White Lightning Axiom: Redux

I waited too long for this post, my tardiness is inexcusable. This quick, abrupt and brutal scrabble of a post will do no justice to the chronicles of the Haupertonian Manor's inhabitants. But alas, I cannot allow this lacunae of posting to continue or it may go on for weeks. I can be negligent that way. So, on Friday, we enjoyed the Killer Dodge Ball of Dooom after TSD practice ... except Jake who got a time-out for failing to heed instruction. He got to play the second game, but was promptly nailed within minutes of the game starting. Hard for him, hard for me. I know he enjoys the game so much ... he'll get more opportunities. Then on Saturday, I goof off. Pick up some dog dip, tinker about the Manor, but nothing of consequence other than restocking the wood brackets and doing the week's laundry. I felt a bit empty though. The lack of accomplishment was like a detox session to me. The laundry was a quick hit at the methadone clinic. Not the same, you know. I had a second chance at happiness on Sunday though. We did sunday school and ALL the children arrived and attended. The Tyrants and I went shopping where I happened upon the weekly 'Meat Bonanza' where the butcher slashes prices on the various cuts because their impending expiration date will cause them to mutate into some horrible zombie heard animal. I can see the slices of tenderloin slapping their way down the street now. Limpets of liver writhing about my feet. Vicious without caramelized onions, you know. Shaking off that peculiar visage ... we bought a few bricks of cheese and then some flowers for the Mrs. And, ran into her at the checkout. She was astounded at the damage one hungry pack of Khans can do with a credit card. Nearly $200 dollars in milk, meat and associated products ... donuts. So, we quickly paid the cashier and escaped her momentarily stunned countenance before she could react. Bwa-ha-ha! Chicken tonight!

Later on, I took down the miles of exterior lighting and started removing the ornaments from the decrepit Christmas Tree that had not been watered all week. I hauled it off to the Christmas tree graveyard where all of our trees go to decompose., scratching at the ground and whimpering the whole way. Then, after the long journey back, the Mrs asked me if I had found that last decoration on the tree. Urgh. No, so we back track to the graveyard, inspecting the ground the entire way and appearing to be some sort of cross between human and flamingo. Bent half over, scanning back and forth, searching for a little green tree amongst the grass and leaves. We turn the particularly hostile tree over and over to see if it was still in the branches. No luck. We surrender it to the tides of time and turn to return back to the Portcullis (we expected the Tyrants to have set fire to the living room by now) and out of the corner of my eye, I spot it on the lowest branch of the tree. What fortune! I must have saved 100 orphans from killer monkey-dog attack beasts in a previous life and this was my karmic return. To boost my karma account tally, I spend the afternoon practicing the staff form with the Tyrants and playing kiddy soccer with Joyous Jake in the Cybernetic hounds. He ran his fool head off till he was completely drained of energy, but not of will to continue chasing that damned ball. The rest of the day was spent in the kitchen, cooking up the chicken in a nice provincial herb oven roast recipe in my big cast iron skillet and vac-packing the rest of the meat for its final destination, the Near Zero Deep Freeze. I should name it, the freezer. Little Alaska? Sounds about right.

Technorati Tags:Weekend | Chores | Karate | Children | Church | meat

Labels: Banalities, Children, Chores, Church, Dodge Ball, Family, Meat, Mundane, Slacker, Sunday School, Tang So Doo, Weekend

Well, I'm going to be quite busy over the next few weeks, so please don't shoot me if I miss commenting on my regular blog reads or skip a few posts ... like I did yesterday. I was a bit laid up you see. I thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea on Sunday afternoon to chop up all that wood that I, as a mendicant lumberjack, pulled out of Gus's yard the previous weekend. So, chop-chop-chop I go and rip-tear-shred go the muscles in my back. The next morning, I could barely get out of bed to shut off the alarm clock. I had to slither out like some sort of spineless slink and whimpered the entire time. I let the Sympathetic Mrs know that I would not be moving that morning and slept from 0730 till 1730 straight! I really needed that, since I have been going into a 'spoon deficit' situation for weeks now. But enough of my surly simpering, what did happen this weekend?

