I was reading my posts saying wow I haven't posted in a while, when I read

Whatever you thought you saw...you didn't.

Trust me...

Where I work, they have raffles from time to time to raise money for the Juvenille diabetis research foundation.
I walked out in the atrium where they lay out the goodies that you can win, and the tables were stocked full of piles of sh-tuff. You pick a table of goodies that you want and buy tickets to put in the bag on each table. They will draw winning tickets after lunch.

This is all fine, but the problem is that some of the tables had so much stuff on them that I would need to rent a U-Haul to get it home!! Take the bedding table for instance. Even if I were a lot less masculine and could feel comfortable sleeping in a pastel fuscia bed, I still could not win that prize because my vehicle would not hold it all! They have the entire ensemble: sheets, pillow cases, pillow shams, bed skirts, comfoters, throw pillows, a frilly piece of cloth, two round disks of the same cloth, a few other things that I did not know what they were, a shower rod, a cloth to hang from the shower rod, a blanket two crystal candle holders, and a pair of candles the same color as the stuff.

Who exactly has the time to make a bed with al of that junk on it in the morning? Matching candles? WTF? All of the tables were like this. One of them had no less than a dozen ceramic turtles, that I would need to leave in the yard, because I have no room in my house large enough for them to fit comfortably. Another had a centerpeice the size of my entire table and six smaller versions of the same.

One prize was a big stuffed chair thing that rocks and has audio inputs on the arm to feed the speakers in the head rest. That one would fit in my car if I folded the seats down, but where would I put it once I got it home? In the end, I made a donation and gave my tickets to an associate, who said he wanted to win the bedding for his mother-in-law, in order to stuff her room as full as she tries to stuff his with junk. I liked his reasoning so I doubled his chances to win!

I think I can handle that!

See my Role Model, no wait my Dad is my Role Model...well then my Hero...nope Dad again...sigh. Ok so my favorite hockey player of all time is Mario Lemieux (my Dad can not skate ), and he just signed a lease to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh for 30 years! So that gives me a long time to get myself and a kid or two, or more, up to Pittsburgh to see a game. Before I left PA, I was going to an average of fifteen or twenty games per season. I was going to Pitt University which is only a few miles from the Arena. Add that to the fact that they used to sell you the best available seat in the house for $15 if you showed your college ID, and you can see how I found it easy to make it from my late class, down to the Arena.

What is not so easy is explaining how class ends at 8:30 and I made it to the game before the 7:30 faceoff to my Mother. She was too smart to buy that in my physics class we were working on time travel. She also never would have believed that they delayed the start of the game to give me a little more time to get there. Maybe that is why I never tried those excuses. Oh yeah, that is right, I never said a word and just hoped my Dad never saw me on TV at the game. It could have been worse, I could have skipped all my classes, never graduated, and ... oh wait, heh.

With the onset of Spring in the next few weeks, I thought it was time to write down my goals. Then in the middle of summer I can say heh guess I should start thinking about cut those weeds down...nah it is too late now!

I need a machete...I could get a gas weedeater with a metal blade, but I just know the neighbors would rather see me use a machete on the weeds that are taking over the hillside. Also, if I fall down the hillside with a power tool, I am far more likely to hurt myself than if I am holding a machete...or not.

1. I want to cut down the dead weeds before they turn green in the Spring and are much harder to deal with.

2. I want (need) to finish the doors under the kitchen bench.

3. I want to organize my old computer parts in the file cabinet..possibly even selling some/giving some away.

4. I want to get my audio equipment set up so that I can play my guitar and record it to my computer.

5. I want to get myself setup and motivated to paint some of my miniatures a night or two a week.

6. I want to write again, possibly another night or two a week.

7. I want more nights a week, so that I can also play poker a few nights, watch a movie on a night, play board games on a night, etc.

8. I want to sell some old comic books, but I am going to wait until the Spiderman movie comes out to drive up interest, as most of my comics are Spiderman.

Fellow Blog Mates,
I Have Something Tto Ssay
Thank You For Reading

I have been blogging here for a while now, mainly ranting about everyday nuisances and money thoughts, but sometimes about funny things that happened and blah blah...anyway. I see a lot of DS and DD and DH etc. in the other blogs. I have been wasting my time saying My Son and My younger Son or My Daughter when referring to my kids because I was not a member of the blogging inner circle. I was not given a handbook of acceptible blogger shorthand (ABS) so I was simply not in the know. Now that I know, I am sure to try hard to say my DS1 DD and DS2 were with DW and she said to me "DH your DS1 and DD and DS2 are really cute. Look at the way DS2 smiles, and listen to how pretty DS's voice is. DS1 was a pretty GB 2day don't U thnk? I spose he's ...really I ran out of stuff to say here but...

heh I need a guidebook of shorthand so I can write more posts instead of using more lettrs in my posts!! It's not fair that I am wasting letters and wearing out my poor fingers...

When you get a $5500 a year raise that is good right? This monetary raise was supposed to cover that fact that I will not get paid time off from my new company...

Well how about if you then find out that Health Insurance is $225 a week...you read that right WEEK. I paid $400 a month for health dental and vision with the other company...I flipped out when I first saw this. But I had a day and a half to relax and think of a way to explain this without screaming and with fine and Friday being the only words I used starting with an F...

Background information: I am sitting in the same seat, have the same phone number and do the same job, just the money is coming from someone else now.

