Jake the "Tommy Boy Maddox" Plummer

Ok, before I begin let me first say that I saw absolutely none of the game. Well, let me restate that. I saw approximately the final 2 minutes of the game. The only reason why I saw what I saw was because I happened to check the score and saw the headline "Cutler knocked out of game with head injury" and the score tied at 23 all in OT.

I turn on the game and Cutler is playing. I said to myself, self, if Cutler is playing that means 1 of 2 things. Either the head injury wasn't that serious, or Plummer really screwed up. Screwed up so much that he was willing to put in a guy with a head injury (who's a rookie and doesn't know any better).

After the game I check the stats. Plummer: 0-2; 1 INT.

So if someone saw the game could they please explain something to me? Did he actually complete 50% of his passes (which would be pretty high) or just 33%?

All I could think of when I saw that stat line was when Tommy Maddox took over a game for the Steelers last season because Roethlisberger got hurt. He ended up fumbling on a snap and losing the game..

I'm going white

On my dad's side of the family there is a recessive gene. This gene states that every other generation's hair will go gray, while the other generation will go white. Don't ask me why it does this, I have no idea. The best I could come up with is that it like variety.

So my dad is going gray, which means I will go white. My grandfather had white hair so I guess the gene is doing it's job.

Today I spotted my first white hair in my goatee. I have mixed feelings regarding this. On the one hand it means I'm getting older (28 in 2 weeks! YIKES!), on the other it gives me, and this might come out wrong, a sense of happiness.

I know it seems weird that a hair can give you happiness. It's true though. It means my gene is working. It gives me a sense of pride that I belong to my family. I'm blessed to have this hair.

While going to church in Fredericksburg, there was a guy there who always smiled. His name, appropriately enough, was Guy Smiley (true story). He had cloud-white hair and a constant smile on his face. I didn't know him very well, just that he always had a smile.

That's how I want people to remember me. The guy with the cloud-white hair and a constant smile on his face.

A Team Willis Joint

Yesterday was a long day. It started around 6:45 in the morning as Shayna and I got up to make the trek to F-burg from P-burgh via F-fax. The weather report called for 1-3 inches of snow up in the Pitt so Shayna was going to get the first leg. It ended up being rain so I got to drive.

The drive was uneventful. Hardly any traffic on the way back to DC (I thought there would be a lot). As we got to the DC area though, we turned on WTOP and the traffic report wasn't good. 95 South bound was a parking lot except between 123 and Dumfries.

Shayna and I stopped at our apt, freshened up, feds the cats, etc hoping things would clear up, but the traffic report stayed the same. Northbound looked good though, so we called up my mom and asked her to come to fairfax as that would be easier.

By the time she gets to 95 traffic is bad north bound as well. They call me up and tell me they would like to postpone the day. I was pretty distraught about it because I wasn't sure when I was going to get to spend a day with my family. My mom and brother don't have schedules like mine where they get weekends off and we all took this day off to spend together.

I got the call while in the car. Shayna was driving and saw that I got really sad, so she decided to kidnap me and forced me to get through the traffic and see my family. She drove the entire way.

On the way down we stopped at the cemetery in Quantico to see my grandmother. She was a wonderful woman, and I miss her. As a cried, Shayna held me tight.

The point of this post I guess is to shine some light on Shayna. We all have times when we are weak or low and we need someone to lean on. I'm proud that she's got my back.

Use Google to keep on top of your blogs

I've blogged a couple times about RSS readers and how they make things easier when you look at a lot of blogs. One of the neat things is that you can use the google personalized home page to keep on top of them as well.

To do it, go to google.com and click on sign in (top left). If you don't have a google account you'll need to make one (if you are on the new blogger you already have a google account). Log in to the account and then click on personalized home (again top left).

The personalized home allows you to put in different modules on the search page. You also have the option of adding tabs to have personalized pages.

To add a module go to http://www.google.com/ig/directory. Here you can search for all the different modules they have. To create you own, click on "add by url" next to the search button. Then just put in the RSS feed and click add. When you go to the personalized home page you'll see the latest headlines for that blog. Clicking on a headline will take you directly to that post!

You can also try out Google Reader at http://www.google.com/reader. I'm checking this out as wii speak..
______________UPDATE________________________________
Google reader is the bomb digity. I'm stopping usage of the rss reader program. Use the google reader STAT!

"I love Me some Mii"

Thanks for the quote T.O.

So one of the features of the Wii is the Mii parade. Your characters wonder off onto other people's Wii's and vice versa. The rather unfortunate thing is that Mii's can only travel to other Wii's who are in your address book. So while I have parade enabled, I don't really know anyone else who has a Wii.

I'll post my Wii code a little later and maybe some random people will have some Mii's for Me.

The measure you give is measure you want to receive

This holiday season I've stumbled upon a very fascinating phenomenon. This is extraordinary. Mostly for the reason that I don't tend to think about such things. I think Solomon said it best: "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief"

Anyways the totally fascinating thing that I've discovered is that people tend to give gifts that they want. At a recent gift exchange with a co-worker, he gave me a box set of the first 4 seasons of 24. He loves 24 and probably would have loved to have received this gift (maybe even from me) I gave him iTunes gift cards, mostly because I know he owns an iPod, but also because there are some albums that I would buy if I had received some iTunes gift cards.

I found myself doing the same thing when shopping for door prizes for an office party. Shayna and I went to the 5 below store (really cool store by the way). She was helping me pick out door prizes. She found a label maker key chain that she felt would be perfect. I thought it was stupid, but I did find an AM/FM radio pen that I thought was pretty cool.

Needless to say that since it was my door prize we got the pen. Since most of the office is organizational freaks, the key chain would probably have been better.

Funny Quote

"I felt like my mom was chasing me with a belt.'' --Tennessee quarterback Vince Young to owner Bud Adams, who asked him what he was thinking as he ran for the winning 39-yard touchdown in overtime over his hometown Texans.

--Taken from SI.com's MMQB

My only thought is, where's Cutler's mom when you need her?

My Shoulder Wiilly hurts

Shayna and I spent a couple hours playing the Wii yesterday. We'll probably spend more time playing tonight. Wii Sports is definitely a fun game.

2 hazards of play so far. 1) I've come close to getting knocked out from Shayna's forehand playing Tennis. 2) My shoulder hurts from baseball. I was never good at hitting the ball, and now it's even more glaring.

Overall though, it's a highly entertaining game system.

McWrong

While in PA this past weekend McDonalds ran tons of ads featuring that the McRib is back (for a limited time of course).

Unfortunately the marketing geniuses at McDonalds things that only people in Pittsburgh like the McRib. Well, maybe I'm only 1 of 5 people in the DC area that do like it and I want one.

This isn't the first time I've seen geographic marketing like this. In Richmond one McDonalds had a "bucket" of fries. It was basically the largest drink container filled with fries. 2 "buckets" = 1 fry basket. True story.

On my way to Harrisonburg one time I stopped and had a pulled pork bbq sandwich from McDonalds. It was actually quite tasty.

I guess I'll just have to move some place where McRibs can be enjoyed by all..otherwise it's just McWrong.

I'm a weirdo

Tagged by my wonderful wife who was tagged by Kelli. The chain will stop here of course.
6 weird things about me you probably didn't (don't) want to know.

1)I pick my nose.
2)My belly button is a magnet for lint
3)I can't do two things at once. If I'm not looking at you, I'm most likely not listening to you.
4)I turn red when I speak in front of people. I'm not talking about public speaking (like speeches..although it happens then too) but even with a group of friends like in a class.
5)The reason why I hate that guy Carl? Well, it's because he's a jerk. Ask my wife. True Story.

A Wii Dilema

For awhile now I've said that I would get a 360 for Christmas/birthday. Part me of still does want the 360. The only problem is that I don't see a lot of games that interest me for it. There's the sports games which I always love, but I don't see anything like Ninja Gaiden or Prince of Persia which are the games that I end up getting now a days. Gears of War sounded promising until I saw the trailer. The graphics are amazing, but chopping people up with a chain saw and having blood splatter over the "camera" just doesn't really do it for me. Guess I'm getting old..

Today Shayna and I stopped at a gamestop and played the Nintendo Wii. They had an offroad game there and we got to play around. It was pretty surprisingly fun. I'm going to wait on both I think until I see games that I really want. I have a feeling that when Halo 3 comes along I'll be ready for a 360...

Guestbook

I'm trying out a new piece of software called Frappr. It's a guestbook in which you can leave a shoutout, location, and even a picture of yourself. It's located at the bottom of the blog. Take a look and let me know if there are any adverse affect (like pop ups from the dreaded tag board)

Shayna

It's time for a post on my wife.

