Archive for category bitching

Back To Florida

August 18th, 2009 @ 3:18 pm - No Comments

I hate Florida. I have no problem saying it. Lived there twice. Both times couldn’t wait to move. Visit there all the time. Theme parks, family and friends all there. While I love all three of those things, I hate having to go to Florida to see them. Florida is America’s wang.

We were there already for our Disney trip in February. We were supposed to be there for Jeff’s wedding In April. And now we’re using our unused plane tickets to Ft. Meyers for Jeff’s wedding to get to another wedding in West Palm Beach. (so in a weird sort of way that kinda worked out for us, I suppose)

So as I prepare to head back to The Sunshine State tomorrow, I’m left wondering why I keep getting pulled back to such a horrible place.

I’ve got nothing else. Just wanted to mention I hate Florida and for some reason, always end up there.

Obamacare

August 13th, 2009 @ 2:59 pm - No Comments

Obama vs Mathematics

From the article:

The Congressional Budget Office’s mid-July “score” of the main House health-care bill puts the price tag at about $1 trillion over the next decade. But ten-year budgets, as even the CBO has warned in the past, are not reliable for assessing entitlement programs. Most of the spending in the House plan is phased in over several years, making the ten-year cost look deceptively small. Extending the budget window by just three years doubles the program’s cost to over $2 trillion.

And that’s just a start. The most comprehensive view of a program’s projected shortfall comes from calculating the present value of all of its future outlays and subtracting any new revenue sources. The House plan has a present-value shortfall of $13.6 trillion. That’s the amount of additional money that must be set aside, in today’s dollars, to put this program on a sustainable course.

I’m just not understanding how anybody thinks this is a good idea on any level.

Stupid Meteors

August 13th, 2009 @ 4:09 am - No Comments

We went outside at various times both last night and tonight and saw diddly squat. If we walk out to the street just in front of the house, we have an awesome view of the northeast sky with Cassiopeia and Perseus in full view. (Cassiopeia is one of the easiest things to find in the sky.)

Saw not a damn thing either night. I like to think there’s not enough light pollution to ruin it for us, but maybe it did? Admittedly, I can’t get really nice star trail photos here like I have in other places we’ve lived.

Fuck it, I’ll wait for the Geminids in December.

A Series Of Inconveniences

August 5th, 2009 @ 1:30 pm - 1 Comment

Life has been a series of inconveniences lately. Nothing too major. Nothing too serious. Much of it sorted out already along the way. Nothing in particular that I feel like sharing. Just little pieces of bullshit flung my way one after the other.

Hopefully, the tone of things changes as we head into fall.

Obama Confuses Me

July 30th, 2009 @ 12:51 pm - 1 Comment

I originally saw this on Tyler’s blog:

“… Although I’ve gotta say, when I hear critics talk about out of control spending I start scratchin’ my head. I can’t help but remember, those same critics contributed to a $1.3 trillion deficit that I inherited when I took office. [applause]… I mean, seriously, I’m now president, so I’m responsible for solving it, but I don’t think we should have a selective memory. You hand me a $1.3 trillion dollar bill and then you’re complaining 6 months later because we haven’t paid it all back. [applause] A debt, by the way, that was partially the result of two tax cuts that went primarily to the wealthiest few Americans, and a Medicare drug program that wasn’t paid for. These are the same folks who are now complaining about health care, we can’t afford health care. You pass a prescription drug program and didn’t pay for it! Handed the bill to me. [Obama laughs]…”

… .. Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care. [applause] I’m tired of hearing that … These folks need to stop scaring everybody. [applause and cheering]… .. …”

- Obama in Raleigh, North Carolina (rough transcript)

What does that even mean?

Pass my health care bill because I inherited a deficit? It’s ok for me to spend too much on bad ideas because those guys did too?

And what does that second part about takeovers and scaring people even have to do with the first part about the old guys spending and handing Obama the bill?

