Weekend's here!

I am actually taking a few days off of work, for the first time this year. I have taken a day off here and there, but I am actually being so bold as to string almost five days off together, to form what most people call "vacation". I have not taken much time off at all since December, so I am a tad overdue. I am going to work tomorrow morning a little early, and then I am planning on leaving very early, so I can get a good start on my weekend.

We are actually headed back to Indiana to meet the pregnant woman of our dreams, and to hang out with family. We have been trying to adopt a baby for quite a while now, just short of two years. It seems like the wait is almost over. I really hope this works out for everyone. We have already talked to her on the phone a few times and we get along well, so I think this will be a lot of fun. She seems very nice and I think we would all work together well. I have a feeling that I will be really nervous when I meet her. I really don't want to screw it up and have her think that I am a doofus, even though I am. When I get nervous, I get more chatty. This could be interesting, given my prodigious penchant for talking all the time even when I am completely comfortable. We are actually meeting her for dinner at our favorite pizza place, which is extra funny for me, considering the fact that I have been on a low-carb diet for two weeks now. I foresee a sleepless night in my future. (when you fall way of the wagon on a low-carb diet, you get really hot and sweaty for the next eight to ten hours, it makes sleeping horribly uncomfortable)

Karen and I are very excited to meet her, and we get to see our families during the same weeknd. It doesn't get any better than that, eh? . We are really looking forward to this weekend!

Now, if I can just get out of work really early tomorow, I will be in great shape! I don't want to pass through any semi-big cities (St. Louis) during any of the "rush" hours.

Oops, I crapped my pants. Thank you Alli!

I got this from the Dana's website, and you need to see it. It's about the diet pill Alli, and it is one of the funniest things that I have seen in a long time. Be warned, this is not work-safe, and it talks about poop A LOT.

http://angryaussie.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/miracle-diet-pill-with-teeny-tiny-side-effect/

The horrors of dieting...

I have been running more lately, and I am also on the diet wagon again. Running definitely saved my health, but it has also given me the feeling that I can eat anything in any quantity that I feel like. This has resulted in a slow weight gain over the last two years. I am physicaly fit, healthy as heck, but I am getting a little thick around the middle again. Two years ago, when I got healthy for the first time, I decided that once I crossed the line from a normal healthy weight back into the overweight category (according to the standard BMI charts) that I would get back on the diet wagon again and lose weight. I crossed the line last month, and I didn't magically sink right back under the mark, so I had to get back on the diet wagon. I am 5' 7" tall and therefore officially overweight at 160. I was at 163.5 on Sunday last weekend, so it was definitely time to get after it again. I am back under the mark again, but most of it is probably water loss, so I am going to stick with it for a while. No fries for me, thanks, I'll just have the salad and veggies. I detest dieteing because it makes me feel kinda sad all the time. Please excuse me if I am a tad grouchy or forgetful, I am probably just hungry.

Dookie story and guitar hero geekiness

WARNING - POOP STORY- SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T LIKE POOP STORIES. James was very excited to have company here last weekend, and it really showed. He wanted to show off everything in his life that he is proud of. James is in the end stages of potty training. It took James a lot of encouraging and praise to get him to use the potty when he had to drop a deuce. When he finally used the potty to poop, we were absolutely ecstatic. We hugged and kissed him, we gave him jellybeans, and we danced around like crazy people. We were very, very excited that we didn't have to clean another turd out of his underpants. James knows that he is really doing a good thing when he uses to the potty, and it si very exciting for all of us. On Monday evening, James went to the bathroom and dropped a deuce. James was understandably very excited about what he had just done in the bathroom. James started calling out, "Uncle Chris, come in here! Uncle Chris, come, come in here." Then James started yelling, "OH MAN, BIG POOP! WOW, LOOK AT THAT! BIG POOP!" His voice was brimming with excitement over his potty usage. Uncle Chris told him "That's great, James. I am very proud of you, but I don't think I want to see your poop." James was very understanding, and Karen and I were overcome with the giggles. James was right, it was a big poop, he was right to be proud. My son is cool.



I can play "Monkey Wrench" by the Foo Fighters on the "Expert level" at around 85-90% correct on Guitar Hero 2. I am a very big dork. I am practicing for the next chance I get to play at a guitar hero party. I might have to plan one of my own.

Shiny muffler

Here is my big ol' shiny muffler. Note the tiny pipe leading in from the back, and the huge opening sticking out in the front. Standing behind the car, I think it looks pretty good, and it really makes me laugh. I am actually starting to like Daddy's junk now that it has a little more character. Sound system upgrade is next, followed by motor - as time and money allow. Like I said earlier this week, if I can't do it for cheap, I probably won't do it at all. Craigslist, here I come.

I found a sweet bolt-on supercharger with intercooler for about 2K, so I just need to watch for the right one to pop up on craigslist. :)

When we got the car, we named it Aggie, after the chemical symbol Ag representing silver from the periodic chart of the elements. That name seems a little weird now. Maybe I need to change it to Argentum, instead of the shortened nickname. Nah, I'll stick with "Daddy's junk". That one is much funnier.

