Merry Merry

 

Golden monkey

It's been a bit -- have a monkey

Day of the dead 2010

This year I made it a point to go buy some Day of the Dead bread.  Its a small sugar covered load of bread with a skull and cross bones on it. I usually ignore the holiday but this year I just needed to say thanks and remember those who came before me. Relatives and friends who are no longer with us. I sliced the bread and made some hot chocolate and shared it with the kids . I know that I'm a week late on the live post, but its a post.  - Someone told me that a person is not dead until every person that remembers him is dead....This tradition keeps people alive in our hearts for a long time. If I was in Mexico I would have gone to the grave site and cleaned it and put flowers out , but here I think that just sitting and remembering will be ok...

I give you Chaser the wonder dog. ..

 

This year has been a real hard year for us with dogs. In April I had to put Nixon down , he grew old and well had the problems of a very old dog. A little over a month ago I put my other dog Kona down - she had issues that the vets could not find or define. She had gone for 9 days with out eating anything solid. She was only five years old. Both were heart breaking losses.
   The house just seemed cold and empty with out a dog in the house. After some hard searching at the local shelters we found a new dog. His name is Chaser. Part Australian Cattle dog, part lab/pit bull/stegosaurus mix.  He's about a year and a half old and was in the shelter for 145 days before we took him home.     He had "black dog " syndrome... The shelter ladies say that black dogs and cats are teh last to be adopted . The boys have already taken to him and he had taken to the boys really well. We each put our name choice in a hat and drew from it ... I lost , but I'm still happy with the name.  He's quiet and loves bacon....

Same shit...

Black community - stop embarrassing your brethren and committing crimes in record numbers. There are amazing people doing wonderful things in your community but unfortunately your stupidity overshadows anything positive that's done.

--

Dreams

   I really don't know what prompted the dream... I had a sex dream about a friend.  She and I have never been romantic , but we have been very close. We had dated - kinda here and there, but it just never clicked. I consider her a very dear friend. 

   We were in a log cabin style hotel in a Wisconsin dells area.. I cant say why or for how long but we were there.  This nude girl walked by - kinda skinny with nasty tattoos on her. My friend came by and said-- what do I think? She was wearing a silky black bra and panties... She is a curvy girl and filled them well.  I think that I was even stumpt in my own dream on her look....

 I woke up with a raging erection ... Granted I have wanted to have sex with her , but I think this was just too close to the could haves and would haves....

Kona - 5 years old

I had to put my second dog to sleep 2 weeks ago.... I don't really know what happened to her .  She had stopped eating all of a sudden. I guessed that one day or two days was ok. Like a stomach bug. She vomited up some grass and bile. On the fourth  day we took her in to the vet and had blood work done. They had given her some gel under the skin that is like vitamins and electrolytes.  The next day she drank some chicken broth, milk on the following days and then again nothing. She had dropped nearly 7 pounds quickly. She was not moving but in good spirits. She still stayed with the kids she still sat with me and she still smiled when called.  I made arrangements to have her put down. The vets had no clue even with blood work and x-rays showing nothing. The kids took her for one last walk that day. I ran her with a ball and quickly stopped as I could see her legs were hurting. I picked her up and could feel her bones.  We drove to the vet and she sat in my lap as they gave her the injections. I held her close as I cried. Her last feeling in this world were of being loved and held. She had really become such a part of my family that I still look for her through the morning my routine. Good-bye Kona - I'll always love her.

My monkey drives....

My monkey drives....

amc zombies : the walking dead

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid83327935001?bctid=593569611001

--
--Garz

There are days when I could go back in time and kiss you just one more time........

My father is goiing to kill me....

ahhhh let me start out saying that my dad has nerver liked dr's or medications... This week he was working the the attic and must have scrapped his arm and developed a rather nasty infection. The kicker is that he tried to hide it from my mom to the point that my sister took him to the ER... It had developed in to celulitus and he is now in his third day of heavy antibiotics and pain meds.... the arm was swollen / red and hot to the touch ..... it could have developed in to somthing much worse rather quickly ..... I love him so much but this fear of dr's is going to kill him. He waits for somthing to get better and when he does go in its much worse.....