Friday night was a hoot. Alexis decided to rat out her brother to a Mom in the pool changing room. She let this stranger know that Jacob was a player and had a lot of girl friends. Interesting in so much that she is not the type of girl to talk to strangers. I think it was the opportunity to take a swipe at her sibling that compelled her. I need to pay more attention to that since it seems she is developing the 'mean little girl' attribute a bit earlier than expected. Not as noticable as Jake's 'spastic little boy' act, and certainly not as cute. Rapprochement is forthcoming.

Saturday was mostly a wash. The weather was nice, which was a a nice turn of events since we were going to spend two hours driving up to Parsippany and another two on the way back. My artifice in finding a route that was only 65 miles instead of 115 was not as fortuitous as initially thought. The 'short' route took just as long and consumed as much gasoline as the longer, less direct route. In fact, we were treated to a Trademark Jersey traffic construct called the 'CIRCLE' as well as various jug-handles and convoluted left vs right exit ramps. On the upside, there were no traffic accidents (although, the police were as omnipresent as the traffic devices) and the return trip to the Manor was uneventful as it could have been. I was concerned in the first steps of the trip back when we headed down an access road that went from rough to unpaved and then finally to weed-grown. I was having visions of a chain-saw wielding mad-man, but then realized I was in North Jersey and I was the closest being to that description. Soon enough, the Observant Mrs spotted the signs for the on-ramp and we were under-way. On the downside, the children were rather impossible from the moment we arrived till the moment we strapped them into their restraining seats. Not enough exercise, most likely.

Sunday: well, I've already told you the results of that expedition in faulty perspicacity (heh, even I had to look that word up). To start the day, we had Sunday School of course. A new girl, Sam, came in to assist with what ended up being a VERY BUSY morning. As a matter of course, Jake made sure to assault her with hugs at every available opportunity. Shortly after class, I zipped off to the Local Low Price Gas Station (and car wash; they always ask but I'm afraid the POS Super Saturn would melt) to transfer Alexis to the Family Tank V2.0. This is so the Mrs and Alexis can go to the Nutcracker ballet at the Bryn Athen Playhouse. Jake, who found out about this was reasonably upset. Next time, according to him, Alexis would go see a movie with me and he would go to the Ballet with the Mrs. He was the only one comfortable with that arrangement. He can barely sit still through the movie and would only do so after I acquiesced to giving him a full sized package of twizzlers and a promise of McDonalds afterwards. We saw 'Bee Movie'. Horrible. Honestly, just bad. He seemed to enjoy it, but I think it was the twizzlers.

Technorati Tags:Back Pain | Banalities | Sunday School | Fatigue | Injury | Lumberjack | Mundane | Sunday School | Slacker | Sleep | Traffic | Turnpike | Weekend Wood

Labels: Back Pain, Banalities, Fatigue, Injury, Lumberjack, Mundane, Slacker, Sleep, Sunday School, Traffic, Turnpike, Weekend, Wood

I had started this Sunday Night ... but alas, the anti-soporific allure of the Television captured my attention and I ended up watching 'Tin Man' on the SciFi channel till the wee hours of the morning. These vicissitudes in my sleep patterns are doing me no good, I know. Sometimes I just want to watch a show without a squeaky clean animation character. Speaking of characters, the dodgeball/swim night went well on Friday ... followed closely the next morning of me hauling my sorry sagging rear out of bed at the absurd hour of 0745. The tyrants were rampaging though the house and this always invoked the 'WHINE' factor in the hounds. They understand if they simper long and loud, I'll eventually let them out to do their stuff on the back-50. Then, it's off to administer the death penalty to another innocent evergreen. I went to a small farm that I spotted on my commute to work that was selling live trees for $30 a pop. Free-range, yup. So I met a man by the name of Emmo who apparently had a son that went to Cornell! Funny. Even funnier was the damned ATM at the Wawa that I usually stop off at was out of order so I had to find a different working one. Cost me about 15 minutes. After I gingerly transported the 50 foot pine strapped to the top of the SuperSaturn POS with spit, duct tape and gumption, I cored it out and hauled it to the Grand Cathedral in the Manor with a bit of help from the Mrs. As you know, I have some slight balance issues and have learned to NOT TRUST my internal ear. Just because things feel like they are tipping to the left or right, that means nothing to gravity. I have to judge my 'uprightness' by checking my surroundings. Makes swimming a real bear. In any event, the Mrs gave her 'Seal of Approval' and the strings of lights were added. Ornamentation would come later at the deft hands (and myopic minds) of the Tyrants.

