Hometown Nah-Vee-Dad

I know I know, I suck. I haven't posted in such a long time it seems as if I've forgotten about my poor old blog. Alas; that is entirely untrue. I've come to find that although I am working much fewer hours in my job with the higher job grade, I have less time away from work to do whatever I want. Go figure. The free mornings were nice, and now they're gone. Now I come home, eat, veg on the couch and before you know it I'm asleep by halftime of Monday Night Football.

At any rate, I'll try to catch up and I promise to do better.

Lucy is still being a mess, literally and figuratively. She has pooped in the floor numerous times and attacks Brody playfully. Brody reminds me of how Garfield treated Otie.

The job is still going well. I'm still obviously in a sponge-like learning mode. There are a lot of financial pieces I'm getting exposure to that are awesome. I didn't get that exposure in my last job, and I'm enjoying it now. The job is like any other, it has ups and downs, but so far no downs have been anywhere near as intolerable as the downs with the previous position.

A is doing great. She went to her hometown for Christmas and I am actually here in mine posting from my mother's computer!

Coming home for the holidays, you never know what to expect as it relates to who is going to be in town and what they have done, gotten into, or have been convicted of since last you saw them. It's amazing. Unfortunately, I came in on Christmas Eve, spent that night with my family, Christmas day of course was spent entirely eating, and today I visited with my adorable nephew who is now seven months old, so I have been unable to partake in any of the reuniting in ol' hometown.

I've heard a few things though. One chick I went to school with was walking around with a baby, so we think it's hers, but nobody knows. (Again, go figure) A couple of high school friends have gotten married over the last year, one or two have gone abroad, a select few have gone overseas to fight in this damned war we have gotten ourselves into, and more of the other the normal stuff coming from a hometown Christmas catch-up party.

I got some really great gifts for Christmas: a Dewalt cordless drill, a framed picture of my nephew, some great books, the complete second season DVD collection of the Dukes of Hazzard, some nice work clothes, a Sirius satellite radio (Go Stern!), and a Santa Claus Pez dispenser, among other wonderful things. Those of you who read this and are offended because I have forgotten to list your present, don't be, I loved it, but this post is getting lengthy. To keep it readable, I've had a wonderful Christmas. The new nephew has brought a lot of Christmas spirit to our family and he brings back a lot of the fun stuff that make the holiday so much, well, fun.

And that's about it. It's now the day after Christmas and I'm getting in touch with several people trying to get something started in terms of catch up, but we'll see. The prospects don't look too promising. I may go up to a nearby city for the night with some old friends, who knows?

Happy Holidays (for fear of saying "MERRY FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS!!!")

Another New Roomie

We now have yet another roommate here at the new house on the corner of the cove. This one not only talks weird, but she is a girl! It's me and Brody versus two girls!

This girl is absolutely beautiful, but she has a few things that look kind of funny. First, there's her ears. They're so big they make her head look small. Well, they would make her head look small except for the fact she has a nose that would make Pinocchio look like a saint. However, as I said, she is very pretty and those big ears and nose make her blue eyes that much more astounding.

Our new roommate is a bit weird too. She's only been here for a couple of days and she's been snooping around our bathroom. Then she got into all of our stuff in the kitchen and tried to actually eat Brody's food? What the.... Ashley got a bit upset when she tried to wear a pair of her boots without asking. Hell, I thought that was funny. We pretty much ignored all the little stuff but then there was tonight. I actually caught her squat down right there in the middle of the bedroom and take a shite! I guess you never know what to expect from a new roommate, eh?

Her name is Lucy. Lucy just happens to be a non-rent-paying roommate as she is a seven week old brown and white Beagle. And, like I said, she's adorable, but she's been wearing us out since last Sunday when she moved in. We wake up about three or four times a night to let her out in an attempt to get her house trained, no luck yet, but I think we are getting there. She now understands the word 'NO' as that is our most common one used nowadays.

At any rate, I'll leave you with a pic of our new roomie and post about the rest of the weekend in a couple of days. For now, the house is still going great - we have a party tomorrow afternoon. The new job is kicking ass and I'm really enjoying it. A and I are both doing pretty well and are just moving right along with our two other roommates.

Told ya she had big ears!

