The End

Well boys and girls, I didn't make it, and as such I've updated the little pic on the right. It's been a long month and I did a lot better than I thought I would, but there was a lot of filler in there. The trial made things a bit more difficult as I wasn't allowed to say anything about it. And now with our new kitty, who has a bit of a bacterial infection, things have been busier than normal. She went missing for a while a couple days ago, then she turned up in our pantry. Also, we have (and by we I mean I) to give her eye drops that aren't actually drops, it's a gel that needs to be applied directly to her eyes. This is a difficult thing to do. That's supposed to be three times a day, for her kitty pink eye. Then there's the oral antibiotic, which is also difficult to get her to swallow. This is given to her with a small syringe into which I load .3 mL and have to get into the corner of her mouth so she can't spit it out. I only have to do this one twice a day, for the sneezing, which is kinda funny, and also kinda sad.

I hope you enjoyed this almost perfect posting month, I'll write back if something exciting happens. I'm hoping to plant around 100 onion plants that my uncle gave me soon. Ponder that if you dare.

Thankful

I'm really falling apart with this posting thing now. But it's the day before Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for. One is that the trial is over. The defendant was found guilty of second degree burglary. It was second degree because nobody was home. It was quite an experience and I actually didn't think it was horrible. I enjoyed it and hope I'm never sitting in that defendants chair. It doesn't look comfortable.

In other news...

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy the turkey tomorrow and if you're travelling, drive safe.

All Together Now

Well, it seems that I've missed a day. But with the craziness that is now my house, I should be forgiven for this misstep. And now, for your viewing pleasure, our newest family member. It's a Girl!! Who is still unnamed.

All the Cats Join In

In order to keep the streak alive, and since I don't have anything particularly witty to say tonight. Here's a bad picture of the cat scratching post me and my dad made today. Again, the cat should be coming home Monday. And no, we didn't go visit her today, because they said that even though we've paid for her and agreed to take her home, we can't go and bond because she's somewhere else at the present moment.

So the picture...
Ta-da!

One More Day

As they say, I still can't talk about the trial. I can say that Monday morning should bring the case to us, the jury, and from there it's gonna take whatever time we take to make our decision. In kitten news, we got more toys tonight, utilizing our 20% off coupon from the shelter. Which allowed us to purchase an actual, real carrier for my little brother to bring our new family member home in. We also got a bunch of little balls and the like, because they were 25 cents each. Instead of a dollar each. I know, total bargain hunter, right?

On another note, I saw a sign today in Martinez for a Jim Jones Realty. Now I ask you, when you hear the name Jim Jones, do you think to yourself, "Hey, here's a guy who's got his head on straight and could totally find me the house of my dreams."? Or, do you think, "Hey, isn't Jim Jones that guy who made everybody drink the cyanide Kool-Aid in Jonestown?" I think of the latter, which is why I find it difficult to believe that a man named the same as a man who set up a village in a South American jungle to bring people to in which to die, would do well as a realtor. But I guess anythings possible.

Kitty

Remember that first rule about Jury Duty? Well, still applies. However, I'm told by our Honorable Judge that we're ahead of schedule and we may begin deliberations as early as Monday. This is wonderful news as previously we had thought we wouldn't get the case until Wednesday. I'm going to have the joy of being able to go to work in the morning tomorrow, as Jury Duty won't start until 1:45 tomorrow. But there I go, almost breaking that second rule.

On a happier note, we adopted a kitty today. We won't be able to actually pick up the kitten until Monday as it needs to be spayed. And they're booked until that morning. I can't find an actual picture of our cat, but it looks similar to this one:

It's not this one, but it looks very similar. We did look at this little lady also, and as awesome and playful as she was, it was, we thought, a bit much for our little guys to learn that when this one scratches and bites at them, she's just playing. So the other one was much calmer and is a-comin' home on Monday. We're still thinking of names, if you have any good ones, throw them into the hat by utilizing that comment link below.

Secret

I'd tell you about what happened today during the trial, but court is like Fight Club. And the first rule of Jury Duty, is that you don't talk about Jury Duty. I was able to take T to school today, so that was nice, we were almost on time. I probably contributed to his first tardy of the year. And on the way over he and E watched Wall-E on my iPod for the van ride. It came with the special edition of the DVD we purchased yesterday. It's kinda nifty, but the screen is extremely tiny for a movie that big. I also am thinking that this may not be good knowledge for them to have. The ability to watch this particular film on the ride anywhere. My van is pre-DVD in seats.

