like it a lot. You can check it out in the picture below. It's a little more girly than the shirts my wife typically wears but I think she looked really good in it. It has a stretchy top and from there extends to more of a "baby doll" shirt look.

She actually liked it so much that she wore it one day and then washed it that night so that she could wear it again the next day to something else we were doing.


Click on the image for full size

To be honest I thought that she would have a hard time finding something she liked but we were very pleasantly surprised. The shirt is very cute, with a predominant pink color with vertical stripes.

At this point I'd have to say that if you are interested in shopping for maternity clothes right now then you should definetly check out Kiki's.

300

I finally got to see 300, the movie about the battle of Thermopylae.

It wasn't bad but I felt like it took itself a bit too seriously. I felt like the drama was over done a bit, and that the actors believed that they were a part of the next great epic, and acted accordingly. The result was an ok movie in which a lot of the actors looked a bit silly for way overplaying their lines.

Having said that, it was fun to watch in the same way that The Scorpion King was fun to watch. If you realized that it was just a fight-fest for the sake of nothing else, then it was fine.

It was also a bit more gory than it needed to be. For me, the gore only helps make a dramatic movie more dramatic, so in this case it made a pretender look like even more of a pretender and just added to the over dramatization.

In the end I would give this movie a 5.5 out of 10. I'd see it, just don't be expecting the next Braveheart or Gladiator.

Church Boom

Our church is going to be running low on birth announcements come February and March next year. By my last count, 7 babies are due during those two months, including our third. The nice thing is that hopefully all these kids can grow up close to each other and support each other. Obviously I hope for them that they form a strong group together and help each other to become stronger Christians by supporting each other. Obviously all that is well down the road but it is nice to think about.

Important Stuff

A while back we decided that we needed to look into some affordable life insurance. My wife didn't get any through her job and although it isn't fun to think about stuff like that, it is very important to be sure that you're family is protected. I have it through my job here thankfully.

The other thing we need to do that we keep talking about is getting our will done. We have talked about it and worked on it a little but that is something that is pretty important to have done to protect your family.

Ok, sober reminders done for the day.

Sam In Red

Tiger won the PGA yesterday which was fun to watch. He is now only 5 majors behind Jack Nicklaus. This was the first major win for Tiger since his daughter Sam Alexis was born.

The really cool part was seeing her wearing a red onesie in the scoring tent at the end of the tournament. Tiger always wears red on Sundays and it was pretty cute to see her wearing red just like Dad.

Someday maybe she will be intimidating the LPGA players just like Dad does on the PGA.

Today's post brought to you by berndes cookware

Philip Pullman is a Bears Fan

As you can see on the right side of my page, I'm currently reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. The first book, "The Golden Compass" has been made into a movie and will premier this fall. It's a pretty good series, but I've decided that the author must be a Bears fan.

Firstly, he named one of the major characters "William Perry", and as if that wasn't enough, there was actually a scene in which Will had to explain how a refrigerator worked to a girl who had never seen one before.

This all occurred in book 2, "The Subtle Knife", but I don't think it was that subtle. Clearly Philip Pullman is wondering as much about Rex Grossman as the rest of Chicago-land.

The only problem with my theory is that he is from England, but I won't let that get in my way. I still fully expect to see him as one of those shirtless guys in -20 weather at Soldier Field in December.

A Happy Tour, Boo....

I think golf could use a real life Happy Gilmore type as a winner. Boo Weekley could work. He only lacks a temper and a desire to address the ball from 4 feet away. Wouldn't you love to see a tour player running up to a ball and smashing it?

This being a new generation and all, he could even get in a fight with Drew Carey now that he is replacing Bob Barker. (That scene was one of the funniest ever, by the way)

Lastly, he'd just need to hire a caddy with a wooden hand. What kind of golf fan wouldn't want to root for him then?

Quote of The Day

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Where To Draw The Line

I love my Wii. I play it whenever I have time, which isn't a lot these days but probably more than most people my age. I'm really into the Zelda: Twilight Princess game, which if you haven't tried it, it's well worth the money.

A buddy of mine and fellow Wii owner sent me this link today. No pun intended.

Basically the idea is that you can have your own replica sword and shield to play the game with if you would like. The Wii controller hooks right into it.

Now I realize that I'm on the path to nerd-dom as it is by being a 30 year old that still plays video games, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Just the thought of someone playing a game in their living room with a foam sword and plastic shield screams total geek to me.

Clearly there is a market for this sort of thing, but we sophisticated (cough) gamers will just stick with our standard Wiimote, thank you.

