Happy Halloween!!!

We pretty much depleted our cauldron of candy to trick-or-treaters tonight.

You know your neighborhood is affluent when you look up the street and it's nothing but cars parked on each side - bumper to bumper as far as the eye can see. I looked out my door and saw that very thing. And all was good.

Oh yeah, and 300 posts bee-atches!

Shoes (welcome to my neurosis)

So I have had this methodology about what sneakers I wear for the past few years. This works best with 3 pairs of sneakers but more shoes work out just fine. I have three "classes" of sneakers: junky sneaker, exercise sneaker, and "dress" sneakers.

BTW, I struggled with what word to use there. I started with shoe. But that word covers the gamut of every type of shoe. I am talking strictly about tennis shoes - as we called them when I was growing up. But tennis shoe is pretty stupid since I neither play tennis nor think that any shoe I own actually optimize my tennis playing ability. But I digress (as I will do during this post... I'm just getting warmed up). So then I moved on to sneaker. I think Granny used to call them that. But why? Why call them sneakers? Did all shoes have hard soles back in the day? So when the first sneaker came along with its rubber sole and didn't make a sound they thought people were wearing ninja shoes (of course, not even knowing what a ninja was as it had not even come close to reaching popular culture)? What do people call them these days? I don't know. In honor of Granny, I'm going with sneaker.

All new sneakers start out as dress sneakers. They are new and clean. That means that I don't have to worry about dirt, stains, or poop being on them. As my sneakers get on with their life, they receive wear and tear, and they simply don't deserve to remain in the "dress" class. At that point they are retired to the exercise class. At this point, I use them strictly for exercise (if applicable... my skating shoes aren't going to help me jog). Normally, the current exercise shoe then gets demoted to junky sneaker. And then the junky shoes are sent off to pasture or thrown into a tree or, you know, just thrown away.

Related tangent: About ten years ago I owned a pair of grey/red Adidas sneakers. Without knowing it, both my brother-in-law and my good friend Jed bought the same pair. Crazy coincidence, right? It was also about this time that I came up with my method. So when it was time to move onto the next pair I purchased a pair of blue/orange Adidas. Interestingly enough, and again without prior knowledge, Jed bought the same pair. It is these blue/orange Adidas that will be considered the protagonist in this tale.

So the last shoe to be retired to junky (and at this point in my life, junky is also synonymous [two y's - look at that!] with yard work) were these aforementioned blue/orange Adidas sneakers. I had the choice of retiring either the blue/orange or the black/grey. The blue/orange got the nod because they were older.

Well, I went out to find a replacement pair. I own a half dozen or more sneakers and they all are dress sneakers besides the designated exercise and junky sneakers. So blue/orange moved to junky and black/grey moved to exercise. But I couldn't find a worthy replacement for the blue/orange. I found a sweet black/silver/red pair and then a white/blue pair. I love the black/silver/red pair. I'm not keen on the white/blue pair. I almost wish I didn't buy them.

I mowed the lawn in the blue/orange pair so it was official. But I've always regretted it.

Last week, I was out with the dogs and stepped in a huge pile of poo while wearing the black/grey pair. I've cleaned poop off shoes before but it is no fun. So I was lamenting the fact that I was going to have to do it. Maybe that is what subconsciously allowed me to wear the black/grey pair while doing yard work yesterday.

Yard work was done. Poo was stepped in. They were dirtied up nicely.

So the unthinkable is going to happen. I'm going to un-retire and reinstate the blue/orange pair. I can hardly believe I am typing that and saying it. But I'm going to do it.

Welcome to my neurosis...

"in the interest of time"

These are words that you never, ever, ever, ever, ever want to hear come from a member of your QA team. And yet these words were uttered. Corners were cut. And yours truly dropped the ball under the pressure of "in the interest of time". I wildly created tables in production because, as bad as it sounds, production was where we were doing our testing.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

And besides, how many times have I wanted to push something through QA, in the interest of time, but was told that it had to be tested? A lot.