So that makes the net raise about -$1750 with dental and vision. So...I called the company and politely asked for more money to counter the increased costs of their benefits package... They increased my pay rate by another $5000!!! This will go up more with OT. Man am I glad I called them back and politely explained the costs associated with what was supposed to be a move that was done to benefit me!!

Halloween has always been my favorite time of year. The nights are cool, the air smells crisp, wind blows through what leaves are left on the trees. I have many good memories of Hanging with friends, sometimes up to no good, more often just eating and drinking together while always talking and laughing.

The more family oriented Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. The night comes faster with the wonderful invention of daylight saving time. ( don't get me started ...) Carving Pumpkins, especially those picked yourself at a pumpkin patch is fun to do. But you see more and more people wasting a lot of money on costumes. We had a Halloween (they called it Fall Festival to avoid all ties with Pagan Holidays...how thoughful) Party at our church and I noticed many things. Most of the children wearing homemade costumed looked like they were having more fun than those in store bought outfits. This could becasue because while that girl over there in a fancy expensive Disney Princess getup is scratching at the seems where all of the fancy cheap plastic beading was attached, the other girl in the homemade princess dress was laughing and bouncing in one of those giant inflatable bouncing thingies.

Another boy had on a store bought hulk outfit, he had fun sure, but his parents paid a lot of money for that outfit and do you think he had more fun than the girl wearing her communion dress with a tiara or the boy in a jedi outfit. His jedi shirt was custom made to fit for HIM and not one sizes fits all...I was partial to his costume, not because his Father is the Pastor and I want a free ticket to God's graces, but because he was carrying the same lightsaber that I was!

I am not saying that store bought costumes are bad, I am just saying that they can be found r made cheaper. THey have a Pirates of the Caribean Captain Jack getup that is like $30...my Mom found a cheaper pirate dealie for around $15...half price...did my son have half as much fun as if he were struggling to keep the Captain Jack pants on his thin waist, while his broad shoulders were uncomfortable in the shirt that went with it? I doubt it. The older kids all had costumes that they made themselves...by older i mean high schoolish aged, so they had more fun building their costume than they would have at Party City standing in line to pay for one.

Happy Halloween...

So I was in the beer aisle again, one of these days after all of the savings I am going to actually buy some beer, and I found my new favorite coupn. Good for $1 off meat or buns. Expires middle of November, limit one per QUALIFYING PURCHASE. That last part is what makes this coupon so awesome. I go to the meat section on markdown day...and find 3 packs of meat marked down half price. Now I can take an extra Buck off of each, so that is $3 more off the savings I was already going to get. Then I go down the bread aisle and find some buns to put the burgers on for 99 cents a pack...those are FREE after the coupon...I picked up enough coupons for the day, and a few extra for next week as well.

I was playing online Texas Hold'em last night, and without boring you with the details I knew that I had the winning hand and was raising and reraising and then the very last time I needed to hit the button to call the other guys raise back to me before the animation of the chips sliding to me came up, my son, who I was holding while walking around the living room in order to get him back to sleep, kicked my hand! He made my hand hit the mouse button just after he made the mouse move so that instead of pointing to the call button, it was pointing to the fold button. So the $25 worth of chips went to the other guy.

This means by Brother will be enticing me to come to his house to watch my beloved Steelers play. THis year however...he did NOT get the Sunday Ticket where he got so like every game last year. Well if he had 5 or six TVs and 5 or 6 sets of eyes he could have watched them all at least. This year he was smart, he decided that since the Steelers are the defending champs they will have plenty of nationally televised games on and he can save his money.

I am so proud, he is thinking of saving money. This is a breakthrough moment for him I think. I might have to celebrate with him by going to his house and watching a game in a few weeks...

I went back to Wendy's and said Hello to my favorite manager. I used her coupon to get the free burgers. One Big Bacon classic, with lettuce mayo on the side. One spicy chicken sandwich, and two Jr. Cheeseburger kids meals, one with no tomatoes and one with pickles only. I got the chocolate milk for the kids which they both liked. I got back to my table and guess what...there was no mayonaisse on the side for my wife's burger. She said it was fine so we continued to hand out the food. My daughter's burger had pickles on it like I said, but it also had, ummm, everything else that comes on a Jr cheeseburger.

That is slightly annoying. I said pickles only, the nice young man who took my order both this and the previous time said 'pickles only' into his microphone, but I did not get pickles only. My son dropped his burger on the floor, and I considered picking it up and saying this was supposed to have pickles only, to get a replacement burger for him...but I did not, I purchased a burger for $1.07 and everyone was content. I probably should have complained again about the lack of mayonaisse and lack of no lack of ketchup, mustard, and lettuce or whatever they put on her burger.

For July I plan to:

Continue the antivending machine campaign

Take the blasted pics to Ebay the Star Wars cards

Only spend money on Ebay that I have in Paypal, or make from selling said cards.

Write more of my stories...I have been putting this on the back burner and I really want to find some time to get back to writing.

Take my kids out to a field somewhere and launch some rockets. I really haven't done this since back before my own kids were born when I used to take my Nieces and Nephews and let them pack and load one of the little rockets each and then launch them all.

Paint a little on my Warmachine models. I have a set of nicely primed Long Gunners thanks to my MIL, that would be a great place to start. So far I painted the hair brown on two of them.