On a similar, yet totally unrelated note. We're closer to getting that pet cat, and it now may be a kitten.

The Trial

Well folks, I am a trial juror. And as I'm not allowed to speak about the case until it's over (and if you want to pay me for the story, that's cool, but we have to wait 90 days from trial's end.) So it's supposed to go until the day before Thanksgiving. So I have a week or so of this to look forward to. And you, poor suffering readers, do as well. I'm going to keep up this daily posting, if for no other reason that it's become sort of a personal challenge. And I've made it over halfway through now.

Silent Jury

I'm learning the intricate funness of jury duty. After spending the morning in a courtroom I was excused at 10, but needed to return at 1:30. At which point I commenced to stand, sit, and even crouched catcher style on the floor. Why the floor? Well, dear amigos, because there were more people than seats in this particular jury selection process. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that there was one extra person there because she just wanted to come with her husband. Her husband couldn't speak any English beyond being able to let people know he couldn't speak English. So that sucked.

And now, because the first round of jury selection isn't yet complete, I get to go back there tomorrow morning for the end of it. I don't know if I'll be serving on the jury yet or not. But as I know you can't wait to find out, updates tomorrow folks.

Good Intentions

We got a bunch of new stuff for the left behind cat by my in-laws house. Most of our day was spent at stores getting these essentials, like food and bowls for the food and a couple toys to make our house fun. All this went well and I got over to their house to get the cat and I discovered that this cat didn't really like me much. Which was odd for me, because usually animals are fond of me. However this one attempted to amputate my hand. Twice. And it spent a few minutes with its ears back hissing at me.

So since this cat was attacking me and showing me some fairly hostile signs. It didn't come home with me. Now we're looking into the shelters. We'll see what happens. But we both want a cat now. I'm disappointed that this one didn't work out, but excited to get maybe a kitten for the kids to play with.

Gather

Keeping this amazing streak alive tonight will require a bullet list. So here it is:

• Little E's still sick, but almost better, but now she sounds like that 90 year old lifetime smoker.
• T's all better now, and today got a donut for breakfast, chocolate and sprinkles, so it was a fun hyper morning. Thank God it was nice outside today. Getting him out of this house helped for a while.
• Lovely Wife went with her mom to the holiday craft fair today, but it's one of those things that spells fair, 'faire' which makes it worse. But she spent the whole day away from home leaving me in care of the kids.
• I get to go to jury duty on monday. And i'm stoked about that one. 8:30 in the am isn't that early when i normally start work at 7:30. but since it's by the courthouse and there's no parking, it means i'll have to get there even earlier.
• there's a possibility that we'll be getting a cat soon. my in-laws former neighbors have a cat that they've left behind. they moved out about 6 months ago and have neglected to take their poor cat with them. the cat loves the kids and is really cool. so we'll see how it goes. we may have a cat soon. something to try to eat our fish, which is still alive

• 'till next time.

Growing Pains

A shorter post than normal tonight. Our son has what I believe to be growing pains. Which sucks because I remember having them, and it's horrible. You can't do anything about it and it wakes you up at night. Just misery. Also, he's such a good sharer that he's allowed his little sister to have his old cold. So she's got herself a little fever and a nifty sounding voice and cough. So I'm going to be caring for their welfare for a while and probably a few times throughout the night.

Everything's Changed

I got an email from my Uncle today who let me know that not only was that Mervyn's closing, but the Long's next door was turning into a CVS, and the Circuit City where my cousin had his first, and to this day only, real job was closing down. I worked at that Circuit City for a few months also. He was sad that these small parts of his life were coming down. He's shopped at these stores for years and had made some friends at the Long's. I know what it's like to lose a physical location that's a part of your past. The first house I ever lived in was purchased by a local Salvation Army church and turned into a parking lot. So what few memories I have from that small little house are now unable to be recreated by a simple walkthrough, or mosey past.

Also the beloved ol' Chevy was destroyed by some idiot drunk kids. So that sucks also. Almost more than the house. Ah well, it's all in the past now.

Takin' Care of Business

I just saw this when I was out at lunch, and decided to share it with anyone who happens to stop by here. This is a picture of the Mervyn's outside the local mall, and like all the others, it's going out of business, as the giant banner under their name would indicate. However, unlike most of the others, they're still hiring, as the sign under the giant banner indicates. So if you're looking for a temp job that's guaranteed to end soon? This is the place.