What’s the message supposed to be in that quote? Seriously, I’m not being facetious. Would one of my liberal friends take a moment to explain it to me either on my blog or on Facebook when it gets syndicated over there.

Deliver Me In 30 Minutes Or Less

July 24th, 2009 @ 12:30 am - 2 Comments

I’ve been on the fence for quite a few years now, but as of today I officially know for sure that there’s not one, none anywhere, not even my favorite of favoritest, not a single roller coaster or amusement park attraction that is worth more than a 30 minute wait…anywhere.

Seriously, after 9 years of doing this amusement park crap that’s my absolute limit…and even then it’s 30 minutes for personal favorites or first-time or one of a kind experiences – less for most cases.

The Mailbox Inn

June 17th, 2009 @ 3:24 pm - 6 Comments

All of the houses on our little cul-de-sac have those brick pillar mailbox thingies. Like no one’s mailbox is just on a pole. Everyone has a little brick structure with their mailbox in it. You know what I mean.

Well, in the typical fashion of the last owners, our mailbox is crap and hasn’t been cared for years. Not the brick structure, mind you, but the mailbox itself that’s set into the pillar. In fact, the neighbor girl that plays with my daughter told us the story of how her dad helped the old owners rebuild the brick structure after their kid hit it with the car. But what they appear to have done is cram a cheap plastic mailbox into this thing and then mortar around it so that the only way to remove the actrual mailbox and replace it is to start to deconstruct the entire brick pillar.

So that’s a pain in the ass waiting to happen, but it needs to because the door of the mailbox is flimsy and the flag doesn’t stay up and it’s just a shitty cheap mailbox.

But none of that has anything to do with the story other than establishing the scene.

When spring rolled around there was this wasp that would greet me everyday (and by greet I mean “try to sting me while menacingly posturing”) when I got the mail. He was trying to build a hive, but each day I’d knock it out. The next day he’d go nuts on me and I’d knock the tiny start of a hive off the inside-top of the mailbox. After a week or two he moved out. Slumlord 1. Tenants 0.

Not too long after that, I reached in to grab the mail and was greeted by a big hairy spider sitting on top of the mail. I pulled my arms in tight and cluched my fists just below my chin and stomped quickly while going, “Ewwwwwww!” like any good little girl would do. Then I grabbed my mail and shook him off onto the ground. This continued for just two or three days before he got the hint. Slumlord 2. Tenants 0.

So at the end of last week – Friday, I think. I noticed a couple of Earwigs scurrying about when I pull the mail from the box. I tried to use the mail to scoot them out, but really did a half-assed job and moved on. On Saturday, there were more and I did a little better at moving them out. Yesterday there were a bunch and I was grossed out and just let them be. Not a fan of Earwigs.

So today I’m bored and feeling froggy and I go out to check the mail and the fucking things are just swarming everywhere. I grabbed the mail and a bunch fell out. I tried to look in, but the bright sun and a dark mailbox just leaves me squinting like a tool into my mailbox. I grabbed a rag from the garage and started forcing them onto the ground from their deluxe apartment in the sky. After I got all I could see out, I bent down and squited in for a few moments and let my eyes adjust and saw a couple of masses of the bugs gathered in each of the back corners. My rag and sausage fingers weren’t getting the job done so I grabbed a stick and prodded into my mailbox exactly like a chimp uses a stick to get termites from their mound to eat. (I know you’ve seen the footage on Discovery or Animal Planet or somewhere)

I think I got them all, but they scurried all around and some might have been hiding along the top (the top inside of the mailbox has ridges for some reason). I suspect there’ll be even more tomorrow. I think I just need to get a new mailbox and rip the old one out and clean things up and spray all around and put it back together. Unfortunately, that’s gonna happen later than sooner. Until then, I look forward to my daily interaction with my unwanted tenants.

