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Potty Training - Take 1

2009-07-27T20:30:00.001-07:00

Potty Training – Getting Ready

Not too long after Hannah was born, Vanessa came home form work one day and told me about 3 day potty training. A guy at work had tried it and said it worked. We read through the instructions several times and it sounded great. I had heard from a couple of people that it worked for them as well. The internet is full of success stories. We followed the directions and did all of the right stuff leading up to the start.

Two weeks before starting, we took her to the mall. It was “Big Girl Day”. We went to 4 or 5 stores and had her pick out panties. She was very excited.

Potty Training Day 1

Well, I was in Pheonix the morning of day 1, but this is based on what I heard when calling home and once I got home. Vanessa had some sort of conversation which Hannah about being a “Big Girl ” and learnging to use her toilet. I called around 9:30 in the morning to see how things were going. Hannah helped throw out all of her diapers. She had on her first pair of Big Girl pantines and it was time to start. I called home aorund noon. Hannah had just gone pee pee in the potty for the first time. I was so excited! I was also in a suburban full of executives from work. I tried to convey as much excitement to Hannah over the phone without everyone in the car thinking I was insane about the potty.

During the day Hannah went through around 20 pairs of panties. Mostly just very small leaks where she realized she was going pee and then stopped.

I got home at 5pm. From then until 9pm Hannah went pee pee 3 times. She went in the toilet the first time. We clapped, jumped up and down, gave her high-fives, and called Grandma and Grandpa Chatigny. She had a little accident, but finished on the toilet the 2nd time. Then she made it to the toilet the 3rd time. Fantastic!!! This was going to be great.

Potty Training Day 2

The instructions say to wake them up a couple of times during the night and have them sit on the toilet. We opted not to do this. I set the alarm for 5:30 am. The instructions say to get them up a little before they normally wake up since most kids empty their bladder shortly after waking up. I woke Hannah up. She was dry! I was so excited that she made it throught the night without peeing! Yes! This was going great! She said she didn’t have to pee, so we sat on the couch and I gave her some juice. By 9:00 she still hadn’t peed. She was visably uncofortable and was holdinhg her panties saying, “peep, peep” while walking around on her tip toes. We tried a couple of different things. I then suggested we put her in the bath. Hey… it works for me. She was excited about the bubble bath, but then flipped out once she was inside. She started screaming and crying. She didn’t want to pee.

Sure enough a couple of seconds later she peed. We we very excited for her and told her repeatedly, “Good job!” and, “It’s okay!”. She was not happy. Still crying and screaming. We took her out of the bath. Throughout the day, she continued to hold her pee. She would sit on the toilet for 2 seconds and say, “all done”, but nothing was in the potty.

At nap time, she would lay down, say, “peep”, get up ,run over to the potty, sit down, say “all done”, then head back to bed. Then repeat it 20 times. She never did take a nap. Throughout the day she was walking on her tip toes, hold her pee, crying, and saying “peep, peep”. It was heartbreaking. We couldn’t get her to go pee.

At some point in the afternoon, she was running down the hallway (tiptoes, holding her pee in, yelling “ppep”). She peed on the floor while running, slipped in it, fell on her back and hit her head. No good. Big contusion on her back and a bump on her head. Follow that by lots of crying. The rest of the day didn’t get any better. When it was time to go to bed, it was a repeat of nap time.

By 11:00 pm we had had it. Too much stress. Hannah was freaking out. Vanessa and I agreed to put her back in a diaper. We still had 5 in a diaper bag in the car. She ended up falling asleep in our bed while Vanessa held her. We never let her sleep in our bed.

Potty Training Day 3 (aka Un-Potty Training Day 1)

Hannah woke up with the same dry diaper we put on her the night before. Hmm. The morning ws a repeat of the previous day. Holding pee, walking on tip toes, crying “peep, peep”, screaming, etc. The shower trick didn’t work this time. Nothing was working. I offered to take her to Disneyland if she peed. I even offered to buyer her a house. She didn’t take me up on the offer.

At 10 am, 11 hours after putting on a diaper and around 14 hours from her last pee, she finally let it go, although it was still against her will. She completely flooded through one diaper including covering my shirt, shorts, and the floor. I was so happy I could care less. We cheered and celebrated. She was not happy. 10 minutes later she flooded through a second diaper. Wow! That was a lot of pee.

We immediately put her down for a nap. While she was sleeping, we decided we would take her to Disneyland for the rest of the day. The idea was to get her mind off of the peeing thing. We went to Disneyland and went on Jungle Cruise. She loved it. Next we stopped to eat. That didn’t work out so well. She started holding, crying, yelling “peep”, and walking on her tip toes again. Vanessa took her to the bathroom, but Hannah didn’t pee. After she came back, we switched. I took her for a walk. She was so uncomfortable and stressing out. She wouldn’t pee in her diaper.
There wasn’t anything we could do. We kept taking her on rides. King Authors’ Carousel, Dumbo, Casie’s Circus Train, and Nemo. When we got to the front of the line in Nemo, she finally let go and filled her diaper to the brim again. Her diaper held through the ride. We changed her afterwards. Went on Small World, then headed home.

Thngs didn’t get any better last night. Still holding. Had to fall asleep in our bed. Woke up at 11:30pm, 3:30 am, and 4:30 am. Thank you Vanessa! You are the best.

She was still holding today, but it doesn’t seem quite as bad. Not sure where to go from here. We will see how things go for the next couple of days/weeks. Play it by ear.

Karma – 1 Page – 0

2008-12-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

I stopped at a Carl’s Jr. this morning on my way to work. It’s a guilty pleasure I partake in about once every two weeks. I feel better when it isn’t the regular guy working, because I think he recognizes me now. Sad.

So, today I placed my normal order - Sunrise Croissant Combo with orange juice. The total appeared on the screen at $4.73. That’s correct. Trust me, I have it memorized. I already had my $5 bill ready to go. It was the same guy, so I’m trying not to make eye contact. I hand him my $5 and a couple of seconds later he hands me the change.

I could tell right away the change was too much. It should have been $0.27, but right away I could see two quarters, a dime or two and some pennies. He gave me back too much change.

For the next 20 seconds I think about whether I should tell him or not. First I think to myself, “I’m going to give it back. It feels good to be honest”. Then I think, “I’m sure I have been short-changed several times.” Then it’s “How come I always lose pens, but never find them.” This argument goes on in my head until he come to the window and hands me my bag of food.

I thanked him and drove off. As I get down the road, I realize I never got my orange juice. Sigh…

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T21:42:00.001-07:00

Ethics Survey?

2008-10-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

Work has been better, although far from good. Last week we had to go to another ethics class It seems like we have 5 of these a year. At the end of the class there was an “anonymous” ethics survey. It turned out to be roughly 50 questions such as:

Are you currently looking for another job? - No
Do you think you will still work here in 1 year? - Yes
Does your boss value your opinions? – No
Do you believe in what you are doing? Yes
Does your boss inspire you? - No

The “anonymous" part turned out to be not so anonymous at the end when we were asked to bubble in our level in the company, age range, department, and ethnicity. I answered everything honestly. They were placed in sealed envelopes to go to Corporate. We’ll se how that goes. The other Managers I spoke with said they filled it out honestly as well. Worst case is my boss finds out and fires me. Then I sue the company for millions and move to Thailand with Vanessa and Hannah. See you soon Dad.

By the way, Barney is back to work. He said the heart attack was caused by salmonella. I talked to a doctor and it is possible. Who knew?

Too legit to quit

2008-09-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks Lollipop for giving me a little nudge to start writing again. Now is a good time since I am elated at home and completely miserable at work. Should make for some nice contrasts. Before I get started, I learned today that Barney, who worked for me when I was in my last position at my current employer, had a heart attack on Wednesday. He’s doing okay, but I wish him well.

I am really enjoying the house. The difference between renting and owning is more than I expected. Hard work and a lot of pride. I am spending a lot of time on the yard lately and have found the tan I lost when I was 12 and locked myself in my room for 6 years. So here is a list of things we have done so far…

Scraped all of the ceilings (primed, painted)
Installed 10 recessed lights
Replaced all of the doorknobs
Painted the bedroom
Painted Hannah’s room
Painted one wall in the fireplace room
Dug up 7 rosebushes and replanted 3 of them
Fixed the sprinkler system
Sanded and painted a roof support by the front door
Put-up new house numbers
Fixed the bedroom closet
Installed new showerheads
Installed childproof drawer locks
Pulled weeds
Mowed the lawn 20 times
Removed lots of wallpaper
Sanded and painted the front bathroom
Installed new bathroom hardware
Painted behind the fridge
Installed bathroom lights
Etc.

I adore Hannah. She’s 16 months now. She’s really tall (shocking) and the cutest happiest baby ever. She likes talking on the phone, but not if it’s real. She loves putting on shoes, but her favorite thing right now is books. One after another after another. She likes quacking like a duck and mooing like a cow. She loves showers and blowing kisses. Anyway… there will be other blog entries about her later.

Vanessa is doing well. She is teaching high school theatre again this year. It’s nice to see the excitement in her eyes, even though she won’t admit to it.

Work sucks! My boss has turned into a complete psycho. Unrealistic deadlines and no compassion. There are discussions of mass quitting. Out of the 6 managers in my department 3 are actively looking for other jobs. One tells me on a daily basis that they aren’t sure how long they can take it. One I don’t talk to. Then there is me. My plan is to wait her out. Sooner or later everyone gets promoted, fired, moves, or dies. Seriously though, if I didn’t have a massive mortgage and a daughter I would have quit 15 times by now.

In addition to my normal department, I also oversee the mail room. The mail room consists of 1 guy. My Normal department consisted of 3 people, plus me. I say “consisted” instead of consists, because two weeks ago I had to eliminate 1 of the positions. Fine. Friday another one of my employees resigned. AGH! I am already working 55 – 60 hours per week consistently, which means I get to see my daughter for 15 to 60 minutes each workday (not including the days I drop her off at daycare). What about the last employee I have in my regular department? Oh, I’m putting that employee on a 60 day notice next week to improve or be terminated. Great timing! So, I am going to go from being stressed-out with a wicked boss and 4 employees to being stressed-out with a wicked boss with a wicked boss and 2 employees. Me and the mail room guy. Crap.

More to come…

Buying a house

2008-05-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

The thought of buying a house has been on my mind constantly since I was around 7 years old. I think that’s about the time my parents told me my Grandma Helen and Grandpa Grumpa had purchased a savings bond from the city of Long Beach for my sister and I when we were born. I figured by the time I was 25, it would be worth a nice chunk of money and would make a nice down payment on a house. A couple of years later the bond was paid off early by the city, so is was not worth nearly as much money as it would be if it had matured. My Dad put it in a money market for me to get good interest. That’s where it sat undisturbed for years.

Then, when I was 16 I got my first credit card. It wasn’t until I was 19 and dating that having a credit card became a problem. This went on for a couple of years with some stern talks from my parents (it was my name on one of their cards). When my parents got divorced, I was 22 (I think). They were going to cancel the credit card since it was in both of their names. One problem… I owed about $8,000 on that card. My only option was to cash-in the money from the original savings bond and therefore… the nest-egg that was supposed to eventually be my down-payment. You think I would have learned my lesson, but it wasn’t until years later that I finally did.

I have lived in 7 different apartments or condos since I was 20. I am happy to say my life of renting is almost over. After years of hard work by both Vanessa and myself, we are finally ready to buy a house. At the end of February, Vanessa and I decided to stop by an Open House on a whim. We talked about buying a house in the summer and wanted to get an idea of what houses in the area were going for. That’s where we met two Realtors. Stacey and Cathy for as a Real Estate Team. They were so incredibly nice, did not pressure us, and genuinely seemed interested in helping us get what we want. Did I mention they adored Hannah?

The next weekend, and over the next four days I think they took us through 20 houses. Vanessa and I drove past at least 30 by ourselves. Some were absolutely awful (we were looking in the absolute low price range for the area). A few were fairly nice. We finally stopped by a place that was on the market for 1 day. We had stopped by the night before, but the lock box wasn’t on it yet. We couldn’t believe the sales price. It was in better shape than 95% of everything we looked at, but it was also almost the lowest asking price. Ah… I love foreclosures! Within 2 minutes and after seeing only ½ of the house, I knew this was the one I wanted. Luckily, Vanessa felt the same way. We drew-up an offer that night.

The bank accepted our offer, despite getting 10 others. This month has been an absolute whirlwind of paperwork, bank records, W2s, home inspections, phone calls, carpet samples, paint samples, Do It Yourself shows, and internet research. Vanessa and I have also slowly started packing. That is going to be a pain. We have so much stuff. We close escrow on May 16^th and we have until May 31^st to move out of our condo. That gives us two weeks to scrape the ceilings, remove some wallpaper, paint, have carpet installed in the bedrooms, and move. No problem.

Wish us luck. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Birthday Princess

2008-05-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe a year has already passed. Tonight I put our 11 month-old down to sleep. Tomorrow morning she will be 1. What a great year and what an amazing little girl. She is walking a little now and says a couple of words. SHE’S SO TALL!!! So proud of her. It’s amazing to watch her learn new things every day. She gets so excited and claps her hands and giggles with glee.

Having a little girl has been an inspiration to me. It’s fun to see how excited she gets and how happy she is all of the time. One little smile from her and it brightens my day. Lucky for me, she smiles a lot. Over the last year I have taken well over 4 gigabytes of pictures. We’ve gone to the zoo, the aquarium, a 49er game, Santa Cruz (to see Great Grandma), South Dakota, and roughly 40 Wednesday Night BBQ’s.

Vanessa has been an amazing Mom and I think I have done a pretty good job as a Dad. I thought about it on the way home last night and I figure I have given her roughly 30,000 kisses since she has been born. Still not enough. I look forward to seeing her every morning when I wake up and every day when I get home from work.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

People Suck!

2008-03-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

So last week I was on Spring Break! It was a pretty boring, but good week. I spent a lot of time with Hannah we went out to lunch, played on the swings and went to the library twice. I spent a lot of time in the Pomona library growing up and have a fondness for libraries. I hope Hannah can one day appreciate libraries for all they are worth. She did have a lot of fun when we went, even picked out some good books to take home and read.

Our great friends Ed & Tiffany gave us passes to the San Diego Zoo for Christmas, so the 6 of us (their son, Liam included---he's 1 1/2) met for breakfast and then all piled into their Hummer and headed south. We got to the zoo and walked around, went to the sad excuse for a petting zoo, all the kids could pet were goats and went for a bus tour. It was a great time had by all! Liam and Hannah liked the animals and we got some good walking exercise.

Last thing we decided to do was to go on the Skyfari. Now for those of you who don't know, I hate heights. The Skyfari looks like this: Yeah a big bucket on wires. I wasn't too excited about going on this, but I did. So we went from one side of the zoo to the other, got off, went and saw the polar bears, got back on the torture in the sky and got back off at our original departure. We decided that it was time to go home, it was about 5. So we went to get our strollers where we left them at the drop off with all the other 50 million strollers that were there.

Well we found Liam's stroller, but Hannah's stroller was no where to be found. That's right! PEOPLE SUCK! Someone took Hannah's stroller and left the park. How do we know they left and that we were never going to get it back????? Because we called today and still no stroller! Not left abandoned, with all the stuff in it that I hope it would be. But gone, forever. Here are the last pictures we have of Hannah and her stroller. One with Hannah and mommy and one with Liam pushing Hannah.

Score is tied in the bottom of the 3rd inning

2008-01-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

On the eve of my 33rd birthday (no sympathy Happy Birthday wishes please) I find it only natural to reflect and take stock on my life. I guess reading www.noiseinsidemyhead.com might have something to do with it too. I guess I am pretty much where I thought I would be at this point. Not the job I thought I would have, but then again I'm not sure what I thought. I’m happy with what I do and the pay I get, but I wouldn’t say that I love, or even like my job right now.

Not the nice home I was hoping for, but I'm happy with my neighborhood (not my neighbors). We are hoping to buy a starter home this year. We’ll see how that goes. I love my wife and adore our daughter. I just can’t believe someone could be so happy all of the time. She must spend 90% of her day smiling. We are so lucky.

I do have dreams of moving to another state, but I am realistic that although it looks like St Andrews from here, there is bound to be dried-up dog poop on that lawn too. “Hold on, Voltaire”. Still might make the move though. Traffic is getting worse and I don’t ever see it getting better.

I was in Phoenix Sunday through Friday of last week for systems training. New program we are rolling out nation-wide. Pretty dull stuff. It was nice to see other people form other divisions that do what I do. Bounce ideas off of each other, gripe, compare. I missed my family a lot. I learned it is difficult to smile at little kids in an airport and at the same time project to the parents and others that you aren’t a creepy pervert. I didn’t sleep well while I was gone. I sure slept like a baby when I got back though.

Anyway… I’m rambling and it-s getting late. Time to go upstairs and rub my cold feet on my wife’s legs.

2007-12-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Over the river and through the woods...

2007-12-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Hello to my one last reader. I haven’t been doing a great job of posting, but I think I have been doing a good job of spending time with Hannah and taking lots of pictures. Of course I don’t have any on this computer to post right this second, but I will add some in the next few days.

Hannah is now 7 months old and is quite entertaining. She now has 6 teeth with one more coming in. She can stand as long as she is holding onto something. She crawls everywhere (started on Thanksgiving), and can climb the stairs. She has only made it to the third stair before we get nervous and pull her back.

She spends most of her days smiling and melting our hearts. For Christmas we are all traveling up to see my Grandma. We stopped at Vanessa’s Mom and Dad’s house to visit them today before we continue our trip to Capitola, Ca.

Work is going well. I am stressed most of the time, but I am working on a system conversion in my department that at this point appears it will take a full year to complete. Corporate is working out the bugs as we move along.

My dad and his wife came to visit in November. They were here for two weeks and spent some time with us as well as traveling around California and Vegas. It was great to see them and great to see that my dad had lost more weight. Go Dad!

Getting ready for Halloween

2007-10-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today we made a trip to a pumpkin patch to pick-up an overpriced pumpkin and take some cute pictures of Hannah. Hannah was a little distracted by the pumpkins, so no great pictures, but she made up for it later. We bought her a padded playmate since she is starting to get around a lot more.

Ness and I are doing fine. We have been staying busy taking care of Hannah and seeing friends when we can. My dad will be visiting for about 3 weeks starting on November 10^th. Looking forward to seeing him!

Nothing exciting going on at work. I’m working on a system conversion that is taking up most of my time.

If you look carefully, in the last picture you can see Hannah's bottom teeth coming in.

IT'S A FIRST

2007-10-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hannah broke in her first tooth today! It is the front left tooth on the bottom. It has barely broken through, but it is definitely there! Last weekend she attended her first 49er game and had a great time! :)

Raspberries for everyone!