*************************************

Good news... After 5 days in hospital - Hes out and at home.... the swelling came down and the color in his arm is great ... I am so happy.....

country days

I went downstate for a long weekend to visit my in-laws. It really was great to see them. To watch them interact this the kids is really special.  They are reaching an age where things are diminishing for them. They are both 80+ years old and you can start to see the frailty creeping in on them. I'm just glad that my kids have gotten to spend time with them and to know them as people.  

     They live a more simple life than I do being out in the country. Every one waves as you pass by. Sure there are rednecks and goofs in general, but I still think there is potential out in the sticks..... I still believe that people out there are still good people.  I still think there is more respect for the older generation out there than here (near big cities).  I also think that the mind set is slightly more closed off ... think 1976-1986 -ish. , but there is so much influence on the media that the real world seeps in to country life as well. 

    Life moves on its own pace there. That is so lost now a days .....

feeling old

I found out this week that a high school friend of mine has gall bladder cancer. Its the second one of my childhood friends that are dying. The longer you live the more you have a chance of losing. Life gives you great things , but eventually it will take them back. -- Im 42 and feeling old. I look in to the mirror and don't see myself any more.  Joints, hands, back and neck all hurt if they are not moving. If I blink a week will go buy with out notice. I know that I will see more and more friends pass on as I live. Its not a good thing but just a fact of life....  --- its faux depression settling in on me today. I just need a few days off ... I'll do that this weekend...

guy talk

Its been a few months since I've seen my guy friends. My wife used to think we would just get together and drink, but truth be told we just become guys. Not dads or brothers, sons and work mate we just become guys. We'll fart , joke , eat food we're not supposed to and drink pop. Watch violent kung fu movies and talk about comic books. We'll gab once or twice about the wife or kids as a courtesy , but its guy talk. Computer bits, BBC TV , vampire move and chicks.... Ours own group will split a 12 pack of beer over 5 hours, but its the shit talking that I love... I'll never know how and  what girls talk about when alone in their groups, but I love being a guy...

Obama hates your grandmother...

I'm so tired of this bullshit. These people who bad mouth the President with zero respect for office. Brithers and tea baggers, rush drones, hannady zombies etc...  spewing out vile fear mongering, hateful closeted racist  content. Obama wants to kill your grand mother, obama is a socialist, Obama don't care about white people, he's not a citizen, he's not MY president etc. etc. .  Its such mega fear in the plain and simple fact that a black man is in charge and this people just can not deal with ..... I really hope that this picture starts fractions in teh tea party. 

Personally I hated GW Bush , but I still respected him as the President. I would not vote for him nor did I but I respected the office. These vile right wingers are children that have never been told no and now have to face facts that Mc Cain and Pallin lost ... done its over. Please grow up and vote the way you want in 2012, but just stop with your bullshit.   These tea baggers are teh same people who run and complain to a manager Expecting to get somthing free.... The Internet is a beautiful thing , but it has created a sub-culture of self importance... 

Killer Monkeys

 

RED MONKEY

The blind side and titties

I saw the blind side over the week end... I avoided watching this for so long because it seemed too chick flick to me - that and I knew there was not going to be any t and a in it at all.  Beyond this handicap I have to say that I enjoyed it.  -- Granted it was a "white mans burden" kind of movie, but well done none the less.  Did she deserve teh Oscar? I have to say - No .. The young girl in Precious did a much better job acting - real acting not just acting like a Southern Bitch .... So if you haven't seen it -- pop it in -- very little actual football.

Better AMERICAN football movies (I have to say that because of the world cup) - Friday night lights, any given sunday , the longest yard (original), The game plan (before they cut the road scene) , the water boy and Brians song  -- those are mine in no particular order...

-Peace

 

Famous Kiss

Sweet goodbye my dear. I have always thought that this photo symbolized the end of WW2. The joy and elation felt by every American that day must have been overwhelming.

---

June 23, 2010

Edith Shain, Who Said Famous Kiss Came Her Way, Dies at 91

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Edith Shain, who became something of a celebrity decades after World War II, asserting that she was the nurse kissed by a sailor in Life magazine's memorable photograph of V-J Day in Times Square, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Her death was announced by her family.

On the 60th anniversary of Japan's surrender, in 2005, the Times Square Alliance welcomed Mrs. Shain to its commemoration of that frenzied August day in 1945, when strangers were hugging and kissing everywhere in the throngs that came to Times Square to celebrate the war's end.

