Party time people!

T1G is looking for hard commitments from those of us going to the blogmeet on January 8. For those of you that are mandated by me to show up, please make sure he knows you are coming and if you are bringing a guestÂ… like a spouse, friend, lover, etc.

If you know of anyone else who may be interested, please let them know, and have them contact me using either my e-mail, or the comments for this post. Also, if for some reason you thought you weren't invited, the original invite was for anyone who was interested. Anyone. Hell, if I'd let Harvey show up, I'm obviously not being picky.

If you want to go, it’s open to everyone, just head over and leave a comment saying, “Yes, I will be there”. Don’t wait too long; we wouldn’t want you to miss all the fun. Plus you’ll miss a chance to see me wearing a kilt and work boots in the middle of winter!

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My afternoon.

Well I spent the afternoon, unlike I said earlier, depleting the world supply of Guinness with T1G. Apparently two guys off of work makes the perfect excuse to get together at the local Hooters restaurant to flirt with waitresses, eat hot wings (Which is the real reason we went there, contrary to popular belief) and drink lots and lots of Guinness. Why Guinness? Why not!?!?!?

As for Christmas shopping I meant to get done, eh that will be another day. Taco Johns will have to wait as well. It was a pleasant afternoon. Spent eating good food (HooterÂ’s wings with 911 sauce are the bomb, yo!), in good company and drinking good beer. Like I had anything better to do with my unplanned day off!

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DRATS!

Well it appears my e-mail isn't working properly. I'm receiving e-mails minutes to hours after they've been sent. IE I had one person send me an e-mail. Then sent a follow up to that same e-mail. I received the follow up before I received the orriginal e-mail it figures.

I wonder if this has anything to do with all the porn I'm down loading.

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An Exercise tip.

I found the secret to exercise success folks! I used to work out 30 minutes a night on my exercise bike and it was shear hell. It felt as if I would die of boredom. I bought the bike because I thought that if I were able to watch TV, the time would just fly by. That theory was pure and utter BS. The first ten minutes wasnÂ’t bad, the last 20 minutes was horrible. I couldnÂ’t wait for the timer on the bike to go off and tell me I could stop. I never went over 30 minutes.

In September, some of you may recall I bought an Xbox. At the same time, I changed my exercise routine. Figuring 30 minutes just wasnÂ’t enough I decided to up it to an hour a night. The catch this time was that I was going to play Madden while exercising.

This was the greatest exercise idea of all time!

That hour just flies by. IÂ’ve even continued to peddle after the timer goes off because IÂ’m in the middle of the game and donÂ’t want to pause it. Sure controlling the guys is a little more difficult. After some practice, you are able to compensate for it. The other issue that concerned me was if I stopped peddling. This actually isnÂ’t that big of an issue. I found that I peddle faster when I have a guy running with the ball. Also I noticed that if the game is not going my way I peddle harder to get my frustrations out. When IÂ’m having a good game, the extra endorphins just make it that much more enjoyable.

IÂ’ve been doing this for about two and a half months now. On the couple of occasions that I watch TV instead of played Madden, that was one of the longest hours of my life. Everyday I play my exercise around when I can get an hour to play Madden. I even look forward to getting on the bike because I like the feeling I have when I get off the bike after a good win. Endorphins and adrenalin are a wonderful combination.

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Your attendance is formally required.

T1G is putting together a little get together just after the Holidays for bloggers to get together at one of my new favorite bars, FritzÂ’s Wooden Nickel in Stillman Valley, Illinois. Since this is close to the Holidays and I know all of you want to get me a present or three. Yes you do. DonÂ’t lie to yourself. Just shut up and do as I say! Ahem, sorryÂ… arguing with the voices IÂ’ve assigned all of you in my head can be aggravating at times.

Anyway, back on topic. I decided IÂ’m making a list of whom I want to be there that I have not had a chance to meet yet. I fully expect each of these individuals to drop what ever they are doing and drive, fly, take a bus up here for this event. IÂ’ll even offer my superb chauffeuring service for those that wonÂ’t have a vehicle. Lets get this list started, and in absolutely no particular order, here we go.

