Welcome to the Lumberyard!

Window install part one...

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:03:27 GMT

We're getting new front windows today. On an only slightly related note, I was just handed our old flag support which was attached to the old window's woodwork. It says made in Korea on it. I find this more than a little bit ironic!

Jump suits rule!

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:26:04 GMT

(the basketball team won today!)

The people at the polls...

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:27:17 GMT

jrstraus and I voted last Monday, as I mentioned before we had a 45 minute wait. The procedure at the polling place, was for you to submit your name, and wait for it to be called why the checked on stuff, and dealt with people that had arrived earlier than you. Anyway, while we were waiting we heard a name. A name which initially brought great interest to us, to Jen because it's a (was) a fictional person, and to me because I'm a man. That name was "Daisy Duke". After we got done checking with each other that we had heard the woman calling it correctly, we looked to see Daisy. The years since, or perhaps because of, the Duke's of Hazard have not been kind to Daisy.

Cliches...

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:43:37 GMT

I know it's cliched, but being a parent is by far the hardest thing I've ever done!

As I thought...

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:19:32 GMT

The grey hairs are increasing!

Civic duty...

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:25 GMT

jrstraus, the little guy and I all went to the polling place today to vote. We were successful in voting. We had to wait 45 minutes, we arrived at high noon, and it took longer than usual to vote, do to a struggling child, but we managed to get it done. I'm curious for those of you that don't vote early, how long the lines will be next Tuesday. All in all I was pleased with how it all went down. If you can you should vote early too. If you can't you should still vote on Nov. 4 though.

Understanding finances...

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:00:38 GMT

If you want to have a better understanding of the current financial crisis, spend 2 hours listening to these two radio reports. This is a complex problem, so it takes a little bit of time to get all the details and have your brain wrap itself around it. Anyway, I found these to be amazingly helpful as all the other reporting I've heard up to this point, only scratched the surface.

The Giant Pool of Money (Play Audio)

Another Frightening Show About the Economy (Play Audio)

Seriously, these are really good.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:56:17 GMT

I attempted to install child locks on the cabinets today. Either we bought cheap ones or this really is significantly more difficult than it looks!

If you don't have kids now, but do own your home and expect kids in the future, begin now. It may take you several months/years to accomplish this task.

Bad hobie...

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:15:42 GMT

I caved...

Muir Woods...

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:58:39 GMT

Here's a short video jrstraus shot at Muir Woods on a recent trip to San Francisco. I love this video because you can hear a small child getting eaten by some sort of bird of prey in the background.

Oh, and here are the pictures from the trip, hopefully they'll get organized in some fashion.

Open Ceremony...

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:01:20 GMT

I missed the beginning but caught a really neat opening ceremony for the democratic national convention tonight on NBC. There sure are a lot of Asians (not to mention fireworks) in Denver and that stadium is pretty cool too. Too bad I didn't get to watch the end either. What's with all the drummers?

Olympics...

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:03:05 GMT

In honor of the Olympics I offer this. (Not work safe unless they have a sense of humor.)

Green Bay Soap Opera...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:47:15 GMT

What can I say about the soap opera that is the Green Bay Packers versus Brett Favre? The obvious thing to say is enough already! This has gone on long enough. Everybody in this looks bad, and the longer this goes on the worse everybody looks. I've respected Favre for a long time, not because he's an accurate passer (his INT's prove he's not), or because he runs the offense perfectly (he doesn't). But because he's a consummate competitor, he never gives up (even though his mistakes probably made their situation worse), and he's been loyal to Green Bay.

I fault him for sending clear signals that he was done with football, even before he retired he made it clear he was getting toward the end of his career, and then he wasn't done with football. So you can't blame the Packer's front office (PFO) for believing him when he said he was done.

On the other hand, the (current) PFO has not treated him with same kind of loyalty he has shown the Packer's organization. How many teams in the league are wishing they had this problem? When a future hall of fame player tells you he wants to come back, one that has demonstrated he can still do the job, especially one that has a legacy that's entwined with your organization so intimately, it might suck, but you take him back. It sucks in general, and it sucks a lot in June (when Favre started dropping the very serious hints he was coming back), plus it utter blows for Rodgers. Talk about living in a shadow, and then to have the shadow pull the sun back up from horizon so it can stay alive, that's just awful.

