Cap'n John's Blog

Sunday, February 27, 2005, 10:13 p.m.

This weekend...

Friday afternoon I picked up JE from pre-school and returned an overdue library book. I discovered that the local (LA County) Library is open until 8pm, Monday thru Thursday, but closes at 5pm on Fridays. I got to the Library around 5:15pm. This meant the overdue Library Book was probably not checked back in until Saturday morning. I now owe 50c because I bogarted Sue Grafton's R is for Ricochet :P

Saturday we bummed around the house all morning, Liz wasn't in the mood to go anywhere...or so she said. Shortly after lunch I discovered Liz was going shopping with her mom, leaving me to look after both kids. A was no problem, not since we started adding rice cereal to her formula. Now she goes down for a nap and stays down for a couple of hours :)

I did a few chores, mowed the lawn, repotted a couple of plants, cleaned up the backyard, let Anzac out for a run. JE watched TV for a while then came down to see what I was doing. I had to lock Anzac around the back again so JE could hang out with me out the front. It's not that Anzac is a bad dog, he's a very loving dog, and he's a biggish dog, and like all dogs he likes to show his loving by jumping on you. Considering he is twice JE's size, his jumping on JE to show his love is not a good thing :P

JE and I played football with the soft Aussie Rules ball we have. I tried to teach him how to kick properly, he still wants to throw the ball in the air instead of guiding it down on to his foot. He does have a pretty good arm though. I got him to put his left foot forward when he threw the ball (right handed) and quite a few times he got a good spiral going. The very first time I threw the ball to him it hit him on the chest and he wrapped his arms around it and hung on. I was very proud of him. He didn't make any more catches after that, but that first catch was a good one, and at least he didn't shy away from the ball. Being afraid of the ball is what prevents an athlete from reaching their full potential.

JE decided he wanted to ride his bike so I put on my roller blades and he rode around the complex with me chasing him...which actually means I tried to ride slow enough to keep him in front of me. Liz got back with her mom, who wanted to have JE for the night. He wanted to stay and play golf with me, so he did. Liz's mom kept asking him if JE wanted to come home with her, he kept refusing, she kept asking him. It was funny, in a sad kind of way.

We took JE to Church Sunday. He stayed with his grandparents for the morning and the early part of the afternoon. Liz & I got a bit of shopping done, then stopped by her parents' house to pick up JE. The little guy decided he wanted to play golf again, at the full-sized course, not mini-golf, but by the time we got home he had fallen asleep. We unloaded the car, I put my golf clubs in the trunk, then Liz stayed home with Amber while I set off to the golf course.

They were a little rude at the course. I'd figured on playing just nine holes with JE coz it was getting close to dusk, but the guy in the pro shop said the price was the same for 9 or 18 so we could play as many holes as we wanted. Because we were playing on a Sunday it was also $ 13 per person, yep, that included JE. $ 13 for a 4 year old to play golf. I tried to negotiate a lower price so the pro shop guy spoke to the owner, who insisted on me paying full price. Something about insurance in case JE got nailed by a ball...which damn near happened, too!

I decided if it was going to cost JE and I $ 26 to play golf, we were going to play as many holes as we could get in. JE also decided he wanted to Tee Off AND hit his ball all the way up to the Green AND Putt Out. Which he did. It took him maybe 10 strokes on average to hit the approx. 100 yards to the green, which is pretty good for a 4-year old, but he did that for almost every hole we played on :)

The second tee is very close to where the balls being hit from the driving range land. There is a very tall chain mesh fence between the course and the driving range, but you know some people are still going to pop their balls up over the fence. I don't know how they managed it, considering we were approx. 250 yards out, I suspect they drove their ball over the fence further back and they carried on to the second tee area. In my opinion, that's why you have staff on site at the driving range. If some idiot is launching his balls (*giggle* *snort*) over the fence onto the course, you move that idiot down the driving range and away from the course. I teed off on the second and when JE hit his second shot I noticed several range balls in the immediate vicinity. As we walked on after JE hit his second shot I heard the unmistakeable thump of a golf ball landing not too far behind me. Luckily I was between JE and the morons hitting on to the course, so hopefully any errant balls would hit me and not him...but as I've been nailed in the back of the head at close range by a golf ball, I'd rather it not happen again, fortunately it didn't.

We followed a threesome around the first 8 holes, then skipped 9 & 10 and jumped onto the tee for the 11th. We putted out on the 11th and stepped up behind the threesome waiting for two young kids on the 12th tee (remember this is a Par 3 course, so most golfers should be hitting the green on their first shot). Rather than be stuck behind another threesome we then skipped the 12th & 13th and teed off from the 14th. It was also getting rather dark by this time but with the lights on we were still able to keep playing. Apparently the course closes around 8pm, which is probably fine for the average golfer as most of the lights were situated around the greens. Naturally we got stuck behind another threesome. With just 4 more holes to play I figured we might as well just kick back and wait. On the 17th tee I invited the threesome who'd been stuck behind the two young kids (who had putted out on the 12th then run off the course) to tee off with us, as the threesome ahead of me had played so slow that they had managed to play just 3 holes while the threesome behind me had completed 5. We finally finished our 18 holes (which was just 14) and JE then decided he wanted to putt on the practice green. I let him have a hit there for a short while but with the sun down and the temperature dropping and Liz waiting at home cooking dinner, I finally got him into the car for the ride home.