The kids joined a summer reading program and they got their first rewards today. My son received a little green frog toy and a coupon for a junior frosty at Wendy's. My daughter got a sticker and a coupon for her very own junior frosty. Our neighbor got a pencil and a coupon for a junior bacon cheeseburger. This slight difference in coupons causes the need for this rant. We got up early to get out of the house in an attempt to get to the library sometime close to its 9am opening time.

It was early, but I could hear the birds chirping happy little tunes as I drove to the library. The City has about eight or nine libraries spread out, but of course the one with the nice little children's section that we like is on the other side of town. The Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shaped clouds followed us the whole drive. They waved gently in the early morning breeze. We arrived at the library got our booty, stopped at my Brother's house to say goodbye to my parents on their way home after a nice vacation, and then went to Wendy's for lunch.

I ordered burgers for my wife and the kids, the bacon cheeseburger for the neighbor and a spicy chicken sandwich for myself. I got two drinks and the two free frosties, figuring the neighbor can have one, my kids can share one and everyone has food and a beverage for $16. The young man who rang me up did not know how to ring up the free junior bacon cheeseburger coupon so he had to call the manager...and then call again when no one came...finally one of the people working the burger manufactoring assembly line yelled back for her.

She came to the front counter finally and said, 'Oh, we do not accept this coupon' to the man ringing me up, not to me. She then turned to me and showed me on the coupon where it says available at participating Wendy's only.

'I see, it says the same thing that it says on the free frosty coupons which you do accept.' This confused her, and caused her to reread all of the coupons involved.

'We do not honor the free cheeseburger coupon.' She says and begins to hand it back to me. I quickly think about this. I bring three children, well two children and a teenager, who were rewarded by the library, but this manager does not want to honor the reward for one of the trio. So I decide that this is unacceptable, and I can solve this the way most times I would be too timid to do. Egged on my the Mickey and Donald clouds, I reply, 'That is fine, then I want to cancel my entire order.'

The manager had the expected look on her face, however it was because she did not understand what I was saying. She thought for a second and then spouted out her unintelligent words, 'I am not saying that you can not get your food, just that we do not honor this coupon.'

I look out the window shake my head at Mickey, and use smaller words. 'I am going to take my business to a Wendy's that will honor all of my coupons.'

More discussion occurs but I am not getting through to her, so I ask, 'How much is a junior bacon cheeseburger?'

'99 cents.' She answered quickly in such a way that indicated that I was making a big deal out of a measly buck.

'I am going to cancel my $16 order if I do not get a 99 cent burger.' My words finally reached her just as my wife came to explain that the coupons all came from the library and she does not understand why they would accept some but not all of them.

'I do not understand what you are doing.' She states the obvious. 'You can change your order if you want to, but I am giving you back your coupon so that you can use it at a Wendy's that will accept it, rather than throw it away.' Ummm what? Is she saying she will give me the free burger but let me keep the coupon?

'I want a junior bacon cheeseburger, and if you will not give me one for the coupon, we will go to a Wendy's that will, now.' My wife took the liberty of stating our intentions again.

'You can get your burger but I can not do anything with the coupon so I am giving it back to you.' She replied and then answered yes when we asked her to explain that she was going to give us the burger but not take the coupon for it...what a deal a free burger and we can use the coupon over again. Based on her inability to fathom what was going on, I imagined myself eating junior bacon cheeseburgers for life with the coupon that will not be taken.

She takes the Junior bacon cheeseburger off of my bill, takes my $15, and they prepare my meal. The wife goes back to the table satisfied that we are getting all of the rewards due to the people in our care. I get the tray dole out the burgers..all five..wait four, what oh man they did not give us the junior bacon cheeseburger after all. I go back to the front to explain the situation. My wife collects all of the food in order to make it easier to return it if in fact I am not getting a free burger, after all I said I would cancel if I did not get the free reward.

In my mind I foresee the conversation the length of time it would take to drive my already hungry children not to mention cranky wife and self to the next Wendy's and try again. Making a quick decision I gave permission to eat the food, and took $1.07 out of my pocket...I explained quite loudly that I would buy the burger, get the store number and I already had the manager's name and I would take up my complaint on the internet.

They obviously relayed this information on because while we were eating our food the manager came over and struck up a polite conversation, 'You have a big family.'

'A big family of readers with coupons from the library, but unfortunately one of them does not get her reward.' My wife said smugly.

At this we explained that we had to buy that burger and she seemed surprised by this. She appologized several times and said, 'before you leave come up to the front and we will get frosties for all of the kids.'

My initial thought was ummm I already have frosties for the kids, but I guess she forgot that she accepted those coupons...

'I will also give you one of my personal management coupons.' This was said low so that no one else could hear her. I assume because Dave Thomas' Secret agents would have to wipe the minds of any who heard her.

'Thank you.' I replied happy with the new accord that has been struck...we would all get frosties now and some new coupon that probably will get a new article here on my blog written about it as well. We ate our meals with our neighbor getting her frosty and then taking the kids up one at a time to get theirs, which my wife and I confiscated and replaced with the junior versions that we already had.

I went to the front after we finished eating and told that nice young man that I needed to speak to the manager again. I called her by name to drive the point home, I do not know who I was driving it to though. She came out, a bit quicker this time and asked what I needed.

'You said something about a secret coupon...' I said after looking left then right for the agents first.

