Practicing My Crazies Beat Down

Here is a picture of me practicing my swing! Just really goofing around with the camera that's all! This post was inspired by Senia's walk home from school the other day. She decided to tell someone who was honking at some local kids crossing the street in a crosswalk (we live a block away from school) that she should choose another route and not honk at kids in a school zone. This led to her being followed home and almost run over in front of our house. I came out with my baseball bat when I heard all the commotion to rectify the situation!

Almost Christmas!

The company party is tonight and I am stuck working. Not too big of a deal since I am not much for social functions, I will miss the open bar though! So did some shopping today, and what can I say...I hate waiting so I gave my wife her present today! Can't wait for 2010! Is it new years yet?

Rainy Season Begins...

First rainy day of the season, had some small rain earlier...but this is the first real rain of the season! It's cold and breezy. I think I want soup!

Times are Tough...

So sometimes I find a little humor in the silliness, but I just don't get it. Times like these people are being asked to cutback, would you take someone seriously with something like this outside their office?

disclaimer; totally don't know where this video came from!!!!;)this is just something I ran into online.

Dear Facebook,

With all your cool apps and games you are taking up all of my time. Please stop taking over all of my blogging time, I miss posting stuff here! I promise to come back more often, please forgive me dear blog. I remember a few years ago you were voted word of the year, let's see facebook pull that one off!!!!

Married Man!

So I tied the knot this past weekend! It was amazing, both the ceremony and reception! I think the coolest part was the photobooth and I hope everyone enjoyed it! Here is one of the photobooth pics!!!! I really had a lot of fun, the theme of the wedding was very artistic and revolved around photography (hence the whole thing with the photobooth!!!). I loved it and feel very proud of my wife.

No we are not Eloping!!!

So we are in Cabo, Baja California for our wedding road trip! And like the title suggests we are not eloping, the original plan was to do the civil ceremony here with the church wedding back home to include my grandpa (who is like 98ys' old). Unfortunately with all the legalities and what not that proved to be toooo difficult, soo our priest (who is now a priest in Nebraska and is flying in to do our church wedding a month from now) volunteered to do a wedding blessing for us here, so that my grandpa can be a part of our wedding which was the original plan!!! Pretty cool stuff, thanks Father Ernie!

Thumbs Up...

I was driving around the other day and got a thumbs up, this makes me feel good. It just passed smog, gets decent gas mileage, it was not in running condition when we got a hold of it (thanks Luis aka my brother)! The very next day, somebody came knocking on our door to ask if we were willing to sell it. When we said no, they ask us to reconsider. I find all this on the funny side of things! And I promise to update more often...freakin facebook and their online apps (poker mainly) take up all of my Internet time!!!!

Whole Lotta Nothing!!!

Not a whole lot to report on my end. Visited one of Senia's cousins at the hospital who just had a baby!!! It was really cool because Senia went over to take pics of her newborn baby girl, and the pics came out great. She even made the baby announcements plus a bunch of other shoot stuff. Really professional looking too! It was a nice sunny day, and the room was on the south side of the wing which made for great natural lighting with the blinds open.

Car Is Painted!

I got my car painted the other...I opted to do just the bumpers and the rocker panel (trim under the doors). All of this stuff was plastic, and somehow this faded quicker than the other parts of the car! It looks awesome especially after I polished then waxed the rest of the car. Pics to come soon.

My Community....not happy!

So this article really hit a nerve. I don't really blame the police so much, as this was a joint operation between the feds and the local authorities dubbed Operation Knock Out, meaning that this poor family had been under federally sanctioned surveillance! Normal everyday citizens under federal surveillance just cause they feel like it (or in this case if your brown/have a Hispanic name)!

Finally!

I finally changed the oil in our cars! First it was Senia's Toyota Highlander, what a pain in the rear. It was easy enough to get started, draining the oil was a breeze. Then I had a hard time finding the oil filter itself! Go figure, it turns out that the filter is right below the exhaust manifold...which means it is a real pain in the butt to change out without scorching your arm off. I had to buy a special tool to get the filter out (normal strap wrenches don't work on little import filters). My car is always a challenge too, my car sits too low to get a jack under it so I have to do it at my mom's house. She has some blocks I go over with the front tires, this adds enough ground clearance to get a jack under it! Way overdue!

Earthquake Damage! (minor I think)

Tonight's quake felt like the big one, at least bigger than anything I remember ever feeling. It was centered just a couple miles away, and according to the earthquake map I am right above the fault line. Here is a couple pics of all the stuff that fell, the CD tray came open on the boombox somehow?!? Weird! No cell phone service for a couple minutes after the quake...just internet and land line! Senia's little doo-higgy from nightmare before christmas broke!

No Free Time...

