Your either a bully, a toadie, or one of the nameless rabble of victims.

One of a hundred classic lines from the best off-beat holiday movie ever. A Christmas Story! I bring this up for a couple of reasons. First off, I am just about ready to view this classic, again, for the first time this season. Second, my department at my work is having a Christmas party and they are actually showing it! Plus they are having "A Christmas Story" trivia for prizes. I wonder how many times I can win without making people pissed off. This has me totally psyched. I can't wait for next Wednesday. Free food, possible prizes, and my favorite Christmas movie. No wonder I like this place so much.

The "Italian" prize that Dad wins. Scott Farkus and his yellow teeth. Being triple dog dared into ripping half your tongue off. Drinking Ovaltine. Eating like the little piggies eat. Soap poisoning. I can't put my arms down....you can put your arms down when you get to school. And of course, shooting your eye out. I could go on and on. Its hard to even tell when that movie was made. 15, 20 years ago? 5 years ago? Who knows and who cares. Timeless. There have even been years where it's been run on a 24 hour marathon. I think on TNT. That, my dear friends, is a classic.

I can't wait to see it another 15 times before New Years!

just didn't feel like it, thats why

I have had writers block...or bloggers block as the case may be. Nuttin about nuttin striking my fancy enuff to type about until last night. Yesterday we got hit with the WHITE DEATH. Yeah, snow. Almost 5 inches of the stuff. Wow. We treat it around here like the plague only we freak out about it a bit more than the plague. My typical commute, with picking up the wife, takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. 5 hours last night. That doesn't include the stop at the store. The news had the warnings/watches up for 3 days. What is wrong with that picture. This was not a freak storm. Hell, it wasn't much of a storm. It started around 2 pm and went until sometime after dark. And still it took 5 hours. I take the interstates home, no back roads. 5 hours. A major north-south interstate and our region's circle freeway. The two biggest, no the ONLY two, interstates in this region. 5 freakin hours. There were at least a dozen cars off the road. Maybe 8 or 10 tractor trailers. I understand people having to take it easy when you are riding on snow and you can't see the lines in the pavement. 5 very long hours. The fault has to lie somewhere. This was 5 inches. We measure our snow in inches where a lot of places around this country measure theirs in feet. All of the schools were closed today. No extra cirricular activities for last night or tonight. Did I mention that it took me 5 hours to get home last night? And the weathermen were actually right on this one. They knew how much and they knew when, within an hour or two, that it would start. 300 minutes. I also understand that everyone left around the same time and the salt trucks had to negotiate the same clogged roads that we did. So no one thought that getting out and laying down some salt early might help? 18000 seconds. I think I am staying home the next winter storm that blankets this little region.

Ah yes, the holidays

There are two holidays that I hold dear to my heart....Thanksgiving and Fat Tuesday. And if you have to ask then you need to go back and read some of the posts on here. The two holidays where it is actually bad manners to not stuff yourself to the point of being uncomfortable. The time when you visit with family and mostly only see thier dental work as they devour the delectable delights. And then there is that uncle that finds the couch first and proceeds to take a 2 hours snore-fest. It happens every year. Thanksgiving is more than just making fun of the fact that I can double my weight before halftime of the football game Thursday afternoon. It's about being thankful (duh, thats where the name came from). Being thankful for family, friends, the food, the shelter, the love. Its all covered. But I have a little extra to be thankful for this year...my new wife. I am thankful that she agreed to share my life with me and thankful that she allows me to share hers. I am thankful that she is my best friend and the she loves my kids and cares about them so much. I am thankful that we share the kind of relationship we have. I am thankful for my kids. Two boys that are growing up so very fast. High school is right around the corner. Beddy Sceddy! My family, my mom and my brother and his family. All of my new family that I have. The list goes on....

I am also thankful for the things that don't affect me directly. The ones that maybe some people forget. The troops overseas that fight for thier country. The police, firefighters, and EMTs that fight here every day. The teachers that help my kids learn to be better people through education. The nurses and doctors that give up thier Thanksgivings to help others. All of those who take time out of thier lives to help out someone who can't afford thier own Thanksgiving dinners.

I have so much to be thankful for, I just hope I can fit all of it in in one day.

Not mucha nothin

Man, its early to be thinking. But I have been thinking all night long. I got that dreaded voice message last night when I got home. "This is the doctor's office, we would like you to call us, we are open late this evening...."

I called, and just as I had feared, my cholesterol has gotten worse. More specifically, my LDL is "real bad" to quote the nurse. So now it's Lipitor and more blood work to make sure the side effects aren't going to harm my liver. Of course I tell myself that its hereditary and that medicine is a good thing. Just think what it was like 30 years ago, medicine in general has come a long way. I just don't want to take advantage of medicine just yet. There is that fear of the long slippery slope of going down hill as one gets older. The problem I have is that I am not even 40 yet! The older part is not supposed to be a worry. Yeah, I have all kinds of hereditary illnesses in my family, everyone does. But I have just started a new life with the most wonderful woman in the world and I sure as hell do not want that to be cut short for any reason whatsoever. I had children at a young age so that when they got older, grown up, had kids of thier own, that I would be young enough to play with my grandkids. Besides being overweight, I don't smoke, I rarely drink, I try to exercise and lately I have changed my eating habits. Now if I were a 400 pound, smoking, drinking, lazy ass then I can blame it on lifestyle. Of course, if I was 400 pounds, a smoker, and a heavy drinker then I am pretty sure that I would be single ;-)

I watched my father decline due to a myriad of illnesses over about 15 years. He died at 48. His brother started to decline in his mid 40's. Yes, they had and have different things wrong but when history stares you in the face its kind of hard to ignore.

