April 2008 Archives

You could just barely see the hint of this girl's tramp stamp from the ren fest two weeks ago.

I was afraid to ask her to lower her skirt because the stretch marks might have hit me and broken my camera...

Speaking of stretch marks I have been busting my ass working out and I am starting to feel much better but I damn sure aren't losing any weight. Gonna have to start putting pictures of myself up on manboob mondays pretty soon...

So I felt like Marlon Perkins chasing this damn thing through my back yard. The video sucks but what the hell do you expect from a cell phone anyway? Actually, I expect a lot from a $500 cell phone. It should be wiping my ass and making me coffee in the mornings...

Anyway, I promised earlier that I would post this if I could get it on youtube, so there it is to help whet your snakey fears. You only really get to see the thing toward the middle and the end of the short clip anyway.

I'm probably going to have bad snake dreams all night. Hell, that may be why I'm still awake. I did grab that fucker's tail after all. At least I didn't end up like this dude...

So this dude works at the pickle factory.

He comes home from work one day and tells his wife "I want to put my dick in the pickle slicer"

Thinking this was pretty damn weird she asks him to go to a sex therapist.

Being embarrassed he refuses.

He comes home from work one day a few weeks later with a very dejected look on his face.

His wife asks him what was wrong.

"I stuck my dick in the pickle slicer"

"What happened?"

"They fired me"

"...no...I mean with the pickle slicer"

I was just reading about this pretty cool damned device at CNN. Basically it projects a noise similar to the ringtones that can be downloaded that only teens can hear but this noise is extremely grating on the nerves. Kids and animals can hear it but for whatever reason it is really only painful to those around 12 or older up until the early twenties. I find it kind of interesting that the mainstream media is just now picking up on this, at least CNN and the AP. Gizmodo and Ubergizmo had a post up on this gadget almost three months ago.

I've already been through one teenager. If I install this fucker in my basement the kids will run away when they are 12 and won't come back until they are adults. Sweet!

In all seriousness, I can see where this would be good to have. Private property, bars and other adult establishments, anywhere that kids loiter and get into trouble, etc.

There has been a public outcry in some places with people saying it violates their civil liberties. Expect the ACLU to get involved with their socialist nonsense before too long. Right now they say they don't have a position on the issue. Really as long as you are using it to keep people off of private property it does nothing to violate their rights anyway, it just protects the rights of the property owners.

There are apparently some schools that have installed them as well in order to keep the crowds from gathering after football games and such.

You can get to the product page here.

Wednesday must be meme day or something because there seem to several that I participate in on Wednesdays. When I remember anyway.

This week's post for ABC Wednesday is brought to you by the letter "N". What's "N" for? N is for Nassau because the trip is still fresh in my mind and I am ready to go back to the Caribbean and hang for awhile.

I took this shot on Potter's Cay. We went down there specifically for the conch salad. It was one long hot walk from downtown. Next time we're renting scooters or something.

I don't particularly consider myself a good photographer but occasionally everyone gets lucky. I really like that shot.

This one sort of shows the old and the new. That is a shot of Potter's Cay and behind it you can see the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. We never did make it over to Paradise Island. I thought it was senseless to go over to sight see at some damned hotel and go shopping when there was plenty to do right in Nassau with a lot more colorful people as well.

We had a wonderful weekend in the Bahamas and hopefully we can return again soon. I would like to go for longer but as long as it's with the girls, going to the beach means going local to me. I just don't see the sense of dragging them out of the country when they won't even notice the difference.

I got this next one while we were wandering down one of the side streets downtown.

There was some old dude playing the organ for tips right around there as well...Ahh there he is. Took me a minute to find the picture. He had himself a nice sunny spot to play in and was having a pretty good time of it. Looks like he was set up for the long haul though.

This is the Straw Market. You seen one flea market you seen 'em all right?

Maybe, maybe not. They certainly had a ton of stuff at great duty free prices as well. There were probably 100 different "stalls" or "stores" but most of the stuff seemed to be the same. There was a pretty good choice of stuff to buy but after you've looked at a couple hundred shirts, hats and purses it's time to move on to something else...

Like the Beach! This is Cable Beach, right outside of our hotel at 7a.m. or so on the day we were leaving.

If you want to jump in and participate in ABC Wednesday head over to Mrsnesbitt's Place. This week's is already up for your perusal over there.

Priest has got a new album out entitled Nostradamus. The title track is pretty good. The beginning of it sounds like something from the days of Stained Class or Sin After Sin and the rest of the song reminds me of the Ram it Down album. If the rest of the double album due out in June rocks like this does it's going to kick some ass. Check out the song!

