I'm Not Sure You're Supposed To Do That.

Here's an excerpt of a very recent conversation between my oldest princess and myself in which I explain to her that I'm trying to decide which of my offspring to eat for dessert. This threat is a daily threat with no actual backing, but it's fun to watch them squirm when I announce I plan to eat one of them. Here goes...

King Isepik: I'm trying to decide which one of my daughters to eat.
Pink Princess: [stops what she's doing and turns to look at me]
KI: I'm trying to decide if I should eat the oldest one or the youngest one -
PP: [blink]
KI: the tallest one or the shortest one. Perhaps I'll go with the one with the most visible teeth.
PP: That's me because Purple Dragon just lost a tooth.
KI: Maybe, but I can see the tooth that's replacing the one she just lost as well as the one that will replace the loose one she still has, so she has the most visible teeth.
PP: [blink]
KI: Maybe, I'll go with the one with the longest hair.
PP: [throwing the Queen under the bus - points] That would be Mommy.
KI: She's not my daughter.
PP: [blink]
KI: I can't go with the one who is the cutest, because I'd have to eat you both.
Queen: [interjecting herself into the conversation] Make sure whichever one you eat has the cleanest nose to cut down on the number of boogers you have to eat.
PP: [begins furiously blowing snot bubbles with her nose to increase the number of boogers in her nose]
Q: EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
KI: [I'm not sure you're supposed to do that] I'm not hungry...

I guess this means I'm not meant to eat either of them tonight.

Anyway, to those of you out there who are planning on celebrating tomorrows FAKE, MADE-UP, MARKETING PLOY - I say: Happy Valentine's Day. Please pardon me while I don my all black garb for the day and retch in the corner. To the rest of you, please join me in wearing black tomorrow in protest of fake holidays everywhere. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters V, D, and the number 14.

The Kingdom of Sick

Our kingdome is full of sick folk. One princess has Strep, the other has Pneumonia, The Queen thinks she has a cold, and the King (that's me) has a virus of some sort that floored me this morning. Hopefully, my high powered immune system will kick in and this thing will be over in just a few more hours.

Anyway, that's the deal today.

This post was brought to you by the letters V, I, R, U, S, and the number 4.

Have a Fender Bender?

Has the recent horrible weather caused any of you out there to have a collision of any sort recently? Looking for a place to fix up a ding or two from a collision you've had in your car? I haven't - and I'm knocking on wood that I don't - but if you have, check out the people at collisionrepairexperts.com.

I'm the type of person who likes to keep his vehicles looking good and running well. As a result, I'm picky when it comes to who I allow to perform any maintenance or repair work on my cars. I want to know that they have the necessary credentials to perform the work on my vehicle before I hand over the keys.

The people at collisionrepairexperts.com have an extensive network of auto body repair professionals. For example, you can enter "auto body shops denver" into their search engine for a list of members in the Denver area. If you happen to be an auto body professional, they're looking to expand their membership, so give them a call. They check out the people who seek membership so that only the cream of the crop get to be associated with their network.

I'm definitely going to visit collisionrepairexperts.com if I ever need repairs to the body of my cars.

This post was brought to you by the letters R, S, T, L, N, E, and the number 7

We Have HEAT!!!

There is now heat in the basement. Last night, I ran a duct and tapped the main supply to provide heat for future bedroom in the basement. It just happens to provide heat to the area where I'll be working. :) I'll post pics once I get them off the Queen's camera.

The Queen just told me this morning that she thinks it's silly to heat the basement when it's not insulated. In principal, I agree with her, however, the heat happen to be one of those necessary items that needs to be run sooner rather than later, along with plumbing which I'll need to alter really soon. Besides, As long as we'll need to be working down there, it has to have some heat and I can always turn off the vents and direct the airflow up through the house instead. It won't cost us any more than using an electric heater down there while I'm working, so I don't really see a problem.

Am I alone in this train of thought or is the bridge out ahead?

I got a surprise when I was working on the heat down there last night and I'll post about it later. I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters H, E, A, T, and the number 9.

Fingers?, Toes? What are those things?

It is frakking COLD! The boiler at work broke at some point over the weekend and I could see my breath when I walked into my office this morning. It's only marginally better at this point, but typing is a real challenge. Unfortunately for me, I have craptacular circulation in my hands and toes so they'll be cold for the next week or so.

I've been in my fleece and coat all day in an effort to fight off the insanity, but I'm not really sure how well I'm doing in this fight. This is probably a bad sign, but such is life, eh? :)

On to other things, I have enough materials (once I get a bucket of nails and a small shopvac) to start work in the basement of our house now. Of course it still isn't cleared out, but there are a few more items I can do before I start the framing. I have to relocate/reconfigure a few pipes, run a heating duct into the bedroom and add a cold air return to the space in the basement all of which can be done before the framing starts.