Bouddica of BouddicaÂ’s voice. Even though she is a neglectful blog mother, I still am dying to meet her in person.

Machelle of Quality Weenie. Even though she gives me more crap then I feel I deserve.

Sally and Alex of Whimsy Capricious and Alex in Wonderland. Maybe theyÂ’ll finally bring me my haggis. Even though Sally says she's giving up blogging. I think she's just being a tease.

VW of One Happy Dog Speaks. One of my Blog Niesters (Niece/Sister) IÂ’d like to see if my mental image of her is close to accurate.

Sissy of And What Next. My other blog Niester. I actually had a chance to meet her last June, but I decided to do a re-enactment instead. Silly me.

CalTechGirl of Not Exactly Rocket Science. Read her all the time. IÂ’m curious if she has the same personality as so does in the blogosphere. Plus she drove within 2 minutes of my house on her way out west and didnÂ’t have the nerve to even stop and say hello.

Blake of Laughing Wolf. Really I just want to hit him up for pelts. JOKING, ThatÂ’s a joke. HoweverÂ…

Ogre of OgreÂ’s Politics and Views. I owe him some beer anyways and this would be a good opportunity for him to collect. Plus since IÂ’m still currently his thrall, I should actually meet him.

Oddybobo of Bobo Blogger. After all of the memeÂ’s sheÂ’s put me through, I just want to dot her eye! Actually again I want to see if she fits my mental image of her. (No Harvey that is not nekked smothered in Chocolate pudding)

Eric of Straight White Guy. IÂ’ve heard so many stories about, er involving, er regarding him I would like to actually meet this living legend.

Johnny-OH of Closet Extremist. He just seems to be a kindred spirit.

ArmyWifeToddlerMom of Army Wife Toddler Mom. She just seems like a nice well-reserved lady. (I expect the payment by the end of the week)

Michelle of Letters from NYC. Yet another person that I have would like to put a face to.

Sarah of ThatÂ’s Not Very Nice. I just want to see if she actually talks like my relatives from up der in Minnesota. Because when I read her blog that is the accent I give to her.

Omnibus Driver of LeslieÂ’s Omnibus. She actually lives in the Northern Illinois region and shouldnÂ’t have an excuse not to go!

Spurs of Pull My Finger. HeÂ’s in a couple of my football games IÂ’m running and seems to be a nice enough guy. He can even bring Napster withÂ… if he wantsÂ… itÂ’s up to himÂ… but strip clubs are more fun with out the wife.

Official notice has been served. If you fail to comply with this official notice I will be forced to... do something. I don't know, leave drunk/harsh comments on your blog or something. So start making plans... NOW!

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For all the Veteran's.

To all the men and women in the armed forces;

To all of those that have served in the past.

Through peace and war, foreign and domestic, you have always been there when your country has called.

To all of you I say Thank You.

Thank you for protecting my family, my friends and myself.

Thank you for defending my lifestyle and freedoms.

Thank you for all that you have done.

Happy VeteranÂ’s Day.

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I'm not really a redneck.

In the comments about the Blogger playing cards. Shadoglare decided that it would be cool to make blogger cards based on Magic: The Gathering. Apparently I donÂ’t work him hard enough as he actually had time to go home and make some mock ups of Grau and myselfÂ… Yes, that is a bottle of Jack Daniels in my hand and a cowboy hat on my head.

Â…ItÂ’s a long storyÂ… a very long storyÂ… And no IÂ’m not sharing it!

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Jokers Wild!

Aaron is putting together a deck of Blogger Trading Cards. HeÂ’s looking for nominations for various bloggers to be in the deck. IÂ’m not going to repost all his rules and regulations, if you want to know what they are go check out his post.