That afternoon, the whole clan spent time outdoors raking up leaves in the front expanse. The Mrs would rake to the curb, I would run the mower over the area to suck up the remaining leaves and detritus. Rake, mow, blow, suck ... ummm, yeah. We cleared out the front fairly well leaving mountains of leaves which were promptly blown back into the grass and garden beds. Damn. We had to do it though since we were expecting nasty weather the next day. With continuing unpleasantness through the rest of the winter. Indeed, it snowed that night and made a terrible mess. While we were at it, I had the Tyrants take the truck load of aging pumpkins from the front porch to the Agricultural Sector and SMASH THEM! HULK SMASH PUMPKINS!!! Heh ... time and place for everything, you know. They were starting to get a bit soft so it was time to dispose of them. I'm certain I'll get a lot of 'volunteers' next spring after I till them under. After the Mrs and I finished up with the leaves (the Tyrants abandoned us for the comfort of the wood-burning stove), I ran across the street to help our neighbor, Gus, with a couple of 25 foot tall trees that he needed to take down. Yep, just could not get enough lumberjacking in so I started in on the arboreal work in the local area. It took little time but the chain on the semi-commercial saw started to dull before we got to the hard part ... cutting the stump flush with the soil. Leaning over with a roaring chain-saw ... yep, I'm destined to be sore the next day. To cap off the day, I made some Bohemian Goulash and load of Beef Stroganoff for the week's meals. The Mrs made chicken wings (ACK!). The cavalcade of leftovers is never long lived. I'm not sure what I would do without the double-blessing of ground beef and pasta.

Sunny Sunday ... not so much. Snow, sleet and just general nastiness. This impacted the attendance at Sunday School too. Only 4 little smiling faces showed up ... all talking about how they were going to build snowmen and make snow angels in the slop that laid about the ground like a sodden quilt. Of course, we had to stop at Dunkin Donuts afterwards, and share the plunder with the Mrs back at the manor. The Tyrants decorated the tree and put nearly all their ornaments within the first 3 feet from the floor. Looks good to them I suppose. We rearranged some of them and filled in all the empty spots. I spent the rest of the day bumbling about with laundry, feeding the wood burning stove and puttering about in the garage. I did manage to get the automatic garage door openers rewired so I did not have to use the remote to open the durned thangs. Good to get something accomplished. Oh, and I finally put up the wall Spackle over the patches in the closet wall. Now for the paint and the new shelves ... I can finally put my clothing in the same room I sleep in!

Technorati Tags:Snow | Weekend | Lawn | Christmas | Children

Labels: Banalities, Children, Church, Home Improvements, Lawn, Lumberjack, Mundane, Rain, Snow, Weather, Winter, Wood

After last week's paroxysm of activity, it's almost a relief to get back to the mundane and exiguous schedule that we keep here in the Haupertonian Manor. Soooo, Monday was consumed by sleep, work, swim, karate, dinner, bath, and bed-time story as was Tuesday with the addition of Adult Karate, Kids Homework, Word Quiz and more maladroit attempts to do something worth-while at work.

So, instead of a heap of inane platitudes and worn out bromides, I'm going to steal some snarky observations from Varifrank:

Varifrank's Laws

1. You dont get paid by how hard you work, but by how hard you are to replace.

2. A man without enemies is a man not living up to his full potential.

3. The universe is not an entirely rational construct, therefore science and mathematics have their limits as tools of discovery. Sometimes you just have to guess.

