Dear Television

Dear Television,
I'll come right out and say it just to make this easier on both of us. I'm just not into you anymore. Look, it's not you, it's me. You've changed, sure, but for the better. You're bigger. You're smarter. You're clearer. You look stunning. In fact you look better than ever.

But looks aren't everything.

To be fair, I need to let you know, there's someone else. And I think you know who I'm talking about. I'm not going to hurt your feelings by telling you that the other party is smarter, funnier, freakier (heh), and younger. But. Well. You know it's true.

I'll spit it out. It's the Internet. But you knew that, didn't you? You've known for some time this would happen.

We can and will still be friends. Late at night on a weekend when I've had a couple too many drinks, you know we'll hook up. We always have and always will. And hey, who knows. Maybe a few years down the road, the three of us could.. well you know where that's going. Oh, but think of the possibilities if only you'd let the Internet plug into you...

Of course you'll still get to see the kids as often as you want. They love you, and that love is unconditional. They'll always be there for you (and your little yellow sponge of course).

I must be going now. I need to catch the latest news and as you know... well.. I just can't wait around any longer for you to tell me the news when I can get it instantly from the Internet.

Take care, be well, and I'll see you soon I promise.

Love,
Me.

You know that phase where they refuse to go to bed?

I have two of them in that phase right now. One in the beginning of it and one at the end of it.

But... I'm thankful that they're all of the age where they can dress up in costumes and have fun trick-or-treating on Halloween.

For what it's worth, 10/31/2009 will be the 2nd anniversary of the day Andy had his big surgery.

Halloween at the Kelley house. If you think you're invited, you probably are. Even if you think there's only a small chance you may be, you probably are. It's a Saturday and the Kelley kids will never be 3, 4, and 6 on Halloween again.

It's hard being bald in this weather

You lose heat out your head, you know. And when there's no hair there to help keep you warm.... brrrr..

Speaking of bald, it's time to sign up for St. Baldrick's again. I really want to shave again but I like being bald. I look and feel horrible with hair on my head, since it grows so sporadically now.

I don't think I'm going to shave this year. Maybe I'll just donate on Julie's head if she shaves.

Thoughts? Rude comments?

My Kids' World

My kids are growing up in a world where:

• It has always been possible to pause live TV
  
• CD players are a thing of the past. (and what is a cassette tape?)
  
• TV has always been in HD and widescreen.
  
• Cash is used only for the smallest of purchases, such as a fountain soda or a pack of gum.
  
• Tony Larussa has always been the manager of the Cardinals.
  
• Online social networks are just another aspect of social life.
  
• There never were WTC towers in NYC.
  
• Video conferences across the globe are the norm. Nothing special about it at all.
  
• It's not cool to smoke.
  
• The Internet has always been around. More specifically, "web apps" have always been around.
  
• It's cool to be bald.
  
• There is a migration from the suburbs to the cities.
  
• Phones with cords attached? Never heard of such a ridiculous thing!
  
• Video games do not require imagination.
  
• The Rams have never been in the playoffs.
  
• High schools have always had metal detectors.
  
• Google has always been a verb. And what's a googol?
  
• Their dad has never had long hair. ;)
  

Explaining 9/11 to a 6-year-old

Wow. That was difficult. I didn't know what they would say at school, if anything. So I explained 9/11 to Joey today on the way to school this morning. I told him that on September 11, 2001, America was attacked. They ran airplanes into two large buildings as well as "the place where the Army lives," which killed "thousands of Americans."

I should state at this point that Joey is very patriotic. He's studying the USA in class this year. All year long actually. He understands what it means to attack America.

He then asked me who did it. This is a sensitive subject. I told him it was a group of people who hate America called Al Qaeda. I didn't say anything about Islam or the middle eastern countries, as he goes to school with a very large proportion of middle-easterners and Muslims and didn't want him to start thinking unfounded bad things about his classmates.

I asked him if he understood that this country is at war, and he said yes. I told him that was why we are at war, and I saw it click in his eyes.

Then he asked me a very difficult question. "Why did they do it?" After a brief pause all I could say to him was that Al Qaeda likes seeing Americans die.

It's also strange to think that kids who were only 10-years-old when 9/11 happened are now going over to Afghanistan to (hopefully) finish things off.

*sigh*

Top 10 Reasons to Not Blog for a Month

10) Laziness
9) Nothing to write about
8) The children are healthy
7) Evony
6) Neverwinter Nights 2
5) Coitus
4) Is there really anybody out there?
3) George Bush
2) Barack Obama
1) FACEBOOK

More to come later. :)

"Today, I'm sick of cancer"

Read this then go hug your children.

I'm really glad Andy was only 1 when he went through this.

Happy 3rd Birthday Andy!

Party at Andy's! Saturday 2:00pm. See ya there.

Seen on Facebook

"Why Oh why did I vote for Obama? That hope and change seem like a bunch of BS. Trillion dollar healthcare plans, higher taxes , and endless lies about ending wars. Don't even get me started on Americorps."

I'm not gloating.

80072efd Windows Update

For the sake of posterity, I'm posting this. Hello Googlers!

Ok so it turns out I had the remnants of a virus on my machine. The virus is long gone, but when I did a "netsh winhttp show proxy" it showed that I was pointing to localhost:7171. Fortunately whatever virus did that is now gone.

So here's the deal. First of all, I'm NOT responsible for what happens to your computer, I'm just offering advice that worked for me. Anyway, If you get this error and you've gone through everything else to no avail, fire up a command prompt. That is, go to Start--Run and type "cmd.exe" and hit enter.

At this point type "netsh winhttp reset proxy" and hit enter.

Enjoy your new Windows updates.

Anger Management

Laugh when you can, apologize when you should and let go of what you can't change.

Trillions!

1.38T for SS/Medicare/Medicaid + 758B for housing & commerce (bailouts) + 690B defense + 106B unemployment = apprx 4 TRILLION dollars government spending. in 1 year! YOU voted for this, America! Hope and Change sure is expensive.

Sorry Joey, Emma, and Andy. You and your kids will have to pay for this. :(

4 of these: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12754

Texas Drivers!

When on the open highway, Texans have a few unique characteristics. And I'm not just stereotyping, I've put myself in the habit of not looking at plates. I can immediately recognize someone who is from Texas. Look at their plates and 8 times out of 10 they are from Texas. 1 time out of 10 they're from Kalifornia.

Cat and Mouse:
A Texan will come up behind you like a bat out of hell, then get right on your ass, but will not pass. If you gun it up to 80 or so to put yourself a hundred yards ahead of him, he will gun it to 90 to catch up with you, get back on your ass, and stay there.

If you happen to get into traffic and play the passing game for a while, he'll probably fall way behind you. Within 10 minutes or so you'll completely lose sight of him in your rearview mirror. 20 minutes later, here he comes, zooming past you at 90. At this point, he'll either get in front of you and slow down (see Pass and Slow), or he'll get out of sight in front of you. If he gets out of sight in front of you, chances are 50% that you'll pass him like he's standing still later. Then we go back to step 1.

None Shall Pass:
Texans HATE to have another vehicle in front of them, except for when they're playing Cat and Mouse. If you attempt to pass a Texan, they will speed up. It never fails. NEVER. The only way to pass a Texan is to speed up 7 - 10mph and take the chance of getting a ticket. If you do happen to get past a Texan, they will either begin Cat and Mouse or Pass and Slow. This WILL happen to you if you pass a Texan and don't want to change your speed to about 7 - 10mph faster than you were going before.