The question is do I nominate someone or multiples and who and why? That is a tough question, because anyone I regularly visit I feel deserves a nomination for various reasons. (Content, personality, assistance, etc) Nevertheless, IÂ’m not going to nominate everyone. However, I am going to nominate three people. Why three? Why notÂ… do I have to explain everything I do? YouÂ’re not my wife! (Unless Ktreva is reading, this and IÂ’ll explain to you later) Just chalk it up to the fact that I like the number 3.

Here I go.

First, I nominate Graumagus of Frizzen Sparks for Spades. His Retrosexual code alone warrants him a nomination. His wit, that has been turned into chain letters and even hit various media outlets, would be enough to earn such a nomination. Throw in the fact that when heÂ’s not trying to kill himself through sleep deprivation, and actually posts, heÂ’s a pretty funny guy. That locks in my vote.

Secondly, I nominate Ogre of OgreÂ’s Politics and Views for Diamonds. IÂ’m not sure if he even would want his own playing card but IÂ’m nominating him anyway. Whenever I ask him for assistance or e-mail him a question, he promptly responds and assists me. Sometimes I wonder why the hell he stays in North Carolina with all of his posts. Anyone that can put up with the Carolina political problems and all of my questions deserves a nomination. Plus as his Thrall I believe IÂ’m obligated to.

Thirdly, I nominate CalTechGirl of Not Exactly Rocket Science for Hearts. And not because she was begging for a nomination. Every time IÂ’ve asked for technical help with code or with my blog, she has stepped up and tried to assist. My side bar very easily could have said I was a Thrall of hers if Ogre hadnÂ’t beaten her to the punch. SheÂ’s even given advice on personal issues IÂ’ve posted in the past. That and if I didnÂ’t nominate one female IÂ’m sure someone would label me a sexist. (ThatÂ’s a joke CTGÂ… DonÂ’t hurt me!)

There you go my three nominees. As I said above, if I could I would nominate everyone on my side bar. A lot of you deserve it for various reasons, so please no hate mails/comments about how much I suck because I didnÂ’t nominate you. However, if you really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really want to know why I choose those three over you, go ahead and e-mail me. IÂ’ll be more then happy to lie to you!

Myself, personallyÂ… I donÂ’t think I could qualify as the instruction card!

UPDATE: I added the suites for each person per this post over at aarons.

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Halloween costumes: Good or bad

Harvey has this post regarding sexy costumes up over at Bad Example. From the post, I have the impression that Harvey and his friend are in the opinion that Halloween either is developing a “slutty adult theme” or has had one. I have to disagree. It’s not about slutty adult themes.. or even sexy adult themes, it’s about fantasy (not necessarily sexual).

Halloween really did not start getting the popularity it has now in America until the 50’s. Now the kids that really first started enjoying it are grandparents; adults like myself, are second-generation Halloween celebrants. When we were growing up it was told to us, “You can pretend to be anything you want on Halloween”. When we were kids, we could be Fireman, Indians, policemen, monsters, soldiers, knights, Ghostbusters, etc. What ever our imagination wanted and no one cared because it was make believe. It was pretend. My extremely religious parents were not bothered that I dressed up as demons and the devil for one day a year, because it was make believe. I was not really a demon or the devil.

As we got older, those of us that really embraced Halloween (ItÂ’s my favorite holiday) kept up the spirit of make believe. Some of us use it as an excuse to dress up as something we arenÂ’t, but want to pretend we are. IÂ’m not really a demon lord of they Abyss (Contrary to what my minions might say), but I dress up as one every year for Halloween. It fulfills a part of my psyche that wants to be a scary and powerful supernatural being that strikes fear into the hearts of humans.

In real life, I would never actually impale someone, disembowel them, dismember them or sever their heads. On Halloween night, my yard looks exactly like that is what I have been doing. I enjoy pretending to be the bad guy and scaring older kids and adults. Unlike when I scare them unintentionally through my daily actions, this is more satisfying.