4. All great discoveries occur because of a random accident colliding the irrational persistence of a man who didnt know any better than to keep working when everyone else had already given up.

5. The worlds large monuments, such as the Pyramids of Giza were made for no other purpose than to simply keep people busy. There is nothing more dangerous to governments than well fed people who have free time, no common purpose and most importantly no need of control or organization by said governments.

6. The migration of Homo Sapiens around the planet after the end of the last ice age was fundamentally powered by the genetically ingrained desire within all members of the species to get as far away from their inlaws as possible.

7. The core idea of western civilization is the phrase "none of your business".

8. The core idea of fascist and communist thought is "you have no business".

9. There is no leftist thought, except that no matter what the situation is "America is always wrong".

10. The collapse of civilization begins when your next door neighbor takes an interest in whats on your side of the fence.

11. News is not information. News is just the airtime that exists inbetween car commercials; its only purpose is to keep you watching long enough to make it to the car commercials. If they thought they could hold your attention by broadcasting a lava lamp, they would do it.

12. The only part of the news that you can really use is given to you by the weatherman, who is almost always the station idiot.

13. You can teach anyone who can think logically how to code software, but you cannot teach anyone to think logically; they either have it or they dont. You would really be shocked at how few people think logically.

14. Most humans are sane and rational, but all human organizations are insane and irrational. The bigger the organization, the more insane and irrational. Therefore, avoid joining all large organizations the same way you would avoid making eye contact with the crazy homeless people that you see on the way to work.

15. If you cannot own property, you are property.

16. No matter how important you think you are, 10 years after you are dead, the only people who will remember you ever existed or what you looked like are related to you. Use your time accordingly.

17. Having children is the only method of time travel to the future that is allowed by science.

18. Utopia is the single most destructive idea ever invented by mankind.

19. If you find only yourself at the center of the purpose of your life, your life has been wasted.

20. If you feel the need to whine about the current circumstances of your life, imagine yourself standing on the stage of a college lecture auditorium, in the audience sit all the members of your ancestry extending back all the way in time to the stone age. Father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great grand fathers and mothers and so on and so on. Now, imagine trying to tell them how tough you have it and then try to imagine how hard they would laugh at you for complaining about the air conditioning on your lexus not working or your condo in florida going down in value.

Technorati Tags:Blogging | Swimming | Karate | Children | Work

Labels: Banalities Work, Children, Karate, Mundane, Tang So Doo

Yeah, I'm ok. Just really busy. I started to blog at least 3 times in the last week but never seemed to keep up enough steam to wrap it up. By Friday, I should have SOMETHING. Promise!

Technorati Tags:Blogging

Labels: Banalities, Blogging, Mundane

My week days can be so banal. Wake up to obscure music on clock radio, hit snooze, wake, snooze (repeat several times). Finally realize that it's morning and bumble off to let the cybernetic hell hounds out. Cart away mountains of poo and then feed the prancing ninnies more fodder for their dirty-work the next morn. Realize *I* need to use the bathroom and look at the visage of death warmed over in the mirror. I need to put a picture over the mirrors in the bathroom. The indurate face staring back at me reminds myself that I should be CELEBRATING a new day, no accepting the indignity of being startled from some quickly forgotten gossamer dream. Little context, lesser substance, zero confluence.