Grrrrr!

Are you ready for some... BBall?!?!

It's football season, I know, but the NBA season started tonight. Normally, I would not care, 'cause I don't normally follow basketball. And I still may not, but Eddie asked me to join FBL (I don't know if that is what it is called, but I'm referring to Fantasy Basketball League). I have no idea what I'm doing but it should be fun. Wish me luck!

In other fantasy news, I went 3-0 this week in FFL, bringing the 'spurs to 4-3, the Gunners to 4-3, and the Devils to 3-4. I dealt off BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Tony Moeaki for Larry Fitzgerald and CJ Spiller for the 'spurs. And today I brokered a deal for Arian Foster in exchange for Peyton Manning for the Devils. That move is balls out. But teams don't win if you don't have some cojones.

I just hope those Vikings can get back on track. Go Vikes!

Mission Accomplished

Fable 3, the newest obsession of Will's for the Xbox 360, came out at midnight tonight (approximately 57 minutes ago). Will has a copy sitting outside his father's front door. Why? 'Cause I'm the greatest. Aw yeah.

Party Plus 26

It's been 26 hours since last night's Halloween party began. Whew.

I don't even know how to recap the bash. I'm pretty whipped. I'm not so much hung over as I am beat down from not only the party but also helping Pat move (in a most efficient manner and at record-breaking speed, I may add). Plus I'm distracted by the Vikings and Packers game that's on right now (I *think* I'm going to win all three of my FFL games this weekend!!!).

I'll just do the free thought thing. Here we go...

I loved Hillary's costume. She was the Gulf oil spill! Jesse and Kelly were also way cool too dressed as the trapped Chilean miners. And kudos have to go to Matt Brown for the awesome mohawk! Two bonfires is better than one. My wife played her first game of beer pong. Amy's jambalaya was rocking. Jooj's buffalo wing cheese dip, I dare say, was better than her sisters. Kels looked great as Carrie. Lala looked adorable as the Bride of Frankenstein. We had four vampires. Sang 'til I was hoarse. Emma and Luke were adorable. The electric chair was electrifying. Goddam I love upside-down Tequila shots. And that Nicaraguan rum was spectacular. Will and his buddies playing "zombie tag" had me cracking up (Aren't they a little old for running around in the dark? Answer? NO!). Looking forward to eating leftovers for the next few days. Good times! Correction. Great times!

T-Minus 34 Hours

The 2010 Halloween bash is right around the corner. We've been preparing all week. Lights are hung. Decorations have been put out. Fire pits are in place. The karaoke machine is ready to rock.

I want to have a "dry run" tonight after the sun goes down. I'm going to setup the laptop and projector and have that in place along with all of the lights and stuff. Then we should be all set.

Still to do: finish putting the netting over the pond; decide what to do with the last three strands of lights (will there be an electric chair and will the lights go on that?); pick up the ping pong table from Jim and Susu's; pick up lumber from Lowe's and build the stage for karaoke; pick up another 30-pack of Coors Light and a 12-pack of Bud Light Lime (for Katy)...

Oh hell, the more I think about the more I think that my ToDo list is just too long to list! Thirty-four hours and counting...

Pat's ping pong table

Soooo... Pat doesn't own a ping pong table, eh? Funny.

No worries. A phone call to the Taylors later, I have a ping pong table on loan for the party. Yay!

Dial up the beer pong!

So much can happen in a weekend

I couldn't decide Friday night whether to blog about how much I love watching the Cards play under the new Coach Strong era or how excited I was at the thought of refinancing both my mortgages with a new monthly payment that is about the same that I'm paying now for the first one. Then I got the call.

