Two Weeks

Not the thrillingest of movies, by the way. And since "thrillingest" isn't a word, apparently, I claim its invention. Huzzah for me, la la la.

pre-Friday there hasn't been a lot of excitement or difference, that I could necessarily share, so I avoided blogland. Plenty to whine/bitch/moan about work, though (being mis-trained on something and thus spilling half a vat of hot oil on the floor, emptying a toxic homeless shopping cart by hand, kicking out a sleeping homeless guy, the sudden departure of an important coworker, etc.). But that can all be summed up as: work sucks and I am so quickly burning out it's driving me crazy and I have trouble not bringing the stress home with me.

So, Friday, my friend Brian calls: "I notice you don't blog when you're kind of pissed off, and you haven't blogged in weeks. . ."

This line of text will have a link here when I upload new pictures to facebook soon and you can see them there. This line will not be edited for text when these photos are finally uploaded.

Saturday was opening day for Lash and baseball. His team is the Dodgers, which is especially amusing as that is the team that I favoured growing up--because my family were all Giants fans and I would have none of that. He's been getting some practice on the side thanks to my friend John and myself, so I hope to keep seeing him improve more and more beyond just his practices.

Much time was spent opening day helping others travel (and as they've similarly helped us more times than I've ever cared to count, it was never a problem) and sitting around waiting. John bought me an overpriced hotdog because I forgot to bring cash. Opening Day consisted of no real games, save for an exhibition where each inning consisted of each team going up to bat its entire roster twice, and only lasted one inning. Lash struck out, and then got a sacrifice hit and while in outfield, stopped a ball.

Saturday evening my darling friend Cammie came up from the Bay Area for a visit while she did some other stuff and we got to hang out that evening and a great portion of Sunday. Got a drink at the U-Bar, hung out at the parks, discussed my word, some breakfast at Sin of Cortez, more hanging out, some photos, some shopping, etc. It made my weekend.

Dead Again

Been a wee bit, first a reading update:

New family & friend photos.

50 Book Challenge #7: The Harlequin, by Laurell K. Hamilton. First off, holy shit am I reading slow this year. I need to seriously rededicate myself to my reading and unwind a little less with Guitar Hero II & III.

This was something like book #80 in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. I've lost count and the ambition to look up which book it actually is. Denise had to bribe me to start and finish this one, as I still have a few other books bucking to be read. She still has to finish bribing me.

That sad, this was a refreshing near-return to the more non-pornographic books at the front of the series. Even when Anita was getting her ho on, it very kindly did not take 200 of 300 pages to get it done. Words can't express how very pleased I was to have sex scenes not spread themselves redundantly across multiple chapters (seriously, one book had a chapter devoted to negotiating the specifics of a threesome, then another to talking out the discomforting ideas about it, then another to foreplay, then another to rediscussing comfort and boundaries, then another to fucking and yet another to dealing with discomforted reactions and then sanctimonious bullshit and then storming out and then another to examining relations and then getting right back to screwing. Seriously).

One of my favourite characters, Edward, returns this book. His presence almost always guarantees a healthy amount of attention will be spent on the more interesting "vampire hunter" aspects of the series. Sadly, his presence felt extremely unnecessary by book's end, as if he was merely written in so that Hamilton could acknowledge Edward fans who'd been clamoring for him since his last appearance 40 books previous. He wasn't actually necessary, or all that useful, to any parts of the plot. Meh.

Moving on.

This week was devoted to spending a lot of work days in classes learning to be a better Burgerworld manager, so that I can then go to more classes to become an even better SpiffyWorldBurger manager and get some serious promotions going--at some vaguely defined and wholly undisclosed time in the future. The amount of avoidance of any real discussion of what they have planned promotion-wise for me and one of the others really irks me, as does other bs about promoting a couple minions and then deciding to hold off on promoting them for no real reason. Blech. My McMorale is down. At any rate, regarding classes--the last day was devoted to learning better customer service. Now I am one super customer servicing motherfucker already. So this day was really redundant, even remedial at times, for me. Necessary steps forward; I just have to keep telling myself that--and keeping one ear to the wind, seeking opportunities for change. Sadly, the wind hasn't been blowing much.

Kids' report cards came. Aeia is, as per usual, the perfect little student. So much her mother in training. Lash got not-so-great marks on social skills and excellent marks in academics, was made to feel bad enough about the former that by the time I was able to see his report card, he had no pride or happiness to express about the latter. That bummed me and I spent a while working to make him feel better about his accomplishments.

This week's Netflix highlight is Gone Baby Gone. After watching this, I've come to some conclusions, some cementing of previous beliefs:
1. Casey Affleck can express better emotional depth and range of character than Ben.
2. Ben should just direct from now on.
The movie was great, far better than I ever would have expected it to be. If that's an indicator of the directorial ability Affleck has in him, I'd be happy to never see him do another Reindeer Games or Kevin Smith movie.

Across the Universe

I hadn't realized how much more "down" seemed to shadow my last two posts until reading Shel's comments. Yes, very much, there have been down moments lately, and someone close to me but displaced who has been finding me downer than usual. That all said, however, while often tired and whatnot, I am a good deal more happy than not. And I thank you, Shel, for also reminding me that there are others who share care with me.

Pressing on.

Just finished watching the eponymous movie of this post. I'm a big lover of modern musicals; I have a soft and tender spot for them. As much as I loved Moulin Rouge, I think the conceit of using contemporary music (ALL Beatles in this one) to help narrate the story really helped to make the movie more moving, rather than just more pretty. Not a perfect movie by far (while arty, post-modern, etc.) it was still a little too Hollywood happy ending, but it left me happy, which isn't the typical for me with the typical Hollywood ending.

Pressing on.

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear Chris,
Happy birthday to you.

And a slightly early happy birthday to Joey, Misty, Carly and Robert too.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Today has been a bit roller-coastery for me emotionally. I've been told at times, by more than one person, that I can be "such a girl sometimes" and I shudder to say I agree, I can. I'm realizing life could be a lot less complicated, but that same path would make it even a lot less happier, so sometimes complication, and a little heart break, can be a good thing as well. Well, not a good thing, but at least better than the alternative of being nothing at all. Which is me siding with the "better to love and lose" crowd. This is not a divorce paragraph.

As the content is a little sparse today, a little TMI Tuesday questionnaire:




1. Under what conditions would you kiss a stranger?

Simple mutual attraction and being in the sort of place location-wise that wouldn't be inappropriate for such activities. A new acquaintance in greeting, yes. A hot chica in the queue at work, no. Some cutie at a nightclub, yeah.

