Swine Flu

With all of the fuss about the swine flu going on. I have to ask the question: Why do they hand out anti bacterial handwash when dealing with a virus?

Murphapril

Yes, I just made up a word, terribly. What I am trying to convey was that I've had a Murphy's Law April. Let me begin with my post earlier this month. That, I will call, the starting point. The following Monday, Alex went into the ER for a pain in her abdomen and missed 3 days of work. She fell and banged her knee real bad that same week, then the following week, she was in the hospital again because she fainted at work.

And, oh yeah! Don't forget Mini's trigeminal neuritis. Then we had a flat tire from a nail on Saturday - which was fixed yesterday - to only be punctured and ruined today by a screw.

Causes for fainting

Alex, as you may already know, fainted at work in the bathroom on Tuesday. We were compelled to go to the ER for the second time in two weeks and the doctor there said that it was most likely due to her taking Ultram, a perscription painkiller. Since Alex has had such a hard time in the past two weeks with her fall and her crazy ovaries, etc, etc... I decided to go online to find what I could on the condition.

What I found was pretty interesting. Apparently, sudden hypertension is the leading cause of fainting. In addition to cocaine induced hypertension, I found this article. Apparently licorice can cause fainting. Who'd have known?

My house = Leaky Bucket

Today was a big day for Alex and I. We, for the first time in years are now able to shower in the Master Bathroom. It's not like we didn't want to, no. It's that the shower first had a messed up drain, then leaky fixtures that prohibited use. We've been trying to do Dave Ramsey. The mantra for Dave Ramsey is live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else. Get it? So, we haven't gotten it fixed.

Luckily for me, I won a huge bonus at work that made it feasible to meet our debt goals and also get the bathroom fixed. So we called the plumber and he came to replace our 3 fixture shower. It cost us $600 to get a plumber out here and get it done (I couldn't do it since I'm no good with copper work).

Anyway, we got everything adjusted and sent the plumber on his way when I decided that since the shower was fixed, we should clean it up and use it. I went to the kitchen for the softscrub and discovered you guessed it, a ton of water under the kitchen sink. I was curious to see what happened, so I turned on the faucet and all of the sudden tons of water came shooting down. Profanity was near my lips is all I can say.

So, I put my hand around to feel where the water was coming from and discovered that it came from no other than the garbage disposal. I've never done a garbage disposal. I've heard that they're quite the pain, so I started to panic. A while back, though, I bought this book:








I found out that this book has a step by step instruction on how to replace a garbage disposal. I looked it over, got some confidence built up, and went to the Home Depot.

I bought me a garbage disposal and surprised myself. It took about an hour and I have a new garbage disposal. Too bad today's adventures weighed heavily on the pocketbook.

Jupiter = Climate change humor

Scientists have found that the great red spot on jupiter has been shrinking since the beginning of the 20th century. CNN decided to do a story on it. I was reading some of the comments and busted up laughing. It was pretty funny. here are some of my favorite examples:

I haven't seen these two solutions:
We can send a ship with a huge quantity of red dye (or some other color just to make it interesting),

or

We can send a shipment of viagra to deal with the shrinkage.

and

I think the sun is affecting our solar system...global warming and now the red spot...thats why all the water from mars disappeared...=)

and

I'm guessing all of the locals on Jupiter are driving too many Hummers and causing greenhouse gases (or redhouse?) to build, thus throwing the climate into more turmoil. You'd think they'd learn from us Terrans.

Then you have the silly people who can't take a joke:

I don't know what's funnier, some of these global warming jokes or the folks who are actually taking the jokes seriously! :)

and

Come on. One more person make a joke about global warming. You're so original.

Stupid and humorless is no way to go through life, folks

Oh poo poo :( Cry baby.

Anyway, I'm not a climate change denier, just sceptic that we have any control over it. I thought this was pretty funny.

At least he was killed by a dragon

Check this out. This guy actually got killed by a dragon. I knew that they were big, but was heretofore unaware how dangerous they were.