Wearing sneakers and a nurse's uniform, Mrs. Shain re-enacted the moment captured by Life's renowned photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. Many men have claimed to be the sailor who bestowed the kiss.

"The happiness was indescribable," Mrs. Shain said of the original V-J Day celebration. "It was a very long kiss."

Mrs. Shain was back in New York in 2008, that time as grand marshal for the city's Veterans Day Parade.

When Mr. Eisenstaedt took his photograph, he did not get the names of the embracing sailor and the nurse, and their faces were largely obscured. A Navy photographer, Lt. Victor Jorgensen, also photographed the pair, but he, too, did not obtain their identities.

Thirty-five years later, Mrs. Shain, who was teaching kindergarten in Los Angeles after having been a nurse at Doctors Hospital in New York during the war, wrote to Mr. Eisenstaedt, saying "now that I'm 60 it's fun to admit that I'm the nurse in your famous shot." (She was 27 when it was taken). She asked him for a print.

Mr. Eisenstaedt visited Mrs. Shain, and Life reproduced her letter to him in its August 1980 issue, along with pictures he took of her with her family and her students. Mrs. Shain said she had recognized herself in the photo but had kept silent over all those years. "I didn't think it was dignified, but times have changed," she told Life.

Two months later, Life published photos of 10 men who had come forward to say they were the sailor in that photo, and a picture of yet another man, no longer alive, whose family had put in a claim. It also ran pictures of two other women who said they were the nurse.

"We received claims from a few nurses and dozens of sailors but we could never prove that any of them were the actual people, and Eisenstaedt himself just said he didn't know," Bobbi Baker Burrows, an editor at Life, told The Associated Press in 2008.

Edith Shain was born in Tarrytown, N.Y., on July 29, 1918. She graduated from New York University and moved to Los Angeles a few years after the war ended.

She is survived by her sons Robert and Michael Shain and Justin Decker, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

When Mrs. Shain arrived in New York in 2008 for the city's Veterans Day Parade, she spoke of what the V-J Day photo meant to her.

"It says so many things," she told The Associated Press. "Hope, love, peace and tomorrow."

Fathers Day #9

Fathers day was just a mess again.... The storms in the Chicagland area knocked power from my dads house for a few days. So he did not want to leave in case thay came on and etc... My sister is dating a guy and she ambushed me on Sat night if my newphew could spend the night .... My newphew is a little whiney and needy so I had a few words with him about bed time etc... My own kids wanted to play Wii with their cousin .....

      On the bright side - my kids took me out for a big ass Gyro and we went fishing. We didn't catch anything, but a bad day fishing beats a good day working . Somtimes just simple tings make me happy..... ... So to all you fathers out there keep up the good work and be a dad instead of just a baby daddy....

inside me

I find it funny on how quick I can access hate.  Its lies just below the surface with me. I woke up this morning and found myself enraged to the point that I thought of biting my wife in the face. WTF? this is a thought that pops up in my brain?  I found my self just ready to hit her and bite her. All for some photos that she wanted to take down. 

   This is one of my greatest fears that I have, to lose self control. To become the hulk, mr hyde and just lose humanity. To lose compassion and just lash out at what angers me. Its the level of what I think about doing that frightens me. 

    I have alot of hate inside me from when I was a child. This I only delt with by fighting on a daily basis. This hate /rage  is quite alive inside. I have had dreams of me yelling at my father and being so mad that I have bitten my own fingers off......

    I need to get away and just not be with any one for a long time......

phones

I said I would not do it ... I fought against it and  .... I went out on Sunday and bought one.... My 9 year old now has a cell phone..... My wife and I have only had cell phones for 6 years now and have realized that we need an extra line at home for the kids. I thought about getting magic jack , but if the power fails its dead.  My phone company can add a plan for $20 a month but he won't use it that much. I decided on a trac phone.  I have to say I like it,  for the amount he will use it for it was a good deal.  The phone itself was $10 and a 120 minute card was $30 . You do  have to renew inside of 90 days ... so the break down is about $10/per month.... The minutes are listed and so is the time left.... He can always use it for 911 even if the card runs out.... I feel better and may go to a more extensive plan as he gets older... No texting or just rambling on and on but a phone as it was intended for emergency uses....