So What The Fuck Else Can Happen

May 27th, 2009 @ 11:33 pm - 4 Comments

The weather here this week has been thick. You know that hot, sultry summer feeling when it’s in the 80′s and you’re moments away from a big storm and it’s sticky and thick and just ‘ugh’ and you can’t wait for the storm to break the sky open and let some fresh air into your life?

That’s how it’s been here for a week.

So last weekend I got the A/C running and the house felt awesome in comparison to the oppression outside as I slaved away with my shovel.

Then Sunday night just before midnight, I noticed it was getting a little muggy in here. The air was still blowing in the house, but it was thickening up. I checked the thermostat and it showed the temperature rising. I investigated and found that the outside unit wasn’t running. The furnace and crap in the basement was working just fine, but the actual A/C unit at the side of the house had stopped. No matter what I did, I could get it going again.

I tried again Monday morning to no avail and we suffered through a sticky day and sucky-ass night for sleeping. On Tuesday morning I got up with the kids to get them to school and the house was so stuffy (even with windows open and fans running) that I just had to try something. I went to the thermostat and kicked it on.

The outside unit jumped to attention and cold air began flooding the house with relief.

Around noon, I noticed the same thickness setting in even though the furnace was still blowing. The outside unit had shut down again.

This got me wondering whether it ran a certain amount of time and just died or whether it ran just fine until it kicked off and then wouldn’t kick on again. I tried all day and into the night, but we suffered through another restless night with the humid air making it generally suck to be in bed.

We called this morning to have someone look at it, but they can’t get here until Friday.

Around noon today in a last ditch attempt at some comfort, I tried turning the A/C on again…

…the fucking outside unit spun into action and cold air filled the house again. This time I vowed not to turn it off and set the thermostat to it’s lowest setting.

Finally around 9:30 this evening we just couldn’t take it anymore (yes, I let the A/C run for 9 hours staright). It was down to like 65 in here (a cold, A/C 65 – not a sweet spring day 65) and I moved the thermostat back to 70, effectively turning off the system. A little while later when the temperature rose enough to trigger the cooling to turn back on…

…nothing. Just the furnace blowing unconditioned air.

So now I know that turning it off once it’s running stops it from turning back on for a period of time (right now that period seems to be about 24 hours), but why the hell would that happen? I’ve looked up more A/C info than I ever care to read again and found nothing. I’d rather find some easy fix myself than pay for someone to come out and do some simple-ass thing and make it run correctly again.

As I type this it’s back up to 70/71 in here and starting to feel a little like the thickness is creeping back in. The weatherman said the suckiness is going to break with big storms on (you guessed it!) Friday morning!

We’ve had such a run of fucked up little annoyances since moving in here that it’s making me wonder if the house was built on an ancient indian burial ground and it’s just a matter of days before my kids are sitting in front of a static filled TV screen announcing, “They’re here…”

So, I’m going to keep trying to get the unit to kick back on, but if my observations are correct to this point, it should be until tomorrow evening before it does.

It makes no fucking sense…

Not In The Mood

May 27th, 2009 @ 12:53 pm - No Comments

I’ve been seeing a lot that annoys me or gets under my skin lately. You’d think that’d be the perfect time to blog (being as I have a way of bitching that elicits conversation and reaction), yet my blog is as slow as ever.

The truth is, I’m not in the mood. I have too much going on lately – nothing major just more of the mundanities of life for the most part – to go beyond being annoyed, irritated or just disagreeing in my mind and silently knowing I’m right and the world is slowly going to hell in a handbasket.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

May 20th, 2009 @ 2:30 am - No Comments

Should be called, Paul Blart: This Movie Sucks Every Bit As Bad As You Thought It Would

(alternate joke: Should be called, Paul Blart: Mall Crap)

Seriously, I like some dumb shit. I enjoy movies that are stupid and dumbed down. I watch total fucking worthless movies over and over again.

