I have a Couple Rhetorical Questions.

The first being, Is it wrong that I find women’s curling mildly erotic? Strange I know, maybe it’s just pornography escalation coming full circle back to the mundane.

This has by far been the worst month leading up to my birthday ever. It hasn’t been all bad I admit, but the highlights have just been muted, like my promotion. I’ve only had it dangled in front of me for like 6 months, so getting it wasn’t full of elation, it was just a well yeah, I’ve deserved that for way longer than this.

Just people dying, relationships fracturing, frustration escalating, and fear rising.

The only thing I can think of to make things better is to make detailed plans to make things better, which in some cases I have.

As a birthday/promotion/make me feel better present to myself I think I’m going to buy some new hockey pants, Warrior brand of course. With gift money from my parents, remaining fun tax money left over after buying my new shin guards, and money from selling my old shin guards, they’ll only cost $29 of real money. I think I deserve that. I’m such a whore for Warrior gear. I think that’s about all the Warrior stuff I could buy other than shoulder pads, but they would be so overkill for a no check league it would be ridiculous. (Some dudes don’t even wear them, and I cut off the hard plastic pads on mine anyway.)

Looks like I’m going to make it. One more post tomorrow on my birthday and I’ll have done it. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, maybe I’ll be able to keep it up, maybe not once a day, but I’ve been able to see the anecdotes in daily life now again.

Second question: Am I less of a man for really, really liking show tunes?



Substitute Peoria for skid-row and downtown, too many syllables I know.

I Didn’t Think it Was That Obvious.

I went to Wisconsin this weekend to see my parents. I took Carter with. He and I don’t spend a lot of time together by ourselves. It was nice. We bought some good cheese. I upgraded my Dad’s computer to XP so he could run a webcam so they could see the kids more often. I almost royally messed up his computer, but was able to get it back and running better than before without too much loss of data. My Dad and I went to see the new Bond movie. It was kind of a disappointment. Casino Royale was awesome, and this one just seemed like a setup for future movies with a plot that was pretty thin.

Winter hockey has started, and I’m playing in the upper division which is a combination of A and B league. Myself and 3 other guys managed to get ourselves on an established team of locals. (Fucking locals). Anyway, we’re 0-4 so the locals are all pissy. The “captain”, Todd, gave us a speech before the game about how if the game was close he was going to be calling lines, we had all paid to play, but we want to have fun and losing isn’t fun.

JJ, the ex-Canadian Junior and best player on our team, had called out on the bench last game that the locals should calm down that everyone paid to play and this was for fun. I guess the locals, including Todd, didn’t like that.

I wanted to chime in after Todd gave his speech that if you can’t lose and still have fun then why the fuck are you still playing? Winning is fun, but I like playing the game enough that I don’t mind if we lose. We’ve been competitive every game and a few bad goals have been the difference. So we were down like 7-3 going into the third last night, and then we start to rally and bring it to 7-5 in the last 2 minutes. I figure Todd is going to start calling lines, he doesn’t. What a dick. He scolds us like children and then doesn’t man up and act when we actually get a chance to win. We ended up scoring one more goal and losing by one. One of the four we brought into their team isn’t very good. He’s not a strong skater. The locals have singled him out as the reason for our terrible start. It’s not that none of them are really producing. It’s his entire fault. It’s always easy to blame someone else.

These guys are so obsessed with winning it’s affecting their game. If they would just focus on playing the game and having fun I think winning would take care of itself. It’s kind of like your campy teenage / college get laid or die trying movie. The more they obsess over it, the harder it is to achieve.

Starting at Left Defense, Lawryde

Yeah, I’m awesome. I’ve gone from a marginally talented C-league player to starting left defenseman for a 2-0 A/B-league team. OK, so maybe it’s just because no one else on the team wants to play defense and we were kind of short since it was a holiday weekend. The two sweetest words in the English language: De Fault.

Because, I’m awesome.

I am gaining some confidence, albeit misplaced and not always warranted. My game is improving. I think I was +2 or +3 for the game. We won 8-5. I really like my new stick and wood blade. It’s got some meat to it with the wood blade, but still has some nice whip with the composite shaft. I’ve got a nice long reach for the poke check.

