Where do all the porn stars go?

If you have an answer for that question right off the top of your head, then chances are you have heard this song by Everclear:



Really this whole intro was just to get you reading. I mean how can you pass up a title like that? In case you can't view the vid, or are just too lazy (it's really worth a watch/listen), the answer to the question is 'they all become Volvo driving soccer moms". Which brings up my soccer story. And yes, I am sure someone is going to give me a hard time about being a mini-van driving soccer dad, but I assure you, I have no sliding doors on my crossover and there for it is not a mini-van.

Anyway, there I am at soccer like I am just about every thursday in the late summer to early fall. Gabe really enjoys soccer and he has a very good team this year. The games are fun to watch, usually quite a few goals scored. This game was competative with a very good oposing team as well. We were sitting on the side of the field where you don't have to look directly into the sun, which really made sense to me as I like my retinas. Most of the parents were.. as well as the coaches.

Now the coaches take opposite ends of the field to setup shop. They hang out more towards the goal on the side that their team is defending. The might roam up and down a bit, but they are USUALLY very careful not to wander in front of parents and block their view. This game however was an exception. Let me introduce you to Mrs. ObnxiousStandInMyWay. This coach was annoying...treating her players like they were 5, not 9 to 11 like they really are. What bugged me most was that I was sitting pretty much midfield and she would wander all the way down from her end.. and stand right in front of me. Parents have to be about 5 feet back from the sidelines for throw-ins and whatnot, so there was room for her to do it. Repeatedly.

She wouldn't take hints, nor did she just even bother to think about the people, parents that take off work early to make sure they can have their kids to soccer ready to play by 530, that she was blocking over and over again. As I mention above, she treated her players like they were 5. The most obnoxious thing was when she wanted her players to stick with a play, she wouldn't say that. Apparently because all her players had the mental state of a toddler, she had to use code to trigger their minds. She would yell out 'PEANUT BUTTER'.

This bothered me. They are not 5 for one thing. Just tell them to stick with it, I am pretty sure they will understand. For another thing ... GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY WHILE YOU SPOUT THAT NONSENSE, I CAN'T SEE AROUND YOUR GIANT ASS. She did have a giant ass for the record. It wasn't quite one of those that look like they are smuggling a giant beach ball in their strech pants, but it was big.. and not even good to look.

I made it through the first half with only a few comments and none particularily rude. I was hoping she would get the hint peacefully. This was not to be the case apparently. Second half starts and within a couple minutes this bitch is standing in front of me... AGAIN. Not only that.. she is yelling Peanut Butter again.

I had enough at this point. Gabes team wears grey shirts and all the teams just go by the color. So its allways people yelling "Go grey! Center it!" or "Nice Defense Grey". When she started yelling PB again and again..standing directly in my line of sight, I yelled loud over the top of her "Jelly Grey team.. JELLY!!!!!" Then I started moving my head side to side to make it extremely obvious that I was trying to see around her planetoid of an ass as she turned to see who had made the Jelly comment. I just gave her a look of death that may have just suggested that I have a metal spork I keep on me just in case I have to shank some obnoxious soccer coach at the weekly game.

Sure, I could have probably just asked her to not stand in front of me, but my way was much more entertaining and much more...me. Hopefully she will think twice before standing in front of the parents that come there to see their kids play as well as stop treating 10 year olds like they are 5 and can't handle complex phrases like 'stick with it'.

I am pretty sure I have yet to see a former porn star as a soccer mom at any of the soccer matches I have been too, but every now and then you see one that makes you wonder. ;P

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LAN Party

This is a week ago now, but I forgot to blog about taking the boys to their first LAN party. For those of you that don't even know what I am talking about, LAN = Local Area Network. So what we do for these parties is rent out a big meeting room in a hotel, bring a big network switch and we all bring out computers and set them up in the same room so we can play networked games locally without the internet. Its a lot of fun and although we don't do it as often as we used to, its always a blast.

