Dec 11

Wow, buying a car sucks. The last time we bought a car, we put it in both my wife and my names. Her name was first on the application because the car guy put her down first. We got the car and then went down to the DMV to get the plates. I wanted to get the USMC plates like we had on our old car. But, since her name was first, they said it was her car and since she wasn’t in the military, we couldn’t get them. I had my DD214 and everything, but they wouldn’t let us get them. So, we need to get another car for my daughter to go back and forth to the Army and College. To make sure I get my USMC plates, we got it only in my name. Everything goes through, but the car guy wants proof of address. That shouldn’t have been a problem, but somehow everything is in my wife’s name only. (Don’t know how that happened) So, we start calling all of the utility and cable places to see if I can be added to the contract so I can give proof of residence. But, everyone wants a new contract. Finally, we get AT&T to agree to transfer everything from my wife’s name to my name. (They wouldn’t just add me on) But, we have to do it online or pay a $35.00 fee. Feeling it is a stupid fee to pay, we decide to do it online. Nearly four hours later, after fighting with the computer, we have to call the help desk again to have them walk us through it. We got stuck on everything from making a new sign on and password to moving each of the services. Their website kept kicking us out and then not letting us sign in and I could go on and on. So, the help desk guy went with us step by step. (Actually my wife, I gave up and was watching TV.) We didn’t have to pay the $35. Dollars, but it would have been much easier for the guy to just do it. Since he had to do it alongside of us anyway, it would have saved us a few hours and him an hour or so. But, we have a new car, so Woo Hoo!
It was laundry day today. When I woke up, my wife was already down at the laundry mat. The girls were supposed to go down there after school, but for some reason they weren’t there by the time I arrived. I called my eldest first. She answered and said she was a block away. My youngest didn’t answer all three calls. She finally called back ten minutes later and said she was at school still, but she was on her way. While we waited, I had to match the socks and fold the towels. (Usually I just load and unload the car. They don’t like the way I fold stuff.) My youngest got there first, and my eldest didn’t get there for another twenty minutes, even though she was only a block away. My youngest was quick to note that she didn’t come in the correct door. While trying to explain that, my youngest caught her in another stretching of the truth. But, we managed to get everything finished. We went to McDonalds afterwards and it was my youngest daughter’s turn to get into trouble. When she tells a story, she doesn’t know how to give out all of the pertinent information. The last time, she said that she had a lot of fun at the soccer tournament. She slept with twenty three guys. That’s not the best thing to tell your dad, especially when you’re just fifteen years old. What she should have said was that she fell asleep between the matches on the grass at the tournament and the rest of her team also fell asleep because they had to get up really early to drive all the way down to Colorado Springs. This time, we were all sitting around the table eating and talking and she said that she likes to play with her friend Alex’s hair when he’s sleeping. She forgot to say that it was during class in school and he just nodded off.
I had a little trouble with chapter 48 yesterday. I decided some of the things were happening too soon, so I shelved it and started over. It turned out ok and I was able to get 49 started. But, it took most of the night and I should have realized it sooner. But, that chapter will fit in later on with just a little bit of tweaking. I’m going to finish 49 today. I’m putting in some Steve Miller, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, America, and Alabama into the playlist tonight. I think I’m tired of the one-hit wonders.
-Thom