2007-07-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hannah will be 3 months old on August 2^nd. Rather than having a huge celebration with Cirque du Soleil dancers and a band, I thought I would just write a blog. No need to send gifts either…

Last week I was in Atlanta for a couple of days for a work conference. I didn’t even make it to my car to head to the airport before I started missing Vanessa and Hannah. Vanessa did a great job of emailing me a couple of pictures and having me talk to her on the phone. Hannah has already mastered the art of grabbing onto objects, smiling, blushing, and sleeping. Her newest trick is giving raspberries. She doesn’t have it mastered yet and she only does it when she feels like it, but it’s so much fun when she decides it’s time to entertain us.

Hannah had a second doctor appointment recently. They said she is in the 96^th percentile for her height! I wonder where she gets that from…

Work is going well, but has been a little hectic lately. While I am sure this new position will result in a steady schedule with less hours, that has not been the case recently. Despite very little training, my boss is still requesting impossible due dates for things I was never trained on. No excuses allowed of course. When I flew to Atlanta I was working at the airport, during the entire flight and at the hotel until 2:00 am. Same thing all the way back. Still enjoying doing something new.

I have a new employee who is awesome. She is from India and this is her first job here. She has a Master’s Degree in finance, knows Excel as well as I do, and is very bright. My favorite part is she is the most polite person I have ever met. She stands up every time I talk to her and says, “thank you” after almost every sentence. Quite a change from working with Barney. Ugh. So glad to have him no longer reporting to me!

I’m at the airport now waiting for my delayed flight to take me to Phoenix for training on a new system. My newest employee is along for the trip. So far she has offered to carry my bags and give me her lunch. Should be an interesting trip. Be back Wednesday night.

No shame in my game

2007-06-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well, Hannah will be 5 weeks tomorrow. Everyone was doing well, but about 10 minutes before I got home yesterday, Vanessa called to tell me she wasn’t feeling well. I walked in the door just in time to see her tossing her cookies. Not the Snicker Doodle kind. Today she is running a temperature, so I am staying home from work to take care of Vanessa and Hannah. I guess I’m not doing a very good job since I am writing a blog and watching the finale of Lost.

At 5 weeks there isn’t a whole lot that a baby can do. Aside from gaining a couple of pounds, her big achievements are tracking objects with her eyes and gazing into our eyes. She smiles now and then too, which is what makes everything worthwhile. She is also adept at pooping, peeing, eating, and sleeping. Vanessa has been adjusting to the life of staying home with a newborn. It’s not easy taking care of someone 24 hours a day, everyday. Vanessa will return back to work in September.

I’m starting a new job at work. Over the next three weeks I will be training the person taking my job (not Barney) and moving into my new job.

We spent Saturday at Jerome’s Birthday party. It was a barbeque in the park and it was fantastic. I hadn’t been to a party like that since I was a kid. James and I won the three-legged race, our team won the tug-a-war, and James and I came in second or third in the water balloon toss. You know that little muscle that is used to flare your nostrils? Yeah, that’s the only one that doesn’t hurt today.

On Sunday I agreed to wake up at 5:30 am and go with James to the Pomona Car show. They have this thing on the first Sunday every month. Everyone brings their old cars and junk. I like looking at the old cars and walking around with James and having a beer at 7:30 in the morning is why I go.

The first 2 weeks...

2007-05-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hannah is a little over a week old now, so I feel that I can now write to you all as an expert at parenting! So here is what being a new parent is like…

Minimal sleep. While it has become slightly better, we get sleep in chunks of 5 minutes to 3 hours at a time. The newest plan is to try an keep her awake in the afternoon, so she is ready to sleep around 8:30 or 9:00 every night. Sometimes this works and sometimes is doesn’t. It is getting better every day. You can’t let them sleep more than 3 hours though, because they need to be fed.
If you are the dad, you will now be a gopher. You will spend ½ of your time getting things for the baby or the mom. This is especially true if mom had a C-Section. This is what will wear you out the most.
Changing diapers. You will learn tricks over the first two weeks and at some point your hands will be completely covered with poop trying to figure out how to hold the baby without making it worse. I have learned that Hannah will either poop or pee, then just after you clean her with wipes, the real poop and pee comes. She will send a blast of poop 2 feet across the changing table covering your hand, the changing pad, the changing table, baskets, wipes, and anything else within range with Dijon-mustard-consistency poop. As you are standing there with her feet in one hand and your other hand covered in poop, you will look at the wipes, which are also covered in poop trying to figure out how to clean-up the poop, when the wipes are covered in poop. This is where a wife comes in handy.
You live for the 30 minutes. There are about 30 minutes spread-out through the day when they are not sleeping, pooping, peeing, feeding, or crying that Hannah is completely adorable. It’s not that she can’t be adorable during these other activities, but you pull out the camera during those other times. They get a bit of a smirk, or go a little cross-eyed, because the eye muscles are still forming.
Read or sing to your baby. We try and read at least one story every day to Hannah. We also sing. It wasn’t until we had Hannah that I realized I don’t remember the lyrics or words to any song completely. So you begin making-up words, or humming. Hannah doesn’t mind. She just likes hearing our voices. I will be brushing-up on my nursery rhymes.

I can’t imagine trying to do this as a single parent or with twins. It’s a lot of work, but it’s completely worth it. I’m going back to work on May 21^st. Vanessa’s mom is going to take that week off to help Vanessa with the baby that week. I feel bad for going back to work, but I will have been off for 3 weeks and I need to get back. I know Vanessa will do well. She has been the most amazing mom to Hannah and has been patient with my novice parenting skills.

I'M A DAD!!!

2007-05-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Sigh… It’s been a long week. First, let me say that it’s not Hannah or Vanessa. Hannah is adorable and well behaved. Vanessa has been very sweet and it’s been nice to spend time with her.

On Monday (April 30th), we went to see Vanessa’s chiropractor. She has been seeing him regularly for about 4 months now. He specializes in adjusting pregnant women and children. Vanessa was 41 weeks pregnant, the baby hadn’t dropped, and Vanessa showed no signs of delivering anytime soon. He showed us a pressure point to relax one of the ligaments that may be keeping the baby from dropping and to get the baby to turn in the right direction. After that we went to lunch. While we were at lunch Vanessa started getting contractions. We hastily got lunch wrapped-up to go and headed home.

These contractions went on from 1:30 pm that day, until 9:00 am the next morning when they ramped-up and started becoming stronger. These contractions were coming every 5 to 7 minutes, so we didn’t get much sleep that night. The stronger contractions that started around 9:00 am were so strong that Vanessa couldn’t walk or stand on her own. They were coming every 5 to 14 minutes in waves. We called Vanessa’s mom, since she lives 2 hours away. Vanessa was able to take a nap and by 2:30 it was time to go to our appointment at the Midwife’s office. This wasn’t a comfortable drive for Vanessa.

When we got to the Midwife they examined Vanessa to see how far along she was. The midwife told her staff to close the office and cancel all of her appointments. YEAH!!! I followed the midwife out and asked her how far Vanessa was. She said 6 centimeters! Wow! She needed to get to 10 cm or so to deliver, so we were close.

For the next 14 hours, Vanessa and I became closer than ever before and we each learned a lot about each other. She is by far the bravest, strongest, and most determined person I have ever met. Most people would have not chosen a natural childbirth. Most people would have given-up after 5 or 6 hours. Vanessa was calm, sweet, and focused for 14 hours straight. I’m not going to go into all of the detail, but it was amazing.

For 14 hours the Midwife, her team, Vanessa’s mom, Vanessa, and I tried everything possible, but the baby would not drop. The Midwife, Amber, explained the baby’s head was tilted to the side and that was preventing the baby from dropping. Vanessa had contractions the entire time starting 5 minutes apart and lasting a minute, to toward the end the contractions were several minutes long and overlapping. At 4:00 in the morning, we called in a chiropractor that works with the Midwives to see if she could do anything. That didn’t work either. Finally, at 5:30 am, I went to talk to Amber. We both agreed that it was time to go to the hospital, which meant getting a C-Section.

I knew that Vanessa would never give-up unless everyone agreed it was the right thing to do. Even after telling her, it took an hour to get Vanessa to her Aunt Beth’s car. We all drove to the hospital. Amber went in ahead of us and took care of most of the admitting paperwork. Within 5 minutes of getting to the hospital, Vanessa was in a room. Within another 20 minutes, we had answered all of the questions about allergies, and signed all of the release forms. Amber was in the room with us the entire time acting as a buffer between the hospital staff and us. Remember, the reason we chose South Coast Midwifery is that we didn’t like the hospital environment and the possibility of a C-Section. Vanessa and I were wheeled to the surgery room. Vanessa and I gave each other a couple of kisses while fighting back tears. I dressed in scrubs, while they wheeled Vanessa into the room for surgery.

I had to wait until they had her prepped before I could come into the room. I went through so many emotions during those 10 minutes. Fear, love, exhaustion, worry, stress, love, excitement, and more exhaustion.

Once they had her on the table and had the epidural set, they brought me into the room. Vanessa was prepped for surgery. They had a draping separating her head and her body. They had a stool for me next to her head. I sat by her, held her hand, and talked to her as I saw the surgeons begin moving around. I could only assume the procedure has started, since I didn’t want to look over the dressing. There were 12 people in the room all either tending to Vanessa or waiting to take care of our new baby. Vanessa was giggling and talking to everyone. She wasn’t drugged, but she couldn’t feel anything from her chest down. The other relief is that she couldn’t feel the contractions anymore.

After two or three minutes I heard the doctor say, “Congratulations, you have a girl!”. I was in shock and just wanted to make sure the baby was healthy. Vanessa and I had several discussions throughout the pregnancy. We agreed that once the baby was born, that I would not leave the baby’s side. I looked at Vanessa and she said, “Hi Hannah!” She then told me to go to the baby. As I walked over to the table I could see Hannah was already pink, had a head full of hair, and was very alert. All unusual for a baby 10 seconds after being born. I glanced at her fingers and toes and without counting each one, I could tell they looked normal. I leaned my head next to hers and said, “Hi Hannah.” She turned her head and we locked eyes. It was clear that she recognized my voice from the stories I read through Vanessa’s belly button and the multiple conversations I had already had with her. The nurses commented on it as well. I reached out to touched her hand and she gripped onto my finger. I was immediately filled with love.

They brought Hannah over to see Vanessa. Vanessa got to say hello to her before taking Hannah to the nursery. I made sure Vanessa was okay, then followed Hannah out the door. They were pushing her in a little bassinet past the waiting room, so I peeked my head in and said, “it’s a girl!” The room lit-up. Everyone stepped into the hall to take their first peek.

That was Wednesday morning. At the hospital, sleep was a luxury not covered by insurance. We were fortunate to have a private room where I had a bed to sleep in. My best guess is that we each got between 1 and 3 hours of sleep each night. Those 1 or 3 hours were taken in 5 to 40 minute chunks. Part of this was because Hannah would wake up and need to nurse or a diaper change, part of it was taking care of Vanessa, and part of it was the interruptions by the nurse staff. We came home on Saturday around noon. There has been a lot to do around here, but it is much nicer being home. Hannah is sleeping well, and last night we each got 6 or 7 hours of sleep in 30 minute to 2 hour chunks. Much better. Hannah is a little angel and we just adore her.

We are looking forward to just spending time with her and introducing her to friends and family.

Thanks,

Hannah's Dad

Hannah Elizabeth Montgomery

2007-05-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Our daughter was born on Wednesday, May 2nd at 7:13 AM. 6 pounds 15 ounces.

Will update more later...

Just twiddling my thumbs…

2007-04-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

Vanessa is now 40 weeks pregnant. The average pregnancy for first-time moms is 41 weeks 2 days, so we may still have a bit of time, but I am hoping for Thursday night. You may be wondering why I would suggest Thursday, so here it goes. I have a 5-hour meeting on Friday that I really don’t want to go to. Selfish? Perhaps, but it’s not like I’m going to push down on Vanessa’s tummy to make it happen. Could be anytime between Wednesday and May 10th.

So, why not before Thursday night??? Well, Vanessa’s mom had cataracts surgery today, so she won’t have her vision fully restored until Wednesday. Also, I am getting a somewhat lateral promotion at work. I will still be a Manager in the Finance Department, and will still report to the CFO, but it has a higher pay grade and is completely different than anything I have ever done. The person currently in the position I will be taking is leaving. This is a job that I should probably have two months of training before I take over. She is leaving next Wednesday. So if I can at least get trained through Thursday, then that will be 3 more days of training. Friday will be a waste because of the meeting. Next week will not be much help either, because it will be her last week and we are in the middle of a two-week audit. Since I won’t be fully trained anyway, I might as well get to skip the meeting!

Oh.. and a request please. Don’t ask us if the baby is coming soon. THERE’S NO WAY TO TELL!!! And don’t ask us if the baby is here yet. You will get a call, or a text message, or if you aren’t someone we talk to on a monthly basis, then you will get an update on the blog. I promise that within 1 week of this baby being born, you will be overwhelmed with pictures. Sorry. We get phone calls at home daily asking me these questions. People stop by my office 3 times a day asking me if the baby is here yet. CRAZY!!!

Here’s some pictures of how the nursery turned out. We have added some other things since these pictures, but at least you get a peek!

April or May?

2007-04-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a bit busy lately. Vanessa is in her 9th month now, so sometime between tomorrow and the first week of May I should be completely insane and really tired. I think we are ready. I hope. Car seat is in the car, the suitcase is packed, and the room is basically ready. I’m glad I did a bunch of stuff early on, because there is still stuff to do and no way to tell how many more weekends I have to get it done. We have an appointment tomorrow (Tuesday), and will keep going back each week.

It was a busy weekend for us. We went to James and Reina’s house to celebrate James’ 32nd birthday. We had a great time and I was surprised that Vanessa was able to stay up past 11:30. Great to see everyone. On Sunday we had our Baby Shower, or Penetration Celebration as we preferred to call it. It was great and Vanessa’s family did a great job with the food and the decorations. Lots of people and I think everyone had a good time. Well everyone except our 8-year-old neighbor Devon. His 5-year-old brother won some marbles for creating a cool bodysuit with fabric paint and he didn’t. Don’t worry, he got over it.

Anyway, we walked away with a ton of great things. Thanks to all who attended! Vanessa has another baby shower at her school on Wednesday. I think this weekend we will be unpacking everything, washing all of the clothes, and finishing up the room. Once everything is in place, I will take a couple of pictures and post them here.

I finally lost 30 pounds! I started my diet on December 8th after challenging a friend to a little bet. First one to lose 30 pounds. Loser buys dinner for the 4 of us and the winner chooses the restaurant. We both decided on Fogo De Chao in Beverly Hills. I basically followed the Weight Watchers plan, but I didn’t count points. I just knew what I should and shouldn’t eat. It took a long time, but I lost the weight in a healthy way. Last time I checked, he lost 8 pounds. His wife was pissed at him and told him he was going to have to mow the lawn a lot to make up for this. Tee hee hee…

Extra! Extra! Read all about it…

2007-02-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Vanessa and I attended Matt and Michele’s wedding reception. It was a great event and very tastefully done. I was introduced to Broken Candy’s mom and she immediately recognized my name and related it to Page’s Pages. I’m a celebrity!!! While at the event there was an impromptu Blogger meeting. All of the big names were there. Broken Candy, NIMH, Right On Bro, Yakface Speaketh, and the late Mr. Hinojosa. We all complained that no one has been updating their Blogs in a long time, so I have decided to step-up.

Vanessa is now in her 7th month. I am very excited! Little Bean (that is the baby’s nickname for now), is very active and is constantly moving, kicking, and rolling. The good/bad thing is my touch seems to calm Bean down. Good because it gives Vanessa some relief, but bad, because I seldom get to feel Bean moving around. We still aren’t going to find out the sex of Bean. To me it’s like putting your Christmas present through an X-ray to figure out what you are getting before you open the present on Christmas morning.

Our new couch was delivered today. It is HUGE (that’s what she said). It’s about 14 ½ feet long (that’s what she said). I think it will sit 7, but I can’t get Vanessa to help me find out. I tried to get her to sit on one end, then I would sit next to her, then she would get up and sit on the other side of me, then I would get up… will you get the picture. It has a chaise lounge, a sleeper, and extra seat, a corner and a recliner. I love it!

Tomorrow, James is coming over to help me finish the next to last major thing I need to get done before the baby comes. We are moving some furniture from our place to my mom’s, then picking-up the nursery furniture and bringing it back here. The only other thing I need to do is paint. I already set-up an IP camera with infrared for the nursery. You will be able to check on the baby from anywhere in the world using the internet and will be able to see in the dark as well. Crazy. We can check on the baby from the bedroom, while I am at work, or my dad can check on the baby from Thailand. Pretty cool stuff.

Everyone is getting married! James and Reina, Mike and Caroline, Ryan and Jerome, and Angie and Tony. It’s crazy! Such a shift in the culture of the people I hang around. I think it’s a good change. The nice part is that everyone will still be a crazy as ever. I hope that will never change.

Lots of big events coming up. Vanessa’s birthday will be celebrated the first weekend in March with “Vanessa’s Amazing Race”. This is kind of ironic, since she doesn’t watch the show, but it will be really cool. Teams will go through challenges and have to drive to different locations. On April 1st we are having a Penetration Celebration. Some couples have a baby shower… we have a Penetration Celebration. I think it will be a lot like our rehearsal dinner, but with Mai Tai’s instead of margarita’s and Petron.

See you all again soon. Now update your blogs!!!

Stop the bleeding!

2006-12-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

Between Christmas and preparing for the baby we are hemorrhaging money right now. Major purchases in the past 2 weeks include a crib and dresser for the nursery, a new couch for the living room, stroller, car seat, bouncer, Steam Vacuum for the carpets, vinyl wall stickers, and Christmas presents.

Explanations??? Hopefully you understand why we need a crib and dresser for the nursery. If not, then you shouldn’t be having sex. Both grandmas helped with that expense and we will pay the balance when we pick them up. Couches? The couches we have are 8 years old. I have never really taken care of them and they weren’t nice couches to begin with. They can seat 5 uncomfortably. Aside from being a little old, we needed something with a sleeper sofa for guests. Without a guest room having a sleeper sofa is the best alternative we could come up with. The new couch has a chaise, long couch with a sleeper, and recliner all built in one. It will wrap around the living room and provide seating for 7. It will be delivered in February or March. We made sure to get the stain protector for impending throw-up or dirty diapers.

Getting a stroller is something we went back and forth about getting. Ed and Tiffany (our guinea pig parents) have a 3 month old son. They like having a stroller and convinced us to get one. Car seats are a no-brainer if you want to stay out of jail and like your kids even a little. The bouncer is a good place to place the baby for exercise and if there is a moment when you need both of your hands to do something. My dad was nice enough to pay for all three of these items as our Christmas gift. Thanks Dad!