This time the boys were with me for the week and so they got their first opportunity to attend one of these events. It was a big undertaking this time. Normally its just me and my computer gear. This time it was 3 people, 3 entire computer setups, and then my xbox 360 setup and all the rock band stuff as well. It was quite a carload.

It took us about 45 minutes to set everything up when we got to the hotel. Gabe's computer unfortunately is old enough that he couldn't run a lot of the games we were playing and so he ended up playing Fable on the xbox quite a bit, which he loved as it was hooked up to a projector and was huge on the wall. Nothing like gaming on a 100" screen.

The rest of us played a mix of games including Call of Duty 4, WC3: DotA, Spore, and of course some Rock Band 2. We actually had two RB2 setups and two projectors. Our original plan was to do a battle of the bands. What we found out, much to our dissapointment, is that there is no way to challenge a specific band and thus sync up the songs. When RB2 announced a battle of the bands mode, we just assumed that you were going to be able to pick someone on your friends list or out on the xbox live service in general to compete against, but that is not actually the case. You can do challenges where your score gets pitted against others on your friends list that have done the same challenge as well as the internet as a whole. But there is no way to challenge a specific friend and his band to compete against yours. Dissapointing.

What we did try was to pick a song, and sync the start so we could do it anyway. This turned out to be quite a clusterfuck. The timing was off due to load times and when people selected their difficulty.. so one was always a few seconds off. This would have been fine had we been in different rooms, but we were about 15 feet from each other. Which means it was near impossible to try and stick with the rythym of your song and not get distracted by the other one playing. We tried it through a few songs before we gave up.

Overall though it was a fun time for all. We had about 15 people there at one point, with people coming and going as their schedule allowed. The boys and I showed up around 10.. and left around 10 at night so we put in a full day of gaming and pizza. The boys really enjoyed themselves and want to go to the next one. I don't think they were too emotionally scarred by some of the things shouted during intense gunfights in CoD4. Or at least they are clever enough to deny even hearing anything questionable. ;)

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Twilight Zone

Ever watch the old twilight zone shows? There was one episode where a guy is flying on the plane. He doesn't like flying and gets it into his head that theres someone.. something out on the wing. Even though they are flying.. he's convinced and starts to go a little crazy when he thinks he's seeing someone out there.

I had one of those experiences last night. Well not quite the same, but had the same usettling feeling. Around 2am, my jaw was killing me.. and I needed pain meds. I stumble out half asleep to the kitchen for a bottle of water and my meds. I swallow them down and have one of those "did I lock that" moments where I can't remember if I locked the sliding door to my patio or not.

So I go to check it to make sure. I have vertical blinds that hang in front of the door which were closed. I reached my hand between a couple of the slats to check the lock and they parted just enough for me to glance outside and there was someone standing there. About 5 feet from my door.. facing right at it. WTF.

Its about 230 in the morning and there is someone standing, facing my patio door, right at the edge of the small concrete patio I have there. Now its not like he was on my patio, he was on the grass, but the patio is very small with only enough room for a couple of chairs. I was not thinking clearly still half asleep and was just a little wierded out by the whole experience. Not what you want when waking up to take pain meds at 2am.. thats for sure.

I thought about it some more, and realized that the guy had a dog with him. Sure, its odd that he was taking his dog for a walk, right by my patio, at 2am, but I was a little more comfortable with the fact that most serial killers do not bring their dog with them so I was probably ok and this was just a guy with a young dog that had to go out at all hours of the morning.

I just hope that my hand reaching out between the blinds to check my lock freaked him out as much as his being right there by my patio freaked me out. Fortunately the pain meds I have say right on the bottle "May cause drowsiness". Realistically it should read "Will induce coma like states". So I was back to sleep in no time.

I am hoping to be done with the need for the pain meds soon as they make life complicated. You can't drink with them. They make you extremely tired.. to the point of barely functioning sometimes. And really I just want to have my tooth/jaw be pain free for the first time in about 3 weeks.

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Time flies.. when you are having fun?

