Go Fish

Sampson has found a new favorite game - Go Fish. Only Sophie bought it for Peach so she could learn some of her colors, but Sampson has managed to hijack it. Now he wants to play it continuously, and there is no way to stop him. He is kind of like me that way, when I find something fun I just do it, and do it until it isn't fun anymore and then I don't want anything to do with it. Well we finally broke the streak tonight, but he would play 10 or 12 games a night easy if you let him. Did I mention the cards were Care Bear cards? Oh if you have any other go fish cards please send 'em this way, something for boys. Like bugs or different kinds of weapons or even transformers, something for boys just not Care Bears.

Responding to a comment

I noticed this comment recently-

"hey here at the triple c we notice your not in a cast."

This was in response to the pictures from Maw's house where we were playing basketball. Of course given my recent history with basketball people may expect to see me in a cast after hooping it up. Well I just wanted to let people know that against the elderly and small children - I OWN! Now you start getting into the kids that are double digits and you gotta watch out cause those kids are trouble. They don't only get you down, they keep you down and then jump on your ankle and next thing you know... well let's just say 10 and up you gotta keep yourself safe first.

Happy Mother'stine Day

That is what Peach told Sophie today when she woke up. 'Happy Mother'stine Day'. I guess it is like a cross between Mother's Day and Valentines day and apparently it is good for anyone as she wished me and Sampson the same thing. Anyway hope everyone had a good Mother'stine day.

Our normal Mother's day dinner on Sophie's side didn't disappoint this year. Normally there is always something that happens. Last year we went to Cheddar's with about 10-12 people so we waited a while for a table, then when we were seated we waited for a while to order. Then after everyone's food came I waited an extra long while, because apparently they forgot to put my order in. I had to wait until almost everyone was done eating before I got my food. Needless to say I haven't been back since. This year though we decided to have breakfast on Saturday before the T-ball game. So we went to Bob Evans with Sophie's brothers and Mom and when we got there we ordered the table for 10. Well Ricco said that the manager was giving a lot of attitude for having to fix the dining room up for 10. So he wanted to leave. And he did. And then we did. We all kind of followed out into the parking lot and decided to go to Denny's, which didn't bother me all that bad because I was wanting to try the new grandslamwhich (by the way it was awesome - although the syrupy french toast type bread was maybe a little too much on the sweet side). At least I didn't get left out of the food this year, but I would say the total time I had to wait to eat was probably still over an hour from the time I thought I would be eating. Maybe it is me, maybe I'm the bad luck guy when it comes to Mother's day meals. I know one thing, next year I'm packing a snack when we go out to eat.

Blog Neglect

Well I have neglected the old blog for the last couple of weeks, but not without reason. See I've been at war with my cybernation Helfenland and it has been taking up a good bit of my time. Anyway the war is over for now I things are starting to get back to normal. Other than that not a whole lot going on. My job is still in a state of flux, hopefully this week we'll find some more out. Sampson has played a couple of games of T-ball, Peach continues to practice for her recital in June, both kids got their pics taken, and Sophie has been working out. Sampson is also really into playing basketball outside. He reminds me of me when I was young. We got a little 6' hoop that he uses, and I put a new net on it last week. Today we brought home my little OU basketball so he could use it, since it is a little bigger than the one he was using. Hopefully now I'll be able to updated the blog a little more regularly, unless you know war breaks out again. Also that was the reason for the 'Fightin Music'. In case you didn't notice the change.

Unbridled Fun at Maw's House

Mom always said she wished she had gotten a scooter when she was younger, so for Easter she bought the kids Scooters. We told her she needed to try it out and it looks like she really liked it.

I hope she doesn't wear it out before the kids get to really use it. Also Mom was showing off her mad balling skills. Check it out.

Just goes to show you can't have too much fun at Maw's house.

iPhone obsession - over

I had badgered Sophie pretty bad about letting me get an iPhone, but she never gave in. Anyway I think my obsession with the iPhone is over. It is $200 plus you have to get a data plan for an extra $30 a month. Currently I have changed my focus to an LG Incite, which I can get for $50 with no increase in the plan. And I think there is a way to get around the GPS monthly charge and have the GPS work as stand alone, plus it is Wi-Fi capable and has windows mobile. I worry about picking up another 2 year contract though, maybe I shouldn't. I'll probably just wait.

Work Update

The black cat strikes again. There is some talk that the Big-O may have to idle production due to a lack of ore. As more details become available I will let people know, but right now Sophie and I aren't panicking. Maybe we should though, I guess you just get used to it after about the 4th or 5th time. Anyway if it does happen it won't be for at least 3 weeks, so we'll have that. There might even be some things happen that would allow for just about everyone to stay employed through the end of the year. That would be a positive. I just hate putting life on hold because of worrying about this kind of stuff, but I don't know what to do to avoid it. Eventually the recession will end because there won't be anymore jobs to lose.

Fantasy Update - Cause real life sucks even more

The Ankle Breakers have WON!!!! My first ever fantasy championship. I wonder if I can get Sophie and the kids to put up plastic everywhere and then when I get home from work I'll get some champagne and celebrate. or not. The 'Revenge of the Frogs' had a little tougher start at 4-5-1 in the baseball league, but so far this week I'm 9-0. Poor Stevie started out in last. Hey at least he let me borrow his car, while the van is in the shop. Peach says she likes it because 'it goes really fast'. Yeah it does, but the steering wheel shakes when you get much over 110 mph. Just kidding. It shakes over 80 mph. No seriously I never drove it that fast, I guess it just looks really fast.

Random Thought #9

The Command Module Pilot Job for the Apollo space missions is probably one of the most over rated jobs in the history of mankind. Only 12 people have ever been on the moon, but 6 were really, really, really close.

Getting My Feet Washed

I know what you are thinking and yes I do wash my feet on a normal basis, at least once a week whether they need it or not. But this is about Holy Thursday and Sophie asked me to get my feet washed at her church. Since she is Catholic they really celebrate all aspects of holy week and the washing of the feet takes place on Thursday when Jesus and the disciples would have had the last supper. Basically it was me and 6 other guys and we went up front and took one shoe off, got it washed by the priest, dried and then that was it. I did it because Sophie had read the kids a story about Jesus washing the disciples feet and I thought this would be a good opportunity to do something for her church and hopefully set a good example for the kids. I even got a 50 cent piece during the ceremony. Originally they asked for me and Sophie, but then they only wanted guys to do it so Sophie had to sit it out. I was kind of nervous because I had never even gone to the Thursday service before, so I had not seen the feet washing before and I was sure what all it entailed. (Oooo check that out, entailed . . . hope that is spelled right) Anyway I put the old left foot up there since that is the one I was conducting the "experiment" on and figured that the holy water and blessing and stuff would help it out. Then Sophie told me that the water wasn't holy water, but I mean the priest is handling the water, you're on the alter and what not, can it get much holier (er . . . holy-er) than that. No miracles yet, but I'm willing to give it a little time.

Blood in the Water

I think the kids at T-ball practice must have sensed weakness or something today as they started to act up during practice. I about made Sampson run laps, I told him "You are going to be the first person in the history of T-ball to run laps." But I didn't. Then we lined up and were doing fielding and we had about 4 kids with gloves on their heads. I had two kids, one being Sampson, tell me they were going to quit. I about said go sit with your moms then. Yeah, I'm the coach . . . well assistant coach . . . I actually don't think I have the power to dismiss anyone, plus you know it's instructional league so as long as the kids show up for the games and don't get seriously injured that is about as good as you can do. I think all the kids were a little stir crazy because it has been so cold and rainy lately. I'm still waiting for the old global warming to kick in. I mean is couple of days of 60° weather too much to ask for.

