Google

Monday, February 25, 2008

The Littlest Milk Maid

Peach had a cup of milk yesterday and some how she decided to dip her hands in the cup and cover her hair with milk. Needless to say it will be a while before she is allowed to use a regular open cup again.

Mc B.L.T.

Sophie and I were just reminissing about the old McB.L.T. I never really ate it, but Sophie said she would eat one everyday, and then she said it was probably a good thing they got rid of it or else she would weigh 500 pounds. Yeah, that probably was good then.

The Barn Painter

Check out some pics and video from my old high school buddy the Barn Painter. A.K.A. Scott Hagan.

http://www.barnartist.com/

Voting Dilemma

Well I have decided not to vote in the republican side of the Ohio Primary on March 4th. It looks like McCain is going to get the nomination or at least it is mathematically impossible for Huck to win. So I will vote on the Democratic side. You see Ohio has a modified open primary where you can vote for whatever side you want to, but afterwards you are automatically registered to that party. So if you are a republican you can vote in the democratic primary, but after that you become a registered democrat. Like the label really matters anyway. I think you just get calls and fliers from whichever party you are registered to. Anyway all of the other local fun stuff is going to be on the democrat side too, what with the county commissioners and the county sheriff. I gotta give my endorsement for Sheriff to Donnie Nippert, he sprayed me with mace once. Trust me, he is serious about being police chief. Back to the dilemma though, I will either vote for Hill (oh I can't believe I just typed that) or Obama (double yuck). So which one is the lesser of two evils, let's see. Sophie and I kind of agree that the only option here is Hill. Obama seems to have the youth vote and that would carry over into the general election, but if he doesn't make it then that voting block may sit out the general election, also African Americans may feel disenfranchised if their candidate doesn't make it. But seriously what has he done? Other than having a rock star appeal I don't know that he has accomplished anything. Sure he is a good orator, but just because you can give speeches that doesn't entitle you to be president any more than someone who blogs a lot. By the way I am declaring for the 2012 election, regardless of who wins. Also Hillary is the most polarizing of any candidate in the last century or so. She may get 49% of the vote but she will drive away as many people as she draws. So for now it is Hill, but that could change.

Tony Wins, Again !!!

Tony Stewart is still the only person to win in the Nationwide Series, as he wins the second race of the year this time at California. Kyle Busch finished second, which keeps him second in points. I was kind of rooting for Rowdy because he would be leading in points in all three of the top series. Instead he is 1st in points in the Craftsman Truck, Sprint Cup, and second in Nationwide. No one has ever lead all the of the series at the same time. You know in real life, I've done it multiple times on the video games. Also I've won all of the cha

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Montoyaed List

Today during the race Sophie and I said at about the same time someone was going to get "Montoyaed" by Juan Pablo when he got near the front, and sure enough Clint Boyer was the first victim of 2008. I am going to start a list of people who get Montoyaed and I will update every week as debts are repaid.

1. Clint Boyer - Daytona 500
2. Dave Blaney - Daytona 500 - Also took out Mark Martin and some other people.

Tony Wins!!!

Tony Stewart Won the first ever Nationwide Series race at Daytona. Toyotas finish 1 2 with Tony's teammate Kyle Busch finishing second. Now if they can only do it during the big race.

Death

It seems like we have been losing a lot of people close to us lately and it is pretty tough. The toughest period of losing people for me was a 10 month period around my 20th birthday. My grandmother on my Mom's side died in June, fairly suddenly. She fell at her house, went to the hospital, they found cancer and within a month she was gone. My Dad died the next January, after battling colon cancer for two years with two surgeries (one that left a gapping hole in his stomach because they couldn't close it all the way up due to an infection) and chemo and everything. And my other grandmother died in March. During the same period other people close to me also lost people. My roommate in college lost his father at Thanksgiving, he had been fighting bone marrow cancer and was up and down. At the beginning of fall quarter he had actually been up getting around pretty decent, but by the end of the quarter his state had really deteriorated, which is what can happen with bone marrow cancer. Sophie's grandfather also died, around Christmas due to complications from diabetes which caused some other problems and things in his kidneys, which is what I think he actually died from. And two of my friends from high school lost their grandfather.