I just realized its been a week since I posted. Kind of odd for me unless I am on vacation, which I was definitely not this time. I have just been out of it, tired a lot of the time, on pain meds which made me quite tired.

Yesterday I had my first root canal. Ideally that will be my first, and last root canal. It was not as bad as I was expecting however. The worst part was them sticking that long needle into my gums and working it around. After that, they let the stuff go to work and pretty soon I wasn't feeling anything on that side of my mouth.

The whole experience was a little strange though. Now I know each doctor has their own way of putting patients at ease and trying to seem relaxed and easy going, but this was just a bit odd. My endodontist was around his mid 40s, and a very nice guy, but his whole demeanor was just a somewhat odd experience. He came in talking about how his female assistant was in a bad mood and that he hoped she would not do anything on purpose to hurt me.. haha. Oh yeah.. I'm laughing.

Next I get my anesthesia and he leaves the room. The assistant promptly starts small talk while we are waiting for it to kick in. We went from nice weather to the fact that she is in the middle of a divorce and that her husband is a jackass who doesn't even want custody of their kids, doesn't want to spend time with them. As a parent, I don't even get that, but realistically, I just met you 30 seconds ago, why are you choosing me to spill your life story to? Just odd.

So we wait a bit, and the endodontist comes back in. He said that half my tongue should be numb by now as well as the left half of my lips. They were not and he said we should take care of that. Taking care of that however required more fun happy time with the long needle he likes to jab into my gums and work around. YAY!

After another 10 minutes or so, everything is numb as it should be and we get going. The endodontist is discussing Dancing with the Stars and which chicks he thinks are super hot and why. Then Christina Aguilera comes on the radio they have playing in the office and he jumps off on how hot she is. He is really having this conversation with himself as I have all this stuff crammed in my jaw right now I cant even really grunt much less answer him.

Now he decides to make a snarky comment to his assistant. I don't remember exactly what he said, but she fired something just a mean right back at him. He looked taken aback.. and then said this: (and no I am not making this up)

"Damn woman.. why can you just let me think for once that my pimp hand is strong!"

Yeah.. that was pretty much about the last thing I was expecting to come flying out of the mouth of my 45 year old middle-eastern endodontist. As I said, it was an interesting visit. But my tooth is not in pain right now, although my jaw is sore and is likely to be that way for a couple of days.

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Tagged for 10 Things...

Lisa tagged me to follow up her '10 Things I am Loving Right Now' post that you can find HERE. So here goes:

1. Rock Band 2. Online World Tour mode. Tons of new songs. Much more party friendly. It's nice when a game company actually listens to the people that actually play the game.

2. Fall weather. Fall is by far my favorite season. Its still warm enough during the day, but the evenings are starting to get crisp and cool. I can leave my windows open at night and bury myself in the blankets and I sleep so good.

3. The fact that my check engine light has gone back off on its own accord. I was dreading having to take my car in for the randon mystery engine problem .. as that never turns out to be anything cheap.

4. Tylenol. Loving the tylenol right now. I wouldn't be making it through the day without it right now. Dentist has reccomended I go see a specialist to see if he reccomends a root canal to take care of the shooting pain in one of my molars. Tylenol is at least keeping me sane and allowing some sleep at night. <3

5. Getting to see some good friends I have not gotten to spend time with in months. Always nice to get together with them.

6. Only 15 days til I am on vacation again. This trip includes Vegas and getting to spend time with family I seldom get to see but love to hang out with.

7. Getting to take my boys to their first LAN party this weekend. They are quite excited to get to bring their computers and hang out with everyone and play games all day.

8. Watching season 1 of Scrubs again .. with the bonus features too. One of my birthday presents from L :)

9. Actually feeling better, healthier, happier even though I am officially a year older.

10. Not to steal one from L's list, but I am a gamer and WoW junkie.. so yeah. Announced date for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion .. well.. I am loving that. Its about 6 weeks sooner than I expected and I have been playing the beta for it so I am quite excited to see it released.

