All over the place

Today is just going to be a little bit all over the place, or at least that's the plan.

First I want to point out the new shirt that I will be buying as soon as my little post here is done and over with.

Stained Ash Window

Oh how I really do Love this design and oh how this one website has decided to steal more of my money than any other lately.  Sometimes I wish that I never stumbled upon it and then I get that little kid during xmas excitement when I open my mailbox and I have a package from Teefury and I know it was all worth it.

Since I have dropped a good amount of weight some fun shirts were the way I decided to treat myself.  For the past 3 years I've pretty much wore the exact same outfit day after day after day.  Kahaki pants with a button down shirt and generally a wife beater underneath (I know some object to the term wife beater to describe a plane white T, but that is what it has always been to me since I was just a mixture of sperm and eggs.)  However now I'm accustomed to rotating between my collection of awesome new T-shirts under my button down shirt at work and then after work I wear something with personality.  In an odd way I feel more in touch with who I used to be/who I want to be.  Everyone needs to have fun and wearing a shit like this helps me feel a bit better about life.  I've got my professional work apparel on the outside but I've got my personality waiting to spring forth the moment I punch out for the day.

This weekend I went to a friends Wedding and Reception.  The wedding was on Saturday and the reception was Sunday.  It was strange having them on two different days but when the place you want to hold the reception is all booked up then I guess you make small sacrifices like that.
The wedding was held at Caesar's Palace.and was lovely.  Leaving work I thought I was going to run late because by the time I had put on my pants I realized a couple of things.   1 - They no longer would stay up by themselves.  2 - The belt that I wear for every day is not appropriate for a more formal dress outfit.  3 - I was going to have to stop somewhere and buy a new belt.
So, I made a quick stop at Walmart on the way to the wedding to complete my outfit.  I parked at Caesars Palace on the exact opposite side of the place that I needed to be.  For anyone who has casually walked through Caesars Palace you know that this place is about 18 miles long and getting from one end to the other is not something that will happen in a short time frame.  I hurried my fat ass along the way stopping to ask for directions once or thrice and finally I arrived to the chapel area 2 minutes before it was supposed to start.  Thankfully it didn't start for another half an hour and I had time to relax and view the chapel area.
I only knew a total of 4 people - Bride/Groom/Bridesmaid and one other innocent bystander much like myself.  I took a seat in the exact back of the chapel so that once everything was done I would be able to escape unharmed.

Day two was the reception and I seriously debated whether or not I should even attend.  Recognizing that the people at the wedding were going to be the same at the reception and understanding that I basically would only have one person to socialize with it was a constant debate during the whole thing.
However, I sought some sage advice from someone special and exactly like I thought she would she told me to show up and at least make an appearance because, after all, they invited me to it because they wanted me there.
So, after work I run home and change into my duds (I should have taken a pic so you all could see me snazzed up) and head out.  Abused the open bar for the 40 minutes it was available to me and chatted with a former co-worker whom I have not seen for about a year and a half to two years.
Now, one of the main reasons I came to write today was the food.
Oh, the sinfully delicious food that has set me back a week or two.
Maggianos of Las Vegas

Regular eating section

This fine little Italian place in the Fashion Show Mall is an exquisite place to eat.  This was my first trip here and I'm really glad that it was.  Being a wedding reception I had the chance to sample some dishes that normally might have taken several trips to be able to get to and the fact is that if you have eaten here once you damned well are going to want to come back again - the food is that good.

Formal eating area for receptions and other shin-digs

The appetizer course started out with two plates of salad on each table.  One was a blue cheese with bacon and the other one actually was probably the same but had tomato's and no bacon.  Everyone chose the one with bacon.  Then there was some calamari with sauce to dip it into.  The calamari was almost 100% great but I did run into one rubber band area and I was completely willing to overlook that as the rest of it was cooked well.  Last there was stuffed mushrooms which I did not touch but everyone else seemed to love them.

The dinner portion of the meal ruined me.  I cannot remember the last time I had eaten so much in my entire life.  Everything was great and I felt like I had to try every single tray that was brought to our table because I'd be doing an injustice to myself and the restaurant if I didn't at least sample the dish.
There was a pasta with meatballs where the pasta was good (not great) but the meatballs were Divine.  I at about 6 of the meatballs by the time they finally took the plates away from us.
Then there was the Lamb cooked slightly less than medium with an Orzo sauce.  Wow, this lamb was amazing.  Then there was the cubes of steak, cooked perfectly, warm and tender and juicy and causing me to salivate just thinking about it all again. Finally there was some sort of seafood concoction.  Shrimp and crabmeat wrapped up in something with what seemed like a delicate Alfredo sauce.  Not a big fan of things that exist in water I decided to try this anyway because everyone at the table said it was great and they did not lie.  I nearly at the entire piece that i put on my plate and if it wasn't for those last two meatballs I think i could have done it.
By the time I stuffed the last meatball in my mouth I was literally so stuffed that I had trouble swallowing.  My belly was fully, there was an out of service sign hanging in the back of my throat informing me that continuing to stuff food in there was probably a bad idea.
It's a good thing there was another round of open bar between dinner and desert because I needed time to let my body digest a bit.
Desert - oh sweet desert.  There were two of them, a Tiramisu and a Cheesecake.  The tiramisu didn't sit well with me as the coffee flavor was too dominant and I'm not a big fan to begin with.  The Cheesecake however was divine.  That's not a figure of speech, that's a literal use of the word. Divine.  When I put the fork into my mouth the heavens opened up and angels sang to me while I was eating.  These angels sang a song that helped create extra space in my stomach so that the entire piece of cheesecake could fit.
Afterwards, on the table sat two plates with extra cheesecake on it - everyone was too stuffed to continue eating it and until they were taken away I really felt that it was a sin to let them go to waste.  I wanted more but could not physically eat more.  It was painful to let it go to waste but it was the right choice.

I will be going back to Maggianos again on a date night or something as I want more people to experience the amazing food at this place.

And finally - because of the fact that I stuffed myself fuller than a Thanksgiving turkey about to be devoured by 30 hungry family members I experienced about a 2 week setback in my weight loss!  This is no joke. I gained nearly 4 pounds from everything I ingested and now I'm going to have to get back into my normal, healthier routine again starting tomorrow and start working those pounds off.
Was it worth it?  Hell Yeah!

I'll wind this down quickly because I'm approaching a Rob number of words here.
The rest of my week is going to be fun as well.
Tonight is a trip to Bonnie Screams for my final Haunted House trip of the season.
Tomorrow is Trick or Treating for the first time in over a decade.
Friday is open for interpretation still. I'm really looking forward to these next two nights and debating on making a quick costume of my own for tomorrow.
This is the part that really annoys me because last year as I was packing all my shit up to move I ran across my Halloween costume from 2007 (the last time I enjoyed an event) and threw it away because I didn't think I'd ever wear it again.  Now, here I sit really wishing I still had it because I'd love to break it back out for the evening.  So - here is a picture from that event and it was a bloody amount of fun.
I did not ask permission from the other two to post this but I don't think my brothers will have an issue with it.

We were the Champions!  On the left is Crazy J and on the right is Andy W, in the middle is the grrouch you all know and love.
I essentially dressed up as Mosh from the old WWF days, complete with skirt and all, but the skirt doesn't show well.  I wanted to dress up like Mic Foley (I had the long hair 2 hours before this pic to do it) but we couldn't find anything to make the outfit right - so I went with Mosh instead.
It wasn't until right before putting on make-up that someone decided to remind me "You know, Mosh never actually had hair. If you want to do this right you should probably shave your head."
Up until this point in my life I had never shaved my head before. In fact, during the past 15+ years I had always had long hair and during this Vacation my hair was starting to grow out again as it was about shoulder length again.  I should also note that the day before this picture I also had a very disgusting lumberjack of a beard.  So, from how I arrived in Philly PA to how I looked for this picture was an extreme make over.
Luckily the house where the party was someone had a pair of sheers and the hottest roadkill bunny I have ever seen shaved my head and thus you get grrouch mosh!