2. Who was the last person you sent a text message to? If you’ve never sent someone a text message, is there some reason?

I don't own a cell phone slash blackberry or whatever else, so I don't text message. I do chat w/ Google with Cammie and Allpeers with Brian.

3. When was the last time you deliberately surprised someone?

There was a box of chocolates in Aimee's recent past.


4. How often do walk somewhere (hopefully, other than the mailbox)?

I don't do enough walking for leisure or exercise. I actually do a lot of walking at work.

5. What were the longest and shortest durations of your romantic relationships?

With using the broadest definitions of "relationship," we can say the shortest was ten or so minutes and the longest, not counting pining that went very long unrequited then not then badly, we'll say the longest has been with Denise at more than eleven years now.

Bonus (as in optional):What is missing from your life.

Constant happiness, but that's missing from everyone's life, or they're very different than I imagine normal. Loads of money. Reciprocation of all the love I give. A brand new car (I had a sudden flash to The Price is Right there and had to share it). Reason.

loudQUIETloud

This past week has seen a lot of stress for me at work, with my every move every minute of every day under heightened scrutiny as I work my ass off to stay on track for promotion. Things are all still moving forward, but I could really, really use a break, which isn't usually how I get to celebrate my days off either. When I have Saturday off, Denise typically works a full eight hour shift and Tasmia does not like her being gone, and so she wails a lot and won't let me calm her.

Lash tried out for little league baseball this past week, his first year playing. I really hope all of the practices see him improving more and more, and that he has fun. I actually have a lot of worry that in the end he'll spend more time frustrated and upset than having fun. Sometimes he has too-high expectations of himself. His coach says we should get him baseball video games because they'll help him come to understand the rules a little better. I guess I need to try renting at Blockbuster soon, or wherever else might have a baseball game. Hmph.

Tasmia is able to roll and scoot a lot better, requiring a lot more vigilance.

I'm very, very tired and spend too much free time lately brain-deading in front of the computer on Facebook. Just not seeing a lot of motivation to read a book or something lately. I've also been on a higher-than-normal Pixies kick lately.

Recent movies seen: The Martian Child (loved it); The Amateurs (loved it); Bangkok Girl (hated it); The Valley of Elah (meh, ok); Eastern Promises (meh, ok. Cronenberg's last few movies have ended in places/manners not very interesting to me); Eagle vs Shark (decent, too easy to draw comparisons to Napolean Dynamite) and 8mm 2 (awful). If you want spoilers and elaborations on these ratings, let me know.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear Cammie,
Happy birthday to you.



And a happy birthday to Braz too! I only e-sing once per post though.

Patriot Games

From Peter David's blog:

Monopoly alert: Spread the word

While attending Toyfair, I found out that Hasbro is putting together an international version of Monopoly, and instead of street names on the board, there will be city names. The color coding remains the same: The most valuable real estate will be on blue spots, for instance (normally occupied by Broadway and Park Place), and then green, yellow and so on. There is currently a vote going on that is open to anyone in the world with a computer, and you can vote once a day for up to ten cities. The top vote getters will be on Broadway and Park Place, and the rest will be apportioned to the remainder of the real estate.

Now how, you may ask, is the United States faring in this international voting? The answer: Miserably. Of the twenty eight properties on this quintessentially American game, only two US cities are making any kind of showing, and neither is in prime real estate. New York is #8 (relegated to the much less tony yellow section of the board), while, Las Vegas is an abysmal #23. What's number one, you may ask? The most popular international city?

Istanbul.

Are you freaking kidding me?

Personally, I think this is an abysmal state of affairs. Istanbul the number one city of international Monopoly? The best thing one can say about Istanbul is that it's a catchy song covered by "They Might Be Giants." But "New York, New York" is practically an anthem.

According to the woman at Hasbro I spoke to, the website where the voting is going on--www.monopoly.com--is getting 10,000 votes a day. That's not all that much. A concerted web effort can turn this around.

Obviously I want to see New York nestled in the top spot, with more US cities occupying as many of the rest of the valuable properties as possible. Knee-jerk patriotism? Unreasonable nationalism? Well...yeah. You got a problem with that? If the residents of freaking Turkey should be allowed that indulgence, so should I.

We've only got until February 28th to get it done, so spread the word to all and sundry. Feel free to repost this anywhere and everywhere.

PAD

Hmm. . .not sure I care whether New York is the top spot, but Istanbul?

The Killers

50 Book Challenge #6:
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. This book has the distinction of joining an elite club, previously consisting of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, It, American Psycho and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (sacrilege, I know) where I'm of the very unhumble opinion that the film version is vastly superior to the written version.

I almost really liked this book. I have to say that the style of the prose was fantastic; perfect for putting the reader into Dexter's head and taking us on that wild ride. But that same limitation is also a bit of its shortfall, and some other stylistic decisions (the cut between the second-to-last and last chapter especially) are too much neither showing nor telling that they were problematic. I don't expect to be getting the second or subsequent novels when I have the show to enjoy more.

***

A (late) TMI Tuesday for a little filler:

1. Which one turns you on more Ink or piercing? Why?
2. What ink do you have? If none, what would you get and and where?
3. What piercing do you have? If none, what would you get and and where?
4. Any other adornments you like to do for your lover or have then do for you?
5. Of all of the above is there anything that is an immediate Turn-Off?

1. I find tattoos far more attractive visually than piercings. I think the obvious artistry and commitment that has to go into a tattoo vs a piercing play a heavy role in this. Tattoos are more to look at.

2. I have the zodiac symbols Gemini, Taurus, Virgo, Aquarius, Gemini and Scorpio on my left forearm; there is a feather quill with an ink blot and the first of my "grace" tattoos--"venia" (latin) and "charme" (french) on my left shoulder; my right shoulder has a slightly altered gryffon tattoo that the comic hero Jack Knight has on his left shoulder: the coloring is changed a little, the kanji on the inside is changed to shjin "poet" and some of the finer details are a little tweaked.

3. My ears are pierced. I would consider piercings in my eyebrow (impossible with my current job), nipple and tongue.

4. Nah. I'm pretty situational with these things.

5. I'm not a fan of septum piercings, tattoos on hands feet or faces, tattoos that were obviously done to be trendy rather than to show meaning to the wearer's viewers--you'll never find a tat of Marvin the Martian tramp stamped on my lower back.