I am tagging Courtney to continue this on. Hope you are feeling better today sis. Didn't sound so hot last night :P

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Check this...

This last trip was a first for me. I checked no luggage. Now I know some of you are veteran light travelers. I however used to travel for longer trips for the most part and usually with 2 kids in tow. This meant lots of stuff and checked baggage. There was really just no way around it.

This last trip was pretty short and so I didn't check my bag. I packed lighter and printed my boarding passes at home. It was nice in that I didn't have to go through the ticket counters at the airport. Just walked right to security and went on through. Quicker, easier, no worrying about getting stuck in line at the check-ins. No worrying about lost luggage on connecting flights etc.

All in all, it was a pleasant way to travel, and I certainly look forward to doing that again in the future when possible. Now I am hearing of certain airlines that are already or are planning soon to implement new policies where even the first piece of checked baggage is at a fee to the passenger. I have a real problem with this.. or should I say a real concern with this policy. Take a look a the flights I was just on.

My carryon is pretty big. Pretty much maxes the limits airlines have. It only fits in the overhead if put in sideways and taxes up a good chunk of space. Takes up maybe 1/3 of a big overhead bin.. for just my piece of luggage. Now there are people that are bringing bags like that and a laptop case or diaper bag and then a purse too. The flight attendants spent almost 20 minutes rearranging and cramming carryons to get it all in to be able to take off. Stuff was falling out of peoples bags and backpacks as it was getting shuffled around. Hell a cobination padlock fell out of a sidepocket of a backpack being moved by a flight attendant and hit a passenger.

The poor short flight attendants were having to climb on the seats all over the place trying to adjust and cram things in. This was all on a flight that allowed 1 checked piece of luggage for free. What is going to happen on flights where they charge 25 bucks for checked bags? $50? Even if only 10 or 20% more passengers carry on than they did before, where are these bags going to go? Are flights going to get delayed as the crew tries to stuff everyones crap into overhead bins and under seats?

How long will it be until the lady next to you will be carrying a live chicken on her lap and there are people strapping luggage on to the wings and stacking it in the aisles like one of those busses they use to transport people in third world countries? What happens when there is just no way they can get anymore carryon luggage on the plane in the bins? Are they going to check the luggage for free at that point or charge you because you were one of the later people and the bins were full already?

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Rookie Mistake

Flying with kids is never easy. I know.. I have done it with two small children before. I have done the lap thing with one of them for an entire 4 hour flight. I KNOW the trauma that can inflict on the parent, the child and the bulk of the passengers anywhere near said child.

It's because I have had this experience that I am very tolerant of other people going through the same thing. So there I sit on my flight home next to a young mother with a 1 year old on her lap and a child of about 2 and a half on the seat next to her at the window. I immediately had sympathy for this poor woman who was going to have to try to entertain those two for the 2 hour flight and do it with the younger one sitting on her lap the whole time. It was a jam packed flight or I would have tried to find another seat to allow her the row to herself with them.

The younger one was fussy, but I have wonderful headphones.. you know the ones that actually fit into your ear canal. They block out everything. Airplane engine noise, screaming fussy children etc. I was also fairly tired so I spent most of the flight partially dozing the best I can sitting on an airplane so I didn't even notice all her antics. I helped the mother adjust her light and air vents when she needed and picked a few things off the floor that she couldn't reach with the toddler on her lap. All in all, I really was fine with the situation. Until the last 25 minutes.

We were on our decent into the Denver area.. seatbelt light was on and all that. Suddenly the younger kid gets even fussier and so mom goes for the standard bribe. Food. This is a good go to.. keeps the hands busy and the mouth busy and if the pressure changes are part of the fussiness, the chewing will help with that too. I was thinking that maybe she did have a good handle on things after all. Then I saw what she gave the child. Cheetos. She gave a squirmy 1 year old who after almost 2 hours does not want to be sitting on her mom's lap anymore .. CHEETOS.