James and I were walking into the house after we got done playing with his remote control car, and I asked James what he wanted to do. He looked up at me with a huge grin and said, "Wanna play guitar, Daddy? Quick, take your shoes off! We need to go right now! Hurry up, we gotta go right away! Fast! Fast!" The whole time he was tugging on my hand to get me to sit down and take off my shoes. He makes it very hard to want to go to work in the morning, knowing all of the fun that I am missing out on while I am away.

James and the new tint.

Here is a picture of my freshly pimped ride, complete with the new "so dark they are going to get me arrested" tinted windows. I really love my tinted windows, I just hope I don't have to pull the tint off during a traffic stop while a policeperson watches some day. Next items on the list: nicer stereo if I can do it really cheap followed by nicer motor if I can also do that for cheap.

I just had new tires put on the car two weeks ago. I figured that the installers would be fairly careful about the inflation of the new tires, since tires are their main business. I figured wrong, the tire pressures were as follows: 25, 27, 34, 36. Accoring to the door frame, they are supposed to be 30, 29, 29, 30 - following the same order that I listed the other pressures. (30 in front, 29 in rear)

If you look really closely, you can see that James is actually inside the car. Please note, he is wearing a fairly brightly colored striped shirt, and you almost can't see him.

Work news: I have a trainee. I finally have someone that can be my back-up! I finally have the ability to take real vacations! (and possibly get promoted?) -The really funny part about this story is that I used to have my own office at the Dolton plant, but by the time I left the Dolton plant, I was sharing an office with two other people. Now that I am in Grandview, I am once again sharing the office that I once was the sole occupant of for the last two years. The guy that I am training has no office of his own. He was sharing an office out on the production floor with the supervisors. I was almost sharing my office a little while ago with yet another one on of my coworkers that actually had a single office, but it was really far away from all of the action in the plant. I had a chance at three people in my office again. That would have been funny.

The power of the van is strong with this one...

So far the van has gotten me new tires, a new muffler, and next week I get my windows tinted. If I had known that the van was so powerful, perhaps I would have caved sooner. Maybe I will get the bolt-on supercharger next week, right after the huge wing, mink fur seat covers, neon lights that flash to the beat from the stereo, a bumpin' stereo system, lower suspension, stiff springs, black alloy rims, a body kit, and fancy paint with lots of stickers. I definitely need a lot more stickers. The only stickers I have right now say: "RUN", and "13.1".

Our friends, the Danas, just got a minivan this evening. My condolences to Jason on the passing of his manhood, and my congratulations to Janelle on her new "sweet" ride. :)

To everyone out there who does not have a minivan, we know you are just jealous, go ahead and make fun of us. We know what cool is. Cool is electric doors and seating for seven with a low entry height and decent gas mileage. Awwww yeah...

Contest results and pimpin' my ride

CONTEST RESULTS

Thank you to all of the contestants for name that van! I really liked reading all of them. I have to say that the contest winner, i.e. the one that has the best chance of sticking is (drum roll please...) "The Silver Bullet". It applies for several reasons that I thought were all amusing. (The shot to the machismo, and the fact that it is not fast at all but very mildly resembles the bullet train.) Thank you to everyone who played along.

PIMP MY RIDE

My car, which used to be Karen's car, was in a sad state of neglect. It has needed 4 new tires for five years and a muffler for over a year. The long lead time on the tires was becaused the last set of tires were crap from the moment we got them. They gave very little traction on dry pavement, and none on wet or snowy pavement. They were Cooper Lifeliners, and I guess they were supposed to be decent tires, so maybe I just got a bad set? They were horrible. The muffler has had a gaping hole that has been steadily increasing in size. It was loud, but not horribly loud, so I let it go for a long time. I didn't mind the noise at all. The only reason that I replaced the muffler is that I was worried that the hole in the muffler was possibly directing the exhaust gases into the garage when I left the house. There is an air intake for the furnace from the garage, so it is easily possible to send exhaust into the house. Here's how the story goes:

I got up at 6:20AM to drop the car off at the tire store. I got there in plenty of time to make sure I was first in line so I could get the tires on and make it over to the muffler shop for the noon appointment that Karen made for me. It worked, I dropped off the car, walked home, then walked back at 10:30AM to pick it up when it was done. $500 later, I had a nice new set of tires that stick to the road like glue. Over to the muffler shop I went, right across the street. I dropped the car off and walked home. I went back much later (they finally got started on my car at 4PM) to look over the estimate and sign on the dotted line. They had a standard steel muffler for $85, and a polished stainless steel muffler for $90. I went with the $90 shiny one, street-racer pimp style. My car now has a 3-inch polished-tip exhaust, and it is kinda loud. It is a lot quieter than it was, but it is not as quiet as it was originally with the stock muffler. I think it's hysterical, and Karen thinks I am goofy. I started pimpin' my ride. Karen is getting the windows on Daddy's Junk tinted for Father's Day. I am not kidding at all. I wonder what's next...