'Oh ok one second sir.' She said and then disappeared in the secret manager room. I imagine she was pressing the hidden buttons on the picture above her chair to open the coupon vailt. After scanning her left retina she returned with, get this, a hand written coupon on the back of her business card. SO you will not take a professionally made coupon from the library, but you will take a business card that says free stuff on it and her signature scribbled at the bottom. 'This is good for any two free large combo meals and 2 free kids meals.'

So three frosties, 2 large combo meals, and two kids meals were given to us as a substitute, for one junior bacon cheeseburger that I still have the coupon for. Sounds fair. My neightbor summed up all of my thoughts when she said, 'I will come back with my family and use the coupon again, this is great.'

It did not sound like that but , well let me take my time and tell the story right. I got a roast beef club sandwich on white bread with no cheese (that costs extra) with lettuce tomatoes pickles and mayonaisse for lunch...like I said in the post before. The nice man that is very hard to understand stuck a little extra beef on it with a wink and a nod. His company lost their contract so they are done in a week, I assume that he is getting rid of the inventory in his own way, and I am thankful. He carefully stacked the roast beef, roast turkey, and bacon and then asked 'Blauftome?' ( Anyone who has ever seen the movie quick change should get the humor) I asked him to repeat, which he did and I still do not speak ummm whateverian but the second time he waved his hand over the bountiful spread of toppings in front of him.

I knew what he meant now and said lettuce tomatoes and pickles please. I wondered if what I said sounded like 'blauftome por favor' to him, but he placed a pair of perfectly sliced tomatoes with precision onto the slabs of meat, and loaded so many halves of pickle chips that I was not sure how I was going to fit the mammoth sandwich into my mouth. He stuck the top on, smooshed it down, put two of those fancy little toothpick things with the colored plastic on the back in it, and cut it in half. His knife went right between the toothpicks thereby creating two identical halves of a marvelous sandwich, each held together by a wooden arrow with yellow flights...

I proudly carried my heavy little sandwich back to my walled bastion (cubicle, fine) While I loaded the image on the computer under my desk, I opened the container and basked in the glory of the mighty sandwich. A smile crept slowly across my face, and before long I could feel the muscles around my eyes tensing up, so I knew it was a big smile. I rammed a straw into the lid of my drink in such a way that would have made Bram Stoker proud. The sandwich expanded slightly as I removed the wooden stake the was holding it all down. Actually it was nailed to the bottom of the take out container, probably to keep it from shifting as I walked back to my desk.

You know how grass shows its resiliency by slowly going back in place if you step on it? That is what my sandwich was doing once I removed it from the container. I held on tight and took a bite. The bacon tasted sooooo good, that I, remember that I am a carnivore to the extreme, for one brief moment, forgot that I had beef on my sandwich. Then I tasted the beef, and the turkey, oh man this was a great sandwich. I took a second, even more scrumptious bite. The tomatoes slid slightly under the weight of all of the meat stacked on top of them. I had to shift the angle that I held the half of sandwich in my hand to keep the tomatoes from slipping completely out, perhaps I should have allowed this to happen, for what happened next may have been avoided if I did.

I picked up the sandwich, raising it back toward my mouth for another delicious taste. The tomato in the back near my pinkies, gave way, causing a chain reaction that started with the meat shifting quickly down and ended with the mayonnaise soaked bread tearing in half, spilling the contents of one half on my lunch into the styrofoam container below. I was left holding the other tomato and a fistful of pickles and lettuce, staring down at a pile of meat in disbelief. I licked the pickle juice and mayonnaise from my fingers and thought to myself, 'My sandwich just exploded, wtf?' I began looking for a fork to finish my lunch, but alas I still had another half to enjoy. It would appear that while I was eating the first half, the second half was succumbing to the same soggy bread syndrome, because I only got one bite of this half before Boom!, it exploded like the first half. I resorted to stabbing the remnants of the inards of my sandwich with the little wooden arrows to finish my lunch. It was still rather tasty...

We ate burgers last night for dinner that we did not have to pay for courtesy of my parents. This was great except that there is no leftovers for my lunch. I went to the cafeteria for the second time this week. Free dinner is worth $3.40 for lunch the following day. Anyway I just get the special when I go because it is cheaper. So today I get a roast beef club sandwich. One of the guys that I work with pays $4.45 for a chicken wrap and a small order of fries and then another $1.19 for a water (don't get me started). He noted that he paid $4.75 for the club that I have today when he got one on Tuesday. You know what I had on Tuesday? A chicken wrap with medium fries and a drink for $3.95! Yes this is one of the guys that went to the BBQ joint on the day that our comopany had the free BBQ lunch.

My wife will be happy to know that if and when I ever get some of my miniatures painted, I have a good use for a lot of the junk that has been in several boxes since we moved. I have assorted electronics, tools, hardware, knick knacks, etc. that I can visualize as really nice props for the bases of the miniatures. The bigger warjacks Or Helljacks as the Cryx (undead) call them, are supposed to be 15 feet tall.

So I think a few old discharged capacitors would look like vats or storage tanks compared to them. I can put some cheap paint on them a little thick and let it glob and run to look like vats of evil necrotic goo or something. I plan to use up a lot of the little pieces of junk, I have small wires that will be able to string the vats together or act as a sort of fence.

I am sure that my wife will be happy to see that junk, ummm, I mean stuff finally get used for something. I need to get some pictures of the Star Wars cards to get them up for sale on Ebay. I need to buy a few paint brushes and if I can use ebay money that would be a bonus.