Talking with many females and with my own wife, I’ve concluded that females that dress up in the sexy outfits do it for a similar reason. They like being attractive, having men look at them, maybe even be a little bit trashy. HOWEVER, that is not who they are. One night a week they can dress up very provocatively and pretend to be more sexually aggressive then they really are, and not worry about someone thinking they are a slut. They can let out their inner “Naughty Girl” and no one thinks twice about it because it is Halloween. Very few will hold it against them once Halloween is over.

IÂ’ll admit my theory may be wrong, but with the 50+ females, IÂ’ve talked to about it; IÂ’ve received very similar answers.

Now on a separate, yet related note; While handing out candy on Halloween there were girls in middle school (they had the local middle school coats with them) wearing the sexy nurse, French maid, waitress, cop outfits. What parent in their right mind would let their age 14 or lower daughter leave the house dressed like that? Sure, itÂ’s make believe (see above) but this is just wrong, even if the costumes didnÂ’t look good on them because they didnÂ’t have the figure for it. There are some creepy people in the world.

I also had High School girls (again local HS jackets/bags) wearing the same style outfits come by. Being older, I didnÂ’t have a problem with it, at their age (16+) they are responsible for their own actions. However, these girls also didnÂ’t look good in the costumes because they didnÂ’t have the figures for them. The cut of the costume is meant for women, not girls. You have to have hips and at least some breasts for these costumes even to begin looking sexy. Most of these girls had very similar figures to my 12-year-old son. (IE, No curves) They thought they looked hot, maybe itÂ’s because I like women and not girls, but I thought they looked funnyÂ… in the clown sort of way.

There was also one woman that came to my house wearing a “sexy” witch costume. I applaud large women that have a healthy self-esteem and can wear sexy outfits and not be ashamed. HOWEVER, if the outfit is so small that you look like an overstuffed bratwurst exploding at the ends, find something new. This lady was between 5’2 and 5’4, probably about 350 pounds. I’m not kidding; I may even be being “nice” on the weight estimate. You could see where the costume had burst in multiple spots and she had safety pinned it back together. The safety pins looked like they were on the verge of exploding off the costume. I was actually in fear for the safety of the children with this woman when those pins finally gave way.

Some of you may think IÂ’m being cruel or insensitive. IÂ’m fat man myself. The number of times I did not buy clothing or costuming because it was too small or too tight has been lost to the ages. IÂ’m not embarrassed about my body. ItÂ’s not that. Clothing that tight just looks bad. If IÂ’m wearing a button down shirt and it, looks like the buttons are about to come flying off at lethal speeds, that just looks tacky. ItÂ’s the same principle here. If the costume ripped putting it on and you have to strain safety pins to hold it togetherÂ… you should NOT wear that costume.

In closing, remember: Adults in costumes are acting out some inner desire/fantasy to be something they are not or canÂ’t be every day. If you buy a costume and it fits poorly (too loose or too tight), you probably donÂ’t look good in it.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:48 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Friday Posts

Is it even worth posting anything on a Friday? I'm not sure anybody actually reads blogs on Friday's besides me. Other then myself and a couple of others, it seems that most bloggers don't post on Fridays...

What do you think, post or no post on Fridays?

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I'm a bad blog neighbor.

It appears my little “vacation” from the blogosphere has taken its toll. It has been 11 days since I last actively blogged, both reading and writing. Now I have a guilty feeling as if I’ve abandoned friends and family. This honestly is not the case. I was just really busy.

Excuse 1:

I had my favorite re-enactment of the season on the 15th and 16th. Some of you may recall that I got engaged at this event AND had part of my honeymoon there. ItÂ’s also the last event of the season for us. That means we wonÂ’t see any of our re-enactment friends for almost 6 months. IÂ’m close with a lot of these people, but like in the blogosphere, we donÂ’t live near one another. Some of them travel in excess of 12 hours to get to some of the events we do.