For the last 6 months I have wanted a steam vacuum. The carpets in our place were looking bad. Aside from ascetics, I cringed every time I thought about a baby crawling on our floor. Vanessa got me one for Christmas, so this weekend I cleaned the front half of the living room. Wow. What a difference. First I vacuumed with our regular vacuum cleaner, then I used the steam vacuum. I emptied the water 3 times. The first two times the water was black. Not brown, black. So much nicer now. I will be conquering the rest of the house over the next two weeks. This is also good for upholstery.

Vinyl stickers are for the nursery wall. We aren’t sure how many years we will stay here before getting a house, so I looked for alternatives to having a mural painted. I found some vinyl stick-ups online that are transferable. You can stick them up, peel them off, and stick them back up. So we will paint the wall to look like it’s underwater, then use these to add to the effect. We bought the dolphin, turtle, a shark, 2 angel fish, and a shcool of yellow fish.

Vanessa is doing well and is 23 weeks along. She started feeling the baby moving around Thursday night. It was a nice Christmas present. I’m looking forward to next year when we will be spending our first Christmas with the new addition to our family.

Eating garlic with Sugar Bear

2006-12-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

What a lazy day. Last Thursday by this time I had already fixed the plumbing, trimmed 2 trees, put up Christmas lights, gone to the grocery store, watched some TV, and started prepping dinner. The difference? Vanessa was visiting her parents last Thursday and I was home alone. Vanessa took the train to her parents’ house the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I had to work Friday morning, so I stayed home and drove-up to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday after work. When she is home I find myself laying around, watching TV and spending time on the laptop. I think it’s kind of like when people break-up, loose a bunch of weight, and buy new clothes. They start taking care of themselves. It also helped that I started planning that day earlier in the week.

Vanessa is now 20 weeks pregnant, so she is half way through. The baby is about 10” long but is about the size of a mango, since it is all curled up. Back around week 6 the baby was the size of a bean, so we now call it Bean. We still aren’t going to find out the sex of the baby until birth. We have almost nothing around the house in preparation. I installed the garage door opener. It took me 3 weeks, a couple of cuts, and lots of frustration. The opener had been sitting in the garage for 8 years and did not have the instructions. The other problem I ran into was the springs on the garage were too strong for the opener to push against. Anyway, I got that done.

We still have to clear out the office (aka Junk Room) and make it into a nursery. That means agreeing on paint and other stuff. We have picked out the crib and dresser/changing table. We need to order that sometime in the next couple of weeks. We have our next appointment on the 12th.

Went to dinner at The Stinking Rose for Adam's 33rd birthday tonight. Always like going to that place. Celebrity sighting: Suge Night

Woosh, woosh, woosh....

2006-10-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

The appointment went well and we learned Vanessa s really good at growing our baby. We received Vanessa’s blood test results back. Everything is perfect. The midwife took out the Doppler to listen to the babies heartbeat. This is when I started getting excited. The only evidence I have had that we are having a baby is two little blue lines on a pee stick, Vanessa not feeling well, and Vanessa sleeping a whole lot. It’s not that I didn’t believe that we are having a baby, it’s just nice to have some kind of contact with the little one. As soon as the Doppler touched Vanessa’s stomach the heartbeat was loud and clear. It sounded more like a woosh, woosh, woosh… about two a second. The midwife was surprised that it was so easy to find and that it was so strong. That made me happy. Strong heart = good.

So after a couple of minutes, they called me into the room so we could see the ultrasound. This is what I have been waiting for! So the midwife squeezed some hair gel onto Vanessa’s stomach. It might have been something medical, but it looked like hair gel to me. The ultrasound thingy went on Vanessa’s stomach and then we could see all sorts of black and white blobs on the screen. Then I could start to make out the head, legs, and torso. Most importantly, we only saw 1 baby. The baby was about the size of a lime, so you couldn’t really see features, but it did seam to have all of the right body parts. As far as the sex, we are not going to find out and we wouldn’t be able to tell for another 6 weeks or so.

I find that “Do you know if it is going to be a boy or a girl” is the most common question I get. It’s also the question people ask repeatedly every couple of days even after I have explained we don’t want to know. People are surprised that we don’t want to know the sex. I read last night that roughly 64% of people do want to know, so that is only 2 out of 3 couples. There are definitely pros to knowing the sex ahead of time, but we are looking forward to the anticipation and the surprise. It also keeps the grandmothers and myself from going crazy with buying a lot of stuff ahead of time.

90 Down & 190 To Go

2006-10-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Vanessa is down to the last day of the first trimester. So far, everything has gone really well. Vanessa had some nausea throughout most of the first trimester, but not enough to throw-up and it has subsided now. The second trimester is supposed to be much less eventful other than continuing to buy new clothes every couple of weeks and we should be able to feel the baby moving sometime in the next 4 to 8 weeks. Vanessa has really been taking care of herself. She’s eating very healthy and we are walking more often.

We have decided to have the baby at the South Coast Midwifery. I originally wanted Vanessa to have the baby at a hospital, but after going on a tour of a hospital’s facilities and then visiting the South Coast Midwifery, there was no doubt in my mind. The hospital was impersonal, only allowed two people in the room, and told us we would be prohibited from plugging anything in. They said it didn’t matter if the digital camera was dying and the baby was on its way. Too bad.

The Midwifery was much more friendly. They have birthing rooms that look like bedrooms , including one that has a spa tub. When Vanessa goes into labor, they will shut down the entire office for us. We can have as many people as we want, we can throw a party, we can eat whatever we want, we can play music, whatever. At the hospital Vanessa would only be allowed ice chips. Here, she can eat and do whatever she wants. They were 10 times more friendly and would be our primary care all of the way through the pregnancy. It was a no brainer. If something goes wrong, UCI is right around the corner. I did a lot of research on the place and their staff to assure we would be getting the best care.

We went to the first doctor appointment a month ago. I was surprised to learn doctors won’t even see you until you are 8 weeks pregnant. It was much less eventful than I thought. Vanessa gave a urine sample and a blood sample. Other than that it was just 20 questions and we were done. We had a second appointment scheduled for last week, but it was rescheduled after someone went into labor.

Our second appointment is now tomorrow (Tuesday). I’ll update my blog sometime later this week to let you know how that goes. I’m excited because this should be our first ultrasound. We haven’t made a lot of decisions so far, but we did make a decision not to find out the sex of the baby. The baby already has all of it’s organs and parts at this point. It’s just the size of a lime, so the next 190 days is all about growing.

2 cents please

2006-09-27T21:20:00.001-07:00

After 11 years of having a real job I have learned some of the rules about communication.

1. Never write anything in an email that you would not want the President of the company or anyone else to read.
2. Email can always be misinterpreted. People often read work email with a rude or sarcastic tone. Even if you are trying your hardest to be nice, they can think the complete opposite. That’s why I often put “Thanks!” at the bottom of my email.
3. Never send an email when it was written in anger or frustration. Most of the time it will be forwarded to someone and you will end up in an office explaining your intentions.
4. Don’t invite your boss to call in sick and hang out with you. Yes, I actually was dumb enough to do this years ago.
5. There’s more, but you get the idea.

So here is the part I need help with. I think I am overly polite when I go to talk to someone. Today I stopped by a buyer’s desk and asked her for a phone number for someone she buys product from. She started to look it up, but then her phone rang. She could have easily put the person on hold and given me the contact, but she didn’t. She talked for them for two minutes until I got fed up and walked away. It really pissed me off.

I think it pissed me off because I try to be courteous to everyone at work. If I am on the phone or in the middle of a conversation I will always acknowledge if someone comes to my door and give them an estimate of how long it will be. If I am speaking with someone and my phone rings I do one of two things. Either explain that this is an important call and that I need just a minute, or write the number down of the person calling me and call them after I am done.

So two questions. How long should I wait if they are already talking to someone on the phone or in person, they know I am there, but they don’t acknowledge me? How long should I wait if I am already meeting with someone and they take a phone call? Or should I just be less courteous and do the same thing to everyone else?

One more thing to pass by you. The President of the company comes to my office about once every six months for something. Last Friday he stopped by as I was rebooting my computer. I started talking to him and glanced over at my computer to my horror to see a movie of Napoleon Dynamite dancing on my screen. The IS Manager thought it would be funny to screw with my computer, but never anticipating someone might be in my office when my computer started. I think the President just thought I was messing around on company time. I don’t want to get the IS Manager in trouble, but I also don’t want the President to think I am a waste of an employee. What do you think?

When will you be taking the jet out again?

2006-09-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

So the weekend in Santa Barbara turned out to be a weekend at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara. Talk about great service. I was asked my name by the valet guy and for the rest of the weekend I was "Mr. Montgomery" to everyone I came into contact with. So, we checked in and were told we would be staying in a deluxe room. That sounded nice. After checking in we headed off to our room. Vanessa opened the door... but the safety latch caught and we could only open it 2 inches. So that was the first problem. The second problem was someone was in our shower. WTF?

We closed the door and walked about 10 feet to a house phone in the hallway. I explained the problem and they were stuttering. Sounds like this doesn't happen often. After making our way back to the lobby they apologized many times, bought us drinks (non-alcohol for Vanessa) and had us wait in the bar while they sorted it out. No problem. Drinking wine, looking at the beach, relaxing. So the problem was they didn't have another Deluxe Room with a king bed. The solution... an upgrade to a Deluxe Cottage Suite. Actually that was around 7 upgrades. So the room was in a private cottage, 1,100 square feet, 2 plasma screens, a full size living room, fireplace, two bathrooms with a rain shower, 2 person bathtub, steam shower, heated floors, etc, etc, etc. After we got home I checked... $2,040 a night. Wow. My company also provided $100 cash and $200 of hotel credit. Not bad.

So while waiting to get our car from the valet to go to dinner, there was a father and daughter standing in front of us. She had her boyfriend with her who was dressed like a slob and I can only imagine the father isn't a fan of. So while waiting for their car I thought I heard him say something to his daughter, but I but it didn't seem realistic, so I figured I heard it wrong. Then, when the fathers Maybach ($380,000 car) rolled up, I realized I did hear him right. He was wondering when she was going to have a chance to take the jet out again. I can't believe people actually live this way.

Over the 2 days we spent the $100 on dinner, lunch, and a trip to the local zoo. The room credit went towards a $74 room service breakfast the first day (crazy, I know) and a $23 tab at the bar the second afternoon. We had $103 left. More on that later.

The company had a nice dinner with an open bar, 5 course dinner with venison, pinot noir grapes, and a bunch of other really good food that I can't remember. They even had Flamenco dancers to entertain us. Vanessa and I sat with one of the top guys from Daphnes Greek Cafe. Great night.

So the next morning we had $103 of room credit and nothing to spend it on. So we decided to have a $105 room service breakfast. How many times in your life do you get to stay in a $2,040 hotel room and eat a $100 breakfast? What do you get for $105 you ask? an omelet, fresh fruit, pancakes, and hot chocolate. Yep, that's it. The whole weekend cost us $2 plus gas. Not bad.

So to moral of the story is...

2006-09-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

First, thank you for the kind comments. Makes me want to write more. Congratulations Nick!

So after a fun weekend and one hell of a Labor Day BBQ I returned to work... with a bit of a hangover. But I didn't care. Those margaritas were GOOD! I guess my boss didn't have a hangover because she started the morning by grilling me about some financial numbers I was reporting. I won't bore you with all of the details, but by 11:30 I was not happy and feeling quite unappreciated. In addition, my boss assigned me two more projects to accomplish by Friday. I already have roughly 15 due by the end of the month. This is in addition to my normal duties. I went to lunch in a foul mood.

I decided I was carrying too much stress and couldn't continue to keep up at the pace she was setting for me. I sent her an email explaining I was resigning from the committee I am the Chairperson for that she recommended me for. I explained that my priority is my department and if I am not running my department to produce the absolute best results, then I do not feel that I should be working on Committees which are not improving my department.

That was Tuesday and I still haven't received a response. The rest of my day went poorly including hitting some metal thing on the freeway and taking a chip of paint off the bumper of my car. Not cool.

Wednesday I walked into another shit storm. I was called into my bosses' office and was told an employee in Accounting complained about me and said I talked down to her and was rude. WHAT?!?!?!? I didn't even talk. I just sat there pissed off and shaking my head in disbelief. The truth is I was very patient with this employee and she was rude and insubordinate to the point I spoke with her supervisor. My boss knew it wasn't true without even asking me for my side, but I spent the next hour listening about how this employee didn't do what I turned into her and that it was my fault. PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And... she gave me 2 more things to complete before the end of the day.

I completed the things she asked me to do. During one of these tasks I found that the same Accounting employee hadn't been doing her job for the last 1 1/2 weeks and a customer was getting charged $3,500 for product they never received because of that. That cheered me up a little.

I left work and was driving to join some friends for dinner when my boss called me on my cell phone. She said that she wanted to send Vanessa and I away this weekend to Santa Barbara. It is a reward trip normally reserved for Sales, however she was allowed to send someone from her department and she selected me. She said she knows I work hard and she appreciates the work I do. These trips are amazing. The best hotels, spending cash, excursions, etc. I'll get the details tomorrow. The only downer is everyone else is leaving tomorrow morning. Vanessa and I can't go until Friday after work (my decision, not work's). It cheered me up a little. We'll see how tomorrow goes. My boss has already told me to see her first thing in the morning.... another project.

What did I do this summer???

2006-08-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well I wasn't updating my blog, that's for sure! So what did I do? A lot of traveling. At the end of June Vanessa and I went to visit my dad in Thailand. "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (Princess Bride quote). It was great to see my dad and to see how he spends his day's now that he is retired. Not a bad life. Now I understand why he made the move. Thailand was paradise. Anything you can get here, you can get there. I took over 950 pictures. Everywhere I went was breathtaking, so I just kept snapping pictures. Now my office is filled with pics of Thailand.

After two long week of relaxing, snorkeling, and drinking Mai Tais it was time to come home and go back to work... For 4 days. Then we were off to Prescott, Arizona for 3 days for Kasie's birthday. Kasie and Ryan's mom has a gorgeous place out there with quite a bit of land, a stream we went wading in, horse stables, and a beautiful house.

We were home for two weeks before heading to Vegas or another tough weekend of drinking, black jack, and craps (the table game, not the other kind). We were so exhausted from Vegas we thought we deserved another vacation, so I worked for another 4 days and then we drove up to Cambria for our 2 year anniversary. Cambria is a nice little town on the coast about 10 minutes south of Hearst Castle. What did we do there? Relax. We walked around town, ate, played cards, and slept. It was great.

Sounds like a pretty good summer right? Well on August 20th at 5:45 in the morning my summer got even better. Vanessa came back into the bedroom from emptying her bladder to tell me she was pregnant! I'm so excited! We had planed on trying this summer and the timing turned out perfectly. We are expecting in late April 2007. I'll update as we get more information.

More Thailand Pictures

2006-08-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Shopping for homes…

2006-04-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today Vanessa and I decided to start going to Open House’s. Just to get an idea of what is available at different price levels. We went into 8 different homes in Yorba Linda and Placentia. The listing prices varied from $649,000 to $1.3 million. Which I am guessing is $200,000 to $900,000 out of our price range. It is interesting to see what you can get for about the same amount of money.

One looked brand new and was on a golf course ($689,000), one is in terrible condition about two blocks from the first one ($649,000), another was amazing at first glace, but the cabinets were cheap and uneven and the walls were wavy ($940,000).

It was a fun day, but then we came home and I looked on the internet at homes that are in our price range. Ugh. Talk about a letdown. If I only had another $400,000. Anyone? Anyone? No? Okay…

I’m going to keep waiting and hope for the market to plummet. Even if prices drop 15% I would be happy with that. Someday…

Back again?

2006-04-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Maybe. I feel a rant inside of me that has been eating away for weeks. Maybe even months. Which car should Vanessa get? About 3 months ago Vanessa mentioned to me that she would like to get a new car. No rush, but sometime within the next year. She’s currently driving a 2003 Honda Accord. It’s been a great car and there really isn’t anything wrong with it. On the other hand, I got a new car and she really likes it. So, she would like to get something that has some of the features my car has that her car doesn’t (navigation, dual climate, voice recognition, etc). So I started looking and started compiling a list.

As I started making suggestions I realized just how bad this was going to be. My thought was… (insert dreamy, wavy effects here). She wants the comfort items, but she doesn’t need great performance. We have a sedan, so it would be nice to be able to haul stuff around. We will never own a minivan… I know! An SUV! Perfect!” Vanessa didn’t seem to agree and that’s putting it gently. She says she doesn’t think they are safe and doesn’t want to be up that high. It didn’t matter if I showed her the NHTSA test results on safety and rollover ratings, she has that perception in her head, so that killed that idea.

She said that what she really wants is the same car I have. I can understand that, since it’s the same car I picked out. The problem is I keep getting a picture in my head of opening the garage and seeing the same car, in the same color. So then I asked her if she just wants my car and I will find something else. She said that would work. The problem is… I love my car. Not like, love. I can’t imagine getting something else I like that much. But then I thought, I’ll give her my car and I will get an Acura MDX (SUV). It has the same features as my car, but it’s just bigger and a little slower.

Well that didn’t go over well either. I think the exact quote was, “I don’t want an SUV, I won’t ride in an SUV, and I won’t own an SUV!” That pretty much killed that idea. If I get a car, then I will want something better. Since I think my car is the best car for under $45,000 (just my opinion) then this can get really expensive. So this is about 1/10th of the tennis match going on. I will bring something up, she will shoot it down, I’ll get frustrated, and then I will say, “Just get whatever you want.” Then I’ll start thinking again.

I think the problem is that I am so interested in cars and have so many thoughts and opinions and Vanessa’s opinions on cars are 90% different. I can’t stop thinking about the subject and I bet Vanessa only thinks about it when I bring it up. It’s driving me NUTS!

Fit but you know it

2006-03-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

Yep. I’ve been busy. Lately, life has consisted of going to work, eating dinner, watching a little TV, then going to bed. Even the weekends have been busy. I’m still working on the Freezer Project at work, although it is close to being done. I figure 2 to 3 more weeks. Then I can go back to only working full-time.

I booked our airline tickets to Thailand today. I can’t wait, but I guess I’ll have to. I didn’t put it off any further that I had to. Only one day separates the start of Vanessa’s summer vacation and our departure. I’m looking forward to seeing my dad, seeing a new place, and R E L A X I N G. I like my job a lot, but two weeks away would be great.

We went to Adam and Jennie’s wedding last weekend. Nice ceremony and a great reception. I never took advantage of an open bar before, but I sure did this time. I was able to experiment and learned there is a HUGE difference between top shelf and crap. As the last song came on I was ready for bed. Luckily I foresaw this and booked a room. I love the beds at Sheraton hotels. It was great to see Mike and Caroline.

