Bookmarks

A list of my bookmarks from the top to the bottom:

The Great Whatsit - Started by a friend from college and some other friends mainly on the east coast. I usually make it a point to visit there every couple of days at least.
PimpStyle2000 - My friend Kent's site. Friends since high school, it's been a little on the slow side at this site lately, but still some funny people hang out there.
Bank of America - Really? You need me to tell you what this one is?
Mystatcounter - Tells me how many times my mom has checked out this site today. When she's visiting me my number of visitors drops by 90%.
Suburban Home - If you click this link you're gonna get summa that deja vu.
Pitchfork - I used to visit this site all the time for new music ideas. Now I just check it out to see if any famous musicians have died recently.
Woot - Sweet site that offers closeouts and special deals. Usually one per day, starting at 10 pm p.s.t. Sometimes there's a woot-off which goes for a couple days and the same item stays up until it sells out before a new one is posted.
Woot T-shirt - Same thing but for shirts.
The World According to Wayne - Wayne is a friend of mine from back in the days of playing Everquest, so probably about the year 2000, 2001. My character was a female so he was trying to flirt me up but I had to tell him to stop. We've been friends ever since. He doesn't update his blog enough, but I'm sure he loves bacon like I do.
Jeffrey Dinsmore - My brother in law. Coolest dude on the west coast with the awesomest wife. Buy his book, he'll thank you for it.
MySpace.com - I don't really remember to check this one but once every month or two. Mainly to keep in touch with my friend Chris, but since he only checks it every couple of months, we never really connect.
Penny Arcade - Video Game/Geekery site. Check it out every once in awhile. Home to the Child's Play charity which is a bunch of gamers that give to children's hospital.
Kotaku - Another video game site I check out regularly.
i wish god were alive to see this - Not sure where I picked this one up, but it's great to see the world through someone else's eyes sometimes.
Etsy.com - Great place with home-made crafts.
100 hour board - A place where you ask a question and they answer it within 100 hours. Beware, it's full of Mormons.
New York Times food section - Food stuffs
Apartment Therapy - Good place for some inspiration for decorating I will never do.
Zenni Optical - $10.00 Eyeglasses. Seriously.
The Sartorialist - Style Inspiration. See 'Apartment Therapy' above.
Sexwithfarmanimals.com - just kidding ma!

That's what I do in my spare time.

Any idiot...

"Any idiot can face a crisis, it's the day-to-day living that wears you out."

- Anton Chekov

Fisherman's Friend

Oh, you don't know what Fisherman's Friend is? How sad is that. Check this out.

Fisherman's Friend Website

The best things ever to keep you from coughing. Even though my Dad's always been a Sucrets man himself. They're not always easy to find, usually near the cough drop section, but rarely directly 'in' the cough drop section. For some reason I can never find the good flavors, usually just the default 'original extra strong'. The aniseed are the best, but oh well; I'll take what I can get.

The Life and Times of Tim

I kept seeing the ads for this on HBO but it didn't look all that great. But last night we watched a couple and they're pretty funny. A little hit or miss at times, but there were some choke-on-your-Fisherman's Friend moments to be had.

Boobie-Straps

Lexi's (and Noah's by extension) new favorite word is boobie-straps to mean bra. They both love to put a bra around their neck and dance around.

Tonight I gave them each a Hershey's Kiss and they took the wrappers and held them up to their chests like little bras, yelling, "Boobie-straps, boobie-straps!".

Kids are nuts-o.

Oh yeah, so is the bacon bra.

Oldie but a Goodie

My nephews, Gary and Asa. Not sure how long ago this was, probably some 12-odd years ago.

Hey brother, could you spare 25 billion?

Really? The auto industry suddenly need 25 billion dollars to stay afloat?

Hey American auto-industry:

Suck it.

Hunting Pics

1. Rabbit Rock. As a kid this was a sign that we were getting to the end of the paved road and leaving civilization for good. It seemed like it took another 2 hours after we hit the dirt road, but last week it only took about 40 minutes.

2. View from the top under the power lines. Not really 'the top' as in there isn't anything higher, since the picture makes it look pretty tame. This is where I used to go with my dad early in the morning to watch the sun rise. While I wasn't terribly excited about getting up early this time, I did make it out of bed early at least once, and we went back under the power lines to watch the sun rise over Quincy. I forgot to eat a Ding Dong though.