Im sure most of you know what I am talking about. They are covered in a bright orange cheese powder. That comes right off on the hands. Now most adults can eat them without too much of a mess, but you are talking about a 1 year old .. their hands are pretty much always moist and they like to lick their food etc. So this kid is eating cheetos double fisted and within the first minute her face, hands, forearms are all covered with orange cheese powder mixed into a nice paste with some drool.

All I am thinking is that I have been helpful and sympathetic to this mother and her 2 daughters.. but for the love of all that is holy.. don't let this kid touch me with those hands. I have another leg of my flight .. and an hour drive home from the airport after that. I am tired and in no mood to have saliva cheese sauce wiped on me. It took all of about 3 minutes for the child to get bored with the cheetos now that she had licked the good stuff off the outside.. threw the cheeto on the floor and proceeded to wipe one of her hands on my shorts. The other she wiped on herself, her mother and the seatback.

In the mothers defense, she did feel bad. Snatched the kids hand away quickly when she realized what the child was doing .. and immediately got out wipes and started cleaning things up. But seriously, who the hell gives cheetos to a 1 year old when they are not strapped immobile in a high chair and you have a fire hose close by for cleaning afterwards? You sure as hell don't give it to a lap sitting 1 year old on an airplane. Grrrrr.

So I spent the rest of the flight and my next leg with nice orange smears on my shorts. Fun stuff.

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Its that time again...

For a standard hiatus post. I was running around like crazy last night trying to get things wrapped up for my vacation which starts today. So I will not be posting til next week most likely. I know you will all be heartbroken .. but thats the way it goes sometimes.

I do have to point out that fall has officially shown up in WI. We went from low 90s not all that long ago to cool fall weather. As I was driving to work this morning my temperature guage in my car was showing outside temp at 43 degrees. My favorite time of year for sleeping though. Leave the window open, fan on and then put an extra blanket on the bed.. so very nice. The only bad part is the getting out of bed thing in the morning as you are so warm and comfy.

I was talking about this video with Lisa the other day and I found the link finally. Its hilarious.. so I thought I would share it with you all as well.

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Ummm..what?

Often times I am astonished by the things people do in the midwest that fall under that stupid news category. We seem to have our fair share of wierdos for sure. The one I stumbled across however comes from sunny California and seriously made me got W T F?

Here's the article:

FRESNO, California (AP) -- Authorities say they've arrested a man who broke into the home of two California farmworkers, stole money, rubbed one with spices and whacked the other with a sausage before fleeing.
Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Ian Burrimond says 22-year-old Antonio Vasquez was found hiding in a field wearing only a T-shirt, boxers and socks after the Saturday morning attack.
He says deputies arrested Vasquez after finding a wallet containing his ID in the ransacked house.
The farmworkers told deputies the suspect woke them Saturday morning by rubbing spices on one of them and smacking the other with an 8-inch sausage.
Burrimond says money allegedly stolen was recovered


So lets put ourselves in the mind of the criminal. He is desperate enough to break into a home to steal some money. Wearing a t-shirt, boxers and socks.. not really a stealthy, low profile outfit. He finds that his victims are asleep and he could have just snuck in and out and took what he wanted. He decides however, that he needs to send his sleeping victims a message though. Really leave his mark on the crime scene. So he ransacks the kitchen looking for someone to really get his point across.

He discards the knives and scissors. Ignores the metal pots and frying pans. Forget bottles that can be broken and used to shank someone. What he really needs.. is... yeah thats it! Paprika! Oooh and some Rosemary! That will show them! But then he gets thirsty after all that searching around and decides to see if they have anything cool to drink in the fridge. What he finds in there though is not a refreshing beverage, but the ultimate "I will show you" weapon. An 8" sausage! (Too..easy) His master plan is now set.. blind one with seasonings and then take the other one out with a viscious sausage attack! They will never see it coming.

How has this genius not been on an internation crime spree with cunning like that? I mean the criminal masterminds of the world could learn a thing or two. Really the only flaw to his plan was the fact that in the middle of his savage attack on his victims, he managed to leave his own wallet behind with his ID in it. Oh, choosing a FIELD to hide in was probably not the best choice either. Unless you are a lion, or a military sniper in a ghillie suit, hiding in a field is probably not going to work out to well.