Pass and Slow:
This is a trademark Texan move. Like I said, Texans HATE to have another vehicle in front of them. When a Texan is finished playing Cat and Mouse or if you happen to overtake him and get past his None Shall Pass, then you'll fall victim to Pass and Slow.

The Texan will decide that he wants to go about 5mph faster than you. He'll pass you (without using his turn signal of course), and he will get back into the right lane just soon enough to make you have to tap your breaks. In other words, he'll cut you off. Here's the kicker. He'll then slow down about 1-2mph SLOWER than you! Yeah. He will.

So what do you do? Go past him? See None Shall Pass and Cat and Mouse.

You would think that driving from STL to Madison and back you wouldn't run into too many Texans. Texans are like West Nile, there's some everywhere you go.

Here's the worst part. I don't think they realize they do any of the above. But they almost all do when on the open highway. In fact, when they do a Pass and Slow and you pass them, maintaining your speed and not cutting them off, they get pissed and they think you got in front of them and slowed down! It's true!

Next time you see one of these maneuvers, take a look at the plate. I betcha it will be Texas!

Overheard on Facebook

Person 1: Why does really good news have to be tempered with a minor glitch
Person 2: For the same reason really bad news has to be tempered with a silver lining.

Another reason I dislike iTunes

Ok so this month's Guitar World has Round and Round by Ratt transcribed. If you know me then you know that I probably like this song and that I probably liked it before the 1980s were cool again. Ok, bad word choice. The 1980s weren't even cool in the 1980s.

So I sat down and started messing around with it. I've always been able to fake my way through that song, as I could pretty much any other 3-chord pop-rock song. But now that it's transcribed in front of me I can attempt to play it note-for-note, and that song actually has a pretty darn cool guitar part to it if you just listen to the "first" rhythm guitar.

I then decided it was time to listen to it. Ok lemme go throw it on my iPod. Oh wait. I don't own a LEGAL copy of that song. And I'm trying to legitimize my music collection. So I pull up iTunes.

A stupid song by a goofy band from 1984 should be on iTunes' cheap list, which means it should go for $0.69 or something like that. But I expected with this 1980s revival thing going on that it would be a $0.99 download instead.

Nope. $1.29. Yeah, the expensive one for popular music.

Amazon: $0.99. Even for the 2007 remastered version which does sound significantly better.

*sigh*

Ron Popeil - The OG of Pitchmen

So I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to go on living in a world without Billy Mays. Who will peddle useless junk to my stepfather now?

Vince? Hell no. He stole from Billy. He will burn in hell.

Then I realized that Ron Popeil is still around. Yeah. He's the OG of pitchmen. If he hawks it, my stepdad will buy it.

We love you Ron. Don't die on us.

Mason School of Academic and Cultural Literacy

"We have some wonderful news for the upcoming school year! Mason has been approved to be a pilot school. Our pilot school will focus on academic and cultural literacy which is why we are updating our name to Mason - School of Academic and Cultural Literacy. We will be exploring the world around us and celebrating our unique diversity that can be found within our building."

Hmm. Interesting. We'll see how this goes. I still plan on pulling them and sending them to St. Joan of Arc once they're all old enough to be out of the babysitter.

High school is going to be EXPENSIVE!

I wonder how long it will be...

...before the secret police break into my house in the middle of the night and take me away from my children because I still have some incandescent light bulbs in use. My guess is sometime in this administration's second term.

The buildup continues... But who cares, right?

So Iran is starting to drop the hammer on their citizens who protest. It's to the point to where people know that if they go out to protest they could become "martyrs." Mackmud Amnijinishit or whatever his name is, was actually one of the terrorists who held US citizens captive in Lebanon 30 years ago, thereabouts. This has been confirmed!

A little further away, Kim Jun Hell or whatever his name is, continues throwing his little temper tantrum. He's trying to start a war and has threatened to wipe the US off the map for once and for all. Nobody knows what to do about that ship headed for Myanmar.

But who cares about this because John and Kate are getting divorced! Who the hell are John and Kate? And why is Fox News even covering this shit when we're seconds away from nuclear hell?

What is this, Kanadia or something?

Where ya been?

Facebook, that's where.

There's a German company that is making gold vending machines. Yeah, it's getting that big.

So here's the deal with gold. Now that B. Hussein has ensured the dollar gets destroyed when the economy recovers, people will be blowing up the gold bubble even bigger.

My guess at this point? 2011 - 2012 timeframe for the gold bubble to pop.

Got It!

http://www.facebook.com/dan.kelley

A Great Way to Ruin a Nice Day

Every once in a while I have a dream.. no, a nightmare... about Andy and cancer. You know the details.

These dreams are wracked with emotion. They're fairly vivid but it's not the vividness (is that a word?) of the dream that bothers me. It's the intense emotions involved. I wake up feeling completely drained of all emotion and energy. I spend the day being a zombie, or at the very least putting on a persona for the unwashed masses.

I had one the night before last. It ruined my day yesterday.

I had one last night. It hasn't ruined my day yet, but I can tell you I have a hopeless feeling and have no motivation whatsoever.

Back to work.

REAL BBQ!

Not grilling today. Barbecuing! Smoking if you will. Julie got up at 5am to start coals for me. I got up 45 minutes later and put a brisket on. Seasoned and rubbed it last night. Should be good stuff! I don't know how long it will take but I assume we'll be eating sometime between 3 and 6.

We also have some babybacks to go on later as well.

Need to whip up a good BBQ sauce and we're gonna have a great day!

A Criminal Trial in St. Louis

I've learned a lot in the two days this week. Not the least of which is just how safe it is to be a juror in a criminal case in the city of St. Louis.

First of all, the STL Sheriff's Department rox. I know one of you are probably reading this thanks to Facebook. I have no problems with the Sheriff's Department. It's the Jury Supervisor that I think is to blame here.

So this kid was the victim of circumstance. But then again, he put himself in that circumstance to begin with, so really it was of his own doing.

In the end he was found guilty. I guess he was to appear later for sentencing, but he went home after the trial instead of to jail.

And this was good. Most members of the jury really felt for this kid. Never been convicted of anything, etc. (of course we found out later that he had 10 prior arrests with no convictions) Given the circumstances I kinda felt like this kid shouldn't have the book thrown at him. And I wasn't alone in this thinking.

So anyway after the trial we, the jury, walked out of the court room. In front of us was this kid visibly upset. "How the hell did I get myself into this?" kinda upset, not "let's go kill a juror" kinda upset.

We all stopped and let him get on the elevator before us. We took the next ride.

Then there he was with his family on the court steps. We had to walk right past the kid that we just found guilty of this particular crime.

We had to walk the several blocks, unescorted, to the Kiel garage at 15th & Clark. Alone.

And by alone, once you get to 15th and Market, you're alone. Nobody around to see anything that could happen to you.

And apparently it's this way for the witnesses as well.

Fortunately this kid viewed the jury as robots instead of blaming us individuals for his upcoming sentence. But the circumstances could have been very different.

I learned a lot in the last couple of days. The biggest lesson was that if I'm ever a potential criminal juror for the City of St. Louis, I'm going to express my concerns to the court in front of the judge, attorneys, and defendant, and let them decide if they want me to be a juror.

It can never go as planned

So I got snipped last Friday. Not yesterday. A week ago yesterday. The pain was unbearable and my doctor told me it shouldn't be like that. I was eating Vicodin like candy and the pain still persisted.