Waitress

Watching Denise off to work last night and this morning, at those moments my only thoughts: God, I love that woman. And I do.

Valentine's Day. . .didn't do a blasted thing except send an e-mail and kiss my wife. I feel guilty that I can't be more romantic, but cash is better spent on non-romantic things. Monogamous people have it so easy--they only disappoint one person when they skip out on holidays, Hallmark holiday or no, with gifting. Of course, my favourite lesbian thinks I'm more the girl and Denise is more the boy in our emotions and so maybe I should be huffy with Denise for forgetting V-day. . . nah.

I've decided that I really like Juno after-all. I felt as if the movie dealt with its issues honestly and I haven't disliked a performance of Ellen Page's yet. I am still a little bugged by the non-Arrested Development pairing of Michael Cera and Jason Bateman, though.

If I haven't gushed about it, Once is also beautiful musically & cinematically, though Falling Slowly is not the best song from the film (still a great one). Both of these films had fantastic soundtracks.

I took the weekend off from work (really, only one extra day) and I'm a bit ambivalent about it.

50 Book Challenge #4:
Danse Macabre, another Anita Blake novel. This one threatens to be good with Anita facing pregnancy scares, an increase in focus back on supernatural politics stuff. And then Anita just sluts out a whole lot more again and the book really doesn't go anywhere.

50 Book CHallenge #5:
The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes, translated by Alfred Mac Adam. I'm surprised not to have read this book in any of my literature or translation classes in seven years at university. There are frequent times I'm reminded of Hemingway. There are also frequent, poignant moments of poetry in the storytelling.

There was going to be more but, seriously, Tasmia is screeching and I can't think.

Memento

A taste of the pictures taken from New Year's Eve to present. As always, if you want to see the entire album, mosey on over to where I keep it on facebook.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog day has come and gone and I neglected to find out if the little prognosticator decreed we would have a longer winter. I do know it's been truly effing cold and dreary and I am ready for some sunshine already. My favourite lesbian at work was talking about how she hated the movie Groundhog Day and I chimed in that it was to that movie that Denise and I began our relationship (a topic I don't actually think of much, as our getting together was also attached to a bad memory of losing a friend. . .and I haven't seen the movie since). She then made me do a spit-take by asking if we "were what, chasing the same guy?"

Work has been stressful, what with employees constantly calling in sick, various inspections past and pending, and, of course, the customers. Always the customers. I think some of our customers are the craziest lot of mouth breathers in the world, but some of them are fairly nice too, so I'll be ceasing the bitching, for the moment anyway.

If you're waiting with baited breath for news on my cancer check-up: everything was still clear, so I have another yearlong furlough until I have to go in for testing again. Denise was even nice enough to remember to tell me the good news a whole two days after they called and told her for me.

Aeia turned eight on Monday. Eight. Wow. It's hard sometimes to remember she was the baby that the doctors told us to expect to lose. And now she's eight. Fo' shizzle.

I watched Juno last night. I'm still digesting it. I think it bothered me that Jason Bateman and Michael Cera were in a movie together so soon and not playing father and son. I liked the movie, though, just not sure yet how much. I'm still thinking about it (to steal lines from Cammie stealing lines from Lash).

Ugh, there is dried grease particles in my hair. Fucking gross.

Word to your mothers.

Short Cuts

Well, I'm not dead. Crazy employee hasn't come in and shot anyone. Huzzah. I am, however, very tired, and today I got all light headed and nauseous, so I threw up at work and went home early, even though losing the hours is going to suck.

Today I also had the annual oncologist appointment. They did blood work and ordered a chest ct for me (tomorrow morning) after which I'll find out, eventually, if everything still looks good, or not. There were days the past few months that have left me worrying a little, but I think they were just periods of flu battling. At any rate, the yearly visit always amps up the stress levels a little, and I guess my stress levels showed fairly well on my face because I got a discussion with my oncologist about stress and depression and how he thinks I should consider looking into some help with that.

If only I had the time. I work during normal business hours every weekday and can't afford to miss a day of work, so must find other ways to de-stress: ample Xboxing, chatting/e-mailing friends, weekends with other friends and what little Denise & kid time I can get all help a little.

Congratulations to Cammie on scoring the writing gig she applied for!

50 Book Challenge #2 & 3:
Incubus Dreams and Micah, both by Laurell K Hamilton, both Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books (only one more to go...).

Ok, to be clear, I don't read these books for the erotic element (in and of itself, I've no problem with erotica and there is erotica I do enjoy reading for erotica's sake) and the past couple books have been seeing a steady increase in the erotic element and a steady decrease in the supernatural crime stuff. This makes the books not as fun for me. Incubus Dreams devotes more than a third, almost all of it back-to-back smack-dab in the middle of the book, to sex. So much so that it was extremely difficult remembering which other story elements were part of this novel when they popped back in at the end of the book. This was vexing. By my count, I think she added four new lovers to her bed and screwed, on page, three or four previous/current lovers. Seriously, I thought it all could have been scaled back some and more could have been done to attend to some of the other plots in the book (the subplot about the vampire politics of the vampire "Mormons" in the Church of Eternal Life was one I wanted a LOT more of and barely got any off-hand commentary in the wrap-up final chapter of the novel. Sigh.). It took a long time for me to finish this book because there was too much sex and no other plot for the majority of it all.

Micah, on the other hand, while saddled with two chapters of sex, was a lot more bearable and refreshing in how well it devoted a fair amount of time to its non-sexual story elements. Sadly, it was also short, very short (245 pages of slightly larger type and page numbers devoted to blank pages and chapter title pages every chapter) so that I read it in the span of a couple hours this morning. But I did like it, and as I didn't really dig Incubus Dreams or Cerulean Sins, I was glad to have at least this book veer back towards more of what made the series attractive to me in the first place.

I have three brand new books waiting for me (the new Stephen King, the first "Dexter" book and a recommendation via Cammie) after I finish the last in the series (so far) that we own, Danse Macabre, so I need to get to that and get it finished. So later gators.

Elephant

So we let this girl free from employment last Friday after a string of hysterics and verbal assaults against her coworkers. Today I've learned that she supposedly threatened to come back and "go all Virginia Tech on our asses."

This is the sort of girl who knowingly and happily dates a guy whose own history of violence actually includes having shot someone. Do I think she herself is emotionally disturbed enough to be the sort of person who would come into work with a gun and shoot people? Absolutely.