Wish me luck! I'll take pictures and post them. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters S, B, Y, E, and the number 3.

The Big Work Begins...

This afternoon after work, I'm going to go get supplies to begin our home improvement project. This means that the big work on the project will begin really soon now.

One of the more onerous tasks I have to deal with is the fact that I now have to dig a hole outside my house to locate and seal the source of a slow seep into our basement where the renovation will occur. In case you've not been reading along, I'm recovering from a sprained wrist and we have had atrocious weather recently.

I'm planning on doing what I can inside and hoping for a warm weekend or something that will allow me to be outside for extended periods of time while working without freezing. :) None of us likes to freeze, so here's hoping...

Anyway, I'm not whining about it, I'm just informing you all that I'll be really busy for a while and I may appear to be a bit cranky for a few months. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters U, G, H, and the number 133.

It's a Sprain - I Think

I sprained my wrist I think. I know it's not broken, I can use the wrist for the most part like normal, but twisting motions hurt something fierce. It's better now than Sunday afternoon, but it certainly isn't pleasant. Sometimes I feel like an idiot for injuring it in the first place, but then again, I had to relocate all the cold white stuff on the driveway and sidewalks. :)

How did I do it? You're dying to know, aren't you? :) Well, that's a quick story. I was shoveling and the shovel hit a seam in the concrete sidewalk and stopped dead. Unfortunately, I had just started the forward stroke of the shovel, so the abrupt jarring from the handle of the shovel sent a sharp pain up through the handle and into my wrist where it got mired down in all the ligaments, bones, and whatnot that lives in my arm. It pitched a tent and I've spent the last couple of days trying to evict it. :)

Here's the part that will make you realize just how very stupid I am. When this happened, I just shook my arm, cussed a bit about it, and continued shoveling. :) I had to shovel the snow, you see.

I think I may have just nominated myself to go to the shallow end of the gene pool. Good thing too, because I can't float! :)

This post was brought to you by the letters P, A, I, N, and the number 127.

A BOY!!!

Woot! We're having a boy! Not that I don't like my daughters. I do, but I've wanted a boy for quite some time now and according to the ultrasound, that's what we're getting! :)

I'm stoked to have another male in the house to commiserate with. :)

I'm sure the Queen will update her blog one of these years and give you more details.

This post was brought to you by the letters X, Y, and the number 3.

The Day After...

Hey, that was an old movie title. Hmm. Anyway, today is the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday and I'm at work. Apparently on some bad intel, I neglected to request the day off. Ooops! I will remember that for next year. :) Anyway, the Queen went off on a shopping spree and I was left to bring the little folk into work with me. They are currently quietly enjoying a movie here in my office. Once the Queen is done with her insanity, she'll come retrieve them.

There have been a few other developments over the course of the last couple of weeks as well. The Queen now has Bronchitis (she gets it about 2 or 3 times a year) and as a result, her mother was at out castle helping her last week and fell off my deck. It is about a 10-11 inch drop, but she fractured her right fibula and sprained (possibly fractured) her left ankle. That made Turkeyday really interesting this year since we celebrate it at the Queen's mother's place.

At least everyone liked my turkey. I'm glad of that and it turns out I could have started it a couple of hours later that I did, but who needs sleep, right? :)

Now that it's over, I just want to take a nice long nap, but I have to be here at work manning the fort. Luck for me, it's been really dead so far and I've already completed one of the two things I need to finish for the day. Once I'm done with that, I'll just surf the net until I can leave for the day.

What a week! I'm glad it's nearly over. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters M, W, O, and the number 5.

Thank You!

To all our veterans, I say Thank You! I never served in the military and I didn't have any immediate family serve that I can remember. I had a great grandfather serve in WWII and certain times of the year remind me that I miss him greatly.

I so wish I could talk to him about things that are going on or introduce him to my 2 little girls and my wife, but he's been gone for the better part of 2 decades.

Patriotic holidays and his birthday really upset me because it reminds me so much of what he was about. I miss him greatly and wish I could tell him Thank You for all the freedoms he helped defend.

I'd like to extend that thanks to all the veterans of all our military and civil branches who put themselves in harms way for our sakes.

Thank You!

This post was brought to you by the letters D, G, H, and the number 2

Listed.

The car has been listed with a local paper website. Hopefully we'll get some interest in it soon and can get it sold shortly. If there's anyone in the SLC area who is interested in it, please feel free to comment.

The car has served us well for over 10 years. We'll miss you Lizzzie! Yes, the car has a name. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters C, A, R, and the number 7.

Need a Boot?

If you're anything like me, you wear boots nearly all the time. Whether you're looking for hiking boots, work boots, hunting boots, military boots, or some other type of boot altogether, workbootsusa.com is the place to start. With brands like Caterpillar, Danner, Belleville, Matterhorn, Bates, and more, the selection is such that you're bound to find something you'll like.