And that pretty much wraps up this weekend's activities.

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Friday, February 25, 2005, 10:56 p.m.

Vampire Poodles - the Saga continues

Let's not jam up Dustbuffalo's Blog & Comments section with this little story ;)

Little Johnny was walking to school. Daylight Saving had just begun and with the clocks being turned forward an hour it was very dark. Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes ahead of Johnny, and an irridescent pink shape leaped out in front of him. It was closely followed by a second, bright orange shape. Johnny breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized crazy old Mrs. Witherspoon's two poodles Fee-Fee and Frou-Frou. A shaft of moonlight touched upon the two dogs and Johnny's heart leaped back into his throat. These weren't Mrs. Witherspoon's poodles! They were Vampire Poodles! And they were out to get him.

Little Johnny turned and sprinted for home. He could hear the Vampire Poodles coming up behind him and he wished Tommy, his best friend from school, was there with him. Johnny knew he couldn't outrun the Vampire Poodles, but if Tommy was there he wouldn't have to. Tommy was a really fat kid, and Johnny knew the Vampire Poodles would find Tommy irresistable. Yep, if Tommy were there, Johnny wouldn't have to outrun the Vampire Poodles, he'd just have to outrun Tommy. But Tommy wasn't there, so Johnny ran for his life with the Vampire Poodles quite literally nipping at his heels.

Feel free to add a paragraph in my comments section continuing the story ;)

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Friday, February 25, 2005, 11:46 a.m.

Did someone order a bomb?

12:50pm (PST) - All Clear; Stand Down. The "bomb" was apparently a tool box left in the alley next to the building. Whether or not it was a real bomb has not been conveyed to us. We are now free to leave the building.
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11:50am (PST) - Awesome! There's a Bomb Threat in the building next to my office! How cool is that? :)

We're not allowed to leave yet, but we are prepared for evac if/when we get the order.

Stay tuned for further updates.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 01:10 p.m.

Wrong number, don't matter.

I just got a call on my cell phone. I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer it. A few minutes later my phone buzzed and let me know I had a new Voice Mail. I listened to it but the caller had left his message in espanol. I don't get that. My message asking the caller to leave their name and number is in english, and yet the caller left a message in espanol. Although this is my private cell phone I played the message for my bilingual supervisor, just in case it was a client, although I never give my cell number out to clients. My supervisor listened to the message, verified that I don't give out my private cell, and told me the caller had a wrong number.

We get those at home sometimes too. Despite a message in strongly Australian accented english telling the caller that no one is available to take their call, some wrong number callers still leave a message in espanol.

If you called someone and got their voicemail but it was a strange voice, one you didn't recognize, wouldn't you hang up and try the call again? This doesn't happen. Our caller ID will show one call at a certain time, with no prior calls from that number, and the machine will have a message in espanol left at that same time.

Why would you leave a private message, including your phone number, on potentially a complete stranger's voice mail, without first hanging up and dialing again, just to make sure you had the right number? I call my older sister in Melbourne and I know when they've had a power outage (or unplugged their machine) because the robotic message tells me that no one is available, but I'll still hang up and try the call again, just to make sure I have the right number.

Am I the only one that does this?

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Tuesday, February 22, 2005, 11:27 a.m.

A long (late) weekend update

We made it to Johnny Reb's in Long Beach yesterday for lunch with Xinh and Nate. It was a rather dingy looking place, certainly not the kind of establishment you would eat in if you weren't there at someone else's request...almost like every lunch place I frequently visit in downtown L.A. ;) They look like shite, but oh man, is the food good or what! While we were waiting for our table, Liz leaned against an interior wall which separated the dining area from the kitchen, and the wall leaned inwards!

I ordered the Johnny Reb Special; a pulled, smoked pork sandwich, I also added a half-order of onion rings for good measure and was glad I did. They were, quite possibly, the best onion rings I've ever had, seriously. I forget what anyone else got coz I was busy chowing down on some damn fine food. We also ordered a side of Hush Puppies, which are big ol' balls of deep fried cornbread, and a side of Sweet Potato Fries. The Hush Puppies were pretty good, but the Sweet Potato Fries had just that slightly unusual taste for a familiar looking food which put me off them a little, but the onion rings, Hush Puppies and pork sandwich were bloody good. No complaints there.

Afterwards we headed home, Xinh and Nate tagged along and we just hung out for a few hours, chatting and laughing and having a good old time. Xinh has mentioned Nate in her blog a few times and it was good to finally meet him.

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Sunday, February 20, 2005, 08:53 p.m.

Now that's Service (with a Capital S)

A couple of guys had a novel idea (and I guess were a little bored) so they decided to turn an ordinary Fast Food Restaurant's restroom into a 5-Star Restroom. They decided to use the restroom in the McDonald's in Times Square, New York City. Going in very prepared, they were able to deck out the men's room in a matter of minutes, including a tuxedoed attendant. They actually pulled this stunt off for a good hour or so and even convinced the on-duty manager they were a legit operation, arranged by "Corporate McDonalds".