I mentioned my friend, the one who does not understand why I would wait to find the Bane Thralls at a good price on Ebay if I had the money to buy them now. So the other day I am talking to him, he asks how my quest for finding the 'best deal' is going. I explained that I did not expect to find great deals on all of the pieces that I want for the game so soon, and how I am now also interested in starter sets or even better partially painted sets for my Nephews for Christmas. That way they can play while we paint some of the pieces. One of my Nephews , oh ok both are lazy and instant gratification seekers.

They would be overwhlmed and lose interest quickly if they had to spend time painting before they could play. However I think they would both enjoy being able to come to my house and paint with me and we could play with the rest of their sets while the primer or paint dries. I will keep casually looking for some great starter sets that are at great prices for them. So my friend hears this and says 'you mean people auction of their painted minis?' The thought had never occured to him; he is after all one of those guys who never gets rid of anything. So at the end of the conversation he says maybe he will have to check Ebay and see what kind of models are out there for sale.

I, of course feel as if I have finally reached him. Here is a man, without a budget who spends what he wants when he wants and he has agreed that maybe I am onto something. He calls back in twenty minutes and tells me to get online. He sends me an instant message of a link to a painted unit of minis. The unit would cost $30 in a hobby shop, maybe $25 with shipping online and I have seen them go for $20-$22 on ebay new. He is happy to tell me that he is the current winning bidder at $90 and says he has been meaning to get a set of these guys for his alternate army configuration, but thought it would be too hard to paint them so he did not buy them. Now thanks to me, he has found that his laziness can be counteracted by simply overpaying for pre-painted miniatures! I am sorry that I mentioned Ebay to him, but I am sure the guy seling the models is not!!

I love to eat tacos with my children. My cute little girl starts eating hers right in the middle, so I broke it in half and told her to eat each half from the end that is not dripping. My son complains and will not touch his until he visually confirms that you have put hot sauce and barbeque sauce on his. He eats his then splits one with his sister. These are soft tacos made on eight inch tortillas and filled with beef, tomatos, and cheese. He then split another with me and took the last bite of hers as well.

So today at work I have *dun dun duuuuuuun* TACO CONSTRUCTION SET. I have a container of meat, one with cheese, and another with sauce. I also procurred not one but two shells for my taco constructing pleasure. It is the little things in life that really matter.

Ok, so I have mentioned that I have gotten into a new hobby. I am buying and soon hope to be painting Warmachine models. I plan to actually play the game, not just collect and paint, but painting is a long and hopefully fun part of the hobby. My wife disagrees in fact, she says that all that it is going to do is aggitate me. 'You are going to make a mistake, and then scream and swear' What the $%&@@! is she thinking?

So I am talking to my friend, the man who has been trying to get me to play this game with him for over a year now. He has spent a lot of money on the little pewter dudes, paints, and materials. His work looks good and he enjoys it, but the point of tying him into this rant is that he is just throwing his money at his hobby. We were talking about a particular unit of undead goodness called the Bane Thralls.


They come either 2 in a 'blister' pack or six in a boxed set. I received a blister of them for my birthday from a friend who happened to have them in his comic book shop and wanted to clear the space as he only had 2 Warmachine items in stock. My friend has the box set and is in the process of painting them now. Like any smart game maker, Privateer Press, the maker of Warmachine, has a system where you can play the 6 member unit or you can add troppers up to a total of 10. Obviously they want to make money. In theory you can not play the unit without the leader, which only comes in the box set, thereby increasing the cost of said box to slightly more than that of 3 blisters.

I was discussing how I was looking to pick up a boxed set on Ebay because they are $30 or so new, and I did not want to spend that much. We also discussed how he is using more expensive paints than I have, and his defense when I said I will stick to the standard paints as I can not justify the increased cost was that they are nearly the same price. The paints that he is buying are over $3 a bottle. The ones that I am using (I only need to buy 3 or 4 colors to paint 2 different schemed armies because I was given an ample set of them for my birthday- thanx!) are $2.75 per. I have say 16 colors and need a different blue, a brighter red and some metals like gold and steel. He has about 30 bottles or more and said he had all the colors that I would need to paint one of my two factions.

The conversation drifted to the rules of the game and setting up a time to play, and then moved to our next games night. Games night leads to poker night and I, feeling proud, advised him that I had won $50 the night before in less than an hour of incredible luck on an online site. His response was what spurred the recent rash of financial priority posts. He said 'there is your box of Bane Thralls, right there.' He expressed a sense that I was silly for waiting until I could get them at a good price when I just said that I had the money to pay retail for them already. I am pretty much flat out refusing to pay anything more than half price for the miniatures simply based on principle.


People have a very hard time with this concept. I have enough of the minis to spend a lot of time painting them, seeing as how I will be painting in short shift at night after the children are asleep. I have enough to be able to field a small army from two different factions once I assemble a few of the guys I got in a starter set from ebay ($18 including shipping, retail price on the box is $39.99) meaning I can play with someone who does not own a set. My Nephews already want to come over and check the game out, and of course my four year old wants to play, help build/paint, learn the rules. It is not like ok I have a lot of guys but if I don't have this one model I can not play, so why would I pay full price if I can wait patiently for a good deal, or my next birthday to get more?

I had to buy a drink from a vending machine yesterday at the pool. My wife brought a wonderful homemade lemonade drink that for reasons unknown had fermented and was so strong that it would spit the seeds at you if you tried to take a sip. Rather than dehydrate, I decided to give in and make a vending machine purchase. The water from the fountains does not meet my requirements of water quality, so I am not drinking it. But I technically have not failed my goal for the month.

