- Irish Woman talked me into some ‘family time’, which entailed journeying to the wilds of southern Indiana, there to partake of the waters.
- By waters, I mean we stayed at a hotel that had an awesome indoor water park.
- A fun time was had by all, but there’s always a hitch.
- Girlie Bear got a little car sick on the way up, and didn’t feel well the rest of the day.
- Two Dramamine and 10 hours of sleep helped her to feel better.
- I wore a tee-shirt in the water park because you can use the 3 F’s to describe me, and I didn’t want to scare the locals.
- Fuzzy
- Flabby
- Flourescent
- Going to a water park in December will give you some pretty clear fitness goals.
- “I want to look more like that.”
- “I never want to look like that.”
- A true mark of a loving wife: Being exhausted from chasing Boo all afternoon at the water park, and still finding the energy to go down a steep hill to fetch pizza and beer for dinner.
- I shudder to think of the amount of stuff we will be taking on a family vacation that lasts more than a couple of days.
- For an overnight trip, we filled up the trunk of Irish Woman’s car.
- For our trip to Florida in 2015, I’m going to need a U-Haul.
- It is rarely a good sign when your wife wants you to take her to the indoor flea market and makes sure you take the truck.
- I’m surprised to find out how hard it is to give away a couple of old tube televisions. None of our regular charities will take them.
- My plans for New Year’s Eve are to play video games with Boo, drink beer, and get to bed early. I’ll know when midnight comes when I’m awakened by gunfire and fireworks.
- Irish Woman relented this evening and now agrees that we should stain and clear coat the basement floor.
- The problem is that I never suggested stain and clear coat. I just wanted to buy floor paint and put on a few coats.
- Something tells me that staining the floor is a lot more work, but it’s a compromise.
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on December 31, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/31/musings-26/
Thoughts on the Day
- There is nothing like waking to the lilting tones of your work pager, joyously interrupting your slumber.
- I refuse to be held responsible for information I gather from a Java web application, across a slow VPN, while juggling two chat lines, two phone calls, and a five year old who wants a hug from dear old Dad, right bloody now.
- For those of you who are curious, the weather today at the Louisville airport was clear and cool, with a slight breeze out of the southwest.
- I’m not sure what our computer room is wired with, but it makes an excellent Faraday cage against cellphone reception.
- Project planning math: Take the amount of time that the vendor tells you it will do a given task, multiply by 1.25, then round up to the nearest prime number and use that as the amount of hours it will actually take.
- For back-out purposes, take your original estimate, multiply by the 2012 GDP of Zimbabwe, then divide by 1024.
- You know that little voice that tells you to do things when no-one else is at home? Mine told me to GI the kitchen this afternoon.
- Irish Woman’s hairy barbarian domestication program appears to be progressing very well.
- I’ve never felt so disgusted with myself as I did when I cleaned out and scrubbed our refrigerator today.
- Note to self – it is a pain in the hands to clean out pebbles of tempered glass from a bathtub.
- It’s an uncomfortable moment when, along with your darling wife, you open one of those family portrait Christmas cards, don’t immediately recognize the people, say “I know that woman from somewhere….”, then realize it’s from your Congressman.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 28, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/28/thoughts-on-the-day-201/
Congressional Wishlist
My Congressman put up a post on his FaceBook page* asking his constituents what they wanted from Congress in 2014. Here are a few of my thoughts:
- Passage of the “Firearms Owners Freedom Act” (I know, snowball’s chance)
- Passage of the “I Am Not Your Baby Daddy, So Get A Damn Job Act”, which would encourage the chronically impoverished to make better life choices because the rest of us aren’t going to keep footing the bill generation after generation.
- The “National Security Agency Mission Definition Act”, which would make it crystal clear that military organizations, even ones like the NSA, are not tools to be used against the American people. It would move domestic surveillance over to the FBI, and dissolve the FISA courts. If they need to watch the communications of a U.S. person, then they need a warrant, and they can get one in a court that’s accountable and public.