We both have had very hectic lives of late. Work has been brutal for both of us. I'm trying to get certifications and she's getting a masters PLUS tutoring.

Yesterday I came home from work and she was folding laundry which is my job. She said that she just wanted me to sit down and relax for a while. Today while I was plugging away at work, she sent me an e-card to let me know that she was thinking about me.

It makes me feel really good to know that I have a teammate who will work hard not only on her goals, but also on me. She contantly thinks of ways to improve my life (from relaxing when I get home, to finding new ideas for soy/tofu foods).

I don't think I quite deserve it most of the time, but I sure do appreciate it. I love you.

Why people should NOT vote

I'm pretty sure this post is going to get some responses. Especially from my in-laws who all feel quite strongly that everyone should vote. They are of course wrong. There are 2 kinds of people..those that should vote, and those that should not.

I really don't have a problem with voting. I think if people want to do it, they should. We shouldn't go and tell everyone they should vote. Like I said before, some people just shouldn't. I really think my biggest problem is how voting is handled.

Every one's vote is equal. That seems like a nice way of handling things. Everyone should have an equal voice to be heard. The reality of course is that's not true. Every one's voice should not be equal. I pay no attention to "the issues" or "the candidates" or if my "socks match". Why should my vote count the same as someone who actually pays attention to those things (especially the socks thing)? Simple, it shouldn't. And telling people to go out to vote, just to vote makes things worse. If more people vote, it makes your vote worth less. If those people are uninformed it makes your vote worth less by that much more.

Let's put it this way. You and 4 of your close personal friends want to go out to dinner. You want to go to restaurant A, and George wants to go to restaurant B. No one else cares but since this is my scenario you force them to vote because it's their duty as your friends (but it doesn't matter what they vote for) Kramer votes for A because it was the first one said. Elaine says she doesn't really care but if she had to choose it would be B. Newman, being difficult throws in Restaurant C.

So should Kramer's, Elaine's, and Newman's vote count as much as yours and George's? They don't even care where they eat! No, the best solution would be for you to tell George that you want to eat at restaurant A so much, that you'd be willing to buy him an appetizer. He says he wants to eat at restaurant B so much that he'd be willing to buy your entire meal.

George gets to eat at his restaurant, you get a free meal, and everyone is happy that everything is resolved.

The founding fathers tried as best they could to fix this with the Electoral College. Most people denounce the ol' college try as antiquated and obsolete. And to an extent it is. But it's better than simple majority rules (which as the above example shows is really quite silly). Their method was a "past the post" style. This essentially means they have to achieve a goal number before they can win.

I've put some thought into this and I think I've found a solution.

Vote Weighting

Vote Weighting relies on not only how much you know about trivial stuff such as issues and candidates and but also how much a vote means to you.

So here is how it would work. You have to pass a test on just knowing who is running and what people are talking about. Score less than a certain percentage (we'll leave that up to a vote in congress) and your vote is worth .5 (that's half of one vote). Pass the test and your vote is worth 1 (congratulations you're informed). This is beneficial in 2 ways. First, if people want to have a full they have to at least know what's going on (instead of going just to pull the party ticket). Second, it prevents people who don't know what's going on to have any impact on the race.

The second part is of course the fun part. This is where you get to determine how much you want your person to be elected. So you want person A to be elected so much that you'd be willing to build houses for people in New Orleans. (I would think that should count for at least 4 votes) Bill wants person B to be elected to much that he's willing to give $1 to everyone(that would be worth maybe 2 votes...after all $1 isn't all that much ) Newman wants Person B to be elected to badly that he's willing to kill himself (which really works out well because do we really want such a fanatic voting in more than one election? I didn't think so either)

There's lots of ways this can go. If your candidate wins, you have to do whatever you pledged. If you lose, you get to see all the great work being done by others (and maybe even get $1..or even finally get rid of Newman)

Me? I'm a .5 vote kind of guy.

My favorite day of the year

Everyone has favorites. This is especially true for things like days. Some people prefer Fridays because it's the last day of the work week. Others prefer Sunday because they get to go to worship that day. If you ask someone what their favorite day of the year is, they will typically say a holiday. I am not one of those people.

My favorite day of the year is "Fall Back" day. There is nothing greater than waking up an hour late and still being on time. It gives a renewed energy for at least a week or two as your body adjusts. Yes, fall back day is pretty special. Of course the Arch Enemy (and consequently least favorite day of the year) is "Spring Forward" day. It usually takes a full month for my body to adjust to the dastardly deeds of Spring Forward day.

I propose a new way of life. I propose that we just get rid of Spring Forward day all together. Every year, we each get an hour back. Of course for 12 years we'll be living in darkness. We can just refer to those as the Dark Ages. I think living in the dark is way better than moving clocks forward an hour.

Who's with me? Hurray Fall Back! BOOOOOO Spring Forward!

Hiccups while peeing is bad

but it's a good thing I don't have toilet cleaning duty...maybe that's why Shayna scared the hiccups away instead of doing her voodoo way.

milk

Most people wonder what exactly are my symptoms when I have dairy. The exact symptom varies mostly by how much I have but also by what form of dairy I have it in. Milk acts much faster than whey. Cream is probably the worst. Typically I get a slight swelling in my lips, tongue, and throat (wouldn't be noticeable unless I pointed it out). If I have enough, it will progress down into my chest where I will get chest pains as well as a plegmy cough.

The only way I've found to get through it, is to just sleep it off. This is actually very helpful because I get very drowsy. Unfortunately after I wake up I feel like I've been in a fight with Nikolai Valuev (Niko as people who like to get beat up call him, really is that friggin big).

All that work just to post a picture about an obscenely large boxer. I think I might need help..

In the great wide open

So the past two weekends have been outdoor extravaganzas. Last weekend was Shayna and I's yearly romantic getaway to the Shenandoah. We spent 2 evenings at our time share (shout out to Shenandoah Crossing) and one day hiking up Mary's Rock.

Mary's Rock was a 3.5 mile circuit in which you climbed about 2000 feet of elevation. Most of the time you are on a 45 degree slope. A slide show follows that shows the ordeal. Overall a fun, but tiring time.


This weekend was Dave's birthday camping and hiking trip. Shayna and I had purchased a tent about 4 months ago in anticipation of going camping this fall. This was actually our first opportunity to use it. This was also my first time camping so I can say I have now gone where Bryant has never gone before. (Shout out to Darla and Bryant for having their first child recently!) I have to say that even though I didn't pack very well for the chilly weather, I really like camping. It was great to spend time with Dave, Jen, Ashley, Jeff, Jeff Prime (shout out to Jeff Prime), and Shayna talking, eating, and getting yelled at by park rangers (shout out to the park rangers!)

Saturday morning we went hiking. The leaves were in full force and it was awesome. I've never been on Skyline during peak season, but I can easily see why there was a mile long line just to get in the park.

Today was a lazy Sunday watching football and worshiping God. It's been a great 2 weekends.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Carl's in Charge theme song

Come and listen to a story about a girl named shayna
My beautiful wife, can't find a rhyme for shayna
then one day she up and married me
my whole life then has been such glee

Happyness that is, good times, apple cider

Don't have time to write the rest, but you get the idea.

Love you dear!

The new hawtness

Just tried my first icecream sandwich the other day. Chocolate chip cookie with mint (soy) ice cream. It was hot..but yet cold..so confused..I think I'm getting an ice cream headache.

Trying new things

The past 24 hours I have experimented with a lot. Shayna and I found a grocery store near us called Whole Foods that specialize in "natural/organic" foods. Normally anything natural or organic goes straight to the trash can, but we went because they have a broad selection of soy items.

I never thought I'd be one to jump on the soy bandwagon. Most likely because I always associated soy with tofu. While I still dislike tofu, soy in general isn't to bad. Soy sauce is great on chinese food after all.. :-)

So at Whole Foods we got some new flavors of soy yogurt (key lime and mixed berry), some banana soy pudding, and some soy sour cream (to try beef stroganhoff).

Continuing on the experimentation phase I have officially changed my blog to the beta version. So far I like the hierarchy layout for previous posts, as well as the template modification tools. I also get labels which I like.

Who knows what new items I'll try next. There is after all a koren deli right across the street..

Book of Carl Chapter 3: Loaded Questions

Being a man is great. You can belch in public, scratch yourself anywhere and get away with other general such things. We have feelings, if you cut us we bleed. One thing men typically don't do though is pose loaded questions. We all know the loaded questions. For those not following very well 2 examples would be:

"Does this make me look fat?"
"Do you think she is pretty?"

What's vital in these situations is that you understand what it is she is asking. To a guy she is asking: "Do you think she is pretty?" What she is really asking: "Do you think she is prettier than ME?" In these situations NEVER EVER ANSWER WITH A YES OR NO.

