Yesterday was our 12 year anniversary, 10 of them recognized by the law.
Let it burn motherfucker!
Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog w/ 10 weird, random things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don't forget to leave them a comment ( "You're It") and to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag me back, let me know when you've posted your blog so I can see your answers.
10 Random/weird facts, habits, or goals about Groove Neuter:
1) I disliked my hometown so much, that I stayed there 20 years, to make sure that when I left I would not need to go back... ever.
2) Said hometown was in the United States of America, however from certain points we could drive North into Mexico.
3) I used to enjoy, actually relish, playing volleyball in 128 degrees during the summer at the city parks. Yes, there was that little else to do that was free and available to minors.
4) I have stood in four states simultaneously.
5) I have had a primary residence and lived in four time zones.
6) I have worked for a private company, a publicly traded company, and a privately held company again, without changing employers.
7) My idea was to name our daughter Tesla Nicole, so that her initials would be T.N.T. (because she would be dynamite) however, the wife had other ideas, and life is generally preferable when she prevails.
8) I have a generalized dislike of technology and didn't learn to type until freshman year of college.
Ironically, my first job out of college was with a dot.com in Seattle and my final position before leaving the company was a Tier 2 Tech Support Team Manager. I still have a non-specific distrust of technology.
9) 10 years after driving Smiley back home from a party before university graduation, hungover, in my truck; I was driving Smiley back home from Memphis/Graceland, hungover, in the same truck.
10) Smiley was married to my wife (on a college tv murder-mystery fiction show) which is, how she and I met.
There was also a subsequent incident involving a rolling on the ground tussle for a frisbee during a three-flies-up game between my future wife and I.
I think the frisbee was thrown by Smiley as well.
And if it seems like I mention him a lot, it comes honest, because I've known him since we were 12.
So, I've been in Nashville right at one year now and I finally started making contacts with the local music scene.
There was a backyard BBQ this past weekend with one of my meetup buddies, who apparently has quite a history.
Should you get the chance, check out the music of any of the following three acts with my blessing:
(and tell Blane to "eat his fruit". There was a jungle juice incident.)
You can find some of their upcoming schedules on their sites.
Shane & Blane (click cancel through the lamespace pimp-my login to hear some samples)
I wound up behind the charcoal grill working on teriyaki chicken for the crowd and talking (read drinking) with the musicians and helped them break down their equipment back to their cars when they were done.
You know, the fun part of the party.
Eldest daughter was playing outside on her combo slide/house and doing chalk work on the patio.
She comes over to me and tells me that there is a rock in her ear.
I ask how this came to pass.
She replies that she laid down in her slide/house and that it was a rocket ship and then there was a rock
in her ear.
I tell her not to lay down on rocks and then I go back to reading.
Naively, I thought she was referring to one of the many hopscotch rocks she keeps on the patio.
Two days later, I discover the engorged tick inside the top curl of her left ear.
I feel like a total ass at that point.
She described what was wrong to me, in pretty good terms for a 4 year old who has never seen a tick before, and I blow her off.
Nice one dad.
After much screaming and coaxing/pulling with tweezers, the little bastard breaks off with its mouthparts still in her ear.
I, again naively, hope that her body will push it out on its own,
not being intimately acquainted with tick-head cement/saliva.
So a couple days later, when the ear is nice and red, we go to the doctor, who has about as much luck as I do getting all the bits out.
Eldest is very mad about all the yanking on her ear going on at this point.
They refer us to the local childrens hospital and tell us they might have to admit her overnight if they need to use an IV anesthesia to remove the bits surgically.
Unholy shitballs, I feel like a royal ass at this point.
However, eldest is a trooper and suffers through the waiting process without any drugs and the actual procedure with only a topical cream.
Now there's just the antibiotic regimen for the next week, since the tick was attached long enough to spread cellulitis (no, not cottage cheese thighs).
Damnit.
Must get past the words to what she's actually describing in the future. I am the one with rocks in my ears.
I like wandering through the grocer and being inspired by...
what's on sale.
Particularly the "going bad" clearance sales, if it's something I can fix for dinner that night.
Yesterday my browsing was rewarded with 8oz of fresh mushrooms for $1 (down from $2), two Moroccan artisan olive loafs $1.50 each (down from $4.50), grated Romano cheese 5oz. $2.19 (down from $5) and a pound of fresh strawberries for $1.50 (down from $4).
I already had rice at home and a pan full of sausage grease from the morning, so I used some garlic, onion, spices, the mushrooms and Romano to turn that into a Risotto after lots of stirring and adding just enough liquid to keep the rice barely covered (minus the white wine that the Wife doesn't care for.)
Carved the olive loaf tops in a "v" trench, removed the top, added cooked chicken breast slices, and filled the trench with my sort-of Risotto, and baked them to crisp for a few minutes before serving.
The strawberries for dessert were cut and soaked in the tiniest bit of Balsamic Vinegar and sugar.
I take back my kudos for the Internal Revenue Service.
I thought they were actually going to be all nimble and smart by direct depositing the federal stimulus money to the folks that used direct deposit for their tax refunds.
Then, today, I get a letter from them, telling me that they direct deposited the money.
Thus, nullifying any savings of them not actually mailing me a paper check.
They sent a letter telling me to expect a payment, they paid me, then they told me that they'd paid me.
Good grief. This is (one example) why I lean toward Libertarian.
84 cents of postage times however hundreds of millions of us there are... just gone, but that we're all going to be paying interest on that number to China, Saudi Arabia, (and whomever else is buying our debt) for the next 30 years or more.
Actually, we're all (nationally) going to be paying interest on the amount of our collective and various stimulus checks as well.
Makes me want to go right out and spend to stimulate the economy... at the liquor store
Feeling out of sorts that my memories are not staying put in their hermetically sealed mental compartments.
How dare people live, evolve, and generally move on with their lives.
Why aren't you all where I left you?
I thought I finally had you organized, somewhat figured out, a semblance of order,
and here you are surprising me with all this growing up nonsense.
The nerve.
The gall; continuing to live after the time we knew each other.
Least you could do is not leave clues where I might stumble, unawares, upon your updated info.
Now I have to revisit/reorder how I feel about everything all over again.
I think it's going to be a good thing,
or rather it is already a good thing, and I will come to that realization eventually.
Going to need a bigger brain, and a bigger bottle of tequila.
Excuse me, I must intoxicate, inebriate, and otherwise imbibe.
The wife had Intralase Lasik last Friday.
I was freaked out. Turned out fine.
Youngest daughter winged a ball at wife's face the next day.
I freaked out. Missed the eyes, turned out fine. She can read the 20/20 eye chart line.
Eldest daughter fell out of bed Monday night.
Gashed the back of her head on the bottom corner of a dresser.
I freaked out and got a lot of blood all over me while I held her.
After a trip to the ER at Midnight and three staples, turned out fine.
Youngest smacked eldest in the back of the head with a (hard) toy dragon.
I freaked out. Wound didn't open, no new blood, just a headache for eldest, so, you know, fine.
Eldest wants to go to preschool today as there are only a few sessions left for this school year.
I take her and find out today they're doing an inflatable bouncy-house all day because it's storming outside.
I freaked out. I'll find out in an hour if anything got bumped loose, but I haven't gotten an emergency call yet.
She has a follow-up doctor appointment today anyway.
Wife has a follow-up eye appointment tomorrow.
Me, I've about exhausted my freak-out for the week.
Plenty of Boulevard Brewery mixed-packs, Bacardi Solara Rum, vodka, and tequila though... so I might make it yet.