After wrapping up my morning constitutional, either I go trundle the Tyrants up and get them to start breakfast, or I let the Mrs handle that variably dangerous task and involve myself with getting their breakfast and lunch ready ... along with my own daily vittles. Raiding the larder, I try to make sure they get something different every morning of the week. Invariably, it has to be something they can eat in our guest bed in front of the TiVo-TV w/o making a tremendous mess. So no liquids. Yeah, that means no eggs either. If I were not so lazy, I would get up an hour earlier and make them a good Minnesota Breakfast. You know, 12 eggs, bacon, toast, kolachies, steak, coffee, slice of apple pie in a bowl of cream ... standard 'bit of breakfast'. As it stands, we already spend over $500USD on food alone per month. So frugality (scrooge!) and sleep (sloth) prevail. That, and it prevents them from invading the bathroom while the Mrs or I are trying to take the all important "morning wake-up shower". Without that, neither of us could be described as anything close to amicable. I've bitten heads off for less. If you do not recall, at the beginning of the summer, the old water boiler krumped on us over Memorial Day Weekend. Yeah, I was a bit of a grumpy gus, but the Mrs damn near laid waste to the population surrounding the Haupertonian Manor for 'Breathing too loud, JUST STOP BREATHING!'.

Hmmm, where was I. My train of thought got derailed ... fatalities. Yes, anyways ... feed the kids, prep breakfast, shower, shave and brush teeth. I've been using the master bath (tiny thing it is) to get back into the old ways and I've noticed that the pressure is much reduced. I think the filter is clogged so we may have to call our plumber to do something about it. I would do this myself, but I have seen what it takes to replace the filter and I would rather Johnas do this. I would certainly break the damn thing and need to call him anyways ... might as well cut to the chase. Another thing about the shower ... I've decided it is my duty to try to use up all those 'single application' packets of shampoo, soap and tooth-paste that we have accumulated over the years. My coworkers are noticing too. My hair looks more 'perky' and lustrous apparently. The usual treatment of lye and burning acids to wash my body/hair have given me split ends and dulled the color. Gee, fashion plate metrosexual that I am, you think I would have avoided that! PTTTHHHH! So, every body is fed and groomed ... Pack up the 100 metric tons of crap I need to lug about every day in the POS SuperSaturn and off I go. Throw the Tyrants out of the airlock with chutes on as I rocket past the ReEducation Camp and spend my 15 minutes getting to work trying to find a song on the radio that does not make me vomit. Do this 5 days a week, you tend not to notice the little nuances every day. I must be getting old because I find this ... comforting.

Work for 8 hrs, flee the building. Snatch tyrants, go swimming for an hour, get pummeled by the lollipop guild for an hour at TDS, then spend another hour and a half getting pummeled by the Black-Belt-Brigade. Home, read bed-time story, get drinks for kids, kisses, eat dinner, kisses for Mrs, prep for next day (i.e. get out one of the 5 identical outfits I wear to work [black denim, black socks, tighty-whities{TMI?}, grey t-shirt]), last blogosphere scan; pass out. Where should I fit in the introspection? The unexamined life is not worth living ...

Shove it Socrates.

Technorati Tags:Shower | Swimming | Karate | Children | Plumbing

Labels: Banalities, Bed, Children, Home Improvements, Karate, Mundane, Sleep, Swimming, Tang So Doo, Traffic

Work has me pinned down today. I got into work at 0745 only to find an email sent to me last night regarding an 0830 meeting on a subject that I had virtually no in-depth knowledge on. I was to be the technical resource. URK! Had to bone up quickly and in the end, the resolution was to deny the request anyways since it did not comply with the standard ... mkay, hacking the system is bad. I'll go with that.

Last night was not too shabby at all. Swimming was greeted with a visit from Miss Steph, who for some reason enjoys being assailed by the Tyrants. Hey, if she is going to be a teacher, more power to her. I wonder how long it is before she becomes jaded and bitter. Poor thing, I wonder how she will do after having kids. I notice that it seem to be a magic switch in some folks. But hey, who am I to delve into the potentially ultraistic motivations of others who serve as a diversionary target thus relieving me from being constantly dunked! Karate went well, the kids really want to learn their next form, but are uninterested in getting the first part right before moving on to the next. Frustrating for both parties, but we will soldier on. For some odd reason, Alexis suddenly had a bloody nose in the middle of the class and was welcomed into the cooing clutch of the mothers in the audience. Nothing serious, and I know the source (damn nose goblins, all sticky and stuff), so I continued on with Jake. He was less than pleased to be the benefactor of 100% of my critique. I have my own new form to learn, and it is not as simple. I've done a fairly good job at completely demolishing it every time. I might need to return to my cheat-sheets!

