Grrouchie Thoughts Oh Canada TNA

We've gotten a lot accomplished recently to help prepare for stuff to do over the summer.
We signed up at the YMCA so that we can take the kids swimming and as an added side bonus they do have a lot of exercise classes for adults as well. I'm interested in a few of them so it's all a matter of how I can work it around work.
I believe that I also have access to any of the Y's out here in Vegas and one is closer to my house so that gives me two different ones to look at.

Hotel for Disney is booked - we just have to pick up tickets and my old man told me last night that AAA might have some sort of discount for members so I'm going to go look at that today.

Last night while we were eating dinner/playing video games the kids sperm donor happened to call for a few minutes.  He basically told the kid that he's going away for a while and doesn't know how long he's going to be gone or when he'll be back.
This is going to be a hard one to deal with because this is no news that a 7 year old should ever have to deal with let alone over a 2 minute phone call.  So he goes away with no possible way to contact him which means that the poor child can only talk to his dad if his dad actually decides to call.  Shit no child should ever go through.

Skipping back to my previous thought - Prices on AAA.com and prices on Disney.com are exactly the same for the tickets.  AAA needs to re-think putting those prices under their "Discount" banner me thinks.

It's kind of funny how Disney just sort of snunk up on us since we were so focused on planning and looking into everything for the wedding.  I was like - really? It's only 2 weeks away?  So, the wedding is being pushed to the back burner until after Disney and at that point it will start getting a lot more of my attention and focus.

Today is payday - which means it's time to practice being a magician again.  I get to look at all of my upcoming bills and make my money disappear.  And speaking of disappearing money I have decided to use my Amazon Rewards Credit Card over the course of the year in order to "earn" myself a gift by the end of it.
I've taken to paying for small things on it and some larger things and then paying them off when it hits the account and the rewards dollars are there.  I pay it off before the Interest hits and so it's a win win.  I'm hoping that by the time the year ends I'll have enough (or close) for a PS4 - it's a long shot but whatever.

And on Bank Accounts - if I can find the motivation today I'm going to head out and close my Bank of America account.  It has reached the end of its useful life (some would say years ago).

Back to Disney again - Upon further review the AAA advantage is free parking at Disney - so being Disney and all I'm quite sure that it probably gets expensive to park there.  I'll have to find out where our Hotel is and if we are driving back and forth or being shuttled back and forth or teaching the child valuable lessons like Hitchhiking and showing a little leg.

It's WSOP time which means that everyone's blogs slow down but visitors to Vegas pick up.  It really sucks being poor this year as it's going to make it hard to get out and visit with some of y'all as you are coming into town and playing some cards or whatever.  I'll do my best to meet up with as many as I can even if it's just for a beer or some conversation or whatever.  There will be a little poker because, lets face it, this is the WSOP and these are the best games of the year.  Lets hope the poker god gives me a heater!

grrouchie thoughts with Gordon Ramsay

Just some thoughts that have been running through my mind lately.

As I sit on my porch at 11:30 pm with a beer in hand, dog on lap and a light breeze keeping it cool I look around and realize that by moving from the east coast to the west coast I basically traded flying bugs for crawling bugs.

I steal this particular thought from Linda Lou quite a lot and never realized just how true it really is.  My favorite beer is my 3rd.

Coach has his Would You running series of blog posts and I'm thinking about stealing the format (like I kinda sorta am today) and make this into a running series of sporadic thoughts titled (and pretty much stole the title too unless I can come up with something better or you all suggest something better) Deep Thoughts by grrouchie.

Netflix now has two seasons of original programming out and I have watched exactly one episode.  I watched the first episode of House of Cards and actually really enjoyed it but I haven't bothered to go back to it yet.  Arrested Development season 4 is also now on Netflix and I loved that show and need to watch this Netflix only season 4 (hopefully I'll actually do it).  When I'm not with my new family I just don't ever find myself watching TV.  I either need to start making time or start making them watch things that I want to watch!

I know that currently Lucki Duck and Rob are both in town visiting.

