It’s been a long time, but I am bursting at the seams

Man it has been a rough two years since my last post. Where do I start? I had a baby girl, the wife and I are not getting along at all. I LOVE my job, but the bottomline is that this is going to a rough year for the Dawg. I got a DUI. I am so not happy in my marriage right now, but really want to feel love right now towards and from a woman. It is eating me up inside. I am staying in the marriage for the children as I think I am their refuge away from all of the crap that their mother gives them. She berates them, yells face to face at them, and then does nothing, while sitting on the couch.   If we divorce, 50% refuge for the kids isn’t enough and let me say this; they need it.  Alright, I am out.  It’s late and I have to work tomorrow.

Dawg

The Garbage Disposal

Will someone please tell me what is happening with my wife’s obsession to throw anything down the sink’s garbage disposal?

 To date I have pulled out of said disposal:

Top to baby’s bottle, the pull tab from can, bottle cap, pacifier, baby’s spoon, regular spoon, the end of 3 carrots, the end of celery stalk, a handfull of mush that looked like steak and rice.

Can someone please make a label that says:  “if you wouldn’t chew it up in your mouth, please throw it in the trash.” I mean for god sakes, if I had a dollar for every time my wife has said it was broken, I would be rich. 

Or at least have that pinball game I want by now. 

Seriously, please do yourself a favor and save money on plumber bills by only putting soft things down the “In Sinkerator” fondly referred to as the pig or garbage disposal.

Thank you,

Dawg

Cleaning the Garage

I am 3/4 of the way finished with my garage renovation.  4 months ago, I noticed as I was measuring to put plywood across the rafters that two of the 4 I had were deflected at least 2-5 degrees.  Not good.  So $~500 later I have 14 2×6x30 rafters that are doubled up along the entire length of my garage.  I then put reinforcing joists at 90 degree angles and hung them using joist hangers that are heavy duty.  I next installed 1/2 in ply wood on top of this structure to give me a place to store our odds and ends.  I mean with 2 kids and my wife and I, we have alot of stuff!  I mean Christmas takes 12 totes as it is.  We have Halloween and Easter totes and wrapping paper totes.  I have my baseball gear and miscellaneas sporting equipment up there as well.  Next comes the camping gear; tents, stove lanterns, ice chests etc. 

Last comes the baby gear.  Yes, we are expecting our third little bulldawg in May! 

And then I am done.  Fin’.

snip snip!

Cheers,

Dawg

New Years

It was a good Year in 2006, for the Bulldawg.  I achieved over 209% of my Q4 number and came in right around 156% for the year. 

That being said Santa was good to the wife and kids and so I move forward into thinking about next year.

 I always hear about really lofty New Years resolutions and now is the time you will see the gyms really start hitting the advertising hard, to capitalize on the Holiday 20 as some like to call it.  In putting together my list for 2007, I thought that it must be attainable and realistic.  Things that are basically a shift in habit that can benefit me, don’t cost a ton of dough $$, and will make me feel better about myself.

My New Year’s Resolutions:

1)    Try to brush and floss teeth after each meal.  I have really only brushed my teeth twice per day; morning and night my whole life, flossing like 3x per week.  I think that my choppers will be happier if I brush more and floss more.

2)   Try to cut Caffeine from my daily fluid intake.  I know this will be tough expecially since I am hooked and fully caffeinated as I right this, but what the heck right?! I have 4 days left to drink my Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr Pepper and Frescas.  From then on, I will only drink water, juices and milk; just like my kids.  Which leads me to my next resolution; weight loss.

3)  I will try to lose weight.  I know I know.  But really, I need to.  Like 60 pounds!  I am 260 and 5′11 inches right now.  So, I will try to lose weight.  I think losing the diet sodas will be good for this too, as I will drink more water which will help me with boosting my metabolism.  I hope to lose 60 pounds by September, 2007.  That will give me 9 months and in each month I need to lose approx 6 3/4 pounds. Ways to lose it:

Ride bike, walk at lunch, walk when at home with family, play basketball, play with kids, other physical things, but above all, eat less and drink more water while tracking what I eat each day.

4)  I will finish the garage.  I have installed the beams, now I just need to do a little bit of re-wiring and laying the plywood down for storage.  Then the garage will be clean and I can use my weight set to lose more weight!

Well that’s it for me until tomorrow.  Good night and roger dodger!

Perrier Jouet Champagne

 

I was driving to work the other day and heard a commercial on the radio for the bubbly.

It feels like champagne is being sold more agressively these days.  I mean with Christmas right around the corner, then ringing in the New Year,  it makes sense right? 

I even received two bottles at work yesterday as gifts.  I must say I re-gifted one of them as I am more a Cabernet and blend type, rather than the white wine and tiny bubble type.  I also like beer, but wine and port seem to be my choice as of late.  They just feel a little more “cozy”.  The two bottles I received were Perrier Jouet, an authentic French Champagne.  Follow is a description from BevMo:

93 PTS WINE ENTHUSIAST. The Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut is poised and stylish; layers sharp citrus fruit with spicy wood and light toast; layers of citrus, tangerine and flower blossoms unfold elegantly.

