I'm In Three Year Old Hell

I know that what I am experiencing is pretty normal, or at least I hope it is. Trying to put my 3 year old twins to bed causes a LOT of mental anguish on the child's part and the parent's. Both twins always demand that mommy put them to bed and if I carry our son to his room he is screaming at the top of his lungs for his mother. Of course his mother has to tend to his twin who also demands that mommy put her to bed.

If you let the male twin in the same room with the female twin while mommy is putting her to sleep the male twin is bouncing off the walls and knocking shit over while screaming so then the female twin will not settle down and go to sleep. Thus I am forced to remove the male twin from the room and take him to his room producing from him the most unpleasant writing, screaming, kicking, crying and fit pitching one could imagine.

I have tried a small light spank on the rear just to get the boy's attention but only after positivie reinforcemnt fails. Of course the negative reinforcement doesn't work either so when I put the male twin in his bed and try to cover him up he immediately jumps off the bed and bolts for his sister's room where his mother is.

I have to keep reminding myself that he is just three. But this is difficult when it happens EVERY night and it will continue to happen EVERY night until he grows out of it.

I need a beer.

Excellent Beer

I love good beers. I am drinking a bottle of Trois Pistoles by Unibroue. It is a bottle fermented beer with 9% alcohol. It tastes really bubbly and full bodied with a full mouth feel (does that also mean full bodied) and I just love the taste. One 750 ml bottle cost me about $7 and had made me feel really good tonight while I sit here watching Star Trek the Next Generation and browsing on the net with this shitty internet connection at our beach condo in North Myrtle Beach. The connection keeps dropping out.

I gotta pee.

Flying Squirrel Follies

I was sitting here in front of this computer earlier tonight and I though I heard some rusting and scratching. I wrote it off as the noises my son makes before he goes to bed since his bedroom is directly above my office.

A few seconds later I heard scurrying and caught a glimpse of something moving on the floor in my peripheral vision. It went around my desk and in a corner piled up with miscellaneous shit. The scurrying noise stopped. I stood up very slowly to get a look. At first I assumed it was a rat but when I saw it I noticed the wide tail. Then it jumped from the floor to the wall. I have a grass cloth wall covering in my office. It climbed right up the wall (as if it had done it many times before- it obviously knew it could get a grip on the wall) and then ran around the perimeter of the room, behind the filing cabinet (I hate papers and I need to get rid of that damn thing) and then to my window sill where it stopped.

It sat there on the window sill about five feet from me and just looked at me. Staring at it closely I noticed that it was a squirrel. I had an old folded shirt on the floor in front of the window so I stood up very slowly and slowly picked up the shirt while the squirrel just stood there looking at me. I threw the shirt on the squirrel and grabbed it up. I squealed a little bit but it was unhurt. I put it in a large bin made of see through plastic and took it upstairs to show the wife.

It didn't look the same as the squirrels we see around here in our yard by the thousands. It was grayish brown and had some stripes that ran from its front legs to its back legs along the sides of it's body. It wasn't much longer than 6 or 7 inches with its tail and it had large eyes. We assumed that it was just a juvenile gray squirrel with an eye problem.

Instead of killing it we decided to let it go. So I took it outside, put the bin on the brick wall surrounding our patio which is about four feet high. I opened the bin and jumped out and then glided about ten feet away before hitting the ground and running away.

At that point I realized that it was a flying squirrel. I didn't even know that we had flying squirrels in this part of the country but by Thor we do!

So now I want to know how that little bastard got in my house and then in my office!

Demanding Little Minions of Satan

The following is a conversation between my almost 3 year old daughter and me:

Adrienne: Where is my blankie Daddy?
Me: I'm sorry honey, I don't know.
Adrienne in an annoyed tone: Well, go get it!

Gimme a 1098, 1099 DIV, 1099 INT, and a K-1

Preparing the information for my accountant to prepare my tax return is becoming extremely burdensome. The properties I own are sucking me dry and I am spending way too much time keeping up with all the bookkeeping. I need a personal secretary. I have already put about five hours into this and I will probably have to take a day off work to get it completed.

Grrrr. Maybe a flat-tax would be better. I better study up on that one.

Life Goes On as Kids get more Smartassed

The wife is sick. She has a cold.

Lolo likes to watch the Food Network. She wanted to see a person's cooking show who she said looks like Uncle Greg but with skikey hair. Well no such person has a show on at 8:00 pm on Monday so she was disappointed.

I need to fill out the forms to turn over my information to my tax accountant but I am so tired and I have been procrastinating.

Out.

Another Glorious Day

We had a great time last night with our friend coming over. They brought their kids and our hellions and theirs played very well together. We ate steak and drank. So I guess I am trying to kill myself with cholesterol and saturated fat.

I had put the trailer on the bike and rode the kids around. Up and down the very steep driveway and up and down the road in front of our house. It was one hell of a workout. Especially after walking the greenway in the morning, picking up sticks, working outside and washing both Volvos. It tired the shit out of me. I guess I am not 20 anymore. Plus my heart rate is still in the 80s, I have not exercised pretty much at all since mid-November, and I am a slacker. All the activity pretty much slammed me. The drinking certainly didn't help. I had two beers and two Makers and Ginger. I was feeling no pain. But I am kinda stupid because I am still on warfarin sodium (coumadin) and I am not supposed to drink because of that medication. Maybe I really am trying to kill myself.

The hellions were SO tired last night after all the play. The twins went to sleep about 8:30 and Lolo didn't go to sleep until about 10:15! I think that might be a record for her.

The wife and I got in bed about 11:30. No nookie for me this weekend.

This morning got rolling like insane as usual. The wife was running late for teaching Sunday school so she took off and I kept all three hellions. We rode bikes and played on the swings. When the wife got back she came to me and pulled me aside because she didn't want to tell me what she was going to tell me in front of the kids. She said through tears that she got a speeding ticket on the way to Sunday school. I guess she was terrified of my reaction.

I just told her not to worry about it and gave her a hug- being the perfect husband that I am.

Since we have been married she has received four speeding tickets- in eight years. Once she had a cop follow her for 5 miles. He told her that he gave her every chance to slow down but she never looked in her rear view mirror and she continued at about 80 mph so he pulled her and ticketed her.

Then last year- I think summer - she got another one and now this one. I used to give her hell about driving too fast. When she got the ticket last summer she told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to rag her about the ticket and that I was not to bring it up again. I have observed her wishes.

Now she has done it again.

I was very nice to her today but I just don't understand it. She is smart enough to know that speeding is dangerous. She is smart enough to know that speeding tickets cost a LOT of money. She knows that she speeds. I have explained to her about how the odds of getting killed go up exponentially when you speed. None of that seems to matter.

At the risk of being considered hypocritical, I have had two speeding tickets in my life. The last one was about eight years ago where I did not notice the reduced speed in a work zone.

This shit really pisses me off. I just don't understand why someone would continue to not pay attention to their speed when they know the facts and that the odds are that they are going to get a ticket. I guess I will continue to keep my mouth shut but it really pisses me off because she drives the kids around. Her failure to pay attention to how fast she is going increases the odds that our kids will be hurt or killed. I guess it is just like that fact that the wife will not normally tighten the 5 point harness in the twins' car seats. She routinely leaves them loose which also significantly increases the probability that they will be seriously injured in a wreck.

Ok, I am finished venting but I am still pissed off about it and the fact that she knows she is wrong but refuses to attempt to modify her behavior even when it can mean that she is sacrificing hers and the kids health and safety. I guess it is kinda like me drinking while taking coumadin. So maybe I am a hypocrite- well at least my behavior is not putting my children's health at risk.

I'm out.

Skiing for the second time and Miscellaneous Rablings

Lolo skied for the second time on Tuesday. She did such a great job! I bought her a private lesson that lasted an hour then she went up the slope called Easy Street with me about five times. She loves skiing.



A-man really wanted to ski too but he is too damn young. Maybe next year he will be able to go.