CLICK HERE to read all about it, complete with pictures.

Postscript
Oh boy, I've just spent the last couple of hours perusing these guys website, and it's hilarious. They pull these stunts A LOT of the time, including a fake "Meet the Author" reading by Anton Chekov ;) at the Times Square Barnes & Noble.

GO HERE to find a list of all of their "missions".

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Sunday, February 20, 2005, 08:27 p.m.

It's wrong, it's just so wrong

The producers of those sickeningly sweet "Kidz Bop" CDs have finally gone too far. There's just something inherently wrong about Kidz Bop 7, one song in particular. Track 13 is a cover (as are all the Kidz Bop songs) of Bowling for Soup's "1985", and it's just wrong for youngsters to be singing a song which reminisces a time when they weren't even born.

Then again, I love listening to The Beatles and the Beach Boys, but at least I born in 1969, so I was alive during their heydays.

Hey, Kidz Bop Kids! Learn to spell properly, using a Z as an S is so last century! And stop singing about a time when you were not only not even born, you're weren't even a glint in the Postman's eye! (or a glint in your Dad's eye when the Postwoman came around).

Hmph. Kidz...er...I mean kids these days.

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Saturday, February 19, 2005, 01:27 p.m.

Well that was fun

After visiting the Homestyle Cafe in Guaste last week Liz decided to treat her parents to breakfast there this weekend. We made plans for them to come by around 7:30 Saturday morning and we'd all head out to breakfast. It had been raining off & on all day Friday and through the evening, and we were even woken a couple of times during the night by loud peals of thunder.

This morning Liz questioned the sanity of driving 30 miles in the pouring rain but when the in-laws arrived we foolishly set out anyway. Halfway there the rain was coming down in bucket loads, not your average 2-gallon bucket, I'm talking about the bucket on a front-end loader that probably holds 100 gallons of water, if not more. "It was pouring down" does not do it justice. Visibility was minimal, the wind was blowing, the roads were wet (to say the least) and although Liz was doing 55 to 60mph we were still passed by several morons who seemed to think there was nothing wrong with doing 75 to 80mph in abysmal driving conditions.

We didn't see any accidents, firsthand or aftermath, on our way in, but we were almost involved in one of our own when Liz touched the brakes going down the far side of Kellog Hill. Our little Focus started sliding but Liz didn't panic, and didn't do anything stupid like jam on the brakes, which would have been very bad. She got the car under control without even straying out of our lane, but it shook her up a little. When we pulled into the Homestyle Cafe's parking lot she let out a big sigh of relief and told me I was driving back home.

After breakfast I reminded Liz she gets car sick after she's eaten if I drive (actually when anyone but her drives, even on short trips) so she reluctantly got behind the wheel again. Once more on the drive home she managed to slide the car around a little. I doubt it was hard to do. The roads were wet, the wind was blowing a gale, and our little Focus was getting pushed all over the road. Once again Liz kept her head and we didn't get into any trouble.

We got off at Covina coz Liz wanted to do a little shopping at the Babies R Us store. As Covina is not too far from home (about 7 miles as the crow flies) Liz was relieved when I suggested we take surface streets back home. The westbound I-10 always backs up around the 605, and I'm sure it was worse than usual this morning. We made it home fairly quickly, perhaps faster than if we'd taken the freeway.

Now we've got full tummies, two big boxes of left-overs, and we're in a dry, warm house, or at least we were. Liz has just taken JE grocery shopping so I'm home playing Harvest Moon:A Wonderful Life while Amber takes a nap.

Now it's time to get back to the game, the Harvest Sprites just found a Blue Feather and you know what that means. It's time to propose to my wife-to-be :)

Yep, forget the diamond ring. The girls in Harvest Moon just flip over Blue Feathers ;)

Heh heh. He's blushing ;)

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Friday, February 18, 2005, 11:08 p.m.

A golfing we will go

At approx. 3am I was woken by the sound of rain. That figured. It had been threatening to rain all week but hadn't, and when did it finally come down? Only the night before I was planning to play golf. When I woke at 6:45 the rain had stopped but dark clouds still filled the sky and a cold wind was blowing. It didn't look good.

I called Drew and updated him on the weather situation. As we were talking his doorbell rang, it was MJ. Drew said they'd probably come over anyway and if it was too wet to play they'd just have breakfast somewhere.

I fed JE and Liz dressed him in warm clothes, then we were off to the course. Drew & MJ arrived a little while before we did, and at about the same time as the lady in the pro shop (*giggle* *snort*). I paid $10 for me and asked her how much for JE. She looked at him, then looked at me, as if she didn't know if I was serious or not. I told her that he'd be putting on the greens with us, so she said $2 would be fine on account of how small he is. He could barely see over the counter :)

As we approached the first tee I noticed a golfer putting out on the first green. We were not the only golfers crazy enough to be playing on a cold, wet, overcast morning. MJ teed off first and shanked his drive rather badly, he eventually holed out with a 6. Drew bombed his drive onto the green, his ball stopping dead about 6" from where it touched down. My drive fell a little short of the green but I got up and down in four. JE dropped his ball at the edge of the green then holed out in four strokes. Despite a nice first shot Drew somehow took three putts to finish, so we had a three way tie for first place after the first hole.