During the ceremony I thought the priest, father, minister, or whatever you want to call him said some really interesting things about marriage. It really touched me and I have decided to start trying to be less of a dick. It will take a while, but I am trying. After the ceremony I started to talk to Vanessa about what he said since it was so special to me. She told me she zoned out while he was talking. Bummer.

It wouldn’t be a blog update without Barney. Barney is fine. Still not the best in the world, but I think he has improved. He still has problems turning reports in on time and hasn’t even started on a project that will make his job easier. Regardless, my job would be much tougher without him.

Random thoughts...

"I just stopped sharkin a minute to get chips and drinks"

I sure hope home prices drop in the next two years. How depressing.

P.S. Download Google Earth if you want to be entertained for hours.

Put up or shut up

2006-01-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

“To obtain a management position in which I can demonstrate and utilize my knowledge in Inventory Management, Warehouse Management Systems, and Purchasing within a company that rewards proficient and loyal employees through recognition and promotion. “

That is the Objective listed at the top o my resume. Cheesy? Maybe a little, but honest. I don’t think enough bosses give employees compliments or pats on the back. No, I’m not searching for a new job. I really enjoy my job. Today, I received my 1st Quarter Goals (January through the end of March). Normally, I would get these the first or second week of January, but when my boss gets too work at 6:00 AM and leaves me voicemails at 9:30 PM, it’s hard for me to complain that she hasn’t told me my goals yet. At 5:30 PM today she called me to discuss the goals, so I headed up to her office.

So, the first goal she gave me was to finish the Freezer project. This is basically a gimme since the Freezer will be finished. I was relieved to see it on there, because if it wasn’t then I would have been upset. I would have talked to her about it, and I would had a lot of resentment. I have spent hundreds of hours on the Freezer project. Even though the President of the Los Angeles Division is taking me out to lunch to thank me (gloat, gloat), money is always a nice “thank you”.

My second goal is to research which vendors we purchase perishable items from, determine the money provided from those vendors to offset those losses, determine which vendors we don’t get money from, and determine why the product goes bad (bad purchasing, inconsistent customers, etc).

Anyway she told me the reason she and the president decided to give me this project is I am their “go to guy”. She said they both agreed that I am the person they turn to when they need a project done and want results without excuses or sugar coating. That was great to hear, but is also a lot to live up to. My dad was always this guy. Now it’s me. The only problem with this is all I have to do is screw up once to loose their faith. I guess it’s time to step up.

P.S. My dad has lost 46 pounds since moving to Thailand!!! I'm so proud of him!

What a bitch!

2006-01-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

That Reina is such a bitch! Vanessa and I spent the weekend in Vegas for my birthday and Ryan’s birthday. We drove up, stayed in the same room as, spent most of our time with, and drove back with James and Reina. James was great, but Reina was such a total bitch. Spoiled brat is probably a better way to explain it. I drove nicely. Okay I sped a little when she fell asleep (or when I thought she was asleep). I made sure we did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to. I tried to be polite to her, but she spent the whole weekend thinking about herself and taking digs at me whenever she had the chance. Whatever. I’m so over Reina. I can’t believe we went through all of the trouble to make her ice cream when she had her surgery last week.

Anyway. Reina told me I would probably write something like this in my blog when we got back from Vegas, so I just thought I would have some fun with it. Reina is still a sweetheart. Thank you to everyone for a great weekend in Vegas. The drive was nice. The hotel was nice (Sahara). Gambling sucked! I lost (Black Jack and Craps). Dinner was pretty good (Grand Lux Café). The show was great (La Reve). The Wynn was classy. Sunday Brunch was brunchy!

See you tomorrow Reina!

Catching up with the Montgomery's

2006-01-07T23:05:00.000-08:00

I don’t even know where to start. So much has happened since the last time I wrote. I guess I’ll just write randomly as I remember stuff. Christmas was spent in Capitola with Vanessa, my mom, and my grandma. It was great. My mom gave me an iPod Video (30 GB) for Christmas, but I received it early, so Vanessa and I put it on shuffle and listened to it on the drive using an FM transmitter. Despite a little traffic, that was the most relaxing drive I have ever had driving that far. The car was great. Very comfortable and plenty of power for whatever I wanted to do. The navigation made it fun to try and beat the car’s estimate, but the car knows best. I think it was within 5 minutes of it’s original estimate which isn’t bad for a 6 hour drive.

I spent most of the time at my grandma’s catching up on sleep, playing cards, playing dominos, and eating. It was wonderful. It was also nice taking 5 days off of work. I have been working a lot of hours (70 to 80 hours a week), but since Christmas I have forced myself to slow down and work less hours. I did drag Vanessa to my work for two hours today. Huge help.

My dad is doing great… I think. I actually haven’t heard form him since a couple of days before New Years. He traveled up to some remote part of Thailand with outdoor showers and squat toilets. Oh boy! Anyway, I hope to hear from him again soon.

Barney is Barney. On a daily basis he impresses me and disappoints me.

Vanessa and I had a quiet New Years. Vanessa made a reservation at a local restaurant (Wild Artichoke). It’s a great little restaurant with 10 tables and amazing food. They had a special menu for New Years. Afterward, we went home, set-up the Aerobed in the living room, and watched movies. The plan was to eat a bunch of candy and junk food, but we were both stuffed from dinner. The whole weekend revolved around movies. We went to the theatre twice and watched 3 DVD’s. King Kong, Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe, House of Wax, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Hitch. Liked them all except House of Wax.

January is busy with Birthdays (including mine), Vegas, award banquets, dinners, wedding showers, BBQ’s, and comedy shows.

Later.

Pull……………BANG!

2005-11-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, we went up to Vanessa’s parent’s house in Llano. Where? Llano. It’s between Palmdale and Wrightwood. If you’ve ever looked at the San Gabriel mountains from San Dimas and said, “I wonder what’s on the other side?” it’s Llano. I left work early on Friday, picked Vanessa up, and then rushed over to my mom’s place. Well, I was planning on rushing, but it took an hour with all the traffic. We picked up my mom and rushed up the 15 freeway. Well, I was planning on rushing, but it took 2 hours. I knew it would be slow, so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

I was a little tired when we got there, but they already had the spa heated up and her dad offered me a glass of wine. Within 10 minutes I was relaxed as could be. It’s amazing when you get up there and there is no one around. No sound, no pollution, just twinkling lights and a warm spa out on the deck..

The next day (Thanksgiving) we rolled out of bed around 7:30 am. Early for me, but her dad woke up at 2:00 am to go to work, and Uncle Tim was already sealing the deck. I did some work on my laptop as I ate a bagel, drank some coffee, and wiped the cobwebs from my eyes. I started to feel insufficient sitting in the kitchen with the women, so I helped Tim work on the sliding glass doors. The three sliders went from hard to open to opening with your pinky in about an hour.

Tim pulled out the clay-pigeon launchers and the 12 gauge. After a couple of minutes and some instructions on how to shoot a shotgun I was yelling pull and firing away. I’ve shot guns before, but it’s been since high-school and never a shotgun. On my third shot I started hitting the targets about every other time. Fun! Then he showed me how to take the shotgun apart, lube it, and clean it.

Dinner was great with two turkeys and all of the regular fixin’s (stuffing, cranberry, mashed potatoes, gravy, olives, etc.). My mom made her Mmmlicious (the name we call it) which is yams with walnuts, spices, and marshmallows melted on top. Yummy.

After dinner, Uncle Tim was still restless, so he started staining the deck. I put up a new light fixture just so I wouldn’t look lazy. I think it turned out well. Vanessa’s brother Donald showed up after dinner, but kept to himself and stayed in the kitchen and the guestroom. Not a word from either of us.

For dessert Vanessa’s mom made pumpkin pie and her dad made a blueberry cheesecake. They were both delicious. After watching the sunset we headed home with my mom. A nice way to spend Thanksgiving.

Of all of the things to inspire me to write…

2005-11-21T21:03:00.000-08:00

A lot has been going on and I keep thinking, “Oh, I should write about this”. Tonight, I finally couldn’t help myself. I came home tonight with a lot of energy, which is strange since I woke up at 5:00 AM to go into work early. So, back to my story. I ordered pizza on my way home (pineapple and pepperoni toppings, along with garlic knots, antipasto salad, buffalo wings, and a diet coke). I came home and saw the place was a mess. Before you start wring comments, it’s not Vanessa’s fault. She has been working hard and was studying for her Master’s final. For some reason I have a thing about the pizza guy seeing our house when it’s messy, so I tore into Super Cleaning Mode.

I was going to clean the house Saturday, but was way too lazy. Sunday we went to the 49er’s game. Great game despite the loss. So I start with the living room, then the clothes, then the coffee table. Finally I make it to the kitchen. We had recently bought some new Cascade product that promises spotless dishes without scrubbing the dishes first. Vanessa had a coupon, so we got it. I was in a hurry, but took my time to find the dishes that had baked on sauce, hardened-melted cheese, and bowls with dried stuff on the bottom. I turned the dishwasher on and walked away. An hour later I expected to open the dishwasher an be satisfied that hard food would continue to rule the world. I was wrong. The dishes were clean. Spotless even. Crazy. I’m still not over it.

Anyway, we are heading up to Vanessa’s parents for Thanksgiving. I’m really looking forward to it… except her bother, Donald, might be there. I can’t stand him. When I first met him I tried to be nice and start a conversation and he blew me off. I’ve tried to be nice to him several times since then, but he always takes advantage of it and raises himself to a new level of “jerk” (sorry to any of his relatives). There was one time I couldn’t stand it anymore and started posturing and giving him the “I’m going to kick your ass right now” look. He backed off and was somewhat human. Whatever.

I’m dragging Vanessa to the Fiona Apple concert on Saturday. I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much I like Fiona, but every time she has released an album I had just broken up with someone, so it really stuck with me. Vanessa’s not too excited about going, but she has promised not to say anything negative. Right Vanessa? I was able to score good tickets from Ticketmaster for the first time ever.

I’ve been busy at work and things are about to get a whole lot busier for me. Next Monday we are starting to move into the new freezer. For the next couple of months I will be attached to a computer at work and home. For all of my Wednesday BBQ friends get used to looking at the back of my laptop.

The king of the eyesores?

2005-11-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I saw the movie Garden State sometime last year and really liked the music, but forgot about it for a while. The movie was on HBO last week and I have watched it twice since then, so I bought the soundtrack to Garden State on Sunday. I really like this CD and I listen to it in my office at work (very lightly).

I looked up some of the lyrics to the songs yesterday and they are so odd that I try not to think of them while I listen to the songs. Examples of the lyrics:

Song: New Slang Artist: The Shins
Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth.
Only, I don't know how they got out, dear.
Turn me back into the pet that I was when we met.
I was happier then with no mind-set.

And if you'd 'a took to me like A gull takes to the wind.
Well, I'd 'a jumped from my tree
And I’d a danced like the king of the eyesores
And the rest of our lives would 'a fared well.

New slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries.
Hope it's right when you die, old and bony.
Dawn breaks like a bull through the hall,
Never should have called But my head's to the wall and I'm lonely.

Song: Let Go Artist – Frou Frou
Drink up baby downAre you in or are you out?
Leave your things behind'
Cause it's all going off without you
Excuse me too busy you're writing a tragedy
These mess-ups
You bubble-wrap
When you've no idea what you're like

It gains the more it gives
And then it rises with the fall
So hand me that remote
Can't you see that all that stuff's a slideshow?
Such boundless pleasure
We've no time for later
Now you can't wait
You roll your eyes
We've twenty seconds to comply

You know the songs must be good if the lyrics are this weird.

Does that make James John Lennon?

2005-11-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

I started to write a blog on Tuesday, when I stayed home sick, but all I did was write about being sick. How boring is that? I’ve been sick for two weeks know yuck. I’m sure I would be over it by know if I took better care of myself. Oh well.

Work has been fun. I really appreciate the company I work for and my position after working at other places. I was at work until after 8:15 pm tonight, but I didn’t mind. I had a meeting with the rest of the Finance managers that started at 5:00 and had a couple of things to over with the VP. Since the building was mostly empty, I stole a couple of chairs and swapped them with the crappy visitor chairs I had in my office. I don’t think anyone will notice the one’s that I stole.

We didn’t have a BBQ this week. This is the first time we didn’t have a Wednesday BBQ since we first started a year ago. I blame Reina. She’s the Yoko Ono of the group.

Halloween was great. Well, Halloween night sucked as a whole, but the party at James and Steve’s place kicked ass. Best party I can remember. Vanessa and I won a prize for having one of the best costumes. I’m not sure how many prizes were handed out, but I our costume was pretty good. I was Napoleon Dynamite and Vanessa was Deb (the girl with the sideways ponytail in the movie). We both had a great time. That’s all I have to say about that! What happens on Zenith street stays on Zenith street.

Dad is doing well. He wakes up at noon every day, loves his condo, and is having fun with his girlfriend. What else is there? Vanessa and I are planning on visiting him in July.

I still love my car. I don’t remember if I wrote about my new cell phone or not, but if I did then feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. In addition to doing everything, yes everything, it also works with my car. When I get into my car the car and phone recognize each other. Any phone calls mute my stereo and the person’s voice goes through my speakers. To make a phone call I just push a button on the steering wheel and say the person’s name. Good stuff. I can just leave my phone in my pocket or put it in a compartment. It’s great.

For those of you who skipped to this next paragraph, you missed the best part.

Later.

Sorry, but my dog ate my blog.

2005-10-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

I’m running out or excuses for not updating my blog. I have been sick the last couple of days and it has really been dragging me down, but that’s not a good reason either. There’s been some stuff going on at work that I really can’t talk about. Barney is doing better. I have actually received some compliments and people have said they have seen some change in his behavior. He’s still not a super star, but I was definitely stressed and working extra hours when he was on vacation a couple of days last week.

There’s a new Controller at work. I think I’ll call her Attila the Hun. The VP of Finance (my boss) had been looking for a new Controller for a long time, so we all figured Attila would be amazing. Nope. Every time we have a meeting it goes an extra hour due to Attila asking questions about general knowledge stuff. I think the VP is starting to realize she made a mistake.

My dad is doing well. He just sent some pictures of the condo he is leasing for the next couple of months until he finds one he wants to buy. He called me last weekend. That’s the second time we’ve talked since he left. You can just hear it in his voice how relaxed and happy he is. I’m happy for him.

I went out to the Elephant Bar last night with some co-workers. One of the people in Finance is leaving (Molly), so we all went out to say goodbye. It was the first time I had hung out with anyone other than the IS Manager. That’s not good after being here for 4 months. Anyway, I think some people got to know me outside of my normal stuffy work self, so those people were a little more personable at work today.

At my last job, I was never really friends with anyone. There was people I got along with, but no one to ever go to lunch with. I’m hoping this will be the start of having some friends at work.

That’s enough for today…

I just want to sleep!

2005-10-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

I had a terrible time trying to sleep last night. I slept in that morning, so I knew it might be a problem, but I had no idea. I tried once about 11:30, but it just wasn’t going to happen. While pretending that I was just about to fall asleep the neighbor (the good one’s not the bad one’s) decided to have a loud conversation with his friends just outside our open siding glass door in the bedroom. I got up and closed the door, which made them realize the errors of their ways, so they stopped talking. Then the room was stuffy. I pretended it wasn’t, but Vanessa (who had been asleep for an hour or so didn’t have the same imagination I did. She got up about 10 minutes later and opened the door again.

Then I tried watching TV to help me relax, but Vanessa wasn’t happy about that. Some of you might think this is a little ironic, since Vanessa can’t fall asleep without the TV on. I found it ironic too. So, I went downstairs and turned on the TV. By now it was sometime after 1:00. I found this cool show on the Military Channel. It was a competition for the best Army Ranger. As I laid on the couch I thought about how cool it must be to be in that good of shape and to get to shoot machine guns! Sometime after 2:30 I went back upstairs. I think I fell asleep sometime after 3:00.

Then I was a crab in the morning and made rude grunting sounds when Vanessa came in sweetly and turned on the news like she does every morning to wake me up. We went to Thai food for lunch, where I apologized profusely. I think everything’s okay now.

A bittersweet week

2005-10-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

I dropped my dad off at the airport on Sunday. He’s now officially retired and living in Thailand. It was a nice last week at work (other than the employee I suspended). Monday my dad and I had dinner with the Division President, VP of Finance, VP of Human Resources, VP of Operations, Finance Manager, a Sales Manager, the IS Manager, and…. Barney. I’m not going to say who, but somebody did not belong… The dinner was a “thank you” for my dad. They presented him with a watch and everyone said great things about him. I actually choked-up a little when I was saying my stuff, but I don’t think anyone noticed. Barney made some inappropriate comments that brought the room to a complete standstill. The comments weren’t devastating, but people were still talking about him on Tuesday.

Wednesday we had cake and ice-cream at work, but I missed most of it because of a meeting with the Union reps and my wonderful suspended employee. After he finished telling his side of the story, I realized that he is the most wonderful employee and that Barney and I completely misunderstood the situation (sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell). By the time I got to the party, almost everyone was gone, but they saved me cake and ice-cream. Yummy.

Friday, my dad took Vanessa and I out to a really nice dinner, where we polished-off 4 bottles of wine. Vanessa had ½ a bottle, you do the rest of the math. Two of the bottles my dad had been saving since the 70’s and were worth a combined value of $2,000… if they were good. I think each of the wines were a little past their prime from not being stored properly. Since we were already feeling good and the wine was worth so much, we drank all of the first one and most of the second one. Dinner was great, but I didn’t feel too good the next day.

Saturday, Vanessa and I upgraded our cell phones. Vanessa does not like complex phones and was pissed to learn that the store didn’t have any displays that weren’t color. I bought a phone that does everything you can imagine and more. I didn’t need that many features, but I wanted to get a phone that integrated with my car. Afterward, we went out to lunch with my mom and dad and had a good time.

Sunday, Vanessa and I dropped my dad off at the airport after stopping for breakfast. I thought I would be very emotional when saying goodbye, but it wasn’t too bad. Surreal, if anything. I was a little pissed when I got back to my car in the parking lot to see someone had opened their door and took a bit of paint off my door. REALLY PISSED. I’m almost over it now.

Monday was depressing at work. Without my dad, I felt somewhat alone. For the past 3 months, my dad and I spent a large part of the work day working together and joking. I get a long well with the IS Manager, but it’s not the same.

There is a lot going on a work, but I don’t think I should talk about it here. I’ve heard too many horror stories. Anyway, since my dad is gone and I don’t have any other life changing events that I know of coming back, I think my entries are going to return to more of the day to day stories. Hope you enjoy.

I like boobies!