If you're not into TMI, then skip to the next paragraph. It's happened to me before and I should have thought about it. I have an infection in my left guy. That explains all the pain. At one point it was bigger than a golf ball, almost the size of a billiards ball.

I was on the couch in pain all friggin week. It really sucked. And this is not the first time in my life it has happened.

If you're thinking of getting a vasectomy, go for it. The procedure really isn't that bad and I'm basically recovered from the surgery. But if you have a history of getting infections down there, tell your urologist! If the injection feels like a mosquito bite, you're in good shape. If it feels like you're being stabbed with a pencil while it's in a vice, something is wrong and you should tell your urologist!

We're not out of the woods yet. We could still get pregnant within the next month or 2. If it happens, then it was meant to be and it will be our last. If it doesn't happen then we were meant to have 3. Simple as that.

Korean War

Ok, sorry for a lack of writings. I've been in a lot of pain. Not really from the surgery on Friday, but caused by the surgery on Friday. But oh well.

So like you, I found myself reading the Wikipedia entry on the Korean war today. Well, I didn't read the whole thing, I just took my laptop into the crapper with me and did some reading while crapping.

According to that article, the armistice is over as of today and the war from the early 1950s has resumed. wth???

Oh well. Done pooping, back to work.

Happy 18th birthday little sister!

Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Ice!

If we get pregnant within the next month or so, we were meant to have 4 kids. (or 5 is twins) If not, then we were meant to have 3. I've been lying on the couch with my feet elevated, hanging out in Vicodinland with ice on my nuts. Yep. I got snipped Friday.

Ouch. It hurt.

And it hurts.

But I like Vicodin.

New photos on my Facebook profile

Yeah, Greg, I'm going to make you get a Facebook profile.

Happy Anniversary Julie!

5 years on the 15th. But Joey just turned 6? Yeah, we were living in sin. See you in hell, Greg.

War On Drugs

No, I'm not referring to a game that W liked to play when he was doing lines off the asses of upscale DC hookers and figuring out a way to make himself look important in the eyes of the world after a series of national tragedies that all struck him flat footed. And no, Greg, that is not a run-on sentence! And yes, Patience, that was an intentional DnD reference.

So it's looking like we're nearing the end of the "War on Drugs." Read the WSJ article then come back.

Hi.

"We're not at war with people in this country."

Wow. Thank you.

"The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment's role growing relative to incarceration"

I'll let you read the rest.

Yeah. This is the civil libertarian in me. Deal with it.

Think on it then let me know your opinion here, via e-mail, in person, or on FB. Just not on the phone I hate phones.

I ask a question...

Is Pakistan doing our job for us?

Original Cast of the Goonies

As a child of the 80s this strikes a chord with me. Can you spot Chunk? Hint: He has facial hair.

Wow this is strange.

Speaking of 80s Bands

The Kandian and I took a little road trip across the state last week. Kinda a timeout from life, but also to see Queensryche at Harrah's KC. I'm trying to figure out why they have a guy touring with them whose job it is to hit the tambourine once or twice a song, press a couple of keys on his Roland, and occasionally strum a chord or two on a guitar.

But they were good. They're one of the few 80s bands that I can actually say were good musicians, not just rock stars. And to this day they're still good.

The drive out there was about as fun as being there. If you know the Kanadian, you know how much fun it is to listen to him bitch and complain about other drivers on the road.

So that was a nice timeout from life. I feel refreshed and recharged. I have patience with my chilluns again. This is a good thing.

Thanks for the birthday present Greg!

Damn Kanadians.

Anyone Remember Prodigy?

Not "The Prodigy." Not the ISP. I'm talking about late 1980s, early 1990s Prodigy. You know, the one that you dialed into with your 1200-baud modem. Yeah, well if you do remember that then you're probably a nerd like yours truly.

So in 1990 I was 12. And like many 12-year-olds at the time, I was a fan of Poison. For whatever reason, I am still a fan to this day. Their songs really suck. I have no idea why I like them but I do.

Oh well.

Where I'm going with this is that when I was 12 and into Poison and also a nerd using Prodigy, naturally one of the message boards I'd check out is "Music -- Heavy Metal" Yeah heavy metal. Because in 1990 on Prodigy any band who had people with long hair pretty much went under "Heavy Metal." So naturally you'd have the metal people saying that Poison and such bands are wussy metal or something like that. Then you'd have the 12-year-olds and the teenage girls defending them. Go back and forth.

Ok, we've come full circle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMqjGywYOI8

The Bottom and a Heads Up

You heard it here first. I predicted the tech bubble popping almost to the month. I predicted the housing bubble popping, but was off by about a year. I daresay I even predicted oil pretty much accurately.

Sell your gold. Get out. We've probably reached the bottom of this recession. As things get better, your gold will become less stable. Get out now.

As with tech and housing, I'll say I hope I'm wrong on this. But I haven't been wrong yet. The track record is there. It walks like a duck. It quacks like a duck.

Thanks for playing.

Oh wow, I have 2 extra minutes.

Just got back from the hospital. Andy had a CT scan. I really can't wait until we're done with these. I can't possibly imagine if one came back positive though. Ouch, that would hurt.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that's such a wonderful place full of wonderful people.

We walked in and we were immediately greeted with, "Oh, look at Andy! He's so big! He looks so healthy!"

On to the Costas Center. "I didn't even recognize him! He's not a baby! Look how healthy he is. He was SOOO sick when he was here." The reactions were the same from pretty much all the Costas nurses.

Andy's Costas nurse stuck him with an IV to get blood and to get ready for his CT. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" I think he totally forgot about the port, which is a good thing. He was really upset about being stuck.

Costas play room. Andy made a bee line for the toy that he always played with every time we were there. Weird. There was a mother of an apparently newly-diagnosed child in there fighting back tears while watching her son play. I remember being in that position right around noon on August 9, 2007.

Continuing on the journey, the radiology staff recognized Andy immediately and was happy as usual to see him. They had to take a picture of him because his usual people were out today. That made me feel pretty good.

Andy was a really good boy for his CT. He didn't even need to be sedated this time. He held perfectly still and was brave as can be.

Back to Costas. His oncologist was really happy to see him and to see how healthy he is. She was nice enough to remind me just how sick he was during treatment. :-/ Anyway, she said he looks great. She wants to see him in 3 months with another CT in 6 months.

When we were done we went upstairs to eat. Because of the possibility of sedation, Andy didn't eat or drink anything after breakfast this morning. And as usual, if he doesn't eat or drink, I don't eat or drink. Needless to say we were both hungry.

So I got him a hot dog. He loves hot dogs. I cut up 5 pieces for him and stopped. Because as you know, when he was in the hospital we were happy to see him eat 5 bites of a hot dog. My how things have changed. He woofed down that 1/4-lb hotdog like it was air.

We stopped by the 4th floor but nobody was around, looks like they were pretty busy. So now we're home.

And now I'm hitting the couch. I'm tired, stressed, and had a really long and somewhat traumatic day.

If you need me I'll be on the dark side of the moon for a while.

Happy 6th Birthday Joey!

Wow. My big guy is 6. That's amazing!

Small gathering of family and friends today. Nothing huge like last year.

Happy birthday Joey!

DIY Hi-Fidelity Recording for the Cheapass Geek

I think my Facebook update a few days ago was something along the lines of, "is doing some recording with an SM-57, a home brew mic preamp, and Audacity. I'm an amateur music tech and I'm a PC."

