Saturday, April 5, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
My 300th Post and Very Big News
Well, after being on the fence for such a long time about it, we finally decided that we are, after all, going to move to Hawaii. It wasn't an easy decision, since we weren't too sure about the school system for the kids and the warmer climate affecting Alex's terrible cooling system, but I think this is definitely an important new start for our lives. The kids are young enough to adapt, and my wife and I are just ready to get out of the rat race, and just enjoy living and working somewhere in Maui. It'll be a little tougher financially, but working 58 hours a week and then having a weekend that sees snow in the Spring is just nonsense.
Anyway, we've already scoured the web a little bit, and there's a few videography positions open that is comparable to what I've done in the past. My wife will look into something retail oriented hopefully, but there should be an abundance in the tourism industry as well. We've narrowed it down to 3 neighborhoods, Kaimuki, Waikapu, and Kaanapali... the rents in those neighborhood is about what we can afford, and unfortunately that's only about a 1 bedroom. It isn't big, but we figured we could let the kids have the room and we'd sleep in the living room.
We're looking at a July or August move, in order to accomodate Alex starting Kindergarten. So yeah, pretty soon. It's all very sudden and exciting at the same time, but I'll keep you all posted as we sort out more details. Meanwhile here's a few pictures from Hawaii to get us in the mood! Enjoy!
Oh, and by the way...
Happy April Fool's Day!
Anyway, we've already scoured the web a little bit, and there's a few videography positions open that is comparable to what I've done in the past. My wife will look into something retail oriented hopefully, but there should be an abundance in the tourism industry as well. We've narrowed it down to 3 neighborhoods, Kaimuki, Waikapu, and Kaanapali... the rents in those neighborhood is about what we can afford, and unfortunately that's only about a 1 bedroom. It isn't big, but we figured we could let the kids have the room and we'd sleep in the living room.
We're looking at a July or August move, in order to accomodate Alex starting Kindergarten. So yeah, pretty soon. It's all very sudden and exciting at the same time, but I'll keep you all posted as we sort out more details. Meanwhile here's a few pictures from Hawaii to get us in the mood! Enjoy!
Oh, and by the way...
Happy April Fool's Day!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Five Obscure Reasons Why I Love my Wife
If you've been paid enough to keep reading this far, you would know that I've mentioned before why I love my wife so very much, because she's my BFF, my tasty morsel, my cheruby ruby mama, my milkshake, etc. But to keep things lively, here are 5 reasons not often mentioned, why I love my wife. (If I have mentioned it, you'll need to forget.)
5. Reactive Senses. Yesterday during one of the scenes of the Bank Job, there was a slight peak in action and sound and my wife proceeded to pummel my hand into the handrest, and then beat me into a senseless mass of midnight meat. Wait, that's something else. Anyway, she reacts big. Several scenes had her covering her ears and ears with her arms, which I previously thought was bloody impossible. I guess it looks like an arm turban or something hopelessly devoted to her head. Anyway, I love the way she reacts to things - unabashed, honestly, and without regard to how she might look. I think it speaks of her honesty to an extent, that she is in touch with that. So many people act like someone's always watching, and there's my wife. Everyone knows how she feels because she's almost fearless in showing it. Also, I like to laugh at her.
4. Baby Me! I'm seriously the worse Babier (Gods of vocabulary spare me) of all. I would love you more than chocolate raspberry mousse, but if you ever felt sick, I'd just lean over and ask, "Are you okay? If you are, I'm just going to be over here," and then sit in my corner and blog on my phone about it. I'm pretty open with my emotions, but I am tragically incapable of being nurturing. My wife however, does take care of me when I feel crappy. She leaves aside all judgment and criticism, and just makes me feel all better about being stinky and sick and drooly. When I had my wisdom teeth and my wallet ripped off, she guided me home, stuck her fingers in my rancid mouth and stubborn groans to pull out gross cotton within the recesses of my piehole, and replaced it without throwing up on me. She always gives me a hug to let me know that although the shit had hit the fan, she had stopped the fan from oscillating to my direction. She takes good care of her man, and I love her for that.