Blind man

I saw this pic and I laughed, I have always loved this story as a kid. It means more now as an adult , but as a kid I enjoyed it.... So keepyour eyes open and get the full picture before passing judgement on an issue....  Peace

alone in a family

I'm not going to lie, but I have been in a mental funk for awhile. I feel so alone in my own house. On my days off I ruin my wife's schedule with the kids and just get in her way. I only see my kids before school as I make them breakfast and send them to school. What really gets me is how my wife slinks away and goes to bed with out saying goodnight. Its small thing but I hate it. I have stopped caring about that as well. During the week she sleeps in my sons room because I snore. I have stopped caring about that , but I still sleep only on my side of the bed. I hate the noise, but I hate coming home to a silent house. My only night company is my dog when I get home.  All she wants is a treat and to have her head scratched..... Generally when I get home I strip to my skivies and eat dinner alone. I watch TV or flick channels until midnight and then go to bed. All with out saying a single word from 9pm to 7am. Many days I wonder that if I come home at all will any one notice. They won't notice until I have to wake her or make my boys breakfast.

    

Goodbye Nixon

Yesterday I went and put my dog to sleep. The people at the shelter said he was between 4-6 years old and I had him for 6 years. His name is Nixon and all he wanted was love, a place to sleep and occasionally scratched behind the ear. He was a mix of Jack Russel and beagle. 

Its never easy when you have to put a friend down. They become part of the family, the kids love them and I do to. That was the agreement though, to care for your pet from start to the end. It would have been cruel not to do so.  He was losing bladder control and his hips and bones were just creeking. I was painful for him to be picked up and to jump on the sofa. 

I have to say that the Vet place was just great. They treated me with respect and kindness.

Pizza Puff

 

I think that some of the best things to your child is to introduce them to new things. I love to see that spark in their eyes as they enjoy the same think you do. Yesterday I took my son to a little Greek style Gyro stand. He did 't want to go. he wanted a hot dog from home or pizza. I introduced him to a pizza puff. I described it to him as a pizza bite thats HUGE! We ordered it and waited a but to wonderfully deep fry. It came out and he looked at in distain. I cut it open and the smell of sausage and cheese just hit him. I could tell that in the first bite that he was hooked.  I never really liked them and can honestly say that I have maybe had less than 10 in my like, but to see him just enjoy it was great.

Whats in my brain today

This sounds so stupid but I miss good blue cheese. When I was teh cheese buyer at Wholefoods I was in contact with all kinds of wonderful cheeses and paid zero for them. If I needed Reggiano I would simply take a few crumbles that were going to be tossed. I stole nothing . I simply did'nt toss out the flakes and crumbles. I would take home "broken " wedges of world class blue cheeses, roqufort, maytag and assorted blue bries.... Today I had a blue burger from Wendys.... and I know its cheep domestic blue cheese it was very tasty and paired nicly wih bacon.... Not a great post , but today all I could think of was blue cheese. Like some part of my brain just was craving blue cheese and I could not turn it off....

Lost Dreams

     I've been having strange dreams in the last few nights. Dreams of old girlfriends. Dreams that they have been beaten by husbands and boyfriends and are telling me this. Dreams of having dinner with them in old watertowers that have been converted to restrauants in Chicago. Dreams of burgundy bras and massages. Dreams of horses on city streets. Dreams of people watching me through camers and reviewing the pics on iphones. I normally do not dream or rather I have lost my dream patterns that I used to have. When I was younger I would dream and log it all down . Now the remembered dreams are few and far between. Maybe its because I awake so yearly and it breaks up the normal cycle or maybe because I'm just getting old.

   Its rare - I mean super rare that I have a sex dream, but those have been creeping up on my as well. They weird part is that its sex with girls that I do not know at all. White girls maybe latina  that are ... petite, I'd say 5'5 and 120-130 lbs.  Dark hair that is straight and shoulder length.  I do not know any one like that in my life right now. I'm just blaming those dreams in the Spring rut....

