Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Hahhahahaa. Holy crap, I've seen a new low in saving money making toys. Harry's new Tonka garbage truck needs 3 C batteries. After a full day of play, the batteries it came with ran down. This morning B, Harry, and I went to Target to buy some half price Christmas crap for future Christmases, and to pick up some C cells for Harry's garbage truck. When I got home and opened the battery compartment, I laughed my ass off. Instead of C batteries, they shipped it with 3 AA batteries and plastic spacers so the AAs would fit in the C cell spaces. hahahahhaha. How freakin' cheap can you possibly get? Sunday, December 25, 2005
Oh, one thing I forgot. Harry was very upset last night about going to bed. It seems that he thought that he'd get a chance to play with his toys with Santa when Santa came, he figures Santa is his buddy. He was a little distraught to find out that Santa was too busy to stop and play for an hour.
What a fun Christmas. Yesterday, for my christmas present from my not-brother-in-law Bill, who got me in the family drawing because we rigged it that way, I went to the Seahawks game. The game was very fun after the sad start when they had a moment of silence for Tony Dungy's son offing himself. I know the Seahawks won't get much if any more respect for this win, but I have to say that Manning did lead the Colts first two drives, both made it down to the red zone and he netted a whopping total of 3 points. Our defense seems totally incompetent between the 20s, but down in the red zone they don't give up much. Weird, but I'll take it. Our offense, on the other hand, scored touchdowns on our first two drives, taking an early 14-3 lead, before Manning went out of the game. Isabel's present from Santa was a big wooden play kitchen, which let me tell you took several frustrating hours to assemble. Actually the assembly wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, the kit had clearly labeled instructions and parts, and all the screw holes were pre-drilled etc. We bought it and Harry's green garbage truck down last night and put them in front of the tree, and went to bed. This morning Isabel woke up extra early, and snuck downstairs, then back up to tell Harry what she saw, and apparently did this several times. When I figured out she was up at 7am she excited told me all about her new kitchen, and Harry's garbage truck. "When you open the door to the truck, the light comes on, and when you close it, it goes off!!!" Too funny. I got a Lego Viking ship (I have two lego pirate ships from college), a soldering iron, a new electric screwdriver, some books, an obnoxiously tacky purple and gold striped Husky polo shirt, and a coupon to buy a new bike. B got her kitchenaid stand mixer that she's been using daily for weeks now, a nice ring, some hair clips, and a new cougar blanket. Isabel is now the self-proclaimed Queen of Polly Pockets, since she's got zillions of them, as well as a picnic basket, a bride and groom Barbie and Ken set, a broom and dustpan, a Cinderella DVD, and lots of other crap. Harry got some Bob the Builder legos, some Bob the Builder toys, a toy drill set, a workbench, a Dinosaur set, some hotwheels, some more wooden train tracks, and a explorer globe toy. Isabel was very funny, everything she opened was "WOW! THIS IS WHAT I *REALLY* *REALLY* WANTED!!!" "What IS it, Isabel?" "I don't know, but I REALLY WANTED IT!!!!" LOL. Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas gets even more fun each year as the kids get older. Isabel was very concerned about giving Santa some cookies and a glass of milk. Her main concern was what would happen if Santa didn't finish his milk. He'd have to take it on his sleigh, and it might spill. She figured maybe his sleigh has cup holders, but B told her that he's probably got something like a sippy cup so the milk won't spill, and Isabel was very happy with that, telling everybody about it. Ooo! KONG! Last night B and I went to go see King Kong. The original plan was to see it at 4:20 at Oak Tree, but B had been checking the Thursday schedule and not the new Friday schedule, so it was no longer on two screens there, that showing was now Memoirs of a Geisha. D'oh! We went downtown and saw it there instead. My review is nearly the same as my little brother back for the '76 version: "Big Monkey Died". Other than editing out about 5 minutes of scenes that dragged on too long, it was a damn good remake. A few silly things, but good nonetheless. Still, I think I'd rather the effort be spent on a new movie, rather than a remake. Oooo! In an hour I'm leaving to go see the Seahawks play the Colts. Going to a football game is a great way to spend Christmas Eve. Thursday, December 22, 2005