3. Bent Humor. I like her humor a lot. It has a wide range, from the low brow to the complex and layered variety, but the winning one is of course her ability to laugh at me at my worst. And it's perfect because it's not so much a mocking, "you suck ass" laugh, but more of a sympathetic, "laughing at me because I'm too self serious to laugh at myself" tone. She also likes the corniest stuff that comes out of me, which is good because when I'm funny, I'm tops. But when I suck, those punny poo poo jokes still manages a upward crack on her cute visage. Look at me, I used the word "visage."
2. Unnatural Fears. I'm not talking about snakes or ghosts or Dead hand. Although the latter is pretty fun. I'm talking about her incredible and possibly lethal fear of me SEEING A TOWEL ON HER HEAD. I am serious. She has nightmares about this. That I would walk in, see a towel on her head, and all my illusions of her would be shattered. I've seen her birth my son and she's worried about a towel on her head. Another unnatural fear is stuffed animals staring at her. I've made Curious George sit and stare at her with his introspective eyes and she'll bat him off to make him stop. That one is fun.
1. Me. C'mon, I'm a real pain in the ass. I'm just a problem. I've never really had a best friend all my life, just people who kinda like me enough to hang out with me. I'm a ball on contradiction, being extrememly passionate and nonchalant at the same time. Funny and depressing, sweet and vile, friendly and antisocial, just living on that tine line between potential and failure. Jack of all Trades, Master of None. I'm the perfect Libra, but I just turn out bland and blank. But my wife loves all of that. All of it. The good and the bad, the black and the white, the best and the worst of me. And I can never ever express to her how grateful that her love for me has made me feel. I am who I am because of her love, and that's why I love my wife.
5. Reactive Senses. Yesterday during one of the scenes of the Bank Job, there was a slight peak in action and sound and my wife proceeded to pummel my hand into the handrest, and then beat me into a senseless mass of midnight meat. Wait, that's something else. Anyway, she reacts big. Several scenes had her covering her ears and ears with her arms, which I previously thought was bloody impossible. I guess it looks like an arm turban or something hopelessly devoted to her head. Anyway, I love the way she reacts to things - unabashed, honestly, and without regard to how she might look. I think it speaks of her honesty to an extent, that she is in touch with that. So many people act like someone's always watching, and there's my wife. Everyone knows how she feels because she's almost fearless in showing it. Also, I like to laugh at her.
4. Baby Me! I'm seriously the worse Babier (Gods of vocabulary spare me) of all. I would love you more than chocolate raspberry mousse, but if you ever felt sick, I'd just lean over and ask, "Are you okay? If you are, I'm just going to be over here," and then sit in my corner and blog on my phone about it. I'm pretty open with my emotions, but I am tragically incapable of being nurturing. My wife however, does take care of me when I feel crappy. She leaves aside all judgment and criticism, and just makes me feel all better about being stinky and sick and drooly. When I had my wisdom teeth and my wallet ripped off, she guided me home, stuck her fingers in my rancid mouth and stubborn groans to pull out gross cotton within the recesses of my piehole, and replaced it without throwing up on me. She always gives me a hug to let me know that although the shit had hit the fan, she had stopped the fan from oscillating to my direction. She takes good care of her man, and I love her for that.
3. Bent Humor. I like her humor a lot. It has a wide range, from the low brow to the complex and layered variety, but the winning one is of course her ability to laugh at me at my worst. And it's perfect because it's not so much a mocking, "you suck ass" laugh, but more of a sympathetic, "laughing at me because I'm too self serious to laugh at myself" tone. She also likes the corniest stuff that comes out of me, which is good because when I'm funny, I'm tops. But when I suck, those punny poo poo jokes still manages a upward crack on her cute visage. Look at me, I used the word "visage."