Excuse 2:

My place oÂ’ employment sent me to Texas for 4 days. It was not a pleasant trip, and I so wished I could have gotten online at night to blog about it and to read your blogs to get my mind off everything. Unfortunately, I donÂ’t own a laptop to take with me. Even if I did, the sucky hotel stuck me in a room that didnÂ’t have internet access.

Excuse 3:

With all my traveling around, I had to spend some quality time with my wife. Sure, we did the re-enactment together, but during the day, I was either talking to the public or fighting in the battle. We didnÂ’t spend any real time together, and contrary to my surly and uncouth appearance, I know that if I want to stay happy I do need to spend some time entertaining my wife in matters outside the bedroom. Although usually the first leads to the latter, which is yet more motivation for me.

The problem with spending all the time away is that I am so behind in all the blogs that IÂ’m not even going to try to catch up. There are hurricanes, politics, jokes, emotions, complaints, rants and even the occasional profession of pure emotion out there. For me to be able to go back 11 days and read them all would require me to take a lot of vacation time, and I canÂ’t do that. This means I am sure some of you have written brilliant pieces that I will be worse for not reading.

So if any of you have written a post that you are really proud of or if you read someone elseÂ’s post that you feel that it would be a crime against the blogosphere for me to not read, please the url in the comments for me.

My normal smart arse and generally unwanted comments will resume in all of my regular reads starting tomorrow. That reminds me, IÂ’m getting ready redo my frequent visits list, if I visit your site often and you donÂ’t see your site on my list, also leave a comment. I tend to forget where IÂ’ve been and what IÂ’ve done.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:30 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Shooting and electronics.

Sunday was a good day. After getting a restful 6 hours of sleep, I woke up to my wife advising me that the DVD player is giving her a “Mecha Error”. That is what the display said, “Mecha Error”. At first, I thought that maybe something happened in the Middle East and the center of the Islamic religion was having issues. Then my sleep groggy brain realized that it said “Mecha” not “Mecca” and that there is no way my DVD player would know if something did happen there. After looking at it for a while, turning it on and off and trying some percussive maintenance (i.e. pounding on the case with your fist), I decided I needed to unplug it and open it up.

Yep, it was broke, as soon as I picked it up the tray that holds the 5-disc changer just slide right open. It should not do that. I opened it up to see if it was something, I could fixÂ… nope motor fried. Time to go buy a new DVD player. Off we run to electronic stores looking for a new DVD player. When we arrived we noticed that I could get a home theater system w/DVD for just a little more then I was willing to spend on a good DVD player, so we did some more shopping and ended up spending over twice as much as I had originally intended. I kept deciding if I was going to get a home theater system, it needed more gadgets and functions.

When we got home, Graumagus was there. We planned to go shooting, he arrived a little earlier then I thought he would, but thatÂ’s okay. He helped me carry the home theater system in the house. Then it was off to go throw lead down the range. Fortunately, the range wasnÂ’t too far from my house. Just as we arrived, I realized I had not grabbed my powder horn and I didnÂ’t think I had enough powder in my shooting box for the day. Grau was about to make fun of my stupidity when it dawned on him that he left his powder horn in his van back at my house. After making the trip home and back, we were able to get in an hour and a half of shooting. Since we were practicing, we only shot at 25 yards. My weapon was my .75 caliber Brown Bess smooth bore musket, for those of you that have never fired a gun, let alone a flintlock, and especially a smooth boreÂ… 25 yards may seem a short distance, but thatÂ’s a hard shot when you havenÂ’t had a lot of practice.

It wasn’t the tightest cluster I could have gotten, but I had five and a half of the rounds in the black. All but two of my shots would have been a kill, one was low and right and the other didn’t even hit the backdrop. I flinched really badly when I fired that round. All I know is that large caliber round balls make a lot of noise flying through a forest. Speaking of large caliber round balls, I still love getting to the range and hearing someone exclaim, “God your balls are huge!” It just puts a smile on my face.

