Old Friend

Okay, I admit I don't write here very often anymore but I think about it a lot. Anyway, the past couple days there's someone I've kinda had on my mind. Last night Alexa left for Calgary. Permanently. I mean permanently as in she's moving there and not just on vacation. I'm hoping someday she comes back because really, Vancouver is a better place to live. Anyway, I've known Alexa since before she was born and I've known her mom since I was a toddler. I've watched her grow up into an adult and become an independent woman. It's sad to see her go but she has to make her own way in this world and make her own decisions. Again, I hope she moves back home one day because she's one of those people that you just want to be in your life for a long time. And not in a long-distance kind of way, but in a day-to-day way. Take care, Alexa, and good luck in Calgary.

I'm a Fan

So I was watching the Michael Jackson memorial yesterday and I thought, "we've lost a pretty amazing artist." Then, talking about it today at work, I realized that the newer generation don't really know the Glory Days. One of the women at work is only about 4 years younger than me but her memory of MJ starts around the time just after Dangerous when he got really weird and creepy. Before that, he was just a little eccentric. I think the best years started with Off the Wall and lasted through Thriller, Bad, and into Dangerous. If you were a fan during those 4 albums, then you knew his brilliance. It's just too bad there was all that crazy shit that happened afterwards. Nothing was the same after. They say that people at genius levels are a little weird, probably because they see the world differently than us regular folk. MJ's brilliance was also his downfall.

Brr

We've had a few hot days this year. Not, like, super hot or anything, but mid to high 20's (celsius for you americans). What that translates to in my bedroom is roughly 42 celius. Our bedroom gets super warm because we get afternoon sun and we have a lot of windows. Makes the room look good but hot as hell. Anyway, when the twins were born we bought a portable A/C unit and this thing is gold. I just close the door, turn on the A/C and 20 minutes later the room is nice and cool. Last night it was on and it got cold. Like, cover-yourself-with-a-blanket cold. That was the sign to turn it off. If you don't want to spend the gajillion dollars on a portable A/C, buy one of those window fans. Those things are awesome too.

Don't Stop Til You Get Enough

This was one hell of a week. Nothing really happened in my life, but in the lives of others it was pretty significant. The first that comes to mind is Ed McMahon. I mainly knew him as Johnny Carson's sidekick and I have to admit that that's how I remember him the most. I hear he did a lot of good things though. Another life I think of is Farrah Fawcett. The was one of the original Charlie's Angels. I used to watch her on TV when I was a kid. And finally - you know who I'm talking about - Michael Jackson. WTF? He was only 50 and he died of a heart attack. Something is fishy about that but apparently he had medical problems for a long time. When it comes to music and dancing I can't think of a single person that has been more influential than this man. Sure he had a few weird things going on in his life in recent years, but if you look at his body of work, well it's amazing. If I had to mention 2 things that changed the world of music it would have to be Thriller and the moonwalk. Let us all bow our heads and pray for his soul. May his accomplishments and contributions to the world be remembered always.

Telly Wuz Here

I used to talk about shaving my head just for the hell of it. I never did it, though, because I kinda liked having hair and I was worried my head would look stupid. Anyway, after years of talking about it, I finally did it. A few days ago I got Celia to just shave all the damn hair off. I didn't Bic my head or anything, I just put #2 guard on and cleaned my cap. After a few days of having it all off, I have to say that it makes getting ready to leave the house very very easy but when I look in the mirror I still think it looks a little funny. I'm not sure I'll shave it again but at least now I can say I've done it.

Happy Birthday to Me

Y'know, I don't really look forward to my birthday like I used to.  I never make plans, I don't think about doing anything special for the day, and I don't expect other people to make a big deal out of it either.  Don't get me wrong, I love it when people wish me Happy Birthday - it makes me feel loved.  Despite not really caring much for my birthday anymore, I think I would have to be completely honest and say I would prefer not to spend it in the hospital.  As a patient it would really suck, but this year I had to take Celia to the hospital first thing in the morning on Wednesday.  She had a bunch of tests done and once they figured out what it was (you'll have to ask her yourself, I can't give that away), decided that she needed surgery.  She waited around for hours and finally went to the OR at 1 in the morning.  When I got there the next day, I didn't even know she had her surgery so the whole morning I was all annoyed that she was still waiting for it.  Anyway, everything is okay, she's doing really well, and the kids understand they can't climb all over her for a while.  There's some follow-up but that's just standard.  I guess my birthday was exciting in it's own way.