- A House resolution stating that if the President wants to use military force anywhere in the world and it’s not an emergency of national survival, then he needs to come to Congress for a declaration of war. Not an “Authorization to use force”, but an Honest to God, kill people and break shit, declaration of war. If it’s not that important, it’s not worth our time, treasure, and blood.
- The “Put Up or Shut Up Act” – In which the Congress withdraws all Federal subsidies of private, for-profit companies, be they industrial, energy, transportation, or whatever. If a business has an idea good enough to make a product or provide a service that the market wants, then let them get investors and convince consumers to purchase it.
That’s my list. What do you all think?
Posted by daddybear71 on December 28, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/28/congressional-wishlist/
Musings
- One good part of working the day after Christmas is that you are pretty much alone in the office and can actually get work done.
- One bad part of working the day after Christmas is that almost everyone else is out of the office and out of touch, which makes walking into someone’s cube and asking them what their major malfunction is a tad unproductive.
- It is good that Christmas only comes once a year, because I’ve been hitting the jam-and-almonds bars that Irish Woman made like a rat at the feeder bar in a cocaine study.
- I need a politically correct way to tell a vendor that his product is weak and his customer service representatives aren’t worth the rupees he spends on them.
- You know, it probably wasn’t very nice of me to go to my ex-wife’s house to drop off Girlie Bear and Little Bear wearing a tee-shirt that read “Jody did me a favor“, but I was in a mood.
- If you get that joke without hitting the link, thanks for your service.
- Christmas was relatively relaxing, and I am eternally thankful for that. Usually I’m punch drunk with exhaustion by the end of the day.
- I got coffee and ammunition for Christmas. She loves me. She really, really loves me.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 26, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/26/musings-25/
Saint Joseph and the Donkey
As we sat down to our Christmas Eve feast tonight, it occurred to me that things are pretty good. We’re all home, everyone is healthy, and it’s a pretty normal evening for us. It could be a lot more difficult for us.
Imagine that you’re a simple tradesman, who’s been told to walk 80 miles to the city of your ancestors. With you, you take your young, very pregnant wife. Luckily, you have your trusty donkey, so she doesn’t have to walk the whole way. Once you get there, there’s no place to stay, so you end up in someone’s stable. Of course, after four or five days on the road, she goes into labor.
So now, you’re in a barn, with a young woman going through her first labor, and you’re alone. Somehow, you get both her and the baby through the labor alive. Then strangers start showing up, proclaiming the royalty and divinity of your son. Then word gets to you that the king wants your son dead, and is willing to kill all the newborn male babies in Bethlehem to make that happen, so you gather up your family, load them on the donkey, and head for Egypt, leaving your carpentry business back in Nazareth behind for years.
And all you wanted was to go to Bethlehem, pay your taxes, fill out your census form, and go home.
So, as we celebrate the birth of Christ tonight, please remember Saint Joseph, the world’s most important step-dad. Not all the heroes in the Bible killed thousands with the jawbone of an ass.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 24, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/24/saint-joseph-and-the-donkey/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on December 24, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/24/todays-earworm-449/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on December 23, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/23/todays-earworm-451/
Musings
- Two days left until Christmas. I think I can make it.
- He who complains that I make the coffee too strong gets the distinction of being the guy who convinced me to stop making coffee.
- My aunt and uncle came through town on their way south to spend Christmas with one of their sons and his family.
- My uncle observed that there was an 86 degree difference between North Dakota and Kentucky.
- One of the things that I’m most angry about with my parents was that when they divorced, they took away our extended family. It’s good that we are reconnecting.
- There are few things I like more than a good fire on a cold evening.
- I have discovered an inability to exhibit self-control when attending a family pot luck.
- The only thing I’ve got going for me is that I stay away from the desserts.
- Watching Star Trek TOS with Boo is a wonderful way to spend a winter evening.
- Even he notices all of the women that Captain Kirk seems to find.
- This year, for Christmas, be both practical and generous: give ammunition.
Posted by daddybear71 on December 23, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/23/musings-24/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on December 22, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/22/todays-earworm-450/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on December 21, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/12/21/todays-earworm-447/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 