Here's the Album Cover:

Think 'Double vinyl, gatefold sleeve concept album,' and some of rock's all-time classic recordings come to mind. But in the realm of heavy metal, there has never been a double vinyl (now disc!) concept album that has managed to balance a thought-provoking storyline with metallic thunder. That was, until now. Metal legends JUDAS PRIEST will be releasing their sprawling double disc concept album, 'Nostradamus' via Columbia Records on Monday, June 16th in the UK/Europe, and a day later in the US on Epic Records.

FUTURE OF MANKIND

I'm pretty psyched about the new album and can't wait until it's release. Hopefully like the last Priest album this one will sell on iTunes. It's easier for me to purchase it there and then just burn the CD myself.

Shot this one on the way out of the fair on Sunday. She had all sorts of stuff going on with tattoos on her arm and back.

So I was thinking about some places I want to go on vacation in the future and immediately England, Wales and Ireland came to mind. Sort of weird for a person afraid of flying as I am but there you go. Regardless of how I feel about flying I still want to go check out several places including Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool.

One of my favorite radio shows is the Clark Howard show. I haven't listened to it in quite some time since I'm not commuting any more but I always used to listen to it for both the consumer information as well as the vacation deals. I am not quite as cheap anymore when I book our vacations, otherwise we would have been staying in some dive when I went to Nassau for $75 a night but I do try to be frugal when I am looking at hotels online.

CheaperThanHotels.co.uk has some pretty good deals on hotels in England and the surrounding countries. Finding Dublin accommodation is as easy as clicking the link. Dublin is the largest city in Ireland as well as being it's capital. It was originally a Viking city and as far as I know it's been the primary city for several hundred years.

I watched a show with Anthony Bourdain a couple of months ago on Dublin, or rather some of the food and eateries in Dublin. The whole city has really been undergoing a transformation the last few years with plenty of new development. I don't know much about that, but I would certainly like to head over to the Guinness brewery and hang for a while.

The picture to the left is the Ha'penny Bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin. Until 1919 this pedestrian bridge was a toll bridge, thus the unofficial name. It was originally called Wellington and that changed to Liffey Bridge but everyone still calls it Ha'penny bridge. Prior to building it there were seven ferries that ran across the river. The bridge itself is made out of cast iron.

They also offer Edinburgh accommodation as well as Dublin. In addition to Ireland I want to see Scotland as well. Scotland is situated in the southern part of the U.K. and Edinburgh is a favorite of travelers. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Edinburgh is steeped in history and while movies like Braveheart are fictional accounts of what really happened, as usual with things like that there is at least a kernel of truth involved.

This is Edinburgh Castle, taken by Stuart Caie from Edinburgh and originally posted to Flickr.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and I would love to go visit there as well. It is the largest city in Scotland and the second largest in the UK after London. It's also the center of the United Kingdom's shipbuilding industry. I'm not particularly interested in the engineering aspects but I would love to check out the shipbuilders and take lots of photos. The big thing about going to Scotland is that there is so much of our collective past in Britain that I want to be part of it. Glasgow accommodation is easily had as well as the aforementioned cities.

One more place I would like to visit is Liverpool. Liverpool accommodation can be had through the CheaperThanHotels website as can several other cites.

Anyway, Liverpool is just over 800 years old, having been founded in 1207. After having traveled around the eastern seaboard of the US several times and visiting what I think of as 'old' or even 'ancient' historical sites, 800 years seems like such a long time for a city to be standing.

Of course most people know of Liverpool from the home of it's most famous citizens, the Beatles. In the 1700's Liverpool controlled a pretty big portion of England's slave trade as well as 40% of the rest of the world's trade.

The industrial city peaked in size about a hundred years ago with a population around 800,000 people. Now it's somewhere around 400k. Liverpool went through a period of time where unemployment and industries weren't doing very well but it seems to have rebounded and is growing faster than the rest of England now.

I think if only given a choice of one place I would have to go to Ireland. While I want to visit Scotland and the rest of the UK Ireland holds more mystery, at least for me.

So.

Although I am taking today off (crossing my fingers) I still have to get my staffing and call it in to my boss. If for some reason one of my stores isn't staffed and I can't find anyone to work I get to fill the spot. That's what ownership's all about.

At least that's the lie I am telling myself.

If I owned it (solely) I would be closed one day a week.

And on holidays.

And quite possibly when I was on vacation as well.

Thus the fact that I work for someone else. Can't make any money when you are closed.