They say it takes two years to really get past grieving over someone that you lost, and I think that is due to the emotion you feel during the first anniversary of the passing. You get hit with the same emotions you had when you lost the person the first time only now there are no ceremonies and people don't know why your acting the way you are. When someone first dies there is all kind of outpouring of sympathy from family and friends and it kind of distracts you some what, but on the first anniversary there are only the people who were the closest that are left to deal with things. The second year you kind of expect not to be comforted and the emotions aren't quite as strong. When my dad died it was just me and Mom and every January 17th we would call and talk and just see how each other was. Until this year. 10 years later the day is able to pass without any fanfare or acknowledgement, I mean you never forget that day, but eventually you get far enough away from it that it doesn't have the same impact. Eventually there are enough new days that mean something, weddings, birthdays, graduation days that you don't concentrate on the death days. But only if you keep living yourself. Just because someone else stops living that doesn't mean you can stop.

It is hard at first, I cut back my class schedule to 12 hours for the rest of winter quarter, but I was doing undergrad research in chemistry and the summer before my senior year I got an internship with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. That is where I met Bud Smith and he really helped me make sense of what had happened. He talked to me about Job from the bible about how he had always been a good and faithful servant. One day the devil and God were talking and God said look at my servant Job he is very faithful. And the devil was like of course he will be faithful if you keep blessing him, take some of those blessings away and we'll see how faithful he is. So God let the devil take away his things, and his family and even his good health, but Job wouldn't say anything bad about God. Eventually his friends came and told him that he should be cursing God and he held out for a long time until finally he asked God 'Why'. Then God asked him if he had been there when he created the heavens and the Earth and of course the answer was 'no' so God asked him why he would ever question what God did and he didn't have an answer. Job said he was sorry for ever questioning God and he understood that he didn't have the understanding or knowledge of God and he asked for forgiveness. When he prayed to God, God saw he was sincere and he blessed Job with more than what he had before.

I don't know if that is going to make a whole lot of sense, but the basics are that God takes people for reason we don't understand at the time and only when we look back can we see what the plan was. Eventually we will all meet the same end and there are going to be a lot of people taken from our lives. We can't really blame God, because we are all born with a terminal illness called mortality. All you can do is be prepared, and it may seem a little morbid, but I always remember my Dad saying that I eventually he would be gone and now it makes a little more sense I guess. It is always hard to lose someone, but God won't give you more than you can handle. I don't remember exactly what verse it is, but it is there. If you keep that in mind you can make it through anything.

R.i.P. - Goldie

Sampson's fish 'goldie' also died this week. We actually got him from Sophie's aunt and uncle who got him from a fair. I don't know how long they had him, but we have had him for about 2 years or so. I don't know it seems like two years. Sampson is dealing with it pretty well, he wants to get a new one. He said he wants to bury him so we'll do that today and then maybe get another one. Farewell fish.

R.I.P. - R.S.J.

On February 12th, Sophie's uncle Rick St. John passed away from a heart attack. He was 61 years old and was a former employee of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. We actually worked there at the same time for a period and whenever I would see him he would always say 'Hey Cec' because that is what they called me at the plant up there. He was a very good man and was always willing to help somebody else. I remember when I asked him to help me patch some holes in the ceiling and he said sure. When I got home he said 'let's get started' he walked in the kitchen grab his stuff and said,' Ok, were done', here he didn't wait for me to get started he had already done everything before I got home. There are probably 100's of stories like that for Rick because he was always doing something usually for someone else it seemed like. He also really loved his family and I will miss Uncle Rick.