This is like having two kids that are fighting. They're both pissing me off, but I can't choose sides. All I can do now is wait and see what ends up happening. In a perfect world, they kiss and make up. I know that won't happen. So I'm resigned to the thought that the next best thing is for Favre and the Green Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl, but at this point and time it looks like they won't be on the same team, so that's not possible either. I'd love to see Favre end up playing for an AFC team and meet the Packers in the Super Bowl. That's the best I can come up with as of right now.

*Post Dog walking thoughts*
I have a sneaking suspicion that Ted Thompson gave Favre the impression that he's too old to be QB anymore, or washed up. That probably wasn't his intension, but I have a feeling that's the way it came across. And so now Favre isn't really coming back because he can't stand not being on the field (that's just a bonus). Now he's coming back to show the PFO that he can still play and compete. This is why I think Favre is so interested in staying within the division. So he can play at least two games against the Packers, so he can prove to the PFO that he still can compete and win, and that they made the wrong decision to move on with out Brett Favre.

I don't know much about CEO and team president Ted Thompson, but I've never heard anything good about him.

Indian TV...

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:29:48 GMT

We watched about 30 minutes of Indian TV today, it's basically music videos, very interesting to see that there is MENUDO in India too. Anyway the "VJ" if you will, trying to keep us up on the Bollywood hype, just informed us that there is an "illegible bachelor" in Bollywood. I guess you had to be there.

Good rule of thumb...

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:58:03 GMT

Here is a very interesting lecture by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law, discussing why you should never talk to the police. I came across this from Bruce Schneier's blog. The more I'm reading about him the more respect I have for him.

Personally, I agree you should never talk to the police as along as they're not investigating you. If however you are the witness or victim of a crime obviously, it would be in your best interest to talk with the police.

Mother...

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:43:48 GMT

Never underestimate the power of mom. Similar to super powers though, never underestimate the burden of being mom.

Another beautiful pork creation!!!

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:17:02 GMT

Several years ago*, while at Minoken** I had an instant brain storm. That idea was to merge a bratwurst and bacon into a near perfect food, the bacon wrapped brat.

Today I had another glorious thought. A new pork based food that is wholey awesome new creation and if done properly an extension of the bacon wrapped brat. That idea is the BBQ pulled pork covered brat. It's the chili dog of the brat world and it is sublime. My brother-in-law and I, assuming our arteries and cardiac system can handle it, may try the extension, a bacon wrapped brat topped with pulled pork!

If you decide to try this at home, I suggest you do not over do it on the pulled pork, too much and BBQ sauce will over power the brat.

*I think that may have been a 4th of July weekend too!
**adickers's grandparent's cabin on Klinger Lake, MI

Weights...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:33:59 GMT

Marginal success was had this evening. First things first I need to determine how much weight to use, so tonight's goal was to try and narrow that down, and not over do. Judging by the increased level of difficulty I felt putting shampoo in my hair in the shower afterward, I'd say I achieved that goal.

Bench press: #3* - 12, #4* -12 (need more weight)
Pec Contour: 55lbs - 12, 55lbs - 12 (ideal weight)
Bicep Curl: 55lbs - 12, 55lbs - 9 (need less weight)**
(Exercise: amount of weight - # of reps in set 1, amount of weight - # of reps in set 2)

*The weights for the bench aren't listed in pounds but simply by numbers, so I don't really know how much weight it is. I need to get a spring scale and figure it out.

**The weights for the bicep curl and pec contour increment by 7.5lbs, so going finding that ideal weight is difficult because there is kind of a large swing. I'd love to have a 2.5lbs or 5lbs mini weight to put on there instead of having to go up or down by 7.5lbs.

Motivation...

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:50:00 GMT

Yesterday while walking the dog I was highly motivated to start my exercise program* today. As of right now I just finished spending approximately 2 hours balancing the checkbook (via Quicken). This is an exercise that I loathe, probably because I get the joy of reliving all those purchases. Anyway, I have had almost all of my motivation for lifting weights drained out of me. I'm going to force myself to go downstairs and do something because I have already found 2 weeks worth of excuses to prevent me from exercising.