My Disney vacation is fast approaching. I will leave on the 12th of June and return on the 16th (probably late).  The 16th is Fathers Day and the 17th is the day that we are taking my Fiance's dad out for dinner, her Mom wants everyone to go to Maggiano's.  This is, of course, where we will be having our Wedding Reception and it's a good excuse to get them out there to taste part of the delicious food that they will be partaking in during our little festivity.  Later in that week we will be doing something for my old man as well.

I'm used to having just a small family and not really partaking a whole lot into holidays and the like.  Now I've got two families and it's going to be an adjustment period for me to get used to doing things for both sides of the family.  It keeps me a lot more busy than I'm used to but overall I like it a lot more than I thought I ever would.

Speaking of Fathers day - as we were watching some random TV on Hulu+ the other night the kid (I'm sitting in between them) turned to his mother and they had a conversation very similar to this:

Kid: "Mom, I know you aren't married yet but can we pretend serge is my dad"
Mom: "You can call him that if you want to, why do you ask?"
Kid: "Well, fathers day is soon and I wanted to give him a present and he has to be my dad to get a present."
Mom: "Of course you can get him a present for fathers day if that's what you want."
Me - *heart melts*

I'm currently more loved than I ever thought possible.

Skyrim is being released as the Legendary Edition which is what games normally do and call a Game of the Year Edition  where it's put out, again, but with all of it's downloadable content.  I had previously bought the game when it first game out and then later upgraded to the Collectors Edition when I found it clearance'd out on Amazon or Best Buy or some where.  I also picked up a copy of the Hard Cover Strategy guide because it was so big and bulky and awesome.  Now with the Legendary Edition comes the Legendary Edition Strategy Guide (Hard Cover) which is really tweaking my nipples and SCREAMING out to me to buy buy buy.  I'm fairly certain that I can hold out on the game (I don't own any of the DLC) until I find it on sale for somewhere around $20 but I'm going to have to pick up the guide for fear that it's going to sell out and go up in price.  I've got issues, but I'm ok with that.

Speaking of my issues.  Through Amazon I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition of Season 3 of The Walking Dead and now I see that Target has a Steelbook for season 3 which I'm probably going to have to double dip and pick up.  I might have to sell my soul to get both of them but I own the Collectors Editions of both Season 1 and 2 so how could I reasonably pass up Season 3's Collectors Edition?  And I also happen to be a big dork when it comes to Steelbook cases.  It appears as though I'm going to have to arrange to get out and play some poker with Rob and Lucki Duck so that they can donate to the cause and I can feel better about it all (If only Cokeboy were in town) :) (I keed I keed).

A Work Related Bitch

So tonight after the store closes I get a phone call from the Manager on Duty telling me that she has been too busy to walk the floor and see what needs to be done so it's up to me and the other 2 closing Department Managers to make sure the store is Grand Opening Ready for the morning shift.

Mind you, I get this call at 8:15 and we are scheduled to leave at 8:30.
I walk the floor looking for employees and come up very short handed.

I looked for any glaring issues that needed to be taken care of while making sure that the very few employees that we had were doing what they should be.

15 minutes later as we are walking out the door the manager tells me that if there are any complaints about the close she is going to blame it on us Department Managers because she called us and told us to take care of it.

I told her it looked good for the 15 minutes we were given and the 6 employees we had at the time.

Yet another reason to hate retail.

Stupid Car

Sometimes life is going to well and it just has to bitch-slap you back to reality.

This is what happened to me recently when my car decided to develop some problems.
I guess the problems have been developing for a while but nothing that was noticeable to me until it was too late.

I'm not a car guy so I won't begin to go into what was wrong with it, but it all came out to the tune of about $2200 after repairs and rental car.

And to leave on something positive - a pic I took of the new Deadpool comic.
By far my favorite character and will end up with him or his logo tatted on me at some point (Though the lady is not into this idea).
By far the best Marvel NOW title out right now (my opinion obviously).

Until this year I never would have caught the Spiderman reference in this picture - but it sure does make me giggle (Deadpool does that to me often).

Invitations Are Not Like Candy

Weddings are an anomaly it seems.  Everyone appears to want to attend them.
I'm convinced it's just for the free booze and food that is provided by either the poor saps who are entering into this unholy matrimony or their unsuspecting families that actually believe the bride and groom have 250 friends and/or family that they love enough to invite to such an occasion.  The reality is that nobody loves that many people from their family and nobody really cares about that many friends either.
Weddings are a social occasion, a really expensive social occasion, that ends up being way bigger than they should because people just don't have the inherent ability to say "NO."