(Picture a time lapse here as I'm searching for 2 more photo's - one of the bunny and one of me arriving in Philly). I'll have to come back and edit them in later I guess.... bummer


To all my friends on the East Coast - Stay safe but not dry.  Life is better wet!

#BaldforBieber

So if'n y'all follow the internet it appears as though 4chan decided to play a little prank and "leak" out information that Justin Bieber has cancer.  Then what happened was a whole lot of sheep started shearing themselves and posting with the hashtag #baldforBieber.

So, I can't resist the opportunity to take advantage of this to spread my own cause.
I, grrouchie, am here by also going Bald for Beaver
That's right, you heard it here first.
Only one razor was broken in the process, however two camera's also broke and my Mirror no longer is reflective after I walked by it.  I'm not sure what any of that means but dammit, look at that dome.  I'm a sexy beast aren't I?
And all because Justin Beaver does NOT have cancer.  Maybe he'll see this and find out how much he has touched my life, come to Vegas to visit me and take me out on a coke and hooker bender with Charlie Sheen and make my life complete.
Afterwards I'll have him autograph my bald head and then we will immediately run to the nearest Tattoo shop so that I can have JB's autograph permanently across the back of my scalp.
Then, weekly, I will head to my nearest hair salon and have them shave my head Except keeping a hair outline of JB's autograph.

I will forever be awesome and admired by millions across the globe as the stupid fat-ass in Vegas.

Octoberfest

Just a quick - I love Samuel Adams Octoberfest!

Maybe more later - right now I'm too busy polishing off a few (more)

Spiderman 3 - Years later

I know that earlier this year I may have complained a little bit about rebooting series so close to when they actually came out.  Spiderman may or may not have been mentioned specifically.

After being forced to sit through most of Spiderman 3 again today I want to retract anything I may have said in the past and go with "Thank god this series got rebooted."
It's not that I don't love Sam Rami and what he did with the series.  I thought the 1st movie was well done and the 2nd was pretty badass as well.  Maybe I'll think differently when I go back and re-watch them both next year and maybe I won't.  What is important is that I came to talk about Spiderman 3 a bit.

I totally get why they decided to do a reboot instead of continue with anything involving that last trilogy and it's because Spiderman 3 was a steaming pile of pigeon excrement.  I don't know where Rami got off the track.  Maybe he started drinking heavily and had some bad delusions   Maybe he stopped drinking heavily and it ruined his MoJo.  I don't know what the problem is.  What I do know is that Spiderman 3 is fucking awful and painful to watch.  I think it's akin to going out to dinner and ordering your favorite meal.  It shows up and you are digging the scents and then you pull the cover off of your mashed potatoes.  Well, what is supposed to be your mashed potatoes, but instead it's a steaming pile of cow shit with garlic and parsley.

I own the Blue Ray of Spiderman 3 but only because it was given to me by a "friend."  Some friend.
In fact, it's the only one of the Spidey movies that I actually own.  Today was the first day that it has ever "graced" my Blue Ray player and will probably be the last time as well.  I watched the movie when it came out and remember bitching about that little prissy emo bastard and the shitty acting.  I also distinctly remember really hating the ending of it.
So, if I remember correctly (I shut it off long before it got to this point again) the ending went something like this.
"I'm the Green Goblins kid and I want to fucking Kill Peter Parker because that asshole killed my dad"
"Peter Parker isn't a bad guy, he's your friend"
"Oh shit, you are right, How about I go save his life instead and then we can live happily ever after while giving it to each other in the rears with reach around's"
"That's the spirit."

An evening with Ghosts, Ghouls, Zombies and other unpleasant things

I'm going to start out today's little ramble by stating that no matter what I end up typing below, I don't feel that my words will actually do justice the fun times I had last night and the company I kept.

Remember that old classic song with the line "Don't know what you got till it's gone?"
Pretty much how I felt yesterday when walking into the Fright Dome at Circus Circus.
I've never been a huge fan of the holidays but always liked Halloween because it gave you a chance to be creepy for a day and explore the dark side of life (Although now it's just an excuse to dress like a slut ho douche bag sperm burper and wear as little as possible, but that's another rant for another day) with zombies and ghouls and whatever.  As a kid I still remember the excitement when I got my Freddy Kruger outfit complete with the sweater, mask and glove.  I actually had that glove for a long time until it finally disappeared either during my college years or shortly after.  I remember dressing up during high-school and just walking the streets during Halloween just because.  So, as things go when you get older, I just kind of lost touch with that spirit.  Every year I see the advertisements for haunted houses and every year I say I'm going to go but never end up doing it for various reasons.

This year, there was no excuse. I had an invite to hit up the Fright Dome with 5 haunted houses and some other attractions (along with some rides as well).  This year they are featuring George A Romero's brilliance with Ward of the Dead (which was primo top shelf grade A creepy shit if I do say so myself).  Romero will actually be there tonight (which Is one of the reasons we went last night - I expect tonight to be incredibly packed and lines to be a lot longer).

One of the Haunted Houses was called "The Anniversary" and when you start nearing the end they give everyone some 3D glasses to wear and continue your journey.  The 3D was pretty awesome as they painted the walls and added in some creeps that could only been seen (or hidden) because of the 3D effects.  One particular hallway was full of red and blue dots and hidden underneath the surface was a couple of people dressed up in all black with the same dots on their outfit so they could blend in.  When you got close the dots looked like they were moving a bit and then BLAMMO screams and thrills and chills.  Truly the best hidden "jump at you" moment that I've experienced in any Haunted House.

First walking into the area the whole place was darkly lit with tons of fog everywhere.  Lots of black lighting to go with it.  I had the feeling of a young kid hitting up his first Haunted House, there was a definite sense of awe about me.  We walked over to the closest Haunted House and waited in line.  BS'ing about random stuff and listening the sound effects being pumped through the entire place and more importantly from the neighboring scare zones.  Upon entering the 1st Haunted House I lit up like a kid getting candy, I'm not 100% sure if I stopped smiling the entire time I was in the 1st house (and subsequently the rest of them as well) as I was just so excited and happy to be there and experiencing it.  I kept watching the others around me as things jumped out at them for the various scares and watching them back peddle, or scream or jump or run into the person in front of them trying to get away and I just smiled.  I must have looked like a complete crazy idiot smiling my entire way through what was supposed to be scary and creepy ( and I admit, there was a lot of creep involved.  I was highly impressed but some of the layouts and looks and the people working there).

This, unfortunately, did not happen to me but a man can dream

Fright Dome has been going on for 10 years now and I have been in town for 6 of them but haven't gone until now.  I've made some bad decisions and will have to correct this buy making sure I go every year from here on until the end of existence.
However, this year I still have 2 other places I'll be hitting up.

And

To the lovely lady who accompanied me on such a fun evening and humored every little thing I wanted to do: Thank you!  You are amazing and will be repaid in kindness.

Tittacular Tuesday

I just felt like it was time to get back to some of the random degeneracy that I've enjoyed in my past.
Tuesday is a very manly day.  You've survived the weekend and kicked Monday's ass and now you need to be rewarded.  Thus, during my ramble you'll get some good old grrouch love to go with my words of wisdom and kindness.

I pretty much love my life right now.  Everything has fallen into line and I'm mostly in this happy place that I really didn't know I could resign for more than a period of a few hours at a time.  It's a bit strange because I like being an old curmudgeon and all.  And shit (not a proper way to start a sentence I would probably get told by my old English profs) the holidays are right around the corner so this is 100% prime time for me to start to slip back into seasonal depression mode (I've suffered for years) but I feel like thus far I'm doing good on that end of it as well. So - Boobs!