Since my musket doesn’t have sites, I have to aim along the barrel. The barrel is wider at the breech then at the muzzle; I have to improvise how I aim. This includes attempting to use my bayonet lug as a front site. This makes me constantly miss to the right. By the end of the day, I had compensated enough to be able to hit the center by aiming to the left of it by a good 6 inches. As we were leaving Grau made the observation that the reason I pull to the right is because, “(I) carry my heavy arse shooting box with (my) right arm making it shorter then (my) left.” My shooting box weighs about 20 pounds; each bullet is 1.26 ounces of lead.

I was home in time to watch the Viking/FalconÂ’s game. Grau helped me dispose of some extra Beer I had on hand. After the game Grau took off and I started assembling the home theater system. I discovered that doing this while I had been drinking probably was not the best idea IÂ’ve had. Electricity, alcohol and me donÂ’t make a good combination. No, I didnÂ’t get hurt and the system works just fine. It just took longer then it should have. In addition, there was trouble hooking up our digital cable.

I’m just going to say now that Insight Communications sucks! The digital cable box they gave me doesn’t have the digital output to run to the home theater system. When I called them today to find out what was going on they advise me that in order to get “true digital” service I need a different box that costs $15.00 more a month. $15.00 more just so I can have my Digital Surround Sound? That is bullshite! Add that to the fact, they have raised our rates over $11.00 a month since May, and they wonder why people are leaving them in droves.

So this means I have faux digital? ItÂ’s like digital in that it costs more, but it isnÂ’t really digital because you canÂ’t have any of the features of digital. If I didnÂ’t watch a lot of channels you canÂ’t get with out a service, IÂ’d drop cable all together. IÂ’ve looked into dishes, but IÂ’m not convinced that they are any better.

Needless to say, IÂ’m not going to have surround sound coming from my cable, only from my DVDÂ’s. I canÂ’t justify paying an additional $15.00 a month just so I can have better sound.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Serenity

WOW!

We just got back from seeing Serenity. IÂ’m glad Ktreva and I were able to see it. This was a great movie. I absolutely loved it. If you like Sci-Fi, Westerns and especially if you like both, you will love this movie. We both left the theater absolutely loving this movie. If you get a chance to go see it, IÂ’d recommend it, especially if you are a Firefly fan. If you never saw an episode of Firefly youÂ’ll still be able to understand what is going on. Ktreva didnÂ’t watch as much of the series as I did and she still was able to follow what was going on and enjoy the movie.

It was a mix between action and comedy that just worked. A lot of one-liners that had the entire audience laughing and action scenes that kept your attention. The story line was great, the special effects where damn good and the acting was some of the best by the entire cast that IÂ’ve seen in a movie. There were some scenes I wish they had elaborated on. Sure some of the plot was a little predictable, but I havenÂ’t seen a movie in the last 10 years that isnÂ’t.

We liked this movie so much we could have gone and seen it for a second time tonight if we had the time to do so.

For those of you that havenÂ’t seen the movie IÂ’m putting the spoilers in the extended entry. SO DONÂ’T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DONÂ’T WANT TO KNOW ANYMORE UNTIL YOUÂ’VE SEEN THE MOVIE!!! more...

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A pox I tell you!

I donÂ’t have a lot to say today. Well I do, but IÂ’m not burdening everyone with it. My little idiosyncratic bullshit is not something that anyone would find interesting. LetÂ’s just say IÂ’m having the type of day that most people are wont to avoid.

Have you ever had a day so bad that you swear that every mentally myopic megalomaniac in your life is intentionally trying to piss you off? Well I have many individuals that meet that criterion at work. Throw in friends and family that seem to intentionally trying to piss you off and there you goÂ… my day.

