Kapunkin!

Jack said something which sounded exactly like "kapunkin' the other day when we were showing off our newly carved Jack-O-Lantern to him. From that point on, he was obsessed with the pumpkin. He said the word pumpkin over and over and over. It was so cute; I was amazed how much he seemed to love it. On top of that, he eats my roasted pumpkin seeds like candy.

Tuesdays are so great; my one day off through the week. I get so little time with Kelly and the kids anymore that I really soak up every moment of my Tuesdays. We took Jack and Aeryn out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel, which is now our new official hang out, then ended up at the park this evening to let Jack run around and burn off some energy.

It's officially Wednesday now. Has been for almost an hour. I guess I'd better get some sleep since today's my first 9 to 9 day.

Aeryn's awake!

Sing, Monkey Boy

Sitting here listening to the hard rock station on iTunes, I just realized how very much I loathe bands with a political agenda. Everyone's favorite communist band, Rage Against the Machine just preached some more about how horrible America is, and then Green Day came on, rambling on about some BS anti-war hippie liberal crap. I might as well take off my Doc Martens and start wearing Birkenstocks. Is that patchouli I smell?

If I wanted to listen to political discourse set to music I'd take an iPod to a Poli-Sci class. When did bands stop rocking, and start with all the posturing? I don't mind a little social commentary, sure, but all of this America is evil bullshit needs to stop. Last time I checked, we weren't the ones flying airliners into buildings, and blowing ourselves up in subway tunnels, but I digress.

What I'm getting at is this: exactly when did selling lots of pop music CDs give someone credibility with regards to U.S. Foreign Policy and world affairs? To be even more concise, why do people even care what these drug-addled singers have to say about anything? It's really the modern day equivalent of a court jester giving advice to a king.

This is the world we live in; Madonna is giving spiritual advice; telling people the world is going to hell and priests are mostly gay. This coming from a woman with the morals of a two-dollar prostitute and more partners than a square dance.

Shut up about what you think you know and do what you're best at. Do the world a huge favor and just sing.

Drum Roll Please

I'm back. Well, not in the physical sense, seeing as I really haven't ever gone anywhere. I've decided to give this thing another go. To be exact, I decided that nearly a week ago, but haven't been able to stay awake long enough to get it done. 60 plus hours a week in a car dealership over an hour from home doesn't really allow me a whole lot of time for anything.

Today I took time. Kelly and I carved a pumpkin for Jack. My mom bought one of those nifty pumpkin carving kits, and we decided to do the 'haunted house.' Honestly, I think it came out looking pretty good, especially so given the fact that we've never done that before.

Jack cried a lot today. I think he might be getting yet another ear infection. Poor little man. I can't help but wonder, maybe a bit selfishly, if some of his crying is because I'm not around more. I'm pretty much always at work.

I'm probably paranoid; I'm sure it's just the terrible almost-twos and an ear infection. Why? Because Aeryn lights up like a christmas tree every time she sees me, and if Jack were suffering from lack-of-daddy, she would be too.

I'm suffering from lack of Kelly time, and Jack and Aeryn time. Hopefully I'll have a good few months, put some money back, and be able to start working from home so I can have the best of both worlds.

Well, it's Halloween now. I'm going to call it a night; hopefully I'll sleep peacefully tonight and have a great day tomorrow. I need one.

What's Old is New Again

Tonight I had to run to the store to get some rice cereal for Aeryn. I took Jack with me, and as we drove, I clicked on the radio to entertain him. While fiddling with the controls I came up a station low on the FM dial that I never listened to before. It took a few seconds to sink in that I was listening to a western radio play. What stunned me was how much I got into the story. I actually didn't want to get out of the car by the time we got to the grocery store.

The ride home was the same, only there was a second play on. It turns out that I was listening to an episode of Gunsmoke from 1955 called "Homer Tisdale" on the way to, and to an episode of The Green Hornet, which I still haven't nailed down on the way home.

I never listened to a radio drama before, and I think I could definitely get into that. I've been poking around on the web to see what I can turn up, and I may have to delve deeper into it. I'd love to find out what happens to old Homer, and to see if the councilman's suicide was really a murder, as the Green Hornet reckons.

Hmm..I also saw some of those awareness bracelets at the grocery store with the proceeds going to help out paralyzed vets. I may have to pick up at least one of those. Finally a cause I can really get behind.

Ok, off to look for old time radio shows on the web.

I've Been Away From You For So Long

I'm still here. The new job didn't work out at all. I hated it after only a couple days. Probably didn't hurt that I was being not-trained by someone who seemed less than enthusiastic about imparting ANY job knowledge. I gave it a full month, and still knew absolutely nothing. I tried, I really did. I just didn't like the atmosphere, people, or lack of training...hell, even the pay sucked.

There has GOT to be something better out there.

On a side note, we went to a party with some friends this afternoon, which was a nice change of pace. Mom and Dad watched the kids while we got to have some away time. I felt refreshed, but missed the kids terribly. When we got home, Jack curled up with me on the couch to watch the Wiggles before bed. It's moments like that which keep me going in this seemingly never-ending quest for a normal life.

Oh, I nearly forgot. Almost a full year after breaking down, the Sable is back up and running. All this after putting close two thousand dollars into a car which only cost me three thousand to start with. Three days after it came home, it needed another 160 dollar repair, but I fault the dealer for not doing a very thorough job the first time. Not bad timing considering the brakes on the minivan failed literally the day the Sable got out of the shop...a quick estimate revealed some other major issues, to the tune of a few thousand bucks. Luckily, that piece of shit belongs to the in-laws. Enjoy!

The Tiger Lives

Just testing a new dashboard widget that allows me to post without even opening Safari. Oh how badass is this?

I thought about it. I actually did.

For a brief moment I considered building a Windows PC for my wife. She is used to Windows, and quite frankly, even the idea of popping for one of those budget e-machines jobs sounded like a good idea just to get her up and running. Her old system is minus the video card, and is slow as anything.

I was even thinking about putting it together as a moderately priced gaming rig. Then last night happened.

For the time being, I've got her using an ancient Dell we borrowed, whose native hard drive is corrupted to hell with virii and spyware aplenty. I hooked up new drive and installed Linspire on it. The damn computer fought me every step of the way. It's painfully slow. I could run DOS on it and it would be slow. It just sucks. Badly.

Last night it would not boot. I spent over an hour tearing it apart, booting, rebooting, checking cables and jumpers....cutting my fingers on the inside of the case and perhaps most importantly, wasting time that I could be using to do something constructive. When I finally got the damn thing to boot, and I still don't know how I accomplished that herculean task, I looked at my wife and snarled, "You're getting a Mac."

I forgot how little I enjoyed having to gut PCs on a regular basis.

On a side note, the in-laws are going away this weekend, which means we actually get some privacy. F*ing w00t!