I was dozing off during this fucking movie. Oddly enough, I liken it to 3 Ninjas: High Noon At Mega Mountain – the same lame villains with their lame moves and shallow storyline. For some reason that’s the movie I was reminded of when watching this…and I’ve sat through the stupid 3 Ninjas movie a couple of times.

Should be called, Paul Blart: I’d Rather Be Teabagged

(aww, I so should have made that the title of this post)

And Jayma Mays is weird looking in this…like I wasn’t sure if I should be repulsed or horny. Quite frankly, I wavered between both.

The Great Flood Of 2009

May 8th, 2009 @ 1:53 pm - 2 Comments

Towards the end of last week we got a couple days of rain. Not hard raid, but steady rain. Nothing out of sorts as far as I’m concerned.

On Friday night around 2am I was in the back room of the basement (designated as my little play area) putting some files from my old PC on an external drive to move them to my new PC. All was good.

On Saturday morning, I awakened to the sounds of the kids yelling about the basement being flooded. Usually not a big deal except that we have about 800 square feet of totally finished basement that this has supposedly never happened to in the past. I make my way to the basement and am met with some seriously sloshy carpet. My first thought is, “How the hell did this much water get down here in just 8 hours…and after the rain stopped on Friday evening?”

After a few quick phone calls we checked the sump pump. It appeared to be working fine. There was water in the well, but it never overflowed and the pump was at least keeping pace. Our insurance company apparently doesn’t handle shit on weekends and told us to try to keep the mess to a minimum and an adjuster would call on Monday.

We called the guys who do carpet cleaning and clean-up for my wife at the hotel and they sent someone out immediately. The dude hit the basement and was like, “Whoa!” I think he expected a little leak and we were working our way to indoor pool by noon. He called out some additional help and they got to sucking up water. It turned out to be a futile effort, it seemed to be coming from everywhere and as fast as they sucked it up, more was there. They did the best they could and left late in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the weekend with fans, blowers and a shop vac trying to keep the water to a minimum. At it’s peak, you could step on the carpet and push down with your foot and get a puddle of water to form that covered your shoe.

On Monday we talked to the adjuster and he pretty much wanted to blow us off – kind of like, “You had a leak and your carpet got wet. We’re not paying for new carpet.” But we insisted it was a must-see situation and he agreed to come by and look on Tuesday. We spent Monday evening pulling carpet and pad from the basement and finally started realizing how much water had really come in.

On Tuesday the adjuster showed up and even with half the basement cleared of the sopping wet carpet he took one look around and said, “Whoa! The whole basement is soaked.”

He did his adjusterly duties and left us kind of hanging with no answer or suggestion other than to try our home warranty people. So we called them and they said we might be covered depending on the cause and the damage. They said they’d have a guy out on Thurday. We spent Tuesday night getting the rest of the carpet and pad out and kept up with the fans, blowers and shop wav doing our best to dry it out, but the smell was bad. On Wednesday it was more of the same – trying to air out and dry out the floor walls, doors – everything was damp, musty and generally shitty.

On Thursday the warranty people’s guy showed up and after a lengthy inspection came to no real conclusion beyond a drainpipe or two being less than optimal. He said he’s send his report to the warranty people.

We called the adjuster back and were like, “So what the fuck is going on?”

His reply was that until we figured out what the issue was, he couldn’t say whether we were covered or not. So he said he’d send out some engineeer crew on Friday.

Today those guys showed up and, of everyone we’ve dealt with, they seemed the most knowledgable and useful. After a full basement and outdoor inspection, their conclusion was that they weren’t exactly sure how or why the basement flooded, but the were two drain pipes that were hooked up less than optimally and could have been causing water to collect around the foundation, but that was just process of elimination and they’d send the report to the adjuster and go from there – which could include a reutrn visit to look deeper (read: start ripping walls apart in the basement).

I already know the insurance adjuster doesn’t work on weekends, so I expect nothing before Monday. And since we’re holding off until then with the insurance, we figured we’d give the warranty people until Monday too.