  

voices

   I ts been years since I heard voices. When I was in college I would often hear whispering and a chatting before I dozed off. If I open my eyes the voices would stop. It seemed like ghosts in the dark, but most likely it was a pre - dream.  Once I farted so loud that I yelled out "Whose there" to an empty room.  I have woke my self up to my own yelling because of a scary dream. That's always creepy because at time you can hear your own voice in the dream trying to yell with no volume. Again this was years ago and far between....

 

   Last night I was in a dream if some kind. Nothing clear or bad , but I heard an outside voice clearly say "damn it" - I guess I assumed it was my wife and I yelled out "What?". The very weird part is that no one was in the room. My wife had gone to work and only me and the dogs were in bed. The dogs were stone cold passed out. So was it a dream? Ghost voice? - I'm guessing it was just a voices in the dark.

 

 

Peace.

to friends.

As I get older my recovery time gets longer and longer. Last night I went out to celebrate St Pattys at a local bar. I had , I would say 2 pitchers of green beer and wings. Granted I woke up that morning at 5:20 am and went to bed a touch liquored at 2am.  It was kind of a rough start. As my mom would say - crudo or a bit raw.

It was a good time to tip back a few with a friend and just remind your self how lucky you are in friends.  Laughs and tears are best shared with friends.  Friends let you be you even more so than family... you don't have to play a role (dad, husband, brother, son). A friend can let you be you. You can tell a story of a deaf stripper and a blue dildo to friend not to your wife.... Peace

BTW have a monkey.

st pats

In honor of St. Pat's day, Trapper Rob's ode to Broadway,

"Oh Donny Rose, the pipes, the pipes are calling

From glen to glen, and down the mountain side

The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying

'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow

Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow

'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow

Oh Donny Rose, oh Donny Rose, I love you so."

(adaptation of Frederick Weatherly's original lyrics in accordance with all Federal, State and local regulations)

dreams

I don't know where these dreams come from. Perhaps its from too much TV or not enough.... I drempt of bed bugs. The lived in the corners of the mattresses, but they were large like those hissing cckroaches. The mattress was see through , maybe plastic, but you could see the innerworkings easily. The springs wires and the bugs.
-- dreams are the only thing that you truly own.... and I don;t think i like mine.

post Oscar awards

I usually watch the Awards every year. This year I got caught up in watching Daybreakers. It was a dog of a vampire movie, but entertaining.  I did catch the last hour or so of the Awards. I saw the actor, actress and movie it self. I cant say that I agree with Sandra as the best actress, but I do agree with director and movie.

   What separates me from most of the peolpe at work is they do not understand the difference between a good movie and entertaining movie. One guy was raving about Avatar not winning. I sat him down and explained that Avatar had great effect, but it was a hollow movie. Its a repeated story from ferngully, Pocahontas, matrix and dances with wolves. Then he ranted about star trek beating it with make up, I then explained that 90% of avatar was CGI, not make up in the real sense.

   While The Hurt locker was not a widely seen movie on a subject that is not well liked , it was the best movie for that year.

There is a difference between enjoyed and good.

 

I want to ..... 2010

• lose weight
• learn something new
• read more
• watch more movies
• learn a third language
• dig that damn stump out of my yard
• re-start the motorcycle
• make a feast for my friends
• go out on a bender
• see more of my friends
• spend more time with my kids
• go camping
• more fishing
• brew some beer
• ride my bicycle more - 200-300 miles
• make my own wooden arrows
• learn how to make a longbow
• just take a day and sit without noise
• a new tattoo
• spend more time w/ the church
• get healthier
• take a few ME days off
• grill more in the summer
• get through life without hurting any one
• take the kids to a SOX game
• more vegetables
• learn to relish alone time
• go shoot more (bow)
• get a FOID card
• buy a shotgun/muzzleloader/lever action rifle
• go hunting
• make costumes for the kids
• be comfortable in my own skin
• connect with old friends
• go on a trip/actually take vacation time
• write more
• kill a hobo with my bare hands

These are in no particular order or need to do any, but  off the top of my head things that I would like to do in the upcoming year.

Peace

inner voice.