Can I afford to just stop going to work, unsure of how else to bring money in? Absolutely not. So, let's all of us just hope crazy chick is nowhere near as actually crazy as she's capable of being.

Girl, Interrupted

Tomorrow is mine and Denise's 11th anniversary. Wow, it really doesn't seem like eleven years sometimes. Lash is ten. . .I am old (something I'm reminded of at work often).

I took Denise down to Gearhead today so we could arrange for her to finally get her first tattoo, and they let her know they wouldn't do it until she was no longer breast-feeding. It never even crossed my mind that there would be risk of the ink contaminating her milk via her bloodstream. I'm glad they were responsible enough to care about that sort of thing rather than ignore it in the name of the all-mighty dollar, even if it does mean they have months more to wait for her cash and I now have less than a day to think of something else to get her.

Things for me to sleep on.

Same Time Next Year

I stole this meme from a friend in 2005 as a wrap-recap of that year and am resurrecting it for a wrap-up recap of 2007.

Take the first sentence from the first entry of each month for the year and post it again.

January:
"October: messy bedrooms. . ."

February:
"For some reason (the day is DULL), I'm watching Tyra Banks."

March:
"Not much to say right now."

April:
"Allright, so folks may be waiting and wondering how things went at the preliminary trial. "

May:
"At the moment I'm riding on a neighbour's wireless connection because something's wrong with mine and I can't figure it out... as this isn't secure, I won't be on for too long."

June:
"Last night I dreamt that I'm going to have to drop out of school."

July:
"Ah summer. . ."

August:
"I've been going to watch Bandito's band, Fingers of Passion what, three or so years now?"

September:
"Well, the past couple weeks have seen a lot of at home stress and marital spatting, so I haven't been as keen on blogging or writing actual e-mails (so easy to veg it all away on facebook), maybe something interesting to blog about soon (well, I did reconnect with a very long-lost old friend in this time and I should blog a bit about that, and there are baby vat updates)."

October:
"So, this is a meme."

November:
The first post of November 2007 was entirely photographic, lacking in text whatsoever.

December:
"Starting off, a trailer for blog posts to come: an update on CB the cell phone kid, adventures in guinea pigs, McBoomerangs suck, absolutes, shiny photographs, killing Santa and throwing up at the movies."

Smiley Face

New visitors to my ramblings, new friends, dear people have unknowingly spurred me in to re-reading my archives. The past couple days have had me rolling around in the late summer of 2005 posts: new baby, cancer, surgery and recovery, the end of fostering. . .re-reading reader comments from during this time took longer than re-reading my own posts and it brought me much joy to immerse again in so many words of love and support from family, friends, loves, lurkers I hope still read. . .I just wanted to say that you've made me smile yet again. Thank you, and I love you.

Hollywoodland

1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
I own +/-1200 DVD titles--some are television series rather than films. I did not account for multi-disc sets either (i.e. Buffy seasons 1-7 counted as seven rather than 39).

2) The last film I bought: Spider-man 3. (for Lash) Season two of Coupling (for me).

3) The last film I watched:
At the theatre, the Mist
On tv, Night of the Comet
Rented, Once

4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

*Whatever children's movie is on heavy rotation during the given month (this month it's Scooby Doo)
*Life as a House (means a lot to me)
*Stardust (watched a lot)
*Saved! (watched a lot)
*The Big Lebowski (watched a lot)
I imagine a world where, now that I've seen it, I'll be watching Once fairly often.


5) Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal--the ladies in my life, on some level, who all happen to journalize:
Adj, Aimee, Cammie, Chrissy and Shel.

A Life Less Ordinary

I absolutely love that movie, by the way.

Things have been a bit, ah, difficult at work this week. During three of my last four shifts, there have been money shortages from employee tills. I'm one of five employees that were present during all shifts in question, which makes me technically a suspect (which, please, is ludicrous) though, thankfully, no one in charge thinks it's me. We're all fairly certain of who the culprit is, but lacking the proof have to instead enact a bunch of new safety measures that have had the additional benefit of making the work day more complicated and inconvenient while also making everyone grow more paranoid and distrusting of each other. If only I could just castrate the culprit. . .

Yesterday I was able to be home from work long enough to eat a fast dinner and drop a word down in some Scrabulous before Denise informed she needed me to take her to the doctor. She was having massive gut pains and needed to be seen. Hours later she's x-rayed and they see some things that "are likely nothing serious at all" but, if they are serious "could be life threatening and must be attended to immediately" and so we were kicked out of the urgent care place and told to go to the emergency room, where we were told they'd have called ahead and they'd be waiting for us. The emergency room then made us wait an additional two hours before actually seeing Denise and deciding to test for anything.

The end result is that Denise was just full of shit.

However, the nice long wait and worry for this news had me up 'til about five this morning, and I had to be up by nine in order to make it to work by ten. So Evan is a very very tired boy.

* * * * *

I failed in the 50 Book Challenge for 2007. Book 1 for 2008:

Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton. Pretty much more of the same. This time without the poor copy editing work of previous installments. And Anita Blake gets a bit more trampy, if that were possible. Still, including the book I'm on now, only three to go before I've finally finished 'em all.

Daywatch

So somewhere during the six AM hour on Friday morning we lost power. By we I mean 98% of Chico. Unaware of how bad the outtage was, I got up & prepped for work in the dark and discovered that the cruddy Burger World I was on loan to that day happened to fall into that 2% of Chico that still had power. Imagine being trapped in a double-sized elevator for nine hours with six other people and thousands of people queing up to enter. Now imagine you have claustrophobia and the other six people are either brainless mouth-breathers of hundred-mile-per-hour bitches and that was my day. I have to go back to that awful place again on Friday. The first experience made me homicidal.

At any rate, the power situation still blew come clock-out time. More than 500 miles of power lines were downed, 500 power poles (I found it an odd number to pop up twice); more than 30,000 people in town lost power (as I type this, some 17,000 still have no power and I feel thankful I'm not one of them).

Yesterday was an interesting day of driving around and looking at all the carnage. So many of our beautiful trees fell. A playground dead. Street signs on walkabout. Returning home to huddle together for shared warmth and watch the daylight as it receded into candlelight and an entire city gone black.

Blessed gas-powered water heater: one candle-lit mango bubble bath alone with my thoughts and the steam. Reading erotic horror and making love to Denise by candlelight. Making the best of our forced vacation in Lud.