We went to the Peoria fireworks on Friday. We’d never gone before since Carter was too little. We met some friends on the East Peoria side of the river. The display was pretty good. Carter liked it. I had some earplugs for him so the noise didn’t freak him out. He generally doesn’t like loud things. One of the plugs fell out during the grand finale and he started to cry. I got the plug back in quick and he instantly stopped. He was clapping and pointed throughout. Oz was not happy. He had been asleep for like an hour prior to them starting and then he cried for most of the rest. At the end one of our friends managed to loose one of their children in the crowd rushing out. Everyone kind of fanned out to look for the lost kid. Apparently someone found him and dropped him off at the lost children center. When the mother came back with the kid and the husband saw them and then hugged and he grabbed the kid’s head and kissed it, it was fucking poetic. I wish I had my camera ready. That was pure emotion and relief and love.

The Oak Tree

At the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend I was getting incredibly frustrated with Carter. He was being two, and I wanted him to be 12.

Now, I wanted to cry when I dropped him off at a babysitter. We've got him in a hawk for the summer. He's this crazy little dude who loves jumping off things and talking about the sun going to sleep and where trucks and tractors are hiding. This little piece of me.

I can only hope I can be all that he needs me to be.

I'm there. I matter less than him, than his future brother, than my wife.

I'm there.

And I don't think, you see the places inside me that I find you

This is it, last night alone.

I’m listening to music loudly at almost midnight.

I watched I am Legend tonight on the computer.

It was pretty fucking good.

I wept like a fucking baby at the end when the Bob Marley song started as the credits rolled. You cork up emotion for long enough and it will come out.

I miss my family too.

One More

Goals For While My Wife and Son are Gone for a Week

Subside on only $25 worth of groceries. Kroger has a 10 for $10 mix and match sale going on so I’m only going to pick up things on the dollar list.

Get some more ink. Tomorrow I’m going in again to hopefully get most of my sleeve done.

Clean my living room carpet. Our carpet in the living room is gross after 2 years of a baby and 3 years of animals running around on it. I’m going to rent a steam cleaner and get it done.

Make it look like I’m a super dedicated worker. I’m going to go into work on Saturday, Sunday and MLKJ Day and do some runs for my cold test. I’ll only have to go in for like an hour and it will make me look good.

Play hockey, hopefully twice. We’ve got a game on Sunday and maybe I’ll try to catch a rat session or DH another day.

Rock some GH3. I’ve moved to expert and it’s pretty fucking hard. I tend to obsess over video games until I’ve beaten them. Now I’ll have some time to put in.

Watch some illegally copied movies. Joox.net and rapidshare are pretty sweet for watching movies that are in the theater. I enjoy being part of the problem.

Clean up the house after my week of sloth and excess prior to them returning, and make sure there is more then $25 of groceries in the fridge.

I was sad and misty when I dropped them of, and I know I will miss them, but I’ve got a lot of shit to do.

Training Your Child

I’m reminded on a daily basis how I’m not anything like most of the people I work with. Whether it is their denial of the existence of mental illness, or on their philosophies of raising a child.

A couple of them just had babies. They subscribe to the 1940’s philosophy of just letting a baby cry and it will eventually stop. You baby is a mastermind of manipulation, a la’ Stewie Griffin of Family guy. You child is a dog to be trained for your convenience.

How can people sleep at night with these philosophies? If a baby is crying it needs something. It’s hungry, wet, or just wants your love. How can you deny something you’ve created your love and affection simply because you’d rather be asleep.

If you let your baby cry itself to sleep you’ve accomplished your goal, and it won’t wake up a bunch of times at night, but you’ve also taught it the lesson that it can’t count on you for love and affection. There’s a lot of time in a persons life to find out life is a cruel bitch and people aren’t going to be there for them. Why teach that to them before they’re two.

We didn’t let Carter cry it out. We got up and cared for him. That’s what we signed up for. I would have bought a dog if I wanted to train him like a dog. I have another human that needs to be loved because it can’t take care of itself in this cold unforgiving world.