Facebook could pretty much be the downfall of modern civilization.  It has turned into a huge time sink that I've been trying to avoid lately but only managing to avoid on a temporary basis.  Last night I got home at about 11pm and after a quick phone call and a few conversations online with people I realized it was after 1 am.  Now, I do realize that Facebook is pretty much just the new version of the online time sink that I discovered back in the mid 90's when I was introduced to mIRC and the ilk.  So - I've been obsessed with "chatting" online for ages but I've just decided to blame it all on Facebook anyways because they are the new evil empire and trying to take over the world and I like G+ better but no one fucking uses it it seems.
:)



So, sticking with the new Evil Empire - while talking with an old (time wise, not age wise) friend last night I mentioned that I think it's weird that I have yet to start going through my mid-life crisis.  I don't expect it will be easy to double my current age and thus I fit the definition of someone who should be going through one.
Her retort is that maybe the new Job and new Store and new Outlook on life IS my mid-life crisis.
My response:
"Accepting a large raise and more responsibility is not a midlife crisis.... Buying a fancy penis mobile sports car and banging a ton of young broads is a midlife crisis.... Hookers and Coke and gambling binges and drinking binges that last days or weeks trying to keep up with the 20 somethings... that's a midlife crisis dammit...I'm so lame I even mess that shit up"

Don't need a caption to know what you're looking at

I've got two pics left for the post - Everyone is forewarned.  One is for the ladies and one is for the freaks who frequent my end of the world.   However that means that I need to come up with two more small paragraphs of information to type out.

While I have definitely slacked this month on my monthly goals I have started to look at my budget for the rest of the year and try to plan out November and December.  I'm also thinking ahead for next year and of course thinking about socking money away for vacations and retirement and all kinds of other stupid crap.  I'm not getting younger and I need that 401k to grow like a mofo so that I don't have to keep doing this until I'm 80.
It's almost time again to sign up for the Stock Purchase program at work and I'm debating between contributing enough for one stock every pay period or one per month.  I really need to sit down and look at all of the percentages and see what the end game result looks like once I start diversifying my eggs into their respective baskets.  Currently, while hammering off my debt, my baskets have been eggless which I realize is not recommended by most but I felt like it was the wiser decision at the time.  So, now that the debt has pretty much gone into a black hole of non-existence it's time to start increasing my contributions and making up for lost time.  It's just a matter of how and to what extent.

The stars might be aligning and I'll be meeting one of my newer friends in a couple of weeks.  Steelers fan and all around smart chick, stopping into Vegas for a few days on her way to some new fancy city with a new fancy job but doing the sensible thing and stopping by Vegas to visit family and friends.  Thus starts what I am dubbing "Visit Serge Season 2012" because if things work out I'll have somewhere between 2 and 4 rounds of visitors before the end of the year.  I'm guaranteed one, hoping for the rest of everyone's plans to pan out as well.  I'd love nothing more than to be able to share degenerate stories about friends vacations to my lovely city for the world to read (and of course keep them anonymous so that no one has to fear embarrassment!)
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday. I'm going to go and try to be productive before heading into work tonight.  I've got a lot planned for Weds and Thurs so I might not see ya again until Friday.

Being Nice has it's Disadvantages

So, over the last few days I have kinda discussed this "issue" with some friends and I have also brought it up to a small group of people who I now work with at my new store.

Let me start over.

I'm an asshole.  I'm full of sarcasm, bad humor and I come across as an asshole to a lot of people because of it.  I'm cool with it and in fact I spend many years crafting, honing and fine tuning my attitude and personality to get to the point where I am today.

I am able to simultaneously keep away the majority of people surrounding me while at the same time keeping a few friends who take the time to get to know me and realize exactly what I am and how to take my personality.

I don't like a whole lot of people.  I don't like people clamoring for my attention.  I don't want people planning social dates and inviting me to all kinds of place.  I just want my small group of friends that I can do shit with and screw the rest of the world.

However, now that I'm moving back up into a management level of the company I decided that with going to a new store where only a few people know me I should start with a new outlook on everything and a new perspective.  So, I have (so far) ditched most of the sarcasm and the off hand comments and have focused on just being nice to people in general.

I've started to notice the disadvantages to this type of behavior.

People, a lot of people, are being really nice to me.
Friendly even.
People are saying hi to me all the time.
People are starting random conversations with me.
People are talking to me about their day and their life.
People are trying to be friends with me.

Creepy.
I've had a couple people mention that "we could be good friends."
I don't know how to handle this type of positive attention.
I live, breathe and feed off negativity.

However, this is yet another "positive" change in my life that I am trying to make and I will find a way to cope with it all.

Bah, humbug

grrouch out

Unboxing, Unpacking and Woah - I still have that?

Being that I have nothing to do in the mornings for the next 5 days (working closing shifts) I have found a lot of free time on my hands to start actually opening up some boxes and trying to organize my life again into a room.

Today I found a whole box full of Hats that I had forgotten about.
I also found my old NES, Snes, N64 and Gamecube all in a box (with a Dreamcast, but lets stick with just the Nintendo Products).

4 Generations worth of Nintendo Controllers :)  

I've got shelves of Video Games to organize, Shelves of Movies to organize and I need to find a stand to display my old Video Game Systems as well.  No use having all this stuff in boxes packed away in a closet somewhere.  If they aren't out on display for the world to make fun of me then I'm doing it wrong.

5 Pounds

The last two days when I happened to get on the scale before my morning shower I finally dipped below 255.  Today was 254.2 and inching closer to my current goal of 250 and 50+ pounds lost during the year.
You see, I have a friends wedding to attend on Saturday and then a reception to attend on Sunday.  My current goal is to hit 250 or lower by the time the wedding rolls around, which would put me at having to lose 4.2 pounds but for fucks sake I'm rounding up to 5 pounds.  I have a week to do it so we will see.

Tonight is football night, watching my Steelers (tied at the half) face the Bengals.  I'm about to dip into some brews and eat some unhealthy stuff which is going to make the goal a bit harder.  Then I have to close at work the next two nights which will hurt as well.  What I'm hoping to do is to hit the gym in the morning and work a bunch of cardio in so that I can add exercise to my routine and give myself a chance to drop 5 pounds (and of course keep it off - not just a temporary thing to say I did it).

I'm going to look like a sleek handsome SOB next weekend and I'm really looking forward to the open bar.
Maybe if I get lucky there will be a hot bridesmaid who drinks entirely too much and loses her good sensibilities .....


Back to the Steelers game :)

He caught me Bluffing

He'd been sitting at the table for about 40 minutes and had decided to become the table maniac by making large bets and pushes at various moments because no one wanted to call any of it.  Either no one else decided to pay attention to this detail or everyone was afraid to get stacked which played right into his hands.

I had been playing for about 4 hours and carefully built up a stack of about $450 while he had been playing for a lot less longer and built up about the same stack.  While not afraid to go toe to toe with the guy I can see the end of the session in sight and just don't want to tango without some primo holdings.

This is where the trouble occurs, I get dealt two disgustingly ugly red Kings.

Three limpers into the pot when I move the action to $15 which was a large raise for the table before he sat down but he likes the number and so who am I to argue with him right?  I could have just called and waited to see if he raised it up (raise or fold yo!) but I'm not going to wait for someone else to hopefully bring the action to me - that backfires way too often.

Gentleman likes his hand, he re-pops it to $45 (and this is where I forgot to mention he was in a blind).  Everyone else folds to me, I make it $125.  This is not his first re-raise pre-flop but this is the first time he's been played back at.  I'm good with taking $45 from him right here and being done with it but I'm letting him know that this hand could be played for stacks as well.

He calls without a whole lot of hesitation, his hand range really still not laid out and visible.  Not having seen many showdowns from him except some weird flopped two pair with Q5 after he had re-raised someone else pre and then proceeded to take that gentleman to stacking down.
I can't put a definite range on his hand, You can throw the big pairs in there and big connectors, you can probably even keep some garbage in there because he wants to continue to be the table bully.