Monday, February 11, 2008

The Dukes of Hazzard

I vowed that I wouldn't spend any of my money on this movie, and I wouldn't watch it until it was on TV. Well on Sunday I finally saw it, and it was surprisingly better than I thought. They completely ruined the characters though, Before Boss Hogg and the cops were always the bufoons, but this time around it was the Duke boys, and Jessica. That's the other thing Jessica Simpson was terrible as Daisy Duke. Daisy was always intelligent and hot, not just eye candy, Simpson would have better off not opening her mouth. They did do some cool stuff with the car and some of the driving scenes with the way they were shot, and as awesome as the General Lee was, it kind of loses some of the luster with today's cars. Overall maybe 2 out of 5. Acting was a 1, Car was a 3.

The Disney Trend

Sophie and I have noticed that Disney movies have a disturbing trend. The Mom is always dead. Well about 90% of the time. I guess it is really only disturbing if your a mom, but for instance here are some of the Disney movies that fit this trend:

Finding Nemo
Bambi - well at least at the end
Cinderella (implied, but also maybe the Dad)
Mulan
Angles in the Outfield
Dumbo
Lilo and Stitch (both parents)
Chicken Little
Snow White
Pocahontas
A Goofy movie
The Little Mermaid
The Lion King (Mom never mentioned, Dad gets killed though)
The Game Plan

Also Sophie says there are a lot of wicked step mothers and she says that sets a bad example like women can't be nice.

For some interesting reading check out this link.
http://www.cwluherstory.com/Salon/kristin.html

Good Night Story

(taken from the game plan)

The big bad wolf
blew down the grammie's house
and then ate the Goldie Locks
and something about the porridge.

Good Night

I hate sick kids

Don't get me wrong I don't hate kids I just hate when they are sick. Sampson threw up in the car on the way home yesterday. I feel so bad when they are sick, but he is feeling better and we are going watch "the Game Plan".

Friday, February 08, 2008

Cadbury Battle

This year I start battling for my cadbury eggs. Peach grab one of mine (yes, MINE) and shoved the whole thing in her mouth. Allegedly she said, "Umm that's good" but how good could a two year old talk with a cadbury egg shoved in her mouth. Well, I will try and make sure that doesn't happen again.

Moment of Truth

So Fox has a new show called 'Moment of Truth' were someone has to answer 21 questions, TRUTHFULLY. Basically they ask someone 50 questions while they are hooked up to a polygraph machine and they pick 21 of the questions to ask them on TV. The person's family and friends gets to join them on stage and they can hit a plunger if they don't like the question that is asked and the person can get asked a different question. From what I gathered in the first episode I saw, it is basically selling yourself and your family out on national TV for the shot at $500,000.

The guy I saw was a former Marine who had joined the Marines apparently not to impress his father, but while he was in the service he did something he was ashamed of. But not drunk driving, he's done that in the last 6 months. Now he has a 'boring' half Japanese girl friend (he makes racial jokes about her parents) that he doesn't want to propose to and he uses his lack of money as an excuse. Which is ironic because he works as a food server and has taken tip money off of other people's tables and also changed people's credit card receipts to increase his tip amount. Even with all that extra income he still did some time as a male underwear model, but he stuffed up front if you know what I mean. Only problem is he lied about it and went home with out any cash. Guess that girlfriend is going to have to wait for a ring, oh well at least he didn't embarrass himself.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Survivor Picks - Micronesia

What we're gonna do this year is pick one of the 10 fans and one of the 10 favorites.

Kirk's Picks - Fan - Erik
Favorite - Amanda (winner)

Sophie's picks - fan - Girl in blue - Will sort out next week (winner)
Favorite - James

Peach makes herself Pretty

Peach's uncle was watching her today while Sophie went to the doctor's with a couple of girls. Anyway he said he took his eyes of her for a minute and the next thing he knew she was up in the bedroom putting on Mommy's make-up. When he caught up to her she said, "Ain't I cute?" If I would have been here I would have said, "yeah, your really cute, how bought I had some natural redness to your butt." Just kidding. When Sophie told me about it I just laughed. Until tomorrow when I get her myself.

