Real Men Love Jesus

It must be true, because it was stencilled in huge letters on the back window of a some guy's pickup truck in the parking lot at work.

Grocery store

Lately, I've been doing most of the grocery shopping in our household. Heidi compiles the list and I head out and get the goods. (Before I forget, I must comment on the lists she compiles for me. Knowing that I don't really enjoy the grocery store, she does all she can to make it as painless as possible. So, when she creates the grocery list, she writes the items in the order in which I will come upon them on the shelves of the store - starting from produce, and finishing with any toiletries. Isn't that nice? I think so.) There is something that really bugs me about the grocery store though. What irks me the most, is other shoppers. It's amazing how preoccupied people get with their own grocery buying. They seem to forget that there are other shoppers in the store. Did you ever notice how you are always bumping in to people at the grocery store? Ever notice how people just leave their shopping carts in the middle of the isle, blocking all other people who want to get past? It's really, really annoying. I compare it to people who can't drive while talking on cell phones. So the next time you're grocery shopping, please be aware of everybody else. They'll appreciate it.

I'm a geek

A neutron walk into a bar and orders a beer. He pulls out his wallet to pay, but the bartender won't accept his money. "For you," the bartender says, "no charge."

Heheh....

Jenny, are you there? (867-5309)

This person clearly had too much time on their hands...

Jenny, are you there? (867-5309)

Rent a Midget

I think they're serious...

"Think about the best party you've ever been to, wouldn't it have been better if there was a midget there? Another boring day at the office, why not have one of our little people go down and bring some life in there!"

If you think you need a midget around to bring a smile to your face, visit them here.

Cleaning Costs

So Merry Maids came by the house today to provide an estimate for their house-cleaning services. It sounds a little costly to me: a one-time fee of $200 to clean the house from top-to-bottom, then every two weeks, they'll clean the place for $95. I don't think I'll go for it, but I'll let Heidi decide if the cost is worth it. I'll keep shopping around too - I'm sure I can find some cheaper labour.

Ass-fu#&ed!

Now what do you suppose is going on here?

Shizzy's Mailbag

This is kind of funny. If you have a minute, check it out:

Shizzy's Mailbag

Cleaning Service

Is it considered lazy to hire a regular cleaning service? Since Heidi started her new job, the house just hasn't been the same. I think if we could have somebody come in and tidy, mop, dust, clean the bathrooms etc, we might have a little more free time. Most importantly, I will not have to do any of the above-mentioned chores. It's not like I do them now, but with a cleaning service, I will not have any guilt for not doing them - and that's really what matters here. I bet cleaning services are extremely over priced. I'll look into it and report back.

Christmas Gifts

A strange thing has occurred this year. I don't really want anything for Christmas. In years past, there has always been something that I've wanted. It was almost always some kind of geek gift. If I didn't get it for Christmas (usually Heidi would get it for me), I'd just go buy it myself. But this year, I really can't think of anything I want. I've become much more money-conscious of late, and that has certainly helped curtail my desire for high-priced items, but I don't think that's the main reason. I think the real reason is that I'm becoming more practical, and I know that these gadgets would get limited use if I was to get one. I already have too many gadgets just gathering dust.

Now, if only someone would by me that 55" Sony plasma TV I saw the other day...

Staying up late

Ewan goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. Over the last month, his sleeping habits have deteriorated greatly. It wasn't that long ago that we could just drop him in his crib at 9:00, say "goodnight", and we wouldn't hear a noise from him until 8:00 a.m. Now when we put him to bed, he says, "stay, mama stay", or "dada stay" and he wants one of us to sit beside his bed until he falls asleep. If we leave, he throws a royal fit - kicking and screaming and the like - until we come back. Of course, we realize that by actually coming back into the room at his "request" just worsens the situation for future bed-times. However, for our sanity, it's just easier to sit there for 5 or 10 minutes until he falls asleep. One of these days, we'll just bite the bullet and let him scream his lungs out until he falls asleep or passes out.

Heidi goes to bed at about 10:00 p.m. I must admit, I will often stay up until midnight or later just because it is so quiet once those two have gone down for the night. Those couple of hours are the only time in the day that I can sit down and do what I want to do. Usually it entails watching some TV show I recently recorded, reading a magazine, or reading and writing useless blog entries like this one.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra last night at the Frank Erwin Center. This is the second consecutive year in which I've gone to see them. Once again, I was very impressed. For me, any live show with a significant amount of pyrotechnics is enjoyable. I'd probably go see Celine Dion in concert if she had fireworks.