The wind started to pick up a little and I thought there seemed to be a little moisture in the air as well, but being right next to a very full flood control basin I prayed it was just the wind picking up surface water. The wind played havoc with our drives and it was hard to calculate which club to use to tee off. Drew and I both hit a 4 on the second hole, MJ scored another 6, but JE picked up a stroke by holing out in 3.

Then the rain started to come down, gently at first, but gradually it got heavier and heavier. It never poured down, but it was persistent precipitation. Drew and I again tied the 3rd, but he picked up a stroke on the 4th with the first par. When he bogied the 5th I made up the stroke with a par of my own. We gave JE a 3 for the 5th on account of an excessive amount of worms crawling over the green which freaked him out. We paid for our benevolence on the 6th. He hit his first putt well and it stopped about 5 feet from the hole. Drew and MJ couldn't believe it when he made the 5-footer for a "birdie".

With the rain showing no sign of easing up or stopping, I decided to take JE home after the 9th. Of course as we holed out on the 9th the rain stopped. We looked around but the sky was still dark, it may have stopped raining but it was only a momentary lull. Drew and MJ decided to call it quits too.

It figures that the first time I managed to finish the Front Nine tied with Drew that we'd all call the game...the plus side is it means I tied with Drew. Despite the wind and rain we finished the Front Nine just 9 over Par, tying for second place.

JE won with a 35 :D

That's my boy. Sorry, but I didn't take the digi-cam, so we have no pictures...not this time at least ;)

We got home, showered and put on warm clothes then headed out to the Aussie Consulate in West LA to register Amber as an Aussie Citizen. We discovered when we got there that they no longer do that. They haven't done that for 3 1/2 years now. We have to mail our application to their main office in DC.

I asked Liz why she didn't call before hand. She confessed that she had called, but she was on hold for the longest time so she hung up. So we drove over an hour each way in the rain-congested LA traffic, and paid $6.50 to park for 20 mins, because "someone" didn't want to be on hold. Yep, that's good ammunition to store away for the future ;)

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Thursday, February 17, 2005, 02:35 p.m.

Of course I can drive a stick shift...

How hard could it be?

I was having lunch with a couple of my coworkers, and we were telling funny car stories, specifically, stories about cars with a manual transmission or stick shift.

I started off with the story about lending my brother-in-law (BIL) my car when I came stateside the first time for three months. BIL only used my car to get to the train station in the morning, and get home again at night. Everything went fairly well until the battery in my car went flat, but that wasn't really a problem, as BIL lived at the top of a hill, so he just rolled my car down the hill, gathering speed, until the car was going fast enough to start.

In case you have no experience with a stick, they can be started by switching the ignition on (so yes, you need the key) and putting the car in first gear. You press the clutch pedal (so the car can move) then get a friend (or two or three) to push the car for you. Once it's going fast enough (it's a judgement call) you pop the clutch and hit the gas and the car should start. Yes, should, "push starts" sometimes need to be repeated...several times ;)

So every morning BIL would roll my car down the hill to start it, then he'd drive to the train station and catch the train to work. During the drive to the station the battery would recharge slightly. At the end of the day there was still enough charge in the battery that the car would start without requiring a push start. His refusal to just buy a new battery, even though he knew I would repay him, was the second gripe my other BIL (let's call him BIL2) had with BIL

BIL2's main gripe was that BIL did not lock my car at night. We lived in a small town, but it still had 15,000 people in it and crime was not an unheard of event. Sure enough, BIL walked out of the house one morning to find my car had been stolen, so he got my sister to give him a ride to the train station. As they drove down the hill towards the train station they stared in amazement, for there at the bottom of the hill was my car.

Finding my car unlocked the thieves probably couldn't believe their luck, so they simply opened the door and got in, and then made a big mistake. Rather than risk alerting my sister, BIL or the neighbors when they started the car, they decided to quietly roll it down the hill and start it at the bottom. Of course at the bottom of the hill is when they discovered it wouldn't start, so they left it there.

BIL2 was furious. His point had been proven. If BIL had just locked my car at night, he said, it wouldn't have been stolen. BIL, never one to eat humble pie, said that if he had locked the car, the thieves might have broken a window to get in. He'd then have to pay for a new window. BIL then rubbed salt in the wounds by adding that because he didn't replace the battery either, the thieves weren't able to start the car, so it was recovered without any damage. Poor BIL2 :)

My coworker added her story about her husband's VW Beetle. He would go to work (obviously in another car) and almost as soon as he'd left my coworker's son would say to her "let's go for a ride, mama."

Now my coworker couldn't drive a stick, but she could still make the little Beetle go. My coworker and her son would climb into the Beetle, put it in gear, leave the clutch out, and turn the key. Anyone out there who can drive a stick is cringing right now.

In Australia we call that kangarooing. I think you call it bunny hopping in the States. A stick shift should never be started in gear without first depressing the clutch, otherwise as the starter motor turns over the drive-shaft will attempt to engage the transmission, the teeth on the cogs in the transmission will catch each other, and the car will lurch forward. Everyone who's driven a stick has done this before, it's very embarrassing. Almost every day my coworker and her son would "drive" around the block like this, the poor Beetle lurching and jumping the whole way.