One AM today, awakened by the sudden arrival of our bedroom light. Blessed power. Kiss Denise's laptop hello. I missed you friend, electricity. Camping is a lot more enjoyable when you plan for it.

Return of the Jedi

There are, naturally, many bright sides to any amount of drear in my day or week.

I have a beautiful wife, beautiful children, beautiful friends, all of whom I try my best to enjoy daily (even the one lying beside me this instant wailing for her mother's comforting embrace--Tasmia doesn't quite like me yet), and enjoy them I do.

I've had "Message in a Bottle" stuck in my head since Saturday night and I'm still quite happy to have it there. I'm beginning to annoy people with my constant singing of it at work. Silly people.

Netflix graced my mailbox with three of my favourite movies today: Shoot 'Em Up, Romeo is Bleeding and Millions. Seriously, snob that I am, if you've seen this and don't love them, I think there's something wrong with you. Herein we have the absolutely best mindlessly violent funny movie of 2007 with the best mindlessly violent funny movie of 1993 broken up by the absolutely brilliant PG family movie by the guy who brought us Trainspotting and 28 Days Later and of them all, this is the one that is the mostfucking brilliant. That's right, mostfucking.

Guitar Hero II.

An actual full weekend off to do with as I please.

And, of course, there's you, always reliable to make my day.

The Empire Strikes Back

Facets of my life this week that I liken to being trapped in carbonite, in no order of importance:

Tomorrow I have to work at another of our owners' restaurants, one that is currently short management and wholly un-fun to work at, and try my best to make the best of it.

Work has been fantastically over-busy and under-staffed.

A coworker just broke up, badly, with a guy who has an extreme history of violence, and so I actually fear a tiny bit for my life, wondering when he'll come in waving a gun.

Chris left for more Army stuff today and will be gone more than half the year.

Rael keeps having vomit spells in the middle of the night.

Disability is fucking around with Denise and her maternity leave pay and it is infuriating.

The Batmobile has lost its wheel, peeps.

A New Hope

A glimpse of things to come.

Almost a year back (February 15th) I started using song titles as the titles of my blog postings. With one exception, between then and now, every blog posting from the 15thof February up to and including the entry preceding this one has been a song title, no matter how bad or obscure the music. To coincide with how things are changing, growing better and looking more hopeful in life here, and to help set me off on the path of my word, my silly post title goal for 2008 will be film titles (and since I won't be online to blog tomorrow or the next day, you get a "midnight showing" as it were just prior to the actual day with this post), and truly what better way to start things off than with the holy trilogy.

My best to everyone in the coming year.

Amazing Grace

New Year's Resolutions. Lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, stop smoking, find a better job, spend more time with our families, curb addictions, love our loved ones more, get a girl/boyfriend, get a life. . .and so on. They pretty much always fail, slip away whatever by the end of January. We all pretty much suck at sticking to our resolutions. This, of course, should come as a surprise to nobody; it's a fairly over-done, over-beaten topic.

I think it comes from trying to change the things we do, rather than trying to change ourselves, and we can't make fundamental changes in our lives without first changing ourselves in some way. And it's for this reason that I'm going to make no resolutions this year. No broad impossible statements about all the things I'm going to do differently this year. Rather than doing, my goal will be being. This year I'm going to pick a word, something I feel that would enhance all of life to have more of, and I'm going to spend the year working at being that word. I'd love to not be alone in this. You all, those who make them, fail at your resolutions as well. Perhaps you feel that filling yourself more with love will positively impact your life, as an example, or patience. Only you know what can more positively bolster your well-being, and maybe living the word can help you reach some of the goals you're more likely to just abandon if they're made into resolutions.

So, if you're in it with me, what's your word going to be? Mine is grace.

Danny Boy

So yule has come and gone. The kids had a fantastic holiday, and we dealt with the Santa issue and Lash after-all, inducting him into the Santa Corps with all of the other adults and older siblings who are members. Ironically, despite my worries, he already knew, claiming to have figured it out approximately a week before we broke the news to him. Hmph.

Last night Chris, Brian and I stayed up 'til about 6:30 am this morning playing Guitar Hero II (thanks, grandma); I had to play on a harder difficulty level against them. Much fun was had last night/morning and I'm glad to have gotten the guy-time with Chris before he ships off for eight months again next week.

I called in sick to work Saturday, but started feeling a lot better by about noon. I think I'd been more exhausted than anything and it was keeping me from kicking my cold. Now my head's all mostly clear. Huzzah. I have to work New Year's Eve, which is no huge deal (I'm off early) but also have to work in the morning New Year's Day which is a bit more aggravating, as it means I won't be enjoying the Eve as much as I'm potentially able--me not being the sort of person to go to work with a hang-over or still tipsy, not even Burger Land. We'll see what we'll see, eh?

New Year's Day

1) Where did you begin 2007?
Waking up next to two of the people I love.

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Married.

3) Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Yeah.

4) How did you earn your money?
By babysitting, McManaging, eBaying, Teacher's Aiding, pape grading. . .

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?
Only for a birth and a kidney stone.

6) Did you have any encounters with the police?
Yeah, I got pulled over for registration on the van while on the way to get its paperwork for retirement.

7) Where did you go on holidays?
Either the Taylors' or stayed home.

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000?
Nothing.

9) Did you know anybody who got married?
Yep

10) Did you move?
I move daily.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to?
Saw Bandito play a few times, both in his regular band, Fingers of Passion and his girl group cover band, whatever it's called.

15) Are you registered to vote?
Yep, Socialist.

16) Who did you want to win Big Brother?
I dont watch that show

17) Where do you live now?
Home.

18) Describe your birthday?
My birthday was probably fairly uneventful because I lack any recollection of it.

19) What's one thing you thought you'd never do but did in 2007?
That thing I did this morning.

20) What has been your favorite memory?
That thing I did this morning and the happy upswing in my relationship with Denise and the arrival of Tasmia and the visit of Drew are the top four memories, almost completely in order.

21) What's something you learned about yourself?
That happiness takes a lot more work sometimes and that patience is perhaps more valuable than gold.

22.) Any new additions to your family?
Tasmia.

23.) What was your best month?
December. Half of my top 4 happened than.

24.) What music will you remember 2007 by?
I don't know, something indie or emo.

25) Who has been your best drinking buddy?
Bailey

26) Made new friends?
Yep

27) Best NEW friend?
Cammie, though we met in '97 and she perhaps doesn't remember it.