I adjusted to getting less sleep and waking up at night. We didn’t train him, and now, for quite a while now, all we have to do at night is turn off the light rock him for about 5 seconds, ask him if he’s ready to go to sleep. He say’s Yeah. He gets put in the crib, and he sleeps for 11-12 hours.

No one likes to be called a bad or selfish parent. So I won’t.

Gamey, No Games, and Game On

We were alone for Thanksgiving since it isn’t “our” holiday and no one decided to come down and see us.

I didn’t mind. I got in my cooking zone and got the pheasants and ham going, worked on the sides and brought it all together right on time. I could have been a chef in another life.

The meal was good. I’d never had pheasant before. I brined it prior to roasting to keep it moist and flavor it. I never understood what the term gamey meant, but after eating the pheasant I understood. It was good, but it had this gamey flavor that chicken or turkey doesn’t have.




We put our Christmas tree up and luckily Carter hasn’t been too rough with it. He likes taking ornaments off and then not putting them back on. We also brought out this Homer Simpson in a Santa suit that dances and plays music. He stands in front of it and dances along with Homer as he sings Jingle Bells. It’s really funny, and we got a video of it to embarrass him later in life.

I agreed to help a buddy from work do the plumbing in his laundry room on Saturday. I was hoping it would be like a five-hour job, but it turned into an 11-hour job. We took out all the galvanized which was a bitch because of the suspended ceiling. That took about 4 hours. Then he hadn’t bought any of the fittings we needed so we went to Menards and Lowes. We were putting in PEX so he really didn’t know exactly what we needed. We got shutoff valves tied into the old work and some of the PEX run and called it a night at about 10:30 Saturday night.

I came back on Sunday and we got the PEX knocked out and pressure tested in less than two hours. No leaks. Now I’ve got a favor in my back pocket. I could have been a plumber in another life.

Sunday evening we had our hockey game against the Orange team. It was a battle against the team a group of us broke off of since last season because we didn’t like playing with these teenage jerk offs who never passed the puck. It had the potential for a really good game, unfortunately one of the league refs who also plays two divisions higher than our league decided to play for the Orange team for some “rehab”. WTF?

He didn’t look like he had lost any steps, and he basically shut us our offense down playing defense. One of our guys had a breakaway, and he chases him down from center ice and takes the puck away from him.

I was taking the puck up the side and he kind of muscles me into the wall and I fall down. I put my hands up with a “where’s the fucking call” look on my face. I didn’t really mind though, I play a physical game so I don’t mind if I get pushed around a bit. Unfortunately, about a minute later I’m bringing the puck up the same side and he’s in about the same position. He knocks the puck away from me up the boards, I need to spin around to my left to chase after the puck. My stick is in my right hand and he is in the path of my stick if I don’t lift it up and swing it around. I bring it up and I feel meat as my stick connects with his jaw. It wasn’t too hard (no blood, no teeth lost, serves him right for not wearing a full cage in the lowest league play), and I really didn’t mean to do it. It kind of reeked of retaliation though.

We lost 4-0. We had no offense. I need to call the league manager today and voice my disapproval of A-League players “rehabilitating” themselves in C-League games. EDIT: We were awarded the win. The league manager didn't even need any convincing. One of the refs at the game had already talked to him about it, and I thought they were all just dicks.

Long weekend, short week this week. I’m taking Friday off.

Lady, Shall I lie in your lap?

We’ve decided to postpone our trip to Madison until the first weekend in November, another non-badger home game.

Why you ask?

Well, I’d rather not tell you right now. I don’t think we’ve progressed that far in our relationship yet. “We” being me and you (my online readership).

I mean I like you, but I don’t LIKE you. All those long walks on the beach we’ve taken together, and those special presents I gave you on our one and two year anniversaries just isn’t quite enough to let you know everything about me.

We can still be friends though, and maybe that friendship will eventually blossom into something more, where I share all the reasons I don’t go on trips with you.

I’m going to sleep, enjoy the company of my wonderful wife & son, and play hockey this weekend. I hope you get do all the things you want to as well.

Game Fuel is a Substitute for Diesel Fuel

At my Dad’s retirement party a while back, I was envious of how many friends he had, and how much they liked him. Not in a mean spirited sort of way, just in a, how did he do that sort of way. He’s not overly outgoing or social, but people generally like him. All the people who had him as a teacher for 8th grade science said how cool and good of a teacher he was.

