Four Years Later...

I'm sure the ones who have actually seen my yard will understand more, but I've finally got some pro's in to finish what I 'obviously' was not able to do myself... :)

Tearing the place up... With Titus's help of course... :)

Yes, that was the first time I had EVER operated a backhoe...

Calling in the pro's...

About to get started!

I'll post pics of the (finally) finished yard once they have completed it!

Pretty Funny...

Okay, pretty lame post as well... :)

I Was Going To...

Post that is... However, my cousin has a post going that took all my free time tonight. I'm busy people, but soon I won't be and will have all the free time in the world! :) I have been working on this house for almost six years, and guess what, it's almost DONE!!! My wife is super happy that she will no longer have to live in a 'construction zone', and I did it for her actually. I'm GLAD she likes it! Sorry for not posting any posts other than my house lately, but that's what I've been doing. More posts coming soon! Stay with me!! :)

Electrical Wiring...

LUCKILY I decided to replace a few lights as I'm trying to finish up this remodeling gig... So up to the attic I go to find the wire I need, this is the mess I find:



I was like, "Huh?". I fixed it, then fixed a few more things, then said screw it and cut the power to anything that went up in the attic and ran new wire. I've cut ALL power to the circuits that went to the attic and run my own circuits, I am rerunning it ALL!

I'm not even an electrician, and I'm done now. It took a few hours to run it right. I told you about all the lamp wire I found up there. Makes me want to go check everything in the house, and I likely will.

So if you are wondering where the "finished" pics are of the rooms, that is why they are not available as yet, I really don't want my house to burn down, so I am correcting all the crap I find that the fool who built this house did...

I'm nearly done though, fixing the crap that is, and HOPEFULLY will have some pics tomorrow... Whew! I'm really glad though that I discovered all the inadequate stuff and have been able to fix it all. It's been time consuming though, luckily, I "think" I almost have it fixed!

The ER...

I think I've actually commented on this before, but wow! My wife called me at work this AM, and was seemingly having possible complications from a surgery she had about 3 years ago. So of course I came home, and off to the ER we went... I guess we got there around 10:30AM... Then of course the waiting game begins. Want to confirm my theory about the stupidity of people? Go sit at the ER for a while, you'll find it hard to come up with an argument against my theory! I might add that we just got home about 30 minutes ago, and here it is after midnight!

I'm not sure if ALL ER's work the same, but I've been to a few in my life, and from my experience they are all similar. You sign in, then wait (although) the first wait isn't really all that long. (Tip: ALWAYS say, when they ask you, "On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad is the pain?", a 10! Then make a reinforcing comment about how you think you are about to pass out because you are not sure if you can tolerate the pain for a second longer! Then possibly a few swoons, if not just fall out of your chair and lay on the floor as if you ACTUALLY have just passed out. If you do that, from what I've seen, there is virtually no wait!) The next wait can be an hour or more, and the next 'station' is the "Where is your insurance card?" Even though you have been going to the same hospital for the past 8 years and nothing has changed, they want to see it all again. Not that I blame them on that one though. Then it's wait again. This wait can also be an hour or more. Then the nurse takes your vitals and verifies the information that you've already given. (This step doesn't surprise me either, after most people have waited for 3 hours already, the status could have changed, refer to the 'Tip' listed above, and act accordingly here as well). So once that step is done, then you wait YET again for someone to call you to go to the 'final' waiting room. This wait can also be an hour or more. You finally get back and the nightmare continues.

The ACTUAL time anyone sees you varies, but out of the 12 hours Carolyn waited today 'between' the steps, she was seen for maybe 45 minutes of that, and that included the MRI!

Of course I couldn't stay the whole time, I had to leave at 1:45PM to go collect the kids from school, then home. Taylor (luckily) decided to spend the night at Sarah's house, I guess when she got over there, the first words out of her mouth were, "My Mom is in the hospital!" So my neighbor called and asked if there was anything they could do. They did offer to watch Chance and Tanner as well, and looking back, I should have said yes, I didn't however.

So anyway, that's how I spent my day, watching the kids, and hanging out at the hospital (I HATE hospital food btw)... Luckily I had brought a book with me to read, I had picked up a copy of "Somebody's Gotta Say It" by Neal Boortz. I don't agree with everything the guy says, but I do agree with a lot of it. The reason I actually even bought the book was because of the first words that were printed on the front inside cover of the book, and I even disagreed with the first thing I read:

"I've come to the conclusion that roughly 50 percent of the adults in this country are simply too ignorant and functionally incompetent to be living in a free society." ~ Neal Boortz

I think it's actually around 90 - 95%, and in my opinion, THAT is a conservative estimate... The book has turned out to be a good read, and I would recommend it to anyone...

The Scam I Got Roped Into...

Err... I mean fundraiser at my kids school... So yesterday, as we were getting the kids ready for school, they all wanted to know where their Boosterthon pledges were... Huh? Then I remembered the 'packets' that had come home a week ago that were laying on my desk. So I quickly filled them all out, listing Carolyn and myself as 'sponsers' at $1 a lap. Chance wasn't happy with only two sponsers, so I wrote down Uncle Titus's name as the third sponser for him.

Of course I'm thinking a 'lap' is around the track... NO! I got to school this morning, and inside of the track, they have this 'ring' in the middle of the track that is about as big around as a hula hoop... I was like, huh? (Okay, it was a little bigger than a hula hoop, but not much!).