I gave the money to my wife, so she failed!! Of course she did not have a no vending machine goal to fail, but I will try to keep her in check for the rest of the month.

Have all of the Hollywood writer's run out of ideas?

Today, with its catchy date of 6/6/6 marks the release of the remake of the Omen. I assume this one was done solely for the use of the date, however the rest of the remakes made in the last few years do not have that excuse. Don't get me wrong, there are movies out there just dying to be remade with the new technology that we have today.

Logan's Run would be a spectacular movie with the CGI animation available. Krull, The Never Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Legend, lots of movies like that which when you see them today are obviously not quite up to par visually, but where top of the line back in the day. These movies could be great with some enhancements, better special effects, killer new soundtracks, but what movies do they remake?

The Longest Yard, while I have to admit that the original sure was funny and had some classic movie moments and lines, benefitted how from the new technology available? Posiedon, again the original was a great movie, but I saw a lot of the water sequences already when I saw Titanic...which was 3 hours I will never get back in itself. Ocean's Eleven, couldn't they have had those same stars copy the heist from the Original? George Clooney could have been Danny Ocean Junior or something. I do have to admit that I like the remakes for one reason. When my Nephews talk about some movie that just came out, I can talk to them about it as if I saw it too, because I did, fifteen or twenty years ago!

Then there are the movies that are not remakes but whose titles are misleading. My wife would be the first to say I,Robot. Great Movie, Will Smith was great, the animation rocked, the story was good, but was way too loosely based on Asimov's great work to share its name. I could have been called NS5 and I would have loved it, and not have had to hear my wife complain about the poor use of the title.
Godzilla, in which Matthew Broderick did a superb job of acting, would have been better off with a different title. All of the criticism the movie received were by fans of the old Tokyo destruction, monster movies complaining about the changes they made. If you want to take libeties in making these slight differences, use a different title. Can't anyone write something original anymore?

So we decided to order a pizza at the pool yesterday. My Mother had sent some money for just such a day. THe sun was shinning, but the breeze was chilly. The water felt warm because of this but it was cold when you got out. Birds were softly chirping in the treeline off in the distance. A group of children were giggling while playing on the playground equipment behind me, and clouds, shaped like Goofy and Pluto were in the sky...right next to the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck clouds. (got you!) I took out my phone, and noticed that the battery was dead.

One of the kids behind me screamed loudly and chased away a few of the birds, but I did not falter. I used the lifegaurd's phone and called the pizza place and the man asks for the address. I tell him it is not an address but the pool and clubhouse and give him the name of the street. The street is three blocks long and at the end of it, the pool is on the right. The man says but you do not know the address. I repeat the name of the street and tell him the pool is at the end of the road.

'But you do not know the street?' He asks in his best I do not understand English voice.

'umm yeah,' and I repeat the name of the street for the third time. I can tell by his reaction that he still does not understand. I start over and tell him the name of the subdivision, then the street and finally the pool is at the end of the street.

'Hold on let me let you talk to the driver.' Mickey Mouse is laughing a little and the birds that left were replaced by different birds, with irritating calls that do not sing cute little jingles.

The driver gets on and says, 'yeah what's the address?'

I explain to him the same as I did to the first guy and he asks, you guess it, 'You don't know the street address?'

Donald duck points at me and chuckles. I repeat again the directions and this time the driver gets it. He says it will be 40 minutes. I am a bit hungry but I will live that long. The kids for some reason want to get into the freezing cold pool, so I join them.

I joined them in the pool up until I was standing knee high and the wind blew strongly, sending chills over my entire body. The lifeguards were throwing a ball across the pool, because no one was in it. This is one week removed from tempratures in the 90s for a few consecutive days. My eldest played with a basketball with the lifeguards and thought it was funny to make them fish it out of the pool.

My daughter dipped her feet in the water and poured with her measure up cups. They had fun for a while and then my wife started. Oh she started and I think Mickey and Donald were egging her on.

'How long ago did you call for the pizza?' 'When is the pizza coming?' 'I sure am hungry!'

I think at one point the Mickey cloud rubbed his belly and put his hands to his mouth the way they would have indicated hunger in an old silent film. He crawled on his hands and knees and Donald mouthed the words, 'no pizza for you!'

I sat back down under the umbrella and since the kids were obviously hungry we got them a small snack and let them drink a little of the juice that we brought. The children playing behind me started chasing each other, causing the youngest of them to yell, no shreik wildly. There is a nerve in most adults that is sensative to this high pitched sound. It causes our necks to crouch down like a turtle's trying to get into our shell, our fingers and our teeth to clench, and our eyes to wince.

The birds started chirping one of the annoyingly catchy tunes from one of those annoying kids shows, that I will nt be able to get out of my head for weeks, and the kids, well, the kids who were not shreiking were singing along. I looked to the sky, where the Mickey and Donald clouds had completely obscurred the sun, and they were dancing to the song. Just as the shreiking, singing and dancing were reaching their climax, the pizza man got out of his car.

'That better be our pizza!!' my wife yelled stopping the man in his tracks. I paid for the pies, took them to the table, smiled and the still screaming kids, nodded and the chirping birds, and held up a piece of pepperoni and sausage pizza as if saluting Mickey and his fine feathered friend. The sun came back out. The kids crammed into their SUV. The birds left and the clouds, even the ones shaped like Goofy and Pluto disapated. I ate my pizza, smiled at my victory, then froze my ass off in that ice cold water for fifteen minutes before the lifeguards announced that it was time to go.