The Sure SM-57 is the mic that people think of when they think instrument recording. It's an omnidirectional mic, which means it doesn't just pick up the sound in front of it, it picks up the sound all around it. But the thing is, it has a fairly focused range.

What this means is that I suspended a single SM-57 from the ceiling above my drums and recorded using a home brew mic preamp. And the playback sounded like someone was sitting there playing the drums. That is, by definition, Hi-Fi.

And I did it on the cheap.

The key was to make a high-quality +-15V power supply. You'll recall this from an earlier post to which I won't link because I'm lazy (use the search function darn you!).

So anyway I had some fun last night recording drums, cranking up my amplifier, and playing my guitar along with myself on the drums in Hi-Fi. It roxed.

RFT: Iowa or Bust

No, Greg isn't among the passengers on the party bus.

RIP Cooper

Cooper has shown his last act of aggression. Cooper is the black lab mix who's always had an attitude problem. Last night he bit my neighbor which was pretty much the final straw.

I guess I've seen this coming which is why I'm not too horribly upset. Julie on the other hand... well... give her a call with some nice words, it will make her day.

I'm almost a bit relieved. I've always been afraid that he would either send one of my kids to the ER or even put a lawsuit on my hands. At least with him being gone my kids are a bit safer, as is my wallet.

Cooper was our first dog. We got him when we lived in the apartment. He's been there for all of it. We'll miss him.

Ugh. Sick Kids.

So there's a "fever virus" going around among kids right now. That's the technical term I suppose.

For those of you who remember when Andy was really sick, you remember how he was. He's kinda the same now. He just wants to put his head on Daddy's shoulder and do nothing else.

Emma is feeling better, so that's a plus.

Mr. Joey has decided to join the fun. No "fever virus" for him. No ear infuction. He's having headaches and itchy eyes. Yep. You guessed it. Hay fever! Just like his ol' man.

Fun stuff.

Hey, at least it nets me a day off work.

piss.

So What's New?

Been busy lately? Yeah me too. Now that Manbearpig is finally here we're finally able to get some outdoor work done. I put the finishing touches on Julie's new flower box outside. 4' x 20'. It's a big monster. Heavy too. 2x6 cedar. The worst part about it was getting a couple coats of glossy white on it. But it's pretty cool. Now we just need to put something in it!

In other news, Greg still sux. And he's still Kanadian.

Emma picked up an ear infection. She was running fevers around 102.8, thereabouts. Andy picked up the fever part from her but not the ear infection so that's good.

Emma's really getting quite a personality on her. I love 3-year-olds. They're awesome. But 2-year-olds are still a pain in the ass.

We're dumping Dish Network and getting AT&T U-Verse. For the same monthly price we'll get DVR in 5 rooms, better picture quality, more channels, and best of all we'll still have TV regardless of the weather. I call it a win-win.

Nothing much new going on. Just been busy.

How about you? Seems nobody really wants to comment very much anymore.

Greg: gfy.

I'm an American!

W Sr, BJ Clinton, W, and now B Hussein have all been very polarizing presidents. Pelosi and Gengrich also come to mind as very polarizing speakers. Now everyone is either liberal or conservative.

They're all extremeists.

I'm an American. I believe in small government. I see no problem with gay marriage. I hate paying for baby-factory mammas who refuse to get a job because they'll lose their gummet check. Why is marijuana illegal? Why raise taxes for ANYONE? A woman's body is her choice (sorry Julie but it's how I feel). Laws of the land should NOT be based on a code of laws that is thousands of years old and applies to tribal society. If you don't make enough to pay taxes, you should NOT receive any tax credits. Government should stay the hell out of private business. Government should stay the hell out of my life. Government should hire the best contractor for the job, not X number of minority-owned businesses regardless of merit. Only rednecks and the financially uninformed think a flat tax is a good idea. Why the hell is marijuana illegal? And what the hell is so wrong with 2 people of the same gender getting married? And why won't government stay out of my life???

*sigh*

You get the idea.

I'm so sick of liberals and conservatives.

Happy Easter!

I hope the Easter Cabbit was good to all of you!

The 10th Anniversary of my 21st!

In keeping with tradition my dad and I went to the Cardinals game tonight for our birthdays.

So I obviously post this with a beer buzz so I shall keep it short and to the point.

The 10th anniversary of my 21st is more meaningful than the 10th anniversary of my 20th. 21 was when I really turned from a teenager into a twenty-something. So yeah, thinking back 10 years ago means more than it did a year ago. And oh my how things have changed since then. I will not attempt to sum up a decade in 2 sentences so I will now shut up.

So there we go.

night.

Facebook Relationship Idea

I see a lot of "People you may know" on Facebook. The thing is, my Facebook contains quite a bit about me. They need an "acquaintance" mode or something.

"Yeah, I know this person, but they smell bad so I don't want to know too much about them and I don't want them to know much about me."

But at least they're added to your network.

Or whatever. Look, I'm really tired and exhausted. I'm gonna play some Civ IV now.

Cancer Sux

Thank you for playing.

Opening Day!

Ok, all you Kalifornians and Arizonans, you probably don't get it. So you can just continue on to the next post.

Ok. We're left with mostly St. Louisans, right? Is this not one of your most favorite days of the year? I don't know about you but I start looking forward to Opening Day starting around Super Bowl time. The anticipation, the excitement, the hype, the SEA OF RED! I love it!

But you know what? I've never been to one! Even when I worked at the Sverdrup building right across from the stadium, the closest I ever came was walking to lunch at Kiener Plaza then going to the game after they open the gates in the 8th inning.

And this isn't the year to start. Brrrr!

Ok so next year. I'm gonna go. Who's with me?

Greg, piss off. You're not invited. Go watch men's figure skating or something.

Oh yeah, and a big hello to Mayor Slay and/or staff. Thank you for joining the crap pile that is this website. I'm still pissed aboot those cameras, eh.

The Pain of Pain

As you can probably imagine Andy has a freakishly-high pain threshold. He loves the attention pain brings but doesn't really seem to feel it. Gee, I wonder why.

Tonight Andy fell out of the top bunk of the boys' bunk bed. Head first. He was hurt, and for him to show that kind of pain, he was really hurt.

Scared the hell out of me.

For those of you who followed along with Andy's blog you know that I am very empathetic toward Andy's pain. I almost feel it. That hurt tonight.

He's ok. But ouch.

Bed time.

Mayor Slay Will NOT Ban Red Light Cameras if Re-Elected

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Kelley
To: mayorslay@mayorslay.com
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 12:33 PM
Subject: Will I vote for Mayor Slay?

That seems to be the big question I'm being asked by pollsters. I'll let you answer this.

If I vote for Mayor Slay, will he get rid of red light cameras? If no, then he has lost my vote.

The Official Response:
from communicat
to Dan Kelley
date Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 1:10 PM
subject Re: Will I vote for Mayor Slay?


Just drive safely. OK?

Terrapin Custom Pick Guards

Ok all. I'm checking these guys out: http://www.terrapinisland.com/ Sounds like a 1-man shop but someone who's pretty dedicated to it. I think they're worth a spin. I've ordered some sample material. Check out their pickup combos here .

Will keep you informed. First I need to pick a bridge humbucker. I'm open to suggestions? Want it to be $65 or less. Yeah you heard me. $65 or less. So be creative.