28) Favorite Night out?
I have more fun staying in (at home or at their home) with friends than I do going out.

29) Favorite movie saw at the theatre?
300

30) Was 2007 a happy year for you or sad?
It was a downward dropping parabola.

Once Bitten

50 Book Challenge 30 and 31: Obsidian Butterfly and Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton. I continue to press onward in my reading of the Anita Blake series; the supernatural bent to the stories and "supernatural manner" aspects of the tales still really intrigue me. That said, Butterfly was both a slower read and a refreshing read in that it very nearly completely breaks from the convention of the previous novels, having Anita abandon her home locale and supporting cast of characters in order to immerse into a case and story that focuses a good deal more on one of the recurring supporting characters, Edward. This really worked for me, but it also made the complete 180 return to form in Narcissus all the more jarring. Narcissus also really amps up the sex stuff (which was already a bit much for me) for the series, focusing a lot on sex and cementing for me the realization that I am in fact reading a series of romance novels about a female detective who happens to be a zombie animator and vampire executioner. Go figure. I need to speed up, having only three months left to finish 19 books.

I don't know if it's the books, my darling wife, certain distractions, or what, but sex is on the mind a lot lately--and if the books aren't to blame, they certainly exacerbate it.

Just came in from watching Stardust at the Taylors'. Beautiful movie. Loved DeNiro.

O Tannenbaum

To the Christmasy types: have a merry one!

Ice Ice Baby

In the past week, McBoomerang has grown on me and relaxed a bit, which has made Burgerworld considerably more bearable. ow, don't get me wrong, there were still distinctly sucky moments, the usual really awful customer (this one a screaming ass in front of his little kids over a piece of sausage I tried to give him for free when he complained about not getting it when he hadn't ordered it...long story). Meh. Work is work.

As of ten minutes ago, I have graded, potentially, barring latecomers, my last paper and I look forward to never grading papers again. Huzzah.

Socially, life is in a strange place. I don't really want to elaborate at the moment. There are strands of thought I continue to linger on and mull over significantly.

Denise and I, I think, are doing considerably better, thanks for asking.

Saw I am Legend last weekend. Hated it. I'm not familiar with the original work, so no gripe there, it was just awfully cliched and just so so very bad. The first third, exploring the mindset of a man alone in a nihilistic spiral, was really fascinating, and then it started to blow, and continued to blow, until it finally blew completely.

It's possible I have much to say; I just don't feel I have much to say right now. Sorry.

Down About It

My past 24 hours (well, closer to 30):
Monday afternoon: get paid. Have meticulous figured budget in head.
Monday evening: get tattoo of Tasmia's astrological sign (Scorpio) to go with others.
Monday night: holiday shopping for Denise.
Tuesday morning: discover that despite budgetting accuracy in-head, ledger is off due to a couple debits that weren't entered when they were deducted...start fretting heavily. Heavily. Borrow a little money & return about 1/2 of Denise's gifts for refunds to cover discrepancy.
All day log: remain frustrated and feeling crappy.

How's your day been?

One Week

Last Wednesday I typed:

Starting off, a trailer for blog posts to come: an update on CB the cell phone kid, adventures in guinea pigs, McBoomerangs suck, absolutes, shiny photographs, killing Santa and throwing up at the movies. Brought to you by the letter E and the number 3.
Now it's time I gave you all the pay-off on that statement for waiting so patiently.

CB the cellphone kid came in to work again the next morning and was very contrite and polite. Seeing as it's safe policy-wise to have someone outside with the garbage during the bright of day, we let him go through all of the compacted garbage and, sure enough, no cellphone present at all. Haven't seen him back since.

I also recently learned that I'm a guinea pig for an experiment between my store owner and regional manager. One believes that all management should be nurtured and promoted from within, while the other believes that, while that's ideal, we should remain open to bringing in new management from outside of the current employee pull when a valid and experiment specimen happens to apply (IOW, I was hired to prove that hiring management from without is a good thing). Absolutely no pressure on me at all now. Thankfully, I've been kicking burger butt from the first day and try to stay in that mindframe without focusing on my guinea pig status.

In a similar vein, we have another new manager who comes from without, though she used to be a member of the management team here some years ago, left, and is newly back. I'm not fond of her. She's been gone long enough to be uncomfortable doing a lot of things on her own ("what? work in the grill alone for ten whole minutes?") and tends to overcompensate by being a bit more bossy-slash-impatient with others, which is effecting employee morale, which comes back to me via complaints and makes me annoyed. She looks a lot like a dear friend of mine too, and I HATE that because I don't like associating the image of someone I like with a personality that has a lot of growing on me to do. Bah, rant mode off on that department.

I've begun to say "absolutely" far, far too often and it's starting to annoy me but I seem absolutely incapable of stopping myself.

Shiny photographs is still to come. Grammatically, that sentence would seem to require an "are" instead of an "is" but in this particular instance, "shiny photographs" is one thing (like Jaws is one movie, even though the word jaws is a plural of jaw). Your grammar lesson for today comes from my annoyance at being immersed in papers to grade this week as well. Shiny pictures is unlikely to see fruition before the holiday season nears its end.

Lash is 10, which is five whole years older than I was when my bastard classmates told me Santa was my mom. He still believes in Santa, which is great, adorable, yada yada, but I've been giving a lot of thought on the subject of breaking the news to him. On one hand, I know he'll be devastated if he learns the truth from a "friend" but I worry that he'd have a lot more and greater trust issues with us as parents if we let him know we've been allowing him to believe a lie all these years. I worry.

A few years ago there was this comic by Ed Brubaker called Sleeper. Issue 9 or 10 of volume two had the origin story of one of the main character's friends, a story that involved a good and loving father finding his young son horrifically eaten by a neighbour's dog, causing him a mental break and a life of violent crime to follow. This book made me physically ill and killed an excellent series for me. Fast forward. . .Stephen King's The Mist is adapted to film. If you haven't seen it and don't want any of it spoiled, stop fucking reading.