Perhaps it’s something genetic finally coming out of my DNA, or maybe I’m just aging well, but people seem to be starting to like me more. I wasn’t very likable in high school or college. I didn’t have a large social network of friends. I don’t exactly now, but I’m starting to. My hockey comrades really like the fact that I’m doing the legwork to get this team together. I’ve moved up into their top friends on Myspace as well. (Even though I hate Myspace). My wife’s friends, who are in some ways my friends since they are our friends with children, also have some sort of “friend love” towards me. My work friends are also developing more now that I’m working out in the sandbox. This more relaxed environment puts me more at ease or something.

So in addition to obscenely large eyebrows, an aptitude in the applied sciences, and a tendency to repeat myself in conversations, I’ve inherited my Dad’s general likeability.

Plowed in to the Sound

I’ve got all these random things swimming around in my brain.

I’ve got my hockey team pretty much solidified. It’s not going to be as good as I had hoped, but it’s still going to be a solid group of guys. No superstars. After playing well in rat, I feel strong. I want to get stronger and faster and heavier (I’m up to 178 now, 200 is my fighting weight) so I can shut down that little prick Nick. (The kid who won most of the games for us on Orange).

If you’re going to buy a minivan (which we will some time in the future), there are two critical requirements:

1. It has to have a dvd system in it.
2. The back has to be spacious enough so you can fuck comfortably in it.

I can envision my wife and I at a car dealership asking the sales dude to fold all the seats down so we can determine if the back of the minivan is spacious enough for us to fuck.

I need to save money to buy a new hockey bag, and to complete my left arm sleeve. I kind of wanted to incorporate “So it goes”, but I think that would be more appropriate for the central theme or wording for a kick ass chest piece. Maybe, “There is no why”.

I feel satisfied with my job right now. It’s a strange feeling.

I have a mouse, maybe mice, living in my garage. My wife won’t let me kill them. It would need to be catch and release. Maybe I should just leave my cats in the garage one night and let them have at it, let nature run it’s course.

The Devilish Little Boy

“I wake up in the morning, fold my hands and pray for rain, I’ve got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane.”

Carter has become a real dick in the past few weeks. He’s 20 months now. He wants to do things, and wants us to do things for him that he can’t fully express, and he gets frustrated, which in turn frustrates us. It’s a good thing he’s so lovable.

“well, I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you, to be just like them”

I’m putting together a hockey team for the winter league. It’s going to be some dudes at Opposite of Dog I know, and some of my tattooed friends I’ve played with in years past. I somehow feel important since I’m doing the legwork of putting the team together. I think that makes me the Captain.

It’s should be a good solid team, no single fantastic players, a good team. I’m hoping to put something together to face off against the team of younger kids I was playing on. They failed to see the fun in making a nice pass, and just wanted to score a bunch of goals so they’d get a piece of ass from their high school sweeties after the game.

I was listening to a 90’s resurrection weekend on Labor Day, and they played the Might Mighty Bosstones-Never had to Knock on Wood. It reminded my of my high school friend Jay. He really dug(digs) Ska music.

I miss having a friend like him. I still onsider us friends, but he lives two hundred miles away from me. I don’t know that I have time for real in depth friendships anymore. I don’t know, maybe I’m just full of shit.

You become insane from a head full of ideas when you don’t make good on them

Between those massive tits, that hung enormous like you’d think of Gods as big.

This has been a crazy busy weekend, and I’ve finally had a chance to catch my breath.

Friday was my last day, at my farewell lunch my coworkers put together the cheesy Top Ten Reasons Lawryde is leaving the section. It was pretty funny, and it made me realize people actually do like me at work, as abrasive and difficult to relate to as I can be.

As I was leaving the building I still didn’t really feel anything special. No sadness, fear, joy, whatever, just good that it was a nice sunny day. I guess that’s all you can really hope for in life, is to be able to enjoy the nice day when it comes.

Then I hauled ass home to take my wife and son to a friends 2 year birthday party. I dropped them off and went to get the oil changed on the Tucson. I’d do it myself, but to maintain the warranty, they make you get it serviced at the dealership.