Anyhow, I am sitting here making coffee listening to my 10-year-old whine and bitch about the fact that she has to go to church and spend the day with friends while the wife and I go to the Renaissance Festival.

"I don't like their church, it's boring" got the answer "just sleep through it, that's what I do" from me which earned quite a sharp look from the wife.

:)

I have all kinds of respect for other people's superstitions faith and sometimes that respect comes shining through in the wrong way.

The kids had company over for supper the other night and one of the other children was talking about Jesus with one of our kids. He made the statement about God knowing when you've been good or bad so of course Santa Claus Comes to Town pops in my fucking head and I said "Hey, does he check his list twice?"

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Jesus Christ is coming to town
He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna crucify anyone not nice
Jesus Christ is coming to town
He sees you when you're rutting
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Jesus Christ is coming to town
Jesus Christ is coming to town

So how about that Pope? Not Pope Al Gore of the Church of Global Warming but Pope Benedict. He's on his U.S. Tour in the Popemobile right now. I was hoping to catch his show but it was sold out.

The wife just came in and saw I was getting ready to write something nasty about the Pope, when I really wasn't so now I won't. Why would I knock the the head of the largest hypocritical criminal empire in the history of the world? Particularly when they have a direct line to the ear of god. Crap, I might find bugs and shit attacking me were I to think bad things about his holiness.

I need to stop while I'm ahead...

Hey and if anyone wants to come hang, I'll be at the ren fest in a couple of hours!

I hate when people put flyers and shit on my car in parking lots. It's just irritating as hell. Apparently my wife didn't notice when she went grocery shopping last night but the fucking Domino's Pizza in the Wal-Mart parking lot is apparently putting them on cars. It has rained since then and apparently the flyer was actually one of those sticky fucking stickers that they stick on the fucking pizza boxes. The shit won't come off now.

I logged on to their web site earlier and the complaint I left them was much nicer than what I typed above. I don't know what it is but the more I think about it the more steamed I get. I think if I can't get it off tomorrow we need to take it up there and let the manager get the shit off the car. Anyhow, here's the comment I left them.

Pretty tame actually. Curse words started flowing from my fingers so I had to cut it short, which is why I have continued my venting here. If I want to advertise your fucking pizza company on the windshield of my wife's NEW FUCKING CAR I WOULD AIRBRUSH YOUR GODDAMNED NAME ON IT MYSELF YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKERS! I ALREADY QUIT USING YOUR FUCKING RESTAURANT SINCE YOU ONLY DELIVER TO MY NEIGHBORHOOD HALF THE TIME ANYWAY. PAPA JOHNS HAS MUCH BETTER PIZZA AND THEY DELIVER TO MY HOUSE ALL THE FUCKING TIME NOT JUST WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE IT.

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled program...

Face it. I'm. a. pig.

Just ask my wife, she's had to live with me for twenty years and it only gets worse :)

I can't think of too many things more fun to watch than a bunch of frolicking cheerleaders unless it's a bunch of cheerleaders frolicking in person. W00t! You'll know when you've been hit by this hot cheery bunch

Check this video out...

OMG. I laughed my tail off watching some of the video at their site over at Squad81. Not only that but you can send out a cheer to other people (or just hang out and play with them yourself as well). Cheers for great happenings in a person's life such as Can't get a date, you suck at sports, you're ugly and finally got lucky. If I could embed some of the cheers over here, believe me I would. As it is you need to head over to Squad81 and check them out yourself.

While you're there check out the sweepstakes they are offering as well. Sign up and if you win the Squad81 Cheer Squad will be invading your space and bringing along with them a new wardrobe full of Squad81 clothes. I don't know if I'm eligible or not after writing about them but I darn sure entered the contest.

...time to go to work, I can't stick around all day playing with cheerleaders.

So it's been a couple of days since I've had the opportunity to post anything. Nothing particularly exciting has been going on in my world. Same old, same old. Work, go to the gym, tan a couple of days a week, sleep. I have one more day until I get a couple of much-needed days off though. Sunday I'll have to call and get my staffing and go in if I can't get the stores staffed but other than that I'm off. It should be interesting calling Sunday morning. The manager that's off today and tomorrow has messed some stuff up and knowingly hid changed her figures so that she wouldn't look as bad on the weekly reports. Can you say Enron?

The thing is, we don't let it go as long. As soon as something like that is noticed we dig through the books and fix the problem. Oh, and then any money that's missing after we fix it? The person fucking with the numbers gets it taken out of their paycheck. If those bastards from Enron and Worldcom were made to pay back everything out of their personal fortunes it never would have happened.