It appears as if when we invite guests over say twice a month, once for poker and once for board games, only 1 friend at a time shows up. I am not sure if they call each other or draw straws to see who is going to show, but most times something comes up. A few rare instances have occured where a friend or two and my Brother come over, but not very often. Tonight one guy's wife broke her foot, another couple went to the drive in, one guy has been sick most of the week, and no word on my Brother or the other guy.

Have you seen the commercial where the lady goes shopping then hides all of her purchases in the under the floor compartments. It is supposed to advertise how useful those compartments are, but it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I know people who do things like this. It is called lying. From my Dad's friend who would buy new tools, and put them staight in his tool box so his wife would not know that he bought them, to the girl who buys new clothes and cuts off the tags before she gets home. She slips them into the wash or into the back of her closet, then pulls them out and lies, by saying things like I wonder if this dress fits me, or I think this is back in style now and puts it into the rotation.

I work with a guy who has a lot of music CDs, and he does it too, he buys new ones opens them outside the store and slips them in with the ones he swaps out in his car. He will have say 20 CDs in the car, then bring in 24 and swap them out, so that his girlfriend doesn't get mad at him for spending money on his music addiction, while they are struggling to pay off their student loans, and make their car payment each month. Several guys stop at a bar and pay higher prices for a few beers before they head home so that their wives or girlfriends do not know that they spent money on alcohol. A girl at work has recently discussed how she said she was taking the dog to the park for a walk and went to a pampered Chef party. She had her purchases shipped to her friend, so that they could smuggle them in while her husband was at work.

More than likely he would be at the bar preparing to smuggle in three draft beers while she brought in new cookie sheets and a cake decorator and mixed them in with her other baking equipment so that he will never know. Her evil plan was carried further by her receiving an order of Avon products and telling her husband that they were for the friends that helped her smuggle the baking items. She told her husband that she let her friend have the Avon delivered here and she will take it to her friend at work, so that her friend's Significant other would not know because he gets mad at how much she spends on beauty products. Once her husband told her that he thinks that is wrong for her friend to sneak the Avon in and left the room, she took out the lipstick, eye shadow, and perfume that she bought for herself and set the rest of the products on the table to take to work.

I have to wonder how strong are the relationships that these people ar in. If I wanted something that my wife felt was in excess or over the budget, I would try to compromise. Or I would go over the budget with her, maybe clearing funds for my purchase, but more than likely agreeing that the purchase would not be made until perhaps a later date when it is more financially feasible. The only things that I ever buy and sneak into the house are the clothes that I buy for her from the clearance rack, and store until the next Holiday or the next milestone that she hits to help her celebrate. For instance she recently got back into her prepregnancy size, so I gave her a skirt that I had purchased way back when she first got pregnant.

Another question that I have is how do these people have room to store all of this stuff. Our kitchen is just about packed, so if she got a few items I would think myself blind if all of the sudden the cabinets are fuller and I did not notice. I also, along with the kids, empty the dishwasher and would notice a new bowl or measuring cup in there. She does not know each and every tool that I have in the garage, but she would notice if all of the sudden, the tools do not all fit in the tool box, or I am getting rid of some screw drivers on a whim because I just do not need them all. That commercial reminds me of these people, and how the foundations of a relationship are represented, even through the media as not quite what they should be. I don't think any marriage will ever break up because he bought a CD or she bought a baster, however lying is the grounds for quite a few breakups and divorces.

That is my slogan a lot of times. One of my friends is telling me all about this great club sandwich that he got from the cafeteria. It had roast beef and bacon and turkey. It was *reaches hand over cubicle wall with index finger and thumb outstretched* this thick and eight inches long. Came with a pickle and fries. He went on still until I asked. Yeah John sounds great...but was it free.

This usually gets the answer well it was only...which I cut off with 'if it isn't free, or at least less than this can of tuna or peanut butter sandwich i have, I will have to pass.' I am sure they all think I am living in poverty thanks to these comments. And in some of their minds I am. I do not even have cable. Most of the guys I work with are like 'what do you do at night if you aren't watching TV?'

I talk to my wife, spend time with my kids, you know family stuff. I give some of them credit, their kids are older and TV time is family time. Some of them also do the family thing until their kids go to bed then they sit on couch and watch TV. And some nights my wife is tired and goes to bed early. On those nights I write or play online poker (I started with $20 and am up to over $700 plus I have a lot of free stuff as well.). I watch a few shows that I do not need cable for. I have cable modem, because my wife and I prioritized high speed internet above TV shows. Anything on ESPN I can get updates on ESPN.com.

I can not seem to get through to these guys that I have my priorities a little different. Even a great deal on a sandwich is not as frugal as my eating leftovers from last night's dinner. An $8 buffet, even if they serve salmon and filet mignon, is still $8, and out of my lunch budget. Of course these are the same guys that passed on free pork BBQ to go to a BBQ joint. One guy paid $375 for a video card and memory chip to upgrade his computer. Was all excited because they would cost $450 so he could not pass on the deal. He sold his other memory chip to another guy here for $20 because he did not have any more open slots. His old video card is twice as powerful as what I am running and when I asked what games or programs he was running that taxed his old card, he responded with how well that card ran. He had no troubles at all. So why did he buy a new one??