When I got done I went back to the party and ate some burgers and hotdogs that didn’t really sit well with me, must have been all the lips, assholes and hooves.

We left early to prep for going out, which we hadn’t done in forever. I took a quick nap to try and settle the unrest in my stomach. By the time we were ready to leave, I felt better.

The plan was to stop at an Irish pub for a few drinks then head to the gay bar for a drag queen show. I’m comfortable enough in my heterosexuality that it doesn’t freak me out to go to a gay bar.

We met a few friends at the pub and had a few drinks. Most of our adult friends with kids are in their 30’s, but they’re good fun.

We headed into the gay bar which I’d never been in before. Most of the people I’ve ever drank with are not comfortable enough in their masculinity to set foot in a gay bar. It was pretty cool actually. We just hung out and drank for about half an hour until the drag show started.

Basically the drag queens come out and lip-sync and dance around on the main dance floor area. There were a couple that made convincing women. Two of the women in our group knew one of the queens. He’s their hairstylist. Again, I’m comfortable enough to say I would probably fuck him/her if the situation presented itself.

My wife and I left after the show was over at about 12:30. I took the babysitter home. I think that all cars should be required to by manual, that way, you know if you’ve had too much to drink if you can’t get your car moving. I was fine, and took the opportunity on the way back to push the little Elantra to it’s limits going up a winding road that the babysitter lived near.

I was bleary eyed and tired by the time I got back (I’d been up since 6:00AM), but I wasn’t going to miss out on post going out, post drinking sex. It didn’t disappoint.

The next day I got my hair cut so the new dudes at work didn’t think my Jew-fro was weird. My hair tends to poof out when it just grows back on it’s own after shaving it all off. Carter and I had swim lessons as well, so it was a full morning.

My wife was in charge of the Attachment Parenting picnic that afternoon so we got all of our stuff together and went to the park. It turned out to be a really nice day, and the picnic was fun. A bunch of families showed up and I shot the shit with a few other dads while the kids ran around. Carter kind of melted down near the end of the day, but he was super tired.

Today has been relaxing, and I’ve got a hockey game tonight. I’ll get to try out my new Oakley half shield, half cage I bought as a present to myself for the new job.

Then tomorrow is the big transition to the new job.

My posting frequency may drop for a bit since I’ll need to not abuse my internet privileges at work like I used to. Don’t want the new guys thinking I’m a slacker.

The sisters are in, so check the front line.

We are pleased to announce that Lawryde has accepted a position in Hydraulic Systems Development within Global Machine Development at the Peoria Proving Ground. Lawryde’s assignment at PPG will include hydraulic systems development and validation activities for Pipelayer and D7 programs.

We would like to thank Lawryde for his many contributions to the Track-type tractor engine installation team. Most recently he was successful in completing the D7 cooling system designs on schedule and below target cost. His TTT engine installation and cooling system design experience will serve him well in his new position.

Please join us in thanking Lawryde for his many contributions and congratulating him on this new opportunity. The move will be effective July 1, 2007.

XXXX XXXX
Engineering Supervisor
TTT/TTL/SSL Hydraulic Systems Development
Global Machine Development – PPG

XXXXX XXXXXXXXX
Engineering Manager
Engine Installation & Light Fabrications
Heavy Construction and Mining Division - East Peoria Facility

That announcement makes me sound more important than I am and like I’ll be doing very complex and critical work.

Quick fire questions:

When people with a family history of mental problems (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) say something you did is wrong, is it really wrong?

Why are people without religious affiliation more apt to forgive and not judge others than those who are supposedly Christians?

Why are “normal” people so passive aggressive?

I am the playmaker

Well, I got my RATM tickets. I just got general admission lawn seats. It would have been cool to be really, really close, but my hearing is already damaged to a point where I have a ringing if its quiet. I’ve been to two Ozzfests at Alpine Valley with lawn seats, and they’re still really good both visually and acoustically.

We went to Ye Old Renaissance Fair on Ye old Saturday, but Ye old heat and humidity did not make it lots of Ye old fun. We also got there in between Ye old sword fighting demonstrations and Ye old jousting demonstrations. It’s still lots of fun to see Ye old nerds running around in Ye old costumes sweating there Ye old balls off.