What does this article really show us? That having a gun that a criminal can take and use against you is not the biggest of your problems. What you need to be making sure of is that you lock up your spices and make sure you cook and eat any meat products that could be used as a bludgeon in a timely fashion!

I haven't seen this level of intricate planning and devious thoughts since Edward R. Rooney:

If you don't know who he is, really, I weep for you! Oh.. and see what he is up to these days. Kinda scary.

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Strong Enough?

Disclaimer: This is likely to be long winded and rambling as its not an easy topic that I have been pondering and I am running on about 2 hours of sleep at the moment. Consider yourself warned.

So last night Lisa and I ended up watching a movie together. Long distance movie nights can be a bit obnoxious to setup with having to make sure we sync up our netflix rentals and then getting the actual movie playing as close to in sync as possible. All in all though, they are fun and we get to joke and talk and enjoy a movie together. Anyway, last night the only movie we had left for a movie night together was Bucket List. If you haven't seen it, its quite good.

I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who wants to watch it, so read this paragraph at your own risk. The basic premise of the story is that a lonely rich guy who owns hospitals ends up in one of his own hospitals sharing a room with a family man who has been married 45+ years, has 3 kids and supported his family working hard as a mechanic. As they are both battling cancer, dealing with chemo etc., they get to know each other, play cards together, and end up being a support system for each other. At one point they are both given the news that the chemo is not stopping the cancer and they are given 6 months to 1 year to live.

I can't even imagine what getting news like that must do to your head. Morgan Freeman's character Carter was making a list he called "The Bucket List" as in things he wants to do before he kicks the bucket. Jack Nicholson's character Edward gets a hold of it and adds his own things before convincing Carter to go with him to complete the list. Now Edward is very rich, has no wife, no kids he is in contact with. So he is free to do what he wants. Carter has a wife of 45+ years who is of course devastated to hear the news her husband got and wants to get second opinions. Wants to keep fighting. He also has 3 kids. Grandkids.

So now Carter has to face a choice. Does he take some time for himself after 45+ years of being the husband, the father, the provider and do some things he has always wanted to accomplish? Or does he spend every remaining minute with his family and friends? Obviously the movie would be kind of lame if he chose to just stay at home, I mean after all, the movie is called Bucket List, not "I Stayed at Home to die". The latter would have been a far more depressing title and I am glad they decided to go the other route. :P

Anyway, here's the question this brought up for me. No, it's probably not what you think I am going to toss out there. The question is not what would I do if given 6 months to live. The question is not what do I want to accomplish in my lifetime to feel like I have lived my life fully. The question that was nagging me was this: "What if someone I cared deeply about was faced with a very hard emotional situation that made them need to take some time to themselves to deal with all that it brought up, could I be strong enough to love them and support them through that?"

The wife in the movie struggled with this. Why? Did she not love him and want the best for him? Of course she did. However, people are largely selfish by nature. She wanted him and to share his remaining time with him. He needed time to himself to wrap his head around the news that he had just gotten. He needed time to deal with all the emotions that had popped up suddenly. To process and work through them. How does he explain that to her? How does she deal with it?

I have been batting this around in my head. Terminal cancer scenarios aside, there are lots of things that can come up in our life that catch us off guard. Or surprise us with emotions we weren't expecting or aren't prepared to deal with. Be it a friend, a family member or significant other, could I recognize the situation for what it was? Could I be strong enough to put my selfishness aside and provide not only the space the person needs to deal with their situation, but still somehow provide them the love and support they need? It wouldn't be easy, but I like to think I could do that if needed.

Really, it should be a no brainer right? You love this person. You care about them. You want them to be as happy as they can possibly be. You want to support them in whatever issues they run into. You want them to know you are always there for them. You want them to know that no matter what comes along, you love them and that will never change. So this should be an easy decision. Why isn't it? Why isn't it easy to just pull back and let them do what they need to?