In these situations one of the important things to do is remain honest. The biggest reason is that if she finds out you lied there are 2 things the will be mad about a)you lied b) why did you lie? You must think I'm fat. You didn't think I was emotionally ready to hear information like that. I trusted you. Now, I don't know how I can wear anything sexy ever again. My complete body image is ruined. I'm going to go eat a tub of ice cream and watch Oprah because she loves me.. Well, you get the picture.

The short advise is that if you are going to get in trouble, you might as well get in trouble for being honest. That way when they get mad, you can fall back and say "I was just trying to be as honest and straightforward with you as possible. I thought you would respect that."

So back to our example questions:
1) Do you think she is pretty? (really: Do you think she is prettier than me?) - Don't answer yes or no. Be honest. If the girl is attractive say she is "nice" (woman think the word nice means ugly) or say that yes, she's pretty but she's not nearly as pretty as [insert name of your significant other]

2) Does this make me look fat? (really: Am I fat?) - Again, be honest. If it makes her look fat tell her "You aern't fat, but that outfit isn't very flattering" (or something along those lines) . If it doesn't make her look fat tell her that she looks great (do NOT say she looks nice).

Lastly, we have the reverse loaded question. The reverse loaded question is where she tricks you into asking something you shouldn't have asked. Typically this involves feelings.

One thing you should never do is ask a woman how she feels about something. If she hasn't already told you, it means she is doing you a favor and not telling you. There are many reasons why this might be. You may not like the feelings she has, or if you don't react the appropriate way you'll get in trouble. Either way you are in worse position than where you were before. Do not fall into this trap. Happily play videogames or watch football until she brings up feelings. There is no reason for you to spend more time in trouble than you have to.

What better way to say "I Love You" than with the gift of Al

Today while I slaved away at work, my wonderful wife went to the store and got me the new Weird Al album. There is something special about walking out to your car and finding a surprise (a good one, not a bad one like your tire is flat).

On the way home I cranked up the stereo and blared "White and Nerdy". I pull up to a stop light and "Polkarama" is playing. I look to my left and there is a lady in her SUV and her kids in the back seat. She looks at me and then rolls up her windows. Don't worry lady, your kids will be buying these albums soon enough..

A crazy dream

I hardly ever remember dreams, however I'm glad I remembered this one.

I was playing basketball. A person would inbound the pass to me, I'd take a dribble or two and pass to Sammie who would be open underneath the basket. We were playing make it take it, so we ran that play like 5 times in a row.

We were playing against Asian children.

I couldn't make stuff like that up.

2 more weeks until my lovely wife's birthday celebration!

Interesting tidbits

Our church is doing a series on "Blunt Questions" this fall. I hope to get a lot out of it. If you would like to hear the sermons you can go to bluntquestions.com.

I was watching Jeopardy tonight and they had a topic of TV Theme Songs. I got them all right before any of the contestents. I don't know if that's something I should brag about.

My wife is so awesome. She handles tasks much better than myself. Today she worked a full day, made me dinner, is working on a project for her master's degree. She's typically doing tutoring as well. All she gets from me is this lousy blogpost. :-)

I updated the name of the blog. I started singing the Charles in Charge theme song on my way to work this morning but changed the words.

I think I've shared to much information.

One thing I just learned today that probably everyone else already knows

Last night's pizza as breakfast tastes pretty good.

Last Friday's pizza as lunch on Monday does not.

I don't know if thin n' crispy crust makes a difference, but I think it's something I won't experiment with again.

That's not appropriate

I drove past a antique/craft/wine festival on the way to the grocery store this morning. A traffic cop was directing traffic for pediatrians to cross the street.

A man crosses the street. He's wearing a brown sweater and white capri pants.

That's not appropriate.

Pink is not the new Hank

Thoughts regarding the NBC telecast of last night's game:

Does it seem like NBC is trying to be ABC in the football dept? They get the same announcers, have a person with a "theme song", they even do the full bar for game information rather than the box (although it's at the bottom rather than the top which makes it completely different)

I'm not to cised for the Pink song. Maybe it will grow on me..like fungas.

I watched a little bit of the Miami - FSU game on ESPN Monday night. On ESPN2 they had the game on as well but it was 7 different angles at once. I hope they decide to use this format for MNF. It's confusing at first, but with the big screen I think it would be awesome.. Even better would be to have it on ABC rather than ESPN2 (since Disney ownes both). That way it would be in HD..that extra space on the side would be great.

Does Madden Just For Men(tm) his eyebrows?

You know it's the first day of football season when:

7) You send out an evite for your wife's birthday.

6) You think about kicker logistics for your fantasy football team.

5) It's warm outside but the air is "Crisp"

4) You want to tackle office workers Terry Tate style

3) You wear the jersey of a guy who has had more facial surgery than Joan Rivers..and you like it.

2) In the car, on the way to work, you are yelling a snap count (sometimes you include audibles)

1) You spend your day thinking of Hank Williams Jr. and that theme song.

Guilty as charged.

How do you know it's the first day of football season?

All sorts of topics

It's been a long time since the last post. I've had things I wanted to share but haven't really had the time. I'd like to remind people about the link roll to the right. It's mostly stupid stuff, but there is some really good stuff there too (like the katrina video thing). If you are using the RSS feed to read this post, you can RSS the link roll as well.

First, last weekend Shayna and I went to Wilkes Barre , PA to visit my brother in law for his birthday. Matt, happy birthday! It was a lot of fun going up there and spending time with him. He's wicked good at the putt putt course up there..or shayna and I just let him win. ;-)

Second, my wife is awesome. Thanks for asking! This past weekend I've started coming down with a head cold. She has taken the role of Nurse Shayna which really means a lot. I'm not at the whiny sick stage yet, but if I were she would gladly put up with it.

Last weekend Shayna, Matt, and I also saw Invincible. The story of Vince Papale making the leap from bartender to Philadelphia Eagle. On the Carl scale it gets a 5 out of 5 which for those of you who know me is very rare. One scene is looks like a live action version of NFL Street. Guy are tackling guys on cars, clothelines, and generally giving shots that make you say "Ow". The ladys can enjoy Marky Wahlberg with his uberbuff body and the guys will enjoy the football.

A couple weekends before that Shayna and I saw World Trade Center. That movie made me cry like a little girl who skinned her knee. Best scene in the movie (I guess this would be considered a spoiler) is from a marine who locates some people caught in the rubble. The person in the rubble said please don't leave. The marine says "We are the United States Marines. We will not leave. You are our mission." For about 5 min I wanted to be a marine. Then I remembered I didn't.

Blogger has a beta mode. I'm really interested in moving to the beta, but one of the restrictions is that a non beta person can't comment on a beta person's blog. While I love trying new technology I can't ask all my friends to upgrade as well. As soon as they release that restriction I'll be switching. One of the neat features is RSS feeds will include comments...

I'm currently reading a book called A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament. I started reading it because of a small group in which we went over what being a Rabbi meant and what that meant to being a "fisher of men". It's been really interesting to read about how the Pharisees, Sadducies, and Sanhedrian were formed. I think learning this stuff will really help me to understand Biblical things more. I encourage other Christians to take the time to research this stuff as well. You'll find a greater understanding for the stuff Jesus said.

That's it for now, but I may post again later today if I remember something I forgot.

Hardly changed

You've Changed 48% in 10 Years

You've done a good job changing with the times, but deep down, you're still the same person. You're clothes, job, and friends may have changed some - but it hasn't changed you.

How Much Have You Changed in 10 Years?

Although..apparently 10 years ago I was black!

Answered Prayer

I try not to talk about work becuase it just opens a bad bucket of baked beer nuts, but sometimes you have to make an exception.

This morning I was stressed out about a meeting I was going to have. Shayna and I pray about it before I head to work. A little while before the meeting is to begin, it gets postponed until tomorrow.

Hooray God!

What a week

It's been a busy week. I've been wanting to blog on some topics but haven't had the time. So this post will be a little on the lengthy side. Who knows, maybe I'll even do multiple posts at the same time (I'm so skilled!)

Josh Blue won Last Comic Standing this week. I've been pulling for this guy the entire time. He reminds me of my close personal friend Cris (shout out to Cris!). Not because of the cerebal palsey part, but just in his type of jokes and mannerisms. I don't know if that makes sense. I once had a gay may hit on me by saying that I reminded him of Howard Hughes in the way I carried myself and my mannerisms. I don't know why I brought that up..I guess it's a stream of conciousness thing.

I originally saw this Bob Newhart clip at a church retreat. It's butt funny. It deserves more than the link roll.

Weird Al has announced his new album will be released in September. That coupled with the Weird Al show being released in August AND I need to purchase my fantasy football website subscription means my allowance is going to be very dry these coming months.