In this manager's case it was only a couple of hundred dollars but it's not the first time. I will most likely write her up, that's of course if she doesn't give her notice first. As long as I get my days off this week I don't care anyway. After Monday I have two managers going on vacation back-to-back which means a long stretch for me.

Oh by the way, the Georgia Renaissance Festival is going on right now. I had originally planned on going last weekend but as I couldn't find a babysitter at the time we elected to stay home. We ARE going this Sunday, so any of you reprobates that want to meet up out there, come on down and look for my bald head which may or may not be sporting the hat I picked up last year. Hell, I may even wear my purple ren fest shirt. Probably not though, I figure it'll be T-shirt weather. It looks to be pretty cool. The Royal Lipizzan Stallions are there this year. I'm interested in seeing the show. Also if you buy tickets off their web site (the link above) you save a couple of bucks.

If you're afraid to hoist one with me and just want to check it out later or something I think it runs until the first weekend of June. That's when we normally go, the last weekend, but we will be in Disney World at that point.

Hopefully I can get some more good tramp stamp pictures this year. Should have seen my ass chasing down some of the women last year trying to get a good shot.

I love leather. Not like that but I do love me the feel of a nice pair of leather boots and a leather jacket. I got the jacket for Christmas but unfortunately my leather motorcycle boots that I have had for years just don't seem to fit me anymore. I can barely squeeze my feet into them and forget about getting them off.

I used to have a great pair of cowboy boots and I have been thinking lately about getting a new pair instead of motorcycle boots. Heck, maybe I will just get both. Right after I pay the IRS for last years taxes :(

Cavender's has some really nice boots I was looking at earlier today in addition to other accessories such as western belt buckles, wallets and other fine creations. They've got all different styles and plenty of western gear from shirts and jeans to boots and belts.

I've got a thing for gadgets, specifically PDAs. I'm not sure what it is but I like the idea of being connected and being able to do my computing in the palm of my hand. It's not all it's cracked up to be though. I've gone from a Palm M100 to a Palm Vx, HP iPaq, Motorola Q9m, Samsung i730 and finally a Blackberry Pearl. My favorites are the Blackberry, the Moto Q and the Palm M100 believe it or not. My Palm's were a much more intuitive and easier to use interface than any of the Microsoft WIndows CE offerings. The Windows Mobile gadgets also tend to lock up and once I combined them with my cell phone they really make a mess of things when they are having memory and lock-up issues and you are trying to use the phone at the same time. Not fun.

I like the blackberry as well. I'm not sure what benefits the bigger Blackberrys have over the Pearl other than more screen real estate though. That's what I miss using it. A bigger screen and a touch screen interface. Eventually if Verizon ever gets the iPhone I may go that route. I like the iPod Touch that I gave the wife for Christmas and as long as I can sync my calendar and contacts with it I would be good to go.

Anyhow, I like to check out accessories to go with my PDA as well. Preferably cheap PDA accessories although I prefer the quality to be something I am willing to use. SFPlanet.com has plenty of Cheap PDA Accessories for my window shopping as well as when I get ready to order stuff. There's nothing better than being able to find cool stuff for my phone/PDA than being able to find it while I'm sitting on my rear end :)

They've got some pretty neat stuff as well. Stuff that I haven't seen in the local Verizon store either, like an official Mickey Mouse finger strap thing with a flashing LED that lights up when you get an incoming call. Sweet. I have a pen that does the same thing but Mickey is even cooler. I also found a Krusell leather case I want. It has the thing on the back that will fit on a swivel clip. I hate the belt clip on the back of my Verizon Case. It's a decent quality case but when I asked if they had one with a swivel clip the dude told me that they pretty much quit using them because they break. That's not an issue for me (well, not much anyway) but I like being able to clip it on to my pocket and get it off easy. The last couple of days I have just been carrying the phone in my pocket. It's about a third smaller without the case and if I can't have one I like I just won't use it. I may just have to spend the $22 and but the Krusell case when I get paid, well, maybe in a couple of weeks. It may take all my extra money for the next few weeks to pay off the IRS :(

Procrastination is my middle name. Well, actually it's Harrison but that's Latin or Greek for Tomorrow. or Something like that. Anyway, the point is I stayed up late and finished my taxes last night. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh?