The Wii

As most of you know, Alex and I bought a WII. It's a pretty fun system. My dad has a PS3 for the blu ray feature which is pretty impressive. Alex and I haven't quite bought in to the blu ray thingie yet, and we had a gamecube before the WII, so it made sense to get the WII since it has the backwards compatibility thing and all. We had to completely rearrange our furniture which was a pain, but once that was done, we've been enjoying the thing. It's definitely a different sort of toy. Anyway we got tetris party which has a balance board game. It's pretty fun and if anyone else out there has one, we'll play against you online.

The waiting game

I applied for a new position within the company. I would be an underwriter for the territories that encompass southern Utah and Nevada. I'm waiting to hear back. Keep your fingers crossed.

Best news I've heard in a long time

This is the best news I've heard in a long time. Go Repubs!

Ever thought about eating...

from a urinal? Yum.

Dippy Dawg

No, I'm not talking about some gangsta rapper. I'm talking about a dog that's dippy. Goofy. Check this google search. It's pretty funny.

facebook = no blogging

So, my friend Cory asked me to get on facebook. Ever since that fateful day, I haven't posted a single blog. The thing is strangely addictive and surreal. I believe that this is just a phase, but who knows. Anyway, as you can tell on my wife's blog I'm alive and well. I just thought that I would take a minute to post something. Anyways, if you read this and do have a facebook profile, go ahead and become my friend if you haven't already.

Natural Ingredients

What was the pepperoni made of before?!?!

Piratic Justice

I know Kathleen has a fascination with pirates based on her posting here and here. This story that I found shows some good ol' poetic justice regarding pirates. Serves 'em right!

Cool Christmas present

Since Alex and I don't have kiddos yet, we went all out on our nephews, Jackson and Brandon. We got them this awesome Black and Decker workbench. They are pretty ecstatic and so are we. Jackson asked me to help him build the birdhouse 2 times. I'm sure that will become a headache eventually, but it's cool for now.

Fire meats desire

This news story caught my attention for Flame. A new fragrance from... Burger King?!?. It's described as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat." Yum.

Last time I checked they were all sold out :(.

Update: I seriously suggest if you go to the website that you click on the spray bottle repeatedly. You will be rewarded.

Sam Bradford

1 word. Boomer!

Good Christmas Songs

I posted on Cloark's blog about how there is a group that is great for Christmas music. Their name is Straight No Chaser and they are talent and ingenuity all mixed up together. Here's the song I was referring to. In my opinion much more depth than Barenaked Ladies. Don't get me wrong, the Barenakes Ladies are great, but this is better. I think you'll agree.

Sirius the Rat Terrier!

I haven't posted in a while, but there was one that I've been meaning to for about a week now. I've been running with Sirius my dog for the last few weeks. It's been good for me and for him since we're both overweight. The unintended consequence that came out of this is a bit of agression that Sirius has started showing... towards mice.

Alex and I have had a bit of a mouse problem that we've been trying to remedy over the last month or so. We've been plugging all of the holes and cracks in our subfloor with foam and steel wool. We've also been setting traps for the ones that may already be in the home to get rid of them. So far, we have had 7 fatalities (I know a lot!).

Last week I was up really late since it was the Thanksgiving holiday and I head a snap come from under the sink. Sirius heard it too. He was over by the sink before I was and as I opened it, he started lunging to get in there. I blocked him with my arm as I looked in there. There was the mouse, but it was only caught by the tail (those with weak stomachs for mice stop reading here).

As I tried to pull the thing out by the lever on the trap the mouse was scurrying, trying to get away and suddenly Sirius lunged at it. I couldn't stop him this time. He grabbed it, chewed on it and spit it out. It was very dead at that point. All the while I was yelling at him not to eat it. I was relieved that he didn't. Anyways, he's got the bloodlust in him now and is on the prowl every time he hears something coming from the kitchen like our filter system regenerating or something like that. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

Barry Manilow is torture!

...at least according to this judge.