The Music Man

If you are reading this blog you likely know me well enough to know of my love for music. I am so grateful for the musical talents that I have been blessed with. Of all the musical talents I have, I unfortunately lack the ability to actually write or compose a decent piece of music. To compensate for this I have spent many years of my life making up random songs and ditties about what is going on around me in my everyday life.

I love making up songs. It makes me happy and most times helps to keep me sane. I tend to get mixed reactions from the three lovely ladies that I share my musical musings with. Jen finds some of them to be amusing but most often is driven to the point of insanity by them. Lorelai is almost always pleased by them, probably because of the outrageous faces and smooth dance moves that most often accompany my musical outbursts. Reagan will try to sing along with me and join in the fun. This usually ends in her having a melt down because I will decide to sing about her having a big and/or smelly butt. Of course I realize that both the big and/or smelly butt she inherited directly from me. I really should stop this now to save myself on therapist bills later in life.

Life has a funny way of taking the things that we do that annoy others and makes us painfully aware of them. Reagan also likes to make up her own songs or will sing songs from Primary or movies. 99% of the time this just melts my heart, but that other 1% not so much. Last week while Jen was out of town and I was watching the girls, Reagan started singing and made up a little five note tune that she seemed to really like. She sang this same little tune over and over and over again. After the first ten times it started to wear on me a bit. When she reached the nine hundred and ninety ninth time I was pleading for my life to end. Hey, Nancy Pelosi, you think waterboarding is bad? Try being exposed to that for a minute. Ask any of the fellas at Guantanamo and they would gladly take the waterboarding. OK so it wasn't that bad, but it did make me very aware of what my dear wife has been putting up with for the last six years. I have now successfully passed that on to at least one of my girls. So Jen, I am sorry to tell you that you are in for an eternity of nonsensical songs.

Hope is Not Lost!

That's right folks, after an extremely long hiatus I am back. Hopefully there are folks out there that still want to read my somewhat mindless drivel.

AND THE HOBOS REJOICED!

I don't know who Scott Dizzle is or anything about grills, but this was the greatest hobo picture I have ever seen in my life.

8 Random Things (wih a Twist)

Taggin‘ It Up Rules 1: Each player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves. 2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules. 3: At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

Jen tagged me with this and I thought I would put a spin on it. Recently my sister-in-law Lesley told me that I was the most feminine masculine man she knows. Most people would probably take offense to that but I took it as a compliment. Jen often says that I am more of a girl than she is. So I have decided to give my eight random things a theme: Things That Might Make You Think I'm Gay.

1. I can sew. Not only can I sew but I enjoy it. I made Jen's temple dress before we got married.

2. I enjoy baking and cooking.

3. I cross stitch. I don't have a lot of time to do it but I will bust out a project I have been working on for a long time when I get a chance.

4. I can sing soprano better than most women.

5. I read Nancy Drew books. Jen has some from when she was a kid and I just picked one up one day.

6. I enjoy wearing pink ties. I have wanted to expand my pink apparel to a pink polo shirt but Jen shot that idea down.

7. I like to decorate. Picking paint colors, drapes, wall hangings, all that HGTV stuff.

8. I like girlie tv shows and movies. Grey's Anatomy, Project Runway, Top Design, and if its a Chick Flick I'll watch it.


So there it is folks. Some day I will have to post the 8 random things that might make you think I am more of a man than Chuck Norris, but for now I will save that for later. Here is who I am tagging (no theme required) Dad, Dan (get on it, you only have a few days), Mom (maybe someone can show her how to use the new-fangled electronic computing machine to get on to the internets and make a blog post), Cameron (here is a chance for you to contribute to your blog). And that's all I got. Everyone else has pretty much been covered.

Home Improvement

I like to think of myself as a fairly good handy man. I can handle most any project that needs to be done around the house. In an effort to hone my skills I have decided to offer a handy man help line via my blog. So here is my first needy victim.

Q: What is the best way to patch a gaping hole in the ceiling of my entry way that has been present for more than a year? - Cletus R. McDougal Hicksville, OH

A: Well Cletus that is a great question. Is this a conventional style home or a trailer? If it is a trailer I suggest that you gather up all of your stuff, load it and your family into your 1987 Ford Pickup, dowse the place in gasoline, light a match and bust out the graham crackers and marshmallows.
If it is a conventional style home you will need to gather up the following tools: a Ladder, Key Hole/Drywall Saw, Drywall Square, Utility Knife, Eye Protection, a Pencil, Drywall Screw and a Drill. After gathering all necessary tools, make your wife do it. That's what I did.