Strat Hot Rodding Ideas

Ok, for those of you who could care less about this, tell your RSS reader to filter out anything labeled Guitar Tech. If you could care less about this and come to the site directly (thank you!) or just don't want to go through the hassle, then just move along to the next post because this will bore you.

So now that nobody's left, I'm just putting this down for posterity.

I have a MiM Strat, stock. My bride gave it to me as a wedding present! She knew I was really wanting a blue Strat for years, so she made it happen. Rox on.

So anyway, it's a Fender guitar. They aren't exactly known for their active ground loop avoidance. Double for MiM. Also the shielding is virtually nonexistant. Add in the fact that it's SSS (3 single coil pickups) and 60 cycle hum is definitely an issue.

I've shielded my pick guard and it helped a bit, but I didn't really do anything about the ground loops.

So here's the gameplan. Total cost should be less than $100 if I play my cards right.

Let's start with the pickups. I'm going to dump the bridge single coil and bring in a humbucker. I know, I know, you're a "single coil guy." But I bet the first thing you did was change out your bridge single coil. So yeah, go on with your bad self you single coil guy.

With all credit due to Alexplorer's Axe Hacks, I'll be putting in a good sealed ON-ON-ON DPDT switch as a series/tapped/parallel switch for the humbucker. I'm thinking this part in particular. I really like the small size and have had some experience with this switch. Since this switch will be rarely used, it'll be good to have it small and out of the way.

Sticking with Alexplorer's advice, I think I may as well put in a phase switch for the humbucker. I tentatively have my eye on this guy. Again, not really cheap, but I'm only buying 1 of them, and really $5 isn't a whole lot. Remember my target is $100 or less.

Now here's where I will diverge from normal. Dweezil came up with a great idea. If you're a Strat person you know how unfortunate the positioning of the volume knob is. He removed his and put in a push button switch. Volume is either on or off. I never play with partial volume on the guitar, I adjust that on the amp. How friggin genius!

I'll diverge a bit from Dweeze and go with a good ol' fashion SPST ON-OFF toggle switch. I'll use the same style of switch as the STP switch for the humbucker. But I'll put it way out of the way.

Tone. Jeez. There's something that sux. Really, I know some of you Strat-heads are big on your tone control, but I'm not. Again, I turn mine all the way "up" and let the amp do the rest. I'm thinking I may either leave it completely out of the picture, or maybe add a DPDT ON-OFF-ON switch as a "Bright / Flat / Punch" kinda switch? I'm open to suggestions here.

I'm not going to play games with the 5-way. The 5-way is the 5-way, it's perfect as-is. Likewise, I'm not going to mess with my singles.

Before any of this goes in, I'm going to shield the cavity. I'll attach some kind of metal at which point I will ground everything. The pickguard will also be shielded, so I'll need a creative way to avoid a ground loop there yet still maintain the shielding on the pick guard.

Speaking of pick guards, I'm going to see if I can find a pick guard that has appropriate cutouts for the HSS design (no I don't want a stacked hum), but I'd like that to be it. No holes drilled. I'm assuming I can find this on teh intarwebs. Who knows, maybe I can find a cool custom one or something.

Wiring: 20AWG shielded!

So there we go. I'm gonna hot rod my Strat.

STLToday: St. Clare opens in Fenton while St. Joseph in Kirkwood closes

"FENTON -- One hospital opened and another closed today in the long-awaited transformation of SSM St. Joseph Hospital of Kirkwood to SSM St. Clare Health Center in Fenton."

Click for full story.

You Can Go Your Own Way!

I had a dream last night that it was my funeral and they played Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac. Dude. wtf?

Nice Catch!

A peer at work for whom I have a good deal of respect recently told me, half-jokingly, that I'm a blow-hard. It's been bothering me ever since. I didn't really realize it until this person in particular told me bluntly, joking or not, but really it's true. I've kinda turned into the guy in the workplace that I always said I wouldn't be. What I say goes, and don't question me. Wow, I'm glad I didn't get that management position a while back or I'd be one hell of a prick boss by now.

After a couple days of this eating my stomach I decided to tell Julie about this little problem. I don't know`what kind of reaction I was expecting, but she 100% agreed and gave me anecdotal evidence of this in my everyday life around the house.

I've been very introspective lately, despite my appearance on the outside. Something changed my personality at some point, and not for the better. I tried to do an inventory and I came up with this. I'm not the same person I was in 2005. As many of you know, 2006 sucked. I feel like I lost half of the people in my life in 2006. 2007 was no picnic as probably all of you know. Strangely enough 2008 was great but whatever is wrong with me continued.

So there's that. There's also the fact that by 2006, thereabouts, I had multiple children at certain key ages. They take a lot of patience, and patience isn't one of my best virtues, although Patience is one of my best friends.

A typical parental bad habit has sprung up at some point. When my kids don't listen to me, I get frustrated. The thing is I have 3 of them and they're 2, 3, and 5. So there's ALWAYS one of them who is disobeying for whatever reason. So it seems worse on a per-child basis than it actually is. The thing is, lately the frustration level has been so high that when any of the 3 doesn't listen I just go into a blind range and raise my voice and put them in the corner or send them to their room. It happens.

So enter work-life. Right now things have to go the way I say, OR ELSE! Well. At home. But wait. At work too now.

Oh shit.

Ok so here's the deal. It all comes down to patience. I need more patience at home and at work. And I think if I can get more patience at one place it will come at the other.

Kelleys aren't known for their patience. Ask any of them.

So I caught myself today. Twice. The first time was at work. I realized I was about to go into a "blind rage" and be a blow-hard. I stopped myself and talked to the person from a different perspective and in the end things worked out. At home I stopped myself from going off on all 3 kids when Joey wasn't listening, even though his actual infraction, in and of itself, wasn't really all that bad. Instead I sat down with them, got to their level, and explained in a fun way that I wanted them to play in their rooms tonight instead of downstairs. In the end it worked out.

Ok so I'm missing a key step there. I had to get heavy-handed with the kids to get them to go upstairs. But once I made them just a tad-bit afraid of dear ol' dad, they jumped.

The thing is, in both cases I didn't feel like an ass 30 minutes later. This was a good feeling!

Nice catch.

Free CAD Software?

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't need anything real special, just looking for basic but stable CAD software.

E-mail me!

Joey has lost another tooth!

If the tooth fairy doesn't receive $38B in government aid within the next 30 days, (s)he will officially be out of business. As it stands instead of the customary $0.25, Joey may only receive $0.23 this time. The sky is officially falling.

AIG Bonus Fiasco

Ok wow. Tell ya what, lemme go pour a Schlafly Scotch Ale for this one.

Mmm that's good.

Let me preface this by stating up front that my source of information is the Wall Street Journal. I don't have any specific dates or anything, but it's just info taken from their articles, website, and podcasts over the last few days since the news broke.

So yeah, ouch. We're paying for these executive bonuses. Yeah, I feel like I've been taken advantage of as a taxpayer. It really pisses me off, as it does you. Here's the problem. AIG had a board meeting in regards to these bonuses months ago, I think in November or December, and 2 MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE WERE PRESENT! And my boy Geithner claims he just found out about this a week or 2 ago. No. No way. I don't buy it for a second.

President O'Bama knows that Geithner knew about this. He's downplaying the finger-pointing and rightly saying basically who cares who did it, let's fix it. At one point he even said (paraphrasing), "If you want to blame someone, blame me, I'm the President. Let's fix this." Yeah, this is the correct attitude to have, Mr. President, but I question your motives.