Here We Go Again

A couple of days ago I noticed that my kids started to have runny noses again. Then, yesterday, their breathing sounded all wet and congested. Today they don't sound much worse, but boy are they grumpy. Neither of them want to eat and Amelia is super clingy. Man, I hate it when they're sick. They're probably uncomfortable and feeling lousy but I really hate when they're sick because I'm a selfish bastard and it's really difficult for me to handle them. Amelia just wants to be carried all the time and Lucas eventually starts to feel left out. Whenever I hear people with just one kid complaining about how their one child is so hard to look after when s/he is sick, I want to punch them.

You Know More Than You Know

I was reading this thing about some guy that gave a speech at some commencement ceremony somewhere (that's a pretty detailed line, I know) and rather than try to impart some of his wisdom on the new grads, he instead asked them to write down their response to the question "What do my classmates and I need to hear on graduation day?"  It appeared as though the final lesson they learned was that they were, in fact, quite a bright bunch a people.  Some of the responses:

• Be wise enough not to be reckless, but brave enough to take great risks.
• It's okay to fail - learn from it and you will succeed.
  
• Wash your hands... religiously.
  

Hmm, not bad.

Live in the Now

Now that the twins are starting to talk a bit, I have to be extra careful with the words I use.  So far they haven't repeated anything bad but Lucas is getting very good at repeating words.  His talking has exploded in the past few weeks.  He's learning words like crazy and is starting to put them together creatively.  Amelia still babbles a lot but she says it like you're supposed to understand her.  She doesn't like to repeat stuff but you can tell she's just soaking it in, ready to burst out in full sentences.  She did this when she was an infant too.  She would just watch everything and then one day she started to roll and crawl and walk, leaving Lucas in the dust.  so even though Lucas may be using words more now, I expect Amelia to pick it up quick.  I've always looked forward to the day they could talk but now I miss the days when they were still crawling around (kinda).  Maybe I should stop looking forward to what will come and appreciate what is here.

Don't You Hate...

when you just finish putting lotion on your super-dry hands and then you go to the bathroom and when you wash your hands all the lotion is gone?

Movie Review

Star Trek directed by JJ Abrams

Holy shit this was good. I'm not going to ruin it for you or anything so I'll just say this: Watch This Movie.

Nerd News Vol. 1, Issue 1

I just heard that Starcraft II will be released on Halloween this year.  That is the best damn news I've heard this year.  I don't think my Windows PC will be able to handle it so that leaves me with either installing Windows on my iMac or buying the Mac version of the game.  Mac versions of games have historically sucked but maybe they're better now.  But then will I only be able to play online with other Mac players?  Or do will I be able to play with the rest of the world?  I don't know.

Speaking of installing Windows on my iMac, there's a new version of Windows coming out this year.  In case you don't follow the Nerd News, the new version is called Windows 7.  Creative title but apparently this version is much better than Vista.  See?  Giving your OS a fancy name doesn't stop it from sucking.  Maybe a boring name makes for a better OS.  Millenium Edition sucked but XP was good.  Anyway, I'm thinking that this new version is the one I'll install on my iMac.  Hopefully it doesn't fuck up my beautiful computer.

Inconceivable!

So today we were talking about The Princess Bride with Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Wright Penn.  There were a few people that had never seen it and I think those people a fucking nuts.  Not in a bad way, mind you, they are just crazy to have not seen this movie or to have spent their time searching out a movie such as this even though they didn't know it existed.  This movie is brilliant.  Comedy, action, love, suspense... the only thing it's missing is the naked women.  I'll let that one go for this movie because it's that great.  All the characters are brilliant: The Spaniard, The Sicilian, The Giant, and of course The Dread Pirate Roberts, AKA Wesley. Good shit, people.  Good shit.

"Coconuts are tropical and this is a temperate zone."

I was on vacation all of last week.  I got so much done!  I cleaned half the garage (believe me, half is a pretty damn big job), painted a closet (it's a big closet), changed a light fixture (I don't even know how to do that!), and buried all my A/V cables in the wall/crawlspace.  Plus I took my car to get aircared (passed with flying colours, thank you very much), played video games, watched some DVD's, and cleaned up the garbage from the back patio.  Okay, okay, the video games and watching DVD's aren't really productive, but when you don't get to play except late at night when you're already tired and you never get to watch a movie from beginning to end uninterrupted, it's a big deal.

After having this time off, I was so ready to go back to work.  Don't get me wrong, I love being off work.  I love it so much I wish I could do it every day.  I wish I could do it every day and then marry it.  I wish I could do it every day, marry it, and then have kids with it so the not-going-to-work think can be passed on to my next generation.  Anyway, that didn't make sense at all, but the point is that I love not having to work.  But, since I do have a job and I'm kinda obligated to do some work at that job, and I actually like my job (that totally contradicts my whole I-love-not-going-to-work thing), I go every day and do a little bit of stuff here and there.  I've actually got a lot of stuff to do, but I've been avoiding it and saving it up for a day when I really don't have time to do it so I can be so freakin busy I'll have to stop and blog about it at work.  I'm not really making much sense here, am I?  I'm like a fricken monty python sketch right now.