Baby Rory

I had an offer to go up to Firestone this week to see the 3rd round of the WGC event, but due to a family reunion I was forced to decline. I missed a good time as I expected, but what really caught my attention was what Rory Sabatini did on sunday.

For those that don't know, Rory was quoted earlier in the year saying something to the effect that "Tiger was now more beatable than ever". This was said after Tiger struggled to win a tournament early in the year. He did win, though.

Well this past weekend, Rory and Tiger were in the final group on Sunday tied for the lead and Tiger took him behind the woodshed. Rory was never in it from the start and put up a 74 to Tiger's 65.

The funny part was that at the turn, a fan apparently yelled to Rory about "how beatable he thought Tiger was now?" I have no problem with guys talking big as long as they handle the come-backers like a man. Well Rory didn't. Apparently he had the guy THROWN OUT of the tournament. He was so upset at having been called out on his own comments that he had the guy thrown out. I can't think of a better reason to root against someone than that. Needless to say I will be enjoying every bogey he makes for the rest of his career, and as a huge Tiger fan, I was glad to see Tiger just rip him to shreds.

You had to love Tiger's comeback to the original taunt by Rory as well.

"He has 3 wins in his career? I have 3 wins this year".

Can't say it any better than that.

Sharks?

I heard this morning that they are working on finding the music that will best help sharks to initiate mating. As funny as this research sounds, I can't help wondering how beach goers feel about this. Are more sharks really a plus? Clearly saving endangered species is important, but I will definitely be checking the list of top shark hits before I take my radio to the beach next time. The last thing I need is a swimming area full of mating sharks. Keep your favorite Raleigh personal injury lawyer on speed dial just in case.

Movies

I don't get a lot of chances to go to movies these days. With the little tikes running around, it just isn't very feasible. I do miss it, but if there is a movie I really want to see, I'll find a way, otherwise I just don't worry about it. DVD's are great but they aren't the same as a huge screen and big audio. Some might pay for home theater seating, but if I could afford that I would just go to the movies more often. As it is though, I rarely miss any of the good kids movies. Good thing I have the sense of humor of a five year old.

Indian Summer?

A few years ago, the Indians run finally ended and they sold off the whole team in order to rebuild and start over. My big fear was that they would drift into obscurity and never return as the Browns have done, but this year they are proving me wrong. They have a world series caliber team that is in the hunt to win arguably the toughest division in baseball. I'm not writing them in as champs just yet, but I can say that it is looking far more likely that I will be tuning in for the baseball playoffs this year. As it is, that's about all that will get me interested in baseball. I've never been much of a fan, but I do enjoy watching the Indians in the playoffs, so maybe this year I will get to again.

The New Number 1 Pick

Fantasy football season is fast approaching. For football fans, this is the most natural extension to help you enjoy the season even more. Having players to root for on teams other than your home team definitely adds to the excitement of watching the random nationally televised games that previously held little interest for us.

Having said that, who is this year's number one pick? Last year, you were crazy not to take LaDanian Tomlinson. The year before, Peyton Manning was the one gobbled up by all those lucky enough to pick first. Who will it be this year? Here are a few options and what I think of their chances to be the consensus number 1.

LaDanian Tomlinson
The chargers are starting the season with a new coach and a new philosophy so you might be wary of him this year. Consider this though; what better way to get your regime off to a great start than to get the ball into the hands of the game's best player as often as possible? I can't think of a better way to "not get fired" than that.

Stephen Jackson
I agree that you probably shouldn't use your first pick on him, but I believe that by the end of this season you will wish you had. If you get him in the middle of the first round, you are getting a steal. He is the main goal line threat for the rams, plus he catches a ton of passes out of the backfield. Last year he was still growing into his role but if the last few games of the season are any indication, he is going to have a huge year.

Peyton Manning
Nothing new to report here. He will have a big year as usual and will be very worthy of this pick, even if it means giving up on getting a big name RB in the first round. If you don't have the first pick and he slides to you, you'd be silly to pass him up. He has proven to be a fantasy fortune for whoever has had him the last few years.

Drew Brees
I know, I know, having two QBs on this list is ridiculous, but seriously, what other running backs can you count on to have the kind of year that Drew Brees is expected to have? The Saints schedule reads like a who's who of arena league dropouts. They have everyone back except an aging Joe Horn. Plus a Reggie Bush with a year under his belt, can't hurt. The future couldn't be brighter.