Been working a lot lately, and any of my free time has been spent messing around on some silly online game, stupid Pet Society! I have been putting off some oil changes cause I have been overly lazy, Senia's car and mine are overdue. The oil in my car needs some what newer oil or else it thins out and pressure gets a little too low. Oh well, I plan on taking care of this on Monday!

It Has Been A While!

Shiftwork has really been kicking my butt lately, especially after being on a normal schedule for about a month. This sucks, I need to make more time for blogging!

Procrastinating!

So after letting my truck sit for sooo long, the batteries died. $160 later, the truck still did not start:( Apparently my shoddy job of replacing a leaking fuel hose was choking off the diesel from getting to the injector pump. So finally after putting off replacing this hose for about a week after the new batteries I finally got it working! I did a fancy little loop instead of kinking the hose like I had done earlier! Freakin' cars.

Change of Schedule!

So I will be working daysfhifts 6 days per week this next month. This sucks balls since I think I might be overwhelmed. I will be the outage coordinator, which really isn't that bad (I hope), but I really don't like coordinating or telling people what they should be doing. But enough whining, it should be a good experience.

On a different note, I got my California refund...so now the state can go bankrupt, I dont care, I got me my money already! I am also hoping that my company starts going under, then we can get a bailout since the state can't be without the electricity...this would be great cause I could sure use an AIG style bonus right about now!!!! J/K! Hopefully this slump ends soon and those struggling families get back to work!

Fly Over!

I got to see the president's choppers fly over today! Those guys are sneaky, I was expecting to watch a presidential motorcade on the television from the Long Beach airport to the OC fairgrounds. I was a little bummed out to see him get in his chopper, but I guess he wanted to avoid traffic on the 405. I don't blame him!

I WON!!!!!

So I won a $100 gift card from Fuddruckers today! I got it by filling out those surveys on the receipts from stores and restaurants. I have been doing it for years now, and it finally payed off! I can't wait to get me some free food, it's gonna be mailed out to me....I should have it in a couple weeks. The funny thing is that I will probably get it before my California refund!

New Store!

We finally have a Costco nearby! Not that we had one far away but this new store at the Lakewood mall is only about 2 miles away. This is really nice for Senia because she does her digital prints online through Costco. We shopped there today, and the store was really nice. The parking kinda sucked though being Sunday and all, it didn't help that it shares the lot with the mall.

Albondiga Soup...Take One!

So I decided to make some soup for dinner today, I made Albondigas! I still haven't settled on all the ingredients/style that I prefer. This is actually a pretty basic soup, meatballs being the main ingredient! As far as the rest of the ingredients that go along with a soup....well I haven't made up my mind. For example I am not the biggest fan of veggies, but I understand soup and veggies go well together. Today's version only had potatoes and corn, I used some pasta too. Next try will have more stuff in it before I settle on how to make it my own!

Practice Time!

Went to the local shooting range today! I had to find an excuse to clean out my guns after they have been sitting for a while. It was fun but I find myself a little out of practice, which is kind of a bummer. As you can see by the second target, I have some room for improvement. The first target was at 15 yards, the second at 25 yards. For some reason I shot better with my Glock today.

Battery Stuff!

Helped one of Senia's friends change out her car battery. Most of my tools are at my mom's house so I just used a crescent wrench. I think it's funny that I am really careful now to avoid shorting stuff out, like disconnecting the negative(-) terminal first. While I was bored at home I did some quick price checking on all the batteries available.

1. Autozone Duralast Gold $90
2. Kragen Exide Platinum $85
3. Clark's AC Delco $65
4. Clark's Rebuilt $25

These were the top choices, she went with the AC Delco. We removed the old battery beforehand to avoid paying the core charge. Clark's is a really cool parts store (second to only to Renteria) this is cause I know someone that works there on Sunday's and I get hooked up!

NHRA Birthday!

Senia and my Brother got tickets to Winternationals at the Pomona drag strip in honor of my birthday! It marks the beginning of drag racing season. I had lots of fun, topping it off I got a free hat from some nice people that went all 4 days (you get a free hat for spending beaucoup $$$) this really made my day since I normally lean on the frugal side of things and wouldn't have gotten myself any souvenirs otherwise. The coolest part of the day though was when Senia got to meet Ashley Force and had her sign my new hat!

The shaking on the video is Senia being stunned by the deafening roar of a top fuel dragster. I love how you can feel the power of these monstrous machines!

Game Night @ Chloe's

This round of games brought us more Cranium, although this time we started off with some Bingo! Unfortunately we wagered some small amounts of money and one of Senia's friends Julie cleaned house. After the Bingo we played some more Cranium, which Chloe and Ron won again! Senia and I came in 2nd. After this we played some good ol' pictionary! The highlight of this night was definitely Julie doing an impression of Bill Cosby....come on now, how can anyone not get the Jello Pudding???