NO.  The buck stops here.  Not with my wedding.
My wedding is going to be a small occasion and we are maxing out at 40 people (plus a few of their kids).
As time goes on we keep thinking of other people that we maybe should be inviting, at least that was until I started doing some number crunching.

Yes.  I started out struggling to come up with even 10 names of people whom I really wanted to have attend my (ruptured) nuptials.  But over time I have remembered a few more people that I truly believe I cannot live without them attending.  Then I have added some people to the list that I thought would be good if they could attend.  We both did, the list grew.  We keep remembering people.
Lightning warned me that this was one of the trickiest processes of the entire wedding planning.  Bastard was right.

But, back to the numbers.  I'm a cruncher.  I like to budget and then do the budget 5 more times from scratch to make sure I'm coming up with the same numbers, the right numbers.
As our invitation list grew the dollar figure got bigger.  Once I ran the numbers a few times and saw what we would be spending we decided to have a heart to heart and make some budget cuts.
This includes people, some tough cuts and some not so tough cuts.

I'm not hungry but I want a piece of cheesecake.

We originally told ourselves that we wanted 40 people at most at the wedding/reception.
We are currently at 20 for the ceremony and 40 for the reception.
We've made the list a few times and it's now separated into tiers.
People we can live with and those we'd like but aren't worth the money.

OK. I admit that last line was a bit harsh.  I truly believe that all of my friends are worth the money - but more so if someone else is paying :)

I once had an uncle who invited people (including family members) to his daughters wedding with the caveat that the reception cost $xx.xx per person and if you intended on attending you needed to RSVP and include that money with your RSVP.
I'm pretty cheap but even I believe that that's pretty fucked up.
I dunno, maybe that practice is more common than I think but to this day it was the ONLY wedding I was ever "invited" to with such a stipulation.

So, back to my original thought process.
Invitations are not like candy.  Not everyone can get one - it's an annoying fact.
However - to rectify this situation I am currently planning on creating fake wedding invitations for those who I am thinking of but can't actually afford to invite to the wedding.
This way they will know that they were in my thoughts but weren't worth the money to actually invite (so to speak).

Call me MAYbe

Ok, so the other night I was browsing the blogs I'm subscribed to and came across Mysti's blog Unwritten.
She is running a contest of some sort where everyone who enters has to write a short story (very short, under 1000 words) that all start with the same line.

Normally I wouldn't bother to write up a submission because even though I love to write I just don't feel that I'm actually that good at it.  However this night was different because.... well... well because it was going on 1 am and I was bloody tired and the "better judgement" sensors in my brain had already been shut off for the day.  So, I typed something up then went back and made a few minor edits and sent it off for submission.

I didn't actually submit this hoping to win anything and, in fact, after reading through the rules for submitting I never even paid attention to what could be won or how things were even voted upon.  I submitted this because I like to write and I wanted to write and deep down I just kind of hoped someone would enjoy it.

So - I'll just provide a link to my (now printed) submission for anyone who wants to go read my very short story.

Mental Blocks

Also, dig my sexay pic at the end!

Boo Yah

Capital Grille Las Vegas

Have a buddy who is thinking about having his wedding reception dinner at Capital Grille.
Do any of my readers have experience eating here as he is asking me to gather some information for him and let him know if I think it will be worth it or not (he lives out of town).

So - Anybody?

Thanks in advance

Computer issues

The last couple of days I have been unable to get my computer to even turn on.  It had been giving me a few minor issues but nothing major until it decided to puke and perform a memory dump.
After that it started having issues booting up but usually fixable with a start-up repair.
The other day that failed and I've been doing what I can to try and recover my system to no avail. Looks like my last option is going to be a full wipe and reinstall to see if that makes her able to keep on chugging for another year or so as replacing a computer is very low on my list of things to do currently. 

Also, typing blogs on my phone is not very ideal as well.  Times like this I wish I had the bigger Kindle Fire to make it a little easier, whatever. 

