Damn Virus

What I thought was a low-grade hangover yesterday was actually the beginning of a cold. Quite the inconvenient time as I'm traveling later in the week. It's part biz (conference) and part please (fishing and football in Knoxville). I don't feel awful now, so I'm hoping it's a minor bug that I can shake quickly. I'm pretty sure that I got it from my s-i-l who was just getting over it when we went to dinner on Friday.

The HB slept at a friend's last night, so the wife and I had a chance to knock it out before my symptoms hit. She and the HB are at the culprit s-i-l's bbq-ing for the day. I'm just gonna watch some of the US Open and snooze a bit.

Football & Kitchen

Wahoo! Football season is here. I'm going with a bunch of friends to the UCLA/San Diego St. game at the Rose Bowl. Probably won't be much of a game, but it'll be a good time. The first game there usually takes place in searing heat, but it should only be in the mid-80s today. This is also good news for the firefighters who are north of the area fighting the Station fire.

Tomorrow's my fantasy football draft. I'm a little behind in my planning but I'll be alright by draft time.

Next week, I'm off to Tennessee for some fishing, football (UCLA vs. the Vols and a conference). Though, I may not be able to catch the NFL openers on Thursday night. We'll see.

The wife and I are getting serious, theoretically, again on the kitchen. We've selected a contractor. He came over for the second time the other day. The wife completely changed her mind at least three times while he was here and now she's starting to obsess about it. As predicted, this is gonna be a long, arduous process.

In better news, my m-i-l's house is sold and closed. The wife got her proceeds from the sale last night. Yay!

It Might Get Loud

We did see It Might Get Loud, and it was very good. It very earnestly tracks the careers and development of Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. They also share some insights into their creative processes and get in some killer playing.

It did leave me with a few thoughts/questions:

1) Why has Jimmy Page's output since Zeppelin been so poor?

2) It confirmed for me that The Edge is more about sound than guitar playing. He could have been just as creative as a keyboard player as a guitar player.

3) How did a white kid from Detroit get so damned good at playing the blues? I always thought White's playing sounded like he was taming a wild animal. As it turns out, he feels the same way about it.

My brother and the wife really dug the movie, as I thought they would. The HB faded at the mid-point then rallied at the end. I got him to give me the OK to put some more cool guitar music on his iPod, so that was somewhat of a victory. It was hard to provide him an analogy of how popular Zeppelin was in the day.

Given the quality of the film, and the popularity of the subject, I'm sure it'll get nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary category.

Tomorrow starts getting back to normal. The HB's at my parents for the night and tomorrow, so both the wife and I both get a full day at work. Tuesday we'll probably split things up, then he's back at school on Wednesday. Whew...

Guitar Playin'

I went with my brother and a friend of his to see Jack White's latest band The Dead Weather on Thursday night at a club about an hour from here. I would have seen them closer, but I had other scheduling issues. It's been hot here (as I'm sure you've heard from the fires) and even with fans in this place everyone was sweating.

The songs were great (they only played tunes from the CD) and they played them well. I kinda felt bad for Dean Fertita (the guitar player) in that on the two songs when Jack White put on a guitar (me mostly played drums) the crowd went nuts and for good reason as White's solos were much more smokin'. Alison Mossheart has a good stage presence, but not a lot of range.

All and all it was awesome to see them in a such a small venue (about 250 people).

Speaking of guitars, the wife and I are going to take the HB and my brother to see It Might Get Loud this afternoon. When it comes to rock and roll, I would rather hear a good guitar player than a good singer any time, so I've been dying to see the film. It'll get us out of the heat and provide some great guitar licks as well.

PARTY and Teddy

The big 5-0 party went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day and I think all 103 guests who RSVP'd came. My dad's cousin, who was the best man at my parents' wedding, gave a HILARIOUS toast and several other people made very nice ones.