The flop is not exactly pretty.  I could have Zero outs, I could need to hit quads, who knows.
What I did know is that I had already made up my mind that if he has Aces then golf clap to him, it's his lucky night and I hope he hits the strip club up afterwards.

Qs 4s 7s

That's a lot of black on the table when I'm holding two red Kings.
Bully insta pushes.
Does he have Queens?  Did he have Ax of spades? Did he have two spades.
I just think the guy is trying to bully me.  That's what it all feels like in my head.
If he is thinking he has to put me on a big pair.  No one has played back at him.
Aces or Queens I go down swinging, he probably just has the Ace of spades and I"m willing to dodge 12 outs.  It's not ideal but I do not have him pegged for a man who has me beat at this very moment.
Call me stupid, call me stubborn.  Whatever you want to call me - I insta called him.

I flip up my 2 red Kings
He's not happy, he's not showing, I must have made the right play.

The Turn is the Jack of Not Spades, he makes no movement, he is still staring at the board and waiting for his miracle.
The turn is the 9 of Not Spades and then his reaction changes a bit.
He double checks his cards and a huge smile drapes across his lips at what I'm considering to be his awesome 2 out 9 on the river for an unlikely set.

He flips his cards.
I see a red 8 come up.  I scan the board - there are no 8's out there.  No set is possible.
This is my hand fucker.  He couldn't have hit a flush either right?
I double check the board - there are still only 3 spades and he is showing one red card - Game Over.
I'll take my profit and go home.  I'll party like the son of a broke rock star, with Diet Mt Dew - the fine shit that I ain't used to buying.

The Dealer separates his two cards, the 2nd one was stuck under the first and not visible.
it's a 10 - also not a spade.  Also not even fucking black.

Sweet.
Uh...
wait.
What the fuck just happened.
My mind starts to slowly put things together as my cards are grabbed by the dealer and then tossed to the muck like Not A Winner - No Chicken Dinner.  Go home like you just had your first sexual encounter because you're leaving Sticky, Broke and Confused.

It was 100% pure bluff with the two ugliest cards to follow.
Fuck Poker.
Fuck Lucky People.
No hookers and blow for daddy tonight.

grrouch out

Reconnecting with Hallowoween

Growing up Halloween was pretty much the number one holiday for me.  I didn't much care for any of the others and to this day I still take that exact stance except I have let my love for Halloween waver over the last number of years as well.  However, this year I've been reconnecting with it mostly through the eyes of a child again.

The past couple of nights have been spent going places that are mainly designated for kids but I've been having a blast walking through them and getting to see the excitement of this holiday from a kids perspective again.  The other night it was The Pumpkin Patch (not sure on the name but it sounds right) where there were some games and some rides set up for the kids and even a petting zoo and a bungee jumping area.  There was nothing really spooky about this place but the decor was nice with pumpkins everywhere to guide it.  Overall a small place but it was a lot of fun for me to watch all the little ones enjoying themselves in the name of the holiday.

Last night it was the Springs Preserve which was a lot larger and involved a lot more walking but not any less  fun, in fact I enjoyed it a lot more myself because of the set up.  There was an entrance fee to get in but that allowed access to one set of carnival type games for the kids where they were a guaranteed winner and got a prize after each set of games, I believe there were 10 in all.  There was also a performance stage where I never actually saw a performance go off but they played some great music all night culminating in the Ghostbusters Theme, Thriller and The Monster Mash as we were leaving the park.
There was a Trick or Treating area for the kids which we were not aware of before entering but that made no difference as our tiny guest quickly lost care of the fact that he was not wearing his Halloween Costume and just enjoyed going station to station to get his candy.  He never paid attention to the fact that each station had a particular theme like I did though as he was too interested in the pending sugar rush.

Each Station did have a unique theme from the Ghost Grotto to the Witches Lake, it was quite a site.  There were also a couple of interactive area's like the Mad Scientists area where there were two mad scientists showing kids some interesting things like a fish bowl filled with goop (which they could take a sample home with them - filled with SPIDERS of course) and a smoke barrel that blew out smoke circles when you smacked it on the bottom.

Finally, and of course my favorite, was the Haunted House.  Nothing extreme or overtly fancy but set up with a few different thrills and chills leading up to the last one which was an animated giant squid that appeared to be trying to get at you.  I bid my time nicely walking through the entire thing waiting for this one moment and when I saw it, I seized it and grabbed the mother making a loud scary noise to get a rise out of all near and with me.  Definitely a perfect way to end the haunted house making sure that everyone got a scream.

This is the type of stuff that I stopped doing and I have not damned idea why.  I have no good excuse. I love this holiday and got away from it.  But that shit stops here.  There are a number of other attractions in Las Vegas during the season that I really want to see now, things I have skipped over the years and told myself I wanted to go to but blew off.
So, I've got at least 3 more stops on my Halloween Tour this year including the Fright Dome which has a Ramero "Dead" exhibit this year.  Then there is the Bonnie Screams thing (Bonnie Springs is an old west area for kids that involves a few plays, a petting zoo and a restaurant that we took the kid to earlier in the year and it was pretty fun.  Looking forward to seeing the UNDEAD version of it, muhahahah) and this year Eli Roth has decided to make his presence felt with Eli Roth's Goratorium located somewhere on the strip.  This is the one I'm really looking forward to as it will be much more adult-centric and I might end up having to go without company.  However, I expect it to be a blast and probably also very disgusting!

So there you have it, I've been abscent from the blog a bit lately but I've been getting in touch with my inner child.  I've bought a couple of small decorations for the house just for my benefit that includes fake blood on my patio door, some pumpkins and skulls to decorate a window or too and some pumpkin lights that I"m probably going to throw on the entrance door.  Work has a few more things that I"m just waiting to go on sale to grab up mainly for next year.
The Halloween stores that I've have gone to have gotten me a bit giddy as well when we were searching for Halloween costumes for the kid.  I loved the Spirit store mainly because they had a good number of really creepy looking zombie babies that I want - one was chewing its own foot off.  Oh delicious thing you were.

Next year I've already decided that I will be putting a budget aside to get some permanent Halloween decorations that I can put up every year around the house and outside the house to show off my life for the season.  Everyone else can have their Xmas, give me the blood and gore and decorations of this un-dead holiday and I"m going to be a happy camper.

In the same vein I've been watching Season 2 of The Walking Dead and I just bought 50+ horror movies in various packs (for under $20) to keep myself (and the old man) occupied through the season.

Long Live Halloween.
Long Live the Undead.
Long Live all that is gory, creepy, spooky and just downright rotten.

The Dreaded Retail Schedule

Over the past two years I really got spoiled by working a very consistent shift within the retail environment and I never realized to what degree until recently when I took my promotion.

That being said - I really hate retail work hours.  You get rid of the huge inconsistency and I would really love my job a whole lot more.  This is pretty much the one big downfall and companies pretty much do not care.
I'm sure I'm not the exception here so it's safe to say that people in general work better when they have a consistent shift. Whether that shift be 6-3, 10-7 or 2-11, if you work the same shift every single day that you work your body adapts and your get good sleeping patterns and as such you will be more awake and alert, you will be happier and more content, you will work better and probably harder and you will be a better employee.

But, when it comes to normal retail scheduling all bets are off because the companies pretty much don't give a rats ass about any of that.  They just want bodies to fill the schedule and it doesn't matter what shifts you like better or what shifts you worked the most recently.

So, now I'm back to working weeks where I have to be to work by 5:30 am, 10 am and 1:30 pm all in the same week in any random chaotic order.
The good news is that they are trusting me with the scheduling so I'm going to do my best to make things a whole hell of a lot better than they ever are under the regular system.