Dec 10

Yep, I can pick um. I was supposed to be off this weekend, so I was going to veg on the sofa and watch football. Well, it turned out someone quit at work and I just happened to be there. So, I was roped into working. But, I had already made my picks for all four games. Saturday, I thought was a lock. Who was going to beat the Saints and the Colts? But, yep, I was wrong. Then, on Sunday, the games started a little earlier so I was able to see the beginning of the Kansas City game. They were down during the first half, but they were holding their own. I knew that was going to be a close game, and what I watched was close. But, I assumed they would pull it out in the end. But, nope, I was wrong again. Then, I picked the Eagles, so I was 0 for 4. So, to make a long story short, if you want your team to win the Super Bowl, let me know who it is and I’ll vote for the other team. You’ll win for sure.
I did stay up late last night watching a very riveting show on animal planet. It was about infestations. This one lady in Canada was living in a house full of rats. A family in New Jersey was living in a house filled with bed bugs. And, the last family was living in Phoenix in a house full of scorpions. I knew I should go to sleep, but I just couldn’t turn it off. These people were going crazy, and I was just sitting there scratching at imaginary bites just thinking about it. It turned out that the lady in Canada had to move. The rats won the battle with the exterminators and poisons and traps and everything. She was just renting, and honestly, I wouldn’t have stayed as long as she did. Rats really freak me out, and they were running across her feet and she would wake up and see them in her bed. Yeah, I would have been gone. The Phoenix couple owned their house and the scorpion invasion happened when the recession started, so they couldn’t sell their house. They ended up just living with the problem and killing them whenever they found them. The New Jersey family said they spent 18,000 dollars in exterminators and throwing away furniture and stuff, but they finally got rid of the bugs when they hired a company to heat their house to over 120 degrees. As it turns out, the only thing that really kills bed bugs is heat. At 120, they die whether they are eggs or already hatched. The company they hired brought in big tubes and heated it to 150. After seeing that, I really don’t want bed bugs either. My skin is crawling just thinking about them.
It snowed pretty good this weekend. I can’t wait until I win that lottery so I can be rich. The first thing I’m going to do is buy a house with a big garage so I can put my car in it and not have to scrape the windows. I’ll have to hire a kid to shovel the walk too, but scraping windows is worse. Today I woke up early so that I could help my wife get to work on time. So, I shoveled the stairs, the walkway around the house to the front, the front stairs, the sidewalk in front of the house, the sidewalk in front of the two neighbor’s houses (They’re little old ladies and can’t do it themselves), and then I had to scrape the windows from both cars. I had barely gotten started when my wife was down ready to go. I got one drivable and got her off. Then, I finished the other one and went upstairs. I was expecting to take a nice long hot shower. I was sure that my daughter had to be at school at eight. But, I just got my gloves and jacket and stuff off when she called and said that she was ready. So, I had to put everything back on so I could take her to school. Actually, I’m a little disappointed in the school system. They should have given the kids a snow day. Then, I might have been able to go back to sleep for a little while.
I managed to get quite a bit of work done this weekend. I didn’t get started on the cover, but I’m on chapter 47. I’m going to finish that today and start on 48, so I’m just over halfway done. I’m putting on some more one hit wonders for background music. And I better get started.
-Thom

Jan 06

We bought a new car today. Well, it was a used car. But, it was new to us. It is officially my wife’s car, but it will be my eldest daughter’s after a while. (Probably as soon as I pay it off like what happened with my son’s car) It’s a black SUV, like our other car. My car has one of those automatic car unlocking devices on my keychain. So, if they are parked beside each other, I’ll be able to tell them apart by clicking the button. The new car is a Japanese car that starts with an S. I don’t remember which one. We went to the car place originally to get a Saturn. That’s the kind of car we have now and our last two or three before it were Saturns. We found the car on the internet, and when we went down there, someone was buying it. But, I think we got a better one although it was twice what we intended on spending.
Like all car places, we spent about two hours there waiting while they did paperwork. It would be nice to have someone invent a car place where you could go in and pick out the car and drive out with it in less than a half hour. But, they had a nice little play land for the kids. My granddaughter and I had fun playing with the blocks. Then, after all of the paperwork was finished and they handed us the keys, I had to go and open my big mouth. They hadn’t taken our down payment yet. I was standing there like an idiot with my card in my hands looking around for someone to give money too. We could have skated out the door and no one would have known. I’m sure they would have figured it out eventually, but it still would have felt good to have gotten over on them.
My youngest daughter is in the running to be the military ball queen. It is between her and two other girls. The voting is going to be on the fourteenth. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. It’s too bad I can’t vote. But, I don’t want to be back in school. I looked at some of her math homework and the only thing that didn’t look like gibberish was the place that said “Name” at the top.
I finished chapter 36 yesterday. I’m going to start chapter 37 today. I’m just putting in Def Leopard in the playlist today. There are just too many good songs. It’ll take me all night just to listen to them.
-Thom