My business sucks big ones. Orders for our manufactured goods went from an average of 11,000 dozen in September 2007 to an average of about 3,000 dozen this past week. If this keeps up I am quite possibly fucked. I will have to lay off more people and do some drastic downsizing. The economy really, really sucks.

I am listening to Kiss 95.1 in Charlotte. I have been listening to it for about 5 hours while working around the house outside. I washed both Volvos and cleaned out the garage. This damn radio station has played the same songs repeatedly over and over. I hate top 40 radio.

The kids are at the in-laws right now. They went down there yesterday and the wife and I had a night out on our own. We just went to a local Mexican restaurant and then came back home and crashed.

The water heater in our Mountain House is dead and will need to be replaced.

We have friends coming over tonight. Two couples and their kids. Wow, it is nice to have somewhat of a social life every now and then.

Snow Job

I didn't take Lolo skiing since last post because it was raining at the slopes.

Last night it snowed about 4-5" so I spent most of the day at home but did go into work for about 3 hours. I was supposed to fly to Lafayette, LA today but that trip was rescheduled for Wednesday. I am hoping to put the finishing touches on a licensing agreement.

I took the kids sledding in our yard down a small hill. They loved it but it didn't last long. We decided to head to our house in the mountains to hopefully enjoy some skiing with Lolo tomorrow. She is complaining about her ear huring and it is about 7 degrees F here now at our house in the mountains. There is abour 12" of snow on the ground. So with Lolo complaining about her ear I don't know if we will get to go skiing tomorrow or not.

The economy sucks and I am concerned about my business.

Herpes

Now I am getting a fever blister in the corner of my mouth. So much fun.

I had a sleep study done on this past monday night. Insomnia hit me and I couldn't sleep. I got in bed at 10:30 and didn't fall into a deep sleep until about 2:30. The good news is that I did not stop breathing but I am not confident that this means I don't have sleep apnea. I didn't even snore during the study but I know I snore frequently normally.

I am taking Lolo snow skiing tomorrow. I need a break so I am looking forward to it.

Sometimes is aint' no fun to be the boss

I just terminated the position of a 20 year employee. She is an excellent employee which whom I have no qualms. She does good work and has a good attitude. There were a few issues such as her lack of knowledge of financial accounting and slow learning time on computers but all-in-all she was a good employee.

I have hired a new person as my CFO and he can do all of the duties that I need on teh financial end plus the duties of this former employee so it did not make any sense for me to keep her on board.

I hate firing people and hope I never have to do it again. But I know I will and I will do my best to be completely fair about it.

The A-Man and Potty Training

So the A-man has an ear infection. He is on antibiotics and they are making his rear end really, really red and sore. So much so that he actually wanted to poop in the potty. Today he did just that for the first time that I have experienced. He used about 35 square feet of toilet paper and flushed about twelve times but he actually did #2 in the toilet.

No such luck with his twin sister.

Sick Kids

London has strep throat. More antibiotics.

Adrienne vomited in her bed three separate times the night before last. Each time we changed her sheets and cleaned up. So last night she wanted to sleep on the floor. She told me the other night "I have bomit on my purple blankie daddy." She is over it and healthy now.

The A-Man some dark ooze coming out of his left ear. He went to the doc yesterday and he has a full blown ear infection in his left ear but he was feeling no pain because he still has the tube in that ear.

The A-Man went to the pediatric ophthalmologist today because he has been blinking his eyes a lot. The results are good news- he has good eyesight and his eyes are in good shape.

I have major snot and a stuffy head.

The wife is not sick.

Valentines day was a day from hell. All the kids were with us due to sickness and they all behaved terribly.

Grrr.

Mouth Ulcers

Dammit I hate mouth ulcers. I get them about once a month. I have a spot on my tongue that is sore as shit and a big assed canker sore on my lower lip in the right corner of my mouth. It is painful- acidic foods really hurt. Love pain!

Where will tomorrow lead

I just blew $1500 on a rug for the fourier to please the wife. We spend almost $1000 per month on education for our three children and they are not even in grade school yet. I am involved in four mortgages. My business is sucking big time. I am worried what will happen if the business goes further in the shitter.

I think i need a drink.

Rediculous Item of the Day

There is a car customization place close to where I work. People actually pay to have this done to their cars.



Can you say "waste of money?" This car has 30" wheels with tires that cost about $2000 each. It has a flat screen in the driver door, what looks to be a 27" flat screen where the stereo would go, a flat screen in the dash in front of the passenger and possibly more. I don't even know if this thing is legal for the road.

Lolo still has a fever

I am concerned because Lolo is still running a low grade fever - 99F. She has been running the fever since Saturday last week. She has been taking antibiotics since Saturday last week. My concern is that the antibiotics are not working and that her urinary tract infection will spread to her kidneys like it did two years ago when she wound up in the hospital.

Epson Stylus Photo R300M Clogged Nozzle Report

I had clogged nozzles on my Epson Stylus Photo R300M. One color remained clogged no matter how many times I ran the nozzle cleaning program. I was looking into using some sort of cleaner to clean the heads but I could not find any locally and didn't want to wait for delivery from online ordering.

I stopped by the local Cartridge World store and talked to the nice people there. The told me that the nozzle cleaning worked by actually applying a little vacuum to the nozzles to try to get the stuck ink out. I don't know if this is true or not.

I had purchased some refilled ink cartridges on line and sinc installing those I had been getting teh clogged nozzles. Plus I had not used the printer much so this also contributed to the nozzles getting clogged. I pulled out one of the old refilled cartridge and replaced it with another refilled cartridge and still had the same problme. Anyway, I purchased all new Epson ink cartridges and pulled out all of the full refilled cartridges and installed the new Epson cartridges in my R300M. I immediately had all unclogged nozzles even before running the nozzle cleaning program. Supposedly the printer works best on Epson ink because it is formulated specifically for the printer. Other inks can cause problems.

So let this be a lesson. If you have an Epson printer, stick with the Epson ink cartridges. If you clog up your heads for good there isn't too much you can do besides get a new printer or try to buy some type of head cleaning kit.

The Eyes of Atticus

Everyone has been noticing that Atticus has been really squinting lately and blinking his eyes more than normal. His teachers and parents have certainly noticed. So the wife took him to his family doctor today and they gave him a pretty basic test and it semmed pretty conclusive that he was having a difficult time seeing certain objects at a distance.

So now we are going to get an appointment for Atticus at a pediatric ophthalmologist. I am afraid the poor bastard has my poor eyesight. But he isn't even three. I didn't need corrective lenses until I was about seven or eight. Needless to say I am worried.

Adrienne pitched a fit about going to bed last night (as she does every night) and would not put on her night gown. So the wife put her to bed wearing only her diaper. About twenty minutes after closing the door and turning out the light, Adrienne managed to put a dress on all by her self. Not too damn bad for a 2.5 year old!

Lolo pitched a fit about having to get ready to go to school this morning. She has been out of school for two days with a fever but no fever this morning so she went to school despite her bad attitude. Once the wife got her clothes on her all was well with the world and Lolo rode to school in a good mood.

Bedtime for the kids has been getting later and later. Last night it was 9:00 before we got all of them in bed. Tonight we turned the tables and they were in the bath by 6:30 and in bed by 7:30. What a relief!

A Brief Accumulation of Some Cool Southern Sayings

Skunt - a molestation of the word skinned. "I reckon he done fell and his leg got all skunt up."

Learn - a verb meaning to teach. "Them boys is kinds stupid. I been learning them all day and they still kaint figger out how not to bust up them dies"

Mommerwrennim - a molestation of the phrase "Mother and them." If you really wanna sell some of them encyclopedias yer gonna have to go up 'ar and see mommerwrennim.

Yens - a molestation of the phrase "you ones". Me walking into a country restaurant in the middle of Bakersville, NC with my family. The hostess approaches and asks "How many of yens is ye?"