I already started talking to a couple of my employees and running ideas by them and it's all been positive for the most part.  They actually like the idea of a Manager who is willing to listen to their thoughts and then try to implement them.  I'm sure they are just giving me the benefit of the doubt while doubting me in their heads until they see some real proof that things will change, but I'm an agent of positive change.  It will take a cycle or two to get everything into effect but the end result will be a schedule that is more positive, or at least more towards their liking.

Unfortunately the first thing I have to do is actually make it through the first cycle of schedules (4 week rotations) so that I can make a list of everyone's days off and see what the schedule is actually spitting out for people.  In the meantime it's just talking to everyone and finding out work and shift preferences.  The thing I have working against me at the moment is that I have no one in my area that actually likes/prefers to close.  Everyone has told me they would prefer opening and mid to closing.  Oh well - there goes the easy solution!

I've already started a spreadsheet in Google Docs of the 1st two weeks that I have gotten to work on and I'll be plugging in the next two weeks as well.  My whole goal is to give them an actual 4 week rotation where (with the exception of requests off) they will be able to know their exact schedule for every week that they work before it ever gets posted.  This way they can make plans even for days that they work instead of just for their two days off.  I'm sure I'll need a little luck for this to work as well as I want it to, but I've got a lot of patience.


My other retail news is that starting in 2 weeks I will have a part time person for my 2nd department.  This will now give me 3 people for each of my two areas which will allow me to spend less time actually covering the departments and give me more time to get my work done.  These first couple of weeks I have had to find time to get my work done while being the only person in one (or sometimes both) of my area's and helping customers with product that I don't quite understand yet.  However, knowledge takes time and I'm making progress every day.
Yesterday I had a customer who brought this really ugly contraption that was connected to a well that was built back in 1979 or something and he wanted to re-create the contraption with new parts and preferably without any threads on any of the pipes if possible.  2 weeks ago I would have paged for someone else to come save me while I watched and tried to get the idea of it but yesterday I spent 30-40 minutes with the customer going through the product and piecing everything together so that he could go home and recreate it.
It was a pain in the ass and a bit overwhelming at first but the end result is that he got everything he needed and I felt good about helping him even if I didn't fully understand everything that I was getting for him.

I originally came in here just to bitch about the fact that today and tomorrow are both 10-7 shifts for me which is the longest and most boring shift that I get (well, it feels like it anyway).  Right in the middle of the day and really biting into my ability to do whatever it is that I want to do.  It especially sucks that this week it happens to fall on a Weds/Thurs which are the two days I'd rather have off or work early shifts for various reasons.  However, I had no hand in this schedule and as such I just have to play the hand that is dealt to me.

So, now to end with something completely random.

My Body is Falling Apart

I'm quite sure that part of this is the whole age factor and I'd really love to put most of the blame into that category but I know deep down within my soul that it is not correct.  

Sure, I'm not getting younger but the fact remains that I have almost never been in good physical shape and thus while trying to get into better shape I need to learn to limit what I am doing until I build up to the proper tolerances and whatnot.  I over do things and push myself harder than I should and as a result I get aches and pains that are above normal or ordinary.

Case in point, with the whole moving adventure that happened recently.  I wanted to make sure that it all got done as quickly as possible so that I didn't have to drag it out.  There were points where I didn't have the help that I required and so I did what any self respecting man would do and said "fuck it, I can do this myself."

Problem is that I really couldn't and needed to wait for help.  There was one piece of furniture in particular that had moving parts and based on the way I was holding it and the way that it slammed down upon my wrist and sent a horrendous pain through my arm I honestly thought I broke it.  However it was just a bruise/sprain/something painful without the bone fragmenting.  I could barely use it for 3-4 days and even after that it hurt to put pressure on it.

On top of that there were things I moved by myself where I ended up having to rest most of the weight on my shoulder and of course I chose my bad one.  So that brought me back to feeling almost like I did when I tore my Rotator Cuff a few years back.  

The end result of all of that was not being able to do my exercises, specifically push-ups, for about 2 weeks. Now I'm trying to get back into the routine and it's basically like starting all over again, only slightly stronger.

The last few days I have done a minor amount of push-ups but have forgotten to document them on my little tab up there but hopefully that will change in the near future.  Today I was able to rattle off 15 of them and felt good about that but we will see how I feel tomorrow.

I also did a plank for the first time today and lasted a whole 30 seconds. WOOOO, I suck.

Whatever.  I'm trying and not giving up after a period of inactivity like I would have previously.

However, Now I'm going to put some food in my belly and then watch more of The Walking Dead Season 2.  I might throw in a little exercise between episodes.

grrouch out

Twas the night before Monday

The good news is that this morning I was actually able to sleep in.  After a nice long rest I Jumped on the scale and took note to the fact that I am rapidly approaching 255 which will put me at 45 lost pounds.
That's great considering I hung around 265 for about 2 months but now appear to be back on track and consistently dropping some pounds again.  By this time next week I will be under 255 and working on hitting 250.  I'm currently over half way to my goal of getting down to 220 but I'm pretty certain the closer it gets the harder it will be as I haven't been that low since College.


Early in the week I had made a concerted effort to actually drink more water after noticing the first set of results for what fluids I've been putting into myself.
Now that it's Sunday lets see if that effort was wasted or if it made any type of difference.

375.6 oz Diet Mt Dew
371.8 oz Water
32 oz Monster Rehab
16 oz Orange Rock Star
16 oz Fruit Punch Rock Star
12 oz Sugar Free Red Bull
16 oz Lambrusca delicious mess you up Red Wine


Running Totals
Diet Dew: 675.6 oz
Water: 591.5 oz
Gatorade: 64 oz
Orange Rockstar: 48 oz
Miller Lite: 36 oz
Monster Rehab: 32 oz
Bud Lite: 24 oz
Diet Pepsi: 16 oz
Diet Coke: 16 oz
Fruit Punch Rockstar: 16 oz
White Rockstar: 16 oz
Red Wine: 16 oz
Sugar Free Red Bull: 12 oz

At this point I have drank over 5 gallons of Diet Mt Dew this month and 4.5 gallons of Water for the month.
I drank a lot more water over the past week or whatever but I also increased my consumption of Diet Dew - Mainly to keeping late nights and needing caffeine to keep me going.
I'm quite curious if I can push 1500 ounces of Diet Dew for the month.

So, while my Diet Dew consumption is probably off the charts and highly unhealthy I'm still eating better and losing weight which is pretty much the only statistic that I honestly care about at this point.  Once I see the total numbers for the month then I can set some goals towards consumption for November and see if I have the will power to go through with it.

An Asshole Explains Beer to a Kid (link)

I stole to title but am re-directing you to the actual blog post.
I don't generally do this but sometimes you run into something so brilliant you want everyone in the whole fucking world to see it - and this is one of those times.

So go and read this, laugh out loud and keep reading this guys blog as there is much worthwhile in there.

Dead Beat Dads

It's not often that I stray into my own personal life on this little blog but I say screw it today.

Last night I'm spending time with my friend and her kid.  Watching some random junk on the TV and drawing different versions of Spider-man while enjoying some Pizza and Popcorn.  The kid is supposed to get picked up by the male parental unit at some point in the evening so that he can take him for the weekend.

After a little while the kid ventures into his own room to watch Spy Kids through Netflix while the adults sit in the living room watching Damages Season 3 and having random general discussions.  At about 7 pm the doorbell rings once.  After rounding up a barking dog the mother answers the door and nobody is standing there.  She then checks through the front windows and the old mans car is not parked out front.
It might have taken 1 minute to round up the dog and answer the door.  Whatever, maybe just some kids playing a prank.
A few minutes later the kid asks if anyone else showed up (he obviously heard the door bell) because he thought he heard someone else say hello.  We inform him that no one showed up and he goes back to watching his movie.