Dec 05

Man I’m glad I’m not a girl. I don’t understand them and I don’t think they ever will. Although, it might just be wives that are crazy… wait, wait, I’m doing it again. Let’s just leave it at girls are crazy. Today, we were having a lazy day. My wife and I were just lying in bed watching TV. Then, one of the girls called as asked if we were going to make anything for dinner. We didn’t feel like getting up, so I told her that if they would go get us some food, I would buy them something to eat. After I hung up, my wife said that she didn’t want to eat any fast food, but she didn’t want to make anything either. So, they came up and got my credit card and the keys. When they got to Burger King, they ate and then the called to ask what we wanted. I told her what I wanted and asked my wife what she wanted. She still said that she didn’t want anything. Knowing she would complain later, I told them to get her that buy one-get-one free chicken sandwich. She could have the soda from my combo. While I was on the phone with them, my wife told me that she wasn’t going to eat it, but to have them make it with pickles and ketchup. I told them and then hung up. As soon as I put the phone away, she started complaining that I didn’t get her any fries.
Since we barely got out of bed, we really didn’t do anything today. We didn’t even go get the baby from the kids. We’ll have to make it up to her tomorrow. My youngest went to some school thing after messing up my Burger King order. She told me what it was, but she was talking so fast I didn’t really catch it. When I was driving to work, I decided to be a parent and find out where she was, because it was after nine and I hadn’t heard anything else from her. I called her twice and it went right to voice mail. Luckily, I saw her walking home. But, she wasn’t walking home alone. There was a boy with her. I’m going to have to have a few words with her tomorrow morning.
I did get chapter 32 done yesterday. I’m going to start working on chapter 33 tonight. I had a lot of fun with the one hit wonders, so I’m going to put a bunch more of them in the playlist for tonight.
-Thom

Dec 04

My daughter-in-law was in a car accident today. She wasn’t hurt and neither was the car, but it did shake her up a bit. She made a wrong turn and tapped into another car. She said that the side mirror dented her door pretty good. They didn’t stay for the police to show up, but they exchanged insurance. I’m sure we’ll be hearing about it from them in a few days. The car is still in my name because neither of the kids have a valid driver’s license. My daughter-in-law has a permit, but hasn’t gone in for the driver’s test yet. We were thinking about changing insurance companies anyway. We need to get another car, because the kids have that one and me, my wife, and my eldest daughter are sharing mine. Since the insurance went up when my daughter got her license we were going to try to find a cheaper one. Now we’ll have to wait to see what happens.
I had to work during the day for four hours and it was sooooo boring. I had to work downstairs where nothing happens. I survived, but it threw my sleeping off. Since I work nights and usually sleep during the day, I tried to get a few hours in after I got off and before I had to go in tonight. I should have just stayed awake. I don’t think that nap did anything and now I feel like I should go back to sleep.
Speaking of overtime, there are about ten shifts next week open and I didn’t get any of them. I must have made someone mad. But, it’s ok. I can work a normal shift for once.
I finished chapter 30 yesterday so I’ll start chapter 31 tonight. It’s moving along really well so far. I know I shouldn’t project an end date, but I’m thinking the end of January. I think, since I don’t have to work any overtime next week, that I’ll start on the cover. I’ve already got it planned out. It should look ok. I’m putting Duran Druan, a bunch of one-hit-wonders, Deep Purple, Beach Boys, and Rush into the playlist for background music.
-Thom

Dec 03

Bonus checks shouldn’t have taxes taken out of them. It wasn’t much of a bonus, but it was better than nothing. After taxes, it was almost nothing. But, its money my wife doesn’t know about, so it’s still good. I got it today. It was for signing on with the new company that took over the account at work. We get a whopping one fifty after thirty days and another one fifty after ninety days.
My daughter fell down the stairs today. She’s ok, but she did bruise herself pretty good. That’s one of the big drawbacks of snow. It makes stairs and shoes slippery. It came right after she decided to give up her little puppy. One of her boyfriends gave it to her for Christmas. It’s a cute little puppy, but she doesn’t have anyone to watch it while she’s at school. So, she’s going to give it back to the boy so that he can watch it for her. The little guy (girl) came up and pooped on my bedroom floor today. I knew there was a reason I liked outside dogs better than inside dogs.
School starts again tomorrow. (Woo Hoo) I know everyone is looking forward to that. It’s nice for the kids to have some time off at Christmas, but it would be nicer if the adults had some time off to do stuff with them. But, no one ever listens to me.
It was laundry day today, again. It seems like that stuff just piles up every week. It was much better when we had our old apartment with a washer and dryer inside. I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t like going to laundry mats. It’s not like I help much anyway. I would rather mow the lawn or even go with my wife to look at shoes that do laundry.
Well, it’s time to look at my lottery tickets to see if I won or not. The Colorado Lottery had a raffle ticket drawing on the first. The tickets were twenty bucks each, but they were only selling less than one hundred thousand. That sounds like a lot, but there are much better odds than the Powerball or the regular lottery. Speaking of which, I think the Mega Millions is up past three hundred million. I know that’s a looooooong shot, but I better get a ticket just in case.
I didn’t get a chance to get any work done yesterday, so I’m going to get it done today. I’m putting some Jim Croce, Bread, and Paul Simon in the playlist today for background music. So, I’ll start after I check my lotto tickets. If I become the next millionaire, I’ll let you know tomorrow.
-Thom