Lastly, I have friends who are just getting engaged and friends who have their marriage on the rocks. It's weird to see/hear these two phases of life. I'm certainly no counselor, and I write those Book of Carl posts as jokes really, but if I had to give advise, just remember to communicate. Even when your mad/irritated/upset. If you can sit in front of the person and hold their hand while arguing, it goes a long way towards resolving things. This also means not going to be mad. If you can't start the next day fresh all it will do is layer problems.

Oh yeah, and have God in the relationship too. (shout out to God!) :-)

That's it, hope everyone has a good weekend!

what the..

Some view segregation as a bad thing. Me? I think separate but equal might not be so bad in certain cases.

At my morning constitutional I see someone placed their business card. It's not a bad idea as far as product placement goes but really it makes me think of the movie Opportunity Knocks ("Business decisions are not made in the BOARD room, but the BATH room.") (shout out to Dana Carvey for that line).

Anyways, seeing as how I'm just sitting there, I look at the business card. It's for a girl named Christina White. Christina, if you are reading this, please don't go into the men's room anymore. Boys have a thingy, girls have a yaya. That's clearly implied on the doors labeled Men's and Women's.

Let's keep the separate but equal bathrooms separate ok. They are certainly not equal, the girls have a couch and waiting room in their bathroom!

I appreciate...

I was talking to a close personal friend the other day who is going to be meeting up with some of his old college buddys. His college buddys are married (and some have kids) and they gave him this advice: Before you get married, get what you want because afterwards you won't be able to spend money like you did before.

While I can understand the point (you do have to share the finances with other person after all), I have to say I'm really blessed in that Shayna isn't like that at all. This past weekend Shayna and I went shopping for some school supplies and I mentioned that I'd like a new pair of running shoes. She made it her mission to find me a pair of shoes that I'd like to have. Running shoes sounds pretty lame in the grand scheme of things. But stuff like this is pretty common (TV, Fatheads, etc)

And that's reason 134 of why I love my wife. She wants me to be happy and will do anything she can to make it happen.

Home again, home again jiggity jig

The title of this post comes from my grandparents who would say that each time we came back to the house. Don't know why they say it but now I do as well.

Vacation went well. The house this year was right on the lake so we spent a lot of time swimming. We attempted to learn to water ski (shout out to Bill & Laurie for being patient on the boat..and Bill is a heck of a dominoes player) which was very fun for this reason alone: Shayna and Matt are highly competitive. Don't get in the way or I'll McCracken some skulls is their motto. They both love the water and if the whole breathing thing didn't get in the way, they would both probably live in the water. So the option to try water skiing was a no brainer, they had to do it. After about 15 tries between them and having no luck on standing up it's my turn.

A little back story on my water abilities: I have taken swimming lessons. I know how to swim, but I basically am really good at one thing and that's keeping afloat (which I feel is the most important part). I can't do fancy stuff like open my eyes underwater and if you race me you will most likely win (unless of course you don't have the floating part down).

Needless to say, I'm the odd bird out of the 3. So when I get in to water ski, it should be a jolly good time had by all except me, who will drink lots of water while being pulled on a jet boat. A funny thing happened on the way to the water cooler though, on my second try I actually stood up and got about 40 feet before falling on my face.

The sudden stop hurt my ankles more than my face, but I had accomplished what I set out to do. I had water skied. Shayna and Matt kept trying but didn't quite make it. When they saw me stand up, Matt made a joke that the only reason I got that far was because it was the only way out of the water. All I had to do was reply with one word: "Jealous"

The other great thing we did while at Deep Creek was that we go to visit Suder's. Now you might not know about Suders, but it's "The best food by a dam site". It's gotta be true, it's on the sign. When you think about it, this isn't much of a claim seeing as how there isn't really all that much else there as far as food. I think Rob said it best when he said "If you hungry, here is better than nothing"

9/26/06

Sept 26, 2006. That's the release date of Weird Al's new album. Nothing else released so far. I can't wait!

Club HIV

Back in college my roomate Tad and I came up with an idea. We had come up with a lot of ideas, but this one was actually really good. We came up with a nightclub idea called Club HIV (pronounced Hehvee). The concept was that it was a place for HIV positive people to meet other HIV positive people. The thinking went that if you had HIV, you would want to be with someone who also had it. It gave you something in common as well as avoided any unnecessary akward moments when you are on a date and it comes up.
person 1: "Want to come up stairs for some coffee?"
Person 2: "Just so you know, I'm HIV positive"
Person 1: "Oh"

We came up with this idea in 1999. Well guess what... http://positivesdating.com/

I wish those guys the best of luck...you stole our idea fair and square, but more importantly you followed through on it. Maybe I should look into going foward with some of my other ideas. Like, when you buy a lambskin jacket, you get a pound of meat and some mint jelly with it.

Why am I a slave to gimmicks?

I know I shouldn't fall for marketing ploys. They have fancy colors on packaging for the weak minded. They have scantily clad ladies to draw you in. I just can't help it though, when there's a gimmick I bite.

For example, at the grocery store we needed to get some mouth wash. There are a billion options to choose from. The 5 gallon size of listerine comes with a free travel size toothpaste and floss. You know which one I got. All I can say is, thank goodness there is no expiration date on listerine.

Yesterday I ran and got lunch at McDonalds. I normally don't get a Big Mac, but if you get the Big Mac value meal you get 3 game tokens for the Pirates of the Caribbean sweepstakes. If I'm going to be eating crappy food, I might as well have a chance to win something. I know I have a 1 in a gazillion shot of winning..but someone has to win.

I recently got a bottle of Man Wash (body wash for those who don't speak Carl). I of course got the Dial brand that "looks like an oil can" (YEAH!).

I don't know why I fall for those dirty marketing gimmicks, but I do. At least I now have plenty of mouthwash, tooth paste, and floss for after I down my big mac and try to win a mustang convertible.

Quick Hits

Lots of stuff to post, better do it quick hits style..

• I watched the World Cup today. Best 3 hour nap I've ever had. I was actually awake for every score in the game. I fell asleep at about the 20 minute point, and woke up at the end of OT. But I don't want to spend to much time talking about the world cup..I lived it.
• Great Fluffy Biscuits! My new favorite phrase.
• Shayna is sporting a new 'do. It's now a light brown, with just a hint of red.
• Shayna is away on business this week. The apartment is a lot lonelier without her in it.
• Want to see what it like to be in IT? Have a gander at MS Office 2k7. MS has setup a test drive site so you can see how the program looks/works/feels. Being in IT means going to that site, and figuring out where they put everything because you know your users are going to ask you.
• The ribbon system in office 2k7 will be good for average users. Power users are going to hate it.
• Storms last week caused intermittent power outages in our apartment. The second monitor now has 2 light spots from the surge.

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone has a good week!

So this past week had me see a whole new world of breakfast food. On the 4th of July Shayna made me French Toast (made with rice milk of course).

I gotta say, French Toast is darn good. Later on the 4th Shayna and I met up with Odgie and Christine at Hard Times. After eating we walked over to Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is now my new favorite grocery store. Not only do they have Soy Ice Cream (great googa mooga!) but they also have orange sorbet inside of an orange (they also had lemon sorbet inside of a lemon and coconut sorbet inside of a coconut). We didn't actually buy the orange on orange action, but I think I'll try it..as soon as I finish my quart of vanilla ice soy.

Book of Carl Chapter 2: Apologies

If the gift giving didn't go well in chapter 1, you could be forced into an apology.

The book of Carl has plenty to say on apologies. After all, the author spends a lot of his time doing damage control for the stupid stuff he does.

Apologies are very different for men and women. A typically man apology will go something like this:

Scene: Pickup Basketball game
Guy 1 gives guy 2 a hard foul and nearly breaks the guys ankle
Guy 1: Sorry about that, you ok? (offers hand to help Guy 2 off the ground)
Guy 2: whatever
guy 1 pats guy 2 on the butt. Play resumes. All is forgotten.

For guys, an apology begins with I'm sorry. It's usually over right around that point.

For women, this is not the case. Things need to be processed. A woman can forgive you but still be mad at you. You will need to validate (ie: agree with) her feelings. So for guys, an apology begins with I'm sorry. When apologizing to a girl, it typically begins at: I was an idiot. From this point you can say that your sorry and to please ask for forgiveness.

Do not underestimate the power of asking for forgiveness. The logic of this can be summed as follows:

A) If they say no, you are the good person just trying to make things right. They are the ones harboring negative feelings and resentment.
B) People harboring feelings of resentment are going to hell. It's in the Bible. I promise.
C) Be sure to point out Point B if Point A is true.

