I'm sick. I have the flu. I really don't mind throwing up (I've done it enough to like it I guess) and usually it makes me feel better. Coughing is annoying but tolerable. I don't like being tired, but sometimes a good couple days rest gives me time to recharge mentally. What I truly don't like is headaches. I get them so rarely, but when they come I get annoyed quickly. And they make all the other tolerable things become intolerable, because the other things aggravate the headache. For example a cough coupled with headache causes shooting pains through the cranium...miserable.
It's 2:30 am, I can't sleep, so I do the most logical thing to do when you're sick with a headache and can't sleep: I watch the State of the Union Address (Hey, I'm already sick right?). Anyway, it gets over and I start watching the GOP response. Much less entertaining, so I flip the DVR to the American Idol episode I missed earlier in the evening. Dallas, nice. Aha, Neil Patrick Harris is the guest judge, bring back the controversy. For the record I can't stand Neil Patrick Harris.
24 minutes into the episode they start showing a segment with sad music and images of several people walking out of the judges room crying. Suddenly, I recognize the girl walking out of the room crying. Could it be!?! REWIND! Sad music, crying, walking out...yes, yes, it is her! JENNY! We absolutely love Jenny! This is special for me because Jenny would come over to our house when we lived in Utah and I'd make her sing for me. My favorite was when she'd sing Mandy Moore. It was angelic. I was so excited, I forgot about being sick for a short while. Jenny was on national TV! A short while later Janna must have realized I was not in bed and came to find me. I had to show her what I had found! She was excited too. That was so fun to see! We agreed that Jenny was our American Idol.
The lesson to be learned: ego maniacs with morals on loan from the devil himself are unable to recognize anything truly divine.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
A Pleasant Surprise
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Disasters Happen in Pairs
So Abby has been potty training. And I must admit she is doing fabulous! In the past week she has never had more than one accident per day (ok, technically she did have two last Thursday but none on Friday so it averages) and has had a few days with no accidents. Bless her little heart there is hope. And not a minute too soon as her mother had promised (after the last failed attempt a couple months ago) to never ever make another attempt at potty training Abby...because it was a lost cause that would never come to pass and thus never to be attempted again so long as she lives cause it was a waste of time, effort and laundry soap (or something to that effect, you get the idea). Anyway, so today was (emphasis on was) a good day through the 18th hour. No potty accidents, dinner dishes were cleared, dishwasher started, kids in the tub, and the DJ on the country radio station was on a roll. Too good to be true, I should have seen it coming...
It was at this moment that Abby chose to ruin her perfect day in a rather....well.... big way. Screams from the bathroom. At that same precise moment I was straightening things in the kitchen and made an unwise choice. My hands were full, but one more thing lay on the counter....I could get it if I shifted the things in my arms and used my last two fingers, now freed from burden, to grab it. It was a marble paper towel holder. In hindsight, I really should have guessed that the two fingers I chose would not be adequate to bear the weight of a marble paper towel holder. It fell....and of course I, being one with above average reflexes, contorted my hips swiftly to knock the falling towel holder off its trajectory so it would scoot across the floor instead of smashing straight into it. Nice, except the oven was in the way. Glass exploded everywhere. I stared, looking at the gaping hole in the oven not recognizing it as MY oven. Was I dreaming? I went to get the shopvac. My wife came in and after initial shock made light of the situation. I cleaned up the kitchen disaster. My wife handled the bathroom disaster. I love my wife. Stay tuned for pics (of the kitchen disaster).
The carnage I found when I came to check on the bread.
It was Scott in the Kitchen with the Paper towel holder.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Black Eyed Pea - Abby's Bad Day
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
OK White Christmas 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
In the Doghouse
Janna is good at constructing things. She develops projects in her mind and thinks through the process of how to make it happen. I usually play the part of mocking the idea and giving her a hard time about her crazy ideas. Almost always, she pulls it off turning me into the fool. The doghouse was no exception.
Why build a doghouse when you can buy one? Come on, there are people who build this type of thing for a living; they build, we buy. It's an orderly, working system. I have no idea why my wife cannot grasp this. The doghouse battle encompassed this difference of opinion between her and I. I decided to sacrifice the initial battle for the good of the war. So I found myself at Lowe's on Black Friday picking up a compressor, table saw, and miter saw. They were on an incredible sale, but still the total came to double what a good doghouse would cost (and I was sure in the end we'd be buying a doghouse anyway, resulting in a triumphal "I told you so" moment).
So, the next Saturday morning, using scrap wood that Janna begged off a construction worker at a construction site, Janna and I begin Project "In the Doghouse". There were robust disagreements, a few compromises and somewhere along the way I forgot that this wasn't supposed to be fun and fulfilling. AND....something went wrong because at the end of the day the finished product actually resembled a doghouse...and a good one at that! In actuality, it turned out better than any of the ones I saw for sale. So I have a nice doghouse and new tools as well.