The cooler temps and light rainfall have been a Godsend for the grass. Not watering the landscaping here at the Haupertonian Manor was a poor choice. Looking over the parched landscape, I noticed small patches of muted green. Upon further inspection, I found that these were my zoysia plugs. They had taken root and flourished with impunity! I've just ordered a new batch which I intend on planting in spots where the 'classic' blue-grass and rye have been met with a summary execution at the hands (paws) of the fire pissing cybernetic hounds. We'll find if it is really pet-waste tolerant, now won't we?

Technorati Tags:Lawn | Swimming | Karate | Children | Work | Weather

Labels: Banalities Work, Children, Lawn, Mundane, Tang So Doo, Water

Behind the 8-Ball again here in the wonderful world of Haupertonian HyJinx. Friday was an abnormally mundane day. It got A LOT cooler around here so I could mow the lawn with little consequence. On top of the lack of measurable rain, the non-use of the sprinkler system of biblical proportions has resulted in a very un-healthy lawn. I did not need to empty the clippings till I had finished the whole front pastoral expanse. I could see every spot where I planted the drought tolerant zyosia grass though. Looks like it is spreading exactly where I wanted it to. I'm thinking about buying another sheet to fill in those 'less healthy' areas. Next year, it should really start taking over like some sort of alien kudzu. Saturday, I slept in till nearly noon. How I managed to subvert the Mrs into letting me get away with that, I cannot remember. I'll wager I signed a contract in blood that involved me surrendering a critical part of my anatomy at a nebulous future date. Hrmmmm ... I'll bet she mind-wiped me while I was sleeping. I'll have to take a look at my cerebral log files to see what happened. She is trick though ... probably edited them too. Ungh ... getting a headache thinking about this ... some sort of ... synaptic virus ... REBOOT, REBOOT! .... [static]

Wha? Oh, yes Saturday. Watched the kids play on the driveway while I was busy with the wee-eater in the back. Trimming some of the areas that the mower could not get at. Fixing up little things with the Twin AAA Towers in the Sand pit and mucking about in the agricultural sector. Typical puttering about type tasks that seem to gather en-mass towards the end of the week. We did have a minor outing to the Local Home Depot Temple to see if we could pick up the beveled mirror doors for Jake's closet. Much to my disappointment, they no longer carry the preferred product in stock ... it's a Stanley Special Order item now. GRRR.... We decided to make some measurements back at the manor and get doors for the other closets as well so we would only have to go through the red-tape again. It is getting harder and harder to make purchases for these type of 'big ticket' items. I think the Usurper Lowes is really putting a hurting on LHDT (Local Home Depot Temple). Dejected and disgruntled, we went off to Giant and picked up some butchers discount stew meat. Yeah, it was probably getting 'ripe' but since I have an iron gut and I intended on using it for shishkabobs on Sunday, I had little worry about spending 7$ on the 3 packs. Sunday: in short consisted of an early mass with the Twin Tyrants, the habitual stop at Dunkin Donuts and a early departure for Sesame Place. We got there by 1030 hours (it opens at 1000) so the usual line of cars leading out of the lot had dwindled considerably. Now, you would think that with a full parking lot we would have to contend with a horde of eager masses at the entrance. Indeed, there was a MONSTROUS gaggle of unwashed population queued up. We have a season passport which has a special line. It took us about 5 minutes to clear the gate. Oh yeah! (Doing a chair dance, stirring the pot, etc...) We then spent the next 7 hours getting roasted because we were about 3 feet from the sun all day long. Alexis broke out of her shell and went on the 'Giant Ducky Ride' as well as the big tube ride twice. It was a very good trip. We ate beef jerky on the way home and I made the kabobs with the garlic sauce marinated meat. A fitting conclusion to an untypically awesome weekend.

Oh, and gasoline is now at USD $2.59/gal. Not perfect, but getting better.