My mom had a hard time getting around to just enjoying things. Even though she was involved in approving all of the big plans, she told a friend of my brother's that she was in the dark about everything. We surprised her with a slide-show of pictures, which I obtained one weekend when they were out of town. Her response? "If you would have asked I would have given them to you." But, she liked the M&M's with a picture of her and my dad from their engagement party. They came out surprisingly good.

I'll make the obligatory Ted Kennedy comment. The wife and I were in Boston when Romney ran against him for the senate in 1994. During the summer Romney spent a ton of money on ads, etc and appeared to be relatively close in the polls. Then, after Labor Day, Kennedy returned to Massachusetts as Santa Claus with federal money for a new jobs center here, road repair there, etc. He went to a GE plant in Lynn (north of Boston) where they make fighter jet engines. Basically he said, "Yeah, most of you guys probably don't like my social policies. But, as long as I'm chair of the armed services committee, you have job. Will you vote for me again?"

He didn't campaign as battler for liberal causes, fighting for the little guy, or any of that shit, though he busted a little bit of that out in the debates. Rather, he ran using all of our money to buy votes. Comforting, huh?

Bad Blogger

Holy shit, it's been a week? My apologies. I'll try to make up for it.

Why the delay? Well, primarily because I've been crazy busy at work. I have a deadline next week with a client, but spent most of the week pestering them to get the RIGHT data from them. Very stressful Thursday/Friday. However, another big job came through yesterday, so that should keep me comfortably busy for a while.

My parents 50th party is tomorrow. Everything seems to be in place. We're gonna have about 100 people there. My parents are out of their skulls about it. BTW--the customized M&M's that you can get pictures on are da bomb. They came out far better than I would have imagined.

The party's gonna make next week crazy as well as my aunt/uncle and brother are staying through the week. So, a bunch of us (including the HB) are going to Catalina Island for the day on Monday, the Pageant of the Masters on Tuesday and The Dead Weather on Thursday. At least the HB goes back to school the weekend after that.

Umb, Jen, what size for the Purple #4 jersey? I cannot fucking believe the Vikes signed Favre after 3 weeks ago he said...oh, never mind, what Favre says regarding his retirement doesn't mean shit. Minny's gamble here is that he is the missing piece between them and the Super Bowl. If not, they've blown $10-12 mil and have ruined their relationships with Rosenfels and Jackson (one of whom they'll probably trade).

Regardless, I'm getting psyched for football season. I have tickets for two games: UCLA vs. San Diego State at the Rose Bowl and UCLA vs. Tennessee at Neyland Stadium (where I'll see Lynn and some other K'town friends) and promised to take the HB to another (and probably the NZS2). My fantasy football team needs some attention as well as we draft Labor Day weekend. At least it's a keeper league, so the first three rounds are essentially taken care of.

No update promises, except that it won't be a week plus before I update again.

Back Home, NZS2 and Mike Vick

The KC trip was a success. The flight in was quite the adventure (an e-ticket ride, for those of you old enough to remember). After having a 90-second meeting with the new VP, I went to my hotel to chill, get in some exercise and a bite to eat. Fortunately, there's a local place within walking distance with local fare and beers on tap.

My meeting the next day was in the afternoon, so I got a reasonable amount of sleep and had some time to get some other work done, including getting this client's data in order. I gotta tell you, there are lots of things I enjoy doing in my work, but there are few that I enjoy more than digging into a data set. It's funny because I'm pretty average at math. But statistics? That's another story. I can visualize the relationships between numbers well and I love discovering their secrets. I wish I had more projects that let me do that.

The afternoon went well and the trip home was uneventful. Even got home in time to put the HB to bed.

The NZS2 came over for dinner tonight. He's settling in well with the second host family. They're empty nesters with a pretty busy life. I think he misses the regular home life of dinner most night's etc. The HB was pretty happy to see him as well. I'm sure we'll have him over again soon.

I saw today that the Eagles signed Mike Vick. I figured someone would relatively soon. I didn't spend too much time thinking about which team would/wouldn't sign him, so I wasn't affected much when I heard it was the Eagles. The only thing that was a bit surprising is that that the Eagle fans are not exactly the most forgiving. Of course, they stick up for their own, at least for a little while. I think what it really says is that they aren't happy with their QB of the future (Kolb) who they drafted a couple of years ago. Whether Vick will wait around for McNabb to retire is a completely different story.