Let me tell you, I really wish they had been two bottles of Silver Oak or Caymus or even Opus One.  So I opened the one I left tonight and my wife says, “don’t waste it, make sure you have more than just one glass!”  (She is pregnant with our third child, so she missed out.)  I have have never really been a fan of the bubbly, but I bacame a fan of it tonight; at least this one brand of Champagne.  I probably would not ever spend the $30-40 bucks to buy myself a bottle, but am enjoying this one.  (Yes as I write this )  Yummy.

So go out and try this brand of Champagne.  It will make a believer out of you.

Christmas Card Etiquette

OK people, ’tis the season…….the grinch stole Christmas…..I got a brick….whatever.

Can someone please tell me why 90% of the cards I am receiving from both friends and family are completely preprinted.  I am talking about the entire damned thing!

Let’s start with the envelope shall we??  I mean I can understand that most folks these days have return address labels, for heavens sake the Salvation Army send me 50 with a flag every year I give a donation. 

I digress.  Why can’t people hand write the address anymore?  I do.  I hand write the addresses because I think it adds a little bit of humanity and thought to the whole process.  I would really appreciate it if folks would hand write their addresses.  At the very craziest minimum, I would like my complete name spelled correctly.  For example if it were Smith, I am talking S-M-I-T-H.  NOT smythe, smithe, smyth or smit.  Come on put some time into proof reading and verifying the last names are at least correct.

Let’s move inside the envelope.   Please don’t buy those really expensive, foil lined and double packed envelopes.  They are hard as hell to open and after all, why spend extra on something goes into the trash anyway?  I don’t care about the envelope.  A carrier pigeon could drop the card on me and that would be just fine. 

On to the card.  If you send a card….any card, please make sure you at least sign your name to it.  Sign something to it….hell at least get a pen and write on it somewhere.  This year I am receiving an inordantly high amount of the costco picture cards with the very generic “Merry Christmas!  Love Becky, Paul, Olivia and John Smith”  What the hell is that?  Come on people, I haven’t heard from you in 6 months and would like to get caught up on what is going on. 

Let’s move on to the final piece of this rant.  The stamp.  It is now $0.39 to mail a letter/card.  Don’t send me a card with a $0.33 cent stamp and the rest in 1 or 3 cent stamps.  It is time to bite the bullet sammy and realize that if it has been that long since you sent a letter, you might as well just pack it in.

 Oh, and no joking around….if I don’t receive a card from you this year, you won’t get one from me next year.  I am tired of you lazy sons-of-bitches that can’t send a Merry Christmas  card with a love, so and so on it.

Every year I send out at least 30 cards.  I handwrite all of them with the exception of the return address. 

Yes they have correct postage as well.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Fresh Choice

This is a manners rant.

I took the family out to the neighborhood Fresh Choice tonight and damned if I wasn’t pissed off at the guy behind me by the time I reached the registers.  You know; you walk in to the joint and they hit you over the head with the cafeteria trays.  They even have the mini red cafeteria trays for the kids.

After you get your tray, plates and utencils, it’s off to the Kings Table Smorgasboard!  Well, they guy behind me was really irritating at best.  EVERY time he chose something to put on his plate, I heard him say, ” Oh I just love jicama” or, “I just love pasta”.  Give me a break Mr lovey dovey. 

So, when I finally got to the end of the food line, where you pay at the register, this ass-clown holds his tray 2 inches above half of my food!

What an idiot!!  I asked him to please move his tray, that it was common courtesy to not reach across and hold his tray over my food.  He just huffed and puffed.  This guy was around…..oh I dunno…….. maybe 55 or 60 years of age.  I just could not believe he did that.

Okay I am done.  Thanks for listening!

The Christopher Gardner Story

I heard on the way in to work this morning about the Christopher Gardner Story.

 Basically a rags to riches story about overcoming obstacles and knowing who you are to get to the top.  I love these stories because they are very similar to what I went through as a kid with my mother.  I mean we never stayed in a BART bathroom and we always had the same house, in fact to this day my mother still lives in the same house I grew up in.  I remember waiting in the car alot while she went to get things, sometimes even digging through dumpsters for arts and crafts supplies.  These supplies were usually blocks of wood and other textiles that we then would cut up and make things with.   I remember going to FISH closet to get clothes and government cheese.  We went to church every Sunday.  I am so grateful that my single mom raised me with integrity, trust and confidence.  Maybe more on this later.  In the mean time, here is the link for Chris Gardner’s Website.

A Fine Port

I was introduced to a mighty fine port over the last few months, by one of my colleagues.  It is called Sandeman Founder’s Reserve.  At $15 bucks a bottle, it is a bargain!  Check it out at Sandeman. Enjoy!

The Glue On Ice Cream Cone Wrappers

I was at the local DQ last night with my wife and as I ate my medium cone, I peeled off the wrapper so I could eat all of the cone with the ice cream inside.

As I peeled the wrapper off, I noticed there was way too much glue used to hold the wrapper on. 

My question and concern is pretty obvious…..is that glue harmful?

If you know, please post the answer.  Hopefully, it is non-toxic.