I'm not sure who the lady on the cell phone is, but I took this out the window of my van, and she wouldn't move. I guess it gives a sense of scale or something.

The Day Off

Had the day off today. I thought it would be nice to relax, what with the little guy no feeling well and all. But instead, he was feeling much better today. It's good that he's well again, but he had 3 days of pent up energy inside him that had no outlet but crazy, crazy destructive force. His sister has the ability to counter most of his attacks. This led to instances of her crying, followed closely by him crying.

Luckily, we've just all discovered a wonderful game, Lego Star Wars 2. We, especially me, have been having an amazing time playing. It's great for T also, because it's really simple game play. Also it's hilarious. And it led me to find this great little movie.

All Things in Time

T's officially got a decent cold for himself. It's rough to hear your 5-year-old sound like a 87-year-old lifetime smoker. He did feel well enough yesterday with the rest of the fam, joined by my two little bros. Unfortunately when we got to the bowling alley (where we had a certificate for two free hours including shoes) we were informed that although there were about 30 open lanes, all of them were being reserved for league, and it would be a wait of around an hour. This was a problem as that meant we wouldn't be done until almost 7. So we had to try to explain to our little sick guy that even though there were so many empty lanes, we couldn't use them because the people who worked at the bowling place had confusing rules. So we bribed him with Mini golf instead.

It was a fun time for the most part, T just went through the holes as quickly as possible, and after hole 7, Little E no longer had any interest in playing. So she just wandered around the holes and got our balls out of the cup. We skipped a couple holes and finished early, as T was sounding worse. One of my brothers got himself a hole-in-one on the last hole. We thought this meant a free game, but all he got was a coupon for one dollar off the next time he comes. It's $7.50 a round. We get coupons for a buy one get one free round in the mail. So to sum that up, this place is a rip off. Severe rip off. T enjoyed it, and asked if we could come back again someday. So I told him, "Yeah, of course." And I meant it, but we're bringing more coupons next time. Or hopefully, the bowling alley will just let us play.

Good Intentions

I had this great plan today to fill out this post with wonderful information about our night out for the wife's birthday, which got us back home at a little after 9. I had ideas about talking about the great times that were going to be our bowling fun, that turned into mini-golf. I even had ideas about how awesome I've discovered Lego Star Wars 2 to be. And of course, T's got himself a nasty little cold. But it's late, I'm tired. And I'm going to bed. But keep your fingers crossed my friends, if you're good, and you're lucky. I'll regale you with all these wonderful tales tomorrow. Or sometime later this week. I've got Tuesday off, and I'm thrilled about that.

When I Think About Cheating

Not that I'm a cheater, but this is an awesome cover by one of the greatest bands ever.

Happy Birthday to You

I want to take this opportunity to wish my beautiful wife a Happy Birthday! She's now caught up to me in years, and if I don't watch my back, she'll overtake me.

Meet Me on Main Street

I just read that Disney shares have fallen due to poor attendance at their theme parks. However, my in-laws are doing what they can to help out as they left today for Disneyland. Again. They had some unfortunate timing in their lives as they scheduled their wedding on the same day that their baby girl would one day be born upon. So since my wife grew up sharing her birthday with her parents anniversary, she's grown accustomed to them leaving her on her birthday to celebrate their anniversary. And for the past 10 years or so, they've been celebrating in Disneyland. I don't know what makes that any more special than the 14+ other trips they take there during the year. But I guess it is. And I'm not kidding about the other trips, they have friends that work at Disneyland that will take them to the employee only store.

(My wife is reading over my shoulder and has informed me that 10 years isn't entirely accurate. She has been invited to three of their anniversary celebrations in Disneyland and so was with them on her birthday. I'm all about accuracy.)

Blind Sight

I got my third or fourth set of contacts today. I'm wearing now, and they work better than any of the others I've had so far. Maybe these will finally work. The one thing I don't understand is that I have to wear them for at least 3 hours before my appointment with the eye doctor. And that is so they have the opportunity to fit as good as possible. If that's so, then that would mean the first three hours will be filled with horrible vision. This is not good as I'm not a morning person and anything to make me more cantakerous in the a.m. is not always a good thing. So keep the fingers crossed...although if you don't, I won't be able to see it very well. Not with these contacts in. I really don't want to be stuck with glasses as my only option for good vision.