Dest - a molestation of the noun Desk. "I put them papers on yer dest."

X-tree - a molestation of the word Extra. "I done thought I had four but I ended up with seven so I had two x-tree."

Like - a molestation of the word Lack. "Well damn, I done thought I had two x-tree. Eyes supposed to have four but I got one so I like three"

Leaning toward Schronce's - Very specific to the northern Catawba County NC dialect. Something is out of place or crooked. "That thar telephone pole is leaning toward Schronce's. It looks like it done been hit by an 18 wheeler."

Dinner - Lunch. "Damn, its almost 1:00 in the afternoon and I forgot to eat dinner!"

Hawldon I'll geeteemferya. A molestation of a request to hold on the phone while the answerer notifies the requested party. "May I please speak to Rufus?" "Hawldon, I'll geeteemferya"

Raaas - a molestation of the word rice. "I like me some whyt raaas with sawsige gravy"

Rhyt Naaaas - a molestation of the phrase right nice with right acting as an adjective synonymous with the word very. "That there Lamborghini is rhyt naaas lookin'"

Oh the joys of living in the south.

Lolo getting better

Luckily Lolo didn't have a high fever last night at all and slept the night through. She actually slept from about 4:00 pm to 8:00 am. Her fever is in check and I think the antibiotics are working well.

I worked on our phone. We subscribe to Packet 8 which is an internet phone similar to Vonage. The phone was acting screwy so I had to configure the Packet 8 gateway to have a static IP and then I had to configure the router to forward ports to the Packet 8 gateway. You have to do this if the Packet 8 gateway is behind the router. I am also going to configure the QOS to make sure that all bandwith is dedicated to the phone. Since I have a 10mbps down and 1mbps up this shouldn't be a problem.

As the Clock Ticks

It has been over a month since I have had sex......

with someone besides myself that is...

It has been over 8 years since I have had sex with someone other than my wife....

Are guys the only ones who think about this shit?

Using the Epson Stylus Photo R300 to print directly to a CD or DVD

I have owned the Epson Stylus Photo R300M for many years now and just today tried to use the separate tray to print directly to a DVD. The R300M is the exact same thing as the R300 except it has a useless LCD display to view your pictures from your media card without having to use the computer. I never have used this feature and never will.

I just ordered a spindle of DVD-R media with an inkjet printable surface. I opened the manual for the R300M in pdf format and followed along with the directions to print to a DVD using the included tray. The directions leave out one very important fact.

I followed the instructions precisely and every time the printer would print 7cm too far to the left and 7cm too far back.

After searching the Epson web site for a solution and finding nothing I filled out the site's email form for techincal support. The site analyzez your email before it is sent and suggests a resolution to the problem. At this step it finally gave me the information that I needed.

You must select Tray 2 in order for it to align to the correct location. So I endured a lot of unnecessary frustration but did find the answer. I hope this can help someone else!

Lolo is sick

The wife went to the beach this weekend and all three of the hellions were at the in-laws last night so I had a night to batch it but I sat at home and watched Hancock and just hung by myself. I have no social life. I did ask one of my friends to go out but he is so whipped that he wouldn't go. His wife is about 7 months pregnant and won't let him do anything. Not that being pregnant has anything to do with it. this is the same guy who didn't go to his own bachelor party.

Anyway I am a loser with no social life.

My mother-in-law called me this morning with the news that Lolo did not feel well. She didn't get out of bed until about 8:00 which definitely means she is sick. She had a 101 degree fever. So we met at the usual meeting place and I took Lolo to the local urgent care center. We waited for over two hours before we were seen by the doctor. After the first hour Lolo vomited all in my lap. I felt so bad for her. This shit is scary because the last time she vomited with a fever after complaining about it burning when she peed, she ended up in the hospital with a kidney infection. So the doctor prescribed her Promethazine (aka Phenegran) to settle her stomach and Sulfamethoxyzole which is antibiotic.

I dropped by CVS on the way home and deposited the prescriptions, dropped off the movies I rented and filled the car up with gas. I then took Lolo home and put her in bed. She was very lethargic and hot with a 102 degree fever. For the first time in her life (to my knowledge) she was at home alone because I didn't feel like putting her back in the car to go pick up the prescription. We live about 300 yards from the CVS drugstore so it took me about five minutes to go pick up the prescriptions. She was fine with being at home alone i guess because she felt so bad.

So she kept the Promethazine down and then also kept ibuprofen down and then it was smooth sailing for the Sulfamethoxyzole. She has been asleep for about 4 hours and is is getting close to midnight. I hope she sleeps through the rest of the night. It just kills me to see my kids sick!

Two in the terrible twos

Here is our nightly bedtime ritual for the past several months:

Bath Time- usually pretty calm except for me getting compeltely soaked with all the splashing.

Diaper Application- usually pretty civil and uneventful.

Brushing Teeth- Rarely do i get both of the twins to brush at the same time. Always one is off running around and will not come when called. Then I have to go pick the rebel up and bring him/her to the sink kicking and screaming and try to divert to get him/her to brush said teeth. Meanwhile the other sibling has the faucet wide open and is splashing water everywhere in the bathroom. But they actually do brush their teeth after they have swallowed all of the toothpaste.

Book reading time- Can be civil at times if they can agree on what book to read and where to read it. We always read a book before bedtime. We have done so for at least a year and a half now.

Tuck in and light out- Usually around 7:45 PM we try to get them in bed. The beginning of this process is announced by saying "it is nite-nite time" which is always proceeded by a deafening shrill scream of "Noooooooooooo" by Atticus while he bolts for the nearest getaway corridor. Neither of them will let me put them to bed. The wife has Atticus of in bed and Adrienne is always in the room so I remove her so her brother can be tucked in. I have to physically remove her (every night) and she kicks, screams, punches, writhes and thrashes to get out of my arms. If i put her in her bed she immediately bolts for the door and runs to her brother's room and slams the door open to invoke more screaming and crying from him.

So I hold her convulsing body in my arms until the wife closes the door on Atticus with him in bed screaming and crying. I pass Adrienne to the wife after she arrives in the room. The wife rounds up the little girl and gets her calmed and tucks her in and turns out the light. This cannot be done successfully by me.

Then I turn to Lolo who is almost five years old now. I take her to her bathroom where we brush her teeth. She does not swallow the toothpaste but actually uses it correctly and brushes her teeth. Then I supervise her going to potty and flushing. I used to retrieve the toilet paper from a top shelf (the location was in order to avoid the entire roll being flushed down the toilet by aforementioned male destroyer) and hold it for her to tear off but now she does it herself.

We then proceed to her bed and I read her a book. I read her at least one book every night. No kicking, no screaming, no crying. After the book is read she is ready for sleep. She always gives me a hug and I tell her I love her as she sucks the polyethylene molecules from her pacifier. In the past before I left the room she has always requested that her mother to sing her a bedtime lullaby- normally "away in a manger" or something of the sort. But last week when the wife came into her room she has told her "you don't have to sing to me tonight mommy. I am tired. You can just tell me goodnight." Ahhh another milestone.

So that is our nightly routine which is enough to test the likes of people who have raised twenty offspring. I honestly don't know how my wife has remained sane with having the kids at home to herself all day long. School starts back on Monday and both of us are really ready for that. The twins school costs over $600 per month for 5 days/week 9:00 am to 1:00 pm but that is a small price to pay for the wife's sanity.

Fractals

Today I changed a light bulb and after I screwed it in the socket I looked at my daughter and noticed that I was seeing fractals in my peripheral vision. I was seeing moving shapes and shit! Maybe on top of AFib I am going blind too. The fractals went away but they just returned about ten minutes ago after staring at the computer.

I am only 40 and I am falling apart.

Travelin' Blues or is it Highs?

I have killed both batteries in my laptop. Killed them dead. I use them so much and they go bad after so many discharge/charge cycles. So I have to troll through airports to look for an outlet. I am in the New Orleans airport right now and all of the outlets against the wall with rows of seats are not working. I found a working outlet with a seat just close enough to string my power cord.

