Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Monster Movie

OK, couldn't get this on the web page so we will try it here. . . recored on the video card, I will have to try tape at some point. . .


Jack

Well other than a possible mild reflux issue that earned him some baby Zantac Jack has a clean bill of health and is going home tonight. I am sure I will be waking up every time he makes a noise but it will be good to get him home. He will see his normal doc in the morning for a once over but they are working on discharging him now. He passed all the tests with flying colors and shows no signs of any sleep apnia or other issues just a slight chance of the reflux. We will try to get him to sleep on his back but he hates that. . . we will see how it goes. I am also going to put his bed on a bit of an angle as they say that may help too. . . . . All I can say is I am SO GLAD this is over even if I will be paranoid about every sound he makes for the next year or so = )

Jack

Well, mom is tired but Jack did good on his tests on Sunday night. Last night they had some folks from Children's Hospital in Boston come in to run another overnight test this time looking for acid reflux instead of sleep apnia. We won't have those results until tonight some time but mom says he slept OK all night. I think they are going to keep him all day today until they get the tests back. He is OK and happy enough but I think he is getting bored with being in there. He is use to having his sisters around and toys to play with.

Mom is getting burned out though, we have to get ready for my oldest birthday tomorrow but that is kind of on hold with Jack in the hospital. We are hoping that he will be home for it. If for some reason they don't like the results from last night they may move him to Children's hospital for more tests but things have gone well so far so I am hopping we are done today. The house isn't the same without him in it.

Monday, August 27, 2007

More Gray Hair

Well, Jack gave us quite the scare yesterday and added to my gray hair. . . . Mom is going to be upset that she had competition in this regard. . .

Anyway I didn't get to work on the web page or blog since I was going to do that last night and Jack decided to have a choking fit and stopped breathing for a few seconds. Enough of a time that we called 911 and went to the hospital by ambulance. And on that note let me say that our Fire and Rescue dept. has the best guys around! They were great in taking care of Jack and calming me and mom before they took Mom and Jack to the hospital. I have to send in a letter thanking them for everything, they were great. Jack is fine now. They monitored him all night (Mom stayed with him) and they are going to run another test tonight just to cover everything but he seems fine and they don't seem concerned at this point.

Anyway all looks well now and Jack should be home tomorrow afternoon after they run all their tests and look at the data. What's a bit more gray hair at this point anyway. . . .

Friday, August 24, 2007

Stardust

OK, the wife and I went to see Stardust last night and I have to say two big thumbs up for this one. Not only is Michelle Pfeiffer still hot, but the "star" Claire Danes is easy on the eye too. Robert DeNiro was great also. As was said on another blog, possible MadOgre or Lawdog,(sorry I forgot where) the movie is like the Princess Bride without all the quotable stuff. Overall a good fun movie to see, but not as many quotes to use on friends later after drinking. . .

Go see it, well worth the trip. To top it off it had some nice previews of some good flicks coming this fall including a Disney spoof on itself and all the animated princess movies. Can't wait for that one.

I’m So Proud!!

I took the oldest monster daughter to the range tonight and she loved it as usual. Now she usually shoots .22 as she is just 12 but she did try my AK tonight for a few shots and got on the paper at about 25 yards. OK, so it has a red dot scope on it but still. . . . To finish thing off for the night she told me how much fun she had and that she wants to teach her kids to shoot when she has them some day. . . . . I think the torch has been successfully passed to the next generation of gun nut!! I’m so proud of her!!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Corrupting the Young

Well, my older daughter has been bugging me to go shooting again before school starts up. If the weather holds I will taker her tomorrow after work along with a friend of mine and her son. Heres to getting the next generation into the shooting sports!

So far both kids love it. we do some paper targets and a plinking plate. She has only done a 22 rifle so far but I think I will have her give the AK a try tomorrow as I got a red dot on it so she should be able to aim it well enough. Nice thing about the AK variants is they have a good kick on the receiving end but not to bad a recoil for the shooter. . . Should be a fun night.

And yes, we go over safe handling of the weapons every trip to the range before they get to touch one. . . .

Job News

Not that I want to blog about my work but I had to share that I found a new job!! I am psyched. The pay is about the same but since my current job was going to move a half hour further away the move to a new company was kinda not a choice.

The new job sounds great and I start on the 5th. Good company, good position, I know a few folks there already and they say it is a good place, and to top it off it sounds like it has a good future and growth potential. All good in my book = )

Jack and house update

Well, on the good side Jack is growing like a weed. He was up to 14 lbs last we checked and he broke the three month mark. We have some good pics I will see if I can get posted. I am also trying to see if I can get any video posted too. I will try to work on this over the weekend.