Twitter

I don't really care for it myself. It is the equivalent of text messaging a blog. I think it is dumb. If you want to put the time in just sign up for a blog on blogger, it ain't hard. Plus you can add pictures, video and other neat stuff. Or just answer the question 'What are you doing?' every post. Maybe I'll change my mind, but I ... wait hold the phone I could use twitter for shameless self promotion. YES, that's it, that is all it is good for, kind of a 'Hey, Look at me' and then redirect them to the old blog, where AdSense is waiting to cash in. Oh happy day. Check me out on Twitter.

Harold and Kumar go to the White House

Well Kumar at least. I guess Kal Penn has had enough of the Hollywood life, you see that is the guy who played Kumar in 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle' and the follow-up hit 'Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'. Haven't seen those, well he was on House M.D. on the Fox channel too... at least until Monday. This is so funny every time I need a laugh I think I'll come here and read this. See he wanted to go work for Obama, but to do that he had to leave House. And all I can figure is that Fox is somewhat of a conservative network and when he told them he was leaving they were like 'Okay, where you going' to which he said,' To work for Obama'. Then the probably said,'Yeah, don't worry we'll take care of you.' So in his last episode he is killed off. Wait not just killed off, apparently his character committed suicide. I guess he won't be coming back there. The other funny thing about this is that 'kumar' is kind of a weed addict in the movie, so now Obama is going to have this guy working for him who played a weed smoker trying to get over the munchies, a doctor who commits suicide, oh and by the way he also did a guest appearance on the show '24' as a terrorist. What's the matter did Obama run out of tax cheats to appoint to positions. Ha ha. The only position I figure he'll fit in is the Secretary of Entertainment / Snacks. Basically he would be in charge of getting good deals on refer and whenever the prez is out doing his town halls or celebrity appearances, Kal would be in charge of knowing the fastest route to the nearest White Castle. Also he could advise the president on Gitmo since he has intricate knowledge of that facility. Oh man, that is comedy gold. I really hope someone comes up with some good material for that.

Condit loses for the first time in 9 fights

Just a note I didn't think Condit should have lost in a split decsision in his first welter weight fight in the UFC. I mean I don't think Kampmann deserved to lose either, but Condit fights off his back better than just about anyone and I thought the fight was judged wrong. I mean it was a split decision so that is tough to call, but it's Condit. Oh well he'll be back. And Lyoto Machida will get his shot at the light heavy weight title in May, just like I said he should.

HESCAR Strikes again

For the second week in a row HESCAR has pushed one of the Hendrick cars into victory lane. This week Jeffy was able to get his first victory in 47 races. And at a place he had never won before. And he didn't even have the best car. But those details don't matter in HESCAR. What allowed Jeffy to win was when Greg Biffle was pushed out of the way courtesy of Dale Jr. Biff was probably the class of the field for the parts of the race that I watched, he even ran down Tony Stewart for third at the end of the race. Tony's run was very impressive as I figured he would end up way back in the field since this was his team's first try at Texas, but he proved me wrong. It really makes me appreciate his talent as a driver though, because how many people could leave a championship team go to a team that basically had nothing and yet when he starts driving for them he is competitive. I think that really speaks to his ability and I doubt that some of the other drivers could what he has done. Especially someone like Jimmy, who is only in a position to win races because he has the smartest crew chief (even though his personality is terrible and I don't care for him), and his owner spend all kinds of cash for the best stuff. If he left Hendrick he would likely be back in the pack, because let's face he is short on driving talent as evidenced by his "pass" of Denny last week. Denny made a flat out awesome move to get by on a restart, but Jimmy couldn't get by without almost wrecking Denny. Jimmy would probably run like he did in the truck series when he drove for Randy Moss and ended up 34th... out of 36... way to go... who won that race anyway, oh yeah Kyle Busch. Tony doing well is keeping me interested, but I don't know for how much longer...

Peach goes for a ride

Courtesy of Robbie or Captain Insano as he likes to be called. He took the kids a ride on a 4 wheeler around the yard and they just thought it was great. Now I think Peach wants to go for a ride on his motorcycle. Yeah (sarcasm). Anyway I think it will be a while before Robbie is allowed around the kids again. But he did do something awesome last week as he was able to get Mom to make some bread and homemade jam. No hotdog buns though. (not buns that you put a hotdog in, these are buns with the hotdog already baked in, and man are they tasty). Also this week we picked up some up the creek mustard, that would have been really great on some hotdog buns. Just kidding Mom, Love ya.

The Circus

We got to go to the circus yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I just want to give a shout out to Bo for the tix, thanks Bro. Next year Sophie says she wants to ride a camel, I just wanted to write that down so we won't forget. The kids got to ride an Elephant and some ponies and I think they had a pretty good time. One of the clowns that did a diving routine really had Sampson cracking up, it was funny because it was all slapstick stuff and he was just eating it up. My least favorite part was when the two guys went on that Ferris wheel two circle dealy thing and they were running on the outside of it. It wasn't that it wasn't entertaining, but man the safety aspects make me sick, though I guess that is kind of what the circus is about. I'll put some pics up tomorrow when Sophie gets them downloaded (I'm still not allowed to touch the camera).

"Terrible" Draft as it turns out

I watched ESPN's fantasy special last night and the first thing they said was to stay away from Ian Kinlser because he is injury prone and then to not draft A-Rod before the 5 round or so.  But if the stupid Yankees would just put him on the DL already I could still have him on my roster and pick up someone to fill the active roster spot.  Other than that I think I did alright, but they were saying the starting pitching was deep and don't pay for saves, which I agree with.  They also said catcher was deep, but I don't buy that.  If there are 5 catcher that contribute you're lucky and the difference between 1 and 10 is probably about 200 ranks and I had a heck of a time last year finding a catcher, but finally found Chris Ianetta late in the second half of the season.  Granted catchers don't contribute as much, but have a distinct advantage at that spots could be the difference.  I don't know about the head-to-head format, but it can't hurt.  

On the basketball front, I re-picked Gilbert Arenas and he did well his first night of action too bad I have only got 4 games at point left.  At least I'll get about 4 games out of him, when the season started I thought I would get about half but he stayed out until Friday's game.  All I have to do is coast to the finish line, Stevie is closest, but all the categories are pretty much too far away for anyone to make too much of a move, you know unless Stevie can pick up about 10 points in FT%.

Sophie almost wins

Every year Sophie and I fill out a bracket and battle amongst ourselves for supremacy.  Unfortunately we have started thinking too much alike and our brackets looked fairly similar, and this year we only guessed one final four team differently.  Today actually decided the winner since both of our championship teams have been eliminated.  If Oklahoma wins, Sophie wins, if UNC wins, then I win.  Fortunately UNC won and I won for like the 7th or 8th year in a row.  Now if only I can finish ahead of the big O, who is currently in about the 53rd percentile on ESPN.  I think I might still be able to finish ahead of him as long as UNC loses.  Oh well.  You know if you are president it is actually pointless to do something like that.  If you win people will come up with wild conspiracy theories, if you do poorly people will think you are wildly incompetent.  I guess he didn't think that all the way through before he filled out the bracket.  Hey, maybe he didn't have all the facts, I know he likes to have all the facts before he does stuff.