2. Unnatural Fears. I'm not talking about snakes or ghosts or Dead hand. Although the latter is pretty fun. I'm talking about her incredible and possibly lethal fear of me SEEING A TOWEL ON HER HEAD. I am serious. She has nightmares about this. That I would walk in, see a towel on her head, and all my illusions of her would be shattered. I've seen her birth my son and she's worried about a towel on her head. Another unnatural fear is stuffed animals staring at her. I've made Curious George sit and stare at her with his introspective eyes and she'll bat him off to make him stop. That one is fun.
1. Me. C'mon, I'm a real pain in the ass. I'm just a problem. I've never really had a best friend all my life, just people who kinda like me enough to hang out with me. I'm a ball on contradiction, being extrememly passionate and nonchalant at the same time. Funny and depressing, sweet and vile, friendly and antisocial, just living on that tine line between potential and failure. Jack of all Trades, Master of None. I'm the perfect Libra, but I just turn out bland and blank. But my wife loves all of that. All of it. The good and the bad, the black and the white, the best and the worst of me. And I can never ever express to her how grateful that her love for me has made me feel. I am who I am because of her love, and that's why I love my wife.
Preview before "The Bank Job"
There was this creepy preview about a man who is sitting on a train, taking photographs of a woman sitting along on a subway car. Behind her a man in some trenchcoat or something (they never wear like, a yellow Hello Kitty Tee Shirt with a stupid haircut), and he murders her. Evidently, this dude can see murders that have happened in the past, so he decides that in order to solve this, he has to follow the serial killer after his murders, and I guess he works in a meat factory, and the bodies are never found because, gasp, they're in my hamburger! So the trailer is pretty creepy, the mood is good, the gore is intact and there is suspense. Seems like a decent hack and slash, straightforward horror flick by Clive Barker. Then, the title.
"Midnight Meat Train."
I laughed well into the next preview. I think I saw a 70s porn movie by that same name.
"Midnight Meat Train."
I laughed well into the next preview. I think I saw a 70s porn movie by that same name.
Happy Anniversary to Us!
In a way, it was a day of celebration followed by a day of regression. We had such a fun day yesterday on our anniversary, and the kids had such a fun time with Grandma giving them lots of attention and goodies, that today we basically have to readjust. The kids forgot how to listen to basic instructions, and we forgot how to be unselfish and accommodating. But that's old new. Here's the happy recap that was yesterday.
To be forthcoming, since I was comatose the previous day, completely flunked out in the melon, I didn't plan anything for the anniversary. Even in the morning, I had no idea what we were going to do. But my wife got me a card and in it was a Gift Card for TGIF, so that was dinner plans right there. But we rigged out a rough plan, tricked Alex with a white lie (No, you can't go with us because Mama is afraid to be here by herself and she needs a ninja and a princess to protect her.), and drove down to Seattle.
Armed with a coupon, we went into the Seattle Art Museum, with the idea that art should not be enjoyed with a force of impatience perpetually yanking on one of your limbs. The coupon was dumped because they had a special exhibit, "Rome", and the ticket was not good for that. So it went from cheapie tickets to 40 hams for the both of us. Then we got in line and started the Roman art and history goodness.
The exhibit was pretty impressive, although after a while the statues seemed samey. It was a little interesting that during the audio tours, they incorporate local personalities to comment on the statues or reliefs, and for the most part, they were ridiculous. The local historians and artists had good comments, but hearing Christine Gregoire, the current Washington Governor, compare bronzed public notices to framed WASL tests in peoples homes was just absurd. There was also a local football coach in there, offering the metaphor that, "...he was the quarterbacks of quarterbacks..." It was just goofy. There was also our sophomoric observation that a lot of the male nude statues had their penises chiseled off, which according to my wapedia on my sidekick, was censorship possibly from Christians. So that bit was interesting. We were there for like 3 hours, and then realized that we haven't really spent much time in the rest of the museum. So we skimmed the rest of it and had a light lunch at Westlake, before heading back to our neighborhood.
We hung out at Best Buy for a bit before having dinner at TGIF, and I had tasty tasty lobster Tortellini. My wife had chicken bruschetta or something, and then we went to see "The Bank Job."