30 minutes later the doorbell rings again.  Back to the dog routine and answering the door.  This time the male parental unit is standing out there and asks for his kid to be rounded up for the weekend.
We pack up his normal book-bag with clothes and medicine and other kid essentials.  The kid goes outside with his male parent and then knocks on the door 30 seconds later.
The kid re-enters saying his "dad" sent him in to get his Wii.
So, I pack up the Wii into his bag along with a game and some of his characters.  This takes maybe 5 minutes at the most but probably less time than that.
Once again the kid is sent out the door to be with his male parental unit for the weekend.

About a minute later there is another knock on the door and it is, once again, the kid standing there looking dejected.
What's wrong?
My dad left without me.

What The Holy Fuck is wrong with people today?

1 minute later a phone call is made to the unit, no answer.
2nd call - no answer
Call from another phone - no answer.
The kid text messages his male unit "Why did you leave me?"
No response.
Leaves voice mail - no response.
Calls back a few times over the next few hours and no response.
One last call before bed "Dad, I'm outside looking for you, where are you?"

Fucking breaks my heart, seriously.

Why would you show up, then send the kid back into the house and leave with no word, just disappear?

I feel for the kid, shit like this hurts me.
I love my parents to death and everything they have ever done for me to get me to be the man (no laughing) I am today.
I do, however, understand what it's like to grow up and feel abandoned at an early age.  I had a dead beat female parental unit that I lived with which made my life suck more than I'd wish on my enemies.
And due to external issues beyond control I also, unfortunately, grew up for a few years with an absent father whom I never really got to see very often and when I did it wasn't for long enough.
I understand the longing of wanting to be with both your parents but being constantly let down.
I understand the emotional hell this kid must be going through just from everything I get to witness and shit like this gets to me and sticks with me.
I want to make the world right for him and let him know that not everyone is going to abandon him like this and that life might suck at times but it will get better.
I know I can't, I know there is nothing I can say or do that will convey that message to this child who is going through a shitty situation that is only being compounded by the shit that I described above, but I want to.

I also want to grab a hold of the male unit and slap some fucking sense into him, to give him a wake up call and show him how he is mentally fucking up and scaring his child by doing the shit he is doing but I suspect that he really doesn't care much about that.

Relationships are hard and most of them don't work.  This is to no fault of the children but they are stuck in the middle of it every single time.  However, being a parent is something that is (mostly) controllable.  If you don't want to be a parent then that's perfectly fine.  Make it known and move on.  There is no reason to drag children through the mud and make them endure the pain that is being caused to them by being a part time parent who only shows up or calls when it's convenient to you.

I don't expect responses to this really since it's so far left of my normal - I just needed a venue to vent a little bit because this is a lot more helpful than me calling/texting the male unit or making a trip to his work establishment this morning to give him a piece of my mind.

grr

Happy Hump Day

Welcome to the middle of the week where you have strangely volunteered to work an over night at your new store on only the second week of your existence there.

Last night I finished Season 1 of Damages and started Season 2 while visiting a friend.  Stayed up late in an attempt to sleep in because I know tonight is going to be bloody long and mostly boring.  There is actually still a chance that the reset crew could call our store and cancel - which is what they did to the store they were supposed to do last week.
However, no need to fear because no matter what we are working this overnight.  You see, there is company in town which means there are always things to do.  I also have 13 million things that I need to count each and every week now that I've got my new position.

Right now I'm training a guy to take my job.  I figure that in a year I'll have him promoted and in the same position.  However, my ultimate hope is that by that time I'm able to actually switch areas that I'm over so that he can just take over my area.  I would not be looking forward to the day where I would have to do all this work alone - but maybe that's just because I'm new and don't know the product that well yet.  Maybe in a year when I get him into bigger and better things handling my current workload won't be so overwhelming.
Whatever, that is for down the line.

This morning I woke up before 7 am again which really sucked but then again I had to pee so I took the opportunity to relieve myself in a toilet instead of on my bed.
Afterwards I did a quick check of the weight.
I mainly did this because yesterday I weighed myself before going to work and I was at exactly 260 - which meant that another day of controlled healthy eating would put me below for the first time in about 4 years.
So, with much happiness I report that I was at 259.2 first thing this morning.  All my hard work paying off as I have now officially lost over 40 pounds this year.
I'd still like to be able to drop another 20 before the year is over and I have 3 months to do it.  It's perfectly reasonable that I could do it but I'd have to make some changes to the way I eat in order to accomplish it and I realize that.  Only time will tell what happens but seeing that scale dip below 260 was an amazing feeling after being stuck between 260-270 for the last two months and slowly, slowly, slowly losing (and then gaining and losing and gaining....).  So, maybe this is what I need to renew my vigor and make another change to get me down to 250....  250 I don't think I have seen since 2004, and that was a pretty temporary drop at the time!

The other day I cancelled another reoccurring bill that will save me about $18 per month.  I'm really starting to get a handle on my finances now that I'm back in the house and just in time I guess since Xmas is right around the corner.  I still haven't bothered to work up my budget and it is really 100% laziness that has gotten me into this issue.  It's an easy thing to do and I just have to spend an evening doing it.  My problem is that I keep finding other things that I'd rather do, like watch 5 hours of Dexter instead.
Whatever.  I will have a budget written up by the end of the month that I will be able to follow for November and December.  I will have Xmas written into it and I will stick to it.  2013 is the year that I will do a budget and stick to it for the entire year.  There are things coming up next year that have been talked about and I am not going to be the reason they don't happen.

There are two possible mini-vacations to California which I do not want to miss.  There is a Trip to Pennsylvania that I am going to make happen.  I cannot make either of these happen at the last minute without some foreskin...er....foresight, forethought (those are both better than the 1st - oh the places my fingers take me).

Life is looking up, life is looking good.  There is a happiness within me that I haven't experienced for quite a while and I can't wait to see where it takes me.

grrouch out

A Surge of Visitors

Between 9pm last night and 3am this morning, Pacific Time, my blog received either a huge surge of random visitors or something went wonky with the blogger software.

My page views were approx 3 times higher than my previous largest views in a day which I find odd.

So, I thought I'd see if anyone else out there experienced the same phenom as I did, or if a bunch of strangers all truly just stumbled upon my little corner of the internets.

Mountain Dew oh how I love Yew

So, going through my collection of tabs and bottle tops to calculate how much liquid I have been drinking - I do believe that this is a pretty accurate and up-to-date list.  I might have missed a drink here or there but in the grand scheme one or two drinks is not going to throw this all out of balance.

Running Totals
Diet Dew: 300 Oz
Water: 219.7 Oz
Gatorade: 64 Oz
Miller Lite: 36 Oz
Orange Rockstar: 32 Oz
Bud Lite: 24 Oz
Diet Pepsi: 16 Oz
Diet Coke: 16 Oz
White Rockstar: 16 Oz


I have read 3 chapters of a book while at work.  This does not put me on pace to actually reach my goal of reading 2 books by the time the month is over but at the same time it's a start.  Most of my free time has been busy staying out of the house or watching TV seasons.  All I need is a couple evenings per month to read instead of going out or watching shows and getting back on pace will be easy.

Exercise has been nil since the move.  I haven't started sit-ups and I have no excuse other than laziness, but push-ups is just an aging body.  After the move my shoulder bothered me for over a week - the same shoulder where I tore my rotator cuff about 5 years back.  Today I feel like I have a sprained wrist.  I'm getting old and breaking down.

I've played a minimal amount of Video Games but think that I'm over an hour so far for the month.  That number will increase as I have a Strat Game today and need to get that in.

Now, my newly ordered NFL Package is awaiting me.

The Secret to life is .... Jeff Temple?

So, it's purely a case of "ask and you shall receive."

After months of stagnation I finally started to get a few more followers and we finally have someone who happens to fall on a lucky number.

As everyone knows the Secret to Life is 42 - this is a universal fact that cannot be argued.
However, what nobody knew, except one man, was that the secret to life actually had a name and this secret goes by Jeff Temple.