Jan 2

Happy New Years everyone. I know it’s actually the second, but I didn’t work yesterday. I took the day off for my granddaughter’s birthday. She is now three and was a New Years baby and was the first to be born at the hospital, but not the first of the new year. Luckily her party was at four in the afternoon. It gave everyone a chance to sober up or recover. I did have to work on New Year’s Eve and I didn’t get off until two in the morning. I had to stay because they were shooting off fireworks and the boss wanted to make sure nothing happened with all of the drunks. The fireworks were nice. They weren’t as good as last year. It might have been because it was minus three degrees, or they just might have been better last year. If anything, they were loud. There were also a lot of police around to keep the peace. They should have given a lot of tickets out to the idiot parents that took their babies to watch the fireworks. I wanted to go over and slap the you-know-what out of a few of them. They came all bundled up in jackets and winter stuff. But, did they bundle up their infant kids? No, they wrapped them up in little blankets. Half the time, I could see little legs and arms sticking out. When they are that young, they don’t know what fireworks are and don’t care. They just want to be warm.
When I did get off, I went over to my brother-in-law’s house where my wife and one of my daughters were celebrating the holiday. Yes, everyone was three sheets to the wind. (Except my daughter, she hooked her computer up to the stereo and played DJ for all of the inebriated people.) Since I was sober, I was the designated driver. But, since it was so late, there weren’t very many people still standing. I tried to stop off and get something to eat on the way home. Wendy’s was closest and open 24 hours. When I got there, at about four in the morning, there was a line about twenty people in line and only two employees working. When I got in line, they said that they weren’t even taking any new orders for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Instead of staying, I decided to go to 711 to get nachos. But, on the way, across the street from Wendy’s, there was a Burger King with a twenty four hour drive through. Pulling in, there were only two cars in front of me and they zipped in and out.
Pouring my wife into bed, I ate and went to sleep and didn’t get up until noon on Saturday. It took us forever to make it out the door so we could get to the baby’s party. We dropped off a bunch of tables and chairs and then had to go get her a present. We went to Target, and it was difficult finding something that we didn’t get her for Christmas. (Just kidding. We spoiled her, but not that badly.) We did, however, want to get her something good. I convinced my wife that, being grandparents, we had to get her the best present. So, we got her a Barbie Princess collection. There were seven dolls all in one box. It had all of the main princesses, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, etc… After picking out the present, I let my wife look at the baby clothes, because she can spend two or three hours doing it and never move from one rack to the next. I wandered up to the front to go to the bathroom and I had to pass all of the registers. It seemed like every hot woman in the store took that time to check out. I wanted to take my time, but I had to go. When my wife was done looking at the clothes, and it was our time to check out, there were only old ladies and guys up at the register.
The Princess collection was the right choice. At the party, after the food and the cake, when she was opening presents, she wanted to open our first. Then, between every other present, she kept wanting to return to ours so she could play with it. Before we left, however, all of the dolls were missing all of their shoes and tiaras. The party was a sleep over for a bunch of the little girls. I’m sure that by the next morning, all of their hair was untied and all of the clothing was missing. I’m not sure why all Barbie dolls end up naked in our house, but they do, even when my girls were little.
Today, I went to the Bronco game. It was the last game of the season and it was great. We didn’t win, but it came down to the wire. There were some mistakes. Tebow threw two interceptions and some of the play calling was ridiculous. But, in the fourth quarter, we scored, bringing us within five points. That included a few fourth down conversions. We were under a minute and we had to do an onside kick. At first it didn’t look like we were going to get it, but somehow one of our guys fell on it. We had twenty three seconds to do something. Tebow threw one to the sideline. It was a completion, but short passes like that weren’t going to do anything for us. Down to sixteen seconds, he threw two into the end zone. Both times, they were very close. But, we didn’t come down with either. Instead of blaming anyone on the team or the coaches, I’m going to blame this loss on the cheerleaders. Me and my nephew went, and we had really good seats. We were on the first level, only twelve rows from the field. We were down near one of the end zones, but we could still spit on the field if we wanted to. Anyway, we had a really hot bunch of cheerleaders right in front of us during the first quarter. While they were there, we scored and kept the Chargers from scoring. But, then they had to change the cheerleaders and San Diego started scoring.
I’m not sure which chapter I’m on today, but I’ll get it started after I do some work work. I’m putting on some Guns n Roses, Cinderella, Dio, and Dokken on the playlist for background music.
-Thom