Everything other than that is going well. Looking at possibly putting the deposits down on our two venues today to make sure everything will be set for the same day.
Also, it appears as we choose a bad date with April 18th (sorry cokeboy) because it turns out that next year the 18th is Good Friday.
So we are either going to do the week before or after.
Time will tell.

The List Gets Smaller

First - I appear to have lost a follower as I'm now down to 47.
I guess I've had too much of a positive attitude lately and haven't been grrouchie enough.  Heh!

Anyways - what I came to talk about.
Day two of looking around started out with us having pretty much narrowed down our choices to one of two places.  It was going to depend on pricing for the 2nd place and at that we would still have the actual wedding at the 1st place and then just take a jaunt over to place 2 for the reception.

After visiting place number two and looking at the pricing we decided that we definitely want to do the reception there as long as we can afford it.

Then we headed up to another place just for the fun of it even though based on what we saw online we had mentally checked it off our list.

Until we saw it, up close and in person.  This place was gorgeous just driving in and before we left we both pretty much mentally decided that this is where the wedding would take place.  They gave 3 options of where you could do your wedding and all with beautiful views.  They also gave options for a reception but that part was underwhelming and I don't think either of us bothered to consider it.

The wedding will take place at Lakeside Weddings And the reception will be at Maggiano's Little Italy in the Fashion Show Mall.

We've pretty much decided April 18th as the date.

Now it's a matter of figuring out the financial aspect of it and putting the money down on the reservations.

Honeymoon is still up in the air at this point but I guess we couldn't work everything out in one day!

The number of people for the wedding is also smaller than the number of people for the reception so we are going to have to put some time and effort into those as well.

On My Mind

I'm sitting here waiting for my opponent to arrive for my Strat-O-Matic Football game.
My team, the Las Vegas Scumdogs, are currently sitting at 6-6 and desperate for a win to stay in playoff contention.  I beat this opponent once already and a win here would put us at the same record with me owning the tie-breaker.
However, I would still need some help to make the playoffs and do not control my own destiny.
This is the same situation I was in last year and the year before.  My team is close to being a playoff team but lacking some crucial elements.

Offensively I'm good.  I've got Tom Brady leading the way with C.J. Splitter and Antonio Brown also out there.  I've got Jacob Tamme and Pettigrew (DET TE) to give me depth there.  My offensive line is kind of weak and my defense lacks any type of pass rush to help out and that's where the biggest problem comes in.
Oh well, I guess that is what the draft is fore.

(I stopped writing because the game started, but since he had to run to pick up his wife real quick I thought I'd just let y'all know that his 1st play I picked the ball off and my 1st play Brady threw a Touchdown - Lets hope the rest of the game goes as well).

Today I'm trying a new "dish" that tastes like it's going to become part of my regular rotation.
I need more protein and veggies in my diet so I decided that Chicken, mixed veggies and black beans is something that I'm going to eat more of.  Cook it all up and top with some hot sauce and good to go.
No dressing or anything else to weigh the calories down, but damned tasty and quick and easy to make - plus it should pack up real nice to take to work for lunches.

Recently I had TBC comment on a Facebook photo or status update - he at first kept it on topic but then quickly turned it around and asked me to bring my laptop to Jean to see if I could get him hooked up with Ultimate Poker (which I find out is the Station Casino's online card room).
A few days later he tweets something about UP and asking what my username is there and how I connect to the internet.
I tell him that I am not interested in playing online poker and he tells me "So What if you are or are not interested in online poker, what is your connection thru"
When I responded that I go through a wireless router he didn't bother to continue the conversation.

Today I found I still had about $75 on Black Chip Poker so instead of just pissing it away on poker I decided to piss it away on a Sports Bet Instead.
I put it all down for the Penguins to win their current series.  Once they win I'll roll it over to their next series.
So, if they happen to take the whole thing this year then I'll be a few online dollars richer.  If not, well I forgot I had the money anyways.

Generic

We went to the church today only to find out that we'll have to come back another day.

Looks like that day is probably going to be Saturday.

We'll have to pick out the preacher-man that we want to use and then have our little discussion with him.  More on that as it develops (I felt like a newscaster just then).