Political Science

People are out voting. And a bunch of them are here. At my work. In two separate rooms. And the most annoying part of this is that people coming to vote have been parking in my employee spot. I'm unable to get there because of these idiots. I may have keyed the first car that was there just a bit, but if I did it was totally on accident. As is the dent that my van door may have put in the little Scion. Because not only did they park in an employee spot, but they were over the line just a bit.

I used to work with the public for a long time, and one of the many things I learned was people are stupid. In general, they're not smart. To paraphrase Agent K in Men in Black, a person is smart, but people are dumb. And judging by the way the polls are shaping up, I'd have to agree.

I'm extremely happy that today is election day because now I won't have to be bothered by all these people campaigning for my vote. I've known what I'm voting for quite some time now and want the world to go back to normal. It looks like Obama will probably win. Which I'm fine with, I've resigned myself to that outcome. My question now is, what will all the problems be blamed on in a couple years. He's not going to fix everything, and already has backed off his previous stances on Iraq. I'm not saying that McCain would fix everything, but since he's a republican, everyone would still be able to say, "See, that's why we shouldn't have voted for him." But with the chosen one coming into office. The blame stops at him. I'm already noticing a lack of satire pointed at him, when I see SNL they go after McCain, Palin, and Biden, but they leave Obama alone. This may be because Fred Armison does a crappy impression, but still. And where will the Daily Show go now? They're losing their cash cow in W. and will now have to find something to say about Obama. It should be an interesting four years. And for the sake of our nation, I hope he can do all the things he says he can. But I seriously doubt it.

And that's about as political as this blog will ever get.

Meet Me In the Bathroom

It's been a slow start for us to try to potty train our Little E. And this morning at about 6:20, while I was still waking up and getting ready for the day, she dropped a delicate little deuce in her princess potty. It wasn't all her idea. And to be totally honest, the thought probably never crossed her mind. I was getting ready to head out the door and she told me she had poopies in her diaper. So since my lovely wife was taking a shower and unable to help her at that time, I started to change her. At the point where I got her diaper off, I noticed that the little poop factory was still churning out product. So I ran her over to her little potty and she was very hesitant about it. But once she laid that log in there, she was feeling pretty good about herself. So we got her potty sticker book out (in which she gets to place a sticker for each attempt, whether sucessful or otherwise) she spent a good 5 minutes picking out her stickers and placing them ever so carefully on the construction paper that makes up her binder. I know that the completion of her potty training is still quite some time off, but this was a big step for her, to realize that she's not going to explode or anything when she goes in the potty. I've read that there can be some fear of the ol' number 2 in little kids. Something about the fact that a part of her body is disappering forever...or whatever. But now with this big step out of the way, perhaps she won't be as hesitant about these things. The sooner we can stop paying for her diapers the better.
Also, if you're eating or anything, you may not want to read this post.

Daughter

My wife took T to Marine World today with her parents and left me with Little E. So I took her for a little Daddy/Daughter bonding special time. We had a great time going to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. I hadn't been there in years, and honestly, I think I used to go into a different building. It's a lot of fun to see all the animals. They had hawks, owls, falcons, foxes, and a bald eagle. They also had two brown bears taxidermied and standing on their hind legs. This was enough to make her a bit uneasy around them. I asked her to stand by one so I could get a picture with my phone and instead she chose a less imposing animal.
I know that the photo isn't that spectacular, but it was just my phone. I was able to get her to leave the museum by promising her she'd get to go to the park right next to it. And then was able to get her to leave the park by promising her to take her to the Disney Store, and got her out of the store by promising her food. And I delivered. And now with the time change, I'm somewhat beat and it's not even 9 yet. Of course, my body believes it's almost 10. I'm always in adjustment.

Be Prepared

So I thought I'd give this NaBloPoMo thing a shot. I've seen bloggers I respect have trouble with this, and as someone who only has a little over 80 posts for the entire year, this may be somewhat complicated. But what the hay? It hopefully will happen. So for my dozen readers, be prepared for some fluff style blog pieces. Or maybe some hard hitting think pieces. Either way, it should be fun!

Jovial Costume

My little trick-or-treaters. Both good guys still. A Care Bear to fight the forces of animated evil and those who refuse to care. And a cop to protect and serve. I hope he doesn't go the other way when he's older. We walked farther this year than we have in the past. They made out extremely well. One house was giving out full size bags of Skittles. They even got their choice of regular or sour. T took regular for himself and chose a sour bag for his sister.
This was after the parade at his school. He claims not to know who this little girl is. But I suspect otherwise. What is he learning in that Kindergarten class?