Mom called, voice shaking, and told me that my little nephew Luke, age 1, had just left in an ambulance with my dad for Kosair. He had been running a fever and was just not acting himself. He went into a fever-induced seizure that lasted for approximately 45 minutes. I rushed down there but was held back in the waiting room - Melissa and Jeremy had already beat me and "it is chaos back there." What I later found out was that the "chaos" was my belligerent (and drunk - he was enjoying the Cards as well at the game) brother-in-law freaking out over seeing his baby boy in such bad shape. I can't say that I blame him. When I finally made it back all I heard was how good he looked but HOLY HELL! He looked horrible. He was sedated and rigid and mucus was running out of his nose and mouth. I was scared to death!

But long story short, the EEG and the CT scan were both clean. He was released Saturday. Things at my sister's house have settled down.

In other news, Will's JV football team won the City Championship. GO SAINTS! And their varsity team destroyed the competition in their final game of the regular season. They've now clinched a playoff spot as well as a first-round BYE. GO SAINTS! My 1-3 Vikings beat the horrible, nasty, godforsaken 1-3 Cowboys today too. GO VIKINGS! Fantasy football... well, things aren't said and done yet but it looks like I'm going 0-3 again this week. BOO 'SPURS, GUNNERS, AND DEVILS!!!

So much to say that really amounts to just about nothing

I'm sitting here with a dozen things that I could write about. But nothing is really standing out. Work this week has been tough. Thank gawd I'm between projects so I can dedicate some time to putting out fires. South Park last night made fun of people on TV from New Jersey. Fucking hilarious. I am going to win all three of my fantasy games in FFL this week (I hope). Will is going to win too. Skateboarding was fun this morning. But it hurt. Went to the bank and found out why they double-paid my bills. They had an outage. It was a headache. They paid bills twice. Now they are trying to get their money back. So it'll be my headache soon. Playing City of Heroes tonight, I converted one of my VIllains to a Rogue. Meh. I really love Mountain Dew Whiteout. The kitchen's backsplash was finished. Kyle did a great job. I get my new paycheck tonight. Yay. It rained finally yesterday. It's nearly 1AM and I'm not tired. But I better go to bed. I suppose.

The New Plan

To hell with Heuser. The gym sucks. They want three months paid in advance. And while it is effective, it is not fun. The new plan?

Soccer on Mondays. Skate park in the morning before work. Shower after I get to work. Have fun!

Sounds like a good plan to me. Let's see how that exercise regimen and proper diet treats Mr. Brinley!

Party preparations

Jooj and I hung lights and decorations this weekend while we gear up for the big fiesta on October 23rd. The preparations are coming along nicely. The front of the house looks great. The back of the house is shaping up. Inside is really coming along.

This year will see the return of the karaoke and the movie projection (I haven't decided what we're going to show this year). We're going to have an extra fire pit so I'll have 2 bonfires going. I may run out and pickup some more Tiki torches as well.

New to the party this year will be the "adult only" room, which will feature beer pong (as long as you are still "lending" us the ping pong table, Pat) and I'm toying with the idea of bringing the electric chair out of retirement. We're also going to have cornhole setup, courtesy of the Brown-Downs clan.

Things are really coming together. I have to start making some calls and solidifying the guest list. It's going to be fun :)

Hard Fun

Matthew Barzun, the old CEO of TechRepublic, gave a RaRa speech to us once and in it he mentioned the phrase "Hard Fun". In short, Hard Fun is, at the end of the day, what some jobs reward you with. The work is hard, but enjoyable, and in the end gives you an extreme sense of accomplishment. It's like when you work your @ss off and put in crazy hours - ultimately to launch a product on time and flawlessly (or as close as one can expect).

At TechRepublic, while this all sounded nice, it didn't really apply. CNET was a sweat shop. The work was never-ending. The business folks were ambiguous in their project requests, imbecilic in their testing, and showed zero gratitude towards a job well done. No, Hard Fun did not exist there. It was just hard - an no fun. And oddly enough, Barzun left nearly immediately after his speech to work on Jerry Kerry's failed presidential bid in 2004. Imagine that!