There are those who don't think Vick should have signed with anyone. As I wrote a while ago, the man did the crime and the time. Let him work at what he does best.

Kansas City, Here I Come

So, Friday's call went well. The project sponsor pretty much bitched out those who were late with their shit, even though they are higher on the totem pole than she is. This means we're back on schedule and I'm going to KC tomorrow--with better flight times than I had for the previous week!

Yesterday the HB and I hung out at the beach with some friends from out of town (the people who hosted us at their lake house last summer) and some other families. I guess the wife wasn't feeling too social, so she took a pass. It was a great day at the beach and the body surfing was pretty fun. We went to dinner, took the kids to an arcade, etc. I don't think that the HB and I got home until around midnight.

Today we're off to my parents for lunch and talk a few more details about their party. We'll also pick up some stuff they want to have on the greeting tables (framed invitation from the wedding, etc.). We're getting to the short strokes on this, which is very good.

Tonight, my Rotary Club is hosting a progressive dinner to support the Y. The good thing about it is rather than going from house to house, we're hitting 4 of the local hotels. Each year they try to out-do each other in food and drink, so it's a very good time. I'm not sure that all the money it raises (~$10,000) should go to the Y, but at least it's going towards a good cause.

Working, Working, Working...

So, to continue from the last post, the wife woke up at about 11:15. She was perturbed that I didn't wake her up. I don't like waking ANYONE up...why else would they be sleeping. We went across the street to hear a local cover band. I think they were all engineers from Vandenburg Air Force base. They were fine. The obligatory drunk woman in the too short dress looking for servicemen was there. We went back to the room after a bit and watched a movie.

Sunday we got going a little on the early side so that we could meet up with a florist for my parents party and take care of a few of those details. My wife and her sibs still can't give up on their parents' house, so we hung out there for a bit. Thank fucking goodness it's going to close next week.

Work's been busy with proposals. I usually don't write them, but some are for an existing client, so I'm only competing with their budget, as opposed to another vendor. Another is for a company that I won a bid for last year, so I figure I can get some more work with them. The former ones are very vague so I spend a bunch of time getting them to say what they really want. I should here back on some other projects next week as well.

The one project that got going is stalled. That's because some of the folks at the client site dropped the ball while the sponsor was on vacation last week. We have a call about it tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get it back on track. I really would like to get some KC bbq sometime soon.

Of course, Murphy's Law of consulting is that all of this stuff is going to hit the weeks surrounding the party. Good thing I don't follow that law.

The HB's loving his troupe's next production and making great friendships. In fact, he's hanging with a couple of the kids (a boy and a girl his age) this afternoon. Great time for the wife and I to knock it out, right? Umb, no. She'd rather work late. I'm going to Happy Hour.

Vacation Weekend

Yes, the wife and I are having a vacation (out of town w/o the HB) weekend. I think it's the first one we've had since the NZS.

We decided to head up the Central Coast of CA for some wine tasting. We're staying at a historic hotel in one of the towns. Between her not sleeping well in general, and the grape, she's been snoozing. Since about 5:30pm. It's about 10:15 now. So much for a night on the town...sigh.

I think I'll head down to the bar for a beer.

Feels Like the First Time

I had lunch the other day with the woman I lost my virginity to (1, 2, 3...awwww). We've stayed in touch over the years and managed to hook-up a few times, though, obviously, not in a long time. She's divorced, has two kids (both older than the HB), and lives outside of Denver.

Whenever we talk/chat, I'm always reminded of why I was fond of her in the first place. She's independent, practically smart and has a good head on her shoulders. She's still pretty. I'm not sure if the strapless sundress was for my benefit or not, but she looked good in it.

We chit-chatted and got caught up, mostly about our kids. It's been so long that we don't talk about the old days much, which is good. When I run into people from my past, about 5 minutes of what went on X years ago is all I can take.