One day my coworker's husband said to her, "I think there's something wrong with the car, but I don't know what."

My coworker feigned innocence, after all, she couldn't drive a stick, she had no idea what was wrong with it either.

My coworker's husband then went to work.

He was barely out the door when her son said to her, "let's go for a ride, mama."

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Thursday, February 17, 2005, 10:52 a.m.

Tomorrow should be fun

Drew, his friend, and I were going to have a hit at the Par 3 Golf Course in Arcadia tomorrow morning. Then Liz reminded me last night that JE has no school tomorrow.

Drew and I had already set up the game, including an 8am tee-time. I was planning to drop JE at school then head on to the course.

That's not gonna happen now...the dropping at school bit, that is. The game of golf is still gonna be on, but I think it's now gonna be a foursome :)

I'll let JE give the ball a really good smack off the tee mats, but as we'll be bombing our balls onto the green in one hit (or three hits if you count one each), I'll pick up JE's ball after his "drive" and drop it on the green with ours where he can putt out.

I have a feeling JE might want to quit after 9 holes, but I'm not sure. I'm in two minds as to whether or not I should just pay for the 9 and call it a game after that, or pay for the 18 and see if we can go all the way around.

Either way It's going to be JE's first game of "real" golf. It is only a Par 3 course, but he's also just 4 years old...5 in June ;)

Need to remember to take the digi-cam along and get some shots of JE on the golf course :)

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005, 07:54 a.m.

The Friday Five...on a Wednesday ;)

1) Would you rather live in a world with or without technology such as computers, cars, airplanes, bombs?
I could live in either world, but technology has, on average, improved our quality of life, so I'll take the tech-world.

2) If you had to live without either heating in your house or air conditioning, which one would you keep?
Without heating, thank you very much. I can always put on more clothes when I'm cold, but when you're hot, there's only so much clothes you can take off.

3) If you had to own five dogs, what kind would you get?
I'd get five friendly dogs :) Something like five Doberman Pinschers would be nice.

4) If the world had a front porch, what would you do on it?
Kick back in the rocking chair, shell and eat peanuts, drink some beer, and say G'day to the neighbors as they walk on by.

5) Would you rather live in a neighborhood where you know all of your neighbors by name, or where everyone sticks to their own business?
I would totally like to know all my neighbors by name. A neighborhood should be a community.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005, 06:57 a.m.

My parents

I had to make a copy of my birth certificate today and I realized just how young my parents were when I was born. In 1968 when my mum gave birth to my older sister, my mum was just 20 years old and my dad was only 25. I was born a year later, and my little sister two years after that. My mum's sister's first daughter was born before she turned 20, she had two more daughters within the next 3 years.

When John Edward was born Liz was 28, although an hour later she was 29 ;) I was already 30 years old. When Amber was born I was a whopping 35 years ancient. Liz, however, was 33 years young :P

If John Edward and Amber follow in our footsteps, we may not have any grandchildren until we're in our 60's. My parents' first grandchildren (my older sister's kids) were born when they were in their late 40's & early 50's.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005, 12:07 p.m.

Jumping on the Blog wagon

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:05am

2. Diamonds or pearls? For what purpose? Cutting glass, or tossing before swine?

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Um...I don't remember...it's been so long :(

4. What is your favorite TV show? Probably The Simpsons

5. What is your middle name? Stewart

6. Favorite cuisine? Italian

7. What foods do you dislike? Fish with bones still in.

8. What is your favorite potato chip flavor? Plain, or just lightly salted.

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Don't really have a favorite CD at the moment. I usually listen to the radio. Shania Twain's Greatest Hits is in my work's PC's CD player right now though :)

10. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Focus

11. Favorite sandwich? Toasted vegemite & cheese on thickly sliced, white bread.

12. What characteristic do you despise? Arrogance

13. Favorite item of clothing? Jeans.

14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? Probably Italy.

15. What color is your bathroom? I painted it white, but Liz seems to think it's Peach.

16. Favorite brand of clothing? Don't have one. You want me to wear a specific brand, pay me.

17. Where would you retire to? Australia

18. Favorite time of the day? Arriving home at the end of the day

19. What was your most memorable birthday? Alpine skiing at Mount Hotham with the bro-in-law.

20. Where were you born? In a hospital bed...in Traralgon, Australia ;)

21. Favorite sport to watch? All-time favourite is Australian Rules Football (not Rugby, Aussie Rules). I find Ice Hockey to be greatly appealing as well.

22. What fabric detergent do you use? Liz!!! A little help on this one!!! It comes in a blue bottle :)

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely morning person.

24. What is your shoe size? Depends on the shoes...and which scale we're using. I have HUGE feet in Europe, like a size 45 or something. In the US I'm about an 11 ;)

25. Do you have any pets? One Border Collie, two goldfish, and one cat that lives with the in-laws.

26. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? It's payday tomorrow :)

27. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian, or a policeman.

28. What is your favorite ice cream?Anything coffee flavored

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Monday, February 14, 2005, 09:11 p.m.

Do the Hustle!

THIS looks bloody hilarious!
Please note that you'll need Quicktime to view the trailer...which is also a 15Mb trailer so anyone with a dial-up connection (15Mb @ 56K/sec = 5 minutes) has time for a bathroom break before the movie downloads.