This is my favourite King short story (though it's technically a novella, which I should stick with so that I can call something else my favourite short). Based on my memory of the story, I was all set to let Lash and Aeia accompany me to the theater to see the film version (some scary, hidden monsters and giant spiders; some evil religious zealotry). The kids misbehaved at the zero hour and didn't get to go. This is a serendipitous happening that I'm very thankful for. I really dug most of the movie and found it a faithful and enjoyable adaptation, all the way up 'til the altered ending. The story ends with them driving off into the mist and an unsure future, which is perfectly a-ok with me. The movie doesn't stop there. In the movie, the main character earlier promises to protect his very young son from the monsters (and at a time where, thematically, the crazier humans are clearly more monster than anything else when he makes the promise), and so when their vehicle runs out of gas in the film (well beyond the story's closing) the loving and protective dad takes his gun and blows his son's brains out. Everything that followed that was just incredibly cliched and ridiculous, but I was too busy throwing up on the aisle in front of me to care. That scene made me understand a clear distinction between something being horrific and something being terrifying or scary as that was just horrific--and unnecessary.

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

Happy Hannukah, peeps.

Loving Me Loving You

Starting off, a trailer for blog posts to come: an update on CB the cell phone kid, adventures in guinea pigs, McBoomerangs suck, absolutes, shiny photographs, killing Santa and throwing up at the movies. Brought to you by the letter E and the number 3.

A TMI Tuesday meme Wednesday, because that's how I roll.

1. If your partner buys you a sexy little "something" is it a present for you or for your partner?
That really depends on whether I enjoy it more than they do.

2. What are 3 characteristics of "your type"?
a-liking me; I find that I'm more attracted to folks who obviously like me back than folks who need to be worked hard on; b-scent plays a huge role in a person being my type; I know it's a bit of an odd answer, as most people jump to the visual indicators, but smell (and I don't mean simple lack of B.O.) can completely make or break you (I dumped one girlfriend after our first kiss because I didn't like her scent and knew I wouldn't get past it); c-good complexion.

3. On a scale of 1-10, how good a cook are you?
If you've had a real meal made by me, you'd know I break that scale significantly past 10 and am just too humble to give you another number.

4. Tattoos: Love them or hate them. On you? On a partner?
Getting tattoos is addicting, so I love them for me. I am ambivalent about tats on others. I generally find tattoos to be very sexy, with exceptions. I find trendy tattoos a turn-off (tribal bands or barbed wire, cartoon characters ((though any comic nerd friend of mine with a comic tat that I knew meant more than trendyness to them would be an exception to this one, like if Drew got a Flash tat, or Chris' Captain Marvel tat)), roses...). Knowing your tat means something to you is a turn on; "dude, I got this because it's, like, hella awesome" makes me want to barf in your biscuits. There are tat placements I hate too--feet, breasts, face and hand tats make me want to flee.

5. Stubble: Good or bad? How often do you shave?
I find stubble on guys, if growing in evenly and full, sexy. If it comes in patchy, shave it off, chump. On girls, not at all. Me, I shave my face daily except Sundays, on a bad week I might skip a day (my stubble is slow enough that I can barely get away with it at work if I skip a shave once).


Bonus (as in optional):What are a few of your favorite things (both sexual non-sexual)?

To all the newbies reading this for the first time, just keep reading and you'll figure me out a lot more; to everyone else, this is a pretty useless question.

Scrotum

By its very nature, every day at work attracts at least one slightly a-hole customer (or "guest" as we call them now). When you see hundreds of folks a day, the law of averages just calls for it. My favourite is the elderly guy who comes in very regularly and has had the occasion to inform me I'm going to go to Hell because of my astrology tattoos (if only he knew, if only he knew...). I'm currently waiting for him to use that very phrase on me again because I've been given the go-ahead to let him know I'd be seeing him there. . .

Anyway. I need to rant/vent a bit about this complete and total asshat that I had to deal with forever today.

This college kid comes in and orders his two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-etc.-etc., dines inside the restaurant and departs on his bicycle. While in the restaurant, he's talking incessantly on the two hundred dollar cellphone he's sure to have gotten from his mommy. So anyway, as said, he eats his burger and bikes off into the sunset. Only he returns a half hour later because he lost his cellphone and is convinced he left it in the store (because small objects never fall out of peoples' large baggy pockets in their cargo shorts when they ride around on bicycles). It's now the middle of our post-lunch rush and I rather kindly help him search the public area of the store, go through the trash receptacle he used with him assisting; I even call his cell multiple times because he knew it was on "ring" and we'd find it that way. Well, we never found it and he leaves, deciding the logical answer (he lost it whilst on his bike) is the right one.

Only he comes back two hours later. The garbage can he's convinced he threw his phone in has since been emptied and run through our trash compactor. If his phone was in the trash, it's now flatter than Demi Moore's chest in About Last Night. College kid (we'll call him CB now, as his name is Chris Beck) is now 100% positive his phone was actually on vibrate and that's why we didn't hear it, and wants us to let him back into the non-public areas of our store to go through our trash compactor. We're in the middle of our very busy Friday dinner rush at this point and I waste twenty minutes explaining to him that 1. we went through the garbage together and it wasn't there, 2. If it were there, it's destroyed now and 3. I can't let him back there, as I'd lose my job (and 4. his phone was lost on the road somewhere and likely picked up by some stranger). I make these exact points at least 5-6 times before getting to the point of just wanting to run him through the trash compactor so I give him the number to our business office so he can lodge whatever complaints he wants and pass him off to the superior manager present, figuring her aggressive lesbo nature will get him the brush-off quickly enough while I go back to helping my employees service all of our paying customers. They simply have the same conversation I had, for another twenty minutes before she finally gets him to leave, still positive his phone is in our compactor, safe and sound.

These are the sort of people that make me understand random acts of violence conceptually.

So how was your day?

h.w.c.

TMI Tuesday time:
1. Are you a member of the mile high club?

I can't say that I am, no. I've only flown twice, and sans partner each time.

2. What is the most public place you have ever had sex?

That would be a toss-up between three different places: a theater, a church and a former place of employment.

3. What is your most embarrassing family moment?

I'm guessing this is meant to be an embarrassing sexual memory w/ family involved? I don't really have any.

4. What kind of birth control do you use?

I use condoms (pretty much my only non-surgical option). She can use whatever she prefers.
5. Have you ever had sex in the snow? Rain?

No to the former. Yes to the latter. It's cold.

Bonus (as in optional):Describe your flirting technique: innuendo, telling a dirty joke, talking about sex life, or physical contact?

Save for dirty joking, which I don't do at all, I've used innuendo, talk about sex life and physical contact as parts of flirting technique interchangeably and variably.

Thank You

We mealed with the Taylors' slightly extended family and Terry. I just wanted to thank everyone who helped make the day go well by contributing good food, helping watch kids, not complaining while I Katamari'd. . .