I have inherited from my mother the ability to find an excuse** for anything, and in the case of exercising I need to be done with excuses.

*Tuesday & Friday is weight training, Monday & Thursday is cardio (not sure what kind yet)
**the irony of this statement is not lost on me

Still not fit...

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:19:14 GMT

Slightly over 1 week ago I posted this entry concerning fitness and exercise. As of yet I have done nothing to this end. I wonder when I will?

Fitness???

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:48:08 GMT

I told myself after jrstraus was no longer working at NPD, and I had returned to the day shift that I would start some sort of fitness routine. I'm not sure yet how this is going to pan out, but in all honesty it needs to pan out in some form. I'm currently weighting in at 190lbs and according to the CDC website my BMI is at 23.7 which is only 1.3 away from overweight. However, if I use 200lbs, which is how much I weighed before Quinn was born, then my BMI is exactly 25, or overweight. So I need to do something to keep things in check, and since I have done very little with respect to fitness in the last 5-7 years it's about time.

My plan is to do some weightlifting using the early 1980's Universal exercise equipment (behind the white thing with the fur seat, not a good picture) located in our basement, which was to consist of some bench pressing, bicep curls, pec butterfly, and situps. The rest of the plan consists of some form of cardio. And here in lies the rub. I can't really stand running for the sake of running, biking is okay, but doesn't seems to be very effective. I'll run my butt off if I'm playing a game of some kind, however I don't seem to get involved in those much, so getting the cardio portion is going to be more of a challenge.

Hopefully, over the next few weeks and months I'll be posting regarding what happens with respect to fitness. I've learned I'm more likely to do things in my life if I feel like I'm letting other people down instead of only letting myself down, and weirdly the livejournal community maybe able to fill that niche.

Tonight however, I'm going to finish building the strawberry enclosure for the garden and watch a portion of Serpico which has been sitting on the DVD player for some time now.

80 hour work week...goodbye!

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:37:10 GMT

Today is my last day of working 2 full time jobs! jrstraus's last day of work at her job is today, thus when I return from work in the foreseeable future, I'll be joining her in caring for our only child, instead of assuming that responsibility by myself for my second shift of work for the day. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm very proud of myself for managing to do this, successfully, for the past 4 months. That doesn't mean however, I wish to continue this lifestyle. I'm not sure how to describe my feelings, but I'm definitely not bitter or angry, because this was what had to be done and it was a decision jrstraus and I made together and worked at together. I'd say I feel releaved and excited, oh and a little tired too.

I'm not through the day yet however, and since Quinn is currently sleeping I think I'll try and follow suit as well.

Awake...

Mon, 12 May 2008 09:49:37 GMT

I set my alarm for 3:30am this morning, but didn't really get out of bed until shortly after 4. I got up once in the night because I thought that Quinn needed help getting back to sleep, but he just needed to eat some more. So all told I've got about 5-6 hours of sleep tonight. I'd love to get more, but if I do I won't be able to fall asleep for my prework catnap tonight around 7pm before my next midnight shift starts. This sucks for a lot of reasons, but this month will fly by, and then I'll be back onto a regular work schedule for a month or two, which will be extremely nice. I'll be able to socialize with friends again, and more importantly jrstraus and I will have started the traditional family setup with one parent home to care for Quinn. I'm nervous about the decrease in money, but I'm excited about how much less day to day stress all 3 of us will feel. You really don't have any idea what your parents have done for you until you go through it with your own child/children. Now to the excitement of folding laundry while listening to NPR, and thinking about what to make for breakfast.

What are his blood pressure stats???

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:07:51 GMT

Does this make me better than A-Rod?

Achiles' heel...

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:38:47 GMT

A sore throat is my Achiles' heel. Other ailments don't seem to bother me, at least not as much in my opinion. The worst part is that the part of my throat that is the sorest, always seems to be in a place where I can't seem find relief. Today is one of those days. Quinn has a cold too....this sucks.