I probably would have filed an extension first but dammit that rebate will be needed now. I only owe the State of Georgia a little over $200. Heck, that's a little less than I paid them last year. I had to pay them $281 last year. I also made $32,000 more this year. Fucking weird. Too bad that's only about 10% of what I owe the federal government. I feel like someone just stuck a big dildo up my ass with the words Internal Revenue Service written on the side of it. Yeah, that long. $2232. After my $1800 rebate I end up only owing a little over $400, which is right around where I prefer to keep it anyway. Christ, $2200 used to be about 11 weeks pay back when I started with my company. 11 fucking weeks! Hey, I think I just heard a truck drive up there. Didja hear that?

Tax Rebate - Money you earned that the government took forcefully that you should feel good about getting back from them in a case of largess.

I think I want to throw up now. Too bad they won't let me apply the rebate toward my tax payments. That would be cool. But, no. They want me to spend it and help the economy. I'll spend it alright. On the bills that I won't be able to pay when I write them a $2200 check later this afternoon. Bwahaha.

Actually the check may be a few days later. I need to wait until the last day of the month before I send it in. Wonder if they will take a post-dated check...

So things aren't going to be any less stressful around the Miles casa the rest of the month. If I can quit losing so much damned money out of one of my stores perhaps I can recoup some of it before summer vacation gets here.

You know what really sucks about this whole thing? I took an 85% increase in pay, maybe close to 80, but now that I have sent in a new W-4 to take more out of my pay in conjunction with the fact that I have doubled my retirement deductions I will be bringing home the same or less than I was as a store manager. That's fucked up.

Tax Day! Time for your once a year reaming at the hands of an overgrown government bureaucracy. And do you think all of the rhetoric from Shrillary and Obama is for real? Fuck no, they don't care. They say they care but just like George Bush, Ted Kennedy and all the rest of the assholes on both sides of the aisle, they think that it's a drop in the bucket for the sacrifices they make to 'serve' the American public. Now I really want to puke. Fucking assholes.

So I got a letter from Greyhound Lines today. I guess I got it because I am the one that bought the original ticket. Back in January when the Marine had to return from leave he took Greyhound. In the process of leaving Atlanta the bus broke down, they wouldn't let the passengers retrieve their luggage and they lost his. All of his uniforms and equipment. He flew out of North Carolina to Palm Springs California as he was being stationed in Twentynine Palms. If you've hear this part just skip on down. To make a long story short, after I emailed all of higher-ups at Greyhound someone found his luggage and they shipped it via UPS straight to the base. Of course that was a week later, after he had to spend $200 or so on enough uniforms just so he could report. You can't exactly report in shorts and a t-shirt as they tend to from on that in the Marine Corps.

So the wife decided that he needed to be the one to pursue getting reimbursed for the expense he incurred when they lost his luggage. Not that it's going to happen. It's a bit too late now but the only way he would have gotten his money back is if I had pursued further.

I received a letter from Greyhound today:

It took me all of about five seconds for me to really rise to the occasion and come up with something that would show the world just how much I truly appreciate the concern for my son the United States Marine and the fact that he had to use every bit of money left to him to buy uniforms so that he would not get into trouble when he reported for his duty station. You'll have to check out the video to see my true feelings.

There were some really helpful people that finally got his luggage to us and that we dealt with but they were like the 12th person(s) we talked with. The 11 prior were unhelpful and acted as if they didn't have a clue.

Will I use Greyhound again anytime soon? I fucking won't but it doesn't mean I won't pay for someone else's ticket again, eventually. Just not this year or the next. Try Amtrak. Faster than the bus and much more fun than a stinky old bus full of losers anyway. I know that a lot of the Marines ride Greyhound but that's because the damned airlines charge so fucking much. You used to be able to pay really low $$ to fly standby. If they would still do that then they might see more people flying.

One of my favorite vacations ever is when I stayed in Connecticut for a week. One of the cool things about it is that we drove in to New York while we were there. I had never been to New York prior to that visit and really was looking forward to it.

Our friends had a house on Long Island Sound and they were pretty familiar with the area. It was pretty cool because my friend's father drove us into the city and first took us on a driving tour. Mind you, this was back in the mid-eighties so a lot of the city had not been cleaned up like it is now. There are so many things to do in New York, especially now.

One of the first places we drove through was Harlem. It was filthy. I think that it must have been just prior to having a bunch of development done as there were just blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings that looked like they were getting ready to be torn down.

We drove on to a parking garage and went on foot after that. We rode the subway for a while. It was pretty cool but almost surreal. Very old train cars, lights blinking on and off and they smelled like urine. From what I understand things have been cleaned up quite a bit.

After that we went and saw Times Square and toured Greenwich Village and then made our way to Central Park where me wandered for a while. We finished up the day meeting his mother at the Plaza Hotel. We had supper at Trader Vic's. It was great! Everything was strange and new and this had to be one of my favorite vacations ever.