I dodged having to McWork today, but didn't dodge cooking. Apparently I've made a name for myself as a quality cranberry sauce brewer, so that was my task (one I was happy to complete--I happen to love my homemade cranberry sauce as well. I should make it more frequently.) Denise made pumpkin bread, muffins and cookies. All great. Chris made a very nice, very juicy turkey.

So much fr watching what I eat; I watched myself eat three plates (though plates 2 & 3 were only cranberry sauce and turkey).

Hope y'all had a very pleasant Thanksgiving holiday (or Thursday as you non-US Americans call it).

Post Secret of the day:
Sometimes we put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to knock them down.

S-E-X-X-X-Y

A few weeks worth of TMI Tuesday memes for prurience's sake (and my tired laziness):

1. Have you ever met a fellow blogger in person?
I have. The lovely Aimee graced us with her presence last year and it was fantastic. Many of the other bloggers I frequent, chat with, etc. (Chris, Chrissy, Travis, Shel) I knew IRL before they were ever bloggers, and I was online friendly with Drew via e-mail for years prior to blogging or meeting him in person this past August.

2. Did you ever play an innocent game of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours"? How old where you?
I was in my twenties.

3. When did you get your first not so innocent kiss?
8th grade, which was 1987 or 1988.

3a.If your partners are no longer of the opposite sex, when did you get that first kiss?
My first same sex kiss was summer of 1995.

4. Have you ever awoke with someone who's name you did not remember?
No.

5. Have you ever let someone else wash you while you were perfectly capable of doing it yourself?
OF COURSE! I mean hello isn't that some of the greatest fore- or aft- play?

Bonus (as in optional): What makes a great first date for you?
I think any date where I feel as if there's a real good amount of chemistry building between me and the person is a great date. I don't need any sort of specific type or date, destination or activity for it to be great, just for it to be non-awkward.

TMI #2:

1. Do you believe in ghosts? If so have you every seen one?
Yes I do believe in ghosts. I believe to have seen a few.

2. What’s the scariest movie you ever saw?
When I saw the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie as a young kid, alone at home at night, that movie scared the fuck out of me. To this day, sadly, I can't watch Blair Witch without the lights on.

3. If you were given a house that was free would you accept it if it was haunted?
Sure. But if I couldn't deal with the haunting, I would just sell it

4. If you were given a house that was free would you accept it if the last person had been murdered in it?
Sure. As long as their murderer still wasn't living in it.

5. What was your most favorite costume you wore for Halloween?
I have one planned, but I haven't worn one yet.

Bonus (as in optional): What’s your most memorable Halloween memory?
As a teenager, there was a Halloween roaming the streets with my friends Lincoln (RIP) and Kristil where we got jumped by a bunch of rednecks that was very memorable.


TMI#3:

1. If they kept stats of your sex life like they do in sports, what would you lead the league in? What all time record would you hold?
Reception of unfulfilling homoerotic moments from straight folk.

2. What song gets you in the mood to have sex? best music to fuck to? best music to make love to?
There really isn't any music that gets me in the mood. I'm definitely not a big fan of hard rock, but I find groups like Nine Inch Nails and their ilk oddly make good coital soundtracks. For lovemaking I like the same stuff, but softer, pretty much anything acoustic and emo.

3. Where is your favorite place to have sex in your house/apartment?
Anywhere my darling wife is at.

4. (girls) Have you sent or given your used panties to a guy? Do you know what happened to them? (guys) Have you taken/asked for a girls panties before? What did you do with them? (non-breeders) What is the protocol for this "tradition"?
No, I'm not all that into trophies.

5. What makes a kiss a great to you?
The connection. It can be soft and gentle or rough and hard, but there has to be the connection. Two people locked together in one of the most innocent of sex acts. The best part of a great kiss is when the flip switches. You are kissing, but then all of a sudden it moves form kissing to passion. You can't get enough of each other. You have to kiss harder or deeper. Touch each other. Rip each other's clothes off. There can be so much built into a kiss, but it shouldn't be routine. It shouldn't be something you do to start things off. It should be the thing that starts to get you off.
(This was Mark's answer, but he's said it perfectly. I'll have to add though that I've yet to meet a guy who made a decent kisser)

Bonus: Who pays for a date? If the girl asks a guy out, does she pay? If you are interested in same sex partners, how do you determine who pays?
I think that whomever instigates the date should be the one to pay for it or to at least make sure the invitee knows they need to do the paying instead.

One

Books 28 and 29 of the 50 book challenge: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, books 7 & 8: Burnt Offerings and Blue Moon (I'm about 1/3 of the way through book 9 right now, and now have all of 'em through book 14 or 15...) by Laurell K. Hamilton. They continue to not be great, but still be entertaining. Rarely is there a slow, dull stretch (like say half of Harry Potter's finale). Endings still feel a wee bit rushed, and every book has the occasional typographical error that makes me wonder how poorly her copy editors do their jobs. So far, Burnt Offerings has been my favourite of the books, finally bringing a decent amount more detail into the vampiric aspects of her make believe universe.

In other news:

For the past couple weeks Shel has had a photo montage depicting her weight loss on her blog. She looks awesome. Congrats on how well all the hard work's been paying off for you.

Last weekend we enjoyed some tequila shots and I've decided I really need to not enjoy tequila shots again.

Tasmia is growing well and healthy. Though she does seem to poo a good deal more than I remember my other three kids pooing. Against all expectations, Rael is, rather than being extremely jealous of the baby, very friendly toward the baby.

McWork has its good moments and its bad, as does most any job. Today I got verbally reprimanded for the number of t-reds (transaction reductions) that happened under my watch yesterday (on three different occasions of 30-ish dollar orders, the guest'd cards were declined and I had to reduce their orders significantly down. The computer tracks this when it occurs and gets me yelled at.), ah well. Tomorrow we undergo an across-the-board price change and as the vast majority of our morning to midday customers are regulars, who always buy the same things and usually have exact change, I imagine dealing with a lot of pissy elderly folks tomorrow.

I think I have the new Katamari waiting for me (I've yet to open an amazon box, and have been expecting this game since I preordered it some time last summer) and I dread it a little because Brian's spoken a lot of smack about it ahead of time for me. That aside, I hope to enjoy it a bit in the next couple days.

Those who are somewhat in the know and are keeping track, aside from a few hiccups here and there, things are much better with Denise and I.

My McFeet are still killing me.

Ooh Child