Welcome to the Cult of grrouch Jeff - Have a beer or two and thanks for being a follower!


Other than that, today has been spent with an episode or so of Damages Season 1 which I have gotten a friend into and now streams on Netflix.  While at home I am working through more of Dexter Season 3 and things are getting pretty friendly.

Life is good - party on

Weight Loss - Decisions Decisions Decisions

Yeah, Imma day early.  Whatever.
I suppose there is no real point in keeping track of how many days I have been doing this so I've decided to cut that junk out for now.  However the last few days I have made a discovery...

You see, I had my fat person pants and then I had some pants and shorts that I was wearing a size ago.  Everything beyond that has been tossed as far as I know.  So, the fat person size has been too big on me for a while now.  Lately they have become way too big on me.  It takes me contorting my legs and body into special ways just to get my pants to stay up long enough to tuck my shirt in and tighten my belt.  This is always a nice big win for the guy trying to be less fat.

Two days ago I was wearing a pair of shorts that were the size down.  I came home and undid my belt and they just slid right off.  THIS is a huge fucking smile.  Now I realize it was after a day of wear and they had time to adjust and stretch a bit over the course of the day but they still slid right fucking off and down to my ankles leaving me standing there like a horny guy on prom night at the first sign that his girl was now willing to play tonsil hokey with his tally whacker!  So, while I'm not quite down another size, I'm in-between sizes, I do know that it's coming soon.... very soon.

So, that leads to my decision.  When losing weight, when do you start buying smaller clothes.  I made the jump right away with some T-shirts that I buy off of Teefury.com, but with pants being much more expensive I'm pretty sure I'm going heading down the TBC route here and continuing to wear pants that are close to 2 sizes too big.  Just notch the belt and deal with it.  I'm a cheap ass - so I hate the idea of buying pants at one size and then actually spending money on them again later in the year.  Pants are not a casual buy for me, they are an investment.  I have pants in my closet from 4 years back probably.  Maybe 5 years.  Some of them are the next size that I'll be wearing but at the same time I'm not particularly fond of the style any more for various reasons and as such I just want to toss them (Actually, I'll donate them, but no use arguing semantics).

I've also been thinking about working in a more dress style pant and this would be a great excuse to buy a few of those, but once again I struggle with the spending of the money.  I could buy Video Games or Blue Rays with that money.  I could buy a night out on the town or a rub and tug ;-p with that money.  I'm sure that within the next month or so I'll make the right decision (and request a pair or two for Xmas) so really I'm just arguing with myself over nothing anyway.  But, it's what I do.

Today I jumped on the scale and am approaching 260.  My ongoing struggle, for the last few weeks, has emerged from the plateau and I've started to see a nice slow decline again.

In other news Yakshi is my number 41 - I can't wait to see who gets the honor of being 42.
Yakshi has been following me for longer than I have been following him as he runs the blog Not Necessarily Something which I have linked to previously and think is very worthwhile to follow.
Also, when I see his name I keep thinking of a mis-mash between Rikishi (former WWE Wrestler) and the Yakuza (Japanese Crime Lords).  Weird.  However, do note that this man Fucks Stephen King (and that right there is a reason to go read his blog RIGHT THIS INSTANT).

I belong to a site called raptr which tracks time spent playing video games.  Pretty much it's only use is to track how much time you have spent playing on Xbox Live because the functionality does not exist to track PS3 games played, and this is why I basically stopped using it.
However, I got an email (must be something new they are doing to remind people like me that they site still exists) stating that I played over 13 hours of Gears of War 3 the previous week when my buddy was in town and visiting.  I knew we played a lot but didn't realize that I had put in that much time.  So, praise be to grrouch for the gaming time.

Tomorrow I'm thinking of writing up a summary of my liquid consumption so that I can try to get on a weekly tracking for that.  I'm also hoping to report that my scale dipped below 260 for the first time in probably 4 years...  This is something that I WANT to happen and am actually going to have to force myself to eat properly today so that I'm forcing it to happen just because I starved myself.  It's so close I can taste it, well that and the delicious cheese cake I have sitting in my fridge waiting for me to chow down on it :)

What are y'alls weekend plans?  Gaming? Reading? Poker?
I'm paying bills and watching some Dexter today, then I'm going to play with my new Direct TV and start setting it to record some shows that I want to catch up on.

Got some Blue Bloods on my new Duds

Today was originally planned to head out to the Ren fair for the evening sometime after work but it appears as though a sick kid might put the kabosh to that plan.  If that falls through then I'll be spending a mostly quiet evening in front of a TV watching the final disc of Blue Bloods Season 1 with a friend.

Overall I think the show is pretty good for a cop drama but there really hasn't been a whole lot to make it stand out above and beyond the others that I have seen.  It's more family centric than the rest which is what it uses to try and give it that personal touch but I'm not really watching it because I think it's bombastic - I'm watching it because she enjoys the show.

I'll be ordering the NFL Package either tonight or tomorrow and still deciding on which one to get.  I'm considering getting the MAX package because that will allow me to install the NFL Package App on my PS3's and use them on two more TV's to have more games going on at once.  I believe it also allows me to go mobile with it and watch on a phone, ipad, laptop, whatever else.  But, I still have a few more hours to make that decision.  Luckily I have off this weekend and will be able to spend time watching the games and am quite stoked about that.
I'm hoping to invite a few people over for beer, wings and football.  A nice relaxing day watching overpaid grown men play a game for my entertainment!

Work started out slow and picked up real quick in a hurry.  I have one manager telling me some things that needs done and then another just dropped a huge amount of work into my lap.  So now the real fun begins.  It's been a while since I was actually held accountable for stuff like this and it feels good to be back.

And finally - I've hit the Big Four Oh!
It appears as though Chris Coleman has just recently has joined the Cult of grrouch and I want everyone to welcome him aboard.

(I think I got the right person - this one didn't appear at the top of the list, but at the top of the faceless list.  If I'm wrong - my bad).

I had my alarm set for 4:20 so that I had time to shower and relax a few moments in front of this keyboard to organize my thoughts.  Once again I woke up at 4:19.... WTF.
That one minute means a lot to me.  Let me just hear the alarm go off please.

What is everyone planning for their weekend?
I've got (possibly) the Ren Fair - Disc 2 of Season 3 of Dexter and Football on my board. Let me know what y'all doing.

The Cult of Personality

I want to take this time, at 4:30 in the morning, to recognize that I have gained a new follower of the Cult of grrouchie!
Everyone, welcome nailedontheriver to our little family and make him feel warm and welcome.

Today I finally get television added back into my life in the form of Direct TV.
I recall someone asking me why Direct TV over the others and it's simple - the NFL Package.  I have had Cox cable try and sell me on their "redzone" package where I can get updates and gobble de gook or whatever, but dammit I just want to watch the games and only Direct TV allows you to do that.
They also have the network that revived the show Damages and I really love that show.

For my internet services I have stuck with Cox Cable because that has been the only reliable cock in my life since moving to Vegas (don't type when you're tired, you'll make weird sexual jokes about yourself and people will be left to wonder).  I'm just not willing to switch to satellite or DSL because cable has been very good and reliable to me over the years.

Yesterday was my first day at the new job and everything went well other than this whole waking up before dog does shit.  I have never been able to adjust to having to be to work at 5:30 in the morning and I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon.  This week is all early and then next week I have two early, two late and one mid.  Well, that's what it says on paper anyways.  Next week I'll probably end up working one overnight  for a reset that is going on even though I know that does not sound nearly as appealing as I'd like it.
I volunteered to do the overnight to show that I'm a team player and because I wanted to hang out with friends that night which would be impossible when closing.  Whatever.