On Father’s Day I had a hockey game. We were supposedly playing this really good team that had beat the team we tied two weeks ago who were very good. It turns out this team was a bit of a joke. They played us pretty well the first period. We were down 2-1. Then big Stu, their dirty player showed up. He messed with a few of our guys, and that fired us up a bit. We went on a nine goal scoring run, in which I had three assists. It was a fun game. Big Stu tried to muscle me off the puck in the corner, and I just shook him off and dropped him. The little guys on our bench liked that, since Stu had been giving them shit all game.

When I got back home I ate and drank about 5 pounds of food and drink. (I like to weigh myself pre and post game to see how I vary). My wife and son presented me with my Father’s Day gifts. My wife had taken a bunch of my shirts and ironed on Principal Blackman faces on them.

She also bought a few new shirts and ironed on large faces on them. She knows me so well. They’re awesome.

None

I often think I’d be happier doing something that gave more daily gratification than what I do now.

Now, I design things that may or may not ever be made. I deal with corporate bureaucracy, and playing little corporate games to make people like me so they will give me more money.

In a way we’re all little corporate prostitutes, watching what we say and when we say it. Just like in Fight Club, no on is who they really are when they are working at their job in a large corporation. Everyone is afraid so everyone walks on eggshells because you know there are a few dicks out there that would nail you to the wall if they found out what you were really like.

I think I’d rather be, like a plumber or something. There would be the daily satisfaction of helping people fix their broken shower or toilet or whatever. Some may say it would be gross, but I’ve worked doing some way more disgusting things in my life so that wouldn’t bother me. I’d get to be my own boss, wear short sleeves, say “fuck you” when I wanted, etc., etc. Sure there would be BS to deal with, but I think it would be more tolerable than the bullshit I put up with now.

Now I have this over inflated salary, and all kinds of bills to pay. It would be nearly impossible to apprentice a trade and be able to support a family. Then I’d start out making way less than I do now.

I also find the forthrightness of the workingman refreshing. I always liked my shit jobs in high school and college because the crews I worked with were cool. Almost none of my friends are working professionals. They’re average guys with average jobs.

Just good people

Swim parallel to the beach…

Alright, I’ve found some time to recount my trip to Florida.

We left two Thursdays ago around Carter’s bedtime. The drive was pretty pleasant for the first 5 or 6 hours. I listened to The 40 Year Old Virgin through the auxiliary jack on the Elantra. We stopped somewhere in Tennessee and my wife took over driving for a bit. I had a hard time sleeping since we hadn’t brought a pillow. So I took over again since my wife hadn’t slept either and was getting a bit tired. The 2:30 to 4:00 am shift was rough. I had to stop once so I didn’t fall asleep and kill us all. I did some jumping jacks in a gas station parking lot and splashed water on my face.

Once day broke it was better. We were somewhere in Georgia and decided to stop at a Cracker Barrel. The service was fucking terrible and we were surrounded by Southerners (imagine that).

We hit Atlanta on the tail end of rush hour and it kind of sucked. After that my wife took over and drove us the rest of the way to Fernandina Beach. It took us about 20 hours. It should have only taken about 16.5, but the shitty service at the Cracker Barrel and Atlanta slowed us down. Carter was not happy the last hour or so. He didn’t want to be in the car anymore, none of us really did.

We stayed at a friends place. I took a long nap when we got there.

The next day we went to a park and played and enjoyed the nice weather. It was sunny and about 82 with a cool easterly breeze. It was actually hotter in Illinois the whole time we were there.

Sunday we went to the Jacksonville Zoo. (see the below pictures) It was a really nice zoo. There were kind of elevated walkways in places were you could walk above the animals. Carter had a good time. He would point and say ohhhh or ooooo when he saw an animal he didn’t know. There was also a small water fun area for kids to run around in and get wet. He loved splashing around and climbing on the fake dolphins and stingrays. There were also some goats to pet, which he didn’t smack. (He’s in a bit of a smacky stage.)