My Jury Duty Experience

It turns out Jury Duty really isn't that bad, especially if you don't end up having to participate in the trial.  Basically all I had to do is show up endure about an hour and a half of jury selection and then leave.  It was neat to see the procedure of the court and be a part of the system.  It was a good thing they had as many people there though, as there were about 10 deferrals in order to get 8 jurors.  It was a civil trial and the one lawyer asked if any of the jurors had ever contributed to TORT reform and I was thinking 'no, but I'll take up collection if it gets me out of here'.  Just kidding it wasn't that bad, but the whole time the jury members are being dismissed you keep thinking 'who's next' and they're reading off a list so it isn't like avoiding eye contact is going to keep you out of it.  But the judge started out asking questions, then the lawyers had a turn, then they got to boot people without cause, re-screen some more jurors and then pick and alternate.  The judge was good about all the people that couldn't be impartial and in the end he called the seat that everyone was vacating 'the hot seat'.  I didn't have any problems though I just kind of sat there in my "I'm not prejudice, I hate everyone" T-shirt waiting for my name to be called, but it never was.  So I didn't get out until 11:00 and by then it was too late to do any good at work so I just took the rest of the day off, and went home to celebrate with my $30.00.  

Post 400 - The Blog Quiz

For Post 400 I wanted to do something special so I came up with the blog quiz to see how well you've been paying attention. Answers will be posted later, you know if you can't come up with them. Without further ado...

1) What day did the blog start?

2)What did I build to celebrate Post 100?

3)How many stitches did Peach get?

4) How long was the unofficial record the old blog set for longest period between posts?

5) Before the Indy race with the tire issues what was the worst HESCAR race in history?

6)Who was the last player picked up during my first year of Fantasy Baseball (remember I said there might be a quiz, I wasn't joking)?

7)What title did I give the post where we decorated Sophie's brother's house for the Brown's Bengals game?

8) Who makes the 'World Clock' located over there on the left?

9) What was the name of my Fantasy Football team? and where did I finish?

10)When Stevie had to go to Iraq what base did he end up at?

Have Fun!!

Trouble Brewing

Yesterday while Sophie was walking Peach and Sampson back from dance class a motorcycle went by and Peach said almost half crying that she couldn't wait until she can ride on a motorcycle.  Which made Sophie sigh, and when she told me I sighed, then we asked Sampson if he wanted to ride a motorcycle and he said, "No".  Sophie happened to be taking a drink when I asked him and she just about spit it out.  Not because he said no, but because he said it so fast.  Oh also Peach thinks tattoos are pretty . . . man are we in trouble.

The 400 mile tank

I got my first 400 mile tank yesterday and my mileage came in at about 32.4 mpg.  I think the warm weather is really helping.  I almost need to do another 'control' run to get a better idea of how my mileage is better since I've made my changes.  I think I'll wait a little longer though.  I could have went a little longer instead of filling up on my way home, I mean the fuel light wasn't even on yet, but I was too excited about getting to 400 miles that I wanted to fill up and see what my mileage was.  Turns out I could fit over 12 gallons in the old tank.

Fantasy Update - Cause real life sucks

Real life is kind of troublesome lately for some, what with the economy and all. Plus the President's bracket had him in the bottom 4% of folks on ESPN, gosh can this guy do anything right? Anyway as far fantasy stuff goes basketball is almost over and I have about an 8 point lead. I guess the wheels could really fall of here the last few weeks, but at this point I have done pretty well to hang on considering two of the people I lost to injury are still in the top 100. On the baseball front there is 2 weeks to opening day, and my team hasn't changed yet. I have emailed Yahoo! and the Yankees! organization about placing A-Rod on the DL, but to no avail. Maybe by the end of the week they'll put him on the DL and then I'll be able to pick up another player. Right now I'm content, because once the season starts some people are going to come out of nowhere and it is all about picking them up more than it is about getting frustrated before the season starts. I figure I've got one of the best catchers in Russel Martin and probably the best second baseman in Ian Kinsler so they will probably both get hurt. But if they stay healthy and A-Rod comes back I should be in pretty good shape. Here is a copy of the response from the Yankees! as well as my letter. Please note that the person who responded is 'Bryan', which I can only assume is an alias for their G.M. 'Brian' Cashman.
Yankees:
Response (Bryan) - 03/19/2009 05:23 PMDear Kirk Helfen,
The New York Yankees thanks you for your letter. We assure you that your comments and support are appreciated.
You can write directly to a player or team official at the following address:
Yankee StadiumBronx, NY 10451.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.
Regards,Yankees.com

Here is my original letter:
Please put A-Rod on the DL, 30 day, 60 day it doesn't really matter. I just need the roster spot opened up in my fantasy league. Please do it for the fans. I don't want to drop him but even with rehab and what not you know he is going to be out for at least a month. Also you guys have way toooo many outfielders, you should trade a couple for a catcher like chris Ianetta. Seriously. Thanks, Kirk

I guess if the Yanks make a trade for Ianetta we will know who thought of it first. Plus if they trade Johnny Damon that would give me an outfielder playing his home games in Colorado - Bwah hah hah. Let the games begin!
Please note: I think both the Yankees! and Yahoo! are Yucky! Sorry, I thought that kind of fit, but I really don't care for either institution. Well at least Yahoo! fantasy sports, the rest of the site is cool.

Draft Day '09

Well we're Pirates again. Apparently Sophie had the time wrong, but since he was already on a team he gets to go right back to the same team. No word on practices or opening day yet, but I'll post as soon as I know. Also Sophie got me a sign for the back of the window. It says, "MF Baseball Fan". I told her it is almost like it could be taken two ways.

Happy St. Patty's Day

I was going to make the whole blog green and what not, but I forgot to do it yesterday so all I got is this one green post and some Irish music. But hey, what better way to celebrate possibly the greatest saint of all time, I mean he did drive the snakes out of Ireland right. You know what, saint hood probably isn't enough. He should be elevated to like comic book status. Yeah that's it, 'Anti-Snake Man' or something cool like that. Anyway have a great SP day.

Farewell Mask

This week, March the 11th, Charles "Mask" Lewis was killed in an auto accident.  For those of you who don't know, Mask was one of the faces of the "TapouT" clothing line.  It is associated with MMA and after watching for a little over a year it is impossible not to recognize the TapouT symbol.  Actually it is impossible to not notice it after watching for about a month.  And it was all do to the hard work of Mask, Skyscrape and Punkass.  Yeah, those are the three guys that came up with the brand, and they even had a show that airs on Versus.  Mask was front man who had worked from essentially nothing in 1997 to one of the heads of this multimillion dollar outfit.  I got my first TapouT tee for Christmas and the TapouT sticker now adorns my door at work.  Anyway I'm sure the brand will persevere, but this was a huge a blow, and very difficult to put in perspective.  I feel really bad for the TapouT guys, but also the young fighters who now won't get to interact with him.  My condolences to the crew and all those associated with TapouT, and Mask's family.  R.I.P. MASK.

Blog picks up a fan

Maybe not a fan, but at least someone who has looked at the old blog.  I guess Scott "The Chainsaw" Russell was out trolling the internet for a review of his last fight and I just happened to have mentioned that in my post about the night I went to the fights.  You know, stuff about how he did, gave him the nickname "The Chainsaw", you know regular stuff.  Anyway I thought that was extremely neat and as it would happen he is now my favorite fighter.  See I'm easy to get along with.  Plus with BJ Penn kind of getting dismantled at the hands of GSP in January, I needed to find a new up and comer.  Granted BJ is appealing the fight because he thought GSP had some funny grease all over him and he had taken something that would make him extra slippery.  I haven't seen the fight yet, but I do look forward to checking it out.  That was the same night that Lyoto Machida won and should have assumed the #1 contender status in the 205 wt. division.  Unfortunately he was not guaranteed a title shot until after Rampage fought, but Rampage won so now he is going to fight Evans in May.  Which is ridiculous, because Rampage and Evans fought on the same night at the end of last year, and if they meet in May that will be Evans second fight compared to Rampage's third.  If the UFC was smart they would let Machida fight Evans in May and then they would still have an undefeated champ to fight Rampage later in the year.  Now Machida would have to fight someone else, like a Liddell or Wanderlei Silva or maybe Griffin even though he clearly deserves the next shot at the title.  I mean it may be worth it for Machida to just wait and fight the winner, that is what I would do rather than risk losing now when he is so close to getting the title shot.  But then again he is good enough to beat the rest of those guys at the top of the division, just because he fights with such a different style.  At least until "the Chainsaw" gets a hold of him.