So yeah, Big O is right. Let's forget about the blame game and do something about it.

So at first Congress was talking about a 100% tax on these bonuses. In other words, write into law that if you received $3M in taxes from this, then you'll pay $3M in tax on it, thus returning it to the taxpayers. And yeah that sounds great. It's our money, give it back to us, let's put it somewhere better.

But here's the problem. This is America. And these were contractual obligations. Contracts are the foundation of the United States legal system. The Constitution is, in its simplest form, a contract between the US government and the citizens of the United States. Like it or not, folks, this is their money, and who the hell are we to charge them 100% tax? Sure, tax them heavy because they're bonuses and all bonuses are taxed heavily. But not 100%.

Someone made a huge mistake. Someone allowed these bonuses to be given out. Someone should have done the research and found these bonuses and made sure special provisions were written into the bill (also a contractual document btw) that would disallow these funds to be used to pay for these bonuses.

Or maybe someone was paid off hoping it was just go away quietly. Who knows.

But someone must be held accountable for allowing these bonuses to happen. And it's Geithner's show. Timmy, my boy, you have to take the bad with the good.

Fire him? I don't know. That's not my call. Let's see how the administration handles this moving forward. The way this administration handles this will certainly solidify my opinion of it for a long time to come.

And don't forget that I have been giving BHO the benefit of the doubt since the election.

BTW, Hussein, I'm a huge supporter of the new medical marijuana enforcement policy. Truly, thank you. I think you should take the next step there. (sorry, that's the civil libertarian in me)

Best St. Pat's Dinner Evar!

...and it involved neither corned beef nor cabbage.

Julie grilled some chicken. And if it were 1 degree cooler it would have been unfit to eat. It was perfect. And the taters weren't bad either.

Schlafly's Pale Ale goes down real well with spring / summer food.

So how was your St. Pat's Day?

Blame Facebook!

I just realized why I haven't been posting. I don't really feel like I have much to say because when I think of something, I just throw it out on Facebook! Dohpt!

Joey is currently on spring break. I really miss having that week off. I hated high school, true, but that spring break always seemed to hit at just the right time.

Lil miss Emma is quite the princess, and boy does she act like it. When she's happy she's the giggling-est little princess this side of the Land o' Eire. But when she's pissy, she can throw a tantrum worse than Tandy! (refer to Ogre, Ogre by Piers Anthony)

Andy's progressing very well now. Insurance has decided to no longer pay for his speech therapy, so we'll be going only every other week now to keep out-of-pocket costs under control. Andy LOVES Joey. He looks up to Joey and just thinks the world of him.

Julie's heading to the orthopedic surgeon this week to look at her ankle. All of a sudden it's about the size of a baseball and she doesn't know why.

Speaking of crap, I've now received 2 steroid injections, one in each elbow. It seems to have worked. Hopefully it will stick. Damn it is friggin painful!

WSJ: Obama, Geithner Get Low Grades From Economists

"U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey."

Link

I'm Back! And a Thank You!

First of all, I'm back! Sorry for the absence, I know just how important my writings are to the state of the country's economic system, and I apologize for letting the economy go to shit while I take a break from posting. :)

Seriously, you know how sometimes you sit down to do something and you just freeze up? I haven't been able to write anything at all lately. Probably because I've been exhausted. Between upgrades at work, pain wearing me out, and the puppy keeping us up all night with his screaming, I've just been plain ol' dead to the world.

So what's new. Let's see. Saint Baldrick's was a success once again! Thank you for your support. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I truly believe in what they do. I can't say that about many things, but from the bottom of my heart, I really feel that your support for Baldrick's is getting us closer to the day where we won't have to break that horrible news to parents.

The video they showed at Baldrick's was quite a tear jerker. For those of you who weren't there... well, I'm not even going to think about it again, so ask someone else.

Here's a pic from the event for those of you who care. Before, during, and after:


Gonna have to leave it at that. The work computer is FINALLY booted up, time to start this Wednesday.

Cortisone injection in my left arm this afternoon. w00t! (ouch)

5 More Hours!

http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.php?ParticipantKey=2009-55917

Can't wait! Will post pics soon!

Sorry for the lack of updates on anything. I've been busy. More later. :)

Mark Your Calendar! St. Baldrick is Saturday, 3/7/2009!

That's this Saturday for those of you who are calendarly-challenged. Time to donate is running out. Don't forget, it's tax-deductible if you itemize.

For those of you who are thinking about coming, come on out! It's at Helen Fitzgerald's but it is very family-friendly and is non-smoking for the duration of the event.

The event officially kicks off at noon. Patience and I will be getting shaved at 1:30pm, but if you'll be coming out for that you should show up a bit early as a just incase.

The whole event is noon - 8:00pm, but we probably will not stay for the duration. Last year we probably left around 3:00 or so and came back to the house for the evening.

Bring some extra money for various fund raisers as well as the silent auction!

Thank you for your continued support!

Andy Update

It looks like Andy may be at the end of his speech therapy, at least so sayeth the insurance company who has never met him and has no idea what's going on with his ST. Although I hope they decide he can continue, I feel comfortable with his speech now. He's a bit behind the curve but he is catching up. My pocketbook could use a break from the copays, so it's not all bad.

The big guy has an appointment at the Costas Center on Thursday. He'll get some blood work, maybe a chest X-Ray, and possibly an EKG. One of his chemo meds, Doxorubicin, has the potential to cause heart problems, hence the EKG.

I'm looking forward to going on Thursday. I feel so comfortable and safe when I'm at the hospital with Andy. Just kinda an "everything will be just fine" feeling. I guess that's a good thing.

Kanada sux.

I should have expected this

Under Hussein's stimulus package, low-income families who DON'T EVEN PAY INCOME TAX will be receiving the $1000 child tax credit.

WTF?

Recovery.gov

recovery.gov Check it out. El Prezzo seems to really be technology-oriented. Not a bad thing sometimes.

From the site:
Q: Who runs Recovery.gov?
A: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act establishes an oversight board of inspectors general (the watchdogs of government) called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which is responsible for overseeing Federal agencies to ensure that there is transparency and accountability for the expenditure of recovery funds. For the interim period until that board becomes operational, the President has coordinated a team from across Federal agencies to track Recovery Act dollars and report findings on this website.

Moe and Clark

No, these aren't the names of Moe Howard's late-life attempt at a newer, more modernized slapstick, "The Two Stooges", characters. And yes, that first sentence is grammatically correct, you'll just need to read it a couple times.

Back to the point, these are the names of two little Japanese Mastiff / Lab mix puppies that are taking up "temporary" residence at the Kelley house. Julie and the kids have their hearts set on keeping Moe. I told her she can keep him if she cleans up after him. Everyone tells me to put my foot down, but really I could care less as long as someone other than I stays on top of hygiene, etc.

So we're testing this. We're fostering Moe and Clark. If things go well, we'll keep Moe. And it looks like my dad will be keeping Clark. It's kinda weird how Louie's passing happened at the same time as these two puppies came along. Coincidence? In my experience, there's no such thing as coincidence. At least so proclaimed a great man a long, long time ago.

Emma has really taken to the puppies. She spends hours in the kitchen with the puppies. And believe it or not, she's pretty good with them. I'm really impressed.