2005-09-25T17:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was fun. After going to the Taste of Newport (apparently, Newport tastes like silicone and peroxide) we went back to Diane’s apartment. James went for a quick swim after I heard someone say, “I dare you to…”. That’s all it took. The B-52’s played at the Taste of Newport and the food was good. The next day James and I went to Montez’s place up in Van Nuys (a.k.a. Holy Crap This is Far). Mike had won a contest from 97.1 FM. Brand new 48” HDTV, Fatburger, fries, and soda for everyone. The Leykett’s showed up (2 of them). They looked good, but spent most of the time talking to the 97.1 Street Team and about negative calories (whatever). It was nice to see everyone again. I think the last time was Halloween 2004. After Montez and the crew started playing Halo, James and I decided it was time to experience Manifest Destiny and drive home. After 17 hours and a couple of narrow escapes from the various Indian tribes we made it.

This week was filled with interesting experiences at work. I’m not going to get into details, but I had to suspend someone in my department for making a threat to Barney. The one sentence was the summary of 2 weeks of drama and stress. That’s all for now.

Wednesday was the BBQ at Reina’s. James (I think it was James) set a menu and directed everyone on what to bring, so it was actually organized this time. I had a good time and just decided to spend most of the night listening instead of talking (unusual for me). It was probably a nice beak for everyone!

This will be my dad’s last week at work. He’s been bored since he has handed over all of his responsibility to the new IS Manager and myself. This will probably be a really long week for him. I took him shopping for his retirement gift the company is giving him at dinner Monday night. He wasn’t supposed to know about it, but I thought he should pick out something he likes. We spent the rest of the afternoon practicing his “look of surprise”. He almost has it down.

Last night V and I went to Dinseyland with Ed and Tiffany. After dinner, they took me on Tower of Terror. WTF?!?! I hated it! I hate the feeling of falling and that is all this ride is. The worst part is, the ride almost completely in the dark, so I couldn’t tell if I was dropping or going up really fast. Just when I thought I was at the bottom, I would be at the top where you can see out across the city, then I would go plunging back into darkness again. I just kept saying, “I’m not happy. I’m not enjoying this.” over and over again. At least everyone else had a good time laughing at me. We went on a couple of other rides, caught the new fireworks show, hit Space Mountain (love it), and said goodnight.

Today I hung out with my mom. She took me out to lunch and handed me something I am calling the “packet of death”. She already has a Trust set-up, but she handed me a document giving instructions on who to contact, what to do with her body, and so on. Great information and it will make things much simpler when she dies, but since my dad finished his Trust this week, so it seems like everything is revolving around death.

I’ll try and write again during the week. There’s a lot of stuff going on for my dad’s retirement and I have a lot to do this week before he leaves. Later!

Always leave ‘em wanting more

2005-09-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy writing my blog, but I just haven’t made time for it lately. Work is going well. My dad has 13 days left and I think we’re going to have a lot of fun those last 13 days. I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with all of the things I need to do and thanks to some lazy people in my department I have had more practice with discipline. There are so many things I want to share with you since the last time I wrote I don’t even know where to start. I’ll divide this up into little chapters. That way you feel like you are accomplishing something as you reach the end of each segment.

My Car

I am still thoroughly enjoying my car. It is so much fun to drive! I have been trying to drive calmer, but it is so much fun to push my foot down just a little bit more and get a rush. Vanessa has clued in that when I move the shifter to the “manual” mode, then it’s time to hold on.

Work

Barney sucks. Today I made the mistake of allowing him to accompany me to the VP of Finance’s office (my boss). He said some really STUPID things to her joking about not reporting all of the financials properly makes the numbers look better and how the new procedure will affect his bonus. I know he was kidding, but my jaw dropped. I looked at my boss and asked if there was a window I could jump out of. I was completely embarrassed. I had a little talk with him on the way back to the office about what is and is not appropriate to discuss in front of my boss.

Later I went back to my boss’s office and discussed his comments, how inappropriate they were and that I talked to him. We are having an audit next week. Both of us are worried about him “joking” with the auditors. I will be having a talk or two or three with him before then.

I had two employees that decided to talk while they should be working. They were counting product using a handheld computer, so when I saw them not working I started tracking their transactions. One guy took an extra 18 minutes on his lunch and they both were talking for 15 minutes without working. When I called them into my office neither one of them would talk. I’m upset with myself now, because I was too busy getting my own work done to properly write them up. One of them is on vacation now, so I called the other one into my office yesterday to discuss the issue. He looked at the reports I printed showing his “extra time”, listened to what I had to say, and didn’t say one word. That pissed me off, but today he was a counting machine. He knows Barney and I are watching.

Dopey and the much needed dime

My dad and I were at lunch last week. I had my back to the counter, but some young guy ordering his food asked my dad for a dime. My dad told him, “Yeah, but not for you.” I was kind of surprised and I thought is wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but it turned out to be appropriate. The guy then told my dad, “God bless you anyway man”. I still had my back to the guy, so I was trying to figure out why my dad suddenly got a confused look on his face. The guy pulled money out of his pocket and paid for his food. He had the money he needed, but didn’t want to have change in his pocket. He then turned around and said to my dad, “Fuck you. Why did you punk me like that? Fuck you. All I did was ask you for some money. You didn’t have to punk me like that. Fuck you man.”

This got my attention, so I turned around. This guy was about 17 and was a dopey overweight white kid wearing huge baggy shorts, a baggy shirt, and had his baseball hat tilted off at an angle. A dopey white gangster wannabe. He kept talking shit. I gave him the best shut-the-fuck-up-before-I-stand-up-and-kick-your-dopey-ass look I could. He said a couple of parting words, grabbed his food and walked out the door. My dad and I were in a little bit of shock. It was just kind of surreal.

49ers and Carl’s Jr.

I went to the 49er game with my dad this last weekend. This was the last game before he heads off to Thailand. The 49ers must have known because they KICKED ASS!!! It is so much more fun going to the game when they win. We had a great time and both came home a little sunburned and with hoarse voices. Sometime during the day I shared the question which has been plaguing my mid lately. At Carl’s Jr. is it a better deal to get the Double Western Cheese Burger or the Six Dollar Western Burger? We discussed this for a while and he appeased me by discussing the details and weighing the pros and cons. Monday when we went out for lunch we happened to go to Carl’s Jr. I saw my dad looking at the options and he ordered the Six Dollar Western Cheese Burger. I couldn’t help it. I had to order the Double Western Cheese Burger.

The results: The DWCB is 60 cents cheaper, has more meat (1/2 lb vs. 1/3 lb), and has an extra slice of cheese. So the SDWCB is a total rip-off.

That’s all I have to say about that.

Vegas and my court appearance

2005-08-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

On Friday I left work early, hurried home, and loaded up the car. James, Reina, Vanessa, and I started the trip to Vegas. I tried to baby the car as much as possible, but it was so hard. I made sure not to stomp on the gas. It was fun to drive, but a 4 hour drive is still a 4 hour drive. That night we went to Downtown Vegas. I had never been there before, but the movie Swingers wasn’t far off. I think the lights attract weird people like moths.

The next day we hung out at the pool. I saw Mike and Caroline for the first time since October. It was nice to hang out, but now that I think about, I didn’t see them that much. It was GREAT having a room with James and Reina. I was a little worried about spending all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with them, but it was great and we had a great time. Saturday night we all went to Rum Jungle (Mandalay Bay) for dinner and KA (Cirque du Soleil) at MGM. Lot’s of fun. I heard Steve had a great time that night, but I wasn’t there, so don’t ask me. Vanessa and I left Vegas making $50 on blackjack and spending… I don’t want to think about that.

We left early on Sunday to get jump on the traffic, so we stopped in Baker for breakfast/lunch. When I got back in the car the odometer was at 602 miles. Oh… past the break in point. I was relatively good, since I had a full car.

I have had some fun with the car this week (just a little). I did a couple of 0 – 60 runs trying the automatic and manual shifting, Stability Control on and off. FUN!!!

I was at work until 10:30 pm last night BBQing for the night shift, then I had to get up at 6:00 am this morning FOR JURY DUTY. YUCK! The navigation made getting to the courthouse a no-brainer, but sitting in a room for 4 ½ hours really sucked. Luckily, at noon they didn’t need us anymore, so I was sent home (back to work). So I am done with jury duty. It wasn’t really that exciting. I returned to work to find Barney took a 2 hour lunch. WHAT THE FUCK!!! He had also sent out a couple of emails that I completely disagreed with. We had another one of those talks. I’m getting fed-up again.

I am going to have to work Labor Day weekend. I will still get Monday off, but will work Saturday and Sunday. Dad is starting to count down the weeks. He isn’t quite to the “I don’t care” point, but it’s just around the corner.

Later.

No one guessed?

2005-08-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I’ll tell you anyway. Sunday, on the way home from Big Bear we stopped to pick up my (our) new Acura TL! I have wanted this car for 4 years. The week before we picked it up I couldn’t sleep. Literally. I had to take sleeping pills to get a couple hours of sleep. Now that I have it I can’t believe it.

So what makes an Acura TL so special? I won’t list everything, but it has 5.1 surround sound, navigation, voice recognition for 293 different car functions, separate climate controls for passenger and driver, auto dimming rear-view mirror, it tracks the sun and cools that side of the car down a couple of extra degrees to compensate. When I push the unlock button, the car adjusts the seats, mirrors, climate control, radio stations, headlight preferences, and door lock/unlock preferences to the way I set it up. It will do the same thing for Vanessa’s preferences when she uses her keys. It has 270 horsepower, top speed of 153 mph, 0-60 in 6.2 seconds, and I can choose to shift manual or automatic depending on how I feel. It will also link up with a Bluetooth phone and I can make or receive calls through the voice recognition and car speakers.

I love it! I have been treating it like a baby for the first 600 miles (300 more to go). So on the way back from Vegas then I can play with the engine a little. I had to leave it in the garage today, because they are repaving our street and I didn’t want to park it in the street. So, I’m really looking forward to driving to Vegas and back. Actually, I look forward to driving anywhere! Thank you to Vanessa for helping me and letting me get my favorite car! Zooooooom!

1st Anniversary and my new toy

2005-08-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

First, I have a new toy. I have wanted this for 4 years and it is finally mine. Unfortunately, I am not willing to tell you what it is yet, so you can guess (only if I haven’t already told you).

Yesterday was our 1st anniversary. It’s amazing how fast the year went. Vanessa planned a weekend away for us in Big Bear. I took off early from work on Friday and we drove up. When we got to the Bed and Breakfast they had fresh cookies waiting for us and showed us to our room. V booked the Presidential Suite, so we had to rough it with a stone fireplace, a Jacuzzi tub, and a bed that was like 4-feet off the ground (I almost fell when getting out). We set our stuff down, grabbed some cookies and some ice tea, and we climbed onto the two-person hammock in the garden. Ahh. I was relaxed immediately. Usually it takes a couple of days for me to unwind, but not this time.

We spent the weekend eating at little restaurants in town, checking out some classic cars (an unexpected car show was going on), and just enjoying each others company. It was really nice. The weather was perfect all weekend. I love you Ness. Thank you for a great weekend.

The job is going well. I find myself smiling sometimes for no reason. Today, Barney called in sick (cough, cough). I was proud that I was able to keep up with his stuff and my stuff without getting behind or getting flustered. I knew I could hand stuff off to my dad for help, but I didn’t, because he won’t be there soon. I am trying not to rely on him except when it is absolutely necessary. It has been extremely rewarding working with him. Aside from the fact that he buys me lunch every day, I have been able to spend a lot of time with him and to see how much everyone depends on him.

Congratulations to Brian and Kelly. Sorry I couldn’t be there. I will update on Thursday and let you know what my new toy is….

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2005-08-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

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Okay, okay, okay…

2005-08-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve had three people in the last day ask me to update, so here you go. I am incredibly busy at work, but I am still enjoying it. Right now I am looking forward to the next three weekends. This weekend is the company picnic (not really looking forward to that part), then we are going to Mark’s place (One of Vanessa’s teacher friends) to hang out, have dinner and walk around to look at art displays. We’ve done this before and it’s fun. Last time my foot was broken, so I think this time it will be more enjoyable.

The weekend after that (August 12th to 14th) we are going to Big Bear for our Anniversary (August 15th) and staying at a Bed and Breakfast. I don’t know that much about it, since I told Vanessa to plan it and not to tell me anything. I’m really looking forward to getting away.

The weekend after that (August 19th to 21st) VEGAS BABY!!! I am looking forward to this trip so much! I need Vegas. I’m going through withdrawals. I can’t remember the last time I was there. I miss it all, the gambling, the drinking, the strip, the pool, the drive out, but not the drive back.

Today was Vanessa’s last day of teaching Summer school. She still has a busy schedule with her Master’s classes, technology class, etc., but at least she will get a couple of days off.

Only two more months until my dad leaves for Thailand. I think it is finally starting to sink in for everyone. He bought his airline ticket on Tuesday. I am already starting to plan a trip for Vanessa and I to visit him. I’m still not sure when, but probably next Summer 2006 or Christmas 2006.

That’s all for tonight. Oh yeah… I promised a Barney update. He’s doing okay. He’s actually had some good ideas we are putting into practice. Yes, there are still problems. Yes it still takes me asking 5 times to get some things done, but overall he’s doing good. I know that’s not as much fun to read, but that’s what’s up.

Later.

A weekend off.

2005-07-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

I don’t remember the last time I didn’t spend the weekend working my ass off, so the theme of this weekend was “I’m Not Doing Anything”. It went really well. Friday I did help my neighbor move a desk, but that was it for the weekend. I spent Friday night in front of the TV, mostly catching up with the Tour de France. I was really into cycling when I was in high school, so I really enjoy the OLN channel dedicating 3 to 5 hours a day to it.

Saturday I slept in. Vanessa picked-up lunch since it was a little late for breakfast. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (gooooood) and relaxed at home before meeting up with James, Reina, Steve, and Diane to go to the OC Fair. It was great to just relax and eat crappy food. We tried to be good, but we ended up sharing a chicken teriyaki bowl, an eggroll on a stick, deep-fried artichoke, deep-fried mushrooms, deep-fried zucchini, deep-fried twinkies, and deep-fried Oreos. Yummmm.

Sunday I slept in even more. We went to my mom’s to teach her about the new Tivo Vanessa and I got for her. She was very happy and took us out for Thai food. Yum. For dinner we picked up some fresh fruit, stopped for some frozen yogurt, and cooled down from the hot day as we ate in the shade. Afterward we saw Batman Begins (gooooooood). Then it was time to sleep.

Work is going well. It’s not really stressful per se, but it is definitely non-stop concentration for 10 hours a day (except lunch). Unfortunately, there is absolutely no time to surf the internet or update my blog during the day.

BARNEY UPDATE: Barney is doing pretty well. I haven’t caught him in any lies lately. He isn’t constantly calling home anymore (that I know of). He comes in on time, does a pretty good job, and stays late to finish his work. He’s not even spending all day talking with everyone. I’m not sure how long this will last, but I’ve been happy with him for the last week or so. He is even communicating well with the salespeople and buyers. There’s still work to be done, but if he can keep this up I will be happy. Now that I think about it, I think I will run a phone report on him tomorrow, just for curiosity.

This weekend, it’s back to the old grind. I might take some time off, but there’s already a bunch of stuff I want to get done. See ya later…

I need more $1 bills...

2005-07-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hello loyal fans! With the few updates I’ve been doing lately, I expected to see that almost no one has been checking, but I am happy to see that my fans have not left me.

I’ve been busy. Still no carpet. The new estimate is Thursday. I’m holding my breath. Okay. Now I’m done holding my breath. We are very comfortable considering the circumstances. The shower was fixed last Thursday and the water pressure is back to its former spectacular self. I grew weary of living upstairs, so I pulled in the big screen my dad gave to us. Its 55” and I love it. I also pulled two Lay-Z-boys from the garage (one donated from my dad). This weekend I decided to pull in the receiver, subwoofer, and surround sound. Now I feel better. Unfortunately, when I was plugging the 5,073 wires into the back of the receiver I kneeled down and punctured my right knee on a carpet tack board. I need to call my doctor to find out when my last tetanus shot was.

I’m looking forward to getting the carpet in and brining all of the furniture back. Vanessa has agreed to hire someone to come in and clean the place once we get the furniture back in. When they were ripping up the drywall, painting, sanding, and sawing a bunch of fine dust got all over the place.

Work is going okay. It’s been kind of a rough week, but I know things will get easier for me. It’s hard for me to believe it’s been 3 ½ weeks. I promise to write more on Barney in my next post. Today, I received my business cards, so I can prove to Vanessa that I haven’t been spending 10 hours a day at the Spearmint Rhino. Or have I?

What's a happinin' hot stuff?

2005-07-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I have posted. I am actually busy at work at don't get a chance surf the internet like I used to. It makes the day go by much faster. Barney is doing okay. I'm actually sick of talking to him and about him, so I'll save that update for another time. Friday, after work, I helped move my dad to his temporary apartment in Brea. The company is painting for the place since he sold his condo and they are asking him to stick around for 3 more months. It was only one truckload and carload of stuff, but by the time I finished setting up his computer and attempting to set-up his Tivo and cable it was 11:30 pm and I was exhausted.

Saturday was the big move day. I hired movers to come to my dad's place and move all of his furniture to my garage. It would have gone straight into the house, but there still wasn't a floor and the downstairs was full of drywall sheets, saws, etc. That went fairly smooth and by 12:30 pm that part was done. We had one more load of miscellaneous stuff to pick up at my dad's place, so we hauled that over. I worked on setting up his wireless network, then sorted out his cable and Tivo issues. I was completely drained. That night V and I watched The Incredibles (good movie) ate take-out from Lucille's, and crashed.

Sunday we slept in. Vanessa and I were finally able to move back into our condo. They had just finished drywalling the night before and were painting during the day. We dropped our luggage off upstairs and headed over to my Mom's to take her out to lunch and pick-up Shamoo. He was happy to be home.

Monday we partied with our neighbors and watched fireworks go off from our front lawn. There is a huge fireworks show at the park next to our house, so we'll be throwing a party next year.

So what going on now? We still don't have carpet, so our living room is a concrete floor with carpet tack-boards sticking up along the boarders (watch where you walk). The kitchen is in shambles, because they still need to paint (they painted it the wrong color on Sunday). Carpet might be installed this weekend. I'm not holding my breath. Someone broke our shower handle while we were gone, so we use a wrench to turn on the water and adjust the temp.

Other than that, everything's great!!!

More updates soon...

There's no place like home... unless the pipes are broken.

2005-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, Vanessa and I have been living at the Residence Inn in La Mirada since Saturday. It’s actually pretty nice considering. We have a full kitchen and a small living room. If we leave a grocery list, they will pick-up the groceries at no additional fee (other than the cost of the groceries). We haven’t done that, but it is nice to know. Breakfast is included and they clean the place everyday. And it’s only 4 minutes for me to get to work. It’s almost better than home. Except it’s not home. It sucks. I want my Tivo, my living room, my BBQ, and my cat. A home cooked meal would be nice too.