So here we sit almost a full week after the flood with no answers and a basement that up to this point was the kids main hangout and also home to the pinball machine, my podcast setup, all the books we own, my drums, the kids’ computer and toys and stuff like that (luckily we didn’t get around to putting a TV or real furniture down there yet) is now a cold, damp, stinky area with exposed concrete and tack strip with everything piled in the bathroom down there because it was the only place that remained remotely dry (the rest is just piled up here on the first floor) that is mostly unusable and a disappointment.

The walls are damp and staing to get wavy and soft in spots. All of the doors show water damage and have warped to the point that they won’t close correctly. The carpet is long gone. The cement is still damp. The smell of wet still lingers.

Here’s to hearing something good from someone on Monday because if we’re left to repair all of this on our own, it’s going to be a while. And it sure would suck to pay for a whole house and then only be able to use 2/3rds of it.

Swine Flu In My Eyes

May 2nd, 2009 @ 12:51 am - 3 Comments

A couple of days ago my eyes started getting really irritated and itchy. I thought it was allergies. I’ve always had allergies, but they never manifested themselves as itchy or irritated eyes (except for dog and cat) until we moved to Dayton. Now it seems like every year my eyes are a little worse. Same with my son – nothing until we moved here and now the fall is just brutal on him. It got so bad last year that it looked like he had a lazy eye.

Up until this year it was relatively minor. But the last week or so has been bad. So bad that I decided to use some eye drops that my son’s pediatrician recommended last fall. The results were mixed at best.

After 4 or 5 days, it feels almost like I have pink eye or some gross shit like that. It doesn’t look like it, but it feels like it. Oddly enough, I had some other eye drops in the medicine cabinet and upon researching what they were, I found it was often prescribed for pink eye. I figured what the hell, I’ve done dumber things. Hell, I’ve put worse things in my eye on purpose. There wasn’t much left, but I used it. Again, mixed results. My eyes still don’t feel quite right and I have no desire to go to the doctor.

My official diagnosis is Swine Flu in my eyes. Call the CDC.

Where My Fucking Chicken At

April 28th, 2009 @ 3:34 pm - 1 Comment

Saw this over at Draegs blog:

I can sum it up no better than he did – “Shit happens, people.”

On a side note, is it wrong that I laugh when I watch that report? I think it’s fucking hilarious. Especially the lady yelling at the unmanned drive-thru recording. It’s Popeye’s fault she can’t feed her kids. Awesomeness.

Kings Island Out The Ying Yang

April 18th, 2009 @ 1:56 am - No Comments

So I spent the late morning and early afternoon with Jeff at Kings Island for the Diamondback media day stuff. (totally didn’t grab a media kit) (Diamondback Pictures)

Then I got home and we drove back down in the evening to process our passes.

Tomorrow morning (in a few hours, actually) we’re getting up and going back down because my tales of Diamondback goodness convinced the family they need to ride it now…not later.

I’m getting my fill this weekend.

Gotta Get Up

April 17th, 2009 @ 12:03 am - 1 Comment

Just looking at the clock telling me it’s midnight and thinking I need to go to bed at a decent time tonight because I have to (and want to) get up and drive to Mason to meet Jeff tomorrow.

It’s not a sweet ass wedding with a yacht, but it’ll be a good time too.

Also, I think I ate too much chocolate.

Unauthorized Photo Use

April 8th, 2009 @ 1:36 pm - No Comments

Just saw this over at Tyler’s blog:

“No problem douche”

This was the response from Mark Meadows at MVM Data, mark@mvmdata.com, when I contacted www.shawneeshuttle.com to remove a photo of mine they used in a commercial setting and without attribution.

That’s so much bullshit. I’d drive to that dude’s house and punch him in the mouth. I hate the way the net has spawned this “everything is for the taking” mentality.

Two pieces of advice for all of you photo-taking types out there:

1. Register your photos with the US Copyright Office.

It’s easy to do electronically these days and depending on the nature of willful infringement, the payout to you as a photographer is anywhere from $750 to $150,000 plus fees per photo.

