Horse Manure Park

Tired.... sick kid.....  ridiculously busy at work....  full moon........ did I mention tired?.....  bitterly cold outside.... will this weekend ever end? Somewhere, there's a case of beer with my name on it.

The International Committee for Symbols and Abbreviations held an emergency conference this week and unanimously ratified an amendment to change the international sign for choking from this: To this: Thank you and have a nice day.

It's Monday again.  The Vikings disappointed as usual yesterday.  I talk about all that stuff here , so I won't go into it.  But it sure is a horrible let down yet again. But indeed, life goes on.  Reality check:  my children are healthy, my dog is finally healthy, I am feeling close to 100% again too, after not feeling well for five weeks (that cough I had is finally going away), and my wife used to still loves me, despite my colorful language yesterday.  She says I take this whole football thing far too seriously. She's right.  Just don't tell her I said that.  Yes, life is good.  (It just would have been better if the Vikings had gone to the Super Bowl.  Piss. )   It is a wintry day here.  The snow is falling, the wind is blowing; it's rather fitting for my mood today.  It looks remarkably like January outside.  What a coincidence - it is January. Let's see, we have a week left of January, then four weeks of February, then (dare I say it?) we

We are in a winter storm watch until Sunday.  There is a light snow coming down right now and last night we had sleet and freezing rain.  I better run to the beer store and stock up. We took Grace to the Dr. Eberts yesterday for her second surgery.  He took removed the stitches from her left eye, examined it and then examined the right eye and said (much to my relief), "We're right where we need to be.  I'm not going to touch the other eye." This was great news!  All we need is time for the healing process to finish now.  No more medicine, no more follow up visits. Grace looks normal again and she is acting like herself again.  Best of all, Dr. Eberts didn't charge us for yesterday's visit, even though he examined her, took out the stitches and stained her corneas again.  I think he felt bad that we had been in with her multiple times with Dr. Anderson before a definitive diagnosis was made (by Dr. Eberts, of course).  Besides, we spent a lot of money on

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A long, crappy week of work is in the books.  Oh, I wish I could vent right now about some of the b.s. I see on the job.  Much of it has to do with creeps -- felons -- living on disability and leeching off the system.  My (and your) tax money hard at work, folks. Disability is a fine concept, but it is abused like nothing else I've ever seen, and I've certainly not seen the worst, most pathetic cases.  But because of HIPAA and other privacy laws, I cannot speak freely about the fervid bullshit I encounter.  But it is out there and you should know the system is incredibly flawed.  Ugh. A busy week this week -- Tomorrow I have a six hour ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) refresher course.  Then a staff meeting on Friday morning.  Grace sees the vet on Thursday morning.  She gets the stitches out of her left eye and the doc will make the determination if surgery is needed on the right eye.  I hope he decides it is healing okay on its own.  Neil also sees the doctor on Thur

I was looking at pictures of myself as a kid and I was pretty impressed at how much my son and I look alike.  In this picture I am three years old, so I am a little "stretched" out.  Neil is just five months old here, but you can definitely tell we are related!  (And here I thought he wasn't mine when he was born.)

Let's see... foggy and warm or clear and cold? Um... I'd say that's a no brainer. Long stretch at work continues.  Monday can't get here fast enough. Look!  I just made a haiku!!!

Washington (CNN) -- The Congressional Black Caucus said Sunday that it had accepted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's apology for a newly published remark he made about Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign and dismissed calls for the Nevada Democrat to step down. The controversy surrounds remarks published in the book Game Change , which goes on sale Monday. It quotes Reid as saying privately in 2008 that Obama could succeed as a black candidate partly because of his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement:  "There are too many issues like the economy, job creation and energy for these regrettable comments to distract us from the work that must be done on behalf of the American people," she said. It's funny how we pick and choose who we want to label a "racist."  I am willing to

I posted this on Facebook, but I've got to post it here too.  This lady is real .  Here is her web site .  She has recorded multiple CDs and was made "famous" after her voice appeared on South Park.  I don't believe she ever appeared on American Idol. She is so horrible that you just can't stop listening...  or peeing yourself from laughing.  My brother Dale will appreciate this.  Maybe she can be our opening act for Farm Fest?? Even Ava thinks it's funny, although her taste in music is much better...