Adrienne fell down the steps Sunday- all the way down from the top. She had put on a pair of hard plastic princess slippers that were about 3 sizes too big for her and tripped at the top of the stairs. Thank Freyja kids are small and flexible. She didn't even have a bruise to show for the fall- just a lot of tears.

This trip I met with a gentleman who has invented a product that we are manufacturing. We are at the beginning stages of our relationship and the first shipment will go out today. If all goes well with the manufacturing and delivery, we will add at least 10% to our revenues next year just on this product alone.

There just is not near the quality of eye candy at the New Orleans airport as in Mimai where I layover frequently.

I am hungry.

Asian chicks are hot.

I am really tired.

I remember the old days when I slept the night through every night and if for some reason I did become sleep deprived, all I had to do was wait until the end of the day or the weekend and I could take a nap. That shit doesn't happen any more. If I become sleep deprived it is tough shit now. I have to help take care of kids and when they are napping there is so much shit to do that I can't lay down.

Offspring are the largest time vacuum I could imagine.

I could puke

Pressure

Here it is.. 4:00 am on a Friday morning and I can't sleep. I have a board meeting Monday morning for which I am not fully prepared. The month end numbers have yet to be computed and I have to put the finishing touches on the budget for next fiscal year. This week has been pretty much a hellfest.

This week the man who used to be president of my company died suddenly at the wheel of his car on Monday. Luckily his wife who was the passenger was able to get the car stopped without hurting any one. This yesterday afternoon I find out my aunt (my mom's twin) has been given two weeks to live. Damn, life is fragile and right now I have just too much stress! I must hire a CFO to take some of this burden off of me. I have been itnterviewing but have not found the right person yet.

Blogging during business hours!!! Not good.

I despise what Maersk Line has done to me. They have given my company the absolute worst service I could ever hope for. Delayed ships, delayed containers, delayed trucks, terrible website that will not give me the information I need. I vow never to use Maersk Line again. We spend over $300,000 annually with them. You would think that I might get some respect. I cannot wait until our contract ends and will run screaming from them. It is difficult to put a number on what their shitty service has cost me but I am confident that it is well into the tens of thousands of dollars. for a small business that is not chump change. However, I can only assume that we are chump change to Maersk Line.

I had lunch with Lolo today. The school food is NOT TOO GOOD to say the least. I pick up my new used car tomorrow. It is a 2004 Volvo V70R with 80,000 miles. I just like Volvo station wagons.

Stress abounds at work. I need a beer.

Another boring post of miscellaneous ramblings

Last night was the first night for Atticus in his "Big Boy" bed. We purchased a mattress and boxsprings set for about $500. Thank Zeus the wife had a headboard, footboard and rails that she received when her grandmother passed. I don't even want to go into how much money we have spent over the past two months on stuff for the house. How about $30,000 worth?

Since the middle of July some of the big ticket items we have purchased:

3 Samsung flat screen TVs, 52", 40", 32"
1 Samsung Blu-Ray player
1 Whirlpool top of the line frontloading washer
1 Whirlpool top of the line steam dryer
1 Whirlpool French door, freezer on the bottom refrigerator
1 Whirlpool dishwasher
1 Bedroom suite - chest of drawers, bed & armoir
1 40th birthday party
6 outdoor wall lights
1 Water fountain
1 bird bath
30 rose bushes

I am sure that I have forgotten something. What the fuck. It is only money.

Adrienne started sleeping in her "Big Girl" bed about two weeks ago. It was kind of rough the first couple nights when she found out that she could get out of her bed when she wanted to.

Atticus on the other hand stayed put for the first night except that one time when he fell out of the bed.

The wife has signed up for classes to pursue a degree in nursing. I am all for her having a career outside of raising children. The only issue I have is that the house is always a wreck now. Clutter abounds in almost every room and it is continuous. There are countless piles of clothes, toys and various other shit all throughout the house. Every flat surface has some type of clutter on it- papers, diapers, sippy cups, toys, pacifiers, art, you name it.

I can't come down too hard on the wife because of this. She doesn't have the time to do everthing that she is doing now and keep a clean house. Plus, she was never a "neat" person to begin with. I remember back in 1996 when we first met. I saw her closet in her room and as the wave of shoes, clothes and other various shit came crashing out of the close, I thought to myself "Damn, that is a messy closet."

So what I am getting to with this is the question: What the hell is our house going to look like when the wife is taking class and studying on top of all the other shit she does with the kids. We really need someone to come in and clean the clutter on a daily basis. Now we have someone clean the house weekly. The clutter instantly returns within a day or two. I guess I will have to figure out how to afford a maid.

The wife took the kids to church. She has not put pressure on me to go. This makes me happy. It will certainly strain our marriage if she starts demanding that I go. I have given in to raising our children as christians. Unfortunately due to where we live (small town in the bible belt) there are not any good options for a secular education so our kids will go to a christian school. I went there and I turned out ok, hopefully my children will be as enlightened. Of course I didn't think for myself about religion until I was well out of college. I just hope they can have a critical eye.

Can't sleep

For the third night in a row now I have woken up about 4 hours into my sleep and cannot go back to sleep. This really sucks. There is just too much shit in my head- too much shit to do at work.

Austin is for Atrial Fibrillation

So here I am in Austin, TX. I have searched out to be what I consider to be the best doctor to help me with my Atrial Fibrillation condition. His name is Dr. Andrea Natale and he has just come to Austin from The Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Natale is world renowned for developing some of the techniques used to treat atrial fibrillation.

I just walked from my hotel to the Clay Pit, an Indian restaurant. It was delicious, I had the Jeera Sang with Lamb. It is a spinach curry- excellent. The problem was that it was a Texas-sized portion and I got too full too fast. I didn't want to waste any so I ate the whole damn thing.

Another thing I have noticed is that Austin is a college town and the St. David's Medical Center is adjacent to the University of Texas at Austin. I was rudely reminded that the only thing fair is life is a dog's ass... and that is in fair view.

If life were fair I would no longer be attracted to women other than my wife. I kinda hoped that when I turned 40 last week that I could look at a hot mama with the same indifference that I have when I browse Southern Living magazine. Unfortunately, that just ain't so. So I lead the life of a tortured man. Being here just makes it worse.

Add on to this torture the fact that the wife had a partial hysterectomy a week ago so I will get none in the next five weeks. It kinda adds up to life not being fair at all on the biological attraction end of things.

But then I always have my children to bring me back to earth. Nothing else is as heartwarming and wonderful in my life as they are. I just need to focus on them and my job... which is pretty much what I have exclusively been doing for the past four years.

Well, gotta go read up more on what I need to know tomorrow for my appointment with Dr. Natale.

Yeah, whatever

Lolo now is getting oral ulcers. The twins now are pretty much understanding most of what we tell them and they really are communicating with us. They are pretty much talking now.

AFib Strikes Again

Well it has been a little over a year but it happened again. After an awesome meal of German food last night to celebrate the wife's birthday and a good night's rest the wife and I took an energetic stroll this morning. Granted I am out of shape and have not trained in over two years and am seriously in need of cardiovascular exercise, but we walked very briskly for an hour.

I mixed up my soy protein shake like normal with crushed ice. After downing it I went into atrial fibrillation. This really sucks. I am supposed to have a board meeting on Monday morning then hop a plane for Dallas to visit customers. Now all that is shot to shit. I will be in the hospital getting thousands of volts shot through my body to stop and restart my heart- hopefully resulting in normal sinus rhythm. The last time i had to have the cardioversion was April 4, 2007. It lasted more than a year this time but I am taking propafenone 3 times a day. Looks like it is time for me to get serious about another ablation surgery.

The wife and I did the video on demand thing last night and watched the movie "Savage Grace" with Julianne Moore. That was one fucked up movie and what makes it worse is that it is a true story. Basically this chick is really psycho and unstable and is married to this rich dude. He leaves her for a younger woman. As a result the unstable woman latches on to her homosexual son and does 3somes with him and ends up having sex with him. If my mother looked like Julainne Moore I might consider it.