The only other Book of Carl Approved Method of Apologizing to Women TM is thus:

1) Look deeply into her eyes.
2) Take her into your arms.
3) Hold her tight and whisper these words into her ear: "You can't be mad at a guy giving you a hug can you?"
4) Hang on for dear life.

It's either that or pat her on the butt and say "Sorry about that. You ok?"

For the Love of God people, stop washing your cars!

It's a well known fact that when you wash your car it rains. It's been raining hard core for the past 4 days in DC.

So I'll say it again. STOP WASHING YOUR SUVS!

Driving to PA

This weekend we went to a wedding in PA (shoutout to Leslie & Eric!). On the way there I saw 2 things that you do not typically see on the road. Especially on 495.

The first being a Lamboghini Murcielago.

I've always loved the Lamborghini "jack knife" style doors. I think it would be great if more cars went that way. We would no longer have to worry about banging a car door into the car next to ours.

This is actually the same color of car I saw on the road. Shayna asked why exactly, do sports cars come in such garish colors. I think the first part of the answer is because they are European. The second part is that if you are going to spend $300,000+ on a car, you want people to be able to see if from space.

The kicker is that this car was actually on a tow truck. Hope the owner got the extended warranty..

I've seen Lamborghini's and Ferrari's on the road before. However, the next thing I saw on 495 (on the same strip of 495 I might add) was:

The Lotus Exige (actual color to the left). I had heard of Lotus and played a racing game based on them, but I didn't know much about them. I had thought they were the Asian equivalent of a Lamborghini. Turns out they are the British equivalent of a Corvette.

I have to say though that the red coats got it right. It just plain looked cool. (Again, Europeans with the garish colors..but if I were to have a car like this I would choose orange as well)

I'm not normally a car guy. But I appreciate fine craftsmanship. I appreciate it more when these superfast cars are going 10 mph with me on 495.

Hello, my name is Carl, and I hate birds

Hate is a strong word. I try not to use it. In this case though I feel it might not be strong enough. I really can't stand them.

Remember in that episode of Seinfeld where the pigeons wouldn't move away from George? He would step on them or run them over, but no matter what they wouldn't move away from him. I have that same sort of thing. Only they tend to attack me. If there is a goose whose path I have to cross, there is no doubt that f-in goose is going to try and attack me.

You want further proof that the feelings between birds and myself is mutual? Last week while driving home, I had my elbow out the car window. I was on a strip of road that is covered by trees sitting at a stop light. A bird nails my shoulder with droppings. The only way the bird could have hit me any more would have been to come in at a low angle and then pull up at the last minute and nail me through the window (just like Luke Skywalker did to the Death Star).

Stinkin birds... I have the last laugh though. Tonight is BBQ chicken night.

Calling all geeks!

If any of you know anything about setting up a VPN with a Cisco PIX 501 (or any PIX for that matter) I could greatly use your help.

Let a brotha know.

A Whole New World

So this morning I had my very first yogurt. Silk (fresh from the butts of caterpillers) has a soy version of yogurt. I tried banana and strawberry.

I didn't like it. Maybe psychologically I know that I don't like dairy type products (although cheetos do taste good). Maybe it's one of those things that grownups talk about and you just have to get acquired to the taste. They say the same thing about alcohol though, and I still haven't acquired that taste (or coffee for that matter)

We are going to be trying some new recipies with rice milk though. This could be a whole new world for me. Things like lasagna, which I've never had before, could become a new favorite with soy cheese. Sometime this week we are going to be doing a cajun shrimp pasta. I'm looking forward to it.

A funny story

At work today a coworker was IMing me some questions. I IM'd her back telling her it was a complicated answer and that she should call me to talk about it.

The phone rings. I hit speakerphone and the following conversation takes place:

me: Bare Associates this is Carl.
phone: Hey
me: Hey
phone: How was your day?
me (puzzled): good, how was your day?

I'm puzzled at this point because we had been talking back and forth the entire day. Seemed kind of late to start small talk.

phone: This is your wife
me: oh hi dear!

Maybe it's just funny to me.

It would really suck if a shark fell on us right now

Woman logic, in a word is: complex. In fact, there really is nothing quite like it. You can be just sitting in your car, driving along, looking at the splendor that is God's world outside, and then this phrase is spoken: It would really suck if snakes were to come out of the vents right now.

How do you argue with logic like that? I mean, wouldn't it suck if snakes actually did come through the vents?

She actually tried explaining her chain of thought and how she came to that conclusion. It was way over my head. It was like explaining calculus to a turnip.

The shark comment is actually from last night; right before going to sleep for the night. Again, how do you argue with the logic of how much it would suck if right before going to sleep, someone were to drop a shark on you. I think "really suck" is probably the right level of suck.

Thanks for making me laugh dear!

The "Miz" is gone

I found out yesterday that Steve "Miz" Mizerak passed away. Mizerak was a billiards player. At one time he was the premier 8 ball player. I met him a couple times, a real nice fellow.

The reason why this is significant, is because my dad and I bonded through Mizerak. While living in Florida we got a pool table and we learned how to shoot off Mizerak's books & a video. Even though dad almost always won, we still had fun playing.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with stories like this. I think sometimes we don't realize the impact we have on people. We are all role models to someone, even if it's a person we don't know.

Just makes being a Christian harder.

The Book of Carl - Chapter 1: Gifts are like onions

Everyone likes to receive gifts (yes, even you Dave). What makes it nice is that people think about you when they probably should be thinking about something else. Dave Roland recently went to Alaska on a vacation and sent Shayna and I a postcard. While he was off seeing the caribou and enjoying himself, he thought of us and sent us a postcard from the "Northern-most Mexican restaurant in North America". We loved the card. Truly, it really is the thought that matters.

When giving a gift to a guy, we see things as bigger = better or even more true, expensive = better. In economics this was called signaling. To show your love to a woman at proposal you would get the most expensive ring you could afford. This is partly for the woman(diamonds are, after all, a girls best friend), but it's more for the man. It represents what he is worth, as well as telling the world, and the girl, how much he loves her.

Girls, from my experience, however don't think this way. While the occasional big gift is great, they would prefer lots of smaller gifts. To them, the fact that you put thought into lots of things means more. The actual value of them doesn't mean as much.

The key to gift giving to Shayna is like an onion, layers (Shout out to Shrek for the metaphor!). The gift I give her is just the initial gift. She needs to pull back the layers to reveal other gifts.

The key to giving the multiple gifts is that you don't actually line up a bunch of gifts. You give her one and then it should unravel. If she doesn't find it, don't say anything. She eventually will, and when she does she will love it all the more.

Here are some examples: On Shayna and I's 1 month anniversarry (dating), I gave her a framed picture of us from a dance we had attended (ironically enough she had given me the exact same picture in a different frame). Inside the frame though, I put a second picture of just me behind the first picture. On the back of that picture, I wrote a poem to her. I never told her about the items in the frame.

A second example would be jewelry. If you were to give a necklace or errings, buy a jewelry box to hold them. Then just present the box. Even leave it in it's own casing so it looks like it's never been opened.

All of this leads into the second rule of gift giving. An unexpected gift at an unexpected time (Forget what movie this came from). If you set these "gift landmines", you essentially are giving gifts multiple times in the year, but only have to come up with it at one time.

The book of Carl

In the first year or so that Shayna and I dated, Shayna's male friends marveled at me. They were impressed with how happy I made Shayna and how should write a book to help other guys. I think they all had crushes on Shayna and were jealous of me because I never made the friend ladder.

Anyways, I thought I would share some Denver Nuggets with you in my coming posts, my 3 readers (validated by Site Meter). Ladies please feel free to voice an opinion on what I say..perhaps I'm completely off base.

Anyways, chapter 1 should be out later today..

Go Team Willis!

I started this post on Monday however work has been so hectic that it didn't get finished until now.

I guess about a year ago, Shayna was at a cross roads in her career. She didn't know which school she was going to be at, she didn't know if she would even be able to teach (because she had a provisional license), and overall just having a pretty tough time of things. As we stood in the kitchen, I told her everything was going to be alright. She asked how I knew, so I launched into a speech.

It's us against the world, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her just believe in me, etc etc etc. I ended it with we're a team, go team Willis. And I forced her to do ready break type of thing.

It's kinda funny to look back upon now. But it really kind of stuck. The past couple weeks have been very hectic for me at work. Lots of stress, deadlines, etc. While we were at Pizza Hutt last night, the official Hutt of Team Willis, (most other teams opt for Jabba) Shayna asked what she could do to make things easier for me. Here's a person teaching full time, on her Master's degree full time, and she wants to do more to make my life easier. It's so good to be a part of a team.

