went with my Navy brothers and played some paintball...ahh...brings back some good memories....anywhoo
Won MVP 5 games in a row and then got shot in the (male area) and I've never hit the ground so fast or so hard in my life...
a paintball coming at you at 300fps (feet per second)...it hurts...
got pics if anyone wants to see... (Snuffy? )

but brought me back to my old P-B ways and thinking about getting back into it...fun sport for anyone who's never tried it.

Sorry to hear about you misfortune there old buddy!
Just another fun day at the office. The talks of deployment are starting again. I think its for real this time. It's like ok, here's the plan. We are going to take 20 reservist who have no combat experience no combat training and most who dont want to be in the corps. No no stay with me. We are going to take them and go to Iran, into a hostile area where they have no idea what they are doing... Yes that was my day.

Is it wrong of me to be in a bad mood over this?

Absolutely not, Snuffy. Any person in their right mind would kybosh that dumb idea in a heartbeat.

bummer of a typo there. We'll be hearing about a Marine Reservist trainer who spilled invasion plans of Iran soon from CNN.....

No.. Well.. My biggest grip is when they come in for drill instead of doing something useful they do crap like toys for tots or clean the drill center or watch videos on crap like sensitivity and sexual harassment. They have seen the same videos of the same stuff for the last 2 years.

time to use those stripes and take them out in the woods for some movement to contact drills.

Finished off work for next week-yes! Ahead of it is the way to go, now can do relax city for a time.

Got my offer letter on my new job with General Dynamics, signed, sealed, and delivered (including piss test )

Only 3 or 4 major gardens left in which I have to pull the flowers/plants and then I'm done for fall clean up. About fricking time. Snow will be a relief. I think. At this point I'm reminded of the adage: "Be careful what you wish as it may come true."

Had to wake up early to go to school. Vacation school is about to start so we need to have everything in order.

took my SATs today...I tried, but I didn't kill myself since I'm going to the Navy...but the cool thing is since I'm in the service now the top score is locked...say in 5 years the top score is like...5600...they will have to base my test (when I re-take it) off the 1600 that it is now...which is a cool thing.
just glad to get them done and out of the way...5 hours of testing...I tell you what...fun freaking times...

Dude?

Why would you want to work for General Dynamics? I thought you had that cool job going with the 17TRG. Something I should know?

Either way, I guess putting a little more distance between yourself and Ms. Teeter can't be considered a bad thing.

Saw American Gangster last night. Great movie!! Almost 3hrs but still great movie!

She fired me because of Comm sq.

Bitch!!!

Wow - that's confusing (although I don't know exactly what that means since I'm not privvy to most of the stuff you had going on by virtue of being detached - "What happens in 448, stays in 448," unless it involves the Schoolhouse... then we all seem to suffer).

You'll have to tell me about it one of these days. I'll be in San Antonio this week for the IA Conference, and I'll catch up with you when I get back.

Started off with some news, then noticed Clint Eastwood being blasted off into space again-nice movie!

I learned not to try to jump on a cement ridge and smash my left shin off the corner...
it kinda feels good...

Snowing here in Winnipeg, however it is light and the temp is above zero so it won't stay and they have already predicted rain this afternoon. The job hunt is on.

Sky overcast here-no wind this area. Apparently, news from the fires is not making news anymore. Those fires still going, are in areas away from people and housing? Off to work in a bit ... hope for a short day-fingers crossed twice.

Left the house at 7am to take mom to the hospital. Sent her off for her knee replacement at 11:10 (for a 10:35 scheduled surgery). At 12:45pm was told she'd had an "adverse reaction" to the spinal block and had to be sedated almost immediately upon waking up. At 3:15pm was finally informed she was being taken to her room, and followed along to try to help get her settled. Spent the next hour trying to calm her down and/or distract her as her legs were uncontrollably twitching like mad and the pain meds weren't cutting it.

Spent about 20 minutes bawling my eyes out in the parking lot before I could drive home. Wishing I didn't have to work in the morning so I could get well and truly drunk tonight.

Had a flat today. Really just put me in a bad mood.
But on a good note both the Longhorns and the Packers won this weekend so YES!

Brett and Donald Driver are really tearing it up this season. Minnesota beat S.D. Adrian Peterson has a phenomenal record setting game. N.E. beat the Colts. Pittsburgh beat the Ravens last night. New York Giants are even having a great year thus far. My only major disappointment is the Bengals team. Damn they are playing poorly.

Real Football is the only way to go...
not American Football

Sur buddy, when you become a man, you too will understand the greatness that is watching football and drinking beer!

Had to call in sick to work for the second time in 13 years. Been in bed all day kinda wishing I could just die right here and now. Have been forbidden to visit mom in the hospital (not that I'm going far anyway) until at least tomorrow. If only this alien being that has taken up residence in my poor stomach would go away... *sigh*

Yea ok, of course I do drink (in moderation)...but I just plainly out don't like football...but I love Footbal (soccer)...the biggest game in the world...
always have been that way. Sorry to disappoint...