So the son stabs his mother with a knife in the kitchen and calls the cops and then orders chinese food and sits down to eat with his dead mother on the floor.

That was one fucked up movie.

Fecal Fanatics

The wife took the kids up to our mountain house for a little mini vacation last week. She has large balls to take the three hellions all by herself for the extended period of time she did. Adrienne who is two had diarrhea on the slide at the playground.

The next day the wife took the three hellions to the brand new YMCA close to our mountain house. While they were all splashing around in the pool Lolo left three logs in the pool. Because of this the pool had to be closed. So the wife slinked out with three kids screaming to get back into the pool.

Looks like Lolo is still stuck in the anal stage.

Lolo loves to read the book A to Z by Sandra Boynton. She recognizes every letter and can tell me what each letter sounds like. For better than half of the letters of the alphabet she can tell me another word that starts with the letter. For example the books first page has a picture of an Aardvark Admiring himself in the mirror. I ask her what other word starts with A and she always says "Alyssa" which is the name of her best friend.

Adrienne can count to ten and she has started reading the book Brown Bear to me. Not everything is intelligible but she definitely knows what each animal is.

Rejected

It has been at least two weeks since I got any. The wife and the kids were away for 4 days. Tonight the wife asks me

"can I get a pass on sex tonight?"

Being the loving, patient but hornier than a billy goat husband I am I said yes.

I wish she were in the mood more often.

I am just happy that my hand isn't broken.

Retard

John Hagee is a retard.

Bluegrass Buddies

I took Lolo to the largest Bluegrass festival in the world over last weekend. I was told that there were over 80,000 people in and out of the festival last weekend. I paid about $50 bucks to get us in and spent most of the time no soaking in the music but on the playground. Just goes to prove that I would walk the plank for Lolo.

My little niece turned 1 over the weekend and had just started walking. She walks several steps to either of her parents. My nephew Lucas was covered from head to toe is dirt and mud after playing about two hours on the playground- just the way he likes it.

Atticus demanded was a peckerhead at dinner tonight. The wife had cooked tortellini which they ate yesterday and put it in front of Atticus. He swept it to the side and said "No Like" and started screaming for "Pizza." Doesn't he know that Wednesday is pizza night?

Adrienne and Atticus are really talking a lot now. They can tell us what they want for the most part. A good part of their speech is still non discernible but there is even more now what we can understand. They love to say "Daddy have pooie." That is their favorite thing to say and laugh about. All three of them love to chime in when any one of them blurts out the saying. I always reply with "Nooooo Daddy doesn't have pooie"

I just got back from upstairs where Lolo had fallen out of bed and hit her head on a stool. She has a nice bump right between her eyes. Lots of tears involved with that one.

My (the wife's) Volvo V70 T5 has about 186,000 miles on it. I hope it lasts forever.

The business is now in the middle of undergoing C-TPAT certification implementation. Fortunately we are still making money in the environment of the media scaring teh shit out of everyone! The $3.50/gallon gas has been good for our business. The more oil that is drilled the more money we tend to make. Of course certification in C-TPAT will lower our initial profits but I am confident that it will pay more dividends in the end.

Temporary Sanity

This is what Adrienne and Atticus look like when they are not trying to wipe each other off the face of the earth.

A family that bathes together stays together

Lolo and her cousin Lucas love to take baths together. We had a big time in Charleston, SC two weekends ago.

Cousin Lucas

This is my nephew Lucas. He is quite a nuclear isotope of energy. He doesn't like clothes - we were just unlucky to catch him with a shirt on in this image. He loves to celebrate his birthday at least three times a month every month. Here is celebrating and his cousin Lolo was in the middle of a melt down for unknown reasons.

Lolo is growing up

Lolo is now four years old. Last week when I was out of the country on a business trip she learned on her own how to "pump" on the swing. She is a very sweet and well-behaved girl who has a very competitive relationship with her best friend Alyssa. This picture was taken on a trip to Charleston, SC that I took with my parents to a wedding.

Lolo's first time skiing

I took a day off of work yesterday and took Lolo to the mountains about an hour away. She was pretty excited about going skiing and I was feeling kind of guilty about being out of the office but I had my trusty crackberry with me so I was completely attached as normal.

At first I put Lolo between my legs and just slowly skied down the learner slope. This slope has a long flexible flat belt where you ski directly on it and ride it standing up to get to the top of the slope. After about two or three times of this it became apparent to me that I was not a very good snow skiing teacher and a four year old needed better instruction than I could provide.

We stopped after about 30 minutes to grab some lunch. I also bought Lolo a one hour private lesson. When I told her that I was going to get her a lesson she wined that she didn't want a lesson. So I told her that the lesson was going to be for me and that she could help me learn to ski. This actually worked.

She acutally took right to the instructor - Alex. He began by grabbing the tips of her skis and pushing them together to make the wedge shape while he was skiing backwards. They went down the learner slope the three times with me keeping my distance behind them.

Then they went straight for the beginner slope with the charilift. She was having a good time and I could see that she really didn't need me hovering nearby. So I took off up the mountain to the top and skied down the watery slush. Once of that was enough for me.

I found Lolo and Alex going down the slope. Lolo was doing very well for a four year old and she was actually skiing all by herself. She was still having difficulty doing the snowplow. The conditions made it more difficult for her to keep the wedge shape with her skis. It takes more strength to keep ones feet in the snowplow position. So Lolo was doing very well for age and for the conditions.

Needless to say we were both wiped out after getting home. I am getting so old- my back is killing me. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to being able to go again but it won't be until next year.

Party Till I Bleed

After the insane xmas festivities I tried to get some work done during the day only to be called home to the wife who could not move. She was standing by Atticus' bed with tears in her eyes. She had excruciating pain shooting through her back and could not move. Apparently she had bent over to retrieve our 18 month old son's bottle from his crib (he can't go to sleep in his crib without a bottle). We took her to the emergency room and the doctor quickly diagnosed the problem as muscular not a slipped or herniated disc.

The doctor gave the wife some oxycodone and a prescrip for the same and a prescrip for muscle relaxers. We came home and the wife just had to take it easy so I did a lot of taking care of the kids and my parents and her parents helped out as well.

The wife went to her family doctor today and got his opinion- no reason for an MRI- the problem is most likely muscular and if she did have an MRI and they found something they would not do anyting anyway.

Thanks to the wife's still healing back our night consisted of putting the twins to bed (Lolo is at the in-laws) getting take out Mexican food and watching some TV. The wife has gone to bed and I will stay up to watch the arrival of the new year. We had planned to go out and ring in the new year with several other married couples but that will have to wait until next year.

One Messed Up Xmas Eve- Thanks Ina Garten

So the night before last we took the family to my parent's house for food and the opening presents tradition. The wife had been watching Barefoot Contessa on Food TV and saw a recipe for Pomegranate Cosmopolitains and decided to mix up a batch for the holidays.

The recipe only called for 4 cups of vodka, 1 cup of Cointreau, one cup of pomegranate juice and some lime juice. Drinking one of these is pretty much like shooting an entire glass of vodka. So when we arrived at the parental units house and served the cosmopolitains everyone of legal drinking age sipped on them slowly except for my 77 year old father who rarely drinks more than one beer in a month. He slurped down two pretty quickly and became very jolly and loud.

We were running out of pomegranate cosmos so since I had not consumed any I drove back to my house to gather more of the ingredients to make the rocket fuel. When I got back it was time to eat.

During the sloth-fest of dead cow flesh the patriarch downed another cosmom. So my brother and I had to help the old man get up from his chair and walk the fifteen feet to his recliner. Where he asked for another drink and was granted his wish.