Also getting a lot done on the house this week. The have some of the siding up and most of the windows and a slider door in. Now we need to do the normal doors and one more slider and we will have a weather tight house = ) I need to get a few new pics posted on the house too.

Big Dig

Hey sounds like more good news out of the big dig gang here in MA. . . We have two more issues with the dig, or more of the same issues with the dig depending on how you look at things. All I can say is I am glad I don’t drive through it every day. . . .

Issue 1 – we have warped plates holding the cables that make up the new Zakum (sp?) bridge. One side says the anchors are warped and the bridge is damaged. Question is how bad and is it safe to use now that they have made it the main road to got from Boston north. The other side says “don’t worry” they got warped when we put them in and all is ok. Of course the folks in the OK camp are the same folks that say the leaking in the tunnels is under control and had been greatly reduced, we have it under control.

Issue 2 – The tunnels leak and they don’t have it under control. They clamed that it leaked something like 8 million gallons and they have cut it in half – Well on the way to a total fix. . .. Latest tests show some 500 leaks, and say that it is leaking 7.5 million gallons a year so they did not fix it and it is going to damage the cement and support of the tunnels. . . .

And they wonder why we don’t have faith in the powers that be in Massachusetts. . . I don’t know, maybe it’s cause they keep changing the story depending on who they talk to and if it is an election year . . . I never thought I would say this but I want the Fed involved to clean house of all the corruption in the dig and to get it fixed once and for all. Not that I trust them much either but I have more faith in the Army Corp of Engineers than I do in any fool we have working on the project now. . .

Best of luck to those of you who have to drive in there. I hope it can be fixed before we have another person killed by the damn thing.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Parenting

My wife just sent me this and I had to share it. . .:

PARENT - Job Description


This is hysterical. If it had been presented this way,
I don't believe any of us would have done it!!!!

POSITION
:
Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop


JOB DESCRIPTION
:


Long term, team players needed, for challenging
permanent work in an,
Often chaotic environment.
Candidates must possess excellent communication
and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends
and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to
primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities!
Travel expenses not reimbursed.
Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES
:

The rest of your life.
Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily,
until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
Also, must possess the physical stamina of a
pack mule
and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat
in case, this time, the screams from
the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges,
such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets
and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and
coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings
for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute,
an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a
half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for
the quality of the end product.
Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION
:

None.
Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills,
so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
:

None required unfortunately.

On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION
:

Get this! You pay them!
Offering frequent raises and bonuses.
A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because
of the assumption that college will help them
become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that
you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS
:

While no health or dental insurance, no pension,
no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and
no stock options are offered;
this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth
and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.

Immigration Stuff

I started off the day reading this about this poor illegal immigrant that I guess the big bad Fed sent home. Sorry, I can’t get upset here folks. Seems she snuck into the US once, was sent home, and snuck in again and had a kid. Now she has been hiding in a church of a year to avoid deportation for her second illegal trip into our country. Well, the Feds finally got her and now she is on her way home to Mexico. Top it off with the fact she left her son here with friends instead of keeping him with her.


I don’t get this. . . .. the family is supposed to be important. She claims her son is important to her but she left him here while she was sent home. I can’t personally picture being separated from my kids for a few days never mind leaving them here and going to live in another country.


Top this off with I am supposed to feel bad for her after this is her second ILLEGAL trip into our country and the activists are whining IT’S NOT FAIR!


What is fair? Should we let her stay after breaking our laws? I have a few friends who are immigrants and I watched first hand as they dealt with all the hoops the government makes them jump through. I watched one get laid off and almost get sent home because of his visa. They worked it out and he is still here LEGALLY.


Now what do I say if we let her stay? Gosh guys I am sorry you played by the rules and all but those folks that sneak in can stay but you have to go home cause you play by the rules. . . . This makes me sick. I don’t know how I would ever face any immigrant that came here legally if we let the ILLEGALS stay. What message are we sending – Break our laws from day one and you can stay, obey them and we will SCR@# you to the wall if you slip up one little bit – God forbid you loose your job or something. . . . . The only folks it looks like we are treating unfairly is the legal immigrants we have let in.


This is just sick. We need reform, not to help the illegals but to help those who are following the rules. Lets make it easier and less of a burden on the legal immigrant while we work to stop the illegal. I would much rather have the law abiding immigrant join our society than one who from day one shows no regard for us or our law. LEGAL immigration built this country, ILLEGAL immigration only hurts it.