No worries mate, people like what they like. No changing that. I was never able to get into soccer.

Vacation school began. Kind of boring but kind of nice too.

Sorry, but is vacation school similar to an "intersession" or summer session course at university?

Woke up relativly early at about 5:40 and made bed, cleaned kitty litter and surrounding area. Did the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, stripped a cooked chicken of its meat, re-arranged the freezer area, tossed out overdue food from fridge, took out garbage and recyclables, played with Shady, did my online donations, listened to music. I also took out the bedroom telephone and it's attendant cable that was run from my living room. Old building with a mono jack system. I am going to purchase a wireless 2.4 or 5.8GHz system with base station and two wireless remotes. Base goes on my oak desk, one wireless in the bedroom and one on the coffee table in the living room. From my computer desk I can reach accross to the oak desk to access the base station. I am still contemplating whether or not to get the built in digital answering machine in the base station. I already have a good digital answering machine. The upside of all-in-one is less desk space is taken. The down side is that it is more expensive and by being more complex more things can and will go wrong. *sigh* I'll also have the truck washed today and strip out the last of the landscaping tools/supplies and bung in the "snow" shizzle. I've already got the shovels (3) and the hand held leaf blower. (Good for light snows. We use back packs for light to med-light snowfalls. Non sticky snow.) Beyond that we use shovels and on my route, which has the major high end condos, we will shovel, blow and use the Bobcat skid steer. If a blizzard comes thru, we have acces to front end loaders.

Visited mom in the hospital, learned she's going to the rehab hospital tomorrow morning for about four more days (thanks gods, I don't believe I know how to help her with physical therapy properly and she's supposed to do it three times a day). Ran a couple of errands, then went to the boy's house as planned. Except he didn't remember the plan and was still in bed (he didn't get out of work until 5am). Took a nap with him instead of running more errands, which was a much better choice. Came home, made dinner and some cookie bar thingies, now waiting on heading back to his house for the night.

Up early 0100 at work get stuff ready for this weekend. Its the Marine Corps Birthday on the 11th, but we couldn't get a ballroom for the 11th so we decided to have it on the 9th. Which means another fun reserve weekend . But anyways, i dont know why I had to be here so early, but apparently i volunteered

Woke up stupidly early to get the boy to work, oversaw mom's transfer from hospital to rehab, came home and took a nap, now about to leave to go to a friend's house. There's the potential to see the boy tonight, but he's working stupid crazy hours for the next few days and for some reason claims he doesn't get enough sleep when I'm there. Funny...that's what I tell him when I have to get up early and insist on staying home.

this week: dealt with grown men on my team acting like little children, arguing- and then carrying the argument to email to the governent guy we all work for.

Nipped that shit right in the bud. But we still have a meeting with said govie Tuesday. Grrrr.

Have spent about 10 hours of my free time going through timesheets and time reports, crossreferencing them with each other and the notes I've kept on one of my people's absences and tardiness. I do not like what I am seeing. I like wasting my personal time babysitting people for such shit even less.

On a positive note: hunter buddy gave me some cubed venison. breaded it in flour with steak seasoning mixed in. Served with garlic mashed... oooooh damn.


OK, a non-food positive note: WILL have the Blaze running this weekend. All helicoils installed, etc, only have to install the transmission at this point. 400 pound benchpress, anyone?

Football-- overpaid, overpadded, sissyboys that saunter about and act like badasses, while being on a "team" and acting more as individuals.

Soccer-- meh, never paid it much mind. Seems somewhat silly, though there is certainly much skill involved.

Rugby- now there's a man's game. very little in padding, no helmets, and at a dead run for the entire game- and much teamwork as well

(but yeah, they'd all kick my arse)

Agree with bk, even though I like CFL, NFL football. Over priced spoiled children. Now hurley and rugby isn't for sissies. Damn tough games. Some of my frat brothers wanted me to play halfback for them on a rugby team because I was very quick. This was due to years of badmintion, tennis and squash. I could change directions on a dime at almost full speed (in North American football.)

Now don't get me wrong, all y'all know that I'm very short, therefore physics and math still apply: short legs = not great overall speed but I could run fast enough to lose most everyone but the very fastest. They could catch me pretty easily. It was the wiry taller guys, 5'10" to 6' 1" that would make you pay the most, not the huge lineman. I used to love knocking down the biggest guys. The looks on their faces were worth the bruises and week long aches and pains.

noticed Bull's new skin and I must say...it kicks total ass...
nice rack Bull,...I mean on the deer on the banner.

Thanks, I work out.

You do realize bull that you're enough of a loon to send us other loons into paroxysms of laughter at that statement, right? LOL.

Went to bed last night at 11pm after staying up until 2:30pm from the day before because I'm an idiot (but hey...I got to see the boy for almost an hour, it was worth it). Got up at noon, started cleaning the house and getting things in order for mom to come home, which is supposed to be Monday. Walker-proofing a house is MUCH harder than child-proofing one, I swear!