It doesn’t help that Murphy’s Law is using me as a whipping boy either. Every time I am hit with, “good” news there is a tremendous he-bitch man-slap of “bad” that goes with it. Let me give you an example; I’ve been having problems with the data on one of the reports that is provided to me, it’s incorrect. I understand that, the team that releases it understands that, my peers/manager know it, but don’t understand it. Today, after 4 months of incessantly telling my peers/manager that it is wrong and trying to get them to assist me in getting it corrected; it is being fixed. HOWEVER! (AHA! I knew it was coming!) I have to go back and manually correct all the data for the last 4 months. Apparently, it has to be I that does it because I’m the only one that understands the damn report. The sad part is that this report only has an inappreciable relationship to my position.

Tonight I think IÂ’m going to go home and have a long talk with John Daniels. No, I donÂ’t mean Jack, when youÂ’ve known him as long as I have you call him John.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Happy Birthday Harvey!

Harvey of Bad Example is turning 39 on the 14th. His only request for his birthday was pictures of partial to fully naked boobies, titties, juberlies, jugs, gazangas, ta-tas, fun bags, dirty pillows, golden bozos female breasts.

Normally, I don't post pictures like thatÂ…. on this site. However, since Harvey was one of the three people to influence me to start a blog, I thought I would comply with his wishes. Plus I have met him in person and he is generally a good guy. Oh, and now that he is 39, TNT is going to trade him in for a younger model. That means heÂ’s going to need something to keep him busy at night.

HereÂ’s to you Harvey! Happy Birthday!

The picture is in the extended entry. To quote the birthday boy himself, “moderately safe for work, but difficult to explain."

UPDATE: Harvey has his official birthday post up. more...

Posted by: Contagion at 07:27 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Birthday Wishes and Good luck!

Bou of Boudiccas Voice, my blog mama-sis, is celebrating her 20th birthday Version 21 today. Everyone should go over and wish her a happy birthday... and inquire what Jesus was like as a child. (hiding)

Also...

CalTechGirl of Not Exactly Rocket Science is requesting good luck wishes for an impending job interview today. As promised, I'm giving her both barrels of good luck... until kick off tonight, because I can't concentrate on anything except the game when football is on.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Confrontation in a parking lot.

A very strange incident happened to me on Tuesday. That was the day Clone was sick and I had to stay home to take care of him. We ended up going to the grocery store to pick up some items to help himÂ… Tylenol, Gatorade (He hates Pedialyte), milk, etc. The whole trip to the store went just fine, it wasnÂ’t until we left that I had an issue.

I was putting Clone into his car seat in the truck. My cartful of items that I just purchased was right next to me. Just as I started belting Clone in, this old guy walks up and starts to take my cart. I grabbed it and the following conversation occurred.

Me, “Excuse me, that’s my cart. I’m not finished with it yet.”

Old guy, “This is my cart, you took it!”

Me, “ No, that is my cart. I just bought those items in the store.”

Old guy, “You took my cart! This is my stuff.”

Me, “If you look in the cart you will see it is definitely not your stuff, I’m not thinking that at your age you will be needing Children’s Tylenol.”

Old Guy, (not even looking in the cart) “I didn’t buy any Children’s Tylenol!”

As I could feel my temper starting to get the best of me, I was getting ready to whip out my wallet and show him the receipt for the items. Just then a young guy comes walking up. When I say younger, I mean younger then the old guy. Then again, from the looks of the old guy, he probably played with Jesus as a child, so just about anyone was younger then him. The new guy the came over was about my age. At first, I thought this guy was going to start giving me crap for, “stealing from an old man”. Then he says to the old guy, “Grandpa, this is not your cart. This cart belongs to this gentleman.”

He then turns to me and says, “I’m so sorry. My grandfather has senior dementia and gets confused easily. I was just putting our groceries in the car when he wandered off. He’s didn’t mean any harm. He just thought this was his cart.” The old guy apologized and looked confused.

Everything made sense at that point. I told the younger guy it was no problems and told the old guy there were no hard feelings. To help ease his ego I added an, “Don’t worry about it; it’s an easy mistake to make. I’m sure it happens all the time to everyone.”