Our landlord told Vanessa to extend our stay here until Saturday, so that will be the earliest we can move home. The landlord is having the entire downstairs re-piped (she had the upstairs done a couple of years ago). I have already hired movers to move my dad’s stuff to my place on Saturday. Hopefully they will at least be able to move the desk upstairs. I think everything else will have to go in the garage. Even I we get to move home on Saturday, we will not be able to do much downstairs. The carpet will not be put in until sometime later next week. Probably later than earlier. This is not going to be a fun weekend.

Work is going well. I had a talk with Barney on Monday morning about communication. I’m having lunch with Barney again on Friday, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m busy from the time I walk through the door until I walk out, so the day goes by much faster. Unlike my last place, I feel like I will actually earn my paycheck here.

Splish, splash I was taking a bath...

2005-06-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since Wednesday, I don’t even know where to start. Just to sum it up, I had lunch with Barney, been learning a lot at work, went to the BBQ, and our condo flooded. Not just flooded, but to the point where Vanessa and I will be living in a hotel for at least a week. So let’s start with lunch…

Barney picked the restaurant – Norm’s. I guess he’s well known down there, which I didn’t seem to think was impressive. He told me about his 13 year old kid, his truck, his motor home, his motorcycle, his knee injury, blah, blah, blah. Then he kind of surprised me. He came right out and asked me what my management style was. I’ve never had to explain it before, but I think I did a pretty good job of explaining it, while keeping in mind the things I have heard about him.

I told him I was very detailed and at the beginning I will be checking a lot of what he does so I can understand how he does things. I went on to tell him that since he is in a management position I expect for him to be perfectly capable of doing things without me checking on him and micromanaging him, so once I have been there a couple of weeks and see he is doing things correctly and following up, I will stop watching him so closely. I don’t think I will ever be able to really do this with him, but maybe he’ll surprise me. Today he took a 1 hour and 45 minute lunch. I was going to talk to him about it when I was leaving, but there were people in his office and it wouldn’t have been appropriate. I will definitely sit down with him on Monday.

The BBQ was nice. It was and island theme this time (sometimes there are themes and sometimes there aren’t). There was chicken, chips with mango salsa, guacamole, island style black beans, coconut rice, salad, Sweet and sour pork chops, pineapple and ham pizza, walnut rum cake and Mai Tai’s. I’m sure I forgot some stuff, but you get the idea.

The next morning the shower wouldn’t get hot. It was warm, but not hot. It sounded like water was running somewhere, bet neither Vanessa nor I could figure it out. I walked into every room, listened, looked, etc. Nothing… until I got home that is. There was just a little bit of water around the outside of the front door. “Probably the sprinklers”, I thought. I walked in the house, carpet seemed fine. Then I saw the downstairs bathroom. Flooded and more water was coming out quick. Oh crap! The white tile was brown, so you can imagine what I thought when I saw the water was coming out of the base of the toilet. It wasn’t shooting out like a garden hose, but more like if you were pouring a 2 liter bottle of soda into a glass. Since the water was about an inch deep, I went the the couch and took off my shoes. That’s when I felt it. Squish. Squish, squish, squish. The carpet pad was soaked. It tried turning off the water at the toilet, but it didn’t stop anything, so I went outside and turned off the main valve to the house.

If you don’t know where this valve is at your house, apartment, or condo, stop what you’re doing and find it right now. I have had to use it several times and you don’t want to look for it when water is shooting out. I already knew where it was so it wasn’t a problem. As I called the landlord, I started walking around the downstairs of the condo and looking around (squish, squish, squish). The entire downstairs from the front door to the backdoor, including the kitchen, closets, and first couple of steps was completely soaked. I grabbed a neighbor and started moving furniture out to our garage while Vanessa moved smaller things upstairs. After a couple of hours, we left the place, locked the door, went to dinner, and stayed at my dad’s condo for the night.

Today the landlord called me back. She had an emergency water damage company come out, tear-up the carpet, take all of the baseboards off the wall, and drill half-dollar size holes every foot in every wall (to dry out the walls). My neighbor (the quiet ones) had some damage as well, so my landlord will be picking-up the tab for their damage as well. They were still there when I stopped by after work. From tonight through next Tuesday there will be 3 high-powered fans and 3 dehumidifiers running 24 hours a day to dry the place out. The plumber came out and said the pipe broke under the slab, so they will have to tear-up the concrete under the bathroom tile. The plumber can’t be back until Tuesday. My neighbor gave her the number for another plumber he knows, so maybe it will happen sooner, but I doubt it. Then she has to have someone come out to repair the drywall. Then she needs to have someone lay new carpet or flooring.

She was very apologetic throughout the day and has offered to pay for a hotel room (take it out of the rent). We are staying at my dad’s again tonight and Shamoo (the cat) is having a slumber party at my mom’s for a couple of days. Tomorrow, I will find a hotel for us to stay at. Hopefully I can find a place with a small kitchen and a microwave, so we can at least keep a little bit of stuff around. I have to find something reasonable since the landlord will be picking up the tab. I have a couple of friends who work for Marriott so I will be calling them tomorrow for a favor.

That’s enough for tonight. I’m sure there will lots to talk about over the next couple for weeks.

Lunch with Barney

2005-06-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

I’m so tired. I worked until 6:00 today, picked up Vanessa, and headed down to James’ for the Wednesday BBQ. I just got home at 10:30 pm. Too long of a day.

Lunch was fairly uneventful. I’m too tired to go into the whole thing, but basically he told me about his family and I just nodded my head and said, “Oh” and “Yeah, I know what you mean”. He asked me about my management style, so I went into that with him for a little bit.

You know what… I’m too tired to write all of this. I’m going to bed, and I’ll do a recap this weekend. Good night!

First day of work…

2005-06-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

As you may already be able to tell, I will not be able to post messages during the day, or at least not as often as in the past. My office is not ready yet, so the next couple of days will be spent learning, asking questions, and meeting people.

Tomorrow I will have orientation with Human Resources. Once I get my security badge, parking stickers, benefits, payroll, and other crap set-up, then they can request computer access for me. That may take until Friday to get done. This place is security crazy. You can’t walk for more than 30 feet without having to use a badge to open a door, use the stairs, or open the elevator. You have to sign in twice to get into the building and they make you open your car trunk as you leave. This is the “don’t even think about it” security set-up.

I spent 99% of my day in my dad’s office and I will probably retain only about 40% of the things he taught me. On top of remembering all of the things I knew when I worked there previously, I have a lot to learn. I think once I am settled in my own space and am working on the daily stuff myself, I will learn quickly and can ask questions about the things I still need to learn. It is the odd-ball stuff that only happens every 2 months that I will need to pay attention to the most.

I met the Inventory Control Supervisor today. For all future purposes here (and there will be a lot) I will call him Barney. Barney now, or will soon, reports to me and there are 4 union employees who report to him. I have been told a lot of negative things about him, but for now I am keeping an open mind. We’re going to lunch on Wednesday. Today I gave him 3 things to do. Each time I would check back with him after 1 or 2 hours and by some amazing coincidence he had someone working on it at that exact moment that I checked on it (bullshit, achoo, bullshit).

There will definitely be lot’s to write about with this guy…

5… 4… 3… 2…

2005-06-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

My last day at this company is finally here! I slept well last night for the first time in weeks, so I woke up refreshed. The other nice thing was how light the traffic was this morning. I was able to stop and pick-up donuts and still get to work a couple of minutes early. Lately traffic has been so bad I have been getting to work about 15 minutes late.

I’m still not sure what the agenda for today is. The VP asked me to invite about 10 people to today’s meeting, but then the Director of MIS said the VP told him it will just be 3 people and I won’t be one of the 3. Who knows? Who cares? My understanding is they will be giving me my check around 1:00 pm today and that should be it. Usually when I leave a place there are people I will miss, but not here. I liked my boss and I worked well with one of the programmers, but that’s about it. Everyone else sucks.

Carwash! It’s just the wine talking…

2005-06-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Another Wednesday and another BBQ. We met-up at James’ and Steve’s place last night for our weekly BBQ. I needed to relax and after a couple of glasses of wine I was feeling much better. Maybe too good. I was making some comments even I couldn’t believe were coming out of my mouth. The food was great, as always. There were pork loins, kabobs (shrimp, scallops, and lobster), rotelli pasta with a homemade pesto, pasta salad, drunken brats, (barbequed, then boiled in beer and butter), Chinese chicken salad, and chimichurri. Mmmm good!

I have been busy at work handing things off. The Director of MIS and my boss are trying to get as much information out of me as they can. I feel a certain level of resentment from some of the people while others are genuinely happy for me. This last week I have started to see what a clown convention this place is. I guess every place has its problems.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. Friday, is my last day at work and I’m playing poker at my neighbors place. Saturday night, Vanessa and I are taking my dad out for dinner. Other than that, I’m just planning on organizing our place and helping my dad with whatever he needs done at his place.

Monday, I’m looking forward to not getting up at 5:15 AM, not driving for over an hour in traffic each way, and not having to deal with the VP.

Not sleeping…

2005-06-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a lot of trouble falling asleep lately. At first it was the stress of having to find a new job. Then it was thinking about what to say during my interviews. Then it was the excitement of starting my new job. Last night I couldn’t fall asleep, because I was thinking about all of the stuff going on for the next month. Both my dad and Ed and Tiffany are moving on July 2nd. Somehow, I’m going to try and do both. My dad is moving from his condo to a corporate apartment in Brea. Most of his stuff is coming to our place. Ed and Tiffany are moving from Diamond Bar to Chino Hills, but they are leaving some of their stuff behind since they will be renting-out their old condo.

I’m hoping to arrange for one moving company to move my dad’s stuff in the morning, then Ed and Tiffany’s in the afternoon. The more I think about it, the less likely it will be. I think it will have to be two separate teams. Between now and then I need to rearrange our place to make room for the new stuff, help my neighbor lay his new hardwood floors, and have a garage sale with my dad. No problem. Today I started putting everything on a calendar to help plan my time.

Work is odd today. I don’t really feel like telling people this is my last week. I’m sure the news will get around soon enough and I know the VP will make an announcement at the Manager’s Meeting tomorrow.

Done and done

2005-06-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

My drug test came back clean. What a surprise! So this afternoon I turned in my resignation, effective next Friday. My boss and the VP were very complimentry and so on. Next week I'll be busy handing everything off. I'm not sure who I will hand it off to since they never hired anyone, but that's something for them to consider this weekend. I'm going out with Vanessa and my dad to celebrate either tonight or tomorrow night.

What a relief all of this worked out.

Email I received today from VP of Operations

2005-06-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

This was waiting for me in my email this morning...

To repeat myself, you did a great job with the presentation earlier today. I have re-considered my position with regard to your standing with the company and would welcome you to remain as the Warehouse Ops Manager. I realize that I may have set in motion an "exit strategy" on your part and that you may already have interests in other opportunities elsewhere.
We should discuss this and more as soon as possible.

Today should be interesting...

He likes me, he likes me not, he likes me...

2005-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

So this is the message I got from the VP today. Not in his words, but summarized.

I don’t like your work and were interviewing people for your position, but I want you to head-up a project discussing a new allocation program which will take months, train the users on the current project you successfully presented to 25 people today (which the company has tried unsuccessfully to get going for 3 years), and meet with UPS to talk about new integrating new systems.

Uh… okay. So do you want me here or not?

Later on he talked to my boss and said he wants a commitment from me about whether I am going to say on to complete all of these projects he is assigning to me. I found that a little strange since two Friday’s ago was supposed to be my last day and he hasn’t given me any kind of indication since then.

My drug test results should be back tomorrow or Monday at the latest. I’m really looking forward to letting the VP know (in a professional manner) that I am moving on and his projects will not get done.

Looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday…

Take this job and shove it...

2005-06-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

So I received a call offering me the job yesterday, and yes, I did negotiate higher than the original offer. In the afternoon I met with Human Resources and signed the offer letter. It’s not official yet because I need to pass the physical and the drug test, so that was my next stop. They weighed me, checked my height (still 6’ 5”), took my blood pressure, took my pulse, checked my vision, had me pee in a cup, touched my toes, twisted from side to side, blah, blah, blah. I'm healthy.

I was told ahead of time they would need a hair sample for the drug test. No problem. I watch CSI. I know how much stuff they can get from one hair. WRONG. The hair sample had to be a clump and it had to be at least 1 ½ inches if it was from my head. Well there’s a problem. I just got a haircut Saturday, so my longest hair is an inch. Other options? Shave all of the hair from my chest, or my armpits, or one leg. What kind of an option is that? Oh… and I couldn’t do it, some guy did. I chose my left leg. I think anything else would be too itchy or look odd. Not that one shaved leg and one hairy leg would look good. Plus, the idea of some guy shaving my armpit didn’t appeal to me.

Anyway, my left leg from the knee down is now somewhat shaved. He left bits and pieces, like a stripe of hair going down my shin. I felt too odd to shave that piece off to make it uniform, so my left leg is just going to look odd for a couple of weeks. I’ve never done drugs, but I will wait until the results come back (Friday or Monday) to officially resign from my current position.

Strangely, there hasn’t been anymore talk of me leaving from the VP. I actually received an email from him today explaining that he wants me to lead the system integration for some new UPS software. Good luck on that one. I’m trying to stay positive for my remaining days and not take the “I don’t care” attitude. I have no problem working with my boss next week to give him some direction for future projects, but I’m not going out of my way to do extra stuff for the VP. I’ll be polite, but that’s about it.

I GOT THE JOB!!!

2005-06-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

I just received my offer. I will be going down to sign the offer today. After the drug screen comes back (Friday) I will work out my start date with them. What a relief...

Thank you everyone for your support!

Dinner, wine, and a movie

2005-06-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

I surprised I didn’t get more responses alluding to how crazy I am on that last posting. Vanessa and my dad called me on it. I guess you guys either empathize with me or you are being polite and not saying anything.

Saturday night, we invited my dad over for dinner and to watch Sideways. I saw the movie when it was in the theatre, but I wanted Vanessa and my dad to see it. My dad is the one who originally sparked my interest in wine. I brought out 8 bottles of wine for us to choose from and we settled in to watch the movie. Our wine food pairings you ask???

Appetizer: Potato Skins (cheese, bacon, sour cream, chives, tomatoes) with a Pino Noir

Dinner: Fillet Mignon, gilled corn with garlic butter, homemade wasabi mashed potatoes with a Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon and a Syrah from Hart Vineyards.

Dessert: Angel Food cake and sweetened strawberry slices with a Black Muscat

Everything turned out delicious. Unfortunately the Muscat didn't go with the stawberries. Oh well. My dad and Vanessa both really enjoyed the movie. Watching for the second time with 4 glasses of wine in me was just fine.

Sunday night we watched Ray. I thought it was well done, but not amazing. I thought Jamie Foxx did a good job and was convincing. The other movie I saw recently was Garden State. We both really enjoyed it. It starts off a little strange (which I like), but it just kept getting better. definately one of the best movies I've seen recently. Who knew the guy from Scrubs was so talented? He wrote the movie, starred in it and directed it.

My paranoia

2005-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking paranoid thoughts since Wednesday afternoon. Actually, it is probably safe to say that I am always paranoid (just ask Vanessa), but it has been exaggerated since my interview. So you can follow along, I’ll put the thoughts going through my head in italics…

Wednesday
I arrived early to fill out some paperwork, but even after the paperwork I was still ready about 10 minutes early. They called the VP of Finance (my first interview) and told me she would be right down. Ten minutes go by. Okay, it’s still only 1:00 pm and I wasn’t supposed to start until 1:00 pm. No problem. Where should my hands be? Should my briefcase be on my right side or left side? When she appears make sure to smile. How will I know it’s her? Smile, shake hands, pick-up my brief case, go with the flow of her conversation. Now 20 minutes have gone by. Okay, now it’s only 1:10 pm, but she knows I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes. Why is this taking so long? Maybe she’s purposefully doing this to show me she’s in charge and can make me wait. Maybe she’s doing this to throw me off. Is there a camera in the lobby? Maybe she’s watching me. No, I don’t see any cameras. Maybe this is a test to see how “take charge” I am. Is she waiting for me to have the receptionist call her again? No. Just wait. Where are my hands? Should I have my legs crossed like this? I better uncross them. I want to be sitting up straight, but not look uncomfortable. Now 25 minutes have gone by. What’s going on? Oh, there’s somebody… At that point the VP of Human Resources came out and apologized for the confusion. The VP of Finance thought I was waiting for her upstairs and couldn’t find me. That’s odd, I would think she would call the receptionist to see where I was if she couldn’t find me. Oh well.

Through all of my interviews…
Be friendly, be confident, eye contact, where are my hands? Am I smiling? Are they saying these things to test me or do they really believe what they are saying? Do they like me? Am I convincing them that I am the right person for the job?

Immediately after the interviews…
That was pretty easy. Why didn’t they ask me any hard questions? I wanted them to ask those questions, because I have good answers. What if they just make assumptions about things on my resume, since they didn’t ask me about them? They didn’t really give me much of a chance to talk about myself. Maybe it’s because my resume is so thorough. She said I should expect to hear back from them quick. How quick? That went well. I think I did a great job.

Thursday morning…
Maybe I screwed up. I should have put my answer that way. I wish I could do that part again. I wonder if anyone else applied for the position. I checked my messages at home about 10 times during the day hoping they would call. No call. That day I sent off my Thank You letters to all four people I interviewed with. I tried to make each one sound unique and catered them to the conversation I had with each person. I think they turned out well. That afternoon I heard that two of the people I interviewed with liked me a lot. That boosted my confidence. I also remembered they still had to do a background check on me, run my credit, check my resume, call my references, and so on, so it might take a couple of days.

Friday
I checked my messages at home again throughout the day. No luck. No celebration dinner tonight. Just be patient. I didn’t put much thought into it this weekend, other than thinking about the disappointment if I didn’t get the position and that I should be looking around for other positions just in case.

Last night
Can’t sleep. It’s midnight. I need to get up in 5 hours. What did the VP of Finance think of me? Did I leave a good impression? She seemed to like me. Maybe she was just being nice. Is there something I said that killed my chances?

This morning
It’s going to take some time. They may still be interviewing. Maybe they’re still running my background stuff. I know the VP of Finance is really busy, plus she has multiple positions she is interviewing for. They don’t really need to hire someone for a couple of weeks. If they really wanted me they wouldn’t wait though. Right? Maybe I should see if they checked my credit yet. No. Just wait. Should I call my professional references or old employers to see if they have been contacted yet? No. Just be patient.