3. Uncle Larry and Uncle Lynn. Probably shooting the shit. The family has an old army tent they erect in the middle of all the motorhomes/trailers. You can see more of it in picture #5. What you don't see is the wood burning stove in there that kept us all warm all night and helped us cook our food. As a kid we had one generator that all the trailers used at night to provide electricity. Now, everbody had their own. There must've been 5-6 of them for 10 trailers. Nobody was really hurting much for the basics, though the shower could've used a little more pressure and the hot tub really wasn't warm enough for my tastes.

4. My bed on the left. My brother's on the right. Can you guess why I didn't sleep well? Twin bed, sleeping bag, whiskey. I think I mentioned Gary's snoring, and the silence all around us was unnerving as well. And I missed the kids screaming and crying so much I just couldn't fall asleep.

5. Gramma Smith, Uncle Larry hidden behind her, my nephew Gary Jr., Cousin Tim, Cousin Chuck, and Dad doing a little two-step in the foreground.

Did I mention eating the liver?

No hunting pics yet

I know you're all waiting for the photos of the deer head hanging from the front of my Mini Cooper, but they're not online yet. Gimme a little more time.

Noah's favorite words right now: boobies and dammit

I used to think it was funny. Until he said it about five times in a row while picking them up at daycare. I tried telling everyone he was speaking German. Damit is a real word auf Deutsch, but I don't think anyone was having it.

I can't type much, Lexi's having her friend Tia over for a sleepover and I have a headache that grows by the minute.

By the way, a hearty thank you to the country for voting for change. Thank you for not screwing it up. Too bad California had to go and try to ruin a good thing.

Just a couple pictures from the files...

I'm Sorry

Lexi called this "Snot Paste"

Fairy Tales

I've been telling Lexi the story of Little Red Riding hood the past few nights. What I remember of it anyway. I'm afraid my versions are going to somehow ruin her life when she grows up and realizes that her versions of fairy tales are so totally different than everybody else's.

Anyway, after hearing the story a couple of times, she's started asking questions.

"Did the guy just chop the wolf's head off or did he cut his arms off too?"

"Did her grandma get to eat some soup?"

"But was her grandma still sick?" (this is after I tell her the wolf ate the grandma)


Lexi was relating a story to her mother this evening while lying in bed, and in the middle of the story she asks, "When you were in the rain today did you wear a jacket with a hood?"

"Yes, I sure did", said her mother.

"Good", said Lexi, then continued on with her story.

It's funny to see how her brain works these days.

Ugh

Ugh, lookit this. He didn't get bacon on it!

Monthly Roundup

Here's what's going on now:

1. My computer is on the fritz. Microsoft Vista sucks. Don't get it. It's terrible and I wish I had never tried it. I got it to be able to play the newest games thinking it would be helpful (Microsoft told me it would be, and I believed them like the fool I am). The problem is, Nvidia, who makes my graphics card, decided not to actually care that Vista work with their graphics cards.

I guess in a way it's good. I don't feel like I spend that much time playing games, but probably more than I need to, so it's nice to take a step back now and again.

3. I learned how to count

4. That was a joke.

5. I'm enjoying my new job change. It's been making me very tired though. I used to have two days a week where I dropped the kids off then had the morning free until my closing shift, but now I work either 7-4 or 8-5 every day, so I've been very tired. Some nights the past two weeks I've been in bed by 8.30 and even then been trying hard to stay awake that late.

6. Kids and I made cookies today. It was my wife's fault. She bought sugar cookie mix and cookie cutters and told me how great this fun activity would be. Yeah right. The only fun thing was fattening the kids up all morning then sticking them in the oven. Then decorating the house with frosting and licorice whips. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

7. Did I mention deer hunting next week? Yep, true that. Haven't been in 20 years, since I was 15. Not sure if I should go get long underwear, probably should I guess. I'm so not prepared. I've spent the past 20 years buying green and beige clothes, and now it turns out if I wear those into the woods I have a much better chance of getting shot. I've started preparing a mental list of things I need.

