liv from madness, madness I say! tagged me with this meme… it’s all her fault.

(two names you go by) Daddy and Big Van

(two things you are wearing right now) tie and sweater

(two things you would want (or have)in a relationship) [this answer intentionally left blank, I'm still figuring this out]

(two of your favorite things to do) play with my kids and make music

(two things you want very badly at the moment) Van and Viv

(two pets you had/have) Ziggy (grey tabby) and Yogi (big dumb Golden Retriever

(two people you think will fill this out) Franki and Tink and Jazz (rules are stupid)

(two things that you did last night) worked and watched Crank (which is so manly I think the DVD ejected itself from the player and went to the North Pole and punched Santa in the cock.

(two things you ate today) coffee and crow

(two people you last talked to) Van and Viv

(two things you’re doing tomorrow) teaching guitar lessons and working

(two longest car rides) driving Bubs to the airport for him to move away, and anytime I drive home in tears after seeing the kids

(two favorite holidays) Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day (know why?)

(two favorite beverages) coffee and a good Belgian

(two people no longer alive who you’d like to talk to) my grandmothers

• Long exposure shot of sex
• Terrible C3PO Knockoffs Gallery
• Cotton Monster
• Get Mortified
• Vageyena Man Sightings

Life gave me a nice reminder when I got home from a meeting with a client. There was a package in my mailbox (a box of goodies from Chris) and a reviewer’s copy of Dadditude. I had spoke with Van and Viv earlier in the day during a “cupcake” meeting with my co-worker buddies Bill and Christine. Cupcake meetings involves us getting together over cupcakes from Classic Cake (Christine always seems to buy, lazy boys). The kids were excited to hear about the tiny bit of snow the day before. I stacked the log carrier full with the damp wood and then got to work. I installed phpList for Wheelies, created a favicon for Wheelies, updated the overnights section for the Battleship New Jersey, made a portion of the footer and about us text dynamic for Zeropercentcards.com, and then secured the site better.

I was tagged for the Seven Deadly Sins Meme by Maddy… so here goes…(which is actually the 7 Things about Me Meme, but I’ve done that a couple times, ergo, I’m going with Maddy’s format)…

• Greed - I am greedy with my time. I need my time to run and work in the evenings. I often forgo time with friends and family to get to chores, project stuff, and my own internal to do list. I need to work on this.
• Gluttony - depression hits and sometimes I eat like I’m going to win a prize or I can’t eat at all. It’s not necessarily will power I guess in a consistent fashion, moreso a random tidal wave of stuff I can’t stop.
• Sloth - this I definitely don’t have an issue with. Calling me lazy should be followed by you ducking. I work my ass off.
• Anger - I do have a temper, but I calm down fast and don’t have those moments of being so mad I can’t see.
• Lust - this is a bad one for me. Chemical castration might not be a bad option.
• Vanity - I’m happier with my appearance now that I’ve been running and riding the bike so much. I still have work to do. But I am not a preener for the most part, and am not that happy with my own appearance.
• Envy - I don’t really envy much materialistically speaking. I envy the financial freedom that I see friends of mine enjoying. And by freedom, I mean being free of worry and able to rest easy at night.

Verily I say unto you, I was tired at the end of the night, booking 6 hours of project work – I settled into my bed and watched Sicko. Think what you will about Michael Moore’s previous films, I dare anyone to stand up for health insurance. Seriously. As someone who had to fight tooth and nail to get my daughter’s dental surgery anesthesia reimbursed, because (and I am 100% not kidding) they said it was voluntary and not needed. That’s right, a 2 year old little girl is just supposed to tough it out and get their teeth pulled. I was lucky that I have a great person in benefits that got ticked when she heard about my problem and got all up in the insurance company’s grill. I’ve got a couple of Canadian readers, I’d like to hear your take on your national health care plan. Do you have to wait a long time for procedures and is the quality of your care OK?