Speaking of impressed, and speaking of my dad... I don't think I've ever seen someone pick up a guitar from out of nowhere and get to where he is after a couple months. And believe me, I'm very hard to impress with anything musical. Within a year my dad will be coming over, plugging in, and rocking while I do a bit of drumming. Within 2 years he will surpass me after 20 years. That is, if he stays at it.

If "B" will post some pictures on her Facebook of Emma and the puppies, I'll post them here.

For those of you keeping count, that's 3 kids, 3 cats, and 3 dogs.

Yeah, That Hurt

Wow. The injection itself wasn't too bad. Don't get me wrong, it hurt. The elbow sure is painful! But it didn't hurt very long. I guess I was expecting it to take like a minute or so. It was over in probably 10 LONG seconds.

But wow. Now it really friggin hurts. At least now I'm to the point to where I can type. Apparently when they inject cortisone into you, they're injecting it in a crystalline form. To make it worse, using the elbow too much will get blood flowing and that's a bad thing because the blood will just take crystals away. Or something along those lines. But not using it is making the already-sore muscles around it even more sore. That rhymed.

Ouch.

So that's my Friday. How was yours? I'll type more when I can actually type without pain.

This Will Hurt.

But it will be worth it. Apparently the elbow is the most painful place in which to receive a cortisone injection. My tennis elbow has been unbearable the last few days. The braces only seem to offer temporary relief while actually making it worse for me the next day. Advil isn't helping. It's now affecting my quality of life.

So I'll be getting a cortisone injection in both elbows tomorrow afternoon.

Let me tell you how excited I am about this. See, I don't handle pain very well. Granted, since seeing Andy go through what he went through, I've learned to deal with it much better. But still, ouchie!

Frick.

Andy's First Infection Since.... You Know.

Andy seems to have a sinus infection. Emma has a double ear infection so I'm sure one shared with the other.

Here's the thing. This is Andy's first infection with his new white blood cells. No he didn't get a marrow transplant. But remember that last round of chemo pretty much destroyed his marrow. So this is truly his first infection with new marrow.

I'm a bit nervous. I know it's just a sinus infection. Heck, I'm not worried about Emma at all and she has a double ear infection! But this is uncharted territory. I'm feeling awkward. I realized this yesterday (Friday) evening and part of me thinks I should have called his oncologist because I know this is the type of thing she wants to know. I also know that when we talk to her on Monday I'll be in trouble for not calling over the weekend. But I also know that if I page the oncologist on call it will mean an ER trip for counts and such, depending on who's on duty.

He hasn't been running any fevers, so I know his white blood cells are doing their job.

Still, something has felt wrong for the last 24 hours and I haven't been able to put my finger on it. Sure it's sad that Louie died, but I don't feel like that's it. I don't know why, but I'm worried about Andy. I've been worried about him for about a week now. I don't have a real reason to be worried, at least that I know of. But it's that connection that Andy and I had. When something was wrong I could feel it. When he was healing I could feel it. When he was feeling well, I could feel it. I've had quite a few false alarms on those dreadful feelings, so I'm not going to let it consume me.

I'm going to call the Costas Center on Monday. I think he may be due for his checkup, so we were going to call anyway. Also, I know this is the kind of thing his oncologist would want to know about, so I at least want to inform her. Finally, if I tell his oncologist or his nurse that I've had that feeling lately, they'll probably react appropriately, whatever that may mean. They always have in the past.

The big guy is taking a nap now. He woke up at something insane like 3am this morning. I was up with him for some of that, Julie for most of it.

Back to the basement. Putting up some shelving.

Final note: Incase you haven't noticed, most of my posts have labels. I'm sick of seeing the combination of "Andy" and "Cancer" labels.

RIP Loogie - It Was a Good Run

Remember Loogie? aka Louie? He is the dog that will eat anything including, but not limited to, a fence, a strand of Christmas tree lights, a bottle of Tylenol, dozens of boxes of Kleenex, half a couch, two pairs of Levis, and many important financial documents. It seems he got into one too many things. I hate to sound insensitive about it but I've seen it coming for years, it was only a matter of when. So needless to say I was prepared for it.

Anyway, Louie is in complete kidney failure. He's being euthanized as I type this.

I'm going to wait until later this evening to call my dad. You'll recall we had to get rid of him and he's been living with my dad for a couple years now.

I need to figure out how to explain this to the kids. Oh crap.

RIP Louie, you'll be missed. But hey, it was a good run, buddy. I'm surprised you made it this long.

Hope and Change, Bitch!

*punch in the nose*

How'd that feel?

I've figured it out. I'm a fiscal conservative (small government, limited/no welfare, conservative spending). I'm a civil libertarian (support ghey marriage, FREE THE WEED!, black/white/red/yellow = people, no differences). Socially I'm somewhere in the middle (not gonna try to describe that but it stems from my fiscal conservatism / civil libertarianism). Generally because my overriding principal is money I'm a Republican although I do vote Dem when I feel it's the best choice. I don't vote straight party (anymore). W taught me not to do that. :-/

All of that being said, I think it's really funny how B. Hussein is pissing off the left. All of you heavy left-wingers who voted him in for "Change" didn't realize that what he meant by Change was really Change! Not "move to the left" but actually "let's change DC."

Haha! You got screwed!

Greg, I'm sorry, but I gotta say, I'm starting to kinda like the guy. He's already better than W, assuming he can keep the country safe for the next 4 years, but I think he's actually starting to change the status quo. Sure he's feeding the left by closing Club Gitmo, but he's gotta keep his original supporters somewhat happy.

I overheard a conversation today between two guys with Obama stickers all over their hard hats saying how he's really "screwing up." I couldn't help but smile. :)

Ok I'm off my high horse now. I won't rub it in anymore. (at least not too much)

We're Still Alive!

I promise, we're still alive. It's been very hectic lately, with virtually no spare time. But that's good. I perform better at everything when there's a lot going on. My metabolism also speeds up a bit as well, so there we go.

Andy is in the prime of his terrible twos. I really don't know how much longer this will last, but I miss my mellow, laid-back buddy.

Not really much else going on. Greg's still Kanadian. I still tell stupid jokes. Ford is in his Flivver and all is well with the world.

See ya in a day or 2 or 4 when things settle down.

So This is What It's Like?

2 kids at one grandparents, the other at another. It was a nice, peaceful Friday night. Saturday morning was nice and peaceful as well. In fact, we're getting stuff done today. This must be what it's like to not have kids.

But wait. It kinda sux.

Screw that, I'll take the kids over the peace and quiet any day!

Happy Super Saturday! Go Cardinals! Greg Sux!

Long Overdue Andy Update (INCLUDES A PIC!)

Ok, I was talking to one of you today. It made me realize I'm way overdue for an Andy update.

Andy's still in speech therapy. The good news is he's really doing well. I've been spending time getting to his eye level and just talking to him. I think this is helping. A wise man once told me that kids will really listen to you and respect you if you get down to their eye level.

So far he doesn't seem to have any other remaining effects from chemo. I occasionally worry about his overall development, then I realize I'm not being fair. I'm comparing him to Joey & Emma when they were at that age. The thing is that Joey and Emma are both unusually quick in most areas of development. That's the #1 rule of parenting multiple kids: don't compare.

With any luck we'll be past the speech therapy within a few short months. But really we don't know how long this will last. Frankly, it will last as long as it needs to last.

I think this may be the last thing in which he's running behind.

We should be hearing from the Costas Center soon. It's getting close to time for him to get another CT scan, blood work, and see his oncologist.