So today all of my kids come home with t-shirts on, and on the back there are marks for each lap they ran. Chance ran 31, Tanner ran 28 and Taylor ran 19. I went to the calculator, and realized that I have to send $187.00 to the school tomorrow!! I wonder how many calls the school will get tomorrow? I'll bet a LOT! I'll go ahead and send in my $187, but the paperwork that was sent home was rather confusing, and it didn't mention that they would be doing laps around a hula hoop!

A Fresh Face Perhaps?

Not that he is an unknown, but he's got my vote if he runs...

No, I Don't Have Much To Say, Again...

Sad to say, but I barely know what's going on in the news right now... I read the highlights of course, but I'm just trying to get these rooms done. So there I was, painting away (ugghh! Yeah, I'm STILL painting!)

It's AMAZING how much has to be painted to trim out those two rooms!

So then I all of a sudden realized, wait a minute! I have people coming out with dirt in the AM to fill in the front. LUCKILY I had some of that drainage hose, because if not, it would have meant another trip to Home Depot. I had two drains in the front that needed to be extended or else it would have meant MAJOR drainage issues later if I had come home from work tomorrow and the dirt was there, and underneath, the soon to be clogged drains... Whew! I'm SO glad I remembered that, or else I would have been digging later to find them...

The other side looks pretty much the same, but I ran that drainage hose on each side far enough beyond where they are filling in so I can do something with it later. Pretty crude, but better than later wondering why I have issues with drainage, then it all of a sudden dawning on me, "Oh yeah, I forgot to do that, and they are blocked now"

Chance and Nate did a LOT of work on their fort today, I don't have a pic, but it doesn't look half bad. Now EVERYONE wants to be in the 'fort'. I had to finally go up there and work out a solution between my kids and the neighborhood kids. Speaking of neighborhood kids, one of them (Nate) has literally been over here for two whole days. Has gone with us to eat, to the store, went with us to church this morning... Stunning!

Have I Mentioned...

How much I HATE painting? Well, today I started painting all the baseboard, door trim, etc... I'm barely halfway done...

There were a gazillion of these things to paint...

Of course I still had that tree laying in my front yard that needed to be cut up. Then I got a phone call from one of my neighbors asking me if I wanted it. I told him, well, I was going to cut it up for firewood, but if you want it, come get it. I've got some people coming out Monday with dirt, so it had to be gone by then. He came over and cut it up. I helped him a bit as did the kids. It's gone now though thankfully. One less thing I have to do.

One of my neighbors cutting the tree up. He saved me a TON of work!

Of course while I was painting, etc. Chance and Nate kept coming in the garage asking if they could use this board and that one. I finally told them, you can use all those boards over there. Some time later, Chance and Nate came running up to me and Chance was like, "Dad, I know you will probably say no, but can Nate and I sleep in the fort we made tonight?". I was like, "Yeah, I guess so.". A while later, I decided to actually go look at 'the fort'.

'The fort'... I was like, "You guys actually WANT to sleep in that??" Of course they said they did.

I told them, you can play in it for a few more hours, but you'll sleep inside! I would never willingly sleep in something like that. Boys will be boys I know, but still... Well, back to painting... :(

Time's Up...

That's it! The week is up, the carpet installers will be here in the AM. I always think I'll get more done than I do. LUCKILY Joe painted for me or it would have been worse. I was thinking that once the weekend got here I would be able to relax for a minute, yeah, that's NOT going to happen!

Taking the couches to the garage, Tanner was like, "The Goodlings are done with this", he is so funny. They did serve their purpose though. LeRoy dropped them off a few years ago, I think they were intended for Andrea. If you want them Andrea, let me know, otherwise, they are getting thrown in the trash... :)

Wrapping up the rug that was in the living room. We have a LOT of rugs throughout the house, but this rug is probably the only one that actually is Persian. It might even be worth money, who knows, all I know is, it's going in the attic, if the kids want it when they move out, they can have it. I wrapped it up pretty good though, so if one of them wants it, it should still be in good shape...

I thought I would get so much more done than I did... I didn't though, but tonight it was like, okay, the carpet installers will be here in the morning, let's clear these rooms out. A week ago, I was thinking, "Yeah, no sweat, I'll get that all done." Yeah, right! It DID not happen. The rooms are cleared out now though, but I'll spend the whole weekend putting the trim up and painting the second coat on the 'other room', as well as putting the wainscoating up in the 'other room'... Good intentions, but I've always been that way I guess, shoot for the sky, if you don't quite make it, oh well...

For many of the readers, I'll have more interesting posts next week! :) For now though, you'll have to do with posts about what I am doing because it is consuming ALL of my time... :)

What Was I Thinking?

So somehow I thought that I would be able to completely 'redo' two rooms in a week... Wow! Luckily Joe painted the main room for me, the mantle, and the crown molding, because I would not have gotten it done. Almost done though, but wow...

Joe, painting...

I NEVER would have gotten this done without Joe. The carpet installers are coming out on Friday. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything exciting for the past few days, but give me a few more and I will! I HATE remodeling now. I used to like it, I don't anymore. The next house Carolyn and I buy WILL require ZERO work!

No, I Don't Obsess...