We then preceeded to open presents with a 4 year old, 2 year old, two 19 month olds and an 8 month old screaming and ripping paper to shreds. It was an orgy of gift receiving activity. The discarded shreds of paper were thrown into the fireplace. By this time the old man was asleep in the chair (which is pretty normal for him) and completely oblivious to the ear splitting screams and cries.

After about 30 minutes of this the wife had to go to the truck to get a sucker for a screaming child claiming unfairness in receiving. A car pulls up screeching its tires a man hops our and screams that the chimney is on fire. The wife runs in and repeats the exciting news to me. I scramble to grab a ladder and a hose to check out the fire. Fortuntatly it was a very minor fire and it had completely extinguished itself by the time I got to the chimney.

So back in the house we all went well for about 3 minutes when the old man stood up and immediately collapsed hitting the corner of the brick hearth. I immediately shook him yelling "DAD". He was non responsive so with the knowledge of his past cardiac health I immediately thought he had a heart attack. fortunately my brother kept a cool head (EMT trained) and checked his breathing an pulse. Mother had already called 911. My brother quickly ascertained that he was berating and had a strong pulse and it became obviouis just how trashed the old man was. He simply blacked out when he stood up because he was wasted. He passed out!

After the EMT crew arrived and did their job they helped us get the drunken old man up to his bed. Fortunately he was able to communicate and help walk some.

In short, it was a lot of fun with the family and the drink but it scared the shit out of me. I thought I had lost my father.

Spawn of Satan or Docile Toddler?

Destruction, havoc and chaos come in such small packages.

Over the past two days Atticus has broken the wife's favorite Christopher Radko christmas ornament, one of Lolo's ornaments (a pink ball with white fuzz), he did a repeat of the cell phone dunking incident with the cordless phone in the toilet. The he proceeded to stuff his mouth so full of goldfish that he couldn't breathe and choked immediately followed by voluminous vomiting on the carpet. He has unscrewed the filter from my camera lens and put it somewhere.

Superwife is really disappointed because she is not going to be able to have the kind of Christmas she wants because of him. We can't put any ornaments on the tree or any decorations within his reach. He has learned how to scoot the stool up to the counter tops anywhere in the kitchen and have his way with anything on the counter like meat cleavers, glass shards, chainsaws, etc.

His favorite past time is to play in the sink. Today he figured out that he can actually get in the sink and turn on the water.

His damn pacifier cord stinks so damn bad because of it is constantly soaked with drool and saliva and it mildews and molds and makes me want to puke.

Spirituality Found

I have finally found my spiritual calling. I no longer have to fear death.

Kid Update

The wife is out for a well deserved weekend away and I have Adrienne and Atticus. Lolo is with the in-laws.

The schedule of the twins: 7:00 wake up, dress, breakfast. On Mondays and Wednesdays the twins go to their school from 9:00 to 11:30. Lolo goes five days per week. She is there from 8:30 to 3:00 on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. She stays until noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Lolo has dance on Wednesday afternoons. The twins have swim lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. As does Lolo.

Twins get one nap in the afternoon usually from 12:30 to 4:30. Dinner is usually at 5:30 followed by a bath and bed at 7:00. Lolo gets to bed at 8:00.

Needless to say it is buys and completely wild.

Milestones: on September 21, 2007 Lolo has been sleeping without a pullup and has not urinated in the bed for about two weeks.
On August 22, 2007 Adrienne can say "Daddy" (as she has been doing for a long time), "mama", "outside", "ball", "Akeys" (for Atticus), "Fla" (for flower), "apple" (for any fruit). She can also blow her nose when you put a tissue to her nose.

On October 10, Adrienne can say and point to "eyes", "nose", and "teeth". She has been doing this for about a week and we think Mimi taught her.

Comic moment: March 15, 2007
Lolo: "Daddy, why did you take your shoes off?"
Me: "So I could get comfortable."
Lolo looking at her bare feet: "I took my shoes off so I can pick toe jam."

I am not getting any exercise and am trying to not eat as much meat in an attempt to lower my cholesterol level. The last blood test I had done for a life insurance policy indicated that my total level was 190 up from a year earlier at 180.

About time for a "Family" Day

I took the day off work and took the boat and the whole fam damily to the lake. My boat is finally running. The last time we tried this about three weeks ago we ended up floating close to the put-in with no running engine. This time the boat worked flawlessly. It helps to run the boat at lest once every two years.

Atticus and Adrienne and especially Lolo loved the water. We went to Lake James where the water is clear and cool and the scenery is amazing. All three of the hellions took a nap as we drove around. The drone of the motor put them right to sleep. Atticus fought it but he finally snoozed. We found a cove that was completely undeveloped and anchored and swam for at least an hour and a half.

Poor Lolo got very chaffed where the strap from her lifejacked went between her legs. You would think that someone would design those straps better so that wouldn't happen.

A fun time was had by all and we need to do it again very soon.

Youngerns Update

Our routine:

Lolo normally wakes at 5:30 to 6:30 and the twins normally wake up at 6:30.
The wife gets up with them feeds them breakfast and lets me sleep.
I take Lolo to church camp at 9:00.
The wife takes twins walking and they usually take a nap.
The wife feeds twins lunch.
I pick up Lolo at church camp at 1:00 and bring her home.
1:30 all children take a nap
4:00 to 5:00 children wake up from nap
5:30 to 6:00 the wife prepares dinner for children and husband
6:00 to 7:00 husband arrives
6:45 bath time for twins
7:00 sleep time for twins
8:15 to 8:30 Lolo bath, brush teeth, dry hair, pee pee, put on pull-up, put on pajamas, Dad reads book (right now A to Z is her favorite)
8:31 Mommy sings a song (usually Jesus Loves Me i think (much to my dismay))
8:32 Lolo asks mommy "I'm going to sneeze a yittle but and cough a yittle bit. Will that wake up Adrienned and Attikissy?"

Christianity Explained

I can't claim this as my own... I gleaned it from a response to a YouTube video but it pretty much sums it up.

Christianity: The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Makes perfect sense.

Or maybe I like this because I just drank 3 beers.

Who knows.

Michael Vick is a retard

Can anyone disagree?

Scientologists are retards

enough said

Atticus walks

Atticus has finally started to walk more than crawl. He still has major attitude and always complains and cries when he doesn't get what he wants.

He hit Lolo in the head yesterday with the handle of a short broom made for kids. London really cried on that one.

London has been staying up nights after we put her to bed. She will get back up out of bed and turn on her light and play in her room. She might do this for another hour (her bedtime is 8:30) and then get up at about 5:30 in the morning.

London has been taking swimming lessons and is doing very well. She is at the eel level at the YMCA which is the same class she has been in for about four sessions now. She is still too small to progress on to another more advanced class.

The wife's bloodwork came back from her physical. Her LDL, HDL, overall cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure are all fantastic. Even though she is overweight she is extremely healthy when you look at those numbers- much more so than me.

Adrienne has been sick. We thought she had an ear infection and the wife took her to the Urgent Care this weekend. They dianosed her with an ear infection and gave her a prescrip for Amoxicillin. After two days of taking that she broke out in little bumps all over her torso and back. That took antoher trip to the doctor to be told that her ear infection was cleared up. The doctor seemed to think that she did not have an ear infection at all because it would take longer than two days for Amoxicillin to clear up the ear infection. He surmised that is must have been some sort of viral infection that went away and that the bumps were an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin.

I wrote my first check against the promissory note that I took to buy 1/2 of the business I am running.

Still not getting enough sleep or exercise.

Working too much.

Someone has to cover the costs of raising this family!!!

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.

Twins turn One

We had a rather fun party this past Saturday afternoon to celebrate the twins first year out of the womb. My sister flew down from Indianapolis and both of my brothers and their families showed up as well as both sets of grandparents and many friends.

Adrienne is walking. She is not walking exclusively but she will stand up and waddle over to something if it convenient. She can walk across the room if she wants to but she will mostly still crawl if she wants to get there quickly.

Atticus is taking steps but definitely not walking.