We also went to visit one of the places on our list of possible reception areas.  With the list we made I have a feeling it will really be down to 2 choices.  The place we saw today and a place we'll be seeing on Wednesday.  

Wednesday will have, by far, the better food but I'm not sure if the price will be competitive enough for it to be a viable option (I'm lord cheap-ass after all).

The place we looked at today had a lot of positives going for it including the final price-tag to go along with it.

However, until we have explored all of our options and discussed everything fully, one never knows.

Other than that I hit the gym again today and my new intent is going to be to hit 5 miles every time I go for the rest of the month.

I felt good after today's session and my plan is to go again tomorrow before noon.

After dinner the boy's put a puzzle together and posed for several pictures.  I thought that was quite cute so I'll be getting them a few more easy, kid friendly super hero puzzles in the near future.

I'll also be introducing them to the concept of gluing the finished thing to a piece of cardboard so that they can put it on the wall as if it were a picture or a trophy.

Good Night Vegas!

Tough Decisions

I've got a big week ahead of me and luckily I'm on vacation for the whole thing.

Tomorrow we head to the church to talk to the priest/preacher/reverend/cultist/whatever about the possibility of doing the wedding in the church.
She's Catholic and i'm Reasonable and in the Catholic Church that shit don't mix.

There are a couple of different ways that this could play out and I'm all for the easiest of them all.
1 - They could tell us that they will only perform the ceremony if we are both Catholic and she agree's to do a non-catholic wedding.
2 - They could tell us that they will only perform the ceremony if we are both Catholic and it would be quick and painless for me to convert just for this occasion.
3 - They could tell us that they will agree to perform the ceremony as long as I agree to a few of their "rules" and life goes on without any hitches.

I'm all for option #3.
I guess I'll know more after tomorrow.


I've got some tough decisions ahead of me.  Lightning made a good comment on my post about the Invitation  List and it being a difficult thing to actually make.
Truth of the matter is I thought it was going to be bloody simple and it's anything but.
My list of people has fluctuated greatly, changing every day.  New people added and deleted almost every time I think about it.  I'd have put money on this being one of the easier things to do and I'd be broke because I was wrong (I'd still be broke though because weddings are F'n expensive).
The good news is that we've got time to figure out the who's and how-many's.  Our first priority is to figure out there where and when.
Once we figure out the church situation everything will clear up a little bit and we can move on to step number two.

The other tough decision is who should be my best man?
There are two guys whom I've been friends with for a long time who I could not live without and yet I have to flip a coin and decide which of these two gets an elevated status in my own wedding.
It's truly a strange decision to have to make and I'm 100% conflicted and don't think that I'll actually be able to make a choice anytime in the near future.

Oh well - it's bed time.
Old man is tired.

May Exercise

I created and updated a "Page" for my May Exercise Goals (MEG for short).

As you recall from this post I wanted to get in at least 10 trips to the gym and go 60 miles on the elliptical.
I also wanted to get down to 230 pounds.

Sure I took off 1/3rd of the month already - but there is still time and I've still got determination.
So, with that in mind I went to the gym with a goal of doing 4 miles and going for about 40 minutes.

I ended up hitting Mile #4 at 33:55 and then used another 6 minutes for cool down.
From there I went to Walmart and bought a gallon sized container of water to take to work which I will attempt to drink every day that I work.

5/11/13

It's a long hard road to 60 miles for the fat man!

My Road to 200

Other than my buddy's wedding in January I now have more personal reasons to actually re-focus my energy on weight loss and drop some pounds.
200 also seems like a pretty reasonable goal for me to make.  If, when I get there, I still feel that I could comfortably drop some more then so be it - but for right now the sole focus is going to be on 200 and getting there.

With this in mind I took to Facebook and said I was searching for a pro-Bono Pseudo Personal Trainer to help me lose the last 35 pounds to get there (since I have been stuck at the same weight for 2 months) and I had some good advice and conversations based on it.
One friend called me a pussy.
One friend told me to eat more moon-pies
One friend told me that she should love me even if I don't lose the weight but that I should come to Jean and try to sign him up for UP with my laptop since his wasn't working.

Weird.