     I have to learn to keep my inside voice quiet. Its that or my inside voice is louder than most peoples regular voice. -- A day or so at work I saw this girl and her mom. They were both very good looking, mom was a few years older than me and daughter was about 26. She had a certain quality about her that I find irresistible. She was smart, funny, she wore these small framed lisa loeb glasses, dark shoulder length hair and was just a touch thick on her bottom. Not fat but a real woman, with hips and tits. I rounded a corner to go do something that I needed and I must have said out loud... "I'd snuggle in her ass". A co worker heard me say something, but was not sure what I had said. I know she heard the word ass , but I guessing not the full phrase. That would have been embarassing. How do you control your inside voice? Its one of the few things that belong only to you and you alone.

---------------------------------------------------

      I few weeks ago I has to sit and watch out internet office. Its where we field calls and emails for my company. I guy there was giving me a hard time about this and that. I heard him start to choke as he sat behind me at a near by desk. Without thinking I yelled out "hey you done deep throating your John yet?"  He was shocked , but I think I had put him in hims place for giving out shit. I forget on how raw I can be when I feel like it..... I guess he did not expect it out of me at work.

funeral for a friend

I went last night to the wake and it was just filled with what i didn't like, people from my home town.  I saw my school mate in the casket and even though he was dead and I have not seen him in the better part of 20+ years , I could still see the child in his face. I could see the kid I grew up with. The boy that we played softball in the alley with. The kid who we had snuck beers in to the 8th grade dance. The kid who was not dead.

    His face looked bloated and his hands looked stiff. My Uncles hands had looked the same way. I guess the hands of the dead look that way. 

   Again I had too many zombie thought floating through my head as I went up to the casket to say good bye.

  No one wants to go to a wake, buts its a responsibility that we all eventuality have to do. To show respect for the living.

 

Nick C. 2010

As I turn older I see my own responsibilities grow. This is one that I hate, I have to attend a wake later today. It is for a friend from grade school that I have not scene since .... 1989 or before? His death could have been mine I suppose. Nick had died from liver failure and a life filled with severe drug and alcohol problems. I remember him as a nice enough guy a touch wild on the edges. I had tipped a few beers with him.

 I started drinking in seventh grade, by sneeking one of dads beers I also started to smoke then too. I smoked pot in 7th grade with a group of kids and their older brothers. It was a fun ride through high school. Typical stoner life, drinkin smoking and listening to metal. I experimented with LSD and PCP in Highschool as well and I also tried cocaine once or twice. - I wanted to be high. I loved that off world feeling and the "not being in my own skin' sensation.

 By my first year in college I stopped smoking pot and just drank good beers. I would have a puff or two when offered , but the need for it had waned. I had found something that I was looking for - I had found friends and I think I had found the strength to be comfortable in my own skin.

Well as I grow older I have to do this more and more. As you grow older life stops giving you things and starts taking them away.

 

typical day

• 5:20 am get up, put on pants , downstairs , make coffee, let dogs out, start wife's car, wait, watch Tv news, wave good bye, go to bed
• 5:50 am answer phone/text, sleep
• 7:30 am wake up, make breakfast for kids, feed dogs and fish, drink coffee, more news, tell kids to get dressed, make lunch, sign homework, wave goodbye
• 9:00 am watch supernatural, make lunch
• 10:00 am shit , shower, shave
• 11:00 am work: sell/buy/ call / follow up/ research
• 3:00 pm Lunch
• 4:00 pm gossip/sell /buy/research/email/kill time/ follow up
• 8:30 pm go home/store
• 9:00 pm eat dinner alone
• 10:00 pm put on sleep clothes/dogs/dishes/laundry/tv-family guy-king of the hill-dirty jobs-mythbusters-bad movie/news/pick up toys
• 11:00 pm read
• 12:00 pm sleep

-----------------------------------------------------------

This is a typical day for me. Not as exciting as I though it would be when I was a kid.....

 

Happy V.day

Share it with some one you love.......

 

I had a dream...

I used to have vivid dreams all the time. In fact I used to write down my dreams in a book for over 2 years. Some were fantastic and some quite droll.... Last night I had a dream that I was climbing the framework of a steel roler coster. A co-worker of mine was on the ground and guiding me up "move left, now right...". I looked down and I saw that my uncle was holding the ladder... My uncle has been dead for 9 years now. It was good to see him and I did not think any thing of it at the time. It just seemed natural.... He was slightly heaver than I remembered and was wearing a shirt from Shell gasoline.....

