Finally, the Silver Hammer is home...

I FINALLY got my truck back from the body shop today. It's been 22 days. Of course that was extended because of Veterans Day and the Thanksgiving holiday...so it really shouldn't have taken that long, but I'm thankful to have it back. The quality of work looks good too. I'm glad I picked a good shop to take it to because I randomly selected that shop from the yellow pages. Whew.

Having two wrecks within two months of each other increases my paranoia whenever I drive anywhere. I hope I get over that soon.

But anyway...be careful when you tell people 'surprise me'. The wife takes me over to pick up my truck this afternoon. She's leaving the body shop and offers to pick up a movie for the night and asks me for any suggestions. I really didn't care, or I should say, I really had no preference because there's nothing that stood out in my mind that said 'ooh ooh ooh, I really want to watch ____'. So I tell her "surprise me".

Then she laughed and told me my opinion didn't count and I told her I wanted a comedy.

Well, sure enough, she did as I bid. I was surprised and laughed. Our movie selections were 'Labyrinth' and 'A Night at the Museum'. Museum was funny, it had it's moments...overall it was good. Who knew Atilla the Hun was sometimes bilingual? Labyrinth however....let me just say that I missed it when it came out in 1986. And back then I would have more easily forgotten the images of David Bowie in tights. Now as an adult, the image of David Bowie in tights is burned onto my retinas and it just may give me nightmares tonight.

why yes, that is a REEL lawnmower

So today, the day after thanksgiving, I cut the grass. I feel like one of those loon's obsessed over my yard and how it looks, but really, I limit my obsessive compulsive behavior to other activities. And for all of you nay-sayers, who said I'd be giving up my reel lawnmower by Memorial day or by the end of the summer, I'd just like to point out that it's the day after thanksgiving and Rocky's calling it an end to his first season. As of right now, Rocky is brushed off and stored in the shed and at some point this winter I'll take him apart and sharpen his blades to ready him for season 2.

And I've figured out where I want to plant my tomatoes this spring, which means I'll have to get rid of what's there now. So, does anybody want these shrubs? They are free of charge... and if you are nice and bring me a 6 pack of fancy beer, I'll even dig them up for you.



I think I'll try and find a good salsa recipe, because I want to plant tomatoes, green peppers and maybe some jalapeños. What else goes in salsa?

hitching a ride

I'm still without the Silver Hammer. I talked to they guy at the auto body shop on Wednesday morning and he was just starting work on it. 2800 bucks worth of damage. I'm glad I called the fuzz and didn't just convince the other driver to let it go like I was trying to do. Maybe now I'll learn to be more patient while driving. I think I have. So for now and through next week I'll be hitching rides home from co-workers and borrowing the wife's station wagon.

politically correct is thrown out the window

**Disclaimer** I take full responsibility for the content of my blog, however, there are times when I'm telling a story that I repeat the low level comments of others I interact with throughout the day. These comments are not my own are only repeated for the full affect of the story. I in no way intentionally insult anyone on my blog, except for those who spread ignorance in the form of email forwards. (Ha, my disclaimer has a disclaimer.)

pre-p.s. - you'll know when to apply this disclaimer to my story.

Version 1, from Amanda:
Once upon a time I was driving to work and recalled how stunningly beautiful my wife is and I failed to notice the short bus in front of me, then crashed into it.

Version 2 of my morning commute, from another source:
Chicks was driving to work and is a gomer and zoned out and hit the short bus in front of him full of window-lickers.

Version 3, what really happened:
I was overly excited to get to work this morning, ahem, tailgating a local transportation agency's small bus (which is actually a Ford F-350 that has the van front end and holds about 15 passengers) and the other guy decided to turn as I was looking at the scenery and I crashed into him.

Nice.