• Spherical Storytelling
• Touch my Belly, Santa
• Bones Socks

I was tagged by Maddy from Whittier on Autism for this, it’s all her fault…

1. What were you afraid of as a child?
   Being abandoned.
2. When have you been most courageous?
   Going through this divorce.
3. What sound most disturbs you?
   Divorcey sounds. Just kidding. Out of tune guitars kill me.
4. What is the greatest amount of physical pain you’ve been in?
   Dislocating my shoulder sucked pretty hard, I think there was someone with an out of tune guitar there too.
5. What’s your biggest fear for your children? (or children in general if you don’t have your own)
   Not being happy.
6. What is the hardest physical challenge you’ve achieved?
   Hmm, playing guitar with a broken middle finger was really painful and tricky too. I had surgery scheduled in a month and didn’t want to cancel our scheduled gigs.
7. Which do you prefer: Mountains or oceans/big water?
   Tough one, I’ll go with ocean.
8. What is the one thing you do for yourself that helps you keep everything together?
   Stay busy and run.
9. Ever had a close relative or friend with cancer?
   Yes, my grand mother in law, sweetest woman in the world. She made it through.
10. What are the things your friends count on you for?
    Sense of humor I think or being really depressed, toss up.
11. What is the best part of being in a committed relationship?
    Go fuck yourself.
12. What is the hardest part of being in a committed relationship?
    See number 11.
13. Summer or Winter? Why?
    Winter. I love cold weather, just do.
14. Have you ever been in a school-yard fight? Why and what happened?
    Oh yes, I was something. I beat up two girls, the mentally challenged kid, and the only African American child in my first grade class – I think I’m paying for being such a little asshole now.
15. Why blog?
    I gotta get this stuff out.
16. Did you learn about sex, and/or sex safety from your parents?
    Not really, I learned it all from neighborhood dogs and Captain Kangaroo
17. How do you plan to talk to your kids about sex and/or sex safety?
    I’ve got DVDs of Captain Kangaroo. Just kidding, I haven’t thought out the how yet, but I want them to talk to me. I made mistakes in relationships and want them to know that love does exist despite what it did to their father.
18. What are you most thankful for this year?
    The year ending. Seriously, I am extremely thankful for my children, my soon to be ex for having my beautiful kids with me, my parents for all the support they have given me, my job(s), Jimmy Rollins, being one year away from W being out of office, my pets, and the infield fly rule.

Last night after making the fastest transition from being in a great mood to wanting to Hemmingway out (I’ll make it, just something to get used to and besides my lips are chapped, it would hurt to fit the shotgun in) – I worked. The only thing that dulls this shit. I watched Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin – the Untold Story (which was freakin’ hilarious). And silly fart jokes is definitely what I needed.

I’m going to go take a 4 mile run now and with any luck have a heart attack in the woods somewhere only to be revived by a CPR trained deer. Who inadvertently gives me lyme disease so I can really be thankful.

• Psycho Shower Scene with Potatoheads
• How to Carve a Turkey
• Waiting for the Guards

OK, first things first, Open Grove Claudia tagged me with the 7 Random Things Meme…

1. I’ve already gone through a cord of firewood this year. Except for when the kids are here, I’m going to try and do my best to tough it out without running my heat this winter.
2. I am First Aid/CPR certified, you should be too.
3. I’ve had two songs I co-wrote on VH-1 and one in a car commercial. Total ASCAP royalties from this = $7.37. Seriously. I won’t be quitting the day job anytime soon.
4. I never missed a day of high school. In retrospect, bad decision.
5. I missed many days of college. In retrospect, bad decision.
6. I have had the same best friend for over 30 years.
7. If a friend approached me and asked my opinion about getting married, I would talk them out of it.

Well, the mediation meeting is done. It wasn’t fun, but I think it was fair for both of us, but most importantly Van and Viv. The kids left around 3pm yesterday afternoon and I didn’t give myself a chance to think too much. I got right to work. Cleaning the playroom, their rooms, folding laundry, doing dishes, extending a community contribution of OSC for Shopcurtainrods.com, more PERL coding for NitroVideo, and worked on removing the upload file code (written in classic ASP) for Zeropercentcards.com. Keep swimming. No thinking about this suddenly too quiet house.