Saturday night was pretty funny. A friend of mine lives out in the sticks near Fall City. He's got 6 acres, I've blogged previously about going to bonfires and cutting trees at his place. He's got a bunch of animals, some llamas, goats, ducks, geese, turkeys, and chickens. Recently he's been having problems with coyotes eating his critters. He's tried to shoot the coyotes before, but never had a gun handy at the right time. Finally we decided on a plan of action. He designated firepoint "Whitman" to be his roof, and firepoint "Oswald" was his front porch. Two of us would be up on the roof with rifles, sorta hidden behind the chimney, but with a commanding view of the grassy area and animal pens leading up to the hillside behind. One would be on the front porch with a shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, and the last two would be in full camo gear hunkered down in front of the fence to the animal pens near the house, also with shotguns. The idea was we'd get into position around 11pm, be quiet for half an hour, then Parker would use his rabbit call to bring in coyotes. All the animals were supposed to be pulled into the pen next to the house (behind or under our field of fire) except one lonely rooster, formerly named "Cam" but renamed "Poor Sad Bastard" who was staked out in the middle of the field as bait. "Supposed" to, since the ducks were left in their duck house, on the far side of the field, right inside the treeline. It was a beautiful cold clear night, with an almost full moon. However, since part of the moonlight was coming through some trees, it put a nice pattern down across the field, making viewing more difficult. Regardless, even with a full moon there wasn't enough light for me to get a clear sight picture on the front sight post of the AR15 I had borrowed, let alone get sight alignment. This means there wasn't any way I was going to be able to take an accurate shot. Sure I could have sprayed out 30 rounds as fast as I pulled the trigger, but that wasn't going to be effective, just fun. The guy next to me on the roof has a highly-tuned varmint rifle in .223, with a big scope, but there wasn't enough light through the scope for him to see the crosshairs either, so we were both as useful as tits on a boar. The rabbit call and later a turkey call were very effective in calling in coyotes. One came down the hill and when Parker shined a flashlight over at it he could see it's eyes reflecting, but it was back in the trees near the duck house, too far for a decent shotgun shot. The ducks were NOT happy to have the coyote so close. Unfortunately, without a nightvision scope there wasn't anything we could do about it. We stayed out until almost 1am, then bagged it. The owner was out freezing his ass off for another 90 minutes before he went in at 2:30am. At 10am the next day, the tally was 4 surviving ducks out of 9. That's a nice big Fuck You from Mr. Coyote. We need a nightvision scope. Bigtime. That'll learn that varmint. World of Warcraft is loads of fun. My main character (Nurg, Orc Hunter on Bonechewer) is almost level 36. I have human warrior on Stormrage named Humbaba (barechested with an axe, of course) who is level 11. Saturday, December 17, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
I'm a little sad that I haven't been able to see the new King Kong yet. Woe is me. I remember when I was a eight years old in 1976. My dad and all my brothers all went to see that King Kong together in theater, it was a big deal. I loved it, but my youngest (at the time) brother Dan was terrified. He was only 3. His comment after the movie was over was a woeful "Big monkey died." Ha! That musta traumatized him, explains a lot. After relaying that story, B totally shot down my idea of taking the kids to see it. Heh. I downloaded the 176Mb HiDef trailer from Apple's Quicktime page, and Harry was too scared to even watch *that*. Isabel described it to him. She doesn't think it'd be too scarey, but I'm sure she wouldn't be happy herself. Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Mmmm. Last night B was mournfully declaring that she is officially too domestic. I bought her an Autothommer (aka a Kitchenaid stand mixer, named after my old roommate who used to make bread all the time) and she made bread for the first time yesterday. One loaf of bread, the other loaf made a dozen dinner rolls to go with the pot roast. YUM!! Today was my work christmas party. Err, holiday party. Whatever. Anyway, I had six glasses of red wine, so I'm pretty heavily in the bag at this point. I walked in this morning, first time since I had that nasty 3-week chest cold (last week I biked exclusively to get back into biking shape) so I bummed a ride home. B left to go to jazzercise, leaving me with a pot of chili and noi babysitting to see King Kong. Woe is me. Anyhoo, since I'm a little toasty, the kids got christmas cookies as their dinner appetizer, and with their chili they got B's bread toasted with butter and honey. They're happy as pigs in slop. Woo! Poker tonight, first time in 3-4 weeks. Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Wow. It has been a very good year for poker for me. Last night we had my monthly drinking club meeting. Normally we can't get any form of quorum in December, with people gone or feeling like they should spend time with their "families" or whatever lame excuse they have, so we traditionally hold the December meeting at a bar and just drink and talk and play card games. Last year we played Cribbage. This year we held the meeting at the Wooley Toad, which last week was a fancy cigar bar at the Newcastle country club. Since the state banned all forms of smoking, it's now just a bar with a huge humidor with drawers for rent. One of our members had decided he wasn't going, so we'd been ribbing him on the group email list all day. I had nicely explained to everyone that he wasn't gay, he was just "experimenting". Another member said the politically correct term was "pole-smoking American", and he finally responded with "geez, my father passes away last night and you give me a bunch of crap about it". He was trying to make us feel bad, since his dad is fine. I think there is a parable about "the boy who cried dead dad" somewhere. We'd reserved the poker table, a very nice leather-topped one with fancy carvings and brass caps. Very very nice. DeadDadBoy was our dealer since as a Pole-Smoking American he doesn't play poker. We played a ring game, $30 buy-in, 50 cents and dollar for the blinds, no-limit Texas Hold'em. Rebuy anytime. I fairly quickly lost my first $30, and re-bought. I lost about half of that, then went En Fuego, tearing things up. Some of the guys just weren't very good, and would call large bets when they had 2nd or even 3rd pair, or for crying out loud 4 out of a straight or flush. Others had checked into Hotel Tilt, and were stoking the pot for me. I won back my two $30 buy-ins, then won an additional $168 profit. Well, $20 of that got spent on a pint of IPA and a glass of Lagavulin 16-yr single malt whiskey, so I cleared almost $150. Too bad I was driving or I would have been able to drink more. Monday, December 12, 2005
Wooo! Go Seahawks! 11-2, our second best record ever, and two games ahead for home field advantage in the playoffs. If we hold onto that, I don't see anyone beating us at home in the playoffs. As Isabel and I were leaving for her dance class on Saturday, she saw my book. "Gonna read in the bar, huh Dad?" Ha! My friend who lives in the sticks and host the annual bonfire is having coyote trouble, they're eating a bunch of his animals and he's sick of it. We're making plans to take them out, hopefully this weekend. 00 buckshot, meet Mr Coyote. Mr Coyote, meet Mr 00 Buckshot. My buddy has a satellite image of his property, all annotated with non-combatant zones, FEBA (forward edge of battel area), safe impact areas, etc. Sunday, December 11, 2005
We had our fancy-dress christmas party last night. I wore my tux with red bowtie and cummerbund, and B had a slinky black cocktail dress with lots of fringe on it, flapper-style. It was relatively small, only 20 guests, but there's always a bunch of folks who have other obligations, and some of our friends were sick. The food was tasty. We'd bought some sushi, had a couple pounds of shrimp with cocktail sauce, cheese fondue, and a cheese plate. B had made fried wontons the day before, but when reheating them got distracted so sadly they were burned. This morning I got to sleep in, which is always nice when feeling slightly hung over. The kids have been very pleasant, B took a nap, and I sat around reading, totally forgetting there were football games on the tube. I just feel totally happy and comfortable right now. Warm, full, happy, no obligations whatsoever today, B took the kids shopping and I'm vegging on the couch watching my Seahawks play on TV. Saturday, December 10, 2005
I've been throwing Christmas decorations up at a furious pace today, in preparation for our fancy-dress holiday party tonight. Last monday was the 72nd anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. Wooo go booze! Isabel and I went to QFC this morning to buy some stuff for our party. We chose QFC (owned by Kroger) instead of Safeway because I had a move-in special coupon for $10 off $50. You know, even if money was no object, I would not shop at QFC regularly because (well because someone else would be shopping for me but...) the fucking checkout lines are ludicrous. I took a class on Queuing Theory in business school, I understand how it works and know that THEY know how it works. They're saving money by making us wait in lines, and as an American I won't stand for it. I'll shop at Safeway where I almost never have to wait more than 60 seconds in a line. At Fred Meyer (another Kroger) the other week I had to wait over 15 minutes to be checked out! The kids and I have been watching a lot of Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel. He does a lot of gross jobs, and is pretty funny about it. Thursday, December 08, 2005
Welcome Christmas By Dr. Seuss and Albert Hague © Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze! Welcome Christmas, come this way! Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze! Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day! Welcome, welcome! Fah who rahmus! Welcome, welcome! Dah who dahmus Christmas Day, Is in our grasp, So long as we, Have hands to clasp! Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze! Welcome Christmas! Bring your cheer. Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze! Welcome all who's, Far and near Fah who foraze! Dah who doraze! Welcome, Christmas! Fah who rahmus! Welcome, Christmas! Dah who dahmus Christmas Day, Will always be Just as long, As we have we Welcome all who's, Far and near. Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A Conversation between Isabel and her asshole father during Monday Night Football Isabel: Daddy, get me a glass of water. Me: How do you ask, Isabel? Isabel: Daddy, may I PLEASE have a glass of water? Me: Sure Isabel. Can you say "Comcastic"? Isabel: NO! That is NOT how we ask for things in this family! We say MAY I PLEASE! (Isabel breaks down in tears) I laughed and got her a cup of water.