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Monday, February 14, 2005, 12:11 p.m.

A lazy weekend

Just a quick update, coz I've got to run off to a meeting down at the Harbor.

Saturday I got up early, around 7am, not for JE bugging me to watch TV or play games, but for Amber. JE crashed in our bed the night before and slept in until almost 9am, whereas Amber wanted breakfast and woke up crying around 7am. One way or another, my kids are going to wake me up early on the weekend.

So I got up and fed Amber, then felt in the mood for a bit of Harvest Moon on the Gamecube, but I didn't feel like continuing my old game so I started over. That seems to be the way of the Harvest Moon, at least for me. I'll play it for a while, get a year or two into the game, then put it down for a while before going back, and when I do, I'll start all over again. So I started over, again, and played for an hour or so until JE and Liz both got up.

We pretty much just bummed around the house all day and went out for sushi that night to a relatively new sushi restaurant which opened up not too far from JE's school. The food was pretty good, although they don't have a sushi bar like the restaurant we normally go to in Arcadia. Not that that matters, because Liz & I never sit at the sushi bar, although I ask her occasionally if she wants to. We ordered a 6-piece of Gyoza for JE, and a sushi combo each for Liz and I. Liz also got a Phili roll, which was a tuna sashimi roll with cream cheese in the middle. Boy, was it good! :) We ended up ordering a second Gyoza for JE, who had consumed 10 of the Japanese dumplings by the end of the meal. Yuki, the lady who owns the restaurant, bought out some deep fried, stuffed mushrooms at the end of the meal (gratis) and we just had to eat them too. Liz tried one and claimed it was too spicey. I ate one, and it was a little warm but not too much, I thought...so I ate the second one, which was warmer still :o Then just as we were leaving, Yuki gave us a mango mochi. She meant it for JE but he wouldn't have eaten it (no, really, he wouldn't have ;) so Liz and I had half each. It was just the thing to finish off the meal.

Sunday I woke up first and fed a crying Amber, while JE and Liz slept in again. Around 8:30 Liz woke up, so I convinced her to go to breakfast at the Homestyle Cafe on Old Brookside Rd in the little township of Guasti, CA. Breakfast there for Liz, JE and I cost us about $25. Liz got an omelette, I got steak & eggs, while JE got French Toast. JE then changed his mind and wanted Pancakes, so he ended up with both. He managed to eat 1/4 of the pancake, which was close to 12" in diameter and hung over the edge of his plate on all sides. I ate my steak & most of the eggs and potatoes, which come with bacon pieces mixed in. Liz ate about 2/3 of her omelette abd potatoes, but then had a couple of pieces of JE's french toast. If you're ever heading to Vegas, out of Los Angeles, leave early and stop in for breakfast at the Homestyle Cafe. They're open from 6am to 1pm and if you're there before 8am you shouldn't have to wait too long for a table; arriving at 9am we had a 30 minute wait for our table. Coffee is 25c a cup, and it's not a bad brew either. I think they go through so much coffee the pots never have a chance to sit and burn so your refill is almost always from a fresh pot, even if you're getting the last cup. We're planning to go there again next Saturday morning. I think Liz told the inlaws to be at our place between 7am & 7:30am, although they seemed a little dismayed at the prospect of driving for approx. 30 minutes (from our house) to get there :P Afterwards we dropped JE with the inlaws who, not realizing how much breakfast he'd had, tried to feed him lunch, only to have him eat one chicken drumstick then leave the table :)

Sunday afternoon was spent just lazing around the house, playing Solitaire Showdown with Liz, then a bit more Harvest Moon. Aah, nothing like a lazy weekend :)

Happy Valentine's everybody!

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Thursday, February 10, 2005, 07:11 a.m.

Are you scared yet?

During my shower this morning I was sure I heard the bathroom door close, but when I looked around the shower curtain, well, ok, the door was closed, just like it was meant to be, because I'd closed it when I came in to have my shower of course.

So I resumed showering and thought nothing else of it.

Afterwards, while drying myself off, I found the bathroom to be a little stuffy & steamy on account of the minimal ventilation, no exhaust fan, etc, so I opened the door to let some of the heat out. It was then that I discovered the bathroom door really had been opened and closed before, because "something" was sitting on John Edward's chair outside the bathroom. I say "something" because at first glance it was not immediately apparent what it was, other than it was covered in the crocheted blanket JE had taken to bed the night before.

It's fortunate I knew JE had taken that blanket to bed, because once I realized that, I knew the "something" had to be JE. I mean of course it was, what else could it be...but now I know how Liz felt when I donned my Jason "Friday the 13th" hockey mask and stood behind her while she was organizing our walk-in closet. Coz just like Liz for half a second didn't realize it was me behind the mask, for a split second it was not JE sitting on the chair under a blanket...but one of the "things" from the countless horror movies I've seen.

No, I did not scream like a girly-man or slam the bathroom door in terror...after all, I am 84% Butch ;)

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Tuesday, February 8, 2005, 01:35 p.m.

Man! That's a relief!

Gacked from Loki and Prism:

You Are 84% Butch and 16% Femme!

