Can Someone Explain This To Me?

So the wife and I watch all these home improvement/house hunting shows, and over and over again the people have the same two complaints.

First is that they won't buy a house without granite counter tops. People need to get over this and realize that it's easy to change them out...

Second, and here's where I need your help, people don't want a bathroom unless it has two sinks. I don't understand this at all. I've been married for four plus years, and we've been living together for five or so years and never once have I thought, boy it would be nice if we had a second sink. When we both have to get up for work, I get up ten minutes earlier and shower, brush my teeth etc before her. So why, why do you have to have two sinks?

Kitchen Redo

So finally I have kitchen pictures. They're not the best, as our new camera broke so we had to go back to the old one and I couldn't get the video's to upload.

In the before pictures, you can see the ugliness that was our kitchen. The color was all the same. The trim, the doors, the walls and the bead board, all the same color. This pukey, beigey, dirty color. It's really tough to describe, but those of you who saw it know what I'm talking about...

And here, you can see the ugly cabinets. Nothing fancy, just older, cheaper, off the shelf cabinets. Those wires sticking out of the wall are from the old hood fan. We got rid of it as it was older than me, and we need to put in the new one still...

So what we did (by we I mean mostly the wife) was paint the walls, the trim and cabinets. The cabinets and trim are white and the walls are basically a carolina/beachy blue. Perfect, no, but it's a kajillion times nicer...

We're going to change out the countertops too, as the ones there are just not a good look at all.


Lastly, we're going to add some more cabinets and counter space, almost like an island, up against the back wall. Once that's done we'll have just the tiny half bath next to the kitchen to do and we'll have tackled every single room in the house... holy crap hahaha

One Last Thought

When are these people going to learn. EVERYONE is getting screwed right now. Bipartisanship is going to get us NOWHERE! All these potshots he's taking at the Republicans are totally unnecessary. We all know our history. Yes, the past eight years were a mess, but gloating over it isn't going to make it any better. All it's going to do is piss off the other side even more thus making it even harder for the two sides to come together and get anything done. Yes I understand that we have the majority in Congress, so technically we really don't need the Republicans to be on board, but isn't it common sense... that working together just might bring out better ideas, that might actually begin to fix the mess that's out there right now?

It's like they're in high school or something. We won, nanny nanny boo boo! Stop with the gloating, roll up your sleeves and get to work. Bake some cupcakes (cuz really, who doesn't love cupcakes) and bring them to work tomorrow as a peace offering. Maybe some sugar free ones for all the diabetics in the House (get it, House...house.. c'mon puns are fun!)

And yes, I'm still really annoyed that Pelosi won't sit the heck down...

The Speech

Ok three observations:

First, remember when you were a kid at some sort of awards ceremony or graduation and the person running the ceremony would ask everyone to hold their applause until the end? Yeah, I think they need to do that with these presidential speeches. Every third sentence gets a standing ovation. C'mon people. If you do that for every point, the really important stuff doesn't stand out...

Second, don't you love when the camera spans the room during a standing o, only to show half the people not standing, but sitting with their arms folded across their chests like little kids as if to say "i'm not going to cheer and you can't make me!"

Third, which relates directly to the first two points, somebody needs to tell Pelosi to sit the eff down! The wife is convinced that she has a spring in her chair... up and down, up and down. Just sit your bony ass in the chair and listen to what the man has to say. Cheer at the end. As I type this, the following words just came out of the wife's mouth.."oh my god, i'm going to staple her ass to the chair!"

And one last thing. He can keep his $15 a week tax cut I'm getting, as long as I don't have to pay taxes come April 15th. I pay taxes all year, why do I have to pay more now? Stupid government...

Weekend Report

So before we get to the weekend, just a quick CONGRATULATIONS to Mike and Kim on the birth of their new daughter!!! Mom and daughter are both doing very well thankfully..

Now, this weekend we had some visitors. My cousin Cara and her husband Gary and the kids came up and boy did we have a great time. Everyone came over Friday night to hang out for a while, then Saturday we spent the entire day at my uncles. Snowmobiling, sledding, snow ball fights, all day outside. It was probably 30-35 degrees out, with not a cloud in the sky so it was beautiful. Enough talking, lets get to the pictures...

Ok here we have my laying the smack down on my cousin D. Problem is, he's getting bigger than me, and he's only 13. In six months, I'll have to start fighting dirty, which I'm obviously not above...

Here's D with my other cousin Jake feeding the horses...

D again, this time with Josie going for a snowmobiling ride...

And when she wasn't snowmobiling, she was sledding. Problem is, Josie is only three, so the wife and wife would pull her up and down the hill. I learned one thing from this excercise...I...am...out...of...shape. Seriously, sucking wind while sledding is not a good thing.

Great weekend all around though and now we're expecting 12+ inches of snow tonight. Just when you think winter is winding down, here comes Mother Nature throwing her might right back in our face...