I know I need to make changes. I've made so many getting to this point so now I've got to continue with some more to get where I ultimately want to be.
Diet and exercise, diet and exercise.
Eat healthier.
I cut out a lot of the bad but some of it still lurks.  I've also got fat person mentality when it comes to eating and I like to eat a lot.  Training myself to eat even less is going to take some time.

So, my snacks are being cut back again.  Cut WAY Back.
The thing I have been holding out on for so long is also going to happen, needs to happen.
I'm cutting back on my Diet Dew intake (I WILL NOT END IT, I will cut back).

My morning routine consists of me waking up and grabbing a dew.
Today that routine was a banana and a bottle of water instead.
In 10 minutes I hit the gym with another bottle or two of water.

For phase 1 my goal is going to be no Dew before noon.
If I die, know that I loved most of you, despised a few of you and wanted to sex all of you.

This was the only pic I could find with 200 or bust on it - it will have to do

The Guest List

On Facebook I pondered whether or not Gamestop has a Gift Registry and a lot of my friends seem to think that this would be a bloody good idea.
Others suggested Target or Toys R Us or even Amazon, which are all Viable options for more than just Video Games but my comment was meant as sarcasm as the last thing I really want to get is more video games to take on my Honeymoon!
However, I'll definitely talk to my local Comic Shop about a gift registry because I'll need some reading material while the wife sleeps!

Now, to the guest list.
The guest list is a pretty weird part of the whole wedding planning.
The guest list essentially boils down to "Which of my friends do I really like and which can I do without?"
Once you pick the size of your party you have to sort through your mental list of friends and relatives and figure out who is in and who is out.
Then sometimes you get to complicated scenarios.
For us it involves family.
We have to invite her immediate family obviously.  This includes her sister.
However, also on our list of people who should be coming are two people who have both been in a relationship with her and both moved on to marry their next lady and start popping out kids.
I thought we should invite more and have a table for "People who have been in your sister" but it appears as though this is not actually a good idea.  My Bad.

Turns out that there are a good deal more than just 6 people that I'm willing to invite and at this point in our list making we have decided that 50 people is the max we want to have.  We have thus far come up with a list of 40 people and have ten open spots for assorted relatives of hers.

We also made a list of venue's to check out for the reception.
One friend posted on my Facebook "You my friend appear to be in the honeymoon phase of engagement. Wait till you have to start making wedding plans and life will blow again."
I'm proud to say that this woman will be marrying one of my best friends.

I've had three friends that have lasted over the years - two are married and one will be come January.  All three better be at my wedding or there will be a hell to pay.

The Real Ring

Today we had planned on running around town checking out store after store until we (er...she) found the perfect ring.  Yesterday she did some "pre" footwork for a bit so that she could figure out which stores to ignore.

Today we hit up a random store because of discounts but there was nothing there.  Then we headed down to store #2 (which really was store #1 since we just happened to go to the first with very low expectations anyways).
On the way there I was lollygagging a bit and was told "Hurry up, my ring is waiting for me."
Sometimes words speak true.

We entered the store and were greeted.  We brought out a printout of what she was looking at online and the guy went to his computer and brought up pictures.
He asked a few questions to make sure he knew what exactly she was looking at and then handed her a ring. She tried it on and it looked nice.

He then brought out a second and said "this wasn't on your list but it's pretty similar to one that is" and the moment it hit her finger I knew it was the one.
Her face lit up like she just received the greatest gift in the world combined with the best news.  She radiated when she put it on.
He brought out a 3rd ring and she tried it on, looked at it for a few seconds and decided that ring #2 was the one.
I asked her if she wanted to keep looking, we had all day.
She shook her head and said "No, this is perfect" with a smile that lit up my world.

I didn't even bother asking what the price was, I just told the guy that she thinks it's perfect so it's hers.

From start to finish today was perfect, and perfect days do not come around often enough.
I'm so in love with this woman and I'm happy that in somewhere near a year we will be husband and wife.
Now we just have to figure out all the details for the wedding/reception/honeymoon - I'm pretty certain this is not going to be no small task and there is more to it than is close to crossing my mind currently.

Side View but does not capture the radiance of the ring and the diamonds.

Top View too far away to show the real beauty of the diamond.