One of the things about the tour through the city that I remembered is that we got a very personalized tour. Trusted Tours and Attractions also has personalized sightseeing tours in some of the best places you can imagine such as the Miami Seaquarium, places in Atlanta, Boston and 23 other cities in the United States.

They also have an eNewsletter that you can sign up for as well. If you are planning a vacation you can get some pretty good ideas of places to go. Not only that but Trusted Tours and Attractions is giving away a free Handheld GPS unit in a drawing. You have to sign up for the newsletter in order to be entered into the contest, so head on over there.

Here's this week's Thursday Thong! This one is definitely not safe for work. The pic is in the extended entry.

More and more details are coming out from the investigation into the Texas compound where several hundred members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints have lived.

Authorities are starting to release details of some of the accusations of sexual abuse that brought it under Federal investigation.

All in all, 416 children have been removed from the compound and as the video below explains, police have been interviewing each of them individually.

CNN has reported that according to court documents released today, authorities were tipped off that girls as young as 13 were being forced to enter into marriage, have sex and bear children. I'm all for spiritual and religious freedom, but disguising pedophilia as religion is pretty messed up. I don't know what else to call these dudes except pedophiles. I've heard the argument that their society accepts this and that's all they know but that is horseshit. Like it or not they are part of American society and that is completely unacceptable.

So the mobile blogging works. I don't see using it all of the time but it is pretty cool. I like being able to post from the iPod Touch but I think that some of the image paths in my configuration for the iphone plugin are screwed up. The Utterz stuff seems OK as well but I wish that it was more configurable. It'll do for what I want though.

Today was pretty uneventful, so I really don't have a hell of a lot to bitch about. I managed to get out of work by 2:25, worked out, tanned, ran on the elliptical for 35 minutes, washed the car and picked up the girls. WHEW! It was actually a pretty busy afternoon.

It's been twelve days since I quit smoking now. I've probably had a total of three smokes since then. Although I've quit I have had a few hits of smokes now and then. I am starting to breathe much better and since I've been working out I have a heck of a lot more energy as well.

There are a few things I got via email that I'll most likely post about tonight, other than that life is pretty good right now.

I need to come up with some kind of logo for Tramp Stamp Tuesday :)

Anyhow, here is this weeks. Found it over at Flickr. Go check out more of Recursive_1's photo's here.

All in all Texas has taken legal custody of 401 children from the FLDS compound in Texas according to CNN. They are keeping the children at a temporary shelter nearby while they do their investigation.

CBS news has a report on the investigation.

Police still haven't found the people they are looking for, the 16-year-old girl that supposedly called them who gave birth at the ranch at the age of 15 nor the 50-year old man that she is supposedly married to. Hoax? It's entirely possible that an opponent of the FLDS called in the complaint, knowing that this would happen.

John Llewellyn is a former deputy sheriff from Salt Lake City as well as a former polygamist himself and spoke with Katie Couric about the 'scandal'

The Associated Press interviewed Laurie Allen, who was raised in a polygamist cult but later escaped. She exposes the struggles that women and children face in polygamist sects such as the FLDS.

Twice in one day is just too much. Damn, I experience the blood curdling stench of feces rotting in someone's mouth not once, but twice today. This dude just insists on talking to me in close quarters. This evening I was able to beat a hasty retreat out the back door as I told him to have a nice evening but this morning I was in the little 3x5 office paying people and he was standing in the doorway. Every time he would expound on whatever the fuck he was talking about I would flinch as the wave of nastiness blew through the office.

Today was a pretty uneventful day overall. I had a guy that's been giving me lots of problems in one of the stores. He's been written up several times and verbally warned even more. I suspended him for a week at one point but the dude just won't behave. I had to fire his sorry ass today. I hate firing people but after having received several complaints from customers and his co-workers, I had to let him go.

Rather than working out today I came on home to work in the yard for awhile. I've planted a ton of bulbs over the last few weeks as well as strawberries but not many vegetables. The only thing I've put in thus far is broccoli and some tomato plants.

I also cleaned out a large portion of the leaves and stuff that has found a home in my goldfish pond over the winter. At least one of the goldfish lived through the winter :) I know because he went flying with a handful of leaves but I noticed before the thing had been out too long.

Working in the yard is always good stress relief for me. I think that as long as I get to go work out tomorrow afternoon I may come home and finish cutting the grass. I started using one of the lawn services and they sprayed some fertilizer last week. After this past rain it's just been shooting up.