Draft Day

Well I missed about the first 17 rounds of the draft because my buddies were in from abroad and they took a little bit of precedence.  But I think I ended up with a pretty decent team.  I got Ian Kinsler first and Russell Martin, so those are two pretty solid people to start with.  I also got A-Rod, but I guess he conveniently decided to have hip surgery and will be out until like May, but Yahoo! hasn't figured that out yet so I can't put him on the DL.  So this is kind of like last year, except I have already started with people on the DL.  The bad thing is I had moved A-Rod way back on my rankings in hopes I wouldn't get him but I had no idea he would be out that long.  Oh well, I think I'll be alright we'll see.  This year we aren't doing roto we are doing head-to-head so it may take me a while to figure things out as I'm sure the scoring will be very different.  Hopefully I'll get a couple of breaks early on.  

Sophie finally gets her B-Day gift

This year for Sophie's birthday I wanted to get her something special, but I knew I wouldn't get it right. I wanted to get her a Nikon D60 which is what she was asking for, but she hadn't been able to try one so I never got it for her. Well we finally went to Best Buy one night and she got a chance to try one out. Unfortunately she was terribly disappointed because it didn't have the live view feature that pretty much every digital camera invented has and is the main reason you get 'em. Well after that let down, we had to look for a different camera. So we looked at Cannon, and Pentax and Olympus and Sony. After reviewing the features and the on-line reviews we settled on the Sony. Which everything we have is Sony so they should pretty much send us a check or something. I was a little worried at first because Sophie was pretty excited about the Nikon and seemed upset because the D90 was about $1200 and that was too high, but had more features. Then when we finally got the Sony she seemed really happy. She wasn't happy about spending the money though and I told her it was alright because she is pretty much the best wife in the whole world, which she said makes me the best husband in the world so that worked out pretty good. Anyway happy birthday honey, oh this was the 3rd anniversary of her 29th birthday.

Our Visit to C.E.C.

Yesterday we went to Chuck E. Cheese's (CEC) and what visit would be complete without a fight, an ambulance, a visit from the cops and a couple of crying kids. The fight didn't have to do with any of us, but somebody got hurt and then the cops showed up, but the crying kids well... You see at Chuck E. Cheese you get tokens to play games and the games give tickets, then you cash in the tickets for prizes. So Hans and Sophie's mom went with us and got some tickets so we had a little extra. All Peach wanted was a little plastic slinky, a lollipop, and a bracelet. Well that left Sampson with about 700 tickets so he got a stuffed Chuck E. Cheese, which took all 700 tickets. Obviously he would be upset since his item was 10 times more than what she spent, so he cried because she had 3 items to his 1. He was OK today, he may even take it to show and tell on Friday. Overall it was a fun a visit.

Hyper Motivation

So some people have told me they have started trying to hypermile and that is great. I got 27.9 in the Grand Caravan this week from Mom's house. I also got the oil changed, air filter changed and the tires rotated on my car and I plan on putting some fuel injector cleaner in tomorrow. That should give me a maximum as far as I can figure. Some people may wonder why even try this now, I mean gas was up to $4 a gallon last year it is less than half that now. Sure, but the guy who started the deal started back in 2001 after the 9/11 attack and his thinking was the people that did that got their funding from oil. So why give them more money to attack us? Which was hard for me to argue with, so from here on out I will probably always try to hypermile.

Oh and one more thing for clarification - when riding on the white line I just put the passenger side on the white line. I don't straddle the white line or anything like that.

T-Ball on the horizon

Today we signed up for year two of T-Ball. This time Sophie signed me up for assistant coach, and she is a team Mom and will help with concessions at some point. I will post updates as the season progresses.

Sampson gets the MOST cookies!!

Well cookie stickers anyway. Hey, this is a big deal as it is the first time it has happened. You see in Sampson's class you get stickers for doing homework and getting good marks on your work in class and whoever gets the most stickers get to pick a prize. I also gave him 5 bucks to pick something out when we went to WALMART and he got the Daredevil DVD. I figured this was a good opportunity to kind of positively reinforce the idea of doing well in school and how rewarding it can be if you do your best. Sophie says I'll have to do the same thing for Peach when she gets in school, but old Dad is tough. I don't pay for C's, she's gonna have to do pretty good if she wants anything from me. Nope, Dad is not soft, not at all . . . well we'll see I guess, but if you see Sampson feel free to congratulate him on doing so well.

Tony's New Team

I guess Tony could win a race with his new team. I'm glad and surprised he is running as well as he has. He finished 8th or so at Daytona and has run in the top 10 in Cali for almost the whole race. So there is some potential for him to get a win. This Cali race Kyle Busch has a chance to win all three races, but it doesn't look like he will get around Jeffy or Matt.

Hyper Miling Results Week #1

Well this week I tried some hyper miling tricks this week to try and stretch out the old MPG's. On Monday, my gas mileage in the cavalier was a paltry 26.5 (this included some Sophie driving though and she is not what you would call "efficient"), but by Friday I got 30.6. That is about a 15% increase in fuel efficiency. So what did I do, well I started by airing the tires up past the recommended. Some hypermilers will push this to the limit of the recommended max on the tire, like 44 psi, but I only went to 38 to start out with. The second thing I did was run on the white line. This keeps you out of the ruts created by normal traffic. It was funny, the first time I tried that it looked like a whole new road opened up for me. If you ever try it on a nice day it will look like you are on a different path. I think this also has an added advantage of keeping you away from the other oncoming traffic thus reducing the drag you encounter from their wake. The other thing I did that pretty much anyone can do is change my parking strategy. It really makes sense when you think about it, how much time do you waste driving around a parking lot looking for a "good" spot and then end up parking far away anyhow. That whole time you're looking you are burning fuel and lowering the efficiency. So what is the solution, pretty much take the first pull through you can get. Also you can look for what the high spot is in the parking lot to help you kind of coast out of the lot when you go to take off. Now I look at parking spots completely differently, the best spot is the most fuel efficient not necessarily the closest. I have also been driving like I don't have brakes. You might say that doesn't make any sense, but when you step on the brake you are essentially wasting the gas that it took you to get going. So how do you drive with out brakes? You just coast into turns, you look for red lights way in front of you so that you can slow down gradually, and also anticipate stop signs and things that you can just let off the gas without using the brake. I have also been taking it easy on the gas trying to stay at 55 or less, but I haven't added a whole lot to my commute. 4 minutes. That isn't too bad, considering I have increased the fuel efficiency by 15%. I also got 26.2 mpg's in the Caravan on the way home from Mom's, maybe when it warms up I can get to 30. That is the other thing, cold weather is bad for fuel economy, warm weather is good.

Hyper Miling Update

I just got down to a 1/4 of a tank today, so I will fill up tomorrow and post the difference in gas mileage. I guess cold weather is bad for gas mileage anyway, but there should still be a gain from the 26.4 mpg I got right before I started this. If it worked I'll share some of my tips.