Open your arms as far as they will go
We take off your dress
An embarrassing poem
Was written when I was alone
In love with you

I shook down those lines
To shine up the streets
I got up off my hands and knees
To thank my lucky stars that you’re not me
Wilco ~ Wishful Thinking

Some acts of kindness to report : my father acquired a Japanese newspaper written in Kanji (which will be adhesed my office door after I paint it a dark red), my good friend, Hope at the Battleship NJ sent a gift certificate to The Pop Shop for me to take the kids, and my neighbor Heather dropped off a $10 gift certificate for the grocery store around the corner from me.

This weekend I watched Metropolis and Spiderman 3. Metropolis was interesting as a silent science fiction film made in 1927. The movie was interesting from a historical perspective, but the film stood fine on it’s own. This movie has many missing scenes as the master apparently was damaged very badly through the years. Spiderman 3 was a terrible pop song, just junk. Lots of eye-popping special effects. I’ve thought that these action scenes that are 100% CGI, (like in the Matrix sequels) are just unnatural looking. The final fight scene in Spiderman 3 was bad to me. I could have used more Venom and The Sandman and definitely less of the jazz club scene featuring some stiff dancing from Toby and I literally screamed at the TV, “No musical montage!!! NO!!!!” The omelet making scene where the two characters giggled and danced to Chubby Checker. And guess what they did? They did the twist to The Twist!!! I know!!! Crazy!!!

• DIY Telephone Bug Kit – wiretapping for kids!
• Unbelievable! This is Not Butter!
• Dickipedia
• Vote For Mike Richards – it’s a crime he’s not on the All Star Ballot, rectify it…

Random Meme – 7 random things about me – I was tagged by Christy.

1. I commonly call cat tails, cat o’ nine tails – which is a torture/S&M implement. But if you ask me, calling them pussy willows sounds dirtier.
2. I can crack nearly every bone in my body – neck, back, wrists, fingers, toes, you name it – I can crack it.
3. The tip of my middle finger on my left hand is numb right now (going on day three) from carrying a paint bucket while doing my window trim – I broke this finger over 10 years ago playing football.
4. I love cold weather. Snow is one of the most beautiful things ever. I love the sound of it falling. Viv claims she’s going to put snow in my Dad’s pants when she sees him at Christmas time.
5. From Monday to Friday I work an average of 14.2 hours a day, during the weekend, 5.5 hours a day.
6. I keep myself so busy, because I’m worried about getting too depressed and terrified of the financial implications of taking a day off while supporting two households. This is healthy right?
7. When I was in first grade, a classmate held up a Tupperware bowl of cheese puffs and then told me I would die by age 32.

I went over to Mom and Dad’s for dinner after finishing the painting (just needed to do the edges of the front and back decks. I got home, did some laundry and had a phone call with the kids. They were giggling and playing with each other. Although they did very little talking to me, it was good to at least hear them. I did some work small edits on the Battleship NJ site and worked on the PERL for a new page for NitroVideo.

When my sad, nerdy brain tettered out, I got into bed and watched Amores Perros. This film was brutal to watch because so much of the one of the stories revolved around dog fighting. But underneath that gruesome visual are three interesting stories connected by a traffic accident. The three stories are related by the physical crush of the crash, but the real connection is that all three stories are about how cruel humans are to each other.

I need to run when I get home tonight. It will be after I put all the furniture back on my porch and stack firewood in the wood rack. I will get home, hopefully with this guilt of enjoying the weekend wrung from my stupid bones and get back to work. I Am America (And So Can You!) arrived for me at the library, I will most definitely dig into that tonight before shivering to bed.

• Sweet World PEZ
• Scissor Spiders – not to be confused with Sugar Spiders
• Jail Finds
• Gummi Seance – this photo was taken by my good buddy Marty, be sure to check out his Gummi Art Flickr photoset.
• Strictly No Photography
• Living Dead Dolls Pencil Sharpener