Now "The Bank Job" is slightly marred by the presence of Jason Statham, who has about the same acting range of Bruce Willis. It's like putting the same actor in different movies, and watching him do essentially the same thing. And the quality of his movies have been iffy, since his last great movie basically was his first and second, with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. His movies aren't bad, they're just teenage boy movies. The movie is a grown-up departure because there's little of the chaotic slam-bang action he's usually associated with. He's still charming as always, but he's doing a bit more acting and less action star posturing. The story itself is fascinating, especially since it's "Based on a True Story." The pacing, the dialogue, the characters are plenty good, with the right amount of flash and the right amount of heft to it. It was better than I expected, not as boring as the user reviews would suggest, but not as dim as the critics made it out to be. A decent looker. I went home and being the dork I am, googled the story up and essentially, the core of the story can be verified, though the branching storylines could very well be fiction. It's all fascinating stuff though.
Oh, interesting to note though, during dinner it started to snow a bunch. Yeah, it's almost April and it was coming down thick and heavy. None of it stuck, but it was surreal to a fella who was brain dead for the past 24.
We went home and agreed that it was a great anniversary day. My wife had given me four cards throughout the day, placing 3 of the cards on the seat of my car after I exited each time, so when I returned I saw it on the seat. I was getting worried that I was so sick I was pooping out Hallmark cards. But there were nice cards, and there was even two gift cards, including a Best Buy one. That one I tried to spend but will probably use it later for MarioKart.
I'll have to come up with something romantic to write her later. My laptop is boiling my bladder so I have to go for now.
To be forthcoming, since I was comatose the previous day, completely flunked out in the melon, I didn't plan anything for the anniversary. Even in the morning, I had no idea what we were going to do. But my wife got me a card and in it was a Gift Card for TGIF, so that was dinner plans right there. But we rigged out a rough plan, tricked Alex with a white lie (No, you can't go with us because Mama is afraid to be here by herself and she needs a ninja and a princess to protect her.), and drove down to Seattle.
Armed with a coupon, we went into the Seattle Art Museum, with the idea that art should not be enjoyed with a force of impatience perpetually yanking on one of your limbs. The coupon was dumped because they had a special exhibit, "Rome", and the ticket was not good for that. So it went from cheapie tickets to 40 hams for the both of us. Then we got in line and started the Roman art and history goodness.
The exhibit was pretty impressive, although after a while the statues seemed samey. It was a little interesting that during the audio tours, they incorporate local personalities to comment on the statues or reliefs, and for the most part, they were ridiculous. The local historians and artists had good comments, but hearing Christine Gregoire, the current Washington Governor, compare bronzed public notices to framed WASL tests in peoples homes was just absurd. There was also a local football coach in there, offering the metaphor that, "...he was the quarterbacks of quarterbacks..." It was just goofy. There was also our sophomoric observation that a lot of the male nude statues had their penises chiseled off, which according to my wapedia on my sidekick, was censorship possibly from Christians. So that bit was interesting. We were there for like 3 hours, and then realized that we haven't really spent much time in the rest of the museum. So we skimmed the rest of it and had a light lunch at Westlake, before heading back to our neighborhood.
We hung out at Best Buy for a bit before having dinner at TGIF, and I had tasty tasty lobster Tortellini. My wife had chicken bruschetta or something, and then we went to see "The Bank Job."
Now "The Bank Job" is slightly marred by the presence of Jason Statham, who has about the same acting range of Bruce Willis. It's like putting the same actor in different movies, and watching him do essentially the same thing. And the quality of his movies have been iffy, since his last great movie basically was his first and second, with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. His movies aren't bad, they're just teenage boy movies. The movie is a grown-up departure because there's little of the chaotic slam-bang action he's usually associated with. He's still charming as always, but he's doing a bit more acting and less action star posturing. The story itself is fascinating, especially since it's "Based on a True Story." The pacing, the dialogue, the characters are plenty good, with the right amount of flash and the right amount of heft to it. It was better than I expected, not as boring as the user reviews would suggest, but not as dim as the critics made it out to be. A decent looker. I went home and being the dork I am, googled the story up and essentially, the core of the story can be verified, though the branching storylines could very well be fiction. It's all fascinating stuff though.