I Make My Own Rules

That is the title of LL Cool J's (James Todd Smith), book and in case you were wondering I finished it last Friday. It was written in the late 90's, and chronicles LL's rise through the 80's and his personnel life all the way though. It was pretty good, it was real graphic though and I would caution young eyes if you know what I mean. He is set to release his 13th album this year and he will finally be able to leave Def Jam. Apparently his dad had him sign some insane agreement before he knew what he was doing. He did have alot of forgiveness for his dad though, at least before that. See his dad shot his mom and grandfather when he was four. Then his mom hooked up with her rehab therapist and the guy would beat LL for any reason and just made life really tough on him. Unfortunately he couldn't tell his mom because she wouldn't believe him. So he turned violent himself before turning to a life of rap and hip hop. Then he got rich and blew a bunch of his money, got into drugs a little and quickly gave them up, but was addicted to physical activity with the females. That is where the book gets a little graphic. Anyway where the book ended he had 3 kids and a wife and was working on his show on UPN, with his clothing line FUBU and shoes Najee (named after his son). He did get pretty deep into religion (when LL was young he was actually Catholic and sang for the Pope in a choir in the 70's). I know the show is no longer on, but I'm not sure where his life is now. Anyway it was a pretty interesting book and just couldn't put it down.

Not so Super Tuesday

Well "Super Tuesday" has come and gone, without really settling much. Except now the only real conservative candidate has dropped out even though he was still second in the delegate count. The real question that comes out of super tuesday is, "What the hell is wrong with West Virginia?" Sorry for the language, but seriously, only 1,100 people voted!! 567 for Huck and 521 for Romney and McCain got 12 votes. Huck ended up with all 18 delegates from the state, but what the heck happened. I think the primary system really needs revised in this country. It is up to local government to fund to equipment and different things concerning elections yet there are only two parties and sometimes the parties don't want to have their primaries on the same day, how stupid. It should be up to the states and there should be one day for both parties and that is it. I know that WV is mostly Democratic but, out of 2 million people you're telling me only 1,100 wanted to vote in the republican primary. Come on. And the sad thing is in all of the coverage on Tuesday and even up 'til today no one has mentioned it. It just seems very odd to me that something like that could even happen. Very Odd. Conspiracy odd, if you know what I mean. I think there was some type of electronic voting or caucasing over the internet or something and some people didn't realize it was voting day because both of the parties weren't voting. What they need to do is have one day and forget about this winner-take-all B.S. I mean when you have three real candidates it isn't fair to give all the delegates to one person when they don't win a clear majority of the votes. If they get more than 50% then fine, give the all the delegates. But when someone gets only 38% he doesn't deserve all of the delegates because 62% of the people voted against him!!! That is why McCain is going to get beat. He may get more delegates than anyone else, but he doesn't even have the majority of the support of his own party. And all of the pimping the media is doing for him will go away in the fall. It's funny, I was listening to the radio and they said "does John McCain really think the New York Times and these other news papers are going to support him in the fall?" And you know what it will be true. For me this race is still going to come down to the V.P. candidates. If McCain comes back with a real conservative V.P. that can mobilize the base of the republican party he may have a chance to win the general election. And if the Democrats go for a mirror image of the presidential candidate (Somebody real far left) they can lose. Right now, though, even if the democrats are running neck and neck they are still ahead of the republicans, which is unfortnate, because it will mean higher taxes for everyone who already pays taxes, and possibly even higher taxes if they pass some form of health care coverage.

Oh, I guess I was wrong about Tuesday being Huck's last stand. It turned out to be Mitt's last stand, but either way after Tuesday the race couldn't support two "conservative" candidates. I am still going to write-in Romney when the primary comes to Ohio.