The next day we went to the beach. Rip currents were in full effect. A guy died the prior day due to the current. The waves were pretty large too. We stayed about waste high. Carter was more interested in digging in the sand for the most part. He would run into the low surf every once in a while, but was still pretty wary of it. I walked around and looked for fossilized sharks teeth. I ended up finding about 6 of them.

Tuesday we decided to head down to scenic downtown Fernandina Beach. It was kind of cool, but we did go into this massive antique store and found “Answer Me Jesus”, which is basically a Magic Eight Ball in the shape of a giant pink Jesus. It kind of looks like a sex toy of some kind, but it’s super cool.

Me, “Will I go to church next Sunday Jesus?”

Jesus, “Not a chance in Hell”

He’s so benevolent

Wednesday was beach day again. Found a couple more sharks teeth and just playing in the sand with the boy.

That night we had our friends watch Carter and My Wife and I went out for dinner to celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary, which will be June 14. It was the best seafood dinner I’ve ever had in my life. Started out with some muscles and a vodka stone sour, then an awesome Caesar salad, the wife had shrimp bisque. The main course was seared scallops, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. My wife had swordfish. It was delicious. We walked a bit through downtown Fernandina Beach to an ice cream parlor for desert.

Thursday we planned to head back home at night so we played it low key during the day. One of our friends works at White Oak Conservation Center so late in the afternoon we packed up all our stuff and headed north to check it out. It’s not open to the general public so we got a behind the scenes look at all the animals. We got to feed some giraffes. It’s pretty cool being only a few feet away and this big head comes down and grabs a branch of leaves out of your hands. They’re much taller at that angle, and muscular. We also got to pet a couple rhinos. Their skin is crazy tough, but where their joints are the skin is very silky and smooth. We also got to see some cheetahs, zebras, and all kinds of elk type animals (don’t recall their names).

We said goodbye and started the drive home. I decided to go a different way back since Atlanta sucked so bad last time. We went up through the Carolinas, then over through Tennessee, and up Kentucky to Cincinnati, then over through Indianapolis. It was much better. It was cool driving through the Great Smokey Mountains during a full moon with a bit of fog. It only took about 16 hours. All told the gas only cost me about $160 roundtrip.

It was a good vacation.

I really don't want to go back to work tomorrow.

Here are a few pics from the vacation. It was sweet. I'll go into more detail tomorrow when I don't want to do anything at work.


@ the Jacksonville zoo


@ the beach... the boy didn't like it at first, but after a bit he liked the sand and the water.


In the historic downtown area of Fernandina Beach

In our society you need a license to catch a fish, but not to have a baby. / I'm just here to look around

One of the many reasons I'm madly in love with my wife.


This weekend, the Peoria Rivermen had their annual equipment sale. I’d never been to it before so I decided to check it out.

The Rivermen are an AHL team so they are one step below the NHL and use the very best gear available.

I got there about 10 min early and they had already opened up shop. I saw basically all the guys I know from the rink browsing around.

At first I was only going to buy a couple pairs of hockey socks for $10, but then I saw they had brand new, never used Pro Stock CCM pants for $50. I hate my current pants, CCM 852’s, because they don’t lace up in the front crotch area, and only have one belt. They were constantly falling down so I had to buy suspenders for them, which chafe all game long. I tried on the Pro Stock pants and they fit nice. These would retail for just under $300 so I figured I’d be a fool not to buy them.

Then I saw my buddy Phil, who is a hockey stick connoisseur (whore, and I mean that in the nicest way). He told me they were selling RBK 7V’s but they only had left handed shots. He was sad since he was a rightey. I went over and took a look. It was a nice stick, and it was only $50 too. Phil said even if I didn’t like it, I could sell it on ebay for $100. So I figured, why not.

I went and paid, and got the two pair of socks for free since the equipment manager told me he just wanted to get rid of them. I ended up getting about $500 worth of gear for $100.

There was an open hockey right after so I gave all my new stuff a try. It was sweet. The pants fit great, and the stick is pretty awesome. I’m not going to sell it, but I should have bought all 7 or so of the sticks and sold them on Ebay. A brand new RBK 7V stick is going for $140 right now. I could have turned an $80-$100 profit on each stick. Oh well, there’s always next year.