Magic Show

This is the Cups and Balls effect I performed for the Affi Shriners in Tacoma, WA

Good Weekend, Bad Weekend, You Decide

Headed home after work Christmas morning, nice to drive home with no traffic. Got home and it was time to open presents. Andrew had a blast, he didn't know what to play with first. I got my wife an I Pod and dock so she can listen to all her favorite music at work, she got me a couple of cool video games for my 360. It was a very pleasant morning.

I did get to bed late, but when I woke up, Darlene had a wonderful dinner waiting. We ate and cleaned up and then it's time to head out to work. I get in and find things the way I expected them to be, the cashiers working felt because it was a holiday, that all they had to do was sit behind the counter. I got stuck with all the clean up, but that's O.K. it made the night go faster. It was a quiet night for the most part.

Decided to take a vacation day on the Friday after Christmas, the plan was to get some sleep and go get the kids, head home and proceed to kid my daughters' ass at Halo on the XBox 360. I got off work at 7ish, did some shopping and headed home. I am 10 minutes from the house when I get a call from work telling me that one of the tow trucks was vandalized, so I turn around and head back to work to check the surveillance and see if anyone had gone through the front gate.(the gate hasn't been closed since the heavy snow started as no one wanted to go back there because of the ice) I fast forwarded through 2 nights of video and saw no one other than employees going in there through the front gate, which means whoever did it hopped over the back and did the deed. As I was checking the back lot, the zipper on my coat got the way of the Titanic. This was a rather expensive coat and I have had it for about 7 years so I guess it was time for a new one. I finish checking things out at work and I head out to R E I to get a coat, found one that suited my needs for about 300.00. I don't screw around when it comes to coats, I hate being cold.

I go get Margaret and Nicholas head home and lay down for a nap. I get a call an hour later from the manager saying the owner is holding me responsible for what happened as I did not make sure the gate was closed. I pointed out to the manager that the video showed no one going back there and the light to the back parking lot has been broken for years, a fact that the owner has known and will not fix. Well long story short, I was fed to the lions and got a 3 day unpaid vacation. Goes to show you that no good deed goes unpunished.

I spent most of the next day and a half taking my frusrtation out on video games, not really speaking to ANYONE. Darlene was rather concerned that on the wrestling game, I was beating my opponents to a bloody pulp instead of playing for fun. She relayed to me how upset she was that I ignored everyone for a day and a half playing games, I told her that I needed to work out some frustration, would she rather I take things out on a C.G.I. person or out on the family.

A Weekend That Was like One Long Date!!!

This was nice, a weekend with no projects that were pending. I did make plans though, we had arraigned for a babysitter to come over and Darlene and I were going out for the evening. That almost fell apart as the sitter called at the last minute to cancel, EERRGG!. That's O.K. ,we had a back up plan. Darlene called Brian and Monica, one set of Andrew's God parents, and asked if they could watch Andrew for a few hours and we were set. We dropped Andrew off and we were outie. Darlene had no idea what I had planned for the evening. Our first stop was the Ram restaurant at Point Defiance where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a view of the Puget Sound.

After dinner it was time for part 2 of my surprise, we headed to the Tacoma Dome to watch comedian Bill Engvall.

This was a great show, it is very and I mean VERY rare to go to a comedy show and not have the show contain profanity. Not one curse word was used the entire show, and it was entertaining!!!! We got home just as it started to snow.
Sunday, AAHH, Sunday. We woke to a light dusting of snow, what a sight.

This was the day we set aside to go tree hunting, and a hunting we did.

We found a U cut in Orting that had reasonably priced trees and went to looking. Andrew had a blast running through the tree farm. We found a 5 foot tree that would suit our needs, Andrew and I sawed it down.

Got it home, set it up, and we all decorated it. It is really something to see the wonderment in the eyes of a 2 year old as you do something like this. He knows something special is coming up, but doesn't understand what it is yet.

Over the week, Thursday, I did a show for a banquet. I don't like to do shows during the week because of my work schedule. The way things are and with Christmas coming up, why pass up an easy payday?? The show went GREAT!!!! Cups and Balls slayed them, I did do a Card to Ceiling, however instead of the chosen card sticking to the ceiling, the WHOLE @#$&ing DECK stuck up there!!!!

I just played if off like that was supposed to happen.. HEH, HEH.

By the way, you know it's really cold when you have to put a sweater on a goat!!!!