I know some people who read my blog, may at times think I obsess about the whole family thing, that is not the case. I'm busy doing other things. It irritates me at times, and I blog about it. I help out when called on regarding family matters, who doesn't? Well, some don't, I do however. Nothing surprises me these days, do things infuriate me from time to time, of course! I quickly let it go though, particularly the older I get. I've actually been busy getting ready for the carpet installers who are coming Friday, and haven't had much time to do much else, I must say, I'll be glad when Saturday arrives! Giving the mantle a facelift, also painting the crown molding white as well, almost done...



It's going to look nice I might add! :)

Chores I Hate!!

There are several: finishing drywall; painting and grouting. The rest of it, I don't really mind doing. Electrical, plumbing, carpentry, framing, etc... Some of it I actually LIKE doing. I do it all myself though, whether I hate it or not, simply because I'm NOT going to pay some moron to come in and do it. I was actually making quite a bit of progress today, I finished the drywall (which I've already said I HATE doing), Taylor was snapping pics btw:



Luckily, the drywall finishing went rather well, as much as I HATE doing it. I'm not even sure I'll need much more than another light coat tomorrow.

I took down the fan and the lights in that room, because we are putting up ceiling fans. When I took down the fan, turns out, the fool who built this house used lamp wire to feed electricity to the fan, wtf? Some of the things the guy who built this house did just stun me. Luckily I am fixing most of them. I know it's my birthday, but I have carpet installers coming out on Friday, so the next week will be work, work, work... Ugghh!! Oh well, I'm sure we will all be pleased with the results. I am going to put wainscoating up in that room as well, I dragged my 100 foot air hose up to the room, turned on the air compressor, and was marking the walls where the studs were (which brings up another issue, the fool who built this house has studs everywhere, just not 'the standard' length apart. Some are 15 inches, some 18, some 24, etc, it's a nightmare.) I've got them all marked now though, so no big deal, but damn. Anyway, I heard this hissing sound, and it was my 100 foot air hose succumbing to the halogen work lights I have in there. So I obviously could not install the wainscoating, because I have to use my nail gun to install it... I'll have to get another one tomorrow. I'm rambling now, so I'll stop. I have 4 more days to get it done before the carpet installers are here... We'll see how that works out... :)

The Big Four Oh!!!

So I went to Home Depot this morning to get a few things I needed to put a few lights on the wall in that 'other' room I'm redoing for the kids, and when I got back I saw all the kids tear into the house, so I figured something was probably up. I can't say that I was super suprised, but I was mildly surprised when I walked in the door. Thanks Carolyn and kids!!

The welcoming party!

Singing...

I guess I'm getting too old to haul around the hand held leaf blower, so now I have a backpack blower! :)

New work attire! Can always use that!

Of course the best present Carolyn and the kids got for me was the widescreen flat panel 22" monitor I am currently looking at while I type this!! So Happy Birthday to me!!

The 'Other' Room...

We have this room in our house, we call it the 'other' room, because it really serves no purpose... According to the woman who sold us the house, her dad built it, it was supposed to be a 'garage' for his volkswagon. I'm not sure how he was going to get it in there, but having 'fixed' many of the things he did, I'm sure he was insane. Anyway, we decided to turn the 'other' room into a room for the kids. We are going to have carpet installed next week, so I had many things to do. I'm not done yet, but I did get a lot done today.

The railing had to go...

New wall going up... (Yeah, I know the boards are crooked between the studs, I only put them there so I could have something to secure the cabinets to I am going to put on that wall :)

Finally up! The bitch of it was I had to move that HVAC vent, and what really sucked was I only had to move it over 3 inches... Oh well, it's done.

Tomorrow I'll rip down the lights and put up ceiling fans, install wainscoating, and paint (uggh - I HATE painting)... Will be nice once done though, and the kids will love it! So anyway, that's what I've been doing all day.

Everyone Else Does It...

Blog once or twice a week that is, if that! I may start doing that myself, who knows, I really just blog when I feel like it, not sure why I do right now, but I do, so who knows? Maybe I should apply for a government grant to do a study on what makes people want to write stuff that the entire world can see? Hmmm... I almost think I could probably get it, I'll put that on the back burner...

How about the bus that drove straight off the freaking ramp near where I work and the six people that died?? What a tragedy! Sorry to say, I was kind of irritated this morning that it took me over two hours to get to work because they shut down I-75, but the moment that thought entered my mind, I was like, "Hello Matthew, you are alive, aren't you?". Sad really, I've seen the video, and I know the section of Interstate well, and it looks like the driver was not paying attention, and literally thought he was tooling down the highway, and literally just drove the bus off the ramp and crashed to I-75 below... I guess no one will ever know what happened really though, because he died in the accident.

Changing the subject, when it's your time to go, that's it! Could happen in any number of ways: bus driver doesn't see that the lane ends; filing papers on the 88th floor of the World Trade Center and a Boeing hits you from behind; tornado tears through your school without warning; on and on I could go. The only thing I hope everyone did was, make sure they are ready to go! I'm not sure what anyone else thinks about when they hear about people dying, the thing that immediately enters my mind is, I wonder if they were saved? My thoughts then go to people who don't believe there is a heaven or hell. I think to myself, well if they didn't believe in heaven or hell, they must have gone to hell, what is the thought process there? I recall the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man obviously had thought processes in hell, he begged for just a drop of water. That could probably be a post in and of itself, I'll save that for Daniel, he does good with posts like that! (Excellent post today Daniel, I'll comment after I have thought about it for a second... :)

Anyway, just a few thoughts, I'm busy trying to get two rooms ready for carpet installation... :)

The Average Consumer...