Link Roll

Added a new feature to the blog. To the right you will see a section called Link Roll. As I progress through the web, and I find stuff I want to share, I can easily put it in the roll. The roll will show the last 5 links I've put up, but you can click on link roll to go see everything in there. There is even a RSS feed for those of you who don't even want to look at the site.

This means that I won't be having any more link postings (unless I'm going to specifically talk about a link).

Shout out to Jason for coming up with the idea.

Finish the Fight

This can't get here soon enough..Halo3 Trailer

Did somebody say quick hits?

I shouldn't be posting today. To much stuff to do, to little time. Sometimes though, you just have to make time. (Thank you Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd)

• My brother in law, Matt, has a blog (shoutout to Matt!). You can get to the main page..don't know if you can see the blog posts without a myspace account. At any rate, he's a pretty funny guy. He's only one of only 3 humans I know who can make Shayna fall out of a chair from laughing so hard.
• Flash Mob: A group of people organized by one person to perform a stunt/prant/hijinx. None of the people in the mob are familiar with others in the mob. After the event, everyone disavows any knowledge of their actions. This time, a flash mob goes to best buy. I wish we thought of this at the Essex House.
• E3 is coming up. Sony has announced information on thier console PS3. Most notably they will have 2 price SKUs (an idea from MS). Their controller will not vibrate but have gyroscopes (an idea from Nintendo via MS/Logitech). I hate to say it, but the real innovator really is MS.
• Some information re: the PS3. The core model will not have, HDMI output, wireless ethernet, SD card slots, and 40 GB less Hard drive space. The only thing of really note in all of this is the HDMI output. People will only get the base model if they want to play games on it. But if they have a HDTV and want to get the full value out of the Blu-Ray drive, they must purchase the upgraded model.
• base model - $499. Upgraded model $599.
• Points for anyone who can name a format Sony has had that has been successful. Beta doesn't count because that is used in professional industry. The BetaMax, aka consumer version, flopped.
• I doubt I will be purchasing a PS3. 360 and Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii are still on my radar though.
• My wife is home sick today (shout out to Shayna!). She's been feeling ill (definitely not illin' ) for a couple days now. We'd go to the doc, but they'd just say sleep and eat soup. So beef stew is on the menu for tonight. (my beef stew is probably more a vegetable beef stew. Tons of vitamin C)
• For those of you who have lasted this far: What is the interest in having a links only blog? I would probably set it up for the RSS folk. You'd see the title and description in the headers. Click on it and your off to the site.

The Legend of Carl: Link's Return

Tomb of Doom - Another escape the room type game. Claymation is a nice change of pace though.

Base Jump - Get your guy to the bottom before the other guys..and don't blow up.

C is for Cookie - V for Vendetta spoof..with muppets. I probably would think it's funnier if I'd seen the movie.

Colbert Roasting the Pres

Pres with Impersonater I think it's important for the pres to have a sense of humor. Next election, I'm going to vote for whoever would make funnier skits on SNL.

Four Second Fury - Who says kids these days don't have a long attention span.

It's time for a blog about me wife!

I know most of you don't really care for these kind of posts. If that's you, go ahead and look at the next post. It's about man in tights. That's hot.

One of the many reasons I love Shayna is because of her heart. She is always trying to make people/animals/flowers feel better. If someone looks sad, lonely, or upset she takes it upon herself to help them out. It takes a special kind of person to be like that. I'm not like that. I don't think about that sort of stuff. I don't percieve it. I guess it's good that we have each other.

Another thing I really love about my wife is that I now know how to irritate her just enough so that it's funny. She's not really mad, but just mad enough to start laughing.

I hope everyone at some point finds a person that they can do that with.

This rocks my face off

New Superman Trailer

This is gonna be good.

bad day

You know your day is going to go very badly, when you start it by locking yourself out of your apartment. The thought of calling off work and curling into bed while the day passes by seems to be the optimal solution. Optimal of course until you try to open up the door that is locked, which is of course how you got yourself into this predicament.

At least you aern't in your underwear and it's cold. That would just make things worse.

Gmail Killer

I like Gmail. I like how it puts things into "conversations". The problem I have with it, is that it's been around for what 2 years now and it's still in Beta. The only way to get an account is to either have a friend with an account who will send you an invite or to give google your cell phone number (via SMS message). The google talk is a nice addition, but honestly everyone is on some IM network or another. The other down side is that it's slowing down. I think they are trying to pack so much stuff into it. First google talk, now google calendar. It used to be so fast, now it seems like I have to wait 45 seconds for it to load.

I'm currently testing the beta version of yahoo mail and I have to say that I'm really impressed. The funtionality looks just like outlook. Including drag and drop messages into folders. Highlight multiple messages with shift or ctrl (and then drag/drop them to where you want them to go), and a preview pane. I'm sure pretty soon that you'll be able to sort messages by conversation as well (that's functionality that's already inside of outlook)

The beta is currently closed unless specifically invited, but I read a way to get yourself invited. If you're interested in trying it out check the instructions below:

1. Login to your Yahoo Mail account
2. click on options located at the top right of the screen
3. click on account information located on the left hand side of the screen
4. if prompted for a password enter it
5. click the edit link next to member information
6. Scroll down to "preferred content" and click on your current choice (most likely US english). On the next page change it to Yahoo United Kingdom and click finish.
7. Agree to the terms of service.
8. You should be back on your member information screen. click on finish.
9. You should now have a screen inviting you to try the new yahoo beta.

If you don't like the beta you can switch out of it. (there's a link called switch back) and you can also change your settings back to the original settings and keep the beta.

Shayna Gave me a W

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and get a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter, including an explanation what the word means to you and why.

Willis - What a great last name. So versatile. What Choo Talkin Bout Willis, I hate that guy Willis, Where there's a Willis there's a way. You can use it anywhere! As the guinness ads say "Brilliant!"

Walt Disney - The man pioneered a ton of things, but after looking at this site, it seems he just pawned off the same 3 movies for his entire life:http://www.prodisney.ru/clones.php

Wove, Twue Wove - The Princess Bride description of Shayna, my...

Wife - The Super Hot Sexy temptress that she is.

Weird Al Yankovic - Even though Schnepper doesn't recognize the talent, Weird Al is my favorite musical artist.

Why does this always happen to me? - Shayna's favorite Weird Al song.

Work - Where I am now and what I should be doing instead of this post.

w00t - If you want to know what it means you'll have to go to the ol'..

wikipedia.com - A great encyclopedia of information you wish you never knew.

Washington DC - My home. Sure there's lots of traffic, and sure housing costs are beyond belief. But I wouldn't have it any other way (ok, that's a lie. If I could fix those two things I would)

Somewhere Over the rainbow

This site is absolutely amazing. A person was able to get some of the best photographs of a rainbow that I think I've ever seen. It's awesome to see the beauty that God has made. And who knew it would be in Missouri?? (Just kidding Jenifer) (Shout out to Jenifer!)

Tavern on the Green

Our first night in NYC. We spend some time in Times Square (ok, we went to the Toys R Us to see the Ferris Wheel), had a hot dog from a street vendor and then got ready for Tavern on the Green.

We got all dressed up and then took a cab ride over. After seeing all the traffic (and watching how long it takes to get anywhere on Apprentice) we figure we should leave pretty early. We take a cab and it takes the cab approximately 10 minutes. So we have about 45 minutes to kill before our reservation.

While we were there some handsome cab rides were there (Handsome cab rides are the ones with the horse and carraige). We decide to take the "30 minute" ride around central park. After what seemed like 15 minutes we arrived back at Tavern. We go in just to see if we can get in early and sure enough that's no problem.

The menu at Tavern has a lot of items on it that I don't know how to pronounce. I knew stuff like Salmon, or chicken but all the sides and such were just way over my head. I'm sure for others who understand it and can eat dairy it would be awesome. The service there is awesome. You have 2 waiters. One that actually brings you your drink/food and the other is the captain. The captain takes your orders and makes sure you are taken care of.

The captain was very understanding of my milk allergy and practically had the chef create whole new meals that wern't on the menu just for me. Shayna has the crab stuffed lobster with twice baked potato & asparagus. From the look on her face, it was good. She also had the chocolate mousse cake for desert.

So the overall review is thus:
If you have an opportunity and can afford it, you should try it once. Shayna recommends the twice baked potato.

From 32nd to 45th

Continuing our story of "As the Vacation Turns" our young couple find themselves at Penn Station trying to make their way through the labyrinth of underground tunnels just to get to street level..

I have a horrible secret to share. I have a very bad habit that irritates Shayna to no end. The habit is this: We will be walking somewhere and something will catch my eye. I will stop to look at it but at no point in time will I say anything to my loving and understanding wife and she will keep on walking and occasionally say something to me as if I were still right next to her. It is usually at this point she realizes I'm not right next to her.