Mass Insanity

Only in Massachusetts or should I say only in Boston. . . . . This article tells of the latest way the Boston Housing Authority has decided to save money – by pulling security guards from the elderly housing project and putting in cameras instead.


Anyone but me see this as a problem? Ya, I thought so and so do the seniors. It seems that they have been fairly safe so far based on the numbers in the Herald today, but if you look at the surrounding neighborhoods you can quickly see that they are not in a good part of town. To top it off they seem surprised the elderly are fighting being thrown to the thugs . . . Gee I wonder why?


This taken from the article - Between Jan. 1 and July 24 of this year there were only 16 reported crimes - mainly burglaries but one rape - in all 13 developments under the existing security arrangement. That compares to 1,963 serious crimes in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods, including seven murders, 24 rapes and 195 robberies.


Now reading that I would say that the fact real people are walking around as security at these housing areas is doing some good. . . . BHA seems to think these numbers say that they don’t need people, cameras and the cops (who are already overworked) can do the job no problem.


Anyone want to guess the next new story? I can see it now on the front page – Crime rate soars in elderly housing complex due to illegal guns and gangs. . . They will never admit that they are setting these elderly folks up for the fall. This is Boston, they can’t own a gun to protect themselves from the gangs and thugs and now we will pull the security guards and let the cameras do it. . . . . all for a buck. . . . stay tuned folks.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Medicine today

This is an interesting article on where our new doctors are coming from. The med student that wrote this comes from a medical family and she hits a number of good points.

My dad was a doctor and all bias assumed he was a damn good one. He did a lot of good work in medicine and paid the price for it. Once he recovered from his drinking issues he went on to help found impaired physicians programs in three states in New England. Through all of this he never once pushed me toward medicine. I was always good with mechanical stuff and computers so I wanted to into Engineering. I could have mix this with Bio-Med or something to do with healthcare but I had spent too much time listening to Dad talk about the fall of medicine and how insurance companies and the government were destroying the medical field. He would tell me how you had to keep in mind that the insurance folks would second guess your tests and treatment, and the Feds were watching what you prescribed. I didn’t want to work for Big Brother.

In the end I think he was glad I didn’t go into medicine for a living. I know he talked me out of it. I saw what he went through and said “nope, not for me” I wanted to have time with my family and a good nights sleep. I wasn’t ready to deal with the 3AM call from the hospital asking if Mrs. Jones can use the bathroom and other such nonsense that he had to deal with. (Nothing against the nurses that called, I know every has to cover their back with the law suits these days)

You can see in the story that she faced some of the same issues yet still went into medicine. . . I wish her the best of luck because without people like her I think we would be running out of doctors in the near future thanks to the hoops you jump through now in the healthcare system

New Blogs added

Hey

Added a couple of new blogs for you all to look at:
Better and Better
Ride fast and shoot straight
No Looking Back

Been racking my brain on what to write about but not getting anything I am afraid. work continues on the house and Jack is doing well so no new news on that front. I hope I can come up with something good over the weekend.

Tonight I am being invaded by 10 screaming 12 yr olds for my oldest birthday party. This will be an overnight thing with them all wanting to watch the latest High School Musical I think which is on tonight. . . all I can say is God help me and the wife get through this and I will be a happy boy. . . . Not betting on much sleep tonight and if the house is still standing in the morning I will call this a screaming success. . .

Party recovery will consist of more parties. . . . i am catching up with some college friends tomorrow for a cookout. as I said, not much sleep in my future this weekend I don't think.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Life Rating

Since this seems to be the fashion in the blog world I had to take the test. . .. Did OK I guess. . .

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:
7.4
Mind:
7.1
Body:
6.5
Spirit:
6
Friends/Family:
5.9
Love:
9.1
Finance:
7.6
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

war on terror

Here is a link worth a read. Agree or not, think it is worth thinking about how we view things and how we view the troops and our enemy's . . .

MA Tax Free weekend and other BS

This weekend was sales tax free here in the great republic of MASS. . . for those of you not living here (you are lucky) that means that his lordship the Governor and our nice state legislature has decided that they will suspend the sales tax for the weekend. . . you remember that tax that was supposed to be temporary and has been around as long as I can remember. . . .

The best part of this (other than I hope it did help all the merchants out there) is the ads on the radio thanking the government for this break. . . I think it is great that they want me to thank the government for not taking more of my money. . . Why do I find something wrong with that idea??