Is an idiot! I've been planning the entertainment center I'm about to build, in my mind of course... :) So I thought it would be rather cool to have a plasma TV in the middle on one of those TV lifts, so it could be raised or lowered... I started looking at lifts, and all the places I looked at only sold to wholesalers. I finally e-mailed one and asked if anyone in Atlanta sold them. Of course he sent me back a few links of companies that build the furniture with the lifts in them. I e-mailed him back and told him, "I am building my own furniture, does anyone sell the lifts?" He obviously didn't understand, but then I'm sure he's a moron as well. Of course once I e-mailed him back, he then responded with a, "Hey Matthew, Sorry for the confusion, here is our price list, and here are the instructions to get setup as a wholesaler"... I guess he thought that I was going to be building more than one of them. I'm not! The lifts are two thousand dollars and up! Are you kidding me? I could build one myself for FAR less than that! It lifts a TV up and down?!? $2K? Whatever... The technology required to lift a TV up and down is so simple, I would think that the stupidest of people could grasp the concept... So I'm still looking, oh, I'm NOT your average consumer, therefore the title... :)

Yeah, I Know...

We are having new carpet put in, and I didn't realize how MUCH prep work I still had left to do... I 'forgot' that I still had to replace the trim on seven doors... So I took the day off, ripped off trim, then decided the walls could use another coat of paint, and one thing led to another... Wow! Luckily I was able to get Tanner to pull the nails out of all the trim I tore down so I can burn it, I was going to save it, but I'm just over it... I'm about halfway ready for the carpet, luckily they won't be coming for a few more days... Anyway, that's what I've been doing... I'll post pics though once it is done... :)

So then I was thinking we needed an entertainment center for the living room... Carolyn and I have seen some, but they are WAY too expensive... So I thought, why not just build one, it's not like it's a complicated piece of furniture to build... I came across this copy of 'The Family Handyman', and I'm going to build that for our entertainment center...



So what I'm going to do is build two of those bookcases, and then build a center piece between them for the TV, surround sound system, DVD player, VCR, etc... Doesn't look that complicated, mine actually might look better as I ALWAYS improvise when copying others plans... :) I'll be sure and post pics once it's done... :)

Tree...

So I'm about to have some grading work done in the front, and the tree right in front of our house had to go. I didn't want to cut it down myself because it leaned heavily towards the house. So my neighbor said he would cut it down, he used to do it for a living. I was like, okay, why not, it will save me about a thousand dollars off the work I'm having done in the front.

So today we decided to drop it, he hooked up all the ropes and the come along and started cutting. Then he decided we needed another come along, so I went to Home Depot to get one. Got back, hooked it up, then the wind started gusting. So now it's like, hmm, there is about a 50 - 50 chance the tree could now fall towards the house. So he told me to go pull my vehicles in the garage, that's when I was thinking, hmm, maybe that thousand I 'thought' I would be saving is going to be like peanuts compared to the costs of repairing the house, because I'm not sure, but if you cut a tree down in your yard and it falls on your house, I doubt the insurance would pay for it...

So anyway, finally about two hours later we got the tree down, and it fell right where we wanted it to. The kids are ecstatic and are now climbing on it... Luckily, my house is still in one piece! :)

Tree, right where we wanted it, whew!

I'm sure the kids will be climbing on that thing until I cut it up next weekend... :)

Neighbors...

We all have them, some like their neighbors, some don't... I happen to like my new neighbors, they have a girl Taylor's age and they play together ALL the time. It was nice when they moved in, because previously Taylor had been the only girl playing with 5 or 6 guys who are over ALL the time playing with Chance and Tanner.

Anyway, earlier in the week, my neighbor called me and asked if I wanted to come over Friday night for pizza and a movie. I said, "Okay." Turned out that I had already seen all of the movies he had rented: "The Departed", "Babel" and "Flags of Our Fathers". I don't normally watch movies that much, but I've been on vacation all week and had watched them all. "The Departed" was a good movie though, so we decided to watch that one. I'm not one to watch movies 'again', unless it's "Swordfish", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" or "The Patriot", maybe a few more...

I went and got the pizza from Jimmy's Pizza (Nate's parents own the joint, Chance and Tanner's friend) and went over to watch the movie. Of course we started talking, and saw half the movie. It ended and in went Babel, we still continued talking.

I'm not sure where the conversation turned to Creation, but it did. My neighbor was flabbergasted that I believed in it. I was flabbergasted that he didn't. The conversation took an interesting turn from there. He told me, "You're an intelligent person, you don't really believe that crap do you?", to which I replied, "Of course I do!". It went on and on for several hours...

At the end of the night, I went home with him wondering if I was putting him on or not, he kept saying throughout the night, "You're putting me on right, you don't really believe that crap do you?". To which I would always reply, "No, I'm not 'putting you on', of course I believe in Creation!".

Afterwards, I was thinking to myself: "I wonder what it would be like living your life to not believe in God and Creation?". To believe that we just exist and then die? How miserable of an existence would that be? I would not want to live like that. I'll have to work on him!

I do have a HUGE tree in my front yard that he is going to help me cut down tomorrow, so maybe I'll bring it up again. I was going to pay someone to come cut it down, only because it's huge and is leaning towards the house, otherwise I'd cut it down myself. He used to cut trees down for a living, he said he'd do it, so I'll let him... :)

That's a whole new post in and of itself, maybe after the tree is down I'll post it... The reason the tree has to come down that is... :)

Okay, Gross!!