Not too bad huh? Eat your heart out Bob Villa.

Ok you got me that was all made up. We actually have had a hole in our entry way for over a year. Any one that has stepped foot in our house has seen it. We were really just trying to fit in. We do live in Apache Junction after all.

Shortly after moving in, Jen's dad came up and put tile in the upstairs hall bathroom (carpet + little girl's bathroom = BAD!!!) A few days after getting the bathroom put back together I went down stairs to make sure the doors were locked before bed. I was greeted by a steady stream of water dripping from the ceiling. I grabbed my knife and started cutting the ceiling open. The toilet was leaking into the floor and soaked through the ceiling. I got all of the wet stuff cut out to avoid mold growth(we have an awesome mold story that I will have to tell some other time). I wanted to leave the hole open for a bit to make sure that I had correctly fixed the toilet. Well that few days grew into more than a year. Jen has begged and pleaded many times for it to get fixed and it just never happened.

I have a friend who is a great drywall texturer and he offered to help me texture the ceiling after I help him remove his alternator. I figured that I would get the patch in so that we can texture whenever we want. I got everything together and decided to make Jen do it. Actually we did it together. She always wants to help with projects so I had her cut out the hole and I put the patch in. We both did some plastering. It is so nice to not have a giant hole right when you walk in our front door. I can't wait until it is textured and painted and done with.

Jen flexing some Home Repair muscle

Our hole free ceiling

I need to just add a note about how much I love and appreciate my wife. Thanks for being so patient and not making me sleep on the couch or outside for the last year. Love you Babe!

Olympic Awesomeness

I love the Olympics. If I could take two and a half weeks off to devote every moment of every day watching I would. There is not a single event that I wouldn't watch. That's right, rythmic gymnastics, handball, underwater basket weaving, crab soccer. If they show it, I will watch it. I have been this way for as long as I can remember.

Back in 1992 when the USA Men's Indoor Volleyball Team (back then all they had was indoor volleyball) all shaved their heads I begged my mom to let me show my support by shaving my head as well. With the beggining of the school year only days away she refused to let me shave my head. I think she thought that my lack of hair would make it easier for me to relate to unsavory characters. Being the brilliant young man that I was, I waited until mom left to go to a home making meeting (yep back then it was Home Making, not Home/Family/Pets/Cousins/HairDressers/DogWalkers/Personal Enrichment Meeting) and asked dad to fulfill my boyish dream. Dad, being the wonderful father that he is, granted me my wish. I don't even think he asked me if it was ok with mom. Unfortunatly since dad was not that experienced with hair cutting he had no idea that you are supposed to put oil on the clippers. When the process was complete I had no hair, but most of it was ripped out not cut off. Thanks Pops! We planned to lather up the very short stubble that was left and take a Bic to it but mom came home and laid the kaibosh on that one. My love for the Olympics has continued to grow since. I plan on spending as much time as possible over the next two weeks watching, and hopefully this time I can make it through with all of my hair.

Last Comic Salute to Hobos!

Two nights ago we watched the most recent episode of Last Comic Standing that they have online. They post the episodes a week behind so some of you may have seen this. The following video is of a pretty good comedian named Jeff Dye. Basically his entire set is about hobos. It was so hilarious and there is no better place to post such high quality hobo glorification. Enjoy!

Just Like Dad!

Not that there was every any question, but Reagan is definitely my daughter. Every day I notice ways that she is more like me. Here are some of the things that I have noticed.

She loves sports, especially baseball (some of that also comes from Jen). She always wants to play sports and loves to watch them. She is looking forward to the Braves game in a few weeks.

She sings ALL THE TIME! She will sing the most random songs from shows and movies. She remembers music better than anything else.

She loves video games and the computer. Any time I play the Wii she has to play too. She is a total whiz with the computer and can do things that I don't know how to do.

She can turn anything into a musical instrument. Most things she just uses as drums or drum sticks but she will also try to blow into almost everything to see if it will make noise.

This last one is self explanatory. Just see the picture below.

That's my girl!