Revenge of the Ninja Frogs

That's the name of my new Fantasy Baseball team, 'Revenge of the (Ninja) Frogs'. With Yahoo! you don't have enough characters to squeeze Ninja in there too so it just has to be implied. This year we are going to do a draft outside of Yahoo! so we are starting early. Fine by me, I can't believe how long it took for Fantasy season to roll around again. Hopefully this year all of the games will count and I'll be able to bring home the title and hand Stevie a second place finish. Don't worry though, I won't get cocky or anything if I get ahead, like in basketball, or football. Because when you do that people get hurt. No not me, the players. I've had to deal with a rash of injuries in the last two weeks, but I'm ahead in games so no worries yet. Did I mention Stevie fell back to third? Well he is third, actually tied for third. And somebody picked Jameer Nelson after I dropped him. Uhhh don't you think I dropped him for a reason. He hurt is shooting shoulder and is likely out for the year. Even if he's not, it was still his shooting shoulder. Oh well, Let's go Frogs!!!!

Stitches - Our first ER trip for an injury (probably not the last)

Well on a Wednesday night in February, my little princess got her first face stitches. You see I had just told her that she needed to go to bed and that is when she said, 'No, I need some popcorn." So she came down the stairs and proceeded to do a face plant on the popcorn tin on the floor. Then a stream of screaming and blood flowed freely, and Sophie came running down the steps. It looked almost like she had bitten all the way through her lip. I guess it was two separate gashes though, one on the inside and one on the outside. Sophie quickly called her brother Ricco to come and stay with Sampson since he was already in bed. So he came right up while we were putting Peach in the car, by then the blood had kind of stopped. Anyway we ended up at the ER and by the time we got back into where they first evaluate her, it was about 35 minutes. So that guy checked her out and then they gave us a bed to kind of sit on and wait for the doctor to check her out. So he comes in and says they should probably go ahead and stitch up the cut on the outside of her mouth. Great. By the way, I had been doing pretty stellar so far with the whole blood thing, for those of you that don't know, normally when I see blood I get a little queasy, but even with a mouth full of blood I was unfazed until we got Peach to the health care professionals. Anyway after the doc looked at her, another doctor or nurse (not sure which exactly), Kelly, came into do the procedure. So she showed Peach some of the thread and stuff (no needles) and put some topical numbing stuff on where they were going to stitch. But that was just to numb the area a little before the shot of local anesthetic they were going to give her. Anyone who witnessed the splinter incident of '08 knows how much she can fight when needles are around. Fortunately the hospital already knows how much little kids like to fight so they have a restraining device called a 'burrito'. The child is secured inside the 'burrito' before any sharp objects are displayed, and Mommy and Daddy can stay in the room or leave if need be. Well I had been doing good so far so I moved down to hold her little hand inside the 'burrito' while Mommy stayed close to her face. Then came the needle. She fought and yelled, it was almost comical except that there was no give either way. She didn't want that shot or anything to do with the needle and the doctor was going to give a shot, one way or another. She was yelling, 'I wanna go home', 'let me outa here', but the doc was stone cold to the little girl's cry and eventually after several attempts she got the area numbed. Peach kind of stopped fighting after that, and the doc proceeded to stitch her up. Once she got the first one in I figured she was pretty well home free and I guess I let my guard down because I got really light headed. That was the first stitch I had every actually seen going in, sure I've been stitched up 3 times, but they were all in the face and they always put a sheet over your face so you can't see what's going on. Probably a good idea in the case of a three year old, since they would get pretty defensive with the needles and what not. After that I sat down and didn't get to see the last two go in (no complaints from me), and after she was done Peach got a Snoopy Band Aid and a Popsicle. Then she wanted to call her Mimi and let her know that she got three stitches. Yeah that will always make the grandparents proud. Here are a couple of pictures so that everyone can share in our joy.

I guess she beat old Dad's mark, I was 5 before I ever got stitches. But I got 13, so she basically has 2 more years to get 10 more stitches. Hey, I wouldn't bet against her at this point.

First Bodily injury trip to the ER

Peach was the first victim, so if anybody had a pool going about 9:30 PM on the 18th of February would win. She was trying to get into the popcorn tin and busted her mouth on it. She ended up with three stitches, I think she is fine now, but she is going to be hurting tomorrow. I will add pictures and a more detailed experience tomorrow.

The Hypermiling Trial

I was reading my ESPN the Magazine this week and they had an article about Carl Edwards and how he used different techniques to squeeze mpg's. This may be helpful as gas prices start to increase again, so I thought I'd give it a try. Basically in the article Carl and another guy are driving around and the one guy gets the car to stay above 60 mpg for the duration of their trip. Now I don't care if the trip was only 5 minutes, to do that over any period of time is impressive. Especially since it wasn't a souped car or anything (other than you know it being Carl Edward's Car) it was a Ford Focus. So nothing really stand out there, but the guy was able to essentially double the gas mileage just by driving the right way. Now I knew it was possible to stretch gas mileage some by driving technique but 25 mpgs!! That's crazy! So I did a little experiment today on the way home from Mom's and just using the little mpg indicator I was able to get over 25 mpg's. I lost a little in town when I got home, but overall I was impressed. My new goal is to get 30. I'll probably have to do it on the way home though as we are always running a little late Sunday morning and hypermiling doesn't exactly lend itself to setting land speed records. Anyway this week I am going to fill up Monday and see what I can do just on my way to work. I was able to get the Dodge Caravan up to about 27 mpg on Rt. 7 so I'm thinking I can get at least 35 maybe even 40 if I really pay attention. I'll let you know.

My First Trip to a MMA Event

Hans and I got to go to the UCFC event held at the Carnes center on Friday the 13th. The big draw was the Travis "the Terror" Clark fight as this was to be his last amature fight before turning pro in June. It was really packed, I was surprised given the current economic condition. Hans ran into a bunch of people he knew, I didn't know many people. We got there late at like 7:45 or so and fights were supposed to start at 7:30, but I don't think anyone ended up fighting until after 8:00. The whole thing only took about 3 and half hours, I guess if you showed up at 6:30 though when seating opened up you could have spent about 5 hours there. It seemed like when the fights started everyone would get caught in a guillotine choke and the fight would be over in about 2 min. The second fight ended kind of funny, but other than that there were about 10 good fights. Two were really good and one was pretty close behind and the rest were kind of like I said. One fight didn't happen cause the guy didn't make weight, but I thought they could have fought anyway. I mean the guy had to at least be close to weight, even if it was to be for a belt you should still fight. The most exciting fight other than the main event with Clark was probably the Newman / Russell fight. Newman started out throwing hay makers and kind of overwhelmed Russell, but he was being real cocky and the crowd turned on him. Then it seemed like Russell settled down and started to take control and he ended up submitting the guy which was great and the crowd just exploded. And a couple of the people that were with Newman were kind of behind us a little, got up and left and then we took their seats. After the fight they talked to Russell, and I don't think he had a nickname but I would call him Scott "the Chainsaw" Russell cause he cuts through the competition. It's pretty cool to just give people nicknames. The Clark fight was cool because when he came out everyone was on their feet. It was like a really amped up Ohio Valley wrestling match because the other guy was from Cambridge, even though I don't think many people were rooting for him. No offense to the guy he seemed like a good guy, but after people drop $2o on a shirt they want to see that guy win. Clark ended up getting cut pretty bad in the first round, but caught the guy with a right hand and took the fight to the ground where he was able to end with a rear naked choke in the second round. They pretty much had everything there to make a good event - they had the wide screens set up where you could still see the action after they went to the mat, plus announcers and ring girls and what not. The only thing they really need to work on is the timing. I know they probably didn't want every fight to end in the first round, but hey its MMA, just keep bringing 'em out and let 'em fight. We don't need any filler. Also they need to get the heights and weights right on the displays they put up. I swear everyone fighting from 135 lbs. up to 350 lbs. was 6'2". I said it was like a carnival ride or something were you had to be 6'2" to fight. Other than that I thought they did a good job. One guy did get hurt pretty bad though and they had to take him out on a stretcher, I hope he is okay. Oh and one of the fighters after he lost came out and was sitting in the crowd right by us. When he got up to leave I patted him on the back and told him good job. That was neat. And he did do a good job he just had to fight a guy who was 80 lbs. heavier than him and I think it ended up wearing him down. Well that will do for tonight, as I think of things that were neat about this experience I will continue to update this post.