Things Keep Moving Along

One of these days I will start a post with something other than "It's been a busy weekend". This one was no exception. I got home from work Saturday morning and hit the ground running. We have a new washer and drier coming on Sunday so we had to get the back porch cleared and the railing to the stairs leading to the basement removed as well as getting everything disconnected for the delivery. Darlene also decided to organize the outside shed so we can put away all the stuff that has been accumulating on the back porch. It took us a while but it did get done, I got to bed around 1:30 ish and no sooner than my head hits the pillow, the phone rings. It's Best Buy, they will be delivering the washer and drier between 8:30 and 10:30 am Sunday, COOL.
We sit down for a nice dinner, Darlene gets her animals taken care of and we get Andrew to bed.
Sunday morning I head to Home Depot to pick up some bricks, sometimes some water will accumulate in the basement and we don't want to have the new washer and drier setting in water. I haul tail there, pick up the bricks and haul tail back. I am laying the bricks where I want the washer and drier to be when the delivery guys show up at 8:45!!!! Now their early....ERRRG. Well, they got everything installed and working, it's a nice set up, these things look and act like a friggin' video game. I get cracking on the weeks worth of laundry that has piled up and start getting the porch put back together. It's nice not to have everything so cluttered. After we got all that done it was time to head out to a magic show I had booked for the afternoon. I was worn out and the kids were being rowdy, not one of my best shows, but I got though it. I have a show for a Christmas party on Thursday, it's for adults so it should go well.
I was watching the news tonight and it says that even though you have cable, you still may need a converter box, great. I have expanded basic running though a VCR to my TV, I have decided to upgrade my cable to get a DVR and get rid of the VCRs altogether. It will be hooked up at the end of next month before the digital conversion.
I do have this Saturday to forward to, I have a surprise for Darlene, I managed to get 2 tickets to Bill Engvall at the Tacoma Dome. The plan is to take her some place really nice for dinner, the Ram or the Keg, then head out to the show. Darlene doesn't read blogs, so the secret is safe. We are shooting to get our Christmas tree up and decorated on Sunday, cross your fingers and wish us luck.

It's The Holiday Season......

With the title of this post out there, let me just say, it's MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!The next P.C. jackhole that comes up says "Happy Holidays" to me, I will rip off their head and put some Christmas spirit down their neck!!!! By the way, it's not X-Mas, it's CHRISTMAS!!!! Not hard to spell, and if you are that dumb, computers have SPELL CHECK!!!. Think about that the next time we read about some poor guy getting trampled to death just so some cheap asses can save 50% on a DVD player. I'm sure the money those people saved will be a great consolation to that man's family. I believe they should ban Black Friday sales, too many people have been hurt or killed just to save a couple dollars

It Just Keeps Going and Going......

Sometimes ya just gotta wonder, what's the point? It was a rough weekend to say the least. I did manage to get a 3 day weekend, got to pick up Margaret and Nicholas for the weekend. I was really looking forward to spending all 3 days with the whole family, that did not happen. Darlene had to drive to Spokane on Friday to pick up her Aunt and Uncle. We knew this was comming, this was just sooner than planned.
She had rented a car and hoped to get on the road by 8am... nay, nay, the rental place picked her up at around 9ish and she didn't get on the road till after 10am. This is gonna make for a long day as she continuously reassured me that she will be cooking our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. I told her not to worry, just get there and come back safely. The whole reason she had to drive up there is because her relatives didn't want to give up a couple of cats. Look, if had lost my home and my relatives had offered to buy a train ticket for me so I would have a place to live, I'd be saying "By,by kitty-cat!!!!"
So, Darlene gets up there to pick them up and wouldn't you know it, her uncle's drunk!!!!! This will make for a GREAT return trip. The drive was even longer getting back, but Darlene managed to get her aunt and uncle to her mom's house and made it home safely. She got the car turned in and got home at around 9 am Saturday morning. I had basically been up all night waiting for her, worried. On top of that, Andrew woke up really congested so I had to take him to the doctor. He's O.K., just a virus.
So, I get home, ask the kids if they could watch Andrew for 4 hours so Darlene and I could get some rest, turkey's in the oven. we got up around 2 pm and started working on the other fixins. By the time it was all said and done, we ate around 7:30, it was a family effort and a great dinner. After dinner, and the kitchen was cleaned, Margaret, Nicholas and I took turns playing Left 4 Dead, they are both as hooked on that game as I am!!
I figured after all we did Saturday, Sunday was going to be a relaxing day, slept in late, Darlene woke up feeling horrible so we let her go back to bed. The rest of us had bacon and waffles for breakfast. We cleaned the kitchen and started a load of laundry. I go back later to change out the laundry and hear a hissing sound, see and smell smoke. I go to the washer and see that the jiggling of the washer has caused the washer to rub against the water hose cutting through it and water has sprayed onto the back of the washer where the electronics are, shorting them out. I managed to get everything unplugged without any problems. Now the dilemma is "What to do???" Washer has gone tits up and the dryer is on it's last legs as well. We don't have alot in our savings and she wants to get a used washer and dryer, 500.00 limit. I don't mind buying a used car, but I do have a problem with used appliances.
She refuses to shop at Sears, which ties my hands. I look online at Best Buy to see what they have. Nothing worth while in that price range. I look at their credit card application and see 18 months, no interest. I apply and get a 2500.00 limit, cool, but I see an argument coming on. Seeing that Darlene wasn't feeling good, I took all the kids out for the day to give her time to rest. We got haircuts, had lunch, and went to Best Buy. I took about an hour and a half to pick out what we needed, got a LG 4.2 cubic ft washer and a LG 7.3 cubic foot dryer each with a 3 year service agreement. Lock, stock,and barrel ran me just over $2000.00, it'll be delivered Sunday the 6th. Darlene and I talked about the purchase I made and went back and forth on a few things. The big thing for me is getting the old items out and disposed of and the new items in and hooked up properly, They will do that AND we will have a brand new washer and dryer that we won't have to worry about. I should have this paid off on a few months. We finally got settled down for the evening, got Andrew to bed, watched the movie Hancock with Will Smith. VERY good movie!!!