Some families make it a Christmas tradition to see live shows, like The Nutcracker Suite. For me, I think I'll make it a tradition to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Once Ewan is old enough, I'll certainly take him with. If you have the opportunity to see them this year, I highly recommend going.

Santa Clause

If he's all-knowing, then why does he drive around on the back of a firetruck and wake up my kid while he's napping? Damn you Santa Clause. I dare you to come down my chimney this year...

Death of a Legend

I just heard on the news that "Dimebag" Darrell, was shot and killed while performing with his new band, Damageplan, in Columbus Ohio. Apparently, some lunatic stormed the stage with a gun and fired several shots at Dimebag before turning on other band members and the audience. He was eventually killed by police. It's reported that one other band member was killed.

If you don't know who Dimebag is, he is considered a legend in the guitar world. He became famous as a front man for legendary metal band Pantera. He recently started this new band with his brother. I have the Damageplan albums, along with a Pantera album or two. I must admit, even though I'm not a die-hard fan, I'm pretty saddened by the news.

94

Well, at least it's an improvement. This time, I played at Falconhead Golf Club in worse weather than last week. The wind was howling, the temperature was chilly, and there was a light rain. Once again, a couple of holes kept me out of the 80's. Two triple bogeys on the back nine pretty much sealed the 90+ score. I missed several short putts on a few holes as well. On the positive side, I drove the ball well relatively long and straight (uhhhhh...huhuhh... uhhhh... huhuh... long and straight). I'm hoping to get one more round under my belt before Christmas, and hopefully break 90 again before the year's end.

"Pee onna potty"

My son did this for the first time today. I am quite proud, but a little saddened at the same time. Proud for obvious reasons; saddened because he did it at his daycare, and not at home where Heidi and I could have witnessed it. Now, if only I could get Heidi to start peeing on the potty...

KISS

Did you know that I've seen these guys in concert 5 times? Yeah, yeah, yeah... say what you want; but KISS has the best live show you'll see from any band, anytime, anywhere. Unfortunately for me, all the shows I have seen have been since their reunion in 1996. I wish I could have seen them in the 70's, but I was still in diapers. I've seen KISS in the following cities: Toronto, Ontario; Portland, Maine; San Antonio, Texas (twice); and Austin, Texas.

Boo bah. WTF!?

Have you ever seen this show? It's all the rage with the diaper-wearing clique. If you've ever seen Teletubbies, you can appreciate the drug-induced qualities of this childrens' show. It's like Teletubbies on speed. If you haven't seen Teletubbies, that show is like Sesame Street on crack. Of course, I have never taken speed nor crack so my analogies are purely speculative. If you've seen these shows, and have previously taken speed or crack, please comment with your thoughts.

95

Yeah, a 95. I played at Tera Vista, in a friggin' gale. The morning was a cool 10* C (50* F) when we teed off, but that wasn't the worst of it. The wind was howling at 37 km/h (23 mph), with gusts over 45 km/h (28 mph). Needless to say conditions were difficult. That's why I'm not disappointed with my 95.

As is the case with most of my golf rounds, my score could have been considerably better were it not for a couple of holes. I carded a 9 on number 2 when I put my drive in a bunker, shanked my next shot, put my approach into the water, blah blah blah. That was the only disastrous hole on the front, where I finished with 48. On the back 9, I was playing consistently until the final hole. I duck-hooked my drive on 18 out of bounds, and ended up with an 8 for a back 9 total of 47.

On the positive side of things, I birdied one of my most hated holes in all of golf - number 4. It's a 523-yard par 5 that has always given me trouble. I tamed it today and hopefully have gotten that monkey off my back.

I putted well, except for number 7, where I 4-putted! I had no other 3-putts on the day. All things considered, I am satisfied with the 95. It was not one of my best scores, but far from my worst.

Investment update

Several posts ago, I told you about my Freetrade investment account. I'm happy to report that I've officially made my first trades using this account. The transactions went very smoothly. On Wednesday, I bought several shares in 3 different small-cap companies. At closing of the markets on Friday, my investments were up 4.1% on average, verses a relatively flat S&P 500 during the same time period. Of course, that's less than two days of trading (the markets were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and closed early on Friday), and with small-caps, the prices will surely fluctuate 4% quite frequently. I'm in these for the long haul, so I'm not concerned about their immediate performance, but being in the black is always nice.

It would be in my better interest not to scrutinize these investments so closely - but for now I'll keep a close eye on them. Once the investing novelty wears off again, I'll let them ride and only check on their performance occasionally.