Video Shoot!

They filmed a Papa Roach music video today. There wasn't much going on so I took a few pics! Unfortunately music videos aren't what they used to be, I was really disappointed that no hot chicks were used in the filming of this video. I miss the 80's!!!!

As you can see I took these pics from far away so you can get an idea of where they shot the video at. They are standing at the old helipad across our intake.

Where are My Tax Refunds???

So California has already officially said the will be delaying any state income tax refunds, and the fed's are holding off on accepting certain e-files which is effectively the same thing. All I have to say is that this is not cool. I payed my taxes now give me my money back!

New Phone!!!

I just got myself the new Motorola Tundra, it is considered a "rugged phone" which should come in handy for work. The biggest reasons I got this phone was because it has the same accessories as my old phone and because it has noise cancellation which should be really nice in noisy environments!

Santa's Feet!

So in honor of Senia's winter break being almost over she and some of her friends from school went out for sushi! I tagged along, as did Ron, and even though I really don't like the sushi, tonight was probably the first time I ever really tried it! I may not have showed it, but I really wanted to make faces....just like Chloe did (SEE LAST PIC!).

BTW....That thing we were all making faces at was called Santa's Feet....well at least thats what it sounded like, smelled like 'em too!

Dead Skunks Are Stinky

So I really don't understand why a stretch of road on my drive home from work always has a dead skunk. I really have no explanation for this....maybe someone else out there knows why there is always a dead skunk on the right lane in the exact same spot. I know for certain that it is not the same one, because after the road is clear for a few days a new dead one shows up! I just don't get it. I'll try to get a pic next time I see the dead skunk!

Engagement Pics.....done!

So we took our "engagement pics" today! If you ask me, well I just don't get it. I feel weddings should be done the traditional way....in a courthouse w/ the bride knocked up, unfortunately the "BRIDE ELECT" won't go for that. Anyhow, so today Senia's friend Tiffany came by to do up her hair for the photo shoot. I personally chose the just got out of bed look for myself! It was kind of cool how we arranged some lights and a backdrop at the house.

Of course these are not our engagement pics...this is our gracious photog Jillian a.k.a. "Chuck's daughter". I would have included pics of Tiffany fixing up Senia's hair but I was asleep, and my pics don't come out too well when I am napping! So thank you Tiffany, and Jillian. Also a big thanks to the Biffster for coining the phrase Bride Elect!

Feels Like Summer!

It's been really nice and warm the last couple days! Pretty much beach weather in the middle of winter! I like that I haven't turned on the heat the last couple of days and it is still nice and comfy in the middle of the night.

So since it has been nice and warm I went for a short haircut!!!!! This is one thing I hate doing cause no matter how I get it cut Senia is unhappy, so I did the smart thing and took her along, she told the barber what to do!

Break Out The Stogies!

So after years of neglect, I finally seasoned my humidor about 2 months ago! After getting the box back in shape, I bought myself a new digital hygrometer and have been keeping the humidity pretty high (80%) to get the cigars back into smoking condition. Tonight was the perfect night to try them out....I change shifts (traded like a free agent) and tonight will be my last night. I think it is kind of messed up, but that is a story for another day! Anyhow, I chose to bring in my Cigars tonight in this night of transition as a proper way to bid adieu! Much to my surprise they were actually still pretty good. I still remember buying them Oh so long ago when I lived in NY, sneaking off to Montreal as a young adult thanks to the legal drinking age in Canada. Aah the good old days!

Sure Way To Get Bad Weather!

I figured it out, I wash the car...bad weather rolls in. This time it was high winds, I guess there's some Santa Ana winds a brewing according to the weatherman. It was really windy and the air quality was bad, lots of dust. Yes, lots of dust to cover up my freshly washed car!

Big Headache!

Felt really bad today, had a hard time doing anything besides laying down. I took some aspirin and had a hard time keeping it down. I don't know why but when I get really bad migraines I get a little dizzy which sometimes makes me nauseous. I feel a little better now, thanks to some tylenol 3 I had left over from when I saw the dentist a few months back!

Game Night!

Much thanks to Senia's friend Chloe for motivating us to do a game night! Tonight's game of choice was Cranium, which was fun (I am more of a word buff and not necessarilly trivia/pop culture).....but it was really fun watching people act out stuff. We then played poker for a little bit. This was the highlight of the night for me, mainly because I won! Seriously though, Chloe's guy gave us some insider tips to the game which was really cool. I also have to thank him and give him props for getting Senia interested at learning poker. I have been trying for years to get her to learn, and he took care of it in just a few minutes. This was an awesome night.