Sleep is for the Weak

I'm exhausted.  I always say this but I think it's finally really catching up to me.  I'm so tired that I can't sleep anymore.  I lay in bed until close to midnight and wake up at 5:30 or 6am.  Even if I go to bed a bit earlier, I just wake up and then I can't fall back asleep.  Maybe I'm just going through some adjustment period or something.

I Pity the Fool

I don't know about you, but I think Mr. T is one of the greatest entertainers in the history of movies and TV. Seriously, have you seen his Clubber Lang in Rocky III? Or B.A. Baracus in the A-Team? OMG, this guy is fuckin awesome. Who will ever forget his name? "First name: Mister, second name: period, last name: T." He rocked the gold bling before any of those wannabe rappers and he is the real OG. Anyone that can be a bodyguard for Mohammed Ali, Joe Frazier, and Leon Spinks is one bad ass. Although his characters would tend to appear very stupid with short lines like, "I pity the fool!", Mr. T is a very intelligent person with great charisma. He's got this reality (reali-T) show is called "I Pity the Fool" where he goes around and motivates people. It's not a show that will make you feel sorry for the guests, there's no "boo-hoo-my-life-sucks" people on his show. Mr. T will tell you your life sucks because you're a fool.

Some more Mr. T classics:

Mr. T Snickers commercial "Get some nuts!"

Mr. T World of Warcraft commercial "I'm a night elf mohawk."

Mr. T: the "T" in I.T.

Rules for Fools: Mr. T on Successful Employment

One

Yesterday was my first anniversary. Exactly a year ago we got married in a little church in Surrey and had a grand celebration in a casino. Celebrating in a casino isn't exactly as bad as it sounds, it's kinda like getting married in Las Vegas except without Elvis. The resort (not just a casino) staff were great and were very nice to us from our first meeting with the event coordinator right up to the last drink from the best damn bartender (congratulations on your engagement btw - again, knowing the bartender isn't as bad as it sounds, he's a friend). Anyway, you'd think that after living together for a few years getting married wouldn't be such a big deal. Well it is. It makes all the difference in the world. Don't know why, it just does and you'll know it when it happens to you. Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity (is it really an "opportunity" if I can blog about it any time I damn well please?) to say Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife and here's to another 40 years to come (I don't really expect to live past 75)! I love you, Celia.

All This Time I Thought I Was Alone

A while back, probably at least a couple years ago, I wrote about googling yourself.  I did it once and found out there was some guy with the same name as me in Washington.  He was a professor of some writing class and sounded pretty smart.  Anyway, I thought "cool" and pretty much left it at that.  Recently, while surfing through facebook I found a group called Fans of Oliver de la Paz.  Seriously, I had to join this group.  So I did, read some of the stuff in the group and thought "cool" and pretty much left it at that.  Today, I get a message and a friend request that says "since we have the same name, we HAVE to be friends!"  That's totally cool with me so I accept and as it turns out, it's that professor dude from Washington.  I'm in his fan club group and I have to admit, I've never really read his stuff.  Anyway, just to make the story more interesting, I'm going through his pictures and find out that he has a 1-year old son named Lucas.  WTF??!  Weird, huh?  Finally, I just found out there's another Oliver De La Paz in California.  I sent a friend request to him because I think we might start a facebook group just for people with our name.  All three of us can be in it. 

Expert

Today we were pretty busy.  We helped one of the women in our group with her plans for a kitchen renovation.  We totally avoided work and looked at different kitchen designs hoping to find one that she likes.  She has an idea in her head but it sounds pretty fricken expensive so we were suggesting ways to save money.  At the same time, however, we were putting new ideas into her head that would just cost a million dollars more than her budget.  Granite sinks, radiant heat in a tile floor, double built in ovens and a built in microwave.  Fun stuff, huh?  Ever since we renovated our kitchen, I think I'm just an expert on all things kitchen-y.  It's like during the Olympics when you watch enough synchronized diving that you think you could be a judge.  Anyway, I have an early meeting tomorrow so I can't spend the night writing for you.  Gotta run.  No, don't get up, I'll just let myself out.  See you later.

Damn Cute

We were at my sister-in-law's house today and Amelia was calling to the dogs "Hi dog!"  She's so fricken cute.