So Chance and Tanner saved their allowance and ordered some air pellet rifles... Not long after they had arrived, I went outside, and their friend's brother Zach had just killed a squirrel. I asked Zach what they were going to do with it, and he said he was going to go skin it and cook it. I was mildly surprised, okay, not mildly, I was like, "You actually eat them??" He said, "Oh yeah, we love eating squirrels." Gross!

Home Alone...

No, not the movie... I'm home alone, for the first time in years... The boys went to the movies with Nate and are spending the night over at his house, Taylor is spending the night at her friend Sarah's house and Carolyn is in Knoxville... Hmm. I wonder what I'll do? Probably nothing, we'll see though... :)

Cameras...

So I had to take Taylor back to that Pump It Up place today for a birthday party for one of her friends, I dropped her off and didn't stay this time... Of course then we had two hours to kill, so the guys are like, "Let's go to Sparkles!"... Ugghh! The type of people who hang out at the roller skating rink are a class of people in and of themselves... So needless to say, I DIDN'T skate, but sat there for an hour or so and watched Chance, Tanner and Nate skate... I did however take a bunch of pictures while standing there... I had that same crappy camera with me that I had taken ice skating, out of all of the pictures I took only ONE was even viewable! I can't believe I even bought the thing to be honest, I even used multiple different settings, thinking, maybe it's the whole 'automatic' thing... Nope! This is the only picture that turned out, and it's not very good:



So if anyone ever tries to sell you a Kodak EasyShare CX7430, don't buy it!

Ice Skating... Again...

The kids have been wanting to go back to the ice skating rink, so we decided to go today while Carolyn was at school... I quickly checked their web site and saw that public skating was from 10:00 - 12:00, we loaded up in the van and off we went. Of course we had to stop at Wal-mart to get gloves for everyone (not sure what happened to the gloves I JUST bought them the last time we went)...

So we got to the rink right at 10:00 and go in, she was like, "Public skating doesn't start until 12:30.". To which I replied, "The web site says 10:00." She just kind of looked at me, and I realized she probably didn't even know what a web site was, so we decided to go eat...

The skating participants... One of my favorite places to eat btw as well, but we don't go that often because Carolyn doesn't much care for it...

Well, that killed an hour, we had another hour and a half to kill... We went to Brandsmart, that killed another 30 minutes, then just drove around for 30 minutes before heading back to the rink... Outside the rink they had huge piles of fake snow, so the kids played in that for a while throwing snowballs at each other, then we headed in to skate...

Taylor had the hang of it this time, the last time we went, she wouldn't let go of my hand, this time she didn't want to hold it at all. I think that likely had more to do with the fact that her friend Sarah was there skating by herself, so of course Taylor was going to as well... :)

I think Tanner had just fallen, but a few minutes later he was skating around again with Chance and Nate...

Tanner was taking a few pictures...

I didn't really get that many good ones of Chance, of course I took that piece of crap camera with me, I wasn't going to take the chance of crashing on the ice and destroying my good one, so not sure why I actually EXPECTED any good pics... I was probably secretly hoping to fall and destroy the one I did take, which is evident I guess because I let Tanner use it out on the ice... :)

Babel...

Anyone seen the movie? I watched it tonight. Yeah, I'm on vacation, but am not doing anything, literally... Anyway, I watched the movie, was kind of slow starting, but it wasn't bad. I do know one thing, there aren't many people I would leave my kids with, and I certainly wouldn't travel to another country without my kids. There are like four people I would leave my kids with, Titus, Petra, Timberly and Joshua... I guess if I had to branch out, there might be a few others, but I like to know where my kids are. The movie though I thought was a semi political statement, and probably a just one. Most Americans think the world revolves around them, and it doesn't. The sad thing is, most Americans are so stupid they couldn't identify the location of any other country in the world if you gave them a map. It will be our downfall I might add...

Polling...

How accurate are polls? Have you ever been polled? If so, did you answer 100% the way you really feel? I've never been polled myself, I guess possibly a few have called, but after the "Hello, I'm with XYZ Marketing company" I say "I'm not interested, thanks!" and then hang up never listening to whatever the response might be. I would think that you could do a poll and make it say whatever you wanted it to. Yet they claim that they are 'scientific' and the margin of error is +/-3 or 4 or whatever...

Says who? If you ask 1,000 people a question, how can you be within a margin of error of +/-3? Hello! There are what, 300 million people living in this country? There are companies though that make fortunes by 'providing' the polling data, Zogby comes to mind, Rasmussen as well. What makes their polling data so 'scientific'? I say just about any poll you read is skewed to the leanings of whoever ordered the poll. Maybe I'm misinformed, I doubt it though, maybe someone can enlighten me...

Mitt Romney...

Yeah, I know, I said I thought this guy was it... I'm now taking that back... His Mormon religion will cost him the Presidency... If he wasn't a Mormon, I'd say he would have it...