I think its because of human nature. If you love someone, its natural to want to feel that coming the other way. Sure, you may know deep down that even if they are pulling away for a time to deal with some stuff that they still love you and care for you, but that is not quite the same as the affirmation you would get from them normally. Most people need, crave that contact. That emotional connection. Someone to share their life with. Share their joys and sadness. Share their strengths and fears with. Someone they know will be there for them, no matter what. Someone that loves them for just who they are.

After a lot of thought on this subject, I came to the conclusion that while it would be very hard, I would be able to do something like that for someone I cared for deeply. I would find a way to let them know that I loved them no matter what. Let them know that while it would not be easy to have to step back a bit from how I would normally be around them, I would give them the space they needed to work things out for themselves. Give them the time they need.

What would be hard would be finding a way to express everything to them. To make sure they know that just because I would be giving them the time and space to work some stuff out for themselves, that it doesn't change how I feel about them. It would be so hard to make sure they know that I still love them the same. That I am still here for them anytime they needed me. It would be even harder with a significant other to make it clear that stepping back a bit is probably the hardest thing in the world for me to do, even if I would realize that its the right thing and necessary at the time. That stepping back didn't mean my feelings lessened or changed. Just that I loved them enough and cared about them enough to do whatever they needed to get to a place where they have their head wrapped around all the stuff flying around emotionally.

Could you do it? Could you not only recognize that its the right choice for that person, but then follow through and be the friend, family member or SO that that person needs? Could you find a way to love them and support them and be there for them without blocking what they need to do to figure stuff out for themselves?

Its in my nature and a lot of people I know as well, to want to fix things. To make it all better. If I see a loved one hurting, my instinct is to solve the problem, to make the hurt go away. Even if I am hurting as well, my nature pushes that aside to be strong for the other person. To take care of them and support them and love them when they need it most. Its very tough for me to realize that I can't fix it. That no matter how I can't stand to watch someone who is struggling or hurting, sometimes you can't fix it for them. It's something they have to work out on their own and the only thing you can do is be there to love and support them. Doesn't make it any less frustrating to know they are not in a good place and all you want to do is take them from that bad place and make them happy. You want to make the bad stuff go away.

So I just hope that when I am faced with a situation like this, that I can prove to be strong enough. That I can still be the love and support that person needs without getting in the way of them dealing with what they need to. I hope I can encourage them and lift them up and make their day a little brighter. I hope I can find a way to make sure they know that no matter what, I am here. I will be here always. That my feelings aren't changing or going away. That I know that we'll get past this and we'll be even stronger on the otherside. I hope I can let them know that its not easy for me to step back. Not easy at all, but that I know its right and important for them and in turn important for our relationship as well.

In the movie Carter took the time he needed. He got his head straight. Worked out a lot of things for himself. Dealt with the emotions that sprung out of nowhere at him. After a short time, he headed home to be with his wife, his family. Happier, stronger, and realizing how lucky he was to have the love of all those people in his life. I think his wife realized as well how important that time was for him after he got back. As hard as it was for her to deal with his decision.. and to love and support him through it, it was well worth it in the end.

So yeah, I warned you this would be long. But as much as I like to make people laugh and tell funny stories or rant about stupid things, sometimes I have thoughts just banging around in my head that I need to get out. It helps me process it to blog about it. So this is what happens.

On a funny note, there is a coffee that Edward drinks in the movie. The most expensive coffee in the world and thus the best in his head, called Kopi Luwak. The short explination of this coffee is that a small jungle cat eats the coffee beans and they pass through his digestive track and craps them out. Villagers collect these beans and process coffee out of them. Yes, poopoo coffee. The digestive juices of the cat and the process the beans go through are what give it its unique flavor. What popped into my head was the folgers theme though and I think I actually made Lisa snort she was laughing so hard when I sang:

"The best part of waking up, is PooPoo in your cup"

Childish? Sure. Funny? Hells yes.