 I'm sure there will be more to come in the future.
I plan on detailing the whole ordeal here including my silly ideas :)

Prenup

We've got the proposal accepted and the Invitations are all decided on - so now is a good time to broach the subject of a prenup right?

I mean - I've got some stuff that I could not stand to lose when this whole bloody thing falls apart violently in 3-5 years.

My Blue Ray collection.
My Video Game collection.
My blow up sheep.
I mean - I've got to protect my investments right?

So, here is a little humor into the situation that I've dug up online (duh).

Wedding Invitations

So, now that step one is out of the way it's time for me to start thinking about some of the other stuff that goes into the whole wedding preparation part.

I know I need to come up with a guest list before I can legitimately worry about invitation but I am leaning towards this one currently.

I'm really hoping my Fiance likes it as well :)

She Said Yes

How Could any woman turn down a rock like that?

Three Days

Three days away from an important anniversary in my life.

I don't really know what I came to talk about but what is on my mind is this.
The lady and I had some plans for tomorrow which I discussed here which completely got overlooked because I followed that up with another post quickly afterwards.

 As of right now those plans have been cancelled.
Here is how this pans out.

Today at school is what they call...well... I can't remember what they call it.  However, back in PA we called it May Day.  It was a day where you did some fun stuff and got to forget (a bit) about school and all that crap.  Well, about 2 weeks ago the child decided to lie in school and got himself essentially detention during this fun activity time.  Today was the day and when he went to school he decided to apologize to the teacher hoping that she would just accept it and let him participate.
She accepted the apology but told him that he still had to serve his punishment.
He then proceeded to throw a bit of a fit and got himself in trouble for not listening.

This information was communicated to the dead beat dad who proceeded to inform him that because he got in trouble he would not be taking the kid to see Iron Man 3 this weekend like they planned.
The kid then called him a bastard and hung up on him.
I really want to give the kid a High Five, but that would be sending the wrong signal.

Anyways - the mother then has to call the dead beat back to find out what happened, he explains it and she tells the kid to apologize.  He gets on the phone with the kid and tells him that he doesn't want to talk to him right now and ends the conversation.

Later in the evening she sends the dead beat a text asking if he was still picking up his kid and he responds "not after what he called me."
So, his response to his child acting up and doing something wrong is just to not talk to him, NOT pick him up and spend time with him like he planned and just ignore the kid.
Wow - way to be a f'n parent.

All of this has been eating at me the whole evening and is probably why I am currently unable to sleep even though I have to "wake up" in 3 hours to get ready to go to work.

So, no Iron Man and no Sushi tomorrow - however it looks as though come Monday we'll be taking in an early showing of Iron Man while the kid is at school and before we have to go to work (since we both close that evening).

In other news, I've had a new part-timer hired for my plumbing department.
There is NO development on replacing either of my two previous part-timers in electrical.  I'm thinking maybe 2014 will be a better year there.
Plumbing, however, is shaping up to be a really good department.  The two newest employees are both damned good and have good motivation and drive.
If the new guy who should be coming on in a week or two fits the same mold I'm going to be well staffed and maintained until they start picking me dry again.

Canada Dry

My pistol is loaded
I shot Betty Crocker
Deliver Colonel Sanders down to
Davy Jones Locker!

Hogging All The Vagina

You see, what had happened was as follows.

As a brother, as a friend, you gotta realize that you cannot have all of the vagina.  This is an unwritten bro code passed down from generation to generation.  I should not have to tell a nigga this.  It should be understood.  MuFukka, when I was just knee high to a grasshopper but with a dick the size of a full grown white man (this be about 10-12 years old) my pappy sat me down and said "Son, I need to have an important conversation with you."

"Yeah pops, what is it," I said listening intently knowing that if I didn't he'd beat my ass with his half empty bottle of Old English 800 Malt Liquor that he picked up from the corner store just 30 minutes ago.

"Son, as you are getting older and becoming a man you have to learn a few valuable lessons in life.  None more important than what I'm about to tell you.  If you do not heed my warning then you will end up shanked and with only a few moments to reflect upon the mistakes which you have made."

"No worries pappa, I always listen to what you have to tell me and I always follow your advice because you are old and wise and you tell me so.  So, what is this sage advice you have for me?" (I was an exceptionally smart fucker at this age and able to form sentences that most nigga's 3 times my age still cannot.