   I'm glad I'm dreaming again.

: JR's hotdogs in Oak Lawn

95th and Ridgeland.... some damn fine dogs... look at the symmetry in the cucumber and tomatoes ....

82 Academy Awards

 82nd annual Academy Award nominations

Best Picture: "Avatar," "The Blind Side," "District 9," "An Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," "A Serious Man," "Up," "Up in the Air." Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"; George Clooney, "Up in the Air"; Colin Firth, "A Single Man"; Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"; Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker." Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"; Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"; Carey Mulligan, "An Education"; Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia." Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, "Invictus"; Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"; Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"; Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"; Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds." Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Nine"; Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"; Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"; Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"; Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." Directing: James Cameron, "Avatar"; Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"; Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"; Lee Daniels, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air." Foreign Language Film: "Ajami," Israel; "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Argentina; "The Milk of Sorrow," Peru; "Un Prophete," France; "The White Ribbon," Germany. Adapted Screenplay: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, "District 9"; Nick Hornby, "An Education"; Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, "In the Loop"; Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, "Up in the Air." Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker"; Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"; Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, "The Messenger"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "A Serious Man"; Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, "Up." Animated Feature Film: "Coraline"; "Fantastic Mr. Fox"; "The Princess and the Frog"; "The Secret of Kells"; "Up."Art Direction: "Avatar," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "Sherlock Holmes," "The Young Victoria." Cinematography: "Avatar," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "The White Ribbon." Sound Mixing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Sound Editing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Up." Original Score: "Avatar," James Horner; "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Alexandre Desplat; "The Hurt Locker," Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders; "Sherlock Holmes," Hans Zimmer; "Up," Michael Giacchino. Original Song: "Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman; "Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman; "Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36," Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas; "Take It All" from "Nine," Maury Yeston; "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett. Costume: "Bright Star," "Coco Before Chanel," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "The Young Victoria." Documentary Feature: "Burma VJ," "The Cove," "Food, Inc." "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," "Which Way Home." Documentary (short subject): "China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province," "The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner," "The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant," "Music by Prudence," "Rabbit a la Berlin." Film Editing: "Avatar," "District 9," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." Makeup: "Il Divo," "Star Trek," "The Young Victoria." Animated Short Film: "French Roast," "Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty," "The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)," "Logorama," "A Matter of Loaf and Death." Live Action Short Film: "The Door," "Instead of Abracadabra," "Kavi," "Miracle Fish," "The New Tenants." Visual Effects: "Avatar," "District 9," "Star Trek." — The Associated Press

_____________________________________________________________________

 