Some nut job, Joseph Smith came up with the whole Mormon religion, I'm not real sure of all the details, but here are some... So apparently Joe had some sort of theophany in his early teens, or the 'first vision' as the Mormons call it. From what I understand about the whole Mormon religion, he saw a light that appeared in his room, then a 'person' appeared and told him that God had a work for him to do, the work involved some gold plates that contained the account of the 'former inhabitents' of this continent (maybe the whole world, the story I read said continent), and also something about silver bows that would act as 'seers' to help him translate the story, or something (I've not studied it that much, I don't care that much about lunatics)... It just so happened that the 'plates' were only several miles from his house... Anyway, he retrieved the plates, then proceeded home, was attacked several times, yet managed to thwart his assailents (while carrying over 200 lbs of gold tablets according to his dimensions and the weight of gold)... So imagine for a moment, finding golden tablets weighing over 200 lbs, then leaping merrily the three miles home, fending off three various assailents, quite a feat...Whatever... Then there were more visions, the angel took the plates, so no one could verify them, and this guy had his own religion... A lot of people drank the kool-aid... I'm tired of reading about the story, kind of reminds me of Scientology, where Hubbard was the 'only' one who had the privilege of 'seeing' what happened with Xenu and the resulting thetans... Wow... People that say Romneys religion won't be an issue just need to wait... Wait until the videos of Joe secretly getting the 'golden plates' from the 'angel' and then dancing merrily through the woods while fighting off assailents carrying 200 lbs worth of gold, then the angels taking the 'evidence' and Joe passing out the kool-aid start showing up on YouTube... Oh, and the video will end with Mitt drinking the kool-aid... Yeah Mitt, you have an issue...

Nation Building in Iraq...

Why it isn't working...


Likely a large part of the reason I would say...

Birthday Parties...

Ever take your kids to them? I personally think they should be outlawed... :) The kids seem to enjoy them though... So first we had to go buy a present, then back home. Chance didn't want to go, so he stayed home with Carolyn. Off we went to take Tanner to his friends party. Of course the intention was to drop him off then Taylor and I would go kill two hours, then come back and pick him up. It didn't quite work out like that... We go in to drop Tanner off, I was like, "So when should I come back and get him?" They were like, "Oh no, you guys stay, Taylor can play too!"... Uggh! Taylor wanted to stay though...

The place was called Pump It Up, and they had a bunch of these blow up slides, etc...

Taylor coming down one of the slides...

Tanner playing air hockey...

Getting ready for the cake...

Just when I thought it was finally time to go, they were like, if the kids want to, they can go back in for a while... Luckily we finally got out of there shortly after... The sad thing is, Taylor's friend has invited her to another birthday party at the same place on Thursday... :(

Richard Dawkins CNN

We should live this life to the fullest, because there is no other... While I agree that we should live this life to the fullest, it is but a vapor... Stunning!

How True...

Sadly, that's about how it works...

Been There...

I came across this today, and thought it was great! It's AMAZING the people who look down on others, not sure if it's true or not, but I suspect it is...

Post here...

It irritates me greatly when I see people at work who look down on others for ANY reason, as if they think they are better... Yeah, I know, people might say, but you talk about how stupid people are all the time... Sure, but it's merely an observation! I'm nice to everyone, and I'm nicer to the people who are taking out the trash, serving the meals, and cleaning the place than I am to the pompous asses who occupy the offices who somehow think that they are better than everyone else... They are not!

Tanner...

Today being Valentine's Day, I had to go to all three of the kids classes at school... Which is a haul, each of their classes is near the end of three separate LONG hallways... So I dropped the bags of candy off at Chance's class (We're the room parents if you don't remember :), then off to Taylors class to drop her off, then Tanner's class was having an 'event' for the parents, so I ended up there last...

Then on my way to work I got pulled over, the cop asked me what I thought the speed limit was, I was like, "55?", to which he replied, "Well, that explains why you were going 60 mph, the speed limit is 45!" So I got a ticket, so that'll be a waste of $100... All in all though, it was a pretty good day...

Happy Valentine's Day Carolyn!

Surprises...

Carolyn and I don't buy into the whole commercialization thing that goes on... I didn't even think that was a word actually and had to look it up... Tanner however does buy into it... He came to me a few minutes ago and wanted to know what I had gotten Mommy... I told him I didn't get her anything... He was shocked... He told me, "We have to get her something"... Off to the store Tanner and I went... When we got back from the store, no one had realized we had left.. Stealth mode... :) We got some flowers and other stuff for Carolyn... I still think it is the most commercialized holiday going... Idiot born every minute...

One Of Those Days...

So I got up this morning like I normally do, about 6:00 AM, made coffee and turned on Imus... Woke up the kids on my way to the shower about 7:00 only to discover that Taylor was 'sick'... Carolyn had school to go to, so I logged onto work and IM'd my boss to tell him I had to stay home today to tend to a sick kid, but that I could work from home if he wanted me to, he said screw it, take a personal day... I turned on my out-of-office and logged off and haven't really done much since... Ever have one of those days? I don't think I really did anything today... Surfed the Internet, went to the store a few times, but other than that, I have done absolutely nothing... Now I'm about to order pizza (well, pizza for me, everyone else wants wings and garlic knots) and watch The Departed, so I doubt I'll get anything done... So that's it, I did absolutely nothing today, and I must say, I should do it more often... :)

I might add that as soon as I got back from taking Chance and Tanner to school, Taylor had miraculously recovered... So I guess she was in need of 'one of those days' as well... :)

Creation and Science...

Interesting article at World Net Daily today:

Research: God did speak world into existence

I tried to get to his blog to see the trailer he has posted, but someone seriously needs to 'fix' his website, of course I'm sure he is being pounded right now with hits... In the minute or so I tried to get it to load, he sold almost a hundred more of his books...