Sure my card is 2 years old and was the low end when I bought it. But nothing that I run pushes beyond its limits. I actually have 2 more open memory slots in my computer, but again microsoft Word is only writing as fast I can can type, so adding memory will not make my stories write themselves. My computers are connected to a switch box so I can share one keyboard and monitor. I have had several offers for 17 inch monitors for $50 or $75. That is a great deal on a monitor, but then I'd have to put it somewhere. My wife and I could play games together again if we could both be on the PC at the same time, but we don't. I may never understand why some people do not see things for what they really are.

It seems to me that most companies in the World are having the same problem. Their structure, whic hused to be a pyramid, with lots of blue collar workers athe the bottom, a support staff above them, managers and second level managers, al lthe way up to the CEO. Now days companies have 47 senior vice presidents each with an assistant sometimes two, a team of project officers or sub managers and all together you end up with just as many managerial jobs as their are jobs at the bottom level.

Perhaps this is why the hard working people in the middle and lower teirs of the square feel the pressure. Al of those vice presidents drive company cars and get well paid, so the company has to claim they can not afford to give raises to the lower levels. Regional managers of the profitable areas are probably getting five digit bonuses, but the people that are actually working to make that region profitable, are getting passed over again for a raise this year. I worked at a retail store like that. The bonus for the department lead (my position) was put on hold. I could earn feasibly $1000 per quarter. The assistant store managers and Store maangercould realistically earn three times that amount, but their bonus was not frozen. If the departments are not profitable, the maangers get no bonus. If we are profitable, we get shafted, but the managers still get their bonuses?!? The regional managers earned substantially more of a bonus if a certain percentage of their stores met goals, the same goals that the department heads were not getting bonuses to attain. I was making a whopping $8 an hour. Store manager $1083 per Week, who needed that bonus more?? Who had more incentive to earn it? Who sat on conference calls and attended meetings while still earning their bonus because my peers and I were running the floor, selling merchandise, redoing the layouts of the merchandise, and smiling all day?

I see this at the community pool every summer. Either a family or a mother with a child or two will show up. They will take off outclothes, put on sunscreen, find a nice place to site and then go in the water. If it is a family sometimes one parent will swim with the kids and the other will sit on a lounge chair in the sun with a book or magazine. The kids will splash and jump and float with a noodle or those arm floatie things, and they are having a great time.

Then less than half an hour after they walked through the gate, the parent or parents are ushering the children back to where they set their stuff, and will assist them in drying off, putting on their outer clothes and they will leave. I do not understand why they are going through that much trouble for so little time actually in the water. The families that then walk home, maybe I see it as a family walk with a short session in the pool as a bonus. THe families that then pack into their SUV and drive home, which since they live in the community is less then half a mile or so for even the furthest homes from the pool. Probably takes them longer to get the kids in their suits and gather the floatie toys and towel, pack them in the SUV and drive to the pool then they actually spend in the water.

If we have less than an hour of available time we go out in the yard and tell the kids we can play outside but we can not go to the pool because there is not enough time. I do not understand these people at all. I am not even going to get into the wasted gas driving to the pool, but I do not know what they are doing that means they have to leave the pool so soon. The same people do this two or three times a week in the summer. We will be at the pool on a Saturday for hours and I mean hours. We go after nap time, pack afternoon snack, supper, and bedtime snack too. We go home shower off the chlorine and the kids read and go straight to bed. We love when the pool opens because now we know that our children are getting plenty of exercise. In the winter they get cabin fever, so we want them to be out as much as possible the rest of the year.

I think that the others, knowing that Walt is a 'very special boy' had him draw pictures of cows, so that they could eat steak. Do you think the others are from the Dharma Initiative, or not? When they were going to take Claire's baby, they definately had a lot of labcoats and the like, not to mention the equipment needed.

Do you think Desmond's girlfriend's Dad has anything to do with the Dharma Initiative? He has the money and she was certainly looking for a geomagnetic anomaly. Perhaps she knows of the project but he never told her where it is. Perhaps her Mother is one of the others, (mother-other, heh)and she is looking for her or she turned up missing years ago last known to have been at one of the stations on the Island. If Jack was going to meet a hearse at the airport to take his father straight to his burial and Sayid also was traveling with his friend's body, where are those bodies? Could the Island, yes the Island that cured Locke's wheelchair dependancy, also cure Jack's father, Sayid's friend, Boone, Shannon, Anna Lucia, Libby, Scott (or was it Steve ) and anyone else that did not survive of their death?

I love it in the late spring and early summer, when it is not super hot yet, but also sunny and pretty. I can get the kids outside and let them run amok. This sure beats having them run amok in my house or having them be couch potatoes. My son is actulay fast enough now that if we run in a parking lot or on the sidewalk while he is holding my hand, I can not longer walk fast to stay side by side with him.

I have to actually break into a job to keep up now. My daughter is more likely to fall down if she tries to run fast, but that doesn't stop her. They both enjoy riding their bikes and my son is actually very good at it. He still has training wheels on but he is capable of riding even up the slight hills to get to the playground and the pool. My daughter is actually riding a tricycle, and she is sooo cute with her little helmet on saying, 'pedal, pedal, pedal' while I help her go. I would push her and say 'pedal, you have to pedal..pedal keep pedaling.' so now she says 'pedal pedal pedal.' herself. Did I mention how cute she is?

I love summer!!