81 - 100% Butch - You are 100% male. You make cowboys look like pussies.

61 - 80% Butch - You're either male, or the toughest, scariest lesbian around.

41 - 60% Butch - Girl or guy? Even your best friends can't figure this one out.

21 - 40% Butch - Girl? Almost certainly. If not, you've got some major man boobs going on.

0 - 20% Butch - You're the girly girl of the century. Or Clay Aiken.

How Butch or Femme Are You?
More Great Quizzes from Quiz Diva

I was so worried my sensitive side would shine through and I'd be a real puss, but nope, I'm a man's man :P

Fine! Just coz of Xinh, I retook the test, and this time I scored 88% Butch (or 12% Pussy :P) and here are my answers :P

1. You keep your money and other essentials in:
A faded old wallet

2. You drink:
Regular soda (Barq's Root Beet)

3. Sex is best when you're:
*censored* (to protect Liz, ok ;)

4. Favorite household pet:
Dog (the bigger the better)

5. You've willingly eaten tofu
True (alas, yes, it's true)

6. In your bedroom, your walls are:
White

7. When it comes to deoderant, any old brand will do:
Of course

8. In relationsihps, you tend to hold out on sex as long as possible
What?

9. Flannel shirts are:
Comfortable (and go with anything)

10. Sex without an orgasm...
Why bother

11. On a first date:
You usually pay

12. In general, you find babies to be:
Smelly (in general, not my baby specifically ;)

13. Can you change a tire?
Yup

14. You'd rather drive:
A full size American truck (actually I'd rather drive a V8 Ford Mustang, but I went with the spirit of this question, choosing the hi-octane gas guzzler over the zippy sports car)

15. Your underwear:
Is all the same - more or less

16. Laundry time... you:
Throw it all in together (why would I seperate the colours?)

17. You're usually drawn to new lovers because of:
Their looks (just call me Mr Superficial, of course the personality has to be there to make the winner)

18. You tend to be attracted to people:
Younger than you

19. You rather your partner:
Had sex with someone else (if they fell in love with someone else it means I lose them, having sex means there's still a chance they're mine)

20. Time to lose a few pounds. You:
Hit the weights (lose a few pounds??? I wanna bulk up!!!)

21. When it comes to figuring things out, you use your:
Sense of logic

22. Are you more:
Truthful (I'm not gonna lie about your fat arse or horrible clothing)

23. Your seduction style:
Playing it cool (I play it so cool, you may never know I had a crush on you)

24. You are more likely to discuss:
Politics

25. Your kinkiest sex fantasy takes place...
Outside (of course!)

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Tuesday, February 8, 2005, 09:09 a.m.

An early morning phone call...

I called home this morning at 8am, and the phone rang and rang and I thought the machine was going to pick up, but then a little voice answered. It was John Edward. We had a chat for a little while. He asked where I was, I told him I was at work. I asked him what he was doing, he was watching TV of course. He's so cute.

Then I asked to speak to Liz.

Mommy is sleeping, JE says.

Wait a minute, I say, did you answer the phone by yourself?

Yes, he says.

Ok, I say, can you take the phone into mommy & daddys' room and see if mommy is awake.

No, he says.

No, huh, and I guess there's no way I can make you take the phone in to mommy, is there?

No, he says, bye daddy.

Huh? Wait! John Edward!

Silence from the other end, or at least no more talking.

Great, I think, he's just sat the phone down and left it, but then after a few seconds the call ended. I think he might have been looking for the red disconnect button to hang up.

I figured there was no point in calling back. JE would answer the phone again, and he probably still wouldn't take it in to Liz for me.

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Monday, February 7, 2005, 02:26 p.m.

One heck of a guard...er....what the heck is that anyway???

I have no idea what it is, but I want one...I wonder what it would eat...I mean apart from local wildlife and neighborhood pets (& small children) who come into our backyard.

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Saturday, February 5, 2005, 07:17 p.m.

The weekend so far

Man, what a week! Liz finally came down with my cold last Friday (Jan. 28), so Monday I called in sick on her behalf, went to work on Tuesday, then called in sick again on Wednesday & Thursday. Friday was my RDO and by now Liz was feeling better although this cold is still hanging on. I'm still a little congested and had a dentist appt. Friday morning, which I cancelled, because if I can't breathe through my nose I'm gonna have a helluva time in "The Chair" for an hour while the dentist does a deep scaling and a couple of fillings.

With the dentist appt. out of the way I teed up a game of golf with Drew (don't bother visiting his Blog, he hasn't updated it for months, the plus side is he never reads anyone else's Blog either, so we can talk about him all we want :P).

We decided on a tee-time of 2pm as Drew wanted to give a friend of his a chance to make it in to play a round with us. At 1:30 Drew called me to see if I was at the course, coz he was there already. As the course is just 10 minutes from my house, I hadn't planned to leave for another 20 minutes, so I quickly threw my clubs in the car, raced to the course, and discovered Drew was not there either. I'd thought we'd planned to play at my local course in Arcadia. Drew thought we were playing at another course in South Pasadena...which is also not that far away, but it still took me a good 25 minutes to get there from the Arcadia course.