So who would I take? If I am blessed to have the first pick in one of my leagues I will be taking LT. He's the best player on one of the best teams and in a situation with a new coach who will get him the ball often. It just shapes up to be a huge year for him.

Back On The Horse

I lifted yesterday again for the first time in a while. Things have conspired against me for the last 2 months but I am determined to get back to the way things were. I was a little tired but everything went well. I still feel like I am sort of stuck on the same weights that I have been on for a while. I'm hoping that this plan will help me to break through a bit. I'm still using The New Rules Of Lifting, but I have switched Hypertrophy plans. I finished all but 2 of the workouts for Hypo 2 so I decided to go back and start Hypo 1. I figure that that is the smartest move given my layoff. Hopefully I will be able to get back into a rhythm again. I have been feeling overly tired at times for the last 2 months and I think my lack of exercise is the cause. My main concern is still my stomach. I'm still having sharp pains around my naval when I lift, which concerns me since I had a hernia repaired in that area about 6 years ago. I don't want to go through that again. I scheduled a doctor's appointment to have it checked out so we'll have to see.

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dog health

Browns Aptly Named?

Well now that the draft is far behind us, we are now closely watching what happens at camp. Or in this case what isn't happening, which in this case is Brady Quinn learning the offense. It isn't happening because he and his people expect top 10 money even though he was drafted 22nd. My guess is that this is going to be a long standoff. I can understand Quinn wanting top 10 money, because he thinks he SHOULD have been drafted that high, but unfortunately he wasn't and in the end he is going to have to settle for 22nd money, and this holdout will last as long as it takes him to realize that. In the mean time we will be continuing to produce the incontinence products on the field that we have become accustomed to. Frye will get another shot this year and you never know, maybe he's learned at thing or two. Let's hope so, since he will probably be the starter for at least half the season.

Sorry

Sorry for the lack of real posts lately. Things have been really busy for us and I've tried to incorporate as much real info in my "other" posts as I could. I keep hoping that things will slow back down a little but it hasn't really happened. I haven't been to the gym as much as I would like and my fitness has really suffered. I've gained a lot of weight back and I'm fighting to not just eat whatever I want. It is a very fickle friend, this fitness stuff. It's easy as long as you keep it rolling along, but if you take too long of a break or get too far off the path, it goes away in a hurry. I'm not giving up though, I'm just frustrated at the amount of backward steps that I have taken lately. I really need to make my eating more of a mental priority and not just eat whatever I want, but that is really hard when I'm not in the gym regularly. It concerns me most because I don't want to live an unhealthy lifestyle anymore. I've heard too many stories about heart attacks and stuff to feel ok about that. I just really need to get serious again. I may never look the way I want to but at the very least I need to be doing it for health reasons.

On the upside, we have another ultrasound today so I'm excited to get another look at how #3 is doing. Crystal hasn't felt very good with this pregnancy but now that she is moving into the second trimester, we're hoping that that will change.

Well there's your quick update. Hopefully I can get back on the ball with blogging as well with everything else.

No Vacay

I'm starting to feel it a bit now. We decided not to take a vacation this year in order to save some money and I'm starting to feel really worn down. I don't know that a vacation would have solved all our problems but I'm sure it would have helped. A friend of mine is leaving on his second vacation next week and I'm a little jealous. They went to the Outer Banks earlier this summer and now this. I've never had two real vacations in one year. Next year we are headed back to Watoga. It should be fun as we are going to spend one day going white water rafting on New River. The only downside is that we just went 2 years ago, so there won't be a lot of new stuff to check out. On the upside, we will be going with my wife's family and relatives which always provide a good time. I'm looking forward to it already...

New Decorations?

My wife has been wanting to redecorate my oldest daughters for some time now. We have put it off because we are hoping to move and it seems to make sense to wait until then to do it. I just feel bad about the fact that she is a room painted white with no girly decorations or kids curtains or anything. I think that if we don't end up moving this year, then we are going to have go ahead and decorate for her because I feel bad that she has such a plain room. It also serves as a guest room but I doubt our guests would mind too much.

Old Stuff

Sometimes you look around and realize that your stuff is getting old. I noticed this about my office furniture recently. Both my desk and chair look like they were picked up from a curb somewhere. At one point they were both at least "nice", but it won't be long before a change is needed. The only thing holding me back is that I don't have a ton of money for that sort of thing right now, and we are hoping to move so it doesn't make sense to buy new furniture that might not fit in a different house. I guess I'll just add it to my list of "things that need done and will be forgotten about in five minutes."