-yesterday: while running around playing with my kid... literally, running around, chasing him with a ball while we both giggled like crazy men- I "stepped wrong" and sprained the hell outta my left ankle.

-this morning: one of my team didn't show for work (not surprising, he's undependable). He'll be getting an early Christmas present come Tuesday, I think- he's going to have to find another job. Meanwhile, there goes my weekend off.

Helped my cousin finish a siding job. Now I remember why I work nights...6 am comes way to damn early.

I've come to the conclusion that this whole knee replacement adventure has been emotionally harder on me than on mom. Not that I think it's all about me, but damn...every time I visit her it just brings crashing home how OLD she's gotten when I wasn't paying attention. She makes me crazy a lot, but I have a really hard time dealing with knowing I probably don't have all that much longer with her.

you listen to me ,a knee onoe of most painflull thins goings

deal with it and help her

god bless you for helping

Oh, I know. We did her other one 2 1/2 years ago. It's just she was younger then, ya know? I'm weird...

First day off in a while, SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

feel asleep about midnight this morning...and woke up about oh...10 mins ago...
no school tommorw either, so partying tonight and sleeping in again...I love long weekends...

other then that, getting ready for the MLS cup on the 18th...
and still pi$$ed about Chicago Fire loosing the eastern conference...
so now New England is facing Houston for the cup...oh well...there's next year..
but on another note, my Liverpool is doing great this year...ranked 5th overall...that keeps me going somtimes...

It's raining. Of course it is, I just finished putting weather stripping between the aluminum windows where they meet. This is after having to strip the old crud off which was way harder than I thought it would be. That shit was stuck on for life, let me tell you. The new stuff took a while to put on. You have to be really fussy about placing it properly. I suggest the use of a blunt edge to create a "V". The butt end of a soup spoon is both large and small enough. Large enough not to rip the foam and small enough to fit in the channel in the middle of the foam to poke it home. I found that peeling back about 4" to 5" inches at a time works best and slightly stretching it as you go along works for placing it in the channel. On approximately 45" it will stretch about 3/4 of an inch.

Cooked my Boston Blue fish with mixed fresh and oriental cut frozen vegatables. Yum. I'm looking forward to chowing down shortly.

I saw Balls of Fury last night. Not bad overall. Some parts were funny as hell but overall so so.

so it ends up, this person went ahead and worked this weekend. fine, I really didn't want to have two 12's sprung on me that were directly opposite my normal schedule.

While I was sleeping, apparently he sent out a couple emails directly to the govvie that manages the project. BAD move. He's prior service, he ought to know better. "Chain of command", anyone?

Luckily that govvie is a close friend and copied me on the reply. I've been formulating my reply to this idiot that can't follow procedure. Seriously- there's at least 5 violations of procedure this week alone. I've reminded him time and again, and he ignores me.

Homie needs a timeout. From what I hear it's going to be permanent come Friday. I hope so, I'm sick of taking my personal time tracking down his bullshit.

As long as we're talking dinner plans- I think it's venison tonight. I'll take some flour, grind some spices into it, and batter up the cutlets. A little olive oil in the pan, fry 'em up till you stop seeing the blood come out of the meat, flip and fry till the flour's done, and serve with garlic mashed. Not sure if I'm gonna be lazy and get the potatos out of the box aisle, or actually go to the trouble of washing, slicing (leave the skins on!), dicing, boiling, spicing, and smashing. "Plastic" potatoes never taste quite the same but they're not bad. Plus, there's just one bowl to clean versus a pot, a bowl, my mortar and pestle, and having to get all the spices down (wife always seems to shove the stuff I need to the back).

Nothing like a nice hunk of Bambi, though. I probably oughta start hunting- don't want to be a burden on my hunter buddies. Maybe it's time I start pricing rifles and the like again.

Besides- all bikers oughta hunt deer. Little bastards have taken down 3 friends of mine this year alone. It's time to arm up and return the favor.

Just got back from an Information Assurance Conference in San Antonio yesterday. Informative show, met lots of people in the biz - moreso than in the past. Also seems like I have more attention from the higher-ups since I'm the HMFIC of Computer Security for the Training Group now.

Found out a few things:
- Everybody I've met is pleased that I am where I am, and optimistic that I'm going to fix everything that's wrong with our IA program
- The President/CEO of one of the big AF Contractor companies I'll be dealing with is the same guy who was my sponsor when I was assigned in Izmir, Turkey - and a good friend at that
- I know way more about my new job than I thought I did

Found out a few things that are looming on the horizon:
- My position will indeed become permanent (straight from one of my boss's bosses, supporting what my boss has already told me)
- My position may in fact be upgraded to the next pay level
- My position may also fall into a special category when it all shakes out sooner than later

These things all deal with how much money is placed into my bank account every payday. Worse-case scenario, only the first thing happens... and I'm still happy for the long run. Best case scenario, all three happen and I'm set for the long run, and begin pool construction/yard transformation shortly thereafter.

Life is good.