The larger than life legend and actor Charlton Heston, who has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for several year has passed away at his home.

According to IMDB, Heston has been in at least 126 TV and movie roles over the years although the last few years he has really been more interested in promoting American values, and gun owner rights. He was also very heavily involved in civil rights early on, before it became fashionable for stars to do so, having been a supporter of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man of his convictions, much like many of the roles he played in the movies.

So I paid off the trip to Disney when I woke up this morning. W00t. $5400 in six weeks. That kicked my tail, trying to make sure I made enough to pay for it as well as the bills. I know it's still eight weeks away but time flies and the end of May will be here before you know it.

With both of us working out trying to lose weight, we may end up having to get new clothes before we leave. Of course I very rarely buy clothes so the same stuff that's been in my dresser for the last six or twenty years should fit me through several size decreases. The wife may want to get more stuff, at least for the pool. I'm sure we'll end up looking for bathing suits, if not for her then for the girls. I think one piece swimwear is called for in this case :)

You would think that going to Disney that we wouldn't spend much time in the pool, but even at the end of May it's pretty darned hot in Central Florida. The last time we went to Disney was in the middle of October and we swam then too. I expect that we will spend a bit of time in the pool every day and I know we're planning on going to at least one of the water parks.

For some reason it has felt like Saturday since I got up this morning. I think that's due to the fact that the girls are on Spring Break. Since they've been out of town all week I haven't gotten used to them being here and now that they are it feels like a weekend.

I managed to sleep late for the first time this week. I don't think I have gotten to sleep in on my day off in quite some time. Crawled out of bed around nine and just bummed around the house for a while, which was nice. Pete made muffins for breakfast. Even though she forgot to grease the muffin cups I managed to get most of them out without mishap. It's been pretty quiet here today, much more quiet than usual when the girls are home, that's for sure.

I did get to work out this morning, spending quite a bit more time there than I have. I worked out on all the weight machines, then spent 35 minutes on the elliptical. Talk about sweating your ass off, but that's what it's designed for. All in all I spent a couple of hours at the gym today and once I got home the wife went to do the same thing. I believe she's out grocery shopping right now so once I get a couple of posts up I think I may just have to take a nap. Nap-time is a good thing :)

You know what I've noticed about not smoking. Today is day number six oh by the way. That's not what I've noticed though. My house smells like shit!

I don't know if it's eight years of smoking in it or if my dog is just making it smell but damn! I'm starting to smell all kinds of stuff that I couldn't a week ago and you know what? I may just have to get some nose plugs because most of what I have smelled so far sucks. It's enough to make me want to smoke again, although right now ANYTHING is enough to make me want to smoke.

Know what else? I'm blogging nekked right now. Probably more than you needed to know but that's why you really come here anyway, I know it is. You guys are just waiting for a webcam shot of my ballsack hanging over my computer chair while I merrily type away. I can do that. The wife and girls are in Hilton Head right now. Actually they are in Bluffton but unless you are from the lowlands or visit there often most people don't have a fucking clue as to where Bluffton is, which is due west of Hilton Head Island, on the mainland. The only thing separating the two towns now is the water. If they could build shopping centers on the bridge you'd never notice the difference anymore except that Bluffton doesn't restrict builders quite as much in what they are tearing down. I don't know when they are coming home but since my paycheck won't be in the bank until Friday morning it's a pretty safe bet they will be there until at least Friday.

Hey! Only $1054 left to pay on my Disney trip. I'm taking care of that on Friday and there went a quick five big ones. That pays for just about everything though, except for my gas to get down there. Six nights and seven days. Sweet. I'm looking forward to the trip and judging from the way things have been at work lately I'll damn sure need the vacation. I have two of my managers going on back-to-back vacations in three week, which pretty much means me working 20 days straight. I may manage to get a day off during that time, it just depends on if I am staffed.

So the manager called me this afternoon from the store I was at the last two days. Apparently the waitress I sent home yesterday was upset and the manager wanted an explanation. I told her that when her employees call me five minutes after they should have already been there to tell me they are going to be late, chances are I will send them the fuck home if I can get it covered before they get there. If I can't get it covered, then they get to work. Kind of like the lottery for stupid fucking people that are consistently late.