This Just In: Tiger Is Still The Man

Well vacation home Orlando for the close knit Tiger friends may be closed for a while. A story ran recently that a guest house on his property burnt down. No one was hurt. I guess it doesn't matter when you consider that he is planning to level the place and rebuild it anyway. Speaking of Tiger, he is hosting his first tournament this week. He isn't playing very well, but then again he has a new baby keeping him up all night. I wonder if he will work on his diaper changing as much as he does his putting? I can't see Tiger taking anything lightly.

Preperation

I know it seems obvious, but we've noticed that with both girls, if we forget to lower their blinds before they go to bed, then we can bet on an early rise. It's so obvious in fact, that I forget to check more often than not. It's not a huge difference in time but it is enough to be significant on some days. It isn't always a guarantee either but it's one of those things that we tend to notice when they get up too early. I guess as time goes by we will become pros at understanding all the nuances and gotcha's associated with parenting, but by then we will be Grandparents and won't care about anything but spoiling the grandkids and sending them home.

Paris

Well Paris is out of her jail cell. Let the world rejoice. If this keeps her out of drug rehab or something like then maybe it did it's job. I'm taking the under. I don't know much about her but I do know that one person being in jail for 3 weeks because they thought that the rules didn't apply to them is hardly newsworthy. It's entertaining to a lot of people though for some reason. I guess we just like to watch the real world soap opera's unfold, although I'm not really sure what benefit it serves us. Is it just entertaining to watch high profile people fail because we don't give them credit for being real because they are larger than life? I think so...

Ugh

Things have not been good on the workout front the last few weeks. I haven't been to the gym at all and I have pretty much just been eating whatever I want and more. I have a hard time watching what I eat when I'm not lifting and it's taking a toll. I'm worried about my stomach and that I might be on the verge of getting a hernia because I have one very sore spot that gets that way whenever I lift and I don't want it to rupture. I need to go to the doctor and ask about it, I just haven't done it yet. I'm not planning to try Phentermine or something like that right now. I don't know much about it and would prefer to do it without supplements.

Blessings

Every once in a while you will realize that you are really blessed in regards to something that you never think about that other people might stress over a lot. For me, my hair is one of those things. I have no hint whatsoever of having any kind of hair loss or the need for Hair Transplant or anything of the sort. I rarely think about this, because it isn't a problem for me, but if it was, I would think about it a lot I'm sure. Another example is my eye sight. With 20/13 vision, I don't have to think about glasses or contacts but if had 20/200 like my wife, it would be a daily process at the very least. It just goes to show that we have more blessings than we notice most of the time.

Sweet Drive

The best piece of Golf Equipment that I have gotten in a long time is my new driver. I got an Adam's golf Redline driver for Christmas that I had custom made from the options that they had available, and I must say that it has been a gigantic success. This is the first driver that I have owned in ages that I can pound with huge distance, and it is far more consistent than any driver I've ever had before. My swing has also improved a lot which I'm sure has inflated my opinion of this club but I still wouldn't trade it for anything right now. Thanks Mom and Dad, this thing has made a huge difference in my game.

Budget

Budgeting is a very personal art. I tried one piece of commercial budgeting software once, but in the end I preferred the excel spreadsheet that I had written myself. I wrote it years ago to serve my needs at the time and it hasn't really been surpassed in it's usefulness yet. I have added to it and redesigned it a few times but it's still largely the same. I guess in the end it all boils down to what you need, and being a computer savvy person allowed me to create exactly what I needed so the commercial stuff just doesn't really help me.

Make Up Breakfast

The other day, our oldest girl walked past my wife and informed her that she should not come upstairs, and then happily continued up the steps. Clearly the alarms went off for my wife and she followed to see what was going on. She found that the two of them had gotten all her makeup out and were "cooking" with it. The powder was the brown sugar etc. I'm sure if we had Makeup Mirrors, that they would have been skillets or something. Needless to say, our bedspread now has some nice spots on it. I guess it has "character" now. The good thing is that our kids are still young enough to tell on themselves. I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

Trucks

I've never really been a truck guy at all. I had one truck in recent years and it was a disaster. Mostly because it was a lemon, but nevertheless it just didn't fit my personality. That said, I really like the new Ford F150 super duty. That thing is pretty, and expensive. You could almost buy a viper for the same price. I can't figure I'd ever buy one but I must admit that they look cool. Throw in a truck toolbox and I'd be the manliest man in town, or something... Now back to our regularly scheduled program: Me being done with this post.