After lunch (I picked up the bill) we hugged, again, and exchanged chaste kisses. It was 90 minutes well spent.

As an Old Dream Drove Away

I'm not big of a car person. I like them to run, but I'm more into their utility than their style. There have only been two exceptions to this. When I was very young (before I could drive), I though have a red Corvette would be da bomb. I grew out of that. My fave car as an adult was a red (yes, there's a theme here) Celica. I loved that car. But, it got drowned in the garage during a flood when I lived near Boston (sniff).

As you can imagine, little red sports cars aren't the rage in Beantown. I looked and looked for another red Celica. More importantly, a red CONVERTIBLE Celica. But, they were nowhere to be found. I wanted one then and I still do, though it's somewhat impracticle now.

So, this morning, I'm driving the HB to camp and find myself, you guessed it, right behind a red CONVERTIBLE Celica. Sigh...

When I got home, I searched on Craigslist and found one pretty quickly. I'm not sure if I can rationalize this, but I may try.

Family Justice

I have a friend, let's call him Matt. I've know him since we were teenagers. He went to a rival school, but his female bff (who he was totally crushing on) had the hots for my best friend, so our paths crossed. We became great friends and still stay in touch even though he's moved out of the LA area (more about that in a minute).

He went to a small christian college near here where he met his wife Lawryn (her real name is a common one that has an unusual spelling). They both were believers, but didn't let it interfere with them having partying (though, they were a little weird about the pre-marital sex thing). They eventually got married and pumped out two boys. He worked for an engineering company and she did some part time work for non-profits and did volunteer work. He remained a fairly low-key believer whereas she became more strident.

He decided to almost quit the rat race and began to take over his dad's business in a growing exurb in the southwest. He used his engineering skills to make the place run better. Lawryn cared for the kids (turns out that they both as Asberger's) and helped out with the books.

As she became more obsessed with god and he stayed as the same old Matt, they went through therapy, etc and got divorced. Financially, he really took it up the ass as the divorce settlement was based on the company's performance during what turned out to be the peak of the economic boom. They agreed on relatively shared custody since they still lived nearby and Matt is very close with the boys, particularly the older one. Matt's not a perfect guy, but he loves his kids, doesn't yell at them, supports them in what they do, etc.

Lawryn eventually found a guy two states over who obviously prefers praying over getting his dick sucked. So, Lawryn goes to court to change their divorce agreement so she can move the boys out of state and marry this guy.

As a general rule, I think that single mom's probably make better single parents than dads. 95% of the time, as you would think by how kids are handled in divorce settlements? No. 65-35? Yeah, probably. Given that Lawryn has the kids a majority of the time, I thought that Matt was going to be on the losing end of this.

But, I was WRONG! The judge denied the motion. Now Lawryn's calling him asking if she can take the younger one, she's going to appeal, blah, blah, blah. Well, this serves the bitch right. She's so fucking holy and christian and family values, but puts her own happiness ahead of her kids having a good relationship with their dad. I hope that she writes them nice cards at xmas. Heh!

Favre and Vick

Brett Favre FINALLY called it quits yesterday. I think. Really, he means it this time. At least he told the Vikings that he wasn't going to play for them this season.

I feel for the guy and all athletes who are at the end of the road. I can see how their minds say "Yes" but their bodies say, "No." My empathy for Favre is somewhat tempered by the mean-spiritedness of this last "comeback." Sure, he knows the Minnesota coaches, but when you've been in the league as long as he has you know just about everyone. And it's not that a 39 year old quarterback is the Vikes' missing piece to the Super Bowl. Rather, he just wanted two shots a year to stick it to the Packers who eventually cut him loose after several off-seasons of him fucking with them with his "will he or won't he" retirement talk.

People tend forget great players' last gasps (Willie Mays with the Mets, Joe Namath with the Rams, Johnny Unitas with the Chargers) and they should. We can't blame athlete's for wanting to keep doing something they've mastered since they were a children. Hopefully Favre has gained some grace about this.