"Son, this won't make sense to you right now but one day you will understand.  Do Not Hog All The Vagina"

Shit, I tell you my pops gave great advice.  He learned me good that day and I ain't never lost that memory. I believed that er'yone got the same advice from their pops's, well except for the bastards because they ain't never known their daddy's but I'd thunk that their momma's would have told them to not hog all the vagina's. I mean, what bitch wouldn't look out for her kids that way.

So you see, I ain't to blame here in this situation because I was just following man law, bro code.  I was just being a real nigga and keeping it real.

That Mu'fuka was hogging all the vagina.

I asked politely for him to stop hogging all the vagina and he ignored me and kept plugging away.

I demanded a switch but got ignored.

I even slapped him on the shoulder and said "Tag mu'fuka, my turn" and he keep ignorin' me.

So, I stabbed his ass, kicked him out of the bed and got my share of the vagina.

Bitch be trippin' though and she called the 911's saying shit was going down.  I had to slap her around a little bit to get her to stop being such an uppity trick and let me finish.

I ain't dun nuttin' wrong, he shouldn't have been hogging all the vagina.

No caption necessary

I ain't been around lately

Updates have not been coming fast and furious from camp grrouch lately, but that is because I haven't really been spending much time at home lately.

It also does not help that my wireless connection on this laptop is spotty at best some days and down right sucks others.  The last two days I have not been able to connect at all.

In fact, tonight, when I got home I had to reboot my modem, router, computer, router, router and finally I got this connection which hasn't really been the greatest.

I've got some serious lag going on - but whatever.  I guess this is what they refer to as #FirstWorldProblems!

Work, strangely, has been giving out Over-Time this week like crazy.  They had an insane amount of extra hours to give out and people have been taking advantage of it.

Of course I did not find out about it until half way through my week when I already had a day off.  I have an extra couple of hours banked and have the option of going into work tomorrow to work a shift of pure OT if I want.

That is where the dilemma comes in.  

I want the money but I really don't know if I want to deal with work or not.

First big issue is that it's a freight day and I don't feel like spending most of my morning throwing freight.  I can't go in any later than 8 am (if I decide that I want to work a full shift) because my love works until 3pm.  Working till 5 places me at her house after the kid has already gone to and come home from tutoring and into prime homework time.

Then a bit later in the evening we will be going to First Friday, or as I like to call it Funnel Cake Day!

I also plan on having an adult beverage or three, leaning towards the over side of the latter.

Saturday is also going to be a good day as we both open and our kid is going to be getting picked up by his old man.  The evening is pretty full as we will be heading to church to meet n greet a cousin (some relative, I'm using cousin as a generic because I can't remember) who just popped out a child.  I'm informed that I'll be the first guy she's ever been with who has met family outside of her parents/siblings which is pretty cool.

After the baby kissing and pretending I understand Spanish we will be heading out to watch Iron Man 3 and then a nice Sushi dinner.

I'm really looking forward to the evening as we very rarely have an entire evening to ourselves because the kid is always around and we both generally work late Saturday's when the opportunity would actually be available.

After finishing Insomnia on the last day of April (technically 1st of May because it took me till Midnight:17 to burn through the last 80 pages) I'm going to be doing much lighter reading this month.

I've downloaded 4 e-books by Stephen King.  2 of them with his son, Joe Hill, and one with another author whom I'm not going to look up at this moment.  The other is a little essay he did on GUNS which I found to be interesting reading.

I'm also going to be getting back into older Comic Books but I don't plan on doing it with the same furor that I did earlier in the year.  I want to diversify a bit between Books, Comics, TV Shows and the Gym.

Life is about variety right?  Someone supposedly wise once told me that.

I've got a bunch of random ideas that I want to take advantage of and share, but I'm unsure as to how I want the finish product to look.  So, hopefully in the near future I'll have some time to sit down and hammer some of them out for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Well, off to bed.

If I don't fall asleep soon then my decision of whether or not to work will be made for me by my lack of energy or ability to awake in the morning.

I probably won't be around much this weekend but come Monday/Tuesday I'll have something interesting to share.

Mark the calender as it will be a 1st.