2. Put a copyright watermark on your photos.

If you find the need and/or effort to register your photos to be too much, at least put a copyright mark on them. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal for someone to remove your “copyright management information” from your photos to disguise infringement from unauthorized use.

Even if you haven’t formally and legally registered your photo with the US government, the DMCA still allows for fines starting at $2500 and runnng up to $25,000 if you can prove removal or alteration of the copyright mark/info on the photo for unauthorized use.

Don’t let people just take the things you work hard to create. Whether you expect full professional licensing fees or nothing more than a simple acknowledgement, it’s still fucked up when someone takes what isn’t theirs.

Scary that unprofessional assholes like the one Tyler had to deal with are able to make a living in this world. Maybe if that guy created anything worth stealing, he’d understand.

Kumar Is On The White House Payroll

April 7th, 2009 @ 1:34 pm - 1 Comment

What the fuck is this? I honestly though I was reading an old April Fool’s story at first. Jesus Fucking Christ!

Actor Kal Penn joins White House team

Why exactly is this necessary and when did Hollywood get such political power and influence? We’re so fucked up as a people.

I’m Missing Out

April 4th, 2009 @ 12:52 am - No Comments

I see shit like this and realize I’m missing all the fun:

Fun

No Boat For Me

April 3rd, 2009 @ 5:51 pm - 1 Comment

So here’s the story.

Last night (Thursday) a little after 11pm we get a call from the girl who’s going to be keeping our kids (and our house) for the weekend. Appaprently earlier in the evening her father had a stroke or heart attack or some fucked up shit and collapsed. She apologized, briefly explained she had to head out (she’s from the Cleveland area) to be with her family.

Our flight to FL was schedule to depart Friday at 12:51pm. Give the 30 minute drive and need to arrive early at the slow-ass Dayton airport and we needed to be out of here at 11am at the latest. So we’re talking 12 hours notice.

On top of this she’s one of my wife’s managers at work and was kind of going to be the go-to person for her this weekend if anything needed done.

It was too late to call around and talk to anyone and now my wife had to be at the hotel in the morning to figure out coverage for the weekend.

Long story short – we don’t know very many people around here well enough to leave our kids for the weekend. It’s a short list and it’s a hell of a thing to ask someone with 4 hours notice if they can take your kids for the weekend.

No one was able to in the morning but we had an ‘after work’ offer. So we started looking into changing flights. Let’s just say the Dayton-anywhere in Florida thing is awfully fucking popular right now. No surprise though as the kids are in the middle of spring break in our school district.

AirTran is pretty cool about switching up flights at nominal fees, but you do have to pay the different in available fares. Most flights are sold out and what’s left only has the highest fares or business class available. We tried a bunch of different airports in South Florida and anything that would get us there by wedding time, but the costs are just outrageous.

I love you lots, Jeff and Diana, but we were looking at a total final cost of almost $600 each to fly down in time. It just wasn’t going to happen. I see have rental car and hotel booking that weren’t canceled within the allowable time frame to avaoid a change to deal with too.

For future reference, if any family members of friends of ours want to die or toy with death, please do it on your own time and not ours?

I’m not trying to make light of the situation and I do hope the girl’s father is ok (we still haven’t heard anything), but I’m royally jacked…and then on top of that I feel like an ass for telling Jeff and Diana we’d be there and not delivering. Shit like that pisses me off.

No party on a boat for me this time. Shit luck doesn’t come my way often, but when a situation plays out in my world, it’s usually fuckered up and huge.

Sigh. Sorry, guys. :(

Nancy Pelosi

February 25th, 2009 @ 2:39 pm - 2 Comments

Forgot to mention this earlier, but after seeing bits and pieces of Obama’s speech I really want to punch Nancy Pelosi in the mouth.

I think I saw the same look in Biden’s eye towards the end.