2009 in review

• Just a quick review of 2009 to see how I did and what I still need to do....
• I want to .......
  • ....Lose weight. Go from 290 to 250...  Went from 295 down to 275 and back up to 295... damn Christmas cookies.
  • ....Spend more time with my kids....(OK ok I did not do that bad with that this year) Not a bad year, lot of movies and fishing time with them. I would still love to spend more quality time w/ em.
  • ....Learn more things. That is always a challenge based on time available. I'd love to learn a 3rd language, finish a degree or something useful.  I learned Ubuntu OS and am working on how to make wooden arrows and strings for my bows and wooden bows.
  • ...work on the house. That is always money and time dependent. There are some things I'd like to do and some things I have to do .  - Patched roof, made water barrel , took are of toilets and the list never stops.... lol
  • ..take a vacation.
  • ..dig out the damn root thats in my back yard....
  • ... go camping with my kids. I want to go to Starved rock. I'd like to go fishing with them and actually catch something outside of just weeds. Went back yard camping down state , but it was a rather cold summer this year... but I think they are in to it now. We caught lots of bluegill, bull heads and Carp.
  • ... sleep for a day with out end. I did that for three day s with a massive sinus infection...
  • .... work out more....I need to make time for that. No ones going to make time but me.
  • .....get a new camera or even an old digital camera. Mine bit the dust and I want to catch my kids before they grow old.
  • .... fly a kite.Just pick a day and go fly a kite. Done, I need to pick out a few more days now.
  • ....for the umpteenth year I want a new tattoo
  • .... get drunk. Done.
  • ......read more books. (I read about 20 in the last year, but more is better) . Up to about 3 books a month...... Mostly horror, zombie, werewolf books, but its still a book.
  • ..... write a book...(about what I have no Idea..)
  • ..... ride 200 miles on my bicycle this year. - about 50
  • ..... get my motorcycle up and running. (I need a new battery and carbs cleaned)
  • ...ride 500 miles on a motorcycle.
  • .....finish my motorcycle tech class.
  • ..... eat healthier. During the week - not a prob, weekends and anything goes.
  • .....fast once a month.
  • ...... get back in to meditating
  • ....to get away from everything for a week
  • ....to cook a banquet for friends
  • ....to brew my own beer . I brewed my own root beer this year!
  • ...to go to the movies more. Ahh the cheep show, how I love you and your $3.00 movies and six visit punch card.
  • ....to learn how to weld or solder copper pipe . I learned how to solder wire....
  • .....to make a potato gun
  • .....have my back looked at by a professional
  • ...get a straight razor shave. DOne, and I bought a leather strop so I can keep it honed.
  • ....to have some one fine me attractive.
  • ....to win 25 million dollars.
  • ....to sleep with a beautiful stranger.
  • .....write down my dreams again.
  • .....get back in to the bow and arrow. Done, I bought 2 news bows , a long bow and a bow from the 50's for my sone. Arrow making is nxt on my list.
  • ...build a pinewood derby.
  • ....buy a lever action rifle.
  • .....go hunting for whitetail deer.
  • .....make an award winning chili
  • .....help the homeless. no but I did help the people in Haiti as best as I could.
  • ....drive on rt 66 from end to end.
  • .....to back to Quaker Steak and Lube.
  • ....buy a rolex.
  • ....upgrade my cars.
  • ....buy my parents a new home.
  • ....cry and feel good while doing it.
  • .....laugh ntil I cry.
  • ....paint the garage.
  • ....watch battlestar galactica. - I saw the season ender . Now I watch fringe.
  • .....do so many things befor my time runs out.
  • ....go to India.
  • ...go to Antarticia.
  • ...go to Spain.
  • ...go to Japan.
  • ...Place a bet in the Kentucky Derby.

   

  So all in all not too bad in what I wanted to do. I just need to make more personal time for myself.....

• Pax.

   

guilt

I watch quite a bit  of NO RESERVATIONS w/ Anthony Bordain. He gave the world one of the best quotes yesterday when he was in Turkey.  Some things taste better with a touch of guilt. .... How true how true. 

sick again.

It started out as what I thought was a small cold last Saturday. Sunday my head was throbbing and I had a low grade fever all day long. I just could not shake it. Monday, I called in to work. I felt slow and dopy all day long. My eyes hurt and teeth startted to ache. Tuesday I went to work and it was rough. I came home beat and hot. Wendsday. I know I had a sinus infection again. I was spitting up green snot and blood. My eyes and teeth ached more. I went in to work because I had a late appointment. I called in to the doc to have him send a standard amoxcillian perscription to the walgreens. It was all set up when he called in to say he needed to see me. - Ahhhh. My head feels like its going to pop off.  Im crying in my sleep and I can not sleep well. 930 am I have a walk in appt with my doc. I tell him that last night was a very hard night for me. I have a 102 fever that wont break. My neck, back throat, ear, teeth and face hurt. The nurse says its the flu. I correct her and say - I know my body and its not the flu. Wrong type of body achs and no cough or lung issues. The doc confirs w/ me and says my lungs are mostly clear. Again 875 mg amox.... folks thats a horse pill. Not quite 1 gram of pure meds 2x a day for ten days + all the tramidol cocktails I have been making to stop feeling pain and to slow fever every 4 hours.1 tramidol and 3 gel caps or tylenol..... thats allot of pills...

---------------------------

Well its 2 days on pills after 2 days pure bed rest and soup. the days blur together with a small run out to walgreens to buy real coke and not diet soda. of course i shoveled a but because in chicago when your sick it will snow 8 inched and drop in temp. ... I'm no where near 100%  maby 65-70 % but I feel much better.  I still spit up green snot and blood, but its less green ans less bloody. and the strep I caught early enough not to get too bad.... at one point I woke up at 3 am had coffee a coke a chocolate pie and watched the weather channel for an hour before going back to bed.... my clothes were sweaty even in the cold.....

-----------------------------------------------

folks please listen to your body and go see a doc when you can .....