I went and worked out this afternoon. I ended up skipping yesterday. I got out of work two hours later than I had planned, so I came home and wrote for awhile, planning on going back after I did shift change last night. I got to the gym and there were three or four buff dudes and their girlfriends there all working out and showing off. I didn't even get out of the fucking car. Fat old man syndrome kicked in and I beat a hasty retreat home. I like going early in the day when all of the old fat people are there. Makes me feel much better about myself :) I am much less self-conscious when nobody else is around, so when I can manage to shoot out of work by 2:15 that's the best time, although on my days off last week I went in the morning. That was cool because it's just the owner or his father-in-law working and all the milfs coming in to use the tanning beds. Speaking of tanning, I did that as well today. I sort of varied it though. I worked out on the weights, tanned and then used the elliptical for half an hour. I have been using it for shorter periods of time the couple of occasions that I have tried it and it hasn't really been a big deal but damn I got a workout on it today. I was sweating my ass off. That's a good thing because I need to burn this tire off the middle. I was fine until it told me to go backwards. Backwards? I can barely get on the fucking thing and move in a semi-forward direction and you want me to move backwards? Damn.

So here I sit. Nekked. Munching on microwave Burritos. Can it get any better than this? I suppose if I moved my chair to the front porch that would be better, but most likely short lived.

I may have posted this already, or one like it, when I was discussing the wedding last month but I adore this photo.

bwahaha. I think I need to hire this teacher who resigned from Delta High School to handle some of the attendance problems in my three stores.

Check out the video.

So this teacher makes his students do pushups and situps if they are tardy. Good deal. Apparently this one student could not do them so the teacher told his students to BEAT HIM. Holy shit! What a reTARD!

If it were my kids I guess I would have gone up and kicked the motherfucker's ass, but then again, I expect my children to be on time. Actually I insist upon them, and my employees being on time.

That of course fits right in to my afternoon at work. Shift change is at ten minutes until the hour, regardless of the shift. That way you have ten to fifteen minutes of overlap and any remaining work can be completed, waitresses can let the oncoming servers know what's going on, etc...

I get a phone call at 1:30 from my cook. She's waiting for her ride and babysitter and will be late. OK, kind of irritating but at least she called as soon as she found out. I did try to cover her shift anyway but was unsuccesful. Five minutes till two (five minutes AFTER she should have been there) the waitress calls and says "I'm up here at the red light, I'll be right there". I stood at the window and watched the light change several times over the nect five minutes before calling another waitress in. At fifteen minutes AFTER two (25 minutes late) the waitress shows up and she's pissed off because I replaced her after she called. Fuck you, how was I to know you meant the red light two towns north you stupid bitch? I sent her ass home. She called me back in tears a few minutes later wanting to know if she was still working tomorrow. I told her yes, as long as she's there by ten 'til. Actually I could give a rat's ass because I will be at one of my other stores making them happy tomorrow :) Thus far nobody has jammed a cigarette in my mouth but I see that shit coming soon. Two more days and I get a day off...

It's kind of funny that I came across this a little while ago since I was writing about Vegas and getting kicked OUT OF Caesar's Palace in 1987. The thing is, although I was 18 (almost 19), I had no valid ID. Heck, I didn't even bother getting a driver's license until I was 20 and almost married. I didn't have a car, what did I need a license for. It's not like it is today. Back in the eighties I opened my first checking account so I could deposit my paychecks, without identification. Today you can barely buy bottled water without ID.

Anyhow, while I have never been a huge fan of Cher, some of her stuff is pretty memorable and I can certainly see the value she has added to the music genre, particularly the dance scene, over the last forty years. Holy cow, has it been 40 years? Cher has been performing for over 40 years actually and has released something like 25 different albums during that time, selling over 200 million records, not including the stuff she did with Sonny Bono while they were together.

I had thought Cher was finished with liver performances after her farewell tour that lasted from 2002 until 2005, but apparently not. She is going to be performing at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Her show is called, aptly enough, Cher at the Colosseum and debuts early next month (May 6th). It's going to have something like 18 dancers, flying acrobats and (of course) tons of costumes. She is rotating out with Bette Midler and Elton John, who also do shows at the Colosseum. I would be interested in checking out the show just to see what kind of effects she is able to add in with her music. From what I was reading, she is replacing Celine Dion, so that will certainly be a big improvement. They are also already selling Cher tickets at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas if you are interested.

I get this weekly via email and try to have them up first thing Monday morning but sometimes things get in the way. I guess I must have gotten busy or something but now I am trying to get through a pile of about 400 emails. Just came across this one, thus the post :)

Without further ado, here's the post:

In this weeks show:

Us? Socialists? :)

100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders. When will the madness end?

And kidnapping: a defeated crime in America revived by our cheerful invaders.

Download the show for your Ipod here

Make sure to check out this weeks sponsor...

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It's that time again. Man, how time flies when you are having fun!

Have a happy Tuesday!