HOWEVER... (and you knew I was going to get to a point eventually) my work at Genscape is very much HARD FUN. The work is very difficult. The deadlines are laughable. But we get it done. And we rock! We launched a major product, Gulf Coast Refineries, in a little over 2 weeks last Friday. We soft-launched another major product, Midland Oil Storage, in about a week today. We are rocking and rolling right now. There is no doubt in my mind - this is the Hard Fun Barzun was talking about.

3 point 9

A. The name of the trendy Italian restaurant opening on the 1st floor
B. The margin of victory my L'ville Hotspurs had over their opponent in FFL
C. Kelsey's first semester GPA
D. All of the above

When in doubt, always go with C :)

I'm so proud of my grrrl!

(BTW, "Moz" is the name of the new restaurant and I won by 2.4 points)

Randy Moss is a Viking again

'Nuff said.

Two and Two and two and two and two and two

Is that an equation for the number twelve? No! (Well, yeah actually) It is the combined record of my FFL teams...

L'ville Hotspurs (2-2)
L'ville Red Devils (2-2)
L'ville Gunners (2-2)

The Devils and Gunners are looking great and moving up the charts. The 'spurs... meh. Believe it or not, I'm tied in my division for 1st (we're all four knotted at 2-2). But this team is pretty much Adrian Peterson and a bunch of blech. I need some people to break out. I need Eli to start acting more like his big brother. I need a second running back to tie up his laces and get 'er done! I need some points!

On a totally unrelated note, Damien called out of the blue and asked if I wanted to play keeper for the old indoor team again. Hells yeah I do (pending Jooj approval of course).

And on a separate unrelated note, I took senior pictures of Brooke over the weekend and posted them last night. Check them out:

Brooke

Corporate Food Vultures

Whoah! I ate well today - and mostly not due to anything I brought for myself.

My mornings at work always start with oatmeal and tea. The oatmeal is from my own stash. The tea is from a collection that work provides (Lemon Green Tea today). Fortune smiled bright on me today as bagels were waiting for me as I walked into the kitchen. Hells yeah! Slice. Toast. Spread with jalapeno and veggie cream cheese spreads. Devour.

Later in the morning I put down a glass of water (out of the cooler) and another cup of tea (this time from my own stash - Lemon Ginger - caffeine free).

I had to skip lunch to instead pick up Will from St. X. He shadowed today. His favorite part of the day? Eating for free in the cafeteria. He told me that he had two humongous slices of pizza, 2 boscoe sticks (breadsticks loaded with cheese), 2 cokes, a large smoothie, a chicken sammich, and a HUGE baja taco. OMFG, my bowels are rumbling after just typing that.

So I drop him off and rush back to the office. My stomach is grumbling but I tried to hold out. I busted into some dried cranberries and cashews for a snack. But that didn't cut it. So I went down to the candy drawer. I already had a Baby Ruth bite in my mouth before I spied leftover Bumblebee Stew from Friday's JGumbo lunch on Hillary's desk. Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I ran to the kitchen and found some in the fridge. I loaded up a bowl and zapped it in the microwave. While it buzzed I ate a quick apple. I also wrapped a bagel in a paper towel for a morning snack tomorrow.

My belly full, I walked back to my desk to finish the day and drink both another free glass of water and cup of tea.

Gluttons? The both of us? Perhaps. Moochers? For real? For sure!

'Roid Rage!!!

The subject line of this post is very misleading. I'm not raging by any means. And the steroids I am loosely referring to are not the type that professional athletes illegally use (wow, that word has 4 L's... which reminds me... Pat pointed out that hitchhiker has not just 2 H's in it but has a total of 3 H's). In fact, these steroids have been prescribed to me.

Well, believe it or not, I went back to the immediate care center yesterday after suffering aches and pains, a fever Friday night, and continuously filled ears. The doctor said that my ears were no longer infected so he said that the antibiotic worked and prescribed me the steroids to help clear things out.

Wow! I've been on them for just over 24 hours and I feel GREAT!!!

I'm hoping that illness has left the building for a while. And by building, I mean me.