Don’t get me wrong, I took advantage of the tax break myself. . .( probably more than I should have) and all. I also wish I had enough $$ sacked away to get that nice Bushmaster rifle I have been saving for but no such luck yet. But I won’t thank the government of this state for not taking my money. . . . just can’t do it when they seem to ignore us the rest of the year when we vote for income tax reductions and to stop the Greenbush rail line that they put in anyway. . . nope, just can’t do it.

A second sad note I heard on the news on the way in to work today. . . gun permits are down in MA. . . that means there are fewer gun owners. They seem happy about this on the news – they say it is due to the increase in fees for licenses and the change in culture. The way I see it is we now have three problems that are going to grow out of this

1) Less guns in citizens hands. . . this means it is safer to be a crook now. So I guess while they celebrate the lack of guns here we won’t hear a thing about the increase in the crime rate. . . If we do hear anything I am sure it will be how it is someone else’s fault, or folks coming in from NH with lax gun laws that are causing the increase in crime, never the fact that they have disarmed us and made this a crook safe zone. . . I hope we wake up before it gets too late. . . .
2) They think the fee helped them. . . I am sorry but it is my right to own a gun and they charge me $100 for 5 years now to hold the license. Folks would scream bloody murder if they did this to the drivers license fees. . ..These idiots may have hit on the one way they can disarm the state. . . up the fee until no one can afford it. Before the fee change a few years back it was only $25 or $30 bucks for 4 years of permit. We are getting screwed over to pay for what is our God given right. . .
3) Probably the worst one. They are not even looking at the fact that people are fleeing this state and part of the reason the number of permits is down is these good law abiding and working folks have bailed out and gone someplace they can live free (not to mention afford to live at all) and not deal with all the red tape BS we have here. . . This state continues to loose it’s best and brightest (and I am not talking only the gun owners) but the government continues to refuse to see reality. . . . .

Well, we will see where all this leads. I lived here all my life and my family is all here. . . I guess I am in for the long haul. . . I think it is going to be a heck of a ride.

News

Hey folks, I just was informed I was added to Jay G's blog list and am also on Ambulance Driver's link list of blogs. . . Thanks Guys and I guess I now need to get moving on this thing to post something more than just family updates and hopefully show I am worthy of the links! = )

For those of you visiting from either site, or maybe one I don't know about the link yet all I can say is Thanks for stopping by! Please take a look at the link list to the right, there are a bunch of great links there and I try to read them every day or two. . . lots of good stuff.

Well, I am off to come up with some good comments (hopefully) about our great tax free weekend here in the great republic of MA we just had. . . more later. . .

JD

Sunday, August 12, 2007

new photos

Hey

Added a new photo at the top of Jacks page and a couple of house photos for the work that got done this week at the bottom of the house page. . .

More later

Friday, August 10, 2007

motivation

Hey

For those of you that like (or not) the motivational posters you sometimes see around the office I have added a link to some "military motivational" posters to my link list. Take a look, some good stuff and some funny stuff. . . .

Time Flies

Wow, didn't realize how long it has been since I updated things. . . Been a bit busy. . .

Jack is almost three months old now! he is getting big. He is sleeping all night now, almost 9PM to 7AM most days. And there was much rejoicing!! = )

I have got to get more pictures put up so you can see the changes. He is also getting to the point he reacts more to people. And boy is he a charmer with that smile he has. . . . although he keeps looking at me like he knows something I don't and won't let me in on the joke. . . . oh well. I will just chalk it up to he has an old soul and let it go at that. . .

The house is moving forward again after a few days delays. they have most of the cement blocks up on the first floor and they have just about finished the roofing work. As you would expect Nana is very happy with the progress. She usually is in her best moods when she can see progress on the house. I hope she will be able to move in mid fall. She brought a few of her friends by the other day to show off the progress = ) With a bit of luck we will be able to have the after Christening gathering at the finished house. . . .

The funniest part of things this week has been the brick layers have a puppy that comes with them. The puppy and Dixie are getting along great except that our Dixie is tiring out the poor thing! T tells me the puppy has to take a few naps during the day . . . Dixie loves having a friend around to play with. Now I just have to keep T and the kids from deciding we need a permanent friend for Dixie. . . . one dog is enough in the house. . .

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Added a few links

Hey

Just added a link to the side there to Blank Top Chronicals. . . this guy is a riot. He is a cab dispatcher down near DC. Give it a look you won't be sorry. . .

J