Yea, and it's been 7 weeks and 2 days since my last wreck, 'cept this time I'm the bozo that gets cited. It's easy to remember since Xander is 6 weeks and 2 days old and I crashed a week before he was born. There are so many irritating things about this:
1) I'm still going to the chiropractor from my last car wreck
2) The stinking ticket is 110 bucks, plus a 500 dollar deductible
3) we just met with our financial advisor last night to go over where we should be allocating our funds --namely saving for Xander's Catholic education and here I go hosing up the works.
4) I'm just pissed off at myself for wrecking my truck (this is my first accident citation ---my last ticket was in the summer of 98...almost a whole decade)

Good things:
1) maybe now I'll learn to drive like a jerk and stop tailgating
2) I'm fine, the short bus driver is fine and so is the kid who was on the bus (he's just some HS kid).
3) Again, no one was hurt and hopefully the lessons will stick this time.

The Silver Hammer isn't really drivable because the bumper is buckled in and rubs on the tire when I turn left. I could just make 3 right turns instead, however sometimes turning left is necessary. I was able to force it back a bit with a pry bar, but I have to wait on the adjuster to look at it on Tuesday then hopefully it will get fixed shortly thereafter. So we are down to one set of wheels.

The whole version 2 of my story was killing me today; some folks were really ribbing me in a good natured way. For me there were only 2 ways to deal with it, curse and swear at the ribber or just let it go and laugh at myself because I'm only out 610 bucks and in the end it's only money and completely trivial. So after two temper tantrums at ribbers I was broken down and learned to laugh at myself for being a gomer and zoning out and rear ending a short bus with a caring driver and a considerate young teenager.

That whisker

So I'm going through my yearly farce of trying to grow a beard. It's going pretty well. I set the bar above poor and below mediocre and have successfully achieved mediocre. So keep this in mind as I tell this story.

So Amanda and I were cleaning up the house yesterday before her parents showed up. We were in a jolly old mood teasing each other, so I asked her to light some candles.

"Hey, go light some candles."

"You go light some candles."

"It's your stinky kid that we're covering up."

"Nuuh-uh."

"Here, chop chop." As I had her the aim in flame.

Then she points it at me and says, "I'll light THAT whisker on fire."

It was pretty funny.

Browns win!!

Can you believe it, the Browns have won 3 in a row! I have no idea when the last time this happened. What a great way to end a sunday evening.

We had a pretty relaxing fun day. Went to church, where Xander continues to be a good baby and not cry. He does a little grunting and some whimpering, but nothing that isn't solved with a pacifier. I wonder how long this will last?

We got some coffee and a muffin and took our sunday drive around town trying to learn the area. Yup, we are a couple in our 20's with a kid and we take sunday drives after church. Just aimless drives with no destination and the only limit we put on it is to be home in around 30 minutes.

Organized a couple of closets under my CFO's supervision.

The in-laws showed up and we hung out and had some fun. A's dad and I puttered around the house with me and we connected the water to the fridge so now we have an ice and water dispenser that works, just in time for the winter season!

I keep looking at the clock and thinking I had better hurry up and get to bed since it's so dark outside now.

Forwards kill me

So I get this email forwarded to me today. It really frustrated me. Read it for yourself.
**************************************

How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001!
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday
season with a commemorative first class holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your stamps at the post office.

To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know

*****************************************
Here are a few of my thoughts on it. Where did they get the idea that this is a Christmas stamp? It was released in September of this year.

All of the MUSLIM BOMBINGS. Muslims didn't commit the crimes, people committed the crimes. That reminds me of the homily from this past weekend (Luke 18:9-14). During Mass our priest concluded his homily to say that you should hate the sin, love the sinner. This email reminded me of that homily and I thought why not, hate the sin, love the sinner, respect the religion.

The USPS is doing the right thing.

We really bugs me about people and religion is the fact that people believe that their way is the only way. What do I say to that? Get over yourself!

I will not tolerate Muslim bashing for 1 second.

Practicing Christianity isn't a prerequisite to being a patriotic American.

I think I'll buy a book of these tomorrow. I'll see if they have any with menorahs on them and use those two stamp books for our Christmas cards.