While not updating every single day, I have found a way to keep track of the liquids that go into my body that will probably let me sum up a few days to a week at a time.  Excitement huh?  Next I'll keep track of the liquid that comes out of my body for all of you.....
ok, maybe not on that last one.... eewwwwww

Now that Vacation is over I'm also back to salads during lunch, didn't realize I actually missed them while on vacation.

I've started reading another book - Bubba and the Dead Woman.
It's been on my "to read" list for a while now and my goal is to read a chapter per day while on lunch.  I think this will help me to get through my goal of 2 books in October.  I also happened to play about an hour of Video Games with the kid last night.  

Life is good - except waking up at 4 in the morning
grrouch out

Boob Tube Viewing Pleasures

What's a poor bastard to do?

Also, when in the hell did it get so expensive to watch TV? And on on earth are there 666 channels but most of them are dedicated to bullshit programming that I'm pretty sure 80%+ of the population won't watch.  However, to get that one channel that you do want to watch you have to choose a TV Package that includes 13 other channels that you will never turn on?  WTF?

I remember back in the day when we had just a handful of channels but we were pretty damned happy to watch what we had.  Hell, I remember having rabbit ears so that we could get more than 4 channels.  Picking up signals through the air just to watch NBC and ABC and liking it.

This new age of millions of programs of pure unadulterated garbage that I don't want to watch but have to pay for sucks. I am fully reminded why, when left to my own devices, I have not had any type of TV service for the past decade or so.  However, it's the other people who live here who enjoy watching.

So, as far as I see it I have 3 options.

I can go with Cox Cable.

I can go with Direct TV.

I can go with Dish Network.

Any other options that might exist have already been ruled out.

Also of note is that for various reasons I currently do not qualify for any special plans or discounts on any of these networks.

I have read bad and good on every single one of these and in the end, and I pretty much knew it, there is only one thing that matters which is why I ultimately sucked it up and went with Direct TV.

My wallet is going to feel a sting for a paycheck or two but in the end everything will work out and I'll be a better person because of it.

With all of that said, I am really looking forward to using the DVR feature on the system because there are a couple of shows going on right now that I really really really want to catch up on.

Breaking Bad Season 5 (Final Season).

The Walking Dead Season 3.

Doctor Who Season 7.

So, by the time I get home from work on Thursday it should all be set up and ready to go and I can begin filling up my DVR with a whole lot of goodness.

**This post was made over the course of about 4-5 hours while taking small breaks during cleaning and unpacking my shit.  I have The Mummy on the TV in my room and will be putting in The Mummy Returns as soon as it's over.  Back to your regularly scheduled day!

A Return to Normalcy

The last train to Clarksville has officially left and my life is about to return to the old normal routine that I am used to, and by that I mean my vacation is over and it's time to start earning a pay check again.

Ended up at Aliante watching the Monday Night Football game tonight and after 3 plays into the game there was an obnoxious Dallas fan sitting right in front of myself and my buddy.  We looked at each other and said "this guy's going to be an ass all night and I hope that his team gets whooped."

Prognostication 1, Obnoxious Dallas Fan 0

I know I won't do this daily but I wanted to at least start on the right foot.

I kept track of everything I drank over the course of the day and it was so varied that I thought I would touch upon it just a little bit.

By the end of the month I am hoping to have pie charts to share and dammit I wish blogger had the ability to do pie charts right within itself.  

My number 1 liquid of the day was Water which is good, however I do not expect that Water will be able to keep up with Diet Dew over the long haul.

Diet Dew and Bud Light were tied for second place today.

Third was also a tie between Diet Pepsi and Orange Rockstar.

So, One day in and I've consumed everything but coffee products.  Over all the "Soda's" are in second place.  I'm going to make a concerted effort to actually drink a lot of water this month to get into the habit of it and to actually try to be a bit healthier.  I do know, however, that I'm going to consume a lot of other beverages.  

Water: 50.7 ounces

Soda: 40 ounces (Diet Dew 24oz, Diet Pepsi 16oz)

Bud Light: 24 ounces

Orange Rockstar: 16 ounces

As for the other portions of my challenge I am officially changing #2 from "Beat 1 Video Game" to "Play 15 hours of Video Games."

I realize that it's pretty silly to have a goal to just beat one game when the fact is I could be enjoying multiple games, just not any of them to completion.  I came to this realization while playing games with one of my best friends this past week.  We put a good amount of time into Gears of War 3 (and beat it right before October) between campaign and Horde Mode.  I have a feeling I'll probably play a good amount of Horde this coming month and that would be counter intuitive towards a goal of "beating" a game.  Also, the other games I feel I'll probably play are going to be Borderlands 2 and Skyrim, both which you could easily put 50 hours into and probably not have beaten.  So - Instead I like my new revised goal because it's more realistic with where I am in life currently.

#3 - Read - I have not started yet.

#5 - Budget - While I have not sat down and done anything with my spreadsheet - I know exactly how much I have spent today, all in cash.

Sweet Dreams Children

Hope you all have had a great start to Rocktober!

Everything and Nothing

Well, I'd first like to start by welcoming myself back to the land of the internet.
I've had a lot going on over the course of the last week or so and I'm happy to report that pretty much all of it is good.
First things first and that is my vacation officially ends on Wednesday when I have to go back to work.  So, I've still got two more days to enjoy that.
I also officially turned in the keys to the apartment today and will get to write that chapter of my life off when I pay the water bill (tomorrow).
I also will be paying my last storage bill tomorrow as well (hopefully tomorrow) as I have emptied the thing out and never want to see it again.
Sticking on the topic of things I need to cancel: FreeCreditReport.com, WeightWatchers.com and.... I know there is a 3rd one but not sure what it is off hand. I'm going to have to look at my recurring bills from the past few months and finger that one out.

While everything I own is in the house, there is still a lot of cleaning and sorting that needs to be done.  Slowly but surely it is all getting done but it would be nice if the unpacking fairy would work her magic while I sleep tonight.

I weighed myself this morning and I was 261.2 which is pretty good.  I've eaten like a pig and drank like a fish this past week and am pretty surprised to have not gained back 8-10 pounds.
Places I have eaten over the past week that I can remember:
McDonalds, Jack-in-the-Box, Hash House A Go-Go, Buffalo Wild Wings, Billy Bob's Steak House, Pasta Palace and a few others.  None of these meals have been particularly small either.

As for the drinking - Good thing that I'm starting to keep track Oct 1st and not prior.  Went to BJ's booze shack (or something) and had 4 very tasty adult beverages.  Had another 4 at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Had 7 last night at Bills Gambling Hall (Blue Moons), had 2 tonight watching football at Aliante and then there have been others scattered in there as well.
Overall it's been quite an enjoyable vacation and I'm sad to see it go, but all good things must come to an end.  The fact that I still lost weight during this time span is impressive and I hope to dip below 260 by the end of this coming week.

Finally beat Gears of War 3 but that was 2 days ago and before October hit so it won't count towards my goals for Oct. However, with friends, I have been having quite a good time actually playing games again.
Starting in the morning I'll be focusing on my goals and making sure I achieve all of them.  I've already been thinking of new goals for upcoming months but I generally forget all about it 10 minutes later which means they were not particularly good goals.

After a very fun session at Bills Gambling Hall at the 50 cent One Dollar game I have decided where I want to take my bankroll challenge (which has thus far been abandoned).  However, first thing is that I need to save up the money.
Good thing I got that promotion in order to help me get to my "bankroll" quicker so that I can start it up.
I'm not sure If I'll bother to do it at all this year or if I'll start off 2013 fresh and attempting it.
What I do know is that I'm sleepy and about to hit the sack.

I drop my buddy off at the airport tomorrow and his plane leaves at 11 pm so on Tuesday I do plan on a bit of cleaning and organizing and hopefully a real blog post with some sort of substance.

Should I keep random running tally's on where I stand for my challenges or just let it be a total and utter surprise come the end of the month to see if I have done anything at all or if I've actually managed to do what I set out to do?