Travis "the Terror" Clark is set to have his first pro fight in Pittsburgh sometime in June. Perhaps Hans and I will head up to check it out. It was funny during the fights, the announcer said something about the super bowl and everyone started booing. I guess MMA fans don't care for the black and yellow. Just another reason to like fighting.

Happy Valentine's Day 2009

Another Hallmark holiday has come and gone, but it was pretty good. Sophie got me a ticket to go with Hans to a local MMA event (separate blog entry) and UFC tapes 5-8. I got her the new Taylor Swift CD, and a Travis "the terror" Clark shirt. Then on Saturday night we went to the "night at the races" for her old alma mater. We bought a horse, 'Emilia Rose', but we didn't win. We ended up betting on about 8 races and then Sophie turned her attention to the Texas Poker table, where we proceeded to spend the rest of the night, and spend the rest of our money. It is a good thing we don't gamble or bet horses cause we would be super poor. We didn't hit one race and the 10 bucks or so we won at poker ended up going right back in the pot. We still had a good time and next year Sophie said we could name our horse ''1 loss from the glue factory", from 'Bad Newz Stables'. Hope you had a good day, also I changed the music for a couple of days or so. Enjoy.

The Octuplets

Sophie and I are watching the story of the new octuplet mother. We'll see how this story ends up. She has 6 other kids, no job and is single. But she is not irresponsible, so she says. What a relief. You know I would love to have a ton of children, but two is pretty dog gone good. We were walking out of the McDonald's this weekend and I had one on one side and the other one on the other side, holding their hands and I thought this is just right. If I had any more kids I wouldn't be able to hold all their hands. I suppose we could have two more, but then Sophie would probably go insane, so we'll just hold off.

Fantasy Update

Well the Wreckers ended up coming in third in football. I would have actually won because I had the most points the final week. Oh well there is always next year, I would just like to thank Drew Brees and Calvin Johnson. I would thank Frank Gore, but he sat out semi-final week and ended up screwing me. On the fantasy basketball front the Ankle Breakers are in first by like 13 or 14 points, it is hard to keep track I'm so far ahead. Only now it is starting to become like the baseball season, with all the injuries my team is incurring. First Steve Blake went down, then Kirilenko, then Jameer Nelson. And Sunday Al Jefferson did something to his ACL and is probably out for the season. So now I'm going to have to scrounge a lineup, but I am ahead in games played, which is good and bad. The bad is I'll be in the clubhouse, so to speak, waiting for other people to finish, but the good is that I have had really good people play in games already and now I can kind of pick and choose the best match ups to help me keep a lead. I'll probably end up coming in second. That would give me a fourth (according to Yahoo!), a third and a second. That would at least mean I'd be due for a first place in Baseball, ha ha.

W(omen) i(nfants) i(nvoluntary twitches) gaming system

Yeah the Wii. I think I am done playing the Wii, because if a 5 year old can randomly swing a controller and beat you in boxing, that is really not a gaming system. So I am only playing with other people who were at least a serious gamer at some point in their lifetime. No more 5 year-olds, no more women, no more people with odd nervous twitches. You see it looks like it is completely off of "intuitive" motion, but it turns out if you can make short wrist twitches that is all you need to do in any of the sports games. It doesn't matter how fast or hard you swing your arm, it only matter how fast you can move your wrist. No matter I am officially retired from the Wii.

Also I got Sophie to play the playstation 3. She lasted all of 2/3's of a level. Then she got sick and had to go to bed. So no Alien killing help, but if she could Wii box the aliens...


Check this guy out. Please note this is not me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrrvkPo7TZ4

Man do I hate being right all the time...

Not as much as I dislike the squealers though. Boy did I call it. I kept watching and even though 'Zona had the lead with less than 3 minutes you kind of knew it was coming. The not so superbowls are starting to get on my nerve. It is starting to become obvious that only certain teams will win the Superbowl. I can go back to 2001 after 9/11 and pretty much make the case that the Superbowl winner was the one that benefited the league the most, not necessarily the better team. Need proof? Go back to the last time the squealers won in 2006 or so, they were the 6 seed in the AFC going up against either the 1 or 2 from the NFC. But thanks to a lot of phantom holds and procedure calls the team that could move the most merchandise wins. Even last year, did you really think the Patricheats were going to win??? Com'on they played the heal role all year, and the only team that people could believe would beat them is the team that gave them a run for their money in the last regular season game. Only problem was they had to win 3 games on the road, which they were able to do. Funny how they couldn't win one home playoff game this year... But don't feel bad for the Patricheats, remember when they played the Panthers and the Panthers took a late lead and it looked like they would win their first title, and the kicker kicked the ball out of bound on the kickoff. I was setting there yelling at the screen, how stupid can you be all you have to do is kick it deep and you win, but they weren't supposed to win, and they had to do everything in their power to give the game back. Well, now that I have destroyed your view of the NFL (and remember it is a business first, they need to make money, they don't need no stinking bail out), I am going to turn my attention to cornhole or MMA, at least they don't rig it yet. . . yet.

Disgusted with the Superbowl

It's still the fourth quarter, but things are getting out of hand. Oh Arizona is making a push now and they may even score to "keep it interesting", but the game was already decided in the 3rd quarter. I guess the way the NFL is pulling games is by doing it in the 3rd quarter. It kind of leaves the game out of balance, though and you are left hoping for an unlikely comeback. Any time a team gets called for 3 personal foul penalties on one drive you kind of get a sense things are one way, then they blow a HALO rule call on a punt. I'm sorry but the receiving guy gets 1 and 1/2 yards not less than a yard. I seen it from home. I'll give you the face mask, but the roughing the passer when the guy was less than a yard a way is ridiculous and I've never seen a call where there is a foul for running over the holder on a field goal. Oh look Arizona scored a TD. Now it is a 6 point game. Time for the squealers to go down and kick a field goal put it to 9 and out of reach. Sorry Zona. I had hopes that it would be called fair. I mean how do you ever expect to win 6 Superbowls if you can never win the first one. I guess there are only about 6 teams that actually have a chance to win the Superbowl every year. too bad.

Sophie's Ice Pics

Sophie is going nuts in the house, so she got out yesterday after the ice storm and took a few pics.

Salt Supply

I appreciate the concern over global warming, no seriously I do. But why is it that every year the local governments are complaining about not having enough salt!?! I mean do we really have to go through this every year? I can't remember anytime when I was younger that salt was such issue. Plus how many years in a row do you have to be short on salt before you start buying more - idiots. If you didn't have enough 2 years ago, then didn't have enough last year, then you need to BUY MORE SALT. Seriously I can't feel sorry for cities and states that don't realize they need to buy more salt. If they are sitting there thinking that things are warming up, they need to dislodge their head from their hind quarters (remove head from rear end) and realize that the only thing that is getting hotter is my temper from driving on snow and ice covered roads. Ahhhh, I feel better all ready.