Technorati Tags:Gas | SwimmingChildren | Sesame Place

Labels: Children, Family, Gas, Lawn, Meat, Mundane, Swimming, Water, Weekend

Soooo, spent the day doing ... work. Yesterday, more of the same. Did go to the pool but skipped karate. Reversed it on Tuesday where I bagged the swim but took the kids to practice. I'm having a particular difficult time with an issue regarding the Hibernate database access. Initially, I suspected it was a a problem with the SNMP protocol not having the proper OID registered or some other accounting nonsense, but after excessive time burned on this I finally got a line I could follow to the origin of all the issues. Que interesting, no? Hopefully, I'll be in a better place soon since the test is on August 4th. For some reason, I have suspicious feeling that I have some other plans for that weekend ... not sure what. That kind of nebulous mental fog vexes me to no end. I'd blame MS but I know damn well it's my own sloppy mental hygiene 'activities' that may very well be the root of this. Maybe I'll blame cell phones, PDAs, the internet, automated spell checkers, wikipedia, TiVo and a host of other 'extra-cranial' aids that I've adapted into my semi-borg pseudo-cyborg life. What would I do without all the electronics in my life? One EMP and I'll be lost amongst a pile of failed electronics and piles of fried micro-chips. Reduced to steno-pads, erasure turds and pencil shavings. The horror, the horror.

Technorati Tags:Technology | Swimming | Karate | Children | Injury

Labels: Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Mundane, Technology

Yeah, yeah ... I've been lax in responding to your comments. Sorry ... still not quite on my feet yet. I've been plugging away at work resolving bugs in the new java/eclipse/j2ee/swing/hibernate/anything_under_the_sun environment. A big chunk of flash-bang is neat to play with so long as your hamster driven laptop can handle it. Mine cannot. I've been dumping more java memory heaps than my mastodonic cybernetic hounds of hell on the back-50. Oh, and I'm on support phone duty this week too. Yeah, it's all good.

Enough of my kvetching, lets talk about some good news. I'm coughing up less and less of my internal organs. I swear my lungs had a slice of scrapple lodged down in there. Out of the last 3 months, I think I've been well for only one week. Friggen overactive MS immune system. And I'm expecting a fresh crop of viruses and cruft since it is supposed to drop below freezing again this week. That this twists my nipples something fierce. I just got done tilling the Agricultural Sector and I'm all geared up to start the spring crops. Nothing like fresh lettuce and spinach for dinner. The twins actually ask for salad every night. I know, peculiar little buggers ... the admonish me for not waiting for the dinner prayers and then try to disabuse me of the idea that every meal need not have a full 4 course compliment. They are a bit agitated about the garden too. A full 3 days have passed since Daddy tilled the soil and still no green-beans, peas or carrots. What is up with that!? Since I'm on pager duty, I've been skipping the swim/karate routine ... no use in even trying since a call could come in at anytime ... and when it hits level 4, its always an emergency that needed attention an hour ago. So, the Turmultious Tyrants have been enjoying the sun-slathered evenings in the sand-pit ... busily digging up all the toys the buried last autumn. Little do they know that they have a karate test for their yellow belt coming up in 4 weeks. I'll have to work on this a bit with them so they don't get too rusty. Not that I'm all that worried. Just yesterday I had to ask Jake to STOP punching his teachers. For some reason, he things that the more robust ladies can take a few punches and not be harmed. It may be true, but it's not all that polite. He usually tempers the expected response by surrendering a hug and kiss before they have a chance to exhort a less violent greeting. Sly, he is.

Oh, and gas is $2.61USD, in these parts ... WTF!?

Technorati Tags:Gas | Swimming | Karate | Children | Plumbing

Labels: Banalities, Blogging, Mundane

Yet again, nothing. I survived work. TSD class went well. The Tyrants ate their dinner in record time and darted off to play with Gung-Gung. Hell, this last 24 hours has been so mundane, I don't even need an image to convey any visceral undertones.

Technorati Tags:Karate | Children

Labels: Banalities, Bromides, Mundane