Domination?

So I'm sitting here watching last weeks LOST, and during a commercial break I happen to flip to the local Maine station, where they're showing the high school basketball tournament games. Turns out, every team in Maine is full of 5'8" white kids. The games score very low, because there's no shot clock, so the smaller schools do nothing but hold onto the ball for minutes on end. I'm pretty sure I could have dominated in this format. As a matter of fact, I know it.

I bought a new game for my playstation karaoke... now I have Singstar Country, Singstar 90's and Singstar Rock. The game is giving me tons of false hope though, as it seems to think I'm a really good singer, which couldn't be further from the truth. Doesn't matter to me though, all I know is that I dominate the wife who apparently can't carry a tune in a bucket...

Next, I have to get Singstar 80s and there's oh so many more to get too...

Links And Then Some

First, part one of the great kitchen renovation is almost complete, so look for pics (before and after) to be posted later this week. And let me just say, it looks a kajillion times better than it did. Really couldn't have looked any worse though...

Second, I've become a huge fan of the MLB network. Great studio shows, very good analysts analyzing and they show a lot of great olden time games which I love.

The Sports Illustrated swim suit issue came out last week. Remember the days when that was actually a big deal? I remember being a kid and hoping I got home before my parents did to grab it when it came in the mail. Now? Not a whole lot of interest there. Thank you maturity and Maxim for taking the fun out of February...

Ok, links..
This guy was caught on the jumbotron at a Celtics game dancing. It's absolutely hysterical cuz he gets so into it. The best part is, watch his mom (i'm assuming it's his mom at least) at the beginning encourage him to get up and dance once she realizes he's on tv...

This one has been making the rounds lately. This lady absolutely freaks out when she misses her flight. Apparently she caught the next one three hours later though, so it really wasn't that big of a deal..

And finally, when choosing a best man... please choose wisely....

Weekend

Pretty quiet weekend for us. Friday night we tried a new restaurant (new to us, not to the world) and it was quite good. We've been meaning to go for a while now, but just haven't. We figured we'd skip the Valentines Day crowd and go out a night early..

Saturday we kicked the kitchen renovation into high gear. Instead of gutting it and starting from scratch, we thought we'd try going cosmetic first. We're painting everything, the walls, the bead board, the cabinets, and we're going to try to add some cabinets/counter tops too. I have pics, and I'll post them later this week when we finish all the painting so you can see the before and after. Those of you who have visited, know just how UGLY the kitchen was, so you'll appreciate it..

Our Valentines dinner consisted of the wife's favorite food, Domino's. Ok, maybe not her favorite, but in her top five comfort foods definitely.

More painting and snowmobilng (of course) rounded out Sunday... and now we get to sit back and watch the new season of The Amazing Race.. good times..

Hopefully this week will bring more exciting/interesting things to write about.

Would You Rather...

Ok... question time...

Would you rather be a famous actor/athlete or president of the United States? Both have their pluses and minuses right?

I got to thinking about it though, and figured I'd rather take the less responsible route and be a famous athlete/actor. Sure, you're privacy is completely gone (which basically happens when you're president too right), but you don't have all the pressure of fixing the country. You only have to 'work' during the season of your sport, or while you shoot your movie, so there's plenty of vacation time, which is nice.

On the other hand, if you were president, then you could actually do something with your life. You could actually fix (or attempt to fix) the problems we face today. But you don't really get to take a day off for the next four/eight years, which would suck...

And if you're president, you're only making like $300k a year, but chance are if you're an athlete/actor you're going to be making 10 or 100x more than that! But it's not like you have travel costs or rent if you're president.

Oh and if you're an actor/athlete and fool around with someone who works for you no one cares. If you're the president and do that, you lose your job...

It's Hard Coming Up With Titles

So I don't really have one for this post... just a couple of quick points and I'll be on my way.

• Have you ever noticed that a 20 second time out in basketball is 20 seconds only in name? They always play at least two commercials during the time out, so that's at least a minute right there..
• I'm finding it very difficult to turn my brain off at night. I can zone out no problem playing on the internet or watching tv, but as soon as the lights go out my brain kicks into high gear. Work, stuff around the house, tv, everything! I used to be able to relax no problem and shut down for sleepy time. Now it takes like twenty minutes, any suggestions on what to do?
• It's almost Valentines Day and I've gotta say I'm not really a huge fan. It's a completely made up day that forces us men to do stuff for our ladies. Does Hallmark really think we as men are that incompetent that they have to tell us when to buy flowers, etc?
• Did you watch that interview with ARod yesterday? It was funny listening to him go on and on apologizing, etc. "I was young and naive and didn't know any better", "everyone was doing it", "it was all about the money". Doesn't it sound like one of those Hollywood actresses that does nudity early on in her career then goes on to superstardom and regrets taking off her clothes? Seriously though, the whole steroids thing, I'm really over it. To me, it's just another era of baseball. When I teach my kid all I know about baseball, it'll be just another chapter, that's all. And as for keeping these guys out of the Hall of Fame, bad idea. The HoF is nothing but a museum and a museum should tell the entire history, not just the parts it picks and chooses. But that's just my opinion, what do I know...
  