Yes, I really am this paranoid sometimes. I know I just need to relax and be patient, but I just want to know what’s going on. Hopefully, I won’t give myself an aneurysm today. I also need to remember my rule. Everything takes 6 times longer than I think it should. I might not even get a call this week.

My interviews...

2005-06-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

My interviews went well yesterday. I felt confident when I left, but nothing is definite. I didn’t receive any hardball questions, which was somewhat disappointing, because I felt prepared to answer almost anything they could throw at me. Most of the interviews consisted them talking about their management style and how they see the position I was interviewing for. I would wait for them to pause, give feedback on my thoughts and try to interject something positive I wanted them to know about me related to the topic. I think (hope) that my resume answered a lot of the questions they may have had.

Things I think went well
They had a lot of positive things to say such as, "you have an edge over the other applicants" and "your background and experience is what we are looking for". All of the people I interviewed with wanted to know if I was offered the job, how soon I could start. The HR coordinator had never seen anyone meet with 4 people on the same day. As I walked through the warehouse for a tour, every single employee (about 10 total) we saw stopped what they were doing, walked over, shook my hand, and told the VP of Operations that they hoped I got the job. As I was leaving I was told I should hear from them very soon, so hopefully I will know by the end of the week. In the meantime, I have 4 thank you letters to write and get in the mail.

After the interviews, I had a BBQ at our place. Despite me telling everyone “just bring something” it turned out great. There was cheese and salami, pita bread and a red peeper dip, bbq chicken leg quarters (leg and thigh attached), two types of brats, mushroom risotto, Asian salad, and two desserts. Almost everyone came up to me to ask discretely which neighbor had the cops over on Tuesday morning. I found out from another neighbor, the cops had actually been to his place 4 times in the last 2 weeks. I’m going to call our landlord this week, since she is friends with the other guy’s landlord. Maybe we can get something done.

Trash day in Yorba Linda

2005-05-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

Too bad the trash didn’t get picked-up on Memorial Day. I might have gotten some decent sleep. By “trash” I mean my neighbors. There seems to be three different types of people that live in our condo complex. Young families saving-up to buy something larger, old retired people who have lived there forever, and my POS (Piece Of Sh*t) neighbor. At midnight I went to the bathroom and heard him and his girlfriend talking and cussing in the back yard. No big deal. Then at 3:20 in the morning I heard him screaming, “Get away from the baby” repeatedly, while she was crying. Then I hear him on the phone with 911 saying the baby won’t wake-up and it’s not breathing.

Minutes later the police show-up and say “Anthony, what wrong with your kid”. That’s right, the police have been over there so many times, they know their names without even asking. The baby (2 months old) seemed to be okay, because everyone stopped talking about it and called off the ambulance. After talking to him outside and her inside, they decided to give each of them a breathalyzer. What a surprise. I was shocked (not really) when he blew a 0.19. I own a breathalyzer and when I had a contest to see who could blow the highest number, the most I ever got was a 0.14. I was loaded, but also was not watching children at the time.

It sounds like they started fighting over the baby, he grabbed it, she was trying to get it away from him and he was holding the baby so tight it passed out. I think the girlfriend’s parents ended-up coming over to get their daughter and grandchild. Vanessa and I were hoping Child Services would be called and they would goto jail. Oh well. I finally got back to sleep at 5:00 am. Just enough to get 7 more minutes of sleep before the alarm went off.

Usually the police are over there for domestic violence or because his other daughter’s mother comes around to harass the current girlfriend. When will it end? As a side note, I think he had something to do with our cat’s disappearance. Just a feeling I get.

The rest of the weekend was good. I moved some stuff from my dad’s to our garage, helped my neighbor (not the same one) pull the engine out of his Charger (grunt, grunt), went to a BBQ in Newport Beach (carne asada and bikini’s), and brushed-up on my interviewing skills.

Happy birthday to pageandvanessa.blogspot.com

2005-05-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday will mark 1 year of blog entries for me. It’s been really enjoyable being able to stay in contact with so many people and to get feedback from you all as well. Here are some stats to bore you with…

Average Regular Readers (Monday – Friday): 12

Most Regular Readers in 1 day: 21

Average First Time Readers (Monday – Friday): 5

Most First Time Readers in one day: 36

Most page loads in 1 day: 156 (picture of Amber when we went wine tasting) also, 139 page loads the next day for the same picture.

Most visitors in one day: 56

Total posts including pictures: 311 (I think)

Posts with the most comments:
What should we name our cat? – 11 comments
My road rage incident – 10 comments
Traffic in Los Angeles – 10 comments
I need a hobby – 8 comments
Where should we go on vacation? – 7 comments
We’re moving to Washington – 7 comments
Watching Mr. 3000 for Valentine’s Day – 7 comments
Direct TV and Tivo – 6 comments
When should we turn off the TV? – 6 comments

The only regret I have is telling certain people I have a blog. If I didn’t have to worry about people at work then this would be much more entertaining. I’m pretty sure they don’t read it, but you never know.

Thanks for reading!

Update...

2005-05-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

The VP tore me apart in the meeting for me to update everyone on our progress. He called my projects "baby steps". No one in the meeting could believe it. I defended my projects and fired back at him a little. What do I have to lose? Later, the VP told me he appreciated me challenging him.

I went to lunch with him and my boss. They started lunch by talking cryptically about whether they should keep me around for a while longer. My boss already told me they had been talking about the possibility, so I listened and pretended not to understand while they talked in code right in front of me. Finally the VP came right out and said that they would like to keep me around for another week or two (the person they offered my job to turned them down), but this would definitely not be open-ended. I replied quickly that I would really like to stay on (collect more paychecks), so he could see I still had some interest in the projects.

He's not at work tomorrow, so I won't see him until Tuesday. Wednesday, I am taking the day off to go to my interview. Can't wait to see what happens next.

From glum, to awkward, to excited

2005-05-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Human Resources at the place I am hoping to work for. I have 4 consecutive 1-hour interviews with them next Wednesday. Holy crap. Four hours? That seems like a long time. I’m sure it will go by quickly. I’ll make sure to wear really good antiperspirant that day. I’m not sure which order this will be in, but I do know I will be interviewing with the VP of Human Resources, the VP of Operations, the VP of Finance, and the President of the division.

I’m taking that as a good sign. If they didn’t like me, I would think they would just set-up an interview with one person to see if I was worth seeing again. The news of the interview really cheered me up. I knew I would get called for an interview, so I’m not sure why it changed my mood so much, but I’m really excited. I need to bring myself back to reality before next Wednesday. There’s still a chance I will not get the job. It would make a really great change in my life if I did though.

Yesterday, I went to lunch with the Director of MIS at my current job. It was awkward. He told me I needed to fight for my job and try to convince the VP that I need to stay. I think he feels a little guilty, because I heard the VP told him that this is mostly his fault for not pushing his programmers. I have a meeting at 11:00 today with the VP, Director of MIS, my boss (Director of Operations), the programmers, and supervisors to discuss the progress of my projects.

After the meeting I am going to lunch with the VP and possibly my boss. I think I will use this opportunity to tell the VP that my projects were held up because of him. I will say it tactfully, but I will say it. The worst thing that can happen is tomorrow will be my last day. That’s already the plan, so let’s see what happens.

I want Yellow Dog

2005-05-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Today there is a small movement at my work to try and keep me here. Some are trying to keep me here for another week or two, while others want me to fight to stay on permanently. I met with my boss before lunch. He is trying to convince the VP it would be wise for me to stay for another week or two. The Director of MIS (systems) wants to go to lunch with me to strategize how to stay here permanently, which is funny, because I partially blame him for me leaving.

Anyway, I’m torn. The responsible side of me wants to stay until I find another position. The part of me that wakes up at 5:15 am every morning and sits in 2 + hours of traffic everyday was looking forward to Friday being my last day. I will stay-on if I can. The VP and my boss are gone for the day, so I will learn my fate tomorrow.

The cat (Shamoo) is driving me nuts. When we first got him he chewed on my flip-flops. I didn’t mid since they were old and cheap. Sunday, I went to Skechers and picked-up a new pair for $25.00. Despite them still being in a box, behind the couch, under a pillow, the cat found them and tore them to shreds. That and he kept clawing the couch. It’s an old crappy couch, but still. He has a scratching post upstairs. He’s just too lazy to climb the stairs. Both of us wish he would be a lap cat. He just ignores us unless he wants something. Next time, we’re getting a paraplegic cat. That will solve everything.

The difference between Page and a medium pizza?

2005-05-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

The pizza can feed a family of two. I’ve had a lot going on for the past week. I was hoping to have some good news that would out-shadow the bad before I wrote about it here. Unfortunately, the good news hasn’t come yet, so I’ll fill you in on what has been happening so far.

12 days ago (Thursday, May 12th), I turned in my resume for a job I was interested in. Despite the short hours, I am not happy with my current position or the decisions the VP makes. This new job I am hoping for would reduce my drive from 75 minutes to 25 minutes, increase my salary, and is a position in which I feel I can excel and be appreciated. Since then, I haven’t heard anything about the new job. It wasn’t officially posted until yesterday, so maybe I’ll hear something soon.

Meanwhile, last Monday, I looked in the VP’s online calendar to see what his schedule was like for the week. I wanted to schedule a meeting to show him the progress we have made on some new programs. His week was clear, but then I got nosey and looked to see what his schedule was for the previous week. I went numb. He had been interviewing people for my position.

I can’t say I am completely shocked. While I feel I am good at what I do, I also know he is not a fan of mine and complained many times since I started. While my boss, the head of MIS (systems), and I feel my projects get held-up because he keeps changing his mind, he thinks it is because I don’t push the programmers hard enough. I’ve known this, so Vanessa and I have been setting aside money for several months now just in case something happened.

The day I discovered they have been interviewing, I walked directly into my boss’s office and calmly asked him when my last day was. He was floored. After I told him how I found out, he told me he doesn’t agree with the decision (I believe him) and that he can’t imagine the next person coming in and doing a better job. He didn’t know when my last day would be, but they hadn’t found anyone yet.

The next day I told the VP I wanted to show him some new things so I could get his approval to start programming. He still didn’t know that I knew. He told me not to bother with setting-up a meeting and to go ahead and have the programmer start. WHAT? Suddenly all of my projects were top priority. Something that had been held p for 6 months while he made up his mind was suddenly approved in 2 seconds without even looking at it. Amazing.

Since then 3 of my projects have been completed and the employees are happier than ever. Everyone is congratulating me and thanking me. Little do they know this is my last week. The VP knows that I know now. We agreed this Friday would be my last day. He asked me to go to lunch with him this Thursday (the last time we went to lunch was my first week). He told me he wants to get my opinion on people at the company. What a dick. I’m not giving him any dirt. The only reason I’ll go is to try and boost his opinion of some of the employees who he overlooks.

In the meantime, I am looking for a job. Hopefully, I will get my first choice. If not then I will be selective and make sure I find something that makes me happy. In the meantime, I may become a house-husband spending my days doing dishes, looking for a job, and hitting golf balls at the driving range.

Cinderella and Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Vanessa’s musical was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I went to the performances on Thursday and Saturday, and helped get everything set-up on Friday. The show went well and there was a lot of praise for Vanessa. After the show on Saturday, I stuck around for 3 hours to help take down the lights, take apart the stage, and get everything put away. I finally left at 6:30 pm and I was exhausted. Vanessa didn’t get home until 8:30 so I know she was tired.

Sunday we jus decided to relax and spend time together. We went to a bagel place for lunch and stopped by Eddie Bauer to pick-up some shorts for the summer. We were going to see Revenge of the Sith at the giant AMC in Brea, but I soon found out the next show which wasn’t sold out started in 3 hours. No thanks. We decided to try the local movie theatre in Anaheim Hills (Cinema City). There was only 25 minutes until the next show, and it only cost us $5.00 each. This isn’t a small theater either, just not as well known.

I liked the movie. It definitely answered the lingering questions, but for me the best part was seeing how things evolved. When looking at the spaceships, you could tell they were earlier versions of the one’s to come. I’m looking forward to the DVD box set. I think I’ll just plan a dork day and watch all 6 movies.

Token update...

2005-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

There’s so much going on right now. This week feels like I am in a fog cloud and I’m hoping next week there will be clarity. Vanessa has her musical Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’m not sure yet if I will be going to two or three of the shows. Monday she was still at work at 6:00 pm, so she asked me to bring her dinner. I ended up staying to help put up the stage lights. One of the students father works for a lighting company that does concerts and stage lighting, so he was able to get some professional lighting for Vanessa to use. It was fun because I was learning something new and getting a little bit of exercise. We got home at 9:30 pm that night. Yesterday, Vanessa got home around 7:00 pm. I think Sunday we will both be sleeping in.

My dad sold his condo. He notified his work of a “soft date” for his retirement of July 8th. I call it a soft date, because if the sale falls out of escrow this may change things. His boss asked him to stay for another 3 to 6 months to help train replacements (yes multiple people). He agreed to 3 months as long as they pay for him to stay in a hotel. I’m happy for him and we will definitely be going out to celebrate once things are finalized.

Fish pajamas? What fish pajamas?

2005-05-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my day to get a bunch of stuff done. It didn’t quite work out that way though. I knew Sunday I would be spending the day with my mom, so all the stuff I have wanted to do had to be done Saturday. I had such big plans, but as it turned out I went grocery shopping with Vanessa, grilled up some hamburgers, got an ID tag for the new cat, then grilled-up some shrimp and asparagus for dinner. I was supposed to help my neighbor pull the engine out of his Charger, but he got home late so we’ll do it some other weekend.

This is the same guy I play poker with sometimes. He’s a great guy, but has an uncanny knack of coming to our door when the house is at its absolute worst and/or I am laying on the couch with my goldfish pajama bottoms on. I’m running out of excuses. Saturday night Vanessa and I watched I, Robot. I thought it was pretty good, but my expectations were low before watching the movie from some reviews I had heard.

Sunday I cooked-up 2 pounds of bacon, which should keep me happy for the rest of the week. I could eat it all at once, but I had a couple and put the rest in the fridge. I took my mom out for a belated Mother’s Day. She likes to do things away from the actual set days to beat the crowds. We saw Kingdom of Heaven and we both enjoyed it, and Orlando Bloom is so dreamy!!! She is a history buff, so for her to like a movie like this it has to be somewhat realistic and follow the story of what actually happened. There were a couple of differences in the story line, but she says overall it was very accurate. After getting some lunch we went back to her place so I could fix some things around her place.

It’s been a while since I’ve spent time with my mom, especially alone. It was nice to just talk about everything going on. She’s always ready to provide advice for me.

Sunday night was the Survivor Finale. I really enjoyed this season. I was very happy with the winner and I wanted that person to win since the beginning. I’m hoping this will be an eventful week for me. Vanessa’s musical is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I know she’s looking forward to Sunday.

A story I didn’t want to hear

2005-05-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Friday night we went out to dinner with Ed and Tiffany. I’ll tell you more about them in another post, but this story is too fresh to put off. While eating our Thai food, Tiffany (A.K.A. Dr. TAT) told us about a patient she worked with at the hospital recently. It was an older lady who had been feeling dizzy for the last two weeks. Tiffany did the regular exam and while checking the ears, noticed one of them was blocked with wax. She started cleaning out the ears with a solution and held a bowl under the lady’s ear to catch the solution and wax as it came out. After quite a bit of wax came out Tiffany gave the ear one more shot of the solution.

A cockroach fell out of the lady’s ear and into the bowl.

I’m sorry, but that’s pretty sick. This definitely explained the dizziness. The lady was so embarrassed. According to Tiffany she seemed to be a normal older lady and was dressed nicely. Tiffany kept the cockroach to show to her husband Ed. They both confirmed the cockroach was a good ½ inch long and still alive. Now you have something to talk about at dinner tonight!

Was’ happenin’?

2005-05-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I’m kind of sort of looking forward to this weekend. There’s a ton of stuff I need to get done. Saturday, I’m helping my neighbor pull the engine out of his 1969 Dodge Charger RT (grunt, grunt). Sometime this weekend, I need to spend time with my mom (Mother’s day postponed), fix my garage door, and go over some things with my dad. I know there's more to do, but I can't think right now. Things at work are going well for the last two weeks. Someone recommended I change the way I present projects and it seems to have helped a lot. I’m hoping to have two major projects behind me within the next 30 days. Other than that, not much to say.

Life at 30

2005-05-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

I guess there was a conversation I missed while we were celebrating Steve’s birthday at the Yard House on Tuesday. Someone stated that your status at 30 is a good indicator of what the rest of your life will be like (work, relationships, financial). As I write this I’m not sure if I agree with this or not. Perhaps if momentum is included in the evaluation. Other than not completing my degree, I am pleased with where I am at 30 so this is fine with me. I think part of the reason I am happy is because I see continuous improvement in my relationship with Vanessa, our careers, and our financial situation. It my spelling and memory that continue to get worse!

On the other hand, there are many people who do not shine until later in life. It is not unusual for someone to go back to school and start a new career at 40. I think it was Vanessa who told me that many high school graduates are putting off college and getting a career for a couple of years, because life expectancy has increased.

Any thoughts?

Blah… Blah… Blah…

2005-05-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

We went to the Yard House in Costa Mesa for Steve’s birthday last night. I’ve never been there before and I really enjoyed it. They have over 150 beers on tap, but I still ended up getting something I could get at the store. Oh well. I got my beer in a ½ yard glass (which I heard is 32 oz.). Everyone seemed to enjoy their dinner and I ended up getting half of my dinner on my shirt. Hopefully it will come out.

Shamoo is fine. He has been going crazy during the day. I can tell he wants to go outside, but he still doesn’t have an ID tag on his collar yet. He escaped on Monday night and we found him in our neighbor’s backyard. I didn’t want to jump the fence, so we were calling him and offering him treats to come back. It was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland with the prisoners trying to coax the dog holding the keys to come closer. He came back into the house as soon as we walked away.

Everything in my life seems to be revolving around money right now. I’m working on some retirement investment spreadsheets for my dad. I’m also using spreadsheets to plan paying down our bills and to buy a house. Paying off the bills it the easy part. Getting enough money to buy a house feels like I am chasing a train. I’m running at 5 mph and the train is going 7 mph.

My weekend with Nicolas Cage

2005-05-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

First things first. The cat’s name is Shamoo and I think it fits him well. Last night was the first night of peaceful rest without being interrupted by the cat meowing. Nice. I watched a couple of movies this weekend: National Treasure, Saved, and Face Off.

National Treasure was pretty good. Of course I had 6 margaritas while I was watching it, but even without the margaritas I thought it was a good action flick. It certainly won’t be willing an Oscar for anything, but it was entertaining and that’s all I ask. Saved was a good satire on private schools and born again Christians. Again, not amazing, but entertaining.