Now, the long-awaited pic! A great pic of the big guy from Christmas. Check out the bed head on that mop top! He's come quite a long way from shiny smooth chemo head!

Think YOU Had a Bad Day?

You have nothing on This poor fella.

Must be Kanadian.

A Random (kinda) Thought

You know Tupac had a buttload of singles after he died. Not really sure how he did it but he did. I'm not much on hip hop and the only stuff I like tends to be from the 90s. Shocking huh? Anyway, one of the few rap songs I've always liked is Changes by Tupac. In that song, there's one line that has been standing out in my mind for a few weeks now for obvious reasons. "And though it seems evident, we ain't ready to see a black president." I just can't help but think he's out there somewhere smiling.

I rip on B. Hussein a lot. I also ripped on GW a lot. Like it or not, he's our president. For the last 8 years I've been telling the liberal Bush haters that he's our president and you need to embrace him as such, whether you like him or not. This is America and we're all Americans. That said, I'm not going to be hypocritical about this. He's my president. I'm an American. I'd rather have GW, B. Hussein, or even Peanut Boy Carter as my nation's leader than a bunch of the other possibilities. (look at the middle east, most of Africa, parts of South America, and most of Asia if you don't know what I'm talking about)

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The good: In a few hours, we can say that we don't have an idiot for a president.
The bad: In a few hours, B. Hussein will be president.
The ugly: In a few hours, Socialist Bitch will be Secretary of State.

For those of you who thought I was joking about his middle name, I'm not. In fact, I can't believe you didn't know that. Listen to the swearing-in, or do some Googling. His middle name is Hussein. If Harry Truman's middle name were Hitler, do you think he would have been elected? Just throwing it out there.

Good luck America.

Go Cardinals!

For the first time in about 3 or 4 years I didn't say preseason that this was Big Red's year. And guess what. Superbowl.

I'm happy about this. Given my AZ connections, the Cardinals <-> STL connection, and of course Kurt, I'm about as happy as I can get, short of it being the Rizzams.

So yeah, if you're coming over for the Super Bowl, I'll be drinking more than usual on Super Bowls, and I'll be less of a host and more of a game watcher. :)

Go Cardinals!

Caramel Corn Rice Cakes Rox!

Some weekends I'm stricken by weekend insomnia and am up until 12 - 1 ish. Some weekends I'm so damn tired that I'm in bed before I'm normally in bed on weekdays. This weekend was kinda somewhere in the middle. I like those.

But that doesn't mean I won't grab an hour or 2 on the couch today.

Speaking of on the couch today, I'm rooting for the Cardinals but I have a feeling Kurt won't be able to handle Philly's blitz and we'll have a PA Bowl.

I guess we'll do the usual super bowl thing. Come over. Invite appropriate people because I'm bad about doing so.

I know soda is bad for me. I know tea has caffeine, but I need a quick hit, not a slow and steady. Unfortunately coffee tears up my stomach. This means I pretty much have 1 soda a day now. Sometimes it's 12 ounces, sometimes 24, sometimes 32. I don't do the 44 ozers anymore except on rare occasions, and even at that I try not to drink it all. But hey, it's an improvement over 18 months ago when I was going through 150 ounces a day of Dew. But yeah, I need to have a soda every day. It's a small health sacrifice to make. And it's an easy sacrifice since I love the stuff. :)

I can't make it without caffeine. I went 2 or 3 weeks with no caffeine whatsoever. I thought once I got over it that my body would adjust. It didn't. I need it to survive.

That being said, I haven't had any caffeine today and there's a few things I want to get done. Guess I'm gonna go spend $0.89 on a 24-oz Fountain Dew.

DnD tonight. We're wrapping up a campaign. Getting ready for a new one. Gonna build a rogue/fighter. Rox.

The Great Recession Drinking Game

Yes, I've named this era The Great Recession. And why not make a drinking game out of it!

So here's how it works. Listen to a Wall Street Journal podcast. Or jump on CNBC. Basically tune into any program that is business- or finance-related.

When you hear the following words, do the following action:
TARP - Drink!
Bailout - Drink!
"Big 3" - Drink!
Housing - Drink! (must be the actual word "housing" no variations)
"Economic Stimulus" - The first person to slap their hand on the table can make one person drink.
"Rate Cut" - The last person to slap their hand on the table has to chug.
Main Street - Chug!
Depression (financial, not mood) - SOCIAL!
"Credit Crunch" - SOCIAL!
Layoff - Waterfall!

Yeah that's cold.

Come back Manbearpig! I miss you! Damn you Algore!

I downloaded the Windows 7 beta. I have a very low-end machine downstairs that runs XP and Linux just fine but Vista... forget about it. Windows 7 is supposed to run better on older machines. I'm curios to check it out. I haven't run a beta Windows since 98, so this shall be interesting.

Have I mentioned that 2-year-olds are a pain in the ass?

Back to dealing with brats!

Where the Hell is Manbearpig???

I'm cold. Gonna be even colder tomorrow.

In unrelated news, I've decided I like Facebook better than Myspace. I mean really. I like poking people. And you can't poke on Myspace. Need I say more?

Who walks behind me?

Let me out!

I've been all about the quotes lately. Movies or music mainly. Kinda funny that to some people who haven't heard the particular line, I must appear to be a complete whack job.

I guess I'm a complete whack job anyway.

Ok, my app is finished installing on the laptop. Time to go.

Yes, It's True

No, I'm not quoting a line from a cheezy Huey Lewis and the News song. I'm saying, to all of you that have 0 or 1 kids, that yes, it's true. When you get married and those of us with kids start harrasing you saying stuff like, "So when are you gonna have kids?" we're doing it because we're trying to bring you down with us. Same thing if you only have 1 kid and we harass you to have more. Misery loves company.

All in good fun of course. I love my bratasses.

Now that fucking Huey Lewis song is stuck in my head. Greg you suck.

I Love Healthcare

Today I went to lunch with the competition to talk about best practices, exchange ideas, and generally network. Will turn into an ongoing thing.

Not only did my boss know about it, he encourages it.

In many other industries, I would have been fired on the spot.

I love working in Healthcare.

This Friday

This Friday will be the one-year anniversary of Andy's official no-more-cancer announcement. It's been quite a long year. A lot has happened since then. There's still some questions that remain unanswered, and he's still catching up from the effects of chemo. But certainly, 1/9 is a much better day than 8/9.

The big guy will have his speech therapy on Wednesday, but then his therapist will be leaving so he'll be on a waiting list. He's progressing so well, now, that it's possible that he won't have to go back. We'll see how it goes.

We'll have to keep an eye on his development. You'll recall a year ago we were worried about his lack of walking. Now it's talking. Hopefully this will be the last problem. But if not, that's fine, we'll work with him.

He's a special little man.

Oh. Friday would have also been Grandpa Key's birthday.

Ok, I'll Buy Into It

Eat This, Not That.

WTF?

Ok this is a double-WTF.

First off, you should know that I have 3 cats and 2 large dogs. Yeah. Three cats and 2 large dogs. Guess what else I have? Mice! Well, a mouse anyway. 2 mice have already met their maker thanks to Tommy (a cat). But we have at least one elusive mouse. WTF? 3 cats, 2 large dogs, and mice still find their way in?

Ok fine. So that's the first WTF. Now for the second. I won't even comment, as a picture is worth a thousand words. (You may have to click the image to really see why it's a WTF)