My grandmother on my fatherÂ’s side had AlzheimerÂ’s and Senior Dementia. It wasnÂ’t difficult for me to understand the guyÂ’s predicament. Whom I really feel bad for is the grandson. ItÂ’s only going to get worse. I saw my grandmother for the last time when I was about 14. She didnÂ’t die until I was 22. She lived about 8 hours away where most of the rest of my FatherÂ’s family lived. We would go up there at least twice a year to visit my relatives, but I refused to go with to see grandma. ItÂ’s not that I didnÂ’t love her, it was because of what happened the last time I saw her.

She was in the nursing home and we walked into her room. As soon as she saw me, she started yelling and screaming about how I had left her there and why would I do that to her. It didn’t take long for everyone in the room (My parents, two aunts and uncles and my younger sister) to realize she thought I was my father. She started calling me by his name, even though he was standing right next to me. She said something like, “If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have let your brother put me in here.”

It was a horrible visage of a woman that I always remembered as being kind and caring. After we left, I made my parents promise never to make me go visit her again. That was not how I wanted to remember my grandmother. Unfortunately that is the last, but not strongest, memory that I have of her.

I just hope something like that doesnÂ’t happen to this grandson.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:20 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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See you in a week!

ThatÂ’s it folks, IÂ’m out of here! IÂ’ll see you all in a week! IÂ’m sure most of you won't even notice IÂ’m away while others will wander aimlessly around looking for stuff to destroy. IÂ’d recommend looking in the nightstands.

I contemplated turning over the keys to the blog for a guest poster. The more I thought about it, the less I liked that idea. Most of the people I would have asked to do a guest post or two I either wouldnÂ’t trust with the keys or wouldnÂ’t want to touch this dark hole in the basement of the internet. (Hey, itÂ’s ugly but itÂ’s mine!) And that really is the main reason I didnÂ’t ask someone to guest blog, this is my blog. I donÂ’t want to share. There is some satisfaction in knowing that I did this by myself.

Just in case someone decides to throw a party here in my absence, I left some party favors out.

Click to enlarge

I hope you have a blast!

Posted by: Contagion at 01:41 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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Life and prison.

This has been an absolutely strange day. Not, bad, just strange in a “that never happens” kind of way. There are so many stories I would love to share with you, unfortunately due to various reasons I cannot. The biggest reason being that two of the better stories would violate federal law. Some people might find prison blogging amusing; I however am not one of them. The next biggest reason is that some of the people involved know about this blog and check it out occasionally, or I’m afraid they will find out about it and read what I had written. No good would come from that either way.

This Friday I am leaving for my vacation. My wife and I are taking the kids to visit her relatives in Wichita, Kansas. While we are passing through Iowa, I have the opportunity to meet a guy from one of my football message boards. HeÂ’s a Green Bay fan that lives in Iowa. Since we were swinging that way, I thought it would be nice to put a face to his name/handle.

Last week I worked up the nerve to put in for another promotion at work. Apparently, IÂ’m doing well enough in my current position in the mentoring area. My manager put pressure on me to apply for a supervisory position that opened up. That does mean direct reports. While IÂ’m not sure IÂ’m quite ready for it, I figure what does it hurt to apply. What is the worst thing that will happen? They say no. Then IÂ’m in the same position I was in if I didnÂ’t apply, I donÂ’t have the promotion. IÂ’d rather try and not get it then to not try and never know.

Football season is right around the coroner. Preseason starts here shortly, and the camps began last week. IÂ’m ready for football; I need it. Maybe this year I can get more participation in my pool and salary cap league (ItÂ’s like fantasy football only easier) then I did last year. Both are run through Yahoo, so you have to have a Yahoo account. Last year I ended up winning the pool, so IÂ’m not complaining. ItÂ’s just more fun if you have more people playing. If you are interested, leave me a comment and IÂ’ll send you and invite. If you donÂ’t have a Yahoo account, you can create one free.

Damn, I wish I could tell you a couple of my stories. They are all that is going through my head right now. That makes it hard to post.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:32 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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