An exhausting week

I'm a little tired this week, and the weather isn't helping the situation any. First I stayed up way too late on Sunday watching the fight on Versus. Wait, lets go back to Saturday, when Ricco brought his Wii up, and we played until the Wii hours of the night. You know I guess that is where that phrase comes from, I never really thought about it before, heck I didn't even realize the pioneers had the Wii. Anyway so then I stayed up late to watch the fight and I kept dozing in and out, and Jamie Varner ended up winning a split decision after four rounds because Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone kneed him in the head while he was on the ground - dumb. I woke up at the end of the fight and Varner was down on the mat and they were like "the fight is over" and I didn't understand what was going on until Varner got on there and started swearing - unnecessary. He cleared thing up, because I initially thought he had lost and I was kind of surprised. For the rest of the week it has pretty much been get up, shovel, drive an hour and half to work on the crappy roads, work, drive an hour and a half home on the crappy roads, and then shovel. Then yesterday I did something really fun. See we had a giant ice storm Tuesday night and everything was covered in ice Wednesday morning. Sophie was trying to talk me out of going to work at 6:00 in the AM because we were under a level 3 advisory, which is - Don't drive unless you have too. So I told her I would just go out and shovel the driveway and then call in and see if they needed me. Also it was raining in the morning. Anyway I go out to shovel and I have my car keys so I start thinking "I might as well warm up the car, it couldn't hurt." So I get in on the passenger side and start the car. While I'm in there I decide to open the driver door to break the ice off it and roll down the window and clean them off. Then I get out to scrap off the front and back. I go to open the door to throw the scraper back in, and low and behold the door doesn't open. So I like, "crap the door froze" but it didn't, I locked it. Either accidentally or by habit, I'm not sure which, but I think that I left the driver door open anyway so no be deal. So I slide around the car (literally) and try to open the driver door, but apparently I locked it too. And the car is still running. So I go in and ask Sophie where the spare key is? No one knows. Crap. I then rig up a clothes hanger, because I have seen enough keys getting locked in cars that I think I can unlock it myself. Well the strength of the average clothes hanger does not compare to the strength the tool the police use. So then I start getting a little desperate. Mind you it is still raining and the road is iced over, so there is no way I can call anyone to come, and the car is still running. So I start trying to just jam the hanger in through the edge of the door frame, and after about 5 minutes I finally find a place where it will fit in, about 20 minutes total. But get the hanger through the door and actually manipulating it to open the lock are two completely, and I stress completely, different things. First I realize that the hanger in its current configuration won't hook the lock, so I remove the hanger and re-bend it. Then after about 15 - 20 minutes of fishing I finally get the door unlocked. By then I am completely drenched, coat, pants, long underwear. I changed, called work and decided to go in. It was a long ride. Then it was a long ride back and when I got home I had to shovel the drive again. It hasn't been a real fun week. Oh and also Sampson hasn't had school since Monday, and I think between him and Peach and not being able to go anywhere, Sophie is going a little 'stir-crazy'. I could tell because she actually wanted to play Resistance 2 with me. Unfortunately she got sick after about 2/3 of a level and had to stop. It's okay, I'm sure things will warm up and get better next week. Commonnnnnn Ground Hog!!! or Al Gore, global warming my butt, no seriously my butt needs global warming it is still frozen from yesterday.

Bellcot - Day 5

I have officially made my complaint with Taco Bell. As they respond I will update.

Taco Bellcot

That's right, I'm boycotting Taco Bell. Why you ask, let me tell you. Lets go back to the fall of 1994, when I was first introduced the border. My buddy from high school recommended we try "The Bell" after one of the school's playoff games. Me being completely foreign to the world of the burrito decided to try something simple - the chili cheese burrito - and relationship was born. It was a simple love, nothing fancy, and easily satisfied, just the way I like it. It was a love that grew while I was at college as I could easily attain the chili cheese burrito as it was only two blocks away from my apartment. Then after college something bad happened - they took the chili cheese burrito off the menu. That's right. I was distraught, upset, it couldn't be explained. They still had the chili, they still had the cheese, and they definitely had burritos. I didn't understand it. Then something wonderful happened in the summer of 2007. After a hiatus from the border I was reunited with my beloved in Florida. I couldn't believe it, perhaps they only had these down south, but when we returned home the CCB had returned as well. But only to the Taco Bell store's not the Bell / KFC stores. No matter, because now I could still get what I craved... until today. Apparently they have taken it away again. Still no explanation why. They still have the chili, still have the cheese, still have the burritos. So now, I am going to voice my protest to them directly, and boycott until my demands are met. I won't ask anyone else to take up my fight, I'm not like that. If you feel compelled, I won't stop you, but it might be a tough battle, and it will continue until the Chili Cheese is returned to its rightful spot.

NFL Championships for the birds

More literally this year, 75% of the conference championship games will concern feathered mascots. As far as the AFC goes, well it is a game that many Browns fans couldn't care less about. I'll probably tune in to see what the field looks like, because of all the snow we've gotten lately, but that is about it. I figure it will have all of the offense fire works of a checkers game at the old folks home. These two teams run the ball and play tough defense, and that is about it. I look for it to be a close game and probable end under controversy. I do hope the steel towners get beat I guess, but that is only so I don't have to listen to that annoying Superbowl song for two weeks. ugh.

Sledding in '09

Well there was some debate about whether or not the kids had ever gotten to go sled riding or not so I have put together some visual evidence. There was a lot of snow today so we took the kids out to play. A good time was had by all.

A poem

Apparently some of the folks I worked with at the Triple C made a poem (well one guy, chief red metal) and he wanted to post it on the old blog. So without further adue... (did I mention he won the 2008 nobel prize in literature)

He worked with us a real good friend
He hated to leave at the very end.

His ideas were neat a true originator
Producing the 2000 model Cecilator

His DCS there was no slack
Kept him busy making that carbon black

Then came that day we knew was near
Marshall lost their Process Engineer

He said good bye left somewhat sad
Told all his buddies the good times he had.

Then came one day the phone rang tall
Old Kirk made that first phone call

He talked with Dean, Big Mike was near
He grabbed that phone pulled to his ear.

Hey old buddy are you liking it
But all big Mike heard was a click.

Hey Dean my buddy hung up on me
Dean replied how could that be.

Its been awhile we’ve heard no more
He’s probably busy on the potroom floor.

Hey Kirk we’re still here making the final black
If you get sometime you can call us back!!


-Pretty awesome, brings a tear to my eye.

Final Decision

Well I've made up my mind to stay at the big O and give things a shot. So far so good. I am starting to come around, I guess is the easy way to put it. I kind of actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. Which is great. I got my office, I got my new computer, laptop even, so that is cool. It even motivated me to set up my wireless network at home finally. So I did. It took about an hour, but now it is set up so I can bring the laptop home and work wirelessly (this may or may not be a word). I even made the network secure, and I found out that some of my neighbors don't have a secure wireless network, ha ha ha. But it's too late for me. I guess I could have used their network, but I wouldn't want to do that. Oh I also set my laptop up to have two displays in my office, thanks Stevie for that little tip. I guess you can set up any laptop with XP or Vista to do this you just have to check the extend my display box. Neat. Anyway just wanted to let you know. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts through this tough transition.

Blog back to Normal

I finally had a chance to take down the 'decorations' from Christmas and put the music back to normal. Hopefully things will slow down a little and I can get back to blogging on a more normal basis, at least that is what the people want or so I heard....

Back in the Saddle

Well I ended my unemployment by going back to my former employer. You see they had actually contacted the day that the other plant had announced they were going to close and I did a phone interview on that Friday, but I didn't really want to go back. You see the last time I left was at the end of the strike when I was first severed. I had worked very hard during the strike and even before the strike, but when the rolling mill shut down some of the salary from the reduction plant that had been working down there came back and with the people that were coming back there were 6 people too many. So they decided to cut by seniority, which I had never seen them do and I happened to be in the bottom 6 on seniority. So I was greatly disappointed and didn't really know what to do, because they still needed me to work to train the people who were coming back. Not only did I help train the people coming back, (because I actually had a personal relationship with the people and I liked them and didn't want to see them get hurt because I didn't teach them everything I could have, I would have had a harder time with that if people I was responsible for got hurt, which is ironic because...) I took a casting position which was essential the pit lead. Though it was the only shift out of four that didn't have the shift lead as the caster, but that was probably due to me being the youngest person on the shift. Anyway I hated that job, and actually ended up getting a 3rd degree burn on my ankle, which essentially ended my casting career, but by the time I was healthy enough to come back I already had another job at the triple C ranch. Now I'm back, and I have been hit with a lot of old emotions, but I have an opportunity to leave and go somewhere else. So rather than stay I put my notice in after working 3 days and a funny thing happened. People were like 'Don't leave', 'think about it'. And that is all I have been doing for the last 2 months is think about it, with Sophie and the kids (thus the reason for the lack of blogging lately). You see the old O would have probably said get your stuff and leave, but this time the operations manager came down to my office and essentially tried to convince me to stay. Which signals to me a big difference in management from the way it used to be and some of the people said this is the best it has been for them since they worked there.