Yesterday, the NFL gave Michael Vick a conditional reinstatement. Basically, he can practice with the teams as soon as he's signed, play in two pre-season games and be elgible no later than week 6 (assuming he's on the straight and narrow). I wrote about Vick a couple of days ago, so I won't rehash my feeling about him. I can see how the commish would want to give some flex to the timeline for him coming back. Without deadline pressure, teams can take a longer look at Vick and their situation before making the decision to bring him onboard.

It's somewhat unfair to Vick in that if he's in football shape and ready to go week 1 he's essentially being punished AGAIN for the same crime for which he's already been in the slam for two years. And he seriously needs the money to pay off his debts, etc. I still think someone will sign him, though for the life of me I can't think of who (hm...maybe the Vikings are still looking for a third quarterback). It may not happen until a quarteback (starter or second string) gets hurt during pre-season.

Happy Birthday to Me...

Yup, the big day was today. Actually, we started celebrating on Sunday when we took the HB to his first rock concert (George Thorogood). It took him a while to get into it (he had the stereotypical drunk dude in front of him until we switched seats), but he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Yesterday a friend gave me one of his season tix to see the Angels (they lost after Fuentes coughed up a two-run lead in the 9th). It was a beautiful night at the park (which reminds me, I still have to do that Angel Stadium vs. Dodger Stadium post one of these days) and we had a great time.

Today I had a full work plate. As an aside, right now the recession is an abstract concept for my business. I've gotten 3 calls to start projects in the last 48 hours. WTF? Doesn't matter...I'm gonna ride it as long as I can.

My parents joined us for dinner. Both the HB and the wife's allergies are acting up, so there was much sniffling. But the food was awesome and we had a tasty bottle of wine (Holus Bolus 2006 Syrah).

Overall, a fun weekend. I'm definitely one to embrace my birthday. Besides it being one of the few times I enjoy being an attention whore, it's a good excuse to hear from people and get caught up (yes, I did get bday greetings from Lynn). And, what the hell. I'm not feeling that old, yet.

Sweet 16

The wife and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary at the theater on Friday. Well, at the kids theater watching the HB's troupe. It was a fun night as the HB really enjoyed being the the play and he did well. My parents came to the show that night and back to the house for dessert. They left relatively early so we weren't cock blocked. The wife and I will have a bit of a delayed celebration next weekend as we're going to drive up the coast north of Santa Barbara for a weekend of wine tasting and Indian casino gambling.

I got some plans back from the contractor for redoing the kitchen in terms of options if we knock out a wall or two. Nothing big is really grabbing me, though there are a couple of minor options that may make a big difference. We gotta decide soon as I'd like for them to get going on this right after Labor Day. Of course, that assumes that the wife can make up her mind and stick with it, so Halloween may be a more accurate start date.

Been loving how the Angles have been playing. Winning 9 in a row and scoring a ton of runs. They've been coming from behind a lot as well. Now they just need to keep that up through the week and thump on Texas and put them out of the race.

With football training camps opening this week (yay!), I've been giving more thought to the whole Michael Vick situation. It seems weird that there are guys in the league who have plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter who have gotten lighter suspensions than Vick. Granted, it's a different commissioner and Vick was also involved in gambling and lying to the NFL. But, they guy plead guilty and served his time. Anything else the NFL throughs on top of him is just piling on and is unfair. Whether another team give him a chance is a completely different question. There's not way he's anywhere near football shape, and probably won't be for months. With all the shit a team's gonna get for signing him won't be worth it for this year. But next? Who knows?

Budget Breakthrough?

Well, Ahnald and the CA legislative leaders have come up with a budget fix. Note that neither the state senate or assembly have voted on it yet.

Somehow, they've come up with $23b of cuts, raids on local government and accounting tricks to close the gap. Some of the proposals will be lasting while others merely push the problem into the future.

As a Libertarian, I like shrinking the state government and pushing services to the cities. This way the cities can implement the programs their citizens want and tax them appropriately. But, I hate the extra borrowing as that will hamstring the budget for the foreseeable future.