Last night after a quick dinner we went downtown to do some christmas-y things. Quote from Isabel: "Momma, what am I going to be for Christmas? Just a Santa hat?" Heh. Nothing like mixing your holidays. First we went to Pacific Place mall, where they claim to have it snow indoors every day at 6pm. C'mon, this IS Seattle, we don't get much natural snow. Anyway, we got there right at 6pm and sure enough they had blowers up at the top level of the mall blowing bubble foam down. It did look like snow, all the kids there were having a blast. Very festive. Next we walked over to Macys to look at their christmas train exhibit in the one corner window that isn't a coffee bar or hair salon now. It was very extensive and well done. They had a small train in each corner that was controlled by placing your hands on pads on the window, I assume heat-sensitive. Isabel was in awe, she said, "Ooooo! Magical!" Finally we went to the winter carousel again and rode that. The kids loved it as always. When we got home the kids wanted some dessert, so we gave them a few of these keebler christmas cookies that B had bought and I made them each a cup of hot cocoa with mini marshmallows. They were VERY happy. So cute. I had wanted to get some errands done (need to get my tux to the cleaners before our party on Saturday, and need to get my old TiVo (oh how I miss it!) to the UPS store to ship off to Luke) but B insisted we build memories instead. Sigh. :) Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Wooo! My Seahawks put the hurt on the ailing Philedelphia Eagles last night on Monday Night Football, beaten them 42-0 to go to a 10-2 record. Of course, we still don't get any respect, but they're the Seahawks. If they won the Superbowl, went undefeated next year and won *that* Superbowl, people *still* wouldn't respect them. They admittedly are historically about the worst franchise in all pro sports. Still, if we can hold onto home field advantage in the playoffs that will be a big help to the goal of actually *winning* a playoff game for the first time in over 20 years. Last night B and I finished watching "Dungeons and Dragons 2: Curse of the Dragon God", a made-for-TV SciFi channel 'sequel' to the abysmal D&D movie from a few years back. I'd recorded it on our DVR a month ago or so and we finally watched it. For crappy movies, it was kind of fun. Way better than the original, which it had nothing in common with. I cracked up at the D&D references they'd throw in. I noticed them mention "Ghost Tower of Inverness", "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks", and "The Hidden Shrine of the Kuo-Toa", all as off-hand references to prior 'adventures'. Man I love my iPod. While I was sick and driving to work, I was listening to the radio instead. Normally I listen to Bob River's show on KZOK 102.5 FM on the way into work, and Tom Lykis on 100.7 "The Buzz" on the way home. However, last Wednesday I listened to Lykis on the way home like normal. He's been on 100.7 for over a decade now, and Seattle is apparently his largest market. On Thursday afternoon, I turn on the radio and it's playing a country song. WTF?!? Yes, turns out the rocket scientists at Entercom decided to switch the format. 100.7 is now "The Wolf", a country station. Just what we needed, NOT! They are moving the worst hosts from 100.7 to KISW 99.9FM, which has been a rock station for 30 years. Gah! They killed the two radio stations I actually still listened to in one fell swoop. Apparently they want to continue to marginalize radio. Monday, December 05, 2005
I'm finally mostly over that damn cold. It's nice to be biking into work again, feeling mostly normal, and not coughing up giant lung oysters. Last weekend we got a bunch of christmas lights installed outside, got our christmas tree (one of the 9-10' ones. Woo! Big tree!) and got it decorated. On saturday B and I were going to go her sister's christmas party. Her and her boyfriend each work there, so they each can bring one person and were going to bring us instead of just going alone, but B's mom fell down the stairs and conked her head. She seemed mostly fine but in pain, but B and her went to the ER just in case, to get it confirmed that she didn't have a concussion. That took many hours, so I put the kids to bed and played World of Warcraft instead. My alt character Nurg is now level 27. He recently gave up mining as worthless (and I mean without worth!) and picked up skinning so he can supply our group leatherworker with raw materials. He's still an herbalist as well, supplying beaucoups herbs to our potion-monger. Last night the Huskies men's basketball team finally beat the cross-state rival Gonzaga Bulldogs for the first time in the last 8 years. Gonzaga was ranked #7 and we were #19. We're now 7-0. Of course, it would be a lot more fun if basketball wasn't completely crappy to watch. What a worthless sport. Sigh. Go Huskies! Hopefully my Seahawks will smash the Eagles tonight on Monday Night Football. Our record on MNF lately isn't so great. |
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