The dilemma is I have an offer from a place in Marietta with an industry that I don't have any experience in and I don't even know if I would like it, plus 3 to 4 hours in a car everyday unless I move the family. On paper the the O is actually the better deal, but if I knew for sure the other place would be there in 5 years I would switch in heart beat, because that is more important right now. Or is it? Should I just stay here for as long as I can, one or two years? I worked with the people this week and things went pretty well, plus the relationship that I have with most people is good, and I know the job, it is a little more physical than other places, but nothing I can't do.

Basically the theme of the last two weeks has been 'I don't know', because after the plant I worked at shut down due to whatever their reason was I don't know what it will take for a plant to make it through the current down turn. And I don't know what the better decision is right now either. The salary people at the O are great, and none of the people that put me in the earlier situation are there, it is just a matter of me getting over the old demons of the place. I have prayed and prayed about the situation that God would lead me to the right thing to do, and looking back I don't know if I have taken the signs the right way or just haven't wanted to take them the right way because of the animosity that I had for the plant and my former situation. But when I asked for an answer of where to go the next day the paper had on the front page that one area plant was thriving and that was the O. Plus they called like two hours after the announced closing of the other plant. And then when I put in my notice they gave me a reprieve which is pretty unheard of. I mean how many places are you going to work where you say 'I'm leaving' and they responded 'no, think about it more'. So it is like I completely ignored all the signs and looked for any excuse I could and God basically is screaming at me what to do, so maybe now I'm ready to listen. I can work there and be happy I just have to put the stuff from the past, well in the past and focus on what I can do in the short term. I'll update next week when I have finalized my decision, but I think I'm pretty much there. I just need to talk to the guy from the other plant and let him know. This was a very important cross roads for me and Sophie.

Wii Night

Well we did get to go to Ricco's to play a little Wii and I think Sophie really took to it. We all got a chance to play. Ricco showed us the bowling first and it was pretty neat then he showed us the boxing. I got to fight him first and I was going crazy swinging that little controller around for about 10 minutes before losing a unanimous decision. The Sophie took the controls against her Dad. I think she may have had a little pent up frustration that she needed to take out as she proceeded to level up Dad in the First Round. Ricco said it was possible to get an early knockout but she hit him so that he did a dang gone flip. A FLIP. Well then I decided I needed to get in there and set her straight only she proceeded to knock me out too!! At least I didn't knocked out 'til the 3rd round, but man, I think Sophie missed her calling. She could have been the greatest. Sophie Ali or Iron Sophie Helfen, or Sugar Sophie Helfen. Anyway now she wants one, but I think deep down she only wants it so that she can beat up on pixelated versions of me and the kids. I wonder if there is like a handicap match were we could all three beat up on her... we'd probably just be more embarrassed when she whipped us though. If only I could convince her to come kill aliens with me on Resistance. I think I might have a gamer on my hands. One final note, at least I mercy ruled her in baseball. Also our arms all hurt today.

Unemployed

I was thinking about the title I would put here for a while. 'The end of an era', perhaps or 'All good things, must come to an end', or even 'Done'. But I settled on this one because it is what it is. I will be sans job for today and tomorrow and start a new, er... old job on Monday. It was a pretty emotional finish yesterday. Have you ever done something and realized it was the last time you would doing something, or the last time you would be some place. It was kind of a two month build up to that point yesterday. Some people I may never see again, and some places it won't get to go again, but in the end I guess it is for the better. I mean I could have stayed to ride it out, but really I needed to move on to something else as fast as possible. I did like working there, it was probably the best job I have had yet. There wasn't something I couldn't do there and there were opportunities to grow. I could have stayed with them I suppose in a different area, but I would have had a hard time with that. I'm feeling a little sorry for myself today I guess, I stopped and got a monster burger on my way home last night. I figure it is ok to be a little depressed about this given the circumstance, but I need to shake it off pretty quick. I want to start Monday at least with an up beat attitude even though there is nothing guaranteed past a year. Today we might go bowling later or at least Wii bowling at Ricco's house. Well hope everybody had a great new year, once I get things straightened out I should be able to tell whether this was a good one or not. So far today I made pancakes for the kids, changed some light bulbs, hit the heavy bag, watched back to the future II and blogged. Hopefully on one more day of unemployment to go....

A day I will not soon be Forgetting (work)

Today, December 9th, will be a day that I will not soon forget. At work last night there was a power failure, so at a little after midnight I got a call from the shift foreman that the DCS had only rebooted 1 computer, and I told him that since the plant was shutting down in a matter of a month that it would probably be okay to let the units idle and I would take a look at it in the morning. Well in the morning the computers were in the same state, so I re-booted the two that didn't restarted and they worked fine and the servers were okay. Unit 3 was still down because it didn't act right when they tried to run it in idle after the power blip. So we tried it, and the furnace didn't look right and I didn't think that the blower sounded right, and I had the electrician take a look at the motor control. It checked out okay. Then we checked the valves and the instrumentation to make sure we didn't just 'think' we had a problem, but they checked out too. So we fired it up again and this time the air rate coming through the furnace was noticeably not right as the flare on the furnace was smoking (not normal) and the valves had opened as needed. The only explanation was that the heat exchanger was leaking from being shutdown so abruptly during the power outage (this is usually the last thing you check for because it means mega downtime to change the heat exchanger). Well Dean Markum and his gang checked the old heat exchanger module and sure enough if wouldn't pass the pressure test, so in all likelihood Unit 3 has produced its last pounds of black. I would be curious to see how bad the exchanger got burnt up, but in all probability I won't. During this ordeal the day shift tried to start to other unit. Apparently during the power outage some of the sets in the DCS were reset though and the valve that allows are exhaust gas to be used for fuel was shut. Needless to say when we started calling for the fuel gas it was unavailable. I radioed to the controllman that the valve should be 100% open, well just as he opened it BOOM. It actually sounded like 2 large metal canisters being banged together, but was definitely due to the hot gas meeting the air. There was no significant damage from this as far as I can tell yet, but the unit collector must have been damaged during the power outage as well. Either way ye haw. So Unit 3 maybe done for good and the other unit may be down for a while as well. No biggy as we are not pressed for orders and the plant is going to shut down anyway. My boss was at our corporate headquarters today and yesterday, 'Hey remember how we wanted to shut the plant down and stuff? Well don't worry we took care of it.'

Note: not posted until after the first of the year, after I had left this facility.

Update: I originally did this post on the 9th and in fact unit 3 did run again and I did get to see the heat exchangers and man were they bad. The tubes were almost all the way gone in the third exchanger and partly gone in the second. A couple of the guys said this was the worst they had seen but it made sense since they tried to coast the unit for an hour or so. It basically means all of the combustion was taking place at the heat exchanger and not the reactor as the gas wasn't being burned until it met the leaking air and basically torched the last two modules. In the end we didn't run very much the rest of the month though, in fact none in my last two weeks.