Of course, things could be ok and the Lipitor could work and I will be fine for the next 50 years to enjoy a wonderful life and grow old with my best friend. I think I just have to work harder now to make that happen.

mt again

I have no idea why Monday is a popular day for me to post here. I rarely have anything worth while to say...ok, I never have anything worth while to say. But for some reason I find myself here just about every Monday. The weekend was pretty uneventful, but then everything kind of is for a period after your wedding. Got the pics back and they are good. We did have some family Christmas pics taken professionally...but not very many due to having the wedding pics. And yes, we went to a photography studio inside of a large department store and yes, we did make an appointment, and yes, we did end up getting in a hour late and almost without any paperwork since they lost track of it for a while. But the pics look good and since my kid's mother is not wanting to help me get any school pics these might have to do in substitution. Speaking of kids and their mother....I have a question for all of you school age parents out there.

What do you do to motivate your child who seems to be underachieving in school. Yes, I know that underachieving can be a label etc etc etc...but I know he can do better, he does for the last two weeks of each semester. He does just enough to get the grades where he can keep them all year if he just tries. We are not talking Honor roll, just average grades. All I have ever asked for is to TRY. Do the homework, study a little. Cs. That's all. We have tried just about every type of punishment and rewards system that is out there and nothing is working. 8th grade, 13 year old, boy, by the way.

Ok, onto other topics. I am seriously thinking about starting a security consulting business on the side. Aimed at SOHO and Small Businesses. With the certifications that I currently hold, plus the CISSP that I will have come January (fingers crossed) I am hoping to be able to secure some extra work on the side and supplement the ole income. Still working out details but the idea has come on strong lately so I can't really ignore it. All of the geeks out there know what certs mean for ego but not sure the SOHO and Small Business owners are gonna see the value. Like I said, still working out the details.

The holidays are fast approaching and, knowing who reads this, I can safely say that I am done fretting over gifts. I know what I am getting (only one left to get really) and that is a first for me. A middle aged, married guy who is almost done with his shopping and its not even Christmas Eve yet. Actually, the wife is great at shopping, in general AND for the holidays. She starts early and is prepared. I may be almost done but she makes me look like a rookie when it comes to shopping. I would go into more detail but those who read this will get a surprise spoiled so, sorry.

Hmmmmm

Not really sure what to write about today. Its extremely busy around here, the new guy started today plus all of my other daily duties. I don't even have time to whine about anything really. Although there is no shortage of topics around. I opened up Sunday's paper and before I could even get to the funnies I caught a glimpse of a story about pirates. No any midwest baseball team, real live pillaging and plundering pirates off the coast of Africa. And if that is not surprising enough, the luxury cruise ship, there is a reason they call them CRUISE ships and not RACING ships, actually fended them off and out ran them to safety. Now as far as pirates are concerned, they should just give it up and find another line of work. Come on, you got beaten, out ran, out hustled by a large cruise ship. Not a good day.

We are entering week 3 of our blessed union and no, it still feels the same, no difference. I still look at her picture and smile that goofy ear to ear grin. She is still the most beautiful woman in the world. My best friend. The one I want to tell everything to. The one I want to share everything with and the only person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I am happy that there are no changes to report there.

Later....for you.

Pondering

As the week winds down I am left pondering a few things. Lemme update you on what has been going on first. For those who have read, we have a temporary replacement starting Monday for one of our guys that are being deployed to Germany to backfill for some Iraq bound troops. The guy that is starting was NOT our pick, he was just ordained as the new guy. I sit in an enlarged office with 3 other guys from my group. When the guy who is leaving moved out, I was given his cube (it has a window, nuff said). Well come to find out that the guy that moved was moved into a cube of a lady that is on maternity leave. And there is an empty office within 5 paces of that cube. Makes no sense to me whatsoever. I just hope that when he returns to us in about 18 months that he gets his job back, not just any job, but the one he left. I know that he is guaranteed a position but it would be a waste for him not to get his back.

Another thing I am pondering. Actually, this is more of a running theme so far. Something was mentioned to me by a certain someone (whose NEW last name is so very close to my own) that she was asked how married life was, or how it was different. And she replied that there is no difference. I am not sure if this is age, experience, or just the state of our relationship but she is absolutely correct. Besides looking at new pictures and having to change her name with a lot, and I do mean a lot, of places (thank goodness she is organized), there really is no change in how I feel. Yeah, I do look at our pictures and smile, a lot. Yeah, I do enjoy calling her my WIFE. And Yeah, it did require some planning and some money to get the wedding done.

But it's not as if our lives took a new direction when we got married. We knew a long time ago that this was what we wanted. I love her more every day. I felt that way before we got married. I want to tell her everything I think and feel. Yup, same as before. I think about how my kids are changing and growing and how I am enjoying her experiencing that with me. There is not one thing between us that changed with getting married. So I guess my point is this...yes, I am very happy that we are husband and wife. But no, its not any more special than it was a month ago. We have had a special relationship from the beginning and I have a feeling deep down that it will stay that way for a very very long time.