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Stealth = OP

If you didn't understand the title of this post, chances are your nerd factor is not high enough to actually even get this post much less enjoy it. So while my audience might be limited, so be it. If you are or were ever a gamer, I mean a real gamer not a "well I play solitaire on my laptop" kinda gamer, then you will understand what I am talking about. Sometimes, you bring gaming concepts into real life in stupid and silly ways.

There was a whole thread on the World of Warcraft forums about signs that you play WoW too much. Some of my favorites:

1. You try to Feign Death to drop wife/husband aggro.
2. When you start saying ninja'd instead of stole or took when someone takes something of yours.
3. Wanting to sheep someone who wouldn't SHUT UP
4. You see a gray question mark on top of your bosses head.
5. You automatically feel rested after entering your apartment.


The reason this whole post came to mind is Lisa and I were doing a movie night and decided to watch Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. If you have seen the movies, you know that the predators can stealth or cloak themselves to be virtually invisible. This guy runs into a predator in the woods.. freaks out understandably and trys to run away in the other direction. Suddenly the predator stealths and as the guy is running away, looking back behind him, he gets gutted by the predator. First thing I said to Lisa was that Stealth was OP (Over Powered). Next thought that popped into my head was that he must have popped both Vanish and Sprint to pull that off. Then I thought man.. how nerdy is that? Fortunately Lisa tolerates my nerdiness and even laughed at the stealth is OP comment. I love that she not only gets it, but can laugh with me.. or at me.. not always sure ;)

On a less nerdy topic.. fall has finally arrived! Maybe not officially, but weather wise. Its started to cool down and this morning it was actually even a bit chilly. It was 52 on my way to work this morning with light rain and a breeze. I love fall, when the air is cool and crisp. Leave the windows open at night. Watch the leaves change. Sit outside and enjoy the cool evenings. Summer is nice.. but fall is by far my favorite season.

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Snap, Crackle, and Pop?

My son fell off a very large teeter totter a few weeks back while camping.  Fell about 5 feet right on his side/back.  He got the wind knocked out of him and was feeling numb in his extremeties etc. so he was taken to the hospital via ambulance on a back board to make sure.  All his xrays came back ok.. nothing broken.   Since then he has had some periodic back pain and then he had another fall off his bike which aggravated it all again.

So, it was off to the chiropractor for the first time ever.  I have never been and I know G hadn't been either.   I got to watch the doctor listen to what was bothering him and then be able to confirm the pain spots by finding some stuff that was slightly out of alignment.  Gabe will be going in on Friday for his 3rd adjustment and being young and flexible his body responded very well.  He is already feeling much better from the treatment.

Yesterday I went in as well.   I have long had some lower back pain.  I injured it playing basketball quite a few years ago and to this day it bothers me at time.. especially if I have to sit on the floor or a hard chair for any length of time.  So I decided to get checked out as well and see if there is anything they could do to help me. 

So I went in for the first time last night and they took some initial xrays to make sure there was nothing out of the ordinary due to my old injury.  Everything looked pretty good according to the chiropractor, but I was out of allignment in several spots, the worst of which was right where my lower back pain occurs.   So we started to work on that last night.  What went to quick and easy on a 10 year old was not the same on me.  My lower back was very uncooperative and after what felt like a wrestler jumping from the top ropes onto my lower back.. still no crack or pop.  He said that is one of the tougher spots and it may take a few times to get movement out of it.

The spot mid back and upper back and my neck all made some crazy snapping and popping noises.  I was told we made some good progress in getting them back towards where they should be alignment wise.   It felt good.. and it didn't.   My torso felt much like I had been tackled, hard, without pads on.    This morning I am a little sore from it, but overall it was a positive experience.   I go back again on Friday to see if he jumps off the second story onto my back if he can get that stubborn lower section to move.  Fun stuff!

L insists that it will all be worth it in the end and that it will feel much better when things are adjusted.  I have to admit, it did feel pretty good after.   She is so smart.. and persistent.

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