smacky and bucky

My wife's family knows me very well (Part II). I got a Winter Classic Caps T shirt, an Alexander Ovechkin DVD, and the Ultimate Gretzky DVD set (well, I got a printout and a promise that it's on backorder and they will send it to me in January when they receive it!)

My wife's family knows me very well. The bottom center one is a documentary on DVD of the making of George Romero's 1979 classic Dawn of the Dead.

Yeah, so I'm on vacation, but I'm also a new dad and we have various family members visiting over the holidays, so I've been silent in the blog more because I'm constantly doing chores than because I'm relaxing and lazy. Today I wrapped a ton of gifts, mailed six packages at the post office, went to the dump (again this week!), washed the salt off Laura's car, cleaned the kitchen, and... and now I'm relaxing and watching the Caps play the Devils on TV.

Andrew Gordon, who normally plays in the AHL for the Hershey Bears (the Caps farm team) was called up to play in the NHL for the Caps and just scored his first ever NHL goal. They put masking tape on it and write his name, date, and time of goal and gave it to him. He held it up on TV. How cute is that? What a moment for him!


I didn't catch the total lunar eclipse last night. I've seen one before, and this one didn't begin on the east coast until 1:30am, and when you have a baby in the house, you have to sleep when you can! The moon tonight is pretty amazing though, even in crappy pics taken with a cell phone camera. It's a clear, cold night.



Oh, and Duran Duran's new album "All You Need Is Now" was released today exclusively as an iTunes download. I bought it. I'll let you know what you think soon!

We went to the mall around 4pm yesterday to see Santa and everything went smoothly: There was no line and the boy was in a good mood (being neither wet nor hungry). As you can see in the pic, he even raised his arm to touch Santa’s beard (got to make sure it’s real!).

Awesome.

I managed to improve my mood quite a bit over the weekend. It was just wearing us down having a sick dog (who is much better now!), a baby who needs constant attention, and a house where something always needs to be done (laundry, trash, dishes, etc.) and you feel like you're overwhelmed. A relaxing weekend helped.

The Caps lost two games, which brings their losing streak to seven. Yikes. But I'd much rather them have the slump now than in April in the playoffs (like last year). Now they have time to get their act together.

Speaking of the Washington Capitals... check this out:


One of my favorite players is Matt Bradley. He's older than the average age of the team, he's not one of the hotshot stars, but he's what they call a "grinder." He works his ass off to get shots and move the puck. He makes other players look good by opening up the ice for them. And he's not afraid of a fight (though he readily jokes that his skin is made of paper [he's a bleeder]). He's married and has a young kid, which also sets him apart from the single superstars (and is another thing he has in common with me). I got this puck last week from ebay. The Winter Classic is an outdoor hockey game that will be played in Pittsburgh on New Year's Day between the Caps and the Penguins. The Winter Classic pucks go for between $10 and $15. This one is signed by Matt Bradley in gold ink and had a starting bid of $9 (with free shipping). Guess who was the only bidder? Between the cost of the puck and the time and effort to get the autograph in person, the seller actually lost money selling this to me! The case is a puck case and came from Micheal's when it was 1/2 off plus an additional 25% off with a coupon (so I got it for $2.50).

My office is closing the last week of December. I looked at my vacation time, spoke it over with the wife, and decided to take the week before Christmas, along with Friday the 17th. That means I only have three more days of work after today, folks, followed by 17 days off!

Wooooooooooo!

One of those days...

This video has nothing to do with anything going on in my life, I still love all our pets, etc.

I just saw a rerun of this episode the other day and this one line still cracks me up.

Fuck the shady tow truck company Advanced Towing Company. License to steal, they have. (Talk like Yoda, I will).

The have a Better Business Bureau rating of F, the reviews on Yelp and Google are hilarious in their anger. This company has been doing this since at least 2005, and apparently they also give a cut of the ransom to random snitches who CALL THEM if they see you park in a trap space. Jeez.

Caps game on TV tonight. I'll drink my anger into submission! Yay!

On the plus side, Kirby is home, ate, took his pills, and is resting. He's so happy to be home!

What a dumb thing for him to say. "Every great leader I have ever known asks his subordinates what they think."

Does McCain assume every subordinate in the American military was asked if he or she thinks we should invade Iraq and wander around Afghanistan for a decade or two? Military leaders DON'T ask the opinions of subordinates. It's CHAIN OF COMMAND, as opposed to a congressional hearing, where EVERY d'bag gets 3-6 minutes to pontificate for the cameras.

Okay, week. I get it. I fucking get it! Multiple trips to the vet, getting a call this morning at work from Laura saying "COME HOME. THERE IS BLOOD ALL OVER THE KITCHEN FLOOR."

I zip home, assuming it's Kirby, but when I get there Kirby and Lexi are sitting on the sofa, both looking fine. Buzz the cat is on the bed sleeping. I look in the kitchen and there are three distinct pools of blood, one of them HUGE. (Seriously huge. I placed a quarter next to it for perspective an took a picture to show the vet. I will spare you and not post it here.) Laura says she hasn't seen Maddie. Holy crap, if this is Maddie's blood the little cat must be dead in the basement. I call her name and she trots up the stairs, meowing, "What's up?" I pick her up, look her over. She's fine. Okay, it must be Kirby. I get him in my car and fly to the vet's. I show the doc the pic and explain what's up. Then Kirby is led to the back and of course he glances over his shoulder at me and I feel like shit. Like I've betrayed our shelter dog and put him back into a position he hates, surrounded by strangers. He's a rescue and is scared of strangers, so an overnight stay at the vet is super stressful. Yeah, I tear up in the car.

I get home and use most of a roll of paper towels and cleaning spray cleaning up blood. Holy crap.

The vet calls an hour later and says Kirby is doing better than expected, based on the initial conditions under which he was brought in. His red blood count is fine, his temp is normal. Oh, and it turns out it was rectal blood. I had just spent 20 minutes cleaning up rectal blood.

That's been our week. Holy shit, when is Christmas? I could use a little cheer.