Man, it has been an expensive a productive week at our house.  I got the computer fixed on Tuesday.  Grace had her surgery on Thursday (and she's doing well!).  Also on Thursday I got the oil changed in the Honda, and Beth and I got BlackBerries.  Yesterday I got four new tires put on the Honda. Today my goal is to watch football.  I am looking forward to accomplishing that goal. About our new investment -- the BlackBerry.  Beth has had complicated phones in the past, but I have resisted the temptation.  I despise "phone jerks," as I call them.  One of my biggest pet peeves - and this has happened to me more than once - is having a conversation with someone, only for them to suddenly reach down for their phone and check a text as I'm in mid-sentence. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your virtual world.  Perhaps if I sent you a text I would have your undivided attention.   Oh, those people piss me off. But I figured it was about time I joined the 21st century

Just a quick update:  Grace's surgery went well.  She resembles a pirate right now.  Her left eye is stitched closed.  As Ava says, "She's got a string in her eye."  Naturally, the first thing she (Ava) tried to do was pull at the stitches, so we had to have a long talk with her about not touching Grace's eye. If the dog doesn't rub the stitches out, the kid will pull them out.  ARRRGH! I am getting new tires put on the Honda as I write this.  That will set us back some moolah, but I learned my lesson from Brian... get your tires replaced sooner rather than later or you'll have bigger problems, especially winter driving in Minnesota. I'm looking forward to a nice weekend off.  It is Wildcard Weekend, so you better believe I will be enjoying a few football games this weekend, much to my wife's chagrin.  Oh well, it could be worse. I'm not sure how, but I'm sure it could be worse.

I got my computer back today.  I had a virus and 36 items of malware attached to my hard drive, which damaged part of my operating system.  McAfee did a superb job of protecting me, didn't it?  I'll never, ever use that company or any of its products again. James (from Scotland) at Brainerd Computers had to repair my operating system.  When I got my laptop back, things seemed to be running okay although I could not get iTunes to work (which is a BIG deal to me!). I had to call James back and he walked me through a few things that didn't work and he finally said, "We're probably dealing with a corrupt file, which would not be uncommon after repairing your operating system.  Just uninstall iTunes, go to the Apple web site and install a new iTunes program.  That should get rid of your corrupt file and fix things." My heart sank.  I have almost 2,000 songs on iTunes.  I couldn't imagine putting all of that music back on, one song at a time.  But James

Just a quick "happy birthday" to Brother Bob.  Hope your day is uneventful and retired-like!

I was born and raised in Minnesota.  I am sure I'll die here, too.  I pride myself in being a hearty Minnesotan.  We are used to cold winters around here. But son-of-a-b*tch... is it cold outside! Tonight will mark the third consecutive night where the low will be at least 25 degrees below zero.  Three nights may not sound that bad, but after while it starts to wear on a person.  Actually, it starts to become painful. I liken it to sitting on a hairbrush for three consecutive days.  At first it doesn't seem so bad.  Then it gets annoying.  After a couple of days it starts to hurt.  Towards the end it is downright painful. What I'm trying to say is three nights at -25 degrees feels like a hairbrush in your ass. Okay, maybe that isn't the best analogy, but you get the general idea.    There really is not much else to do but sit inside my toasty house with my wife and children and drink heavily. Actually, a nice cup of hot apple cider and a bedtime of about

Got out of work this morning and walked into this: -26* Fahrenheit That truly is cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey...  not to mention a human monkey.

It is the New Year.  I will borrow a line from my dear ol' dad -- This year my resolution is to stop riding motorcycles.