I originally tried to watch Face-Off about 9 years ago and turned it off halfway through the movie. I just found the concept so unbelievable, plus John Travolta is so much bigger than Nicolas Cage, I just couldn’t see it. It was like the giant alien cockroach in Men in Black fitting inside the farmer. At least that was an alien, so there was an explanation. After some prompting, I sat down to watch it again. For some reason I wasn’t quite as irritated by the concept this time.

I went for a bike ride on Sunday for the first time in years (maybe 6 or 7 years). I went 5.5 miles and topped out at 25.5 MPH. Not bad for my return. I was pretty winded when I got back to the house and could tell I wasn’t even close to the shape I was in 10 years ago. Today, my butt hurts from the narrow seat and my back hurts from using my atrophied muscles. I’m hoping to go for a short ride today when I get home, just so it becomes part of my routine.

Cinco de Mayo...

2005-05-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, at work, we pulled out two gigantic BBQ’s filled them with mesquite and grilled-up what had to be 150 pounds of carne asada and another 100 pounds of chicken breasts. They also served rice, beans, guacamole, and some fruit dessert thing, which I stayed away from. This company is generous when it comes to holidays and celebrations. I had the guy that picked up the asada get me an extra bag so I could grill-up some more for dinner.

Vanessa and I had Steve, Diane, James, and Reina over for a Cinco de Mayo party. James made some killer margaritas using Petron Silver. I grilled up a bunch of asada, but had to stop short when it started down-pouring. there was still plenty for everyone. Diane made cheese enchiladas. Reina made black beans with cilantro, garlic, onions, and lime juice. Steve brought the beer, chips and salsa. Vanessa supplied the guacamole, tortillas, and dessert.

It was a great chance to celebrate Mexico’s defeat over the French. I think that war is when France decided to just start surrendering. Just to make everyone regret coming over, I insisted that they watch slide shows of our trip to Europe and our cruise in 2002 before leaving.

Falstaff and Shamoo???

2005-05-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

I stayed home from work yesterday and despite sitting in front of two computers for most of the day I still didn’t write a blog. My dad’s condo is available on the market starting today. Yesterday, the association finally got around to replacing some drywall that was damaged in the winter storms from a leak in the roof. Since he had a meeting at work I decided to take the day off and hang around his place while the stuff was being worked on. I’ve wanted to take a day off anyway. Everything came out great.

Vanessa and I brought some stuff from our place to make the place a little less of a bachelor pad (candles, towels, comforter, and vase w/ flowers). There are already three people set to see the property today and an open house on Saturday, so hopefully it will sell quickly and he will get some decent money for the place. Regardless of when it sells he is hoping to adjust the escrow so he can stay until July or August.

The new nameless cat is doing fine. He has a bad habit of coming into the bedroom at 5:00 in the morning and meowing. Hopefully this will end soon. I realized at 5:03 this morning that I might not be a patient parent since I told the cat, “Shhhhhhh….ut the f#ck up.” I can’t imagine a crying baby being less irritating.

There are currently 2 names that are leading the competition; Falstaff (after John Falstaff – a lead in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre) and Shamoo. Shamoo would be because he is black and white like a killer whale (Shamu), and has spots like a cow (moo). It’s up to Vanessa to decide. We’re having some people over tonight, so maybe some other names will come up.

The last 5 years

2005-05-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

May 1st marked 5 years that Vanessa and I have officially been together. It made me start thinking about the last five years. Where we were then and where are we now. A lot has changed for us.

Jobs
Vanessa was teaching at a Catholic High School in Burbank. When we moved to Anaheim, she was a long-term substitute teacher for the first year, before getting a permanent position at Orangeview Jr. High. I was working as a Purchasing Manager for Marriott, I then went to work for Metropolitan Provisions as a Systems Manager and Inventory Control Manager, and for the last 14 months I have been at Paul Davril as a Project Manager. At the end of this year our combined income will be double what it was 5 years ago. Not bad.

Where we live
I was living with Mike in Covina and Vanessa had her own place in Burbank. We moved to San Gabriel after dating for only 3 months. A year later we moved to a one bedroom apartment in Anaheim to be closer to work and lower our rent. After 18 long months in Anaheim we moved to Yorba Linda (a much safer neighborhood and two extra bedrooms). After 18 months at that place we moved to out current place. We like our neighborhood and our neighbors, but it would be nice to get a house.

Where we’ve been
We love to travel. Working for Marriott helped when we were making less money. Together, we’ve gone to Las Vegas, San Diego, Parker, San Francisco, Capitola, Monterey, Sonoma, Walla Walla, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, Banff, Mendocino, England, Germany, and Austria. We have also spent weekends locally in Newport Beach and Pasadena. Great memories.

People we miss
We each lost a grandparent since we’ve been together. Vanessa lost her Grandpa on Valentine’s Day just over 3 years ago. I lost my Grandma, Helen, just over a year ago.

Overall, the last 5 years have been great. We are fortunate to have great families and great friends. I can’t even tell you how many amazing meals and great bottles of wine we’ve had together. I’m looking forward to the next five years and the adventures we’ll have together. Vanessa’s just looking forward to finishing her Masters program in December.

What should we name our cat?

2005-05-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend! Friday we went out for sushi and watched the movie Saw at home (typical Friday). Saturday I played golf with James, Steve, and Travis. James wasn’t playing well, so we were all playing about the same. It was nice to get on the course after not playing for 6 months. I was nice enough to clean James’ golf shoes with some new shoe cleaner I picked up (inside joke)… We stopped at Islands afterwards to talk about what great golfers we are, eat Chili Cheese Fries, and down some burgers.

I headed home, took a shower, picked-up some beer, and by 5:30 pm I was at my neighbors house for some poker. We’ve started playing every 2 or 3 weeks now. I didn’t win at all this time (actually I played pretty bad), but Vanessa played and really impressed me.

The guy runs the thing has two kids. One of them is 6 and he loves poker. He watches it on TV, has the PS2 game, etc. We let him play a couple of games (we waved the buy-in). This kid kicked ass. He has all of the strategy down. The only thing he doesn’t know is when to fold sometimes.

So on this one hand everyone folds except the kid and his dad. The dad keeps raising and the kid refuses to back down. Finally when the 5th card is turned, the dad raises 20 chips (we started with 50). The kid checks. His dad started yelling, “Look at your cards! Don’t just bet to bet. You need to check your cards!” The kid pauses… looks at his cards, and pushes the 20 chips into the middle. The dad is upset. The dad shows his cards and he has 2 pair. He starts scolding his kid and gathering the chips until he looks at his son’s cards. Flush. Oops! The 6 year old kid took his dad to the cleaners. The whole table couldn’t stop laughing.

Sunday morning, Vanessa and I were watching TV and feeling bad about Mr. Pickles disappearance. I told Vanessa to get dressed and we headed back to Orange County Animal Services. After 90 minutes we left with a new cat. This thing is HUGE. He’s 15 pounds. So far he has been great. He is very friendly, but he kept us up for part of the night meowing. That happened when we fist brought Mr. Pickles home too.

We still have to come up with a name for him. I attached some pictures I took last night. What do you think we should name him?

2005-05-02T09:42:00.001-07:00

I need a name...

2005-05-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

What are you looking at?

2005-05-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

What should we name him???

No Pickles...

2005-04-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Still no sign of Mr. Pickles. Vanessa and I went to Orange County Animal Services today, but he hasn't been there. I'm not sure if that's good news or not. One interesting note: The employee at Animal Services said if we put out a flyer we should say the cat needs special medicine. That way if someone did find him and thought about keeping him, they might change their mind if they think they have to spend extra money on his health.

Plans for the weekend include sulking about the cat, playing golf, playing poker, and probrably helping out my dad.

Beer Can Chicken

2005-04-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Last night James and I cooked Beer Can Chicken for the BBQ. I've seen people make it on TV and it always sounded good, but I was always hesitant to try it. We put 6 whole chickens standing up on the BBQ (each one with a 1/2 can of beer shoved inside). 70 minutes later it was done. It was that easy. Every chicken came out perfect. You should try it...

A little depressed…

2005-04-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Our cat, Mr. Pickles has disappeared. Sometime between midnight Sunday and 6:00 am Monday, our cat went missing. He jumped on the bed late Sunday night while Vanessa was sleeping and I was lying in bed watching TV and after 10 minutes or so, he jumped back off the bed and walked out into the hallway. When I get out of the shower in the morning he sits on the toilet or on a pedestal at the top of the stairs waiting for me to pet him, but he wasn’t there Monday morning. When we got back from the concert on Monday night, Vanessa noticed his food hadn’t been touched.

I started worrying yesterday, so I checked the trash dumpsters thinking someone may have hit him, but thankfully there was nothing there. Of course they pick-up the trash Monday, so that doesn’t mean much. Yesterday I walked around the area where we live, but didn’t notice anything. The Orange County Animal Shelter doesn’t show him on the website. L

Anyway, we’re hoping he was somehow locked into someone’s garage, or some kid picked him up and took him home. He has a collar with our phone numbers on it and he also has a computer chip in him which has our information on it.

We’ve had Pickles for 2 years now and he is a great cat. We’ll stop by the Orange County Animal Shelter on our way to the BBQ tonight and I’ll make some flyers up for the neighborhood tomorrow.

My night in Whoville…

2005-04-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

Vanessa and I went to the Tori Amos concert last night at Royce Hall (UCLA). We arrived shortly before the doors open and spotted one of our friends, Albert, right away. As we walked inside the lobby and waited for the doors to open, I started looking around. Wow. These were some interesting people. I could have just as easily been at a Dungeons and Dragons convention that was sharing an entrance to the Marilyn Manson concert.

The seats were great, except we felt like we were surrounded by crazy stalkers. The lady next to me was fairly normal other than the fact that this was her 11th time seeing Tori in concert. The guy next to her (not together) was a overweight guy wearing a pink polo shirt, glasses, and a calculator watch.

The concert was great. Tori sang for 2 hours straight including 4 encore songs. I read reviews for some of the earlier stops on the tour, but it still amazed me to watch her straddle the bench while playing a grand piano with her left and an organ with her right hand. Most of the songs played were from her newest album “The Beekeeper” and “Boys for Pele” which are the two albums I know the least, but she also played “Silent all These Years” and a couple of other older songs.

Vanessa was a little pissed during the encore, because the people in the back rushed to the front of the auditorium, so the people in the front row had to stand, so everyone else stood-up. The girl in front of Vanessa stood on her chair which meant Vanessa had no chance of seeing the stage. It does suck to be in the 5th row and not be able to see the stage. Although I too was irritated, I didn’t have a problem seeing.

After the concert some of the girls were shaking, crying, and hugging. I enjoy music, and this concert reminded me of how I miss great live music, but these girls were being a little over-dramatic. We got home at midnight and laid down for a full 5 hours before the alarm went off for work.

Clean cars are faster than dirty ones!

2005-04-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Since so many people have been asking, I’ll fill you in on how we solved the TV/no TV thing. I offered a compromise to have the TV off by 10:30 pm during the week. I was originally trying to have the TV off by 10:00 pm, so this is a compromise and will work for both of us.

Friday we grabbed take-out from Mimi’s Café and watched the movie Troy. I thought it was pretty good, although I was expecting more violence. Oh well. Saturday, Vanessa and I got our cars washed. I used to be really good about this, but lately, months go by before I take it in. I feel so much better when I’m driving a clean car. That night, we went to Diane’s apartment to celebrate her birthday. She has a nice place in Newport Beach. It seems like a great complex to live in and it’s in a good location. After hanging out and eating dinner there, we headed over to Pierce Street Annex. I’ve been to this bar a couple of times and we usually hang out and drink. It definitely qualifies as a meat market, not that I’m complaining. V and I took off early (10:30 pm), so I’m interested in hearing what happened after we left.

Sunday I went to my dad’s for a couple of hours. When I got home I felt like rearranging some furniture, so I moved the small couch downstairs and changed the living room around some. That really wore me out. Ed and Tiffany called, so we met them for dinner and stopped at Cold Stone for dessert. This diet is GREAT!!!!

Tonight we’re going to see Tori Amos at Royce Hall (UCLA).

VaPOOrize this movie!

2005-04-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

I remember sitting in a movie theater in 2002. A preview came on the screen for a movie “coming soon” and I knew I had to see the movie. It was Envy with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Christopher Walken and it looked hilarious. It was about two middle class friends. One gets a ridiculous idea to create a product that makes poo disappear (VaPOOrize). It works. So while Jack Black is living in a mansion and driving a Lamborghini, Ben Stiller still lives in his same old house. He becomes envious and that’s when the hijinx start.

Only 6 months until it would be coming out. Soon afterwards I started working for Metropolitan Provisions, which supplied a majority of the movie theatres with their concessions. I would receive lists showing when new movies were being released and I watched for Envy. One day the movie was missing from the newest list. What happened? Did I miss it. Wait… It was pushed back. Why did the release get pushed back? I guess I was just going to have to wait. Finally in April of 2004, it was in the theaters. I tried to drag Vanessa to see it, but I was unsuccessful. In September it came out on video. Every time I would pick it up at the video store, there was something else we both wanted to watch, so I waited.

Tonight, thanks to Netflix, after years of build-up… I finally sat down to watch my movie. It sucked. It was such a good premise and such a good cast. What happened? Even the obvious plot lines would have been better than what they did with this movie. It’s a sad, sad night. If I would have looked at www.imdb.com I would have seen the following information and maybe my hopes wouldn’t have been quite as high:

The movie having been shot almost two years before it was released in
theaters was in danger of being released straight to video due to poor audience
response during test screenings. It was only due to The School of Rock
(2003)'s huge success that it finally got a theatrical release.

Carnitas, big trucks, and bull riding - all in the OC

2005-04-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

I got together with James, Reina, Steve, Diane, Ryan, Dan, and Therese last night for dinner. We went to El Matador in Costa Mesa. The food and the conversation were great (strip bars and the lemon law).

James had a couple of drinks, so he handed me the keys to his truck as we were walking out. The truck is HUGE. Besides being a giant truck on its own (Ford F-250 Crew Cab) it’s also raised about 3 feet off the ground. So I’m driving this monster in the dark, looking down on everything, and watching the turbo gauge. I was concentrating just on staying in my lane. I took one look at the touch-screen stereo/navigation/Sirius receiver and decided that would be way too much for my brain to process with everything else I was trying to do. Luckily, it was only a couple of miles to get back to his place. I managed not to run over anything (as far as I know) and to not break the truck.

I’ve thought about getting a big truck like this. I’m a big guy so I think it kind of fits me, but being nimble in a car can also be nice.

I finished watching Urban Cowboy last night. It was one of the movies on my "to do" list. It was better than I thought it would be. I like how every guy in that movie beats his woman and it's pretty much just accepted. It has inspired me to hit and cheat on Vanessa so she will clean the house. I'm kidding of course, but that seems to be the moral of the story.

My... yawn... week is going... yawn... fine.

2005-04-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

This has been a slow week. The programmer I work with has been on vacation for the past two weeks, and the VP is in New York this week. I can’t have any of my ideas programmed and I can’t get any of my new ideas okayed by the VP. The other person I would like to run my ideas past before showing them to the VP is in New York this week as well. I created some logic flow charts for the new screens and will spend the rest of the week cleaning-up the mock-up screens. Yawn…

We watched Oceans 12 last night. Actually “we” watched the first hour and 45 minutes and “I” watched the last 20 minutes as well. Vanessa was too tired to watch the end. I don’t understand how you can invest that much time into a movie and not watch the end. Women. Of course this wasn’t that great of a movie. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Vanessa has been stressing about her Masters Program at CSUF. She says the class she is taking is much harder than any of the others. Of course she’s putting on another musical at her Jr. High at the same time. I’m hoping she will find some time this weekend to relax.

3 movies, 10 beers, and trip 6’s

2005-04-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

This was a busy weekend for me, especially after a non-eventful Thursday and Friday. We watched a couple of movies between Thursday and Saturday: Finding Neverland, Almost Famous, Taking Lives. They were all pretty good and my next two Netflix movies are on the way…

Saturday, I woke up early and headed over to my dad’s place. He’s going to sell his condo, so I went over to help him fix some things and give him ideas to help it sell. We removed the caulk from one of the showers, then repainted and re-caulked (no obvious jokes, please). We spackled and repainted some small holes in the walls, painted a water stain on the ceiling, moved his couch and exercise bike to the garage, fixed his carpet (kind of), organized the garage, moved a bookshelf and a marble table, and hung some paintings on the walls.

Afterward, we headed to Chevy’s to down a couple of beers and nachos. I got home around 2:45 and was napping by 3:15. That night we walked an entire 30 feet to my neighbor’s house for his birthday. We watched Ultimate Fighting Championship and played poker. I finished 3rd out of 5 in the first game, mostly because I wasn’t getting any good cards. The second game I won.

I had two memorable hands. The first one I was dealt a Jack and Queen off-suit. I figured I would stay in and see what happened. Everyone but two people folded. The flop was nothing but low, off-suit cards. They started raising heavily, but I stayed in hoping to catch a Jack or Queen. One person folded after the 4th card was turned. When the 5th card was turned I didn’t catch a Jack or a Queen. I was playing off of a Queen high. I raised, the last person folded. We showed our cards after they folded. One of them had a King and an Ace, both spades, the other had a King and an Ace, both clubs. They were a little pissed.

Later I was dealt 2 6’s. I raised a little to draw them in. On the flop I picked up a 3rd 6. I raised again. Everyone except for two people folded. They thought I might have a pair, and I played as if I did. They kept raising until they went all in. I went all in and took them both out. Overall I walked out with an extra $30.00.

Sunday, we slept in. We went to breakfast at Polly’s around 10:30, stopped by a bike store, and I go a haircut (way too short). I think the highlight of the haircut is when the lady shot a bunch of cold water down the back of my shirt, but didn’t say anything.

We went to Vanessa’s Aunt Beth and Uncle Don’s house for his birthday. Great food. They had bacon and jalapeno-wrapped shrimp with BBQ sauce on it, sushi (rolled at the house), cashews (yummy), steak, chicken, salad, veggies, and cake. I left stuffed. I spent most of Sunday night digesting and watching shows on the Tivo.

Need your advice…

2005-04-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

I can’t fall asleep with the TV on and Vanessa can’t fall asleep with the TV off. This seems to be a no win situation. I thought about getting her wireless headphones or me earplugs, but neither sound comfortable, especially once we fall asleep. Any ideas?

Netflix

2005-04-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

After hearing so many good things about Netflix I finally gave in and decided to try the service. I have no clue when we are going to find the time to watch all of these movies since we still have about 20 hours of stuff on Tivo to watch and more recording every day. If we do have time, then it is a good deal.

For $17.99 a month we can watch an unlimited number of movies with no time limits. It only took 1 day to get our first 3 movies and we already have 75 movies in the queue. I am still on my quest to watch the top 100 grossing movies, and the top 100 rated movies. I only have 6 movies left on the top 100 grossing.