This can happen in pretty much any venue from Best Buy (expected) to the grocery store (not so much). However, this particular habit can be especially dangerous in NYC where there are tons of things to look at (signs, buildings, stuffed monkeys that scream when you squeeze their tummy's). When we made it top side I made absolutely sure that I did not stop under any circumstances. And if I did I would have to alert Shayna right away. This worked well with the slight exception of when we passed the Toys 'R Us in Times Square that has a Ferris Wheel inside of it. I think I said something like "WHOA" and that alerted Shayna ahead of time that I was distracted.

After much walking we arrive at the hotel. While waiting in line to check in, we see two guys that had ridden the same train we had. Shayna said they were married gay lovers having a romantic weekend. I said there was a possibility they were just metrosexual friends. Either way it felt like we had lost a round on Amazing Race. They got to the hotel a lot faster than we had. We felt stupid..and contagious. We vowed that the gay metrosexual couple would never beat us again. And they didn't.

While checking into the hotel they ask for ID as well as a credit card to put incidental charges. Shayna breaks out her ID. I break out my wallet and flip open the part where my ID is located. No ID. I had taken it out to get on the train and Shayna had held on to it. I ask her for the ID and she says she doesn't have it. She gave it back to me on the train.

Very few times has my heard actually stopped beating. This was one of them. The ID is needed to board the train home. The ID is needed to check into the hotel. The ID will now be required any time I use my credit card (because that's my luck). In total embarrassment to Shayna I started unpacking our backpack (which we used to pack books/games/etc) at the checkout table in a frantic attempt to find my ID. After much searching it was found..in my wallet, where I normally put my AAA card (the AAA card was needed for the train as well).

Next post will be later tonight about our first night in NY. Nyeh nyeh nyeh

And now for something completely different

I'm going to steal a page from Shayna's blog and do this wikipedia thing. Go to wiki and put in your birthdate sans the year. Pick 3 events, births, and deaths. Discuss

Events:

• 2000 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,722.98 (I'm so money)
• 1972 - The TV comedy Sanford & Son (an American import of the British comedy Steptoe and Son) premieres on NBC. (I didn't know that was a ripoff of a British show..maybe the office will last as well)
• 1954 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. (both of these people are in We Didn't Start the Fire) (side note here: In 5th grade as a project my social studies teach Mr. Sarnoski had us research 30 items off this song. My mom hardly knew any of them and was a horrible reference for this project.)

Births:

• 1969 - Jason Bateman, American actor (yes, the Jason Bateman. Shayna says I look kind of like him..don't know if that's good or bad)
• 1741 - Benedict Arnold, American general and traitor (d. 1801) (yes The Benedict Arnold)
• 1948 - Carl Weathers, American actor (yes THE Carl Weathers. Shayna says I look kind of like him..don't know if that's good or bad)

Deaths:

• 1957 - Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899) (Here's looking at you)
• 2006 - Jim Gary, American artist (b. 1939) (I thought this said Jim Cary when I first read it and I was like NO WAY! HE'S DEAD?! But then I saw it was some guy I never heard of)
• 1968 - LL Cool J, American rapper and actor (ok, this is actually another birth but I didn't know anyone else on the death list and I have some MONEY people on the birth list.)

come on ride dat train

Our vacation was only 4 days, but so much stuff happened in those 4 days that it would be impractical to have it all in one post. So I'm going to split them out a bit..today: Just getting to NYC.

Shayna and I stayed up late Thursday night making sure everything was in the right place for J-Mo (shout out to J-Mo!) to feed the animals. We got everything packed etc. There is a little drama here because we are out of cat food. So far we have only been feeding them Science Diet kitten food (official kitten food of the adoption agency). However, we've only been able to find science diet in petco & petsmart. Those places closed at 9 pm and open at 9 am. We need to be at the Springfield Metro by 9:30 am to make our train on time. At 10:45 we make the call to just get kitten food from the grocery store. Typically it's a bad idea to change food so quickly like that..especially for a kitten. But we realized that J-Mo was feeding them and would have to clean up anything in case things went disastrous. Crisis averted to future J-Mo (Shout out to future J-Mo!).

We get to the metro and I have my handy card to pay for parking, but there are big signs with an unfriendly font stating that max parking is 24 hours. We were pretty sure that they would tow a car if it were there 4 days, so we parked at the mall, hoping that the mall wouldn't care enough to have it towed.

The metro ride went smoothly, as well as the train ride. I have to say that if you have the opportunity and time to take a train, you probably should. It is so choice. Plenty of leg room, a snack car that you can go to at any time, and not a lot of people.

We spent the 3 hours just playing card games and even took a little nap.

Coming up next..from the train to the hotel..or Bruce Willis took Mos Def 16 blocks. We can surely go 11.

Dagger!

The NFL announced the 2006 schedules this week. It's exactly 4 months until Preseason begins with the Hall of Fame game. Unfortunately, the Broncos have a brutal schedule this season. They play both #1 playoff seeds from last season (Donkey Shoes & Seaducks) as well as play the Stillers and Patsies.

Word on the street is that with the Broncos first pick they will take either Lendale White or DeAngelo Williams. I don't really see the need for them to take a RB. They can make anyone a good RB. Heck, sign me up coach. I'll play the league minimum and play RB for you.

In other news, Shayna and I start our vacation tomorrow. We are taking a train up to New York City (NEW YORK CITY?!), Staying at a hotel in Manhatten, eating at Tavern on the Green, seeing Wicked: The Musical, Gray's Papaya for hot dogs at midnite (or perhaps earlier), riding the cyclone at Astroland.

It's only 4 days, but it's going to be great to get away from the big city, travel in style through the land with "crap in the air" and arrive at the really big city. I can't wait!

That's what he said

For the final day of this 6 days of Shayna, I thought I'd share my viewpoint on how I asked her out. This is also located on our wedding page (as well as her viewpoint).

I initially met Shayna while she was working in the George Mason University food court. She was wearing a pair of black vinyl pants that looked really nice. She was quite nice, always had a big smile and was very cheerful. She was very different from all the other cashiers who pretty much hated being there. (Most of them didn’t speak English either). Every time I went to the food court I made sure to look for Shayna and if she were working a register I would be in her line.

A little while later, I see that she is in the S.T.A.R. Center where I work. She had signed up for a video class and needed to complete some projects. This worked out very well since I was the video mentor and I could help her out at any time.

Shayna and I didn’t really hang out outside of our prospective work areas. Every time we saw each other though we would stop and talk. We did talk over AIM though (what do you know, AOL finally did something right!) which helped to get us know each other better. I probably wouldn’t have asked her out (because I’m a pretty shy guy when it comes to girls) if it hadn’t been for my friend Doug.

Doug is a friend that attended Virginia Tech at the time who was interested in a girl of his own. He thought for certain that she was interested in him but he didn’t have the guts to act on his feelings (pretty much the same situation I was in). I was trying to convince him to ask this girl out, when he came back with why wasn’t I asking Shayna out. Well, I knew he had a good point but I hate it when he’s right (even if it’s my point that he stole). So the next time I saw Shayna I would be sure to try and ask her out.

Well the next time I saw Shayna was at the STAR lab. She had to work on one of her projects. Thankfully the lab was pretty empty so if I got shot down not to many people would notice. As I approached her, I wanted to make sure that it would be a good fit and that we would have things to talk about if we did in fact go on a date. I had previously gone out with girls who had nothing in common with me and I didn’t want to have that same experience again. So anyways, I start shooting the breeze with her and so I ask her, “You like football right?”

“Yup” (excellent)

“You like basketball right?”

“I like basketball more than I like football” (an acceptable answer but not the most ideal)

“And you don’t smoke.”

“No, I don’t smoke” (definitely a requirement)

“And you don’t do drugs”

“No, drugs” (YES!)

“Do you have a boyfriend?” (Almost certainly she does, how could a Goddess like this go unattached??)

“No, I don’t” (oh…my…goodness. Don’t blow this!)

“Uhh..err..umm..Would you like to go see a movie sometime, or dinner, or dinner and a movie?” (Dang I’m smooth)

“I would love too” (SCORE!)

So that's how it all went down. We've been together ever since.

I love you dear. I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. Happy 2 (err..6) year anniversary!

Thank you God for Your Son

So I'm not quite sure how I did it, but I think I skipped a year somewhere. Oh well, tomorrow will be another story from somewhere.

Last night, Matt Dyer had his "bachelor" party. In our group of friends the bachelor party isn't quite the same as traditional bachelor parties. We don't get drunk and hire a stripper. We get together and play video games. Halo to be exact. While waiting for others to arrive Jeff Young brought Chipotle to eat.