Also, they're made right here in the good old United States of America. The makers stand behind their products and orders of $50 or more get free shipping! If you're in the market for a pair of boots, go check them out.

This post was brought to you by the letters B, O, O, T, S, and the number 5.

Election!

The election is over and Barack Obama has won. I'm proud that my fellow American people have decided to choose an inclusive, change-bringing leader. I hope he can live up to the promises he's made and can deliver on those very same promises.

I have a bit of hope in my country again as a result of our choice. I understand that shome of you will disagree with my choice and that's your right, but I feel we chose the better of the two candidates this time around.

Hooray, America! :)

This post was brought to you by the letters B, O, J, B, and the number 2008.

Parking Ticket - Really?

So what that the registration ran out on the car at the end of last month. We got a new car and haven't been driving the car that got the ticket, but it happened to be parked on a public street, so it got a ticket after only 4 days. Grrr!

Wish us luck on selling it! If any of you are interested in a 1996 Dodge Intrepid ES, please comment. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters C, A, R, and the number 12.

Announcement!

I have an announcement to you all. What better way to deliver said announcement than to send you to the Queen's blog and let her do it. :)

LOL! You should see the look on your face right now. :)

Seriously, go check out her blog.

This post was brought to you by the letters X, Y, and the number 13.

Happy Birthday to the QUEEN!!! :)

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Dear, Queenie!
Happy Birthday to YOU!

This post was brought to you by the letter D, O, B, and the number... er... (Queen's age)

Instant Party!

I was just directed to the Emergency Party Button and I think it's really cool. :) Of course, I'm a geek and this kind of thing really interests me. :)

Apparently, this guy is as much (probably a LOT MORE) of a geek as I am and just decided to make what he was thinking, happen. I WISH I have the cajones and the dinero necessary to do some of the things that pop into my head like that. Too bad I'm not rich, eh? :)

Anyway, I thought you'd enjoy the fun.

This post was brought to you by the letters E, P, B, and the number 6.

A New Ride.

Yesterday, we purchased a new ride. I'm sure the Queen will be happy to tell you all about it in depth, so I'll summarize. We purchased a Red 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. It has Sto-n-Go seating, dual powered sliding doors, 3 zone AC and only 31k miles. We're happy to have it and our little princesses are stoked about it as well.

We now have enough room for them and all their assorted stuff without feeling crowded. We're going to sell our old family car (a Green 1996 Dodge Intrepid ES) and part ways with an old friend. We'll miss you, Lizzzie.

Anyway, this post was brought to you by the letters R, O, O, M, and the number 7.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I made the mistake of caving to the Queen's pressure to get a Facebook account in an effort to shut her up make her happy and I think it has backfired. I'm now playing this Dragon RPG on there and slowly becoming addicted to it. Woe is me...

Anyway, It's at least amusing and it plays pretty well. It isn't WoW or W:AR (Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) by any stretch, but I can at least amuse myself a bit by playing it and we have another thing in common.

You know you want to get a Facebook account and add us as friends. :) You KNOW you want to...

This post was brought to you by the letters R, P, G, and the number 6.

Are you one?

WARNING! GOOD-NATURED RANT FOLLOWS!

Are you one of those people who have a cell phone? If so, why did you get it? If you got it to be cool, then great - you're cool. If you got it to keep in touch, please do what it takes to fulfill that? If you have it for emergencies only, please be sure not to give the number out.

This post is for the people who have a cell phone to keep in touch.

I know it reads as if this is a targeted posting, and to some degree, it is. In my defense, I have recently run across this issue in personal life as well as professional life and it's truly annoying to try calling someone only to get voice mail over and over again. After finally getting in touch with this person, you find out time and again that they didn't bring their cell phone with them ("I forgot to bring it"), or the battery is dead ("I forgot to charge it"). WHAT?!

I'm going to use the Queen as an example here (please accept my apology, btw :) of how she needed to run an errand and wanted me to make a phone call to correct a situation for her. Unfortunately, I didn't have all the information I needed and when I tried calling her to ask a quick question, her cell phone which happened to be in the next room, began making pretty noises. She had left her cell phone at home, sitting on the table. I'm happy I was able to wing it and ecstatic that nothing happened to them or the car while she was out, but I would have been very hard pressed to get in touch with her in the event of an emergency.

If you don't have it with you and charged, what's the point? If you're one of the people who has given your cell number out to the majority of the people you know, do them a favor and keep it charged, on, and with you. :)

Now that I've ranted about cell phones and called out the Queen (again, sorry about that), I'll step off my soapbox, and relinquish the microphone. FYI: I am fully expecting to be flamed by this post and I probably deserve most if not all of it.

Queen, dear, please be a good sport about me calling you out. You just happen to be an easy target. Please forgive. I'll be sure to get some chocolate or something to make it up. :)

This post was brought to you by the letters C, E, L, L, and the number 5.