Birthdays In Afghanistan Don't Count!

It's my little brother's birthday today. He has been in-country in Kandahar for... 2 days now and is doing fine (I hope!).

Here's a picture of him before he left:



And here's an artist's rendering of what he'll look like when he returns:

Whatcha Readin'?

I've been reading some really good books lately. On the comic/graphic novel front, Invincible is awesome. As most of the forewards to the books say, it's a superhero comic that isn't ashamed of being a superhero comic. I've only got the first 4 books but they're great.

On a more productive note, I've also been reading "Working With You Is Killing Me", which is full of both pure common sense AND practical tips for working with people who drive you nuts. I'm finding it so useful that I'm buying a copy to share with Julie and my coworkers.

And to top things off, I got the newest Dresden book from the library and if Jim Butcher's Twitter feed is any indication, it has a humdinger of an ending. I've got some ideas about where it may go but I hope that none of them pan out because they would be very, very bad things.

Another One?!

So Garrett mentions, out of the blue, that he would really like another baby sister... or brother, it doesn't matter. This after we had one of the worst days out with Kara ever. I mean, we had to haul her out of at least two different stores and plonk her in the car until her meltdown subsided. Sheesh.

That said, if we did have another one, I could do this:




Apologies for linking to two SMBC comics in one week, but when they go for the nerdy, I love it.

Mind, Prepare To Be Blown

Check out this story about a time traveller caught on film in the 1940s. It might be a hoax but it's pretty crazy if the actual photo is legit and this isn't just a strange fashion statement of the times.

Sounds Familiar...

I swear I've had this conversation with Julie, only with a little less fire...

Guess Who's 3!

Hey! It's Kara's 3rd birthday today! Alas, she's a bit sick, but she's a trooper and was able to have a little party at the babysitter's place regardless of the sniffles.

Dawn Of 'Internet'

This is an awesome news report (starring a much hairier Peter Mansbridge) breaking news of 'Internet' back in the day. Not THE Internet. Just Internet.

And I have to agree that the part where the guy says there isn't a lot of swearing or put-downs is probably the funniest (and sadly, most untrue) part of the whole piece. Ah, remember the good ol' days?

First Report On The Internet - CBC Prime Time News - A funny movie is a click away

Happy Birthday Mom!

So today was my mom's big birthday. I won't spill the beans on which one, but it did have a 6 and a 0 in it :)

I'm still digesting the food from Saturday's big dinner...

Delightfully Odd

We went out for dinner for my mom's birthday today at a nice steak & seafood place that was like stepping back in time about 50 years. It was staffed by a crew of incredibly classy older Italian gentlemen who were very nice and friendly. We were all kind of thrown by this as we're used to having the bubbly blonde server when we go out to restaurants and we weren't quite sure how to handle these guys. That said, they were great servers, the food was amazing and I think one of them was trying to hit on Julie because he brought her a prime rib that was about the size of a small moose.

I mean, we've cooked roasts for our family that were smaller than the slab of meat that she was brought. The leftovers alone from her meal will feed our family for 2-3 days. Of course, this meant I get to give Julie the gears about her Latin lover for the next few days :)

It was an odd meal, but a thoroughly charming kind of odd that was the perfect way to step out of our comfort zone. I'd do it more often if it was as enjoyable as this :)

We were also able to get my mom's good friend Philip to join us (hint: his birthday is the same day as my mom's, so this was a great 2-fer) and he proved that ALL men need a crazy hobby as he had his set of fancy fountain pens in tow. It turns out that he repairs fountain pens in his spare time. Now I feel like busting out my calligraphy set and seeing what it's all about.

Good Morning!

Well, I sure feel a lot better tonight.

I crashed at around 8pm last night and was dead to the world until around 2am... Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to sleep so I just crashed on the couch for a few hours watching TV and feeling like crap.

I took today off as a sick day and it's a good thing I did. I ended up sleeping from about 8:30-9am until 3pm today. My body obviously needed to catch up on sleep and while I'm still kind of achey, I feel a lot better than I did over the weekend. Whatever has been dogging me for the past week seems to have been exorcised after my day of snoozing.

I just hope I can sleep tonight!

Fun In The Sun!

So today was "Act Like A Jerk" day around these parts. I was probably one of the worst perpetrators, but it wasn't helped by everyone else being idiots.

I had to help ask a few people to move their cars out of the fire routes here at the house and while one person was perfectly understanding about parking on the road, the other morons acted as though we told them they had to move out and then burned their house down behind them.

And they are well aware that they aren't supposed to park in the middle of the parking lot! Well, they had their one courtesy reminder to move the car. Next time I'm just calling a tow truck and they can pay the bill.

Morons.

I was in a pretty grumpy mood most of today too. I think I'm coming down with something and everyone else was just getting on my nerves. And we bought a new BBQ today and I spent the last part of the afternoon putting it together, which didn't help my mood much.

And add in some cranky kids and, well... recipe for disaster. I think we all need to go to different rooms of the house and chill out! I just want to get the kids to bed and then I'm going to just flake out on our bed and snooze for the rest of the night.

Anyway, enough moaning and groaning. Here's the new BBQ, by the way...

Behold The New Furniture!

So this is a little bit late in coming but here are some pictures of our new couch and chair!

Beware The Lake Of Firey Tokens

A Mouse's Life For Me!

We popped into the pet store today after our trip to EB & Play N Trade and saw these cute little mice on their wheel. I could have spent the better part of an hour just watching them spin around and around. I was sure they'd get their tails wound around the axle of the wheel but amazingly, that never happened.

Zoom!

April Fools!

I'm too tired to think of a great April Fools joke this year. I should just skip work on a lark :) Nah.

Did anyone out there pull off (or plan to pull off) a great prank this year? I still have fond memories of the one I pulled, what, 6 years ago or so when I convinced one of the people at the district office that all of the furniture we had stored at work was stolen. Ah, good times.

Now I must focus my energies into teaching Garrett the art of the prank.

All Hail The New King Of Chairs!

Well, our furniture was delivered yesterday. As with most things, there were a few hiccups. First off, they called at 7am to let us know that they would be coming between 9 and 12... which was a little earlier than the after 4pm timeframe we had arranged and were working around. Thankfully I was able to pop home to let them in when they came.

I also had to screw the legs on the bottom of the couch, which was no big deal but kind of annoying. We also had a big rip in the lining on the bottom of the couch but I was able to parlay that into a $50 discount on the couch since it's not visible and doesn't do anything structural to the couch. I just didn't want to have them deliver another couch :)

The kids are still trying to come to terms with the fact that the old chair and couch are gone. I, on the other hand, fell asleep in the recliner and snoozed there all night long until just now. That's a good thing :)