The students blog here...

When the story was published at World Net Daily last night at 9:35PM he had only sold 1,700 copies, that number is about to surpass 10,000... I'll go back and check it out once I can actually get to the site...

18 Ways To Be A Good Liberal...

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make "The Passion of the Christ" for financial gain only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

17. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag queens and transvestites should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

18. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.

Flags of Our Fathers...

I watched this film tonight, it was a good film... Made me think of a few things... People think we are at war today, but it's really a game compared to some of the wars we've been through... Although, this 'game' may end up being worse than some of the wars we have fought... We'll see, it's all political now...

I wondered as I watched the film, will my children, as I am laying on my deathbed, be standing over me? I hope they will, we'll see... Fathers, a difficult role, but you never get a second chance...

My Night...

So I got home from work today, and my kids told me they were going to the 'Valentine Dance' at their school... Or at least Chance and Taylor were... Chance had a friend whose mom was coming to get him and Taylor was going with our new neighbors... That left Tanner. Tanner came to me and said that he wanted to go as well, so what could I do but take him? So I did. I detest going to these events, but I had no choice... So off Taylor went with her friend next door, and Chance's friend's mom came and collected him, off Tanner and I went... He was so excited, it was worth it to go just to see his reaction! He told me when we got out of the car at the school, "Thanks Dad for taking me!", and that alone was worth it along with seeing him so happy! I took a few pics:

I'm amazed I got this picture, but the boy had just given Taylor that flower. I heard Sarah (Taylor's friend from next door) tell her mom and dad that Taylor's boyfriend had just given her a flower... Cute!

They had a hula hupe contest, Chance actually made it to the finals... He was rather proud of himself, as was I since he NEVER uses one... He nearly won, but came short... Still did a good job!

Tanner did quite well also! He didn't make the finals, but he got it on better than most of them did... He was quite amazing actually when they had to start going side to side and back and forth...

So we ended up having a good time! The kids had a blast! I was glad to get home though! Taylor is spending the night at her friends house, one of Chance's friends is staying here... All in all, I guess it was a good night. Particularly for the school, they charge for everything, have tons of trinkets for sale that the kids want, and also had a book fair... I only spent about 30 bucks though... Could have been worse...

General George Patton Has A Solution To The Iraq War

This guy cracks me up! I made the mistake of taking a drink of coffee near the end and nearly ended up ruining my keyboard... Some may not find it amusing, I do! :)

Google, Anna, Etc...

Ever Google your name? I have, without quotes, Matthew Goodling gets about 45,000 hits... Add quotation marks around the name, 17... Six are about me... It makes me think of the idiots who think they can "remain offline"... No, everything will be online soon, get used to it... It's astounding the number of people who think that they can remain anonymous...

How about Anna Nicole Smith turning up dead today? What astounded me the most were the idiots who were on TV acting as if they were surprised! This skank was high all the time on a combination of drugs and alcohol, she obviously was in it for the money and fame, she appeared on TV frequently so out of her mind that she was incoherent, and people are surprised?? I'm not. The only thing I would be looking into if I were a prosecutor is the attorney connection... It's a lot of money... Grief? Sadness? Absolutely not!! It was a matter of time!

The White House... It's shaping up... Hillary will obviously be the candidate for the Dems... The question is who will be the opponent... The mayor? Possibly. I honestly think he is the only one who can beat her... People keep screaming about Newt, but 49% of the country can't stand him, he could never beat her... If the stupid Republican base chose him, guess what, Hillary in 2009 will be President Clinton. I can't stand either party to be honest. I think the Republican base are a bunch of idiots... We'll see what happens...

Evolution vs. Creationism: Listen to the Scientists

Wow! It's kind of long, 9 minutes, it's amazing how 'scientists' think that what they say is the final word... Most are idiots I might add!

Rudy...

You know, I thought that this guy had a shot with the Republican base, even though he is pro-choice and supports gay marriage (something the base is vehemently against), until today when this little gem popped up in the New York Post:



Nothing like doing an "in-your-face" photo shoot for the NYP while locking lips with what looks to be your granddaughter and having the first word in the article being 'Sexy' (which is how the NYP described the former NYC mayor's third wife)... Then being quoted as using words like 'gosh' and having your wife say things like: "the Energizer Bunny with no rechargeable batteries" while describing her 'romantic' husband...

Smooth... Save your money Rudy!! If he still intends to go ahead with it though, he needs to change his campaign strategist and manager RIGHT now!! Otherwise, too many more of these planned by the Rudy camp, in conjunction with ALL the others that will be planned by his opponents and Rudy doesn't have a prayer of getting the nod from the Republican base, even if the Republican base was somehow convinced that if they didn't choose Rudy, Hillary would be the next person to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...

Post article here...

Reverend Jerry Falwell on Imus 2-6-07

I'm sure not all find humor in these, but I find them hysterically funny! :)

Are Americans Really That Stupid???

I can hardly believe it myself, but it is playing out daily on the national stage, and you really don't hear anything about it... I know that has a lot to do with the MSM, but doesn't everyone have an internet connection? I guess they could be like some of the people I work with, they CAN'T wait to get home to play some game on the Internet... Do Americans REALLY care about what's going on? Or do they even know it's going on? I would say the latter is true...