Oh, interesting to note though, during dinner it started to snow a bunch. Yeah, it's almost April and it was coming down thick and heavy. None of it stuck, but it was surreal to a fella who was brain dead for the past 24.
We went home and agreed that it was a great anniversary day. My wife had given me four cards throughout the day, placing 3 of the cards on the seat of my car after I exited each time, so when I returned I saw it on the seat. I was getting worried that I was so sick I was pooping out Hallmark cards. But there were nice cards, and there was even two gift cards, including a Best Buy one. That one I tried to spend but will probably use it later for MarioKart.
I'll have to come up with something romantic to write her later. My laptop is boiling my bladder so I have to go for now.
The Lost Weekend... Day
"The parts at work didn't arrive on time, so there's no work today, which isn't much of a disappointment to me since I've seem to caught a cold or something. Despite sleeping for over 10 hours, I still feel like I was trampled by the lunch crowd at the Country Buffet. My head's floating on a cloud, my body is sore, and my throat feels serviced. Hopefully i'll be either on the mend or at least in workable condition for tomorrow, for my wedding anniversary tomorrow. We don't have anything special planned, other than the fact that my Mom's volunteered to watch the kids, so my wife and I will actually spend some quality time together.
Cable modem's on the blink, so i'll likely be spending a good part of the afternoon trying to get it going. Hopefully its the modem and not the router."
Well, that was earlier in the day, and I'm retro-reporting now, since I have now resumed normal blood flow and have found my pulse back. Basically, toward the end of Thursday of this week, I could feel the sickness knocking on the door of my immune system.
"Who's there," I ask.
"Land Shark," the virus would answer, abusing my nostalgia for old SNL comedy.
So on Friday morning, I was doing okay, but as the day progressed, I started to FAIL. And not like fail, but FAIL. In dramatic caps. Failure on a grand scale. It started out with a big of fatigue, some very tired eyes, and then I was just unable to really stay awake. We watched "Enchanted" in the afternoon and I was pretty much out for most of it. When I woke up and my wife had to go to work, I continued to nap on and off, or just lumbered around to keep the children off spikes and plastic bags, separating the candy from the drugs, and uttering really bad parental warnings like, "Please be quiet, or I'll whack you." I didn't mean it of course, it was the virus talking, much like the viruses in modern day zombie movies. Except I didn't eat brains, I just walk around handing out bad parenting.
Anyhow, I did manage to go out and fix that router problem. I swapped out a new modem from Comcast for free, but just as I suspected, the router had nothing to do with it. I just got a slick new router for good times. I did have to spring for a freaking new wireless router, and this time I went for the Linksys motherbumping dual antenna porntastic freakmaster. It was 60 bucks, but it has been worth it. Wireless reception is good, no more dropped connections, and I even pick up occasional alien transmissions between ships. Turns out they don't sanitize between probes. Eww.
So, here's a consumer report for you all. Don't buy Belkin. It looks fancy, it's priced a little better, but it's absolute sodding crap. I've had two things from them and they both failed. So there.
The kids watched "Follow That Bird" and in my feverish mid-slumber, I thought about how every Sesame Street movie has essentially the same road-movie muppet gets out of town formula. Throw in a few guest spots and songs, and it's another movie. In the middle of the movie, a blinding light floods my closed eyes and I thought, "Well, there I go. Not in a spectacular motorcycle stunt involving hoops of fire or during a cucumber eating contest, but during a kids movie from a fever. I opened my eyes and the light was still there, but then I just snatched the flashlight from Zoe and laid on it. Once the kids were in bed, I just laid down and slept some more. Woke up a few times, including once with a bladder full of scalding pee, twice sneezing my chest off, and once thinking that I was possibly having a stroke because all I could think about was all the buttons that my mind was accumulating, and they had nowhere to go so they would eventually force my brain to melt down.