- Clothes (obvious)
- Gun (wish list)
- Bow and arrow (wish list but more realistic than gun)
- BB gun (this I could maybe do)
- Orange clothes, maybe earmuffs and hat
- Knife (I'm thinking Rambo knife but might just do that Swiss Army knife if I can find it. I may want to whittle something)
- Big bottle of whiskey (self-explanatory?)
- guitar (maybe two in case there's an accident after drinking the whiskey)
- Video games (portable, though batter won't last a whole week)
- Books/magazines (preferably on what to do if you're shot in the woods. Jack London probably wrote such a book)
- Long underwear

It's getting late and I'm going to bed. Carving pumpkins tomorrow. yay.

New Outlook on Life

I've finally figured it all out...

If you find everybody to be stupid then pretty soon you'll drown yourself in a sea of stupidity. If you avoid every retail store where you had bad service, then you'll never have any places to shop again. So I'm hereby granting a pardon to everybody on 'my list'. A one time pardon, you hear me, assholes!

In extreme cases I might still hold a grudge, but I'm going to try to keep it to two days for people, one month for retail establishments.

I'm even giving up my boycott of Best Buy.

A clean slate, let's start afresh and get over the little details of the crapweasels that annoy us day in and day out.

Tell you what though, I'm not forgiving CEOs. Screw those guys.

Has it always been this bad?

Question: Has the world always been in such a bad situation? It seems like the news is always so glum these days. But when I stop to think about it, I can't remember it ever being extremely happy in any way. Are things worse now than 5 years ago, or 10, or 50? Maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention...I dunno.

Dear Mom, part II

Oh yeah, went to the dentist today. It's been awhile (years). No cavities, things looked good.

Not a fan of the dentist's office.

Thanks Mom!

Nothing like a good phone conversation with your mother to remind you that you haven't written on your blog in awhile. I guess happy birthday/anniversary posts don't really count...though I tried.

Thing is, there are some new things happening lately that I've been meaning to post about, so here goes.

1. We're moving to South Dakota this October.

2. I'm going back to school to become a dentist.

3. I'm lying about both these things.

Here's what's really happening:

1. Noah's learned to climb out of his crib. He actually learned months ago, but the first time he did, he fell and hurt his arm, so he's not been climbing out since. But three days ago he was just standing in our doorway all of a sudden while I was getting ready for work. My first thought..."Shit, now it's on".

So the last few nights have been a nightmare, trying to get him to stay in bed. We pulled down the front of his crib to convert it into a toddler bed, which he seems to like, but the freedom is too much for him. I liken it to what would happen if we legalized pot: The first few days would just be too much freedom for most people. But eventually you'll get tired of it and just go to sleep.

The worst part is that he cries for me, making me feel responsible for his unhappiness at being being baby-gated into his room. It wouldn't be so bad if he was crying for mommy.

2. I'm switching jobs at my company. I've spent the last 3 years out on the sales floor, prior to which I was running the show in the back of house. But I've learned that sales really aren't my thing. I've actually known that for the past 3 years, but the money was pretty good. I've gotten tired of never knowing how you'll do with your commissions though, and it will be nice to have a steadier paycheck. Plus I won't have to work nights twice a week anymore, which will make all of us happier. I guess. I kind of like closing shifts, it gives me time to do grocery shopping and Goodwill trips, but I'll just have to find time elsewhere.

3. Is anybody else pissed at the financial institutions that have gotten themselves into some messed up situation? These are the same places that over the last few years you'd keep hearing about how they were giving these huge bonuses to their CEO's, even to those that were quit/fired. The same CEO's that got them into such messed up situations. Now they're in the deep shit and Bush wants to bail them out?

How about taking 700 billion dollars and paying everybody's credit cards off? The banks own the credit cards, so they'd be getting the 700 billion dollars in payments. Fair deal? Seems fair to me.
Now I understand how banks went under in the Depression. People start thinking that maybe the banks aren't smart enough to take care of their money. And if my bank can't make wise choices about how many millions they give their shitty decision making, thieving, low down, rotten CEO's, I'm not going to be keeping my money there anymore either.

Happy Anniversary

To my lovely wife, happy anniversary darling.

She's an absolute saint for putting up with me.

I love you.

Chicks