Yummy Red

I just finished the last sip of a 1997 Viansa Augusto Barbara. I got the bottle when I joined the Viansa wine club after my honeymoon back in 2000. From what I have red, 10 years is a little too old for this wine but I absolutely loved it! It leaves me wanting more. I have several more bottles left from that time when I had disposable income to spend on wine. When they are gone I guess I will have to start cooking meth to support my wine habit.

The boy is falling behind

Atticus still will not walk. He might take one or two steps only when he is close enough to jump on you. Adreinne is walking just about everywhere now.

Lolo can recognize many different letters and traces them with her finger. She is curious about letters and the sounds that they make. Like ball begins with "buh" and turtle begins with "tuh". And she can look at all the numbers and tell me what they are. She is on a roll. I am concerned that her new school won't keep her on that roll.

For the summer she is attending a church school program at Trinity United Church of Christ. Today was he first day and she seemed to like it. Dammit I can't get away from these churches!!!

Southern Fried Everything

People in the area where I live deep fry everything. I have tasted foods that should never be fried much less deep fried like pickles, cake, twinkies, and now the next big thing to eat here is deepfried yeast rolls. I would rather eat the ass-end out of a skunk with rigormortis.

The only thing I really like deep fried is a whole turkey. You can peel off the skin and eat the nongreasy breast that has had all the delicious juices locked in by the deep frying process and it picks up a hint of the peanut oil flavor. Other than that, nothing else should be deep fried.

People in the area where I live have no clue what real lettuce is. Lettuce to them is iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce sucks. It is like eating nutritionless crunchy water. Give me spinach, romaine or baby greens any day.

People here only eat white bread which I consider to be a nutritionless and tasteless white fluff. Go to a grocery store and there are maybe two different types of whole grain bread and about twenty different brands and types of white bread.

Gee. I wonder why seven out of ten people in the South are overweight. Maybe it has something to do with the garbage that they put into their bodies.

Deal is done - sleepless times ahead

I have just closed on the deal to buy half of the company that I am running. It is a shitload of money and I have ten years to pay it off. I am still concerned about our finanical situation. We spend more than I make, and I make a lot for this part of the country. The wife doesn't seem to worry about this at all which is one of the rubs in our marriage.

Call me a tightwad but it drives me insane that I continually walk through the house and turn off the lights. My parents were pretty frugal- and they raised me to be that way. I think the wife's parents are somewhat frugal as well but that frugality certainly didn't rub off on her. I don't know. I do know that it drives me crazy that she won't take the time to try to save and conserve. Well at least she does recycle and yes there are many many other things that she does to my approval it is just this one thing that drives me batty.

I have replaced all the lightbulbs in the house with compact fluorescent because she is constantly leaving lights on. Even though these use substantially less electricity it still doesn't make sense to leave them on when you exit a room.

She has a hard time remembering to do other things like lock doors when she leaves. Today our next door neighbor had someone walk into their house through an unlocked door and steal some computer equipment. I hope this will motivate the wife to lock the doors when she leaves the house.

I have decided to have another ablation surgery to try to cure this recurring atrial fibrillation that is causing a lot of problems in my trying to live a normal life. I am currently taking 150 mg of propafenone (Rhythmol) three times a day and I despise taking medication. I was considering going to the Cleveland Clinic to have the ablation done by Dr. Andrea Natale but I can't even get in there for a consult until the end of August and then the ablation probably wouldn't be done for six or more months. I have already met all my deductibles this year on our health insurance so I have decided to have it done by Dr. Fitzgerald at NC Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem by the end of August when my deductibles go back up.

That is another thing that drives me crazy about the wife. If she even senses that there is a sniffly or runny nose or any other very minor ailment or low grade fever with any one of our children she gives them Tylenol or Motrin (Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen). My philosophy is totally different. I have heard the doctors say that there is no need for Tylenol or Motrin unless a child has a fever of 101 or over. I just don't like giving medicine just to give medicine. What effect does frequent doese this have on a child's liver and kidneys? The wife doesn't give more than is recommended or give more frequently than is recommended on the bottle but it just seems that the kids are taking tylenol or motrin daily three weeks out of the month.

Okay, my bitch session is over for the evening.

Sickness Descends Upon the Family

Adrienne and Atticus both are sick with ear infections. Neither are sleeping very well. Atticus was up frequently last night and has already been up at least three times crying tonight as of this writing at 11:00. He can't breathe through his nose and he is so dependent on his pacifier that when he can't breathe through his nose and has to breathe through his mouth he can't suck on teh pacifier and gets really pissed off that he doesn't have that comfort.

Adrienne has a skinned nose and an ear infection. She fell twice- once on the tennis courts and once in the sunroom. Both times she landed on her face- the second time there was plenty of blood.

I am getting some sort of funk in my head and sinuses with a cough and Tamara doesn't feel so great either. At least Lolo feels fine.

Twins are a Tub of Fun

Adrienne and Atticus absolutely love playing in the water.

They both say Kih Kih for Kitty and Arienne says Bah for ball. Atticus somewhat understands no. When we tell him NO (which is about every two minutes) he shakes his head from side to side in the NO fashion.

I had them out on the tennis court (in our backyard) today and Adrienne was on London's little tricycle and she got off balance and took a header on to the hard court surface. As we say in the south "She skunt up her nose." In the space of about 30 minutes she managed to his her head three times. The other times were a direct fall while walking on the patio and she was playing with Atticus (he was in the doors of the gas grill... real safe huh) and she shut the grill door on her head.