Decisions, Decisions..

I'm thinking of taking a bold step...recently I've noticed the bald spot on my head.. well it's not really fair to call it a spot, more like a region, has been expanding and taking over the rest of my head. Think of it as Germany circa 1938 with the rest of my head being Europe, only there's no Allies to come in and stop them...

Others have noticed too... the other day at work, I bent over to write something on a desk while standing, and my 71 year old custodian looks up and says, "wow Jason, you're really going bald huh!" So I over course asked him if he knew what it was like to stand in an unemployment line. Then yesterday, I'm in the bathroom brushing my teeth as the wife is taking her shower. I comment to her that my hair seems to be thinning out more, and she says, "Um thinning out? I think it's done thinning and has moved on to disappearing!" This of course led me to reach into the shower and turn off the hot water while she wasn't looking. Fair play I'd say.

So I'm thinking of not shaving the head again, but just stopping the "pretending it's not there and try to cover it, but letting the hair around it grow a little longer" and just cutting it short. Not bald short or wiffle short, just shorter than it is now, so it doesn't look like I'm trying to hide anything...

I don't actually own hair clippers anymore, so I'll have to go buy some. So nothing will happen until I make another Target run, which knowing my wife, will be very soon. We'll see...any suggestions??

Movies And Then Some

So we went and saw He's Just Not That Into You last night. We'll get to the review in second, first two things...

When purchasing the tickets, the wife left me to go to the ladies room (her way of making me pay for them). The woman behind the ticket counter was in her mid fifties and the conversation we had went something like this:
me: "two tickets for he's just not that into you please"
her: "ok...(tapping computer screen) did you say two?"
me: (laughing)"do i look like the type of guy that would go see this movie by himself?"
her: (laughing) "you actually look like a gentlemen who bought tickets earlier who said he had lost a bet with his wife"

Then while standing in line to buy popcorn, I turn to the wife and asked if she thought movie popcorn used real butter. After all, they call it butter, right, so why not? She said no, she didn't think it was real at all, just some synthetic concoction dubbed butter. Well let me tell you, my lactose intolerantness begs to differ... it's butter...

Now as for the movie... I have to admit it was pretty entertaining. Every single/nonmarried girl out there should see it, as it lets you behind the curtain to the male dating thought process. If even half that movie is true, you girls think waaaaay too much...

The director also managed to do what I thought was impossible. They tried their best to make Scarlett Johansson unattractive. Or maybe she's just not as attractive as I thought she was? There's a scene or two where she's very yummy, but otherwise I was kinda disappointed...

Slow Days

Haven't had much to report on lately, so sorry for the lack of posts. My lovely wife is painting the kitchen cabinets (a cheaper alternative to replacing them), but our camera is broken, so I can't show you any pictures. Needless to say, it looks 1000% times better.

We bought a web cam the other day too. The in-laws are in Italy for the next four or so months so we figured this would be a good way to say hi, especially when Future Baby arrives. I'm just hoping it works ok.

Otherwise it's been pretty quiet around here. I'd babble on some more, but the Celtics-Lakers game is on...

Where Have All The Good Writers Gone?

Those of you who know me, know that I'm a huge fan of tv. Love watching it, have a list of shows I love to watch, and think the dvr is one of the best inventions ever. My new satellite tv has just worsened my habits.

But I have a problem. I'm finding that there's less and less good tv out there. It's almost like the networks have given up on creating decent programming. Comedies are pretty much gone these days, everything seems to be crime dramas and reality tv. And when a new comedy does appear, it's usually horrible (case in point, NBC's Kath and Kim. how in the heck is this train wreck still on the air? i've watched exactly three minutes of it and i sincerely regret wasting all three of those precious minutes). Even if you do choose to watch an hour procedural show, eighteen minutes of that hour is commercial, how ridiculous is that? Again, this is where the dvr (or better yet a Celtics game) comes in handy.

Am I the only one that feels that tv has gone seriously down hill?

Miss Me?

So we're back in Maine.. babyless.. as most of you have already heard. The birthmom decided to parent the baby after all. They say that 50% of adoptive parents have this happen to them. So it totally suc-didily-ucks, but it's not the end of the world. We're already back in circulation so now we just have to wait to get picked again. Next time though, we'll make sure to not repeat the same mistakes and not let the birthmoms agency make the same mistakes..

Oh, and no one should ever ever ever go to Ohio. It is the worst state ever. The people can't drive, plows are nonexistent (after receiving 8-9 inches of snow we didn't see a single plow), and there is absolutely nothing to do.

So thanks to everyone for all their thoughts, prayers and finger crossings, we'll let you know when we need them again..