Being a Par 3 course (meaning every hole is a short Par 3 of 165 yards or less) we went around fairly quickly. At the end of the front 9 a quick tally had Drew and I beating his friend by a good 10 strokes or so, with Drew beating me by just 1 stroke. I don't try and beat Drew because I know I won't. I was happy to be a mere 10 over Par after 9 holes, and happier still that I was within a stroke of Drew's score because that meant I was playing well. I played the back 9 a little better, going around in 9 under Par. I would have done even better if I hadn't muffed several approach shots on one hole and shot a 7. The rest of the holes were all 3s & 4s, with one 5 on the long (165 yards ;) 15th hole where I was forced to take a drop after my drive went OB & MIA. Drew also went around the back 9 better than he did the front, and the final tally had him shooting a 69 (giggle, snort), while I shot a 74. Drew's friend came in just under the ton, I think he shot a 97 or so; pretty good for his third game ever :)

I left Arroyo Seco like a bat out of hell (almost ;) and flew back to El Monte to pick up JE from school. Considering it was 5pm on a Friday afternoon and I was forced to take surface streets, I made pretty good time and had JE in the car around 5:30.

Saturday was a fairly leisurely morning until Liz freaked out that we were late. We were supposed to meet Xinh, Drew & his new GF, and a couple of other friends at Marie Callendar's in Marina Del Rey at 12:30. We dropped JE & Amber with Liz's mom around 11:30, flew down to the 10, and hit traffic almost all the way in to Marina Del Rey. We arrived a little after 12:30, pigged out at the buffet, and had a very good time catching up with every one. Drew's GF is very nice and fits well into our little group, and it's been too long since we saw our other friends; since before Amber was born, and Amber is almost 4 months old now. It's been too long. I told Liz on the way home that we need to invite everyone around to our house for dinner some time, rather than wait for these little get togethers once every few months.

So that's the weekend so far. Fascinating stuff, hey? ;)

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Friday, February 4, 2005, 10:02 p.m.

Car tales

Gacked from Xinher:

1. How old were you when you got your drivers license?
19 1/2, or maybe it was 18 1/2. I know I didn't get my drivers license as soon as I could have in Australia, being at 18.

2. Did you get your own car right away, use the family car, or bum rides from friends?
Used the family car. We finally got my sister's old Austin 1800 back from her boyfriend who'd left it sitting in his front yard for way too long. It wouldn't run and I ended up selling it for about $200 at a garage sale. Continued to use my parent's car for the next few years.

3. What was your first car and what was it like?
First car which ran was a green Holden Commodore VB, circa 1980. Very nice car, not fast, not flashy, but did its job getting me to work and back home again. Towed a caravan to Wilson's Prom where Liz and I stayed for a few weeks. I ran down a kangaroo the first week I had it. Before he died (or as he died) the Roo took out the front left headlight, the left front fender, and scratched the hell out of the passenger's door (right-hand drive in Australia, remember ;) left back door, and left rear fender. Bloody Roo!

4. How old were you when you got your first traffic ticket and what happened?
Never got a traffic ticket. Got one parking ticket for parking on the wrong side of the street during street sweeping, and another parking ticket at USC for not buying a ticket to park in a USC parking structure.

5. What is your favorite car story, be it an accident, road trip, etc?
I totalled my grandparents' Ford Escort just a couple of months after I got my drivers license. Took it out driving on a dirt road and thought I was a Rally Driver. I freaked out when the back end went out on me around a curve (yeah, Rally Driver, right :P) turned into the skid, ran the car up the embankment on the outside of the curve and bounced it off a HUGE tree. The car hit the tree about 10 feet up off the ground, bounced back down onto the road and finished up on its right hand side. I had to climb out of the passenger side to get out. I walked away with barely a scratch because just a minute or two before...I'd felt compelled to put my seatbelt on.

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Tuesday, February 1, 2005, 10:04 p.m.

something's different...

I seem to have misplaced...something.

I no longer seem to be ~~obsessed~~ absorbed with video games. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy them, but...they don't seem to fascinate me like they once did. I'm still looking for the perfect computer game, although I don't think it exists yet, and it won't until "they" perfect virtual reality and totally immersive computer games.

Once upon a time comics were an outlet, an escape from my less-than-perfect life, not that comic book heroes have perfect lives either, but it was an escapist fantasy.

A new Punisher game was recently released, and as a lover of video games and a HUGE Punisher fan (I have every comic in the first Punisher series) you'd think I'd pounce on a game which lets me be The Punisher. But I downloaded and played the demo, and I wasn't impressed. I'd like to buy the game, but having played the demo, despite how much I love The Punisher, I believe the game to be a piece of crap and not worth my time. This surprises me.

I read the updates to everyone's blogs today, and I followed a few comments & links to some other blogs that I've never read before, and I became depressed by how screwed up some people's lives are.

Perhaps I'm not missing something at all...perhaps I've found something. Perhaps I've realized that my own life is actually something pretty good. I have a wife and two kids who love me. I have a good paying job (w/ benefits) which lets me take care of my family. I have a house. It's ours, or at least we're buying it. We're not still renting and making someone else rich.

I think I've become aware that my life is no longer something I feel I need to escape from, but something I can look forward to coming home to at the end of the day.

Life is good.

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