You have Hillary Clinton saying, "I want to take those profits and put them into an alternative energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy alternatives that will actually begin to move us toward the direction of independence." Speaking about the profits made by Exxon... Isn't that socialism? You look back into the Hillary file, and she has repeatedly spouted this mantra... I'll take from the people that have, and redistribute to those that have not... That is straight out of the Marx playbook... Wow!! Yet there are many who love her...

You have John Edwards talking about universal health care and having to raise taxes to do it... Does ANYONE buy into Edwards speal that he is for the 'common man'? I guess most have not seen the house he is building...



This trial lawyer is the answer? He acts like he 'understands' how the poor, common man feels, and that's basically what he is running on?? People buy that?? He no more understands the 'average American' than anybody...

On and on I could go obviously, but my kids are calling my name, so I have to finish... I can't believe that people don't see what is going on... Well, I can, because most are so 'busy' doing things that have no relevence, they either don't know the direction the country is headed in or don't care... The ones who 'seem' to care, think that withdrawing from society will 'save' them... It won't. We can and should change what is going on, I wonder if we will? The only way we can is by replacing the lawmakers in the House of Representatives...

Super Bowl Commercials...

Many people are more interested in the Super Bowl commercials than they are in the game itself. Companies spend millions making the commercials and then millions more for the time slots available during the event. This year, rather than spend a million+ dollars having an ad agency create the commercial for Doritos, they decided to let normal people such as you and I create commercials, submit them, and then let the people vote on which one would be aired during the game:

Contest Here...

Of course the contest is closed, 5 finalists won $10,000 each and a trip to Super Bowl XLI... So not only did they save nearly a million dollars, but they likely have started the ad agencies secretly wondering how much longer they will be able to charge their million dollar plus fees to create the commercials not only for the Super Bowl, but for anything, when the public is more than willing to do it for a fraction of the cost...

Speaking of the Super Bowl, I RARELY watch the game, because frankly, I could care less... I realize I'm in the minority, but still have zero interest... My next door neighbor called me a few days ago and asked what I was doing Sunday, not thinking clearly, I said "Nothing really, why?" So now I guess I'm actually going to be watching the game next door... Joy, joy, joy!

Postsecret...

Another one from Postsecret; I just thought, "How true!"

What Was I Thinking???

Well, obviously I wasn't... Practically the moment I got home from work, Tanner INSISTED I put the drums together right away...

I wasn't aware SO much assembly was required...

There were literally about a gazillion pieces...

Tanner was THRILLED though once they were complete...

The drums are currently right across the hall from my office, so they'll be relocated to the top floor and the opposite end of the house FIRST thing tomorrow! As I'm typing now, the drums are banging and the electric guitar is blaring at what HAS to be the highest volume setting... I'm thinking of soundproofing a room now, and officially christening it the music room!! The relocating of the instruments, now that I think about it, which is hard at the moment, might be happening in a few minutes... :)

Music...

My kids LOVE music, and I am happy!! I do too...



We'll see how it works out, I'll help them in any way I can...

Busy...

I laugh when people tell me they are busy... I know some people are, but how about doing a little planning? So like I said, I just laugh...

For starters, if anyone is truly 'busy', they should have something going on... No? What are you 'busy' doing? I talk to people at work, and it's not because I have to, it's because I get people who insist on talking when I'm trying to get a freaking cup of coffee at work... They go on about how busy they are, and I politely listen, and then excuse myself as quickly as possible... Busy?? Whatever... I doubt there are many Americans who are busy...

Throw me an 'excuse' if you think you are... I have kids, I have a job, I spend more time remodeling my home than likely most Americans, so if you "THINK" you are busy, tell me why!

No one in America is 'busy'... Or very few I should say... The morons who tell me they are busy that have kids, which they should not by the way, astound me the most... MOST of them shouldn't be allowed to procreate, yet they do... If you can't handle your kids, and support them, then DON'T have them!!!

Whatever you do though, DON'T tell me you are busy!

Incompetence...

Or is it just stupidity? Possibly laziness or a drug induced stupor, hard to tell... I'm not often astounded by it, because I realize that the vast majority of Americans are complete morons, not just morons, but lazy, uneducated and frankly, most just don't give a shit. Today I was astounded though...

My kids are starting to express a huge interest in music, so I finally decided to break down and actually buy them some musical instruments. Chance and Taylor wanted electric guitars and Tanner wanted a drum set... Off to the music store I went today. I found a great deal on the electric guitars, but drums are expensive (who knew)... So I decided to get the guitars, but shop around more for the drums. I knew that my kids were waiting with GREAT anticipation to get these instruments, so I thought, I'll just get Tanner some drumsticks, and tell him I'm still looking for the drums so he would be okay with it... So at the back of the store, there were tons of drumsticks, and signs everywhere saying: 'pair of drumsticks - $1.99"... I grabbed a pair and headed to the checkout...

I get to the checkout, this kid with blond hair falling all over his face checks me out... He goes to scan the drumsticks, there is no barcode... He goes to look it up on the computer and tells me, "It's $4.99"... I say, "All the signs said $1.99"... He checks again and tells me, "Well, the computer still says it's $4.99, are you alright with that?"

After looking at him for several seconds in sheer disbelief, I responded, "No, I'm NOT 'alright with that' the signs all said $1.99"... That threw him into some parallel universe apparently...

It took nearly 20 minutes to complete the transaction... Mind boggling...

The kids were thrilled with the guitars though, and Tanner is expecting his drums tomorrow... :( I'll have to take a 'LONG' lunch tomorrow to go find him some...