I woke up again, and this time it was 2am. Everyone was asleep, and I felt like my hip had been kicked out of place. I went downstairs where it was cooler - seemed like my hallucinatory fever had finally fizzled out, and I just sat on the couch and bummed out in the dark. I actually slept for four more hours, then went back to bed for the rest of the morning. Luckily by the next day, I was feeling a lot better, and the worst of it was over. It's probably going to be the last time I "cook" my fever out, which they don't recommend because of silly side effects like brain damage.
But the most important thing really was that my Thursday night and all of Friday was lost, and I was ready for my Saturday, which was our fifth wedding anniversary.
Cable modem's on the blink, so i'll likely be spending a good part of the afternoon trying to get it going. Hopefully its the modem and not the router."
Well, that was earlier in the day, and I'm retro-reporting now, since I have now resumed normal blood flow and have found my pulse back. Basically, toward the end of Thursday of this week, I could feel the sickness knocking on the door of my immune system.
"Who's there," I ask.
"Land Shark," the virus would answer, abusing my nostalgia for old SNL comedy.
So on Friday morning, I was doing okay, but as the day progressed, I started to FAIL. And not like fail, but FAIL. In dramatic caps. Failure on a grand scale. It started out with a big of fatigue, some very tired eyes, and then I was just unable to really stay awake. We watched "Enchanted" in the afternoon and I was pretty much out for most of it. When I woke up and my wife had to go to work, I continued to nap on and off, or just lumbered around to keep the children off spikes and plastic bags, separating the candy from the drugs, and uttering really bad parental warnings like, "Please be quiet, or I'll whack you." I didn't mean it of course, it was the virus talking, much like the viruses in modern day zombie movies. Except I didn't eat brains, I just walk around handing out bad parenting.
Anyhow, I did manage to go out and fix that router problem. I swapped out a new modem from Comcast for free, but just as I suspected, the router had nothing to do with it. I just got a slick new router for good times. I did have to spring for a freaking new wireless router, and this time I went for the Linksys motherbumping dual antenna porntastic freakmaster. It was 60 bucks, but it has been worth it. Wireless reception is good, no more dropped connections, and I even pick up occasional alien transmissions between ships. Turns out they don't sanitize between probes. Eww.
So, here's a consumer report for you all. Don't buy Belkin. It looks fancy, it's priced a little better, but it's absolute sodding crap. I've had two things from them and they both failed. So there.
The kids watched "Follow That Bird" and in my feverish mid-slumber, I thought about how every Sesame Street movie has essentially the same road-movie muppet gets out of town formula. Throw in a few guest spots and songs, and it's another movie. In the middle of the movie, a blinding light floods my closed eyes and I thought, "Well, there I go. Not in a spectacular motorcycle stunt involving hoops of fire or during a cucumber eating contest, but during a kids movie from a fever. I opened my eyes and the light was still there, but then I just snatched the flashlight from Zoe and laid on it. Once the kids were in bed, I just laid down and slept some more. Woke up a few times, including once with a bladder full of scalding pee, twice sneezing my chest off, and once thinking that I was possibly having a stroke because all I could think about was all the buttons that my mind was accumulating, and they had nowhere to go so they would eventually force my brain to melt down.
I woke up again, and this time it was 2am. Everyone was asleep, and I felt like my hip had been kicked out of place. I went downstairs where it was cooler - seemed like my hallucinatory fever had finally fizzled out, and I just sat on the couch and bummed out in the dark. I actually slept for four more hours, then went back to bed for the rest of the morning. Luckily by the next day, I was feeling a lot better, and the worst of it was over. It's probably going to be the last time I "cook" my fever out, which they don't recommend because of silly side effects like brain damage.
But the most important thing really was that my Thursday night and all of Friday was lost, and I was ready for my Saturday, which was our fifth wedding anniversary.
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