They had their year checkup at the doctor and did very well with the three shots. We waited for what seemed to be an eternity for the doctor to show up and then for the nurse to return with the shots. All this was happening during their morning nap time so they were very tired and grouchy.

After I got home from work and we ate I put out the new water slide that mom got for the kids. Lolo absolutely loved it. She would sqeal with excitement every time she slid down the slide. Of course the twins had to get in on the action so they crawled over and up to the top of the hill as well getting completely dirty with leaves, bark, mulch and mud. On top of this they both were soaked from head to toe.

We filled up a large pan with warm water and gave them all three baths. I had to change the water once it became so dirty from all the mess all over them.

Since they are a year old we tried to put them to sleep without a bottle. It was no problem for Adrienne, she went straight to sleep without any fuss. Of course Atticus screamed continuously for about 45 minutes so we gave in and gave him a bottle of milk and he went right to sleep.

Adrienne Takes Steps

Adrienne took a few steps yesterday. She is standing very regularly on her own accord without holding on to anything. She took several steps to get to the sofa, to a toy, and to her little lawnmower on the tennis court last night.

Atticus really doesn't want to walk yet. That is fine with us.

As our friend with 7 year old twins told me.....

Push them down!!!

Atticus wants to walk

Atticus is standing on his own unsupported fairly regularly when it is convenient for him. He actually took one step today when Mom and Dad were here. I actually didn't see it but he took one step and I think he really didn't realize it.

Beautiful day today- sunny and breezy. I hung out with Lolo, Adrienne and Atticus on the tennis courts. We took all three of them to Sams club to buy diapers and potting soil.

Lolo was a flower girl in Kristy's wedding last night. She was so damn cute that everyone kept talking about her. She did fine walking down the ailse purposefully dropping rose petals one by one and blocking out the ring bearer when he tried to stay beside her.

I was sitting down at the very front so I could keep her occupied during the ceremony since Tamara was a bridesmaid. The first thing she said to me was that she needed to go pee pee. I told her that she was going to have to hold it.

When it came time to walk back down the aisle out of the church she took one look at all the people looking at her and ran back to Tamara. She ended up walking out with Tamara. She was the hit of the wedding.

Atticus Steps

Atticus took about two steps unaided yesterday. It was to no big fanfare. He just needed to get around my knee. He let go of the sofa and stepped one, two and then put his hand back on the sofa as if it were no big deal. He did this a couple of more times yesterday for Tamara and for Marty. I would not say he is walking now because he still has not repeated that feat as of today.

Just another milestone.

Adrienne has been sick with vomiting and diarrhea. We have been giving her pediatric electrolyte formula and suppositories that are supposed to settle her stomach.

Trip From Hell

Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out… especially if it involves air travel….and most especially if that air travel is in Central America. The trip I had planned was a rather simple one. I was to leave Charlotte on Monday and fly to Guatemala City via Dallas on American and then on to San Pedro Sula via Taca and then back home to Charlotte via Miami on American. The trip was to attend a trade show in Guatemala City and our factory in Hondruas.

It just so happened that a particularly nasty nor’easter was in the process of wrecking its way through the northeast. One of my employees was supposed to catch a flight out of Charlotte the same morning of the same Monday that I was to leave.

He never made it through security. The airport was so jammed with delayed and stranded travelers that he ended up driving from Charlotte to Michigan. Charlotte is a USAirways hub and he was supposed to be flying USAirways. Fortunately for me (or possibly unfortunately) my flight was on American and the plane was arriving from Dallas so they did not have the same issues with delays and the airport was somewhat calm when I arrived. The lines for USAirways check in were insane but the American check in was a breeze.

So I sat at the gate and waited. The flight arriving from Dallas was a little late in getting to the gate and we departed about ten minutes late. I didn’t think much about it even though I only had a forty minute layover in Dallas before I was to catch my flight to Guatemala.

So we landed in Dallas and taxied to the gate. We stopped on the tarmac and the pilot announced that our gate was still occupied by the previous flight and that we were going to have to wait until the plane cleared out. At this point I still had about thirty minutes before my flight left for Guatemala.

Twenty minutes later we were still sitting on the tarmac waiting for the gate. I got on the phone and called American Airways who informed me that the flight to Guatemala was delayed and that there was still a chance that I could make that flight. If not they were going to send me Miami on a flight that left in another hour.

So I ran off the plane. I ran through the terminal, I ran to the shuttle train to get to the D gate from our A gate. I ran off the shuttle to the gate but I already knew that I had missed the flight.

The nice woman at the gate booked me on the 7:00 flight to Miami and then on a noon flight to Guatemala the next day. After I get my boarding pass from her I go to the departure status monitors to see that the flight to Miami is delayed by two hours- it departed at 9:15 pm and arrived in Miami at 12:55 am. Great!!

So to Miami I went.

Off the plane in Miami I went to the first available American Airlines agent who booked me a hotel room at the downtown Radisson along with vouchers for transportation to the hotel and back and room and food. I got to the Radisson about 2:30 am.

I didn’t sleep too much and got up about 8:00 am and enjoyed the excellent breakfast buffet at the Radisson. I tried not to stuff myself with foods that cause premature death.

I got back to the airport and boarded my flight without any incident. The two and a half hours to Guatemala went smoothly and getting though customs and immigration was a breeze in Guatemala. I was surprised that I didn’t even have to wait on the shuttle to take me to the Grand Tikal Hotel more than thirty minutes.

I met Robert at the hotel and immediately got some food at one of the restaurants in the Hotel. It was kind of like an upscale Asian Stir Fry. I had a grilled ostrich filled that was really good. Internet access was $10 per day and you had to take your laptop to the geek wannabes and they changed the TCP/IP settings in your computer so you could get access so I just used Robert’s computer since he had already been through that exercise.

I failed to print out the one file that I needed to take to the show that outlaid the specification of all the fabric that I was wanting to source in Central America. So I went to the business center in the hotel to print out the legal sized sheet to give to prospective suppliers. After twenty minutes of the business center employees trying to get one of their computers to print out the very simple legal landscape document we gave up and hit the show.

First we met Karen Facusse with Rio Lindo in Tegucigalpa. They might be able to make some of our lighter fabrics. Then we met with another company based in Guatemala who believe that they can do all of our fabrics. I can’t recall the company’s name and I am too lazy to look for their business cards.

The hotel where we stayed called Gran Tikal Futura is a large hotel with a very open and spacious lobby that is 10 stories high all enclosed from the elements. The elevators ascend inside this large space. The Hotel is attached to two malls and the exposition center where the show took place. The expo center was smaller than most of the ones I have been to in the US but for us it seems that it can be a very successful show.

Robert and I walked across the elevated walkway past the beggars and candy vendors to go to a steakhouse called La Estancia. I had steak in wine sauce and it was pretty damn good. That blew my red meat for the week.

The next day we hit the show again and talked with a company that can make our knit wrists for us in Guatemala. That could be promising as well. We finally caught the shuttle back to the airport about 3:30 pm for our 5:30 flight to San Pedro Sula. The line at the Taca counter in the airport in Guatemala was the posterchild for inefficiency and chaos. We did eventually get checked in and to the gate.

We boarded the ATR dual turboprop plane for the uneventful one hour flight in a steambath to San Pedro Sula. After we landed in San Pedro Sula it really started to get interesting.

Robert breezed through immigration without incident. When I handed my passport to the young immigration official, he looked closely at my expiration date and said “no… tres meses.” He called over his supervisor who took me aside and started to explain something to me in Spanish. I began to piece it together when Robert walked within sight and I called him over to help translate. In retrospect, this was a very large mistake.