Shayna and I have given up Chipotle for Lent. Everytime she says she wants Chipotle I say "Thank you God for Your Son". It's funny and slighty irritates her which is what makes it great. (For those of you about to be married, slight irritation is the way to go. Not enough that she gets mad, but just enough to get a rise)

So Jeff Young asks if I want some chips and guacomole and the first response in my head is "Thank you God for Your Son". I told him about the joke, and he thought it was funny..but not nearly as funny as Shayna does.

It's great to have inside jokes.

Videos

Finally Figured out how to get these videos to stream. Here are 2 good ones.

This is from a series on the website www.askaninja.com


Weird Al's Ricky..he looks a lot like Ronald Gulick..

Year 4 - The Exodus

Year 4 started with the bang that was our wedding, but quickly pimp slapped us when we had to wake up at 4:30 am for our commute to work (after the honeymoon of course). We did that for as long as we could, but in August we made the move to Burke.

But this blog isn't about that trip. No, this blog is about our first trip out west..to Las Vegas. It was Valentine's day weekend and Shayna's cousin Nina was getting hitched. We decided to go to the wedding and treat this as our valentine's present to each other.

Now, we were both a little bit nervous about this trip. Shayna was nervous about the flight. I was nervous about her gambling (we had gone to a casino on our honeymoon and she was addicted to the quarter video poker game. Especially the pot of gold game in which if you got a certain card comonation you got to choose a pot of gold as a multiplier of your winnings).

So we fly from Dulles to San Fran (San Francisco is so beautiful...at midnight...in the airport) with a connecting flight to Vegas. The layover was supposed to be 45 min which to me is the perfect layover time. Just enough time to get to the terminal you need to get to but not be rushed. Well, we get there and due to a freak rain storm in Vegas(it is desert after all) they had delayed all the flights by 2 hours. Our plane finally arrives but as you can imagine we were both a little bit cranky. We were supposed to get to our hotel around 1 am and we were just leaving for vegas at 1.

When we get to Vegas we go to the rental agency and they say that they don't have the car we reserved. They were going to give us a free upgrade..to a minivan. So by now we are really cranky with each other. It's past 2 am (4 am ET), we have no idea how to get to the hotel, and we are driving a minivan. This is a great Valentine's day weekend.

We arrive at the hotel and every thing is smooth, we get our room (which is by far the nicest hotel room we have stayed at) and we make up before going to sleep (nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh).

Because our bodies were still on ET we didn't sleep for very long. We got up and saw the sunrise over the mountains. It was awesome.

As an aside, we ended up spending a couple hours going through Vegas casino's looking for the pot of gold video poker game to no avail. Guess that's a reservation special.

6 days of Shayna

Shayna is doing 6 days of me so I thought I'd return the favor. However, she's got a head start, so I'll have to catch up quick-hits style.

Year 1 - 2 things stand out during the first year. The first is when I met her family. For our 1 month Anniversary I took a bus up to Pittsburgh to spend the weekend with her. It was at this time that I met most of her family for the first time (I had met her father & step mom previously) at a BBQ that her mom was hosting.

Her mom crushed her boobs against me and her uncle threatened to kill me (those events are unrelated). But the food was good so I stuck around. :-) For her anniversary present I got her an alarm clock (I'm so smooth it hurts) and a framed picture of us at a dance.

The other event was in the fall, going to NYC and watching a Broncos-Jets game. It was the first time I'd ever seen them play live. It was an amazing weekend and even though we got mad at each other for a little bit of it, a smile comes to my face every time I think of that vacation.

Year 2 - This year we had our first vacation "together". I say together in quotes because we also took my brother Gordon. We drove down to Florida in my Ford Escort to see my dad. I'm making it sound a little bit worse than it was. It was a really fun vacation. What was really important was that we were together for a week straight and I wasn't tired of being with her. Looking back, we got to feed dolphins, ride roller coasters, and watch Gordon on the "Bombs Away" ride (I was to chicken to do it).

Year 3 - Year 3 brought engagement and all the joys that are planning a wedding. This was probably our toughest year because I was living in Fredericksburg with my Grandfather at the time and Shayna's living conditions wern't the best either. Funny story about this year, we very nearly eloped in Feb and didn't tell anyone just so we could be married and get rid of the stress. We ended up not doing it though, which I think worked out for the best.

Ok, so this really wasn't quick hits..here are some links to make up for it:

Hapland 3 - I know some of you loved Hapland 1 & 2. This one, probably more frustrating.
Addictive break out clone - It's not hard, but it's fun to go through all the levels.

Great now my bracket is totally busted

CAA now stands for Connecticut Assassin Association.

If the slipper fits you must acquit.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. We were supposed to get knocked out in the first round, just like every other time. Of course I use the word "We" like I did anything besides scream at my TV this afternoon.

3 of their starting 5 were taller than your entire team, but you still outrebounded.

Congratulations Mason Team. You have hung with every big dog. I couldn't be more happy for Larranaga & crew.

I know 30,000+ people right down the street who feel the same way.

What a day so far

Just read the early news on Football happenings last night. Been a busy day for the football world.

• Broncos trade their 29th overall pick for the 15th overall and a 3rd rounder this year and a 4th rounder next year. - This is huge. The Broncos now have the 15th and 22nd pick overall. There is a lot of available talent at 15th. I have no idea who they are going to select, but my guess would be either a wideout and a defensive lineman.
• Vinatieri goes to the Colts - If you can't beat em, steal em. The Colts let the "most accurate kicker" go for the "most clutch kicker". I have a feeling accuracy won't be a problem in the dome. Leann Alwood has got to be doing cartwheels.
• Griese signs a 5 year deal with the Bears. - Feel bad for Bears fans. That's 5 years of torture from a guy who you'd think will be pretty good, but really, he's not. I kid, I kid. For real though, don't give him any beer...or let him near stairs.
• TO with the Boys - Drew Bledsoe joked that he just became a better QB without having to do anything. Enjoy it while it lasts Drew, no telling what TO will come up with to damage your psyche. Maybe he'll go the Seinfeld route and say your head is disproportionately large for your body.
• The Vikings agree with me about Daunte Culpepper - Jeff, I told you all season..the guy is just not that good. It's a shame Miami will find out the hard way. At least you have Chester Tayler now. That dude is a beast!

On a completely unrelated note, Shayna's Ipod screen got broke. Anyone have experience in replacing one? I saw ipodmods.com will do it for you for about $90. Seeing as how that's half the cost of what we paid, I'm trying to find the better deal.

whoa

This rocks my face off!!

Here is the link in case the embedded video doesn't work.

A tip of the hat

A tip of the hat to:

George Mason University - I just finished watching George Mason upset UNC. I find it amazing that the Patriots are now a sweet 16 team. Maybe they are going to be the next Gonzaga..

Another tip of the hat to:

Shayna Willis - Shayna got her teaching license on Friday. We went out that night to a celebration dinner of Red Lobster. I'm so proud of her for sticking through all the stresses of working full time, tutoring, taking extra responsibilties at work, praise team, and working on a Masters. She's an inspiration to those who are need time management skills as well as stress management.

One more thing to add to the list

Before I die, I would like to go see this. Great wall slip n' slide is awesome!

Who are these people?

I just read an article that doesn't make me feel safe..not at all. Every year the Gov't gets audited on computer security. This year, as a whole, the gov't scored a D-. I think the auditing firm felt bad for them and let them squeak by. The same thing happened to me in 9th grade Spanish.

The most shocking is the Department of Homeland Security getting an F for 3 straight years. Security is right in the name of your department! How can you fail?! If I failed a test for 3 straight years in HS I think my mom would have killed me.

At least the Dept of Labor and Social Security Administration got an A+. Shout out to my Uncle Ben who works in the tech department of Social Security. At least one guy knows what he's doing.

For those of you who want to read the article you can.

wowsers

So the week started off in the 80s. Tuesday fell like a nice fall day. Wednesday was a cold fall day and depending on which weatherman you listen to, we could have a "wintry mix" tonight. I wonder what's going to happen on Saturday..

Of course you didn't come here for the weather report, you came here for the linx.

The only thing lower than this for a celeb, is not getting any requests. I wonder how many hire Mr. Belding..

I haven't done this..but it sure looks nice.

It's a puzzle game, it has lots of multi-colored bricks, and it's got a cute little guy that squeaks. Any game that has 3 of the 5 fundamental rules for making a good puzzle game must be fun, right?

It's been runed!

I love inside jokes. It's always good to have something that you can always laugh at with a specific person or group. Fortunately being married allows me to have tons of inside jokes with my wife. Just one more thing that's great about being married.


Oh, and as a followup to Shayna's post, she is the current King (Queen?) of the throne game. Left me on the can without a roll in the room. Good play dear, but I'll get you next time..maybe in like 2 days as we have a whole mega roll of TP to go through.