Of course now there is going to be tons of screaming and lawsuits about the cuts. Every government program has passionate sponsors who feel that life as we know it and modern civilization will collapse if it's cut or eliminated. However, right now the citizens of the state (or, at least the minority that elects republicans, who have outsized power over the state given their numbers) have proven unwilling to pay more for state services. This will change the reach of the state in terms of providing programs and subsidizing college education.

What will be interesting is how much individuals and the private sector will make up the difference. Will more parents volunteer at their kids' schools?; Boy Scout troops clean up state parks? Large companies develop more welfare-to-work opportunities?; People quit having kids they can't afford?

I know that we'll definitely keep the HB in private school. And I'll continue to tutor at the local public school.

Like Changing Socks

Several months ago when writing about the presumed kitchen remodel I mentioned how the plan will change several times due to the wife's inability to make up her mind. We're at that point.

As her mom's house has been sold and we'll be coming into some money from the proceeds, she's thinking a bit grander. So, we talked about blowing out some walls and redesigning the front part of the house and expanding the kitchen. So, I do a bunch of measurements and send them to our contractor (who's thrilled with the prospect). The wife and I sat down and talked about how we would rearrange things. I bring up a few options, none of which she likes. Now she's thinking that we'll just leave it the same size. I suspect that this will change a few more times before we do anything. And we ahven't even picked out appliances, colors, etc yet.

Also, much to my surprise, the wife announced that she's not really that interested in going to NZ next spring. Never mind that we've talked about this a hundred times. WTF? What's not to like about NZ? The plane trip from here is only 2 hours more than London, it's beautiful there and we have a ton of friends we can stay with. I think that I need to find out about continuing education programs/conferences sponsored by the NZ Psychological Society and come up with a boondoggle.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Had a great time with the two exchange students. We went to the Dodger game (more about going to Dodger Stadium versus Angel Stadium in another post) and they really enjoyed it (the HB read a book). I got them on their planes yesterday. I heard from the Argentinian, but not the Belgian yet.

Yesterday we went to my in-law's house for one more "party". As it turned out, it was mostly a cleaning party (the house gets its inspection tomorrow) and a mini-bday party for me (I got a very cool red peppermill). I cannot get over how OCD they are about the house and its contents. They can't throw hardly anything out. My oldest s-i-l, who has the amount of shit in her place normally found in the homes of the mentally ill, keeps deciding what more crap she wants to add to her collection. Stuff gets moved back and forth. We finally put some in our car to take to Goodwill today. This whole process went from 3pm until 7:30pm. That's when went to see the new Harry Potter movie.

I thought the movie was OK. The cinematography is great and some of the characters are fleshed out a bit more. Alan Rickman continues to be great as Snape. But, at the end of the day (and it's a 2.5 hour film) it's a bridge movie. Nothing that important happens (until the very end). It's all about setting up the last two.

Lots of housework and looking for new counter tops today. Oh, and after two years the wife says that she really doesn't want to go to NZ afterall. Anyone up for a trip with me?

Exchange Student Day

The NZS2 and his compatriots arrived back from their train tour today. Lots of tears as they said goodbye to their new found friends. It was quite sweet.

By plan, the NZS2's parents have a 24 hour layover here on their way to Europe. The wife, HB and I had dinner with them last night and it was good fun. When I picked up the NZS2, I took him to their hotel so that they can hang out for a bit.

But, now I have 2 more exchange students with me. Don't worry, it's only for one night. They both had their exchanges in Hawaii (you can begin to dry your tears now). The girl is from northern Belgium and the boy is from Argentina (5 hours west of Buenos Aires). They both speak good English, so this won't be a problem. I think tonight we'll go to a baseball game so they can have their last taste of America.

Sometime this afternoon we'll move the NSZ2 to his second host family. They're close (<1 mile), so it shouldn't be a problem. I think now that he's back, but moving out, the HB's gonna be a bit sad, again. But tonight will be fun.