The immigration supervisor began to explain to Robert that Honduras does not allow travelers into its country if their passport expires within three months. My passport expires July 14, 2007 and today was April 18, 2007. Robert, being Robert, got very stern in his tone of voice and said a bunch of stuff to the immigration supervisor in Spanish which I could not follow. The immigration supervisor told us that I would have to stay overnight in a motel and then go directly back from whence I came the next day and subsequently confiscated my passport and boarding pass

Then I look over at one of the two baggage claim carousels and see a total of three pieces of luggage that came off the plane. Twenty minutes later after all passengers from the small plane had gotten through immigration and the carousel had been stopped we realized that all the passengers baggage did not make the flight with us from Guatemala. Yes that is right, there were only three pieces of luggage on the flight with about forty passengers. Wouldn’t you think that the airline employees loading the plane in Guatemala would notice that something was wrong when there were forty passengers and only three pieces of luggage to load on the plane?

So we wait in line again. While waiting in line I recognized someone. It was Russ Pierce. He was on the flight with me. He had set up our first production control software and pretty much raped us for about $40,000. Regardless, I am still very cordial to him when I see him (I had also run into him on a flight to Mexico City a year ago) even though he is still kind of an asshole.

Robert filled out all the paperwork for tracking the lost luggage and the lady who was helping trace the bags called her supervisor to come talk to me about my situation. While we were waiting to fill out the paperwork Robert’s wife Sara called and robert explained what was going on. She then called Taca to find out what was happening. Sara called Robert back and told him that the representative she talked to at Taca informed her that the immigration supervisor was going to let me in the country but then Robert “yelled’ at him and pissed him off so he retaliated by enforcing the law.

Robert’s take on the situation is that he did not yell at the immigration supervisor but that the immigration supervisor was trying to extort some money from me in the form of a bribe and since we did not offer any money, he enforced the law. I believe this could be true however Robert certainly did not help the situation with the tone of voice and the attitude he gave the immigration supervisor. I believe that if Robert had been nice and cordial to the immigration supervisor I would have been allowed into the country even though I was four days past the official deadline.

When Sara told Robert this, he certainly yelled at her. Robert has this problem. He leads me to believe that thinks everyone but him is an idiot and that they need to be controlled. That is how he runs his factory. But it really fucks thing up in situations like this. I really needed to be able to speak Spanish during this situation.

The Taca supervisor soon arrived. He was a very young man by the name of David who spoke very good English. I explained to him my situation and how I was going to miss my meetings the next day and how I felt that Taca Airlines was responsible because they did not check my passport expiration date.

So he told me that he would arrange for me to stay in a hotel and that Taca would pay for it. He said that he was very busy at the check in and would try to get a “monitor” from immigration so I could leave the airport. Apparently this monitor was to shadow me so I would not skip out and flee without my passport.

Robert took the paperwork for reclaiming the bags and left the airport with his wife Sara at about 7:30. He gave me his cell phone to use. Robert and Sara went home where Robert dropped off Sara, got some gas, got some food and returned to the airport.

In the meantime our bags had been rerouted through San Salvador and arrived at about 8:30. Robert arrived with the food about 9:00 and while I was eating my “chicken whopper” (yuck) David arrived with my monitor and explained to me that he had gotten a room for me at the Banana Inn in La Lima and had booked a flight for be back to Guatemala. I requested for him to check at the Gran Hotel Sula where I had my reservations. He called but said they had given away my reservation to someone else and that the Intercontinental was full.

Taca paid for the taxi to take my monitor and me to the Banana Inn. The monitor’s name was Roberto and he was a fresh-faced young kid who spoke pretty broken English. Robert followed us to the hotel which is in the Zona Americana in La Lima, only a five minute drive from the airport. By the time we got to the Banana Inn it was about 9:45. I got settled into the room and Robert and I talked business. I gave him the $200 thermostats and samples that were sent with me. Robert took off and I had to call him back once to give him machine parts. I stayed up and watched some stupid movie about this dude named Blade who hunted and killed vampires. I think Blade was Wesley Snipes.

The Banana Inn did have wireless internet for free!

I stayed up until about 1:00 am so I really didn’t get much sleep. We went back to the airport at 5:15 so I could try to catch the American flight back to the US of A. Roberto escorted me back via Taca paid Taxi to the airport where I waited in another line to try to get my ticket changed. After paying the $110 fee they changed my flight and gave me a boarding pass on the 7:00 am American flight to Miami.

After checking my bags, my escort Roberto handed over my passport and walked me to the area where you go upstairs to pay $33 for the privilege of leaving Honduras. He then started telling me something about a Hotel security fee that had not been paid. He really wasn’t making much sense with his poor English. What I understood him saying was that the Hotel was charging me a $50 security fee and that I needed to pay him.

I informed him that it was Taca’s fault that I had to leave the country early and that they were paying for all my expenses during my brief stay in Honduras. He backed down and said that it was ok and that he would go talk to the Taca supervisor.

That is how it works in Central America. The culture is one of corruption and bribery. There was not security fee. Roberto just wanted me to give him $50. Thank goodness I haven’t run into a lot of that in business.

Maybe I should look on the bright side of things. I guess Roberto could have taken me somewhere and said that I wasn’t going anywhere until I coughed up the money. I could have had to go back to Guatemala and then fend for myself getting back to the US. It cold have been worse.

Toofy

Atticus got his first tooth on March 6. We took him and Adrienne to the doctor for their 9 month checkup and I noticed it coming in on his upper gum. Yesterday he got another tooth on his upper gum. He is going to be one goody looking kid. To buck teeth and no teeth on his lower jaw. Adrienne has had her two lower teeth for quite a while now.

The kids can continued to be sick, sick, sick. London has bronchitis and an ear infection along with painful earaches. Atticus has a very deep yucky sounding cough and Adrienne has an ear infection.

At least Adrienne is always happy. She is such a happy baby. Then there is her brother- always pissed off. He crawls around and cries constantly.

These three kids are taking so many damn antibiotics that pretty soon all bacteria will be resistant to all the antibiotics. I can't count the number of Omnicef and amoxicillin prescriptions we have gone through.

London absolutely hates some of her medicine and we have to constantly threaten her with going back to the hospital to get her to take it. It is a dirty tactic but it works, by Mars. London has been absent from the Montessori school for over a week now. She missed her VCUG because she was sick and now it is rescheduled for March 15.

The wife has been going insane with all three at home all day long. Yesterday she was upstairs and had left Adrienne by herself downstairs and the next thing she knew Adrienne was crawling down the upstairs hall. She had climbed up the staircase in the kitchen by herself and had made it successfully without incident. At 9 months old if she slipped and fell it could have killed her. I am to blame for a lot of the problem because I have not installed the gates at the bottom of the stairs. We jam a chair up against the bottom of the staircase but obviously Adrienne has figured out how to get around the chair.

I am having so many PVC's (premature ventricular complexes) that can't drink. I really miss my daily glass of wine and I miss microbrews too.

Racked out in Reno

This is what I wrote on my Crackberry when laying in the emergency room in Reno.

Laying in St. Marys hospital in Reno with an IV in my left arm hooked up to an EKG and I am pissed off about being here. I went into Atrial Fibrillation between the time we took off from Dallas and when we got lost in the rental van. That jackass Brad took us about 40 miles out of the way before we figuted out that we were going the wrong way.
I started feeling like shit in the van and was being uncharachterstically quiet so the guys wondered what was wrong with me.

So it turned out to be a good thing that we had to go back through Reno to get to the house North of lake Tahoe.

Jim dialed the GPS on his phone and took us Direcctly to the hospital.

The cute chick who saw me first told me that I didn't sound like I was a resident of Reno. Dammit! I try hard not to sound like a hick but it obviously doesn't work.
My blood pressure was too high and my pulse was 112. I waited to be abmitted while the guys went to get some food.

When I was filling out the paperwork to admit me I all of the sudden went back into sinus Rhythm. This was confirmed when the got me in a bed and hooked me up to the EKG.
So here I lie in sinus rhythm with an irregular beat every 20 seconds or so waiting. At least I have already talked to the doctor. She told me that they were going to call my cardiologist at Baptist.

If I had to guess, I would suspect that there is not anything they can do unless I go back into AFib and stay there