Random Week

ITS FRIDAY! Although this week has gone rather well thus far, it has been very busy and I'm ready for a break.

At work we've had problems from leaky roofing in the warehouse to huge adjustments to inventory - both of which can cause major problems and put a knife in a good day.

Here at the house we've been rather busy too. One night we went out to eat, one to Target (yes, again) another night we cooked up a big pot of spaghetti, last night we watched a Netflix movie, and tonight I'm sure will bring something as it is Friday. Whew!

For some reason I've gotten hooked on Howard Stern's radio talk show in the mornings on my way to work. While I have never really gotten into him on his TV shows, he's rather amusing to listen to on the radio. I was watching E last night while they aired his show: it seems the shows E airs are only the ones where they bring on some type of porn star or a random hottie and have her get stark naked and profess her love for Howard. Now, don't get me wrong, those are all funny, but I think the radio show is much better in the mornings. I particularly enjoy his outlash towards the media and his gross resentment of censorship. I agree with the guy, if you don't like it, don't watch it. At any rate, he lost the battle and is now going to satellite, along with every other show that even thinks about having any type of humor/controversy/worth whatsoever.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm just killing time waiting for the time to go to work. I'm picking up a co-worker who's car is getting fixed today - so I woke up early.

Lights!

Well, if I wasn't in the holiday mood before, then I definitely am after this weekend. It was full of trips to Target, cold weather, strings of lights that didn't work, and a big fat Christmas tree.

But that's the weekend. I'll start with Wednesday night after work. It was great, I finally got to go to the Wednesday night special one of our favorite bars downtown features. I don't know if I was enjoying being there on a weeknight more or whether it was the good beer that was keeping me happy. Either way, it was a smash.

Ok, to the weekend. Friday night after work I came home and just relaxed a bit. I beat A home, and when she got home we decided we were hungry and wanted to go to a favorite steak restaurant of ours. It just happens to be located beside an Italian restaurant we had never tasted, so we decided on it instead. It was one of those places we should have had a reservation for. Anyway, the food was extremely authentic and we enjoyed the new place. We came home and fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday we ended up waking up early - as I can no longer sleep past eight am. It's funny how long I'd been working night shift, and how accustomed to the hours I had become, only to switch it all up and turn into that guy who gets up early in a period of two weeks. At around 10:30 I met up with a friend at work to play this new golf course we'd been wondering about. It is technically a club, but it is only semi-private. It is known for its crazy tight fairways and tough greens. What's more, it's the shortest course I've ever played, but because of its difficulty it plays the same as a really long course. Good times.

Saturday afternoon I ate Chinese food while A took a nap. She had been decorating a bit and cleaning out the big new walk-in closet she says is her favorite room of the house. Before a couple of friends came over we went to Target and bought Christmas lights and a whole mess of other decorations. Then we stopped by this place and bought a Christmas tree on the way home. It was one of those places where a guy from somewhere up north, like Michigan, buys a bunch of fir trees and sells them to us unsuspecting southerners for sixty bucks a pop so we can put little lights and hanging ornaments on them. I tell you though, it is one kick-ass tree. This thing is over eight feet tall. I'm such a Southerner.

And now to today. Again, we woke up way too early. It was good though because we had a lot to do. We went back to Target after realizing the lights we bought for outside didn't work right. Then we came back and had to nail up what seemed like a bajillion nails so we could hang the lights. Then we realized the lights we re-bought didn't fit where we wanted them to. Damn. Trip number three to Target brought home two more extension cords and the right sized icicle lights to hang from the gutter. Our house looks awesome at night all lit up. We are pretty excited about it and especially like the blue and white lights wrapped around our little swirly trees up front. I know I know, I used to get excited about College Gameday - and now its blue and white lights and trips to Target....and then College Gameday.

We ended up eating a late lunch and then came back and finished up the lights. However, the Christmas tree lights are on white strands instead of green - which is moronic - but means they will be going back (trip number four). Then we went to eat dinner at a new Mexican restaurant which was nowhere near as good as the one we used to go to. We got back a few hours ago and piled up on the couch to watch House Of D. I really enjoyed it. I give it a four star rating for it being a peculiarly different type of movie.

Well that's it; that was the weekend. We've got lights, lights, and more lights. We've got cold weather, dirty golf shoes, and an extension cord in a pear tree.