Out of Time

Apparently I've Been Tagged

2006-08-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Scott put my name on his blog, which means I'm supposed to answer these questions or something.

1. One book that changed your life?
Prolly the Bible. Though I've never read it all the way through. I mostly read fiction and history, and my mind wouldn't let those books change my life.

2. One book you've read more than once?
Well, I've read several more then once. I won't list them here, but my favorite to read more then once was Jurassic Park. Yes, the books came out before the movies.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Unlike Scott, I'm not going to google "One book you would want on a desert island"
and come up with some fabulous answer. So instead I'll say something very long.

4. One book that made you laugh?
Erm, uh, Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks.

5. One book that made you cry?
Nope.

6. One book you wish had been written?
The Way I Am By Jesus Christ

7.One book you wish had never been written?
The Da Vinci Code, because it wasn't as good as Angels and Demons, and its been way too overhyped.

8. One book you are currently reading?
Issac's Storm By Erik Larsen, author of Devil In The White City.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?
The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

10. Now tag five ppls.

Melissa, Kendra, Mom, uh, yeah, I'm not that popular, actually.

super awesome play dough fun

2006-07-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

For all the haters

super awesome play dough fun

5% Dixie?

2006-07-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

I'm sure all you cool internet ppls have done this already, but I think its pretty funny none the less. Here are my results for the type of American English that I speak...

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

Hilarious. Really.

2006-07-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

I just realized that almost every single one of my posts starts out something like, "sorry I've been away" or "Its been a long time since I posted."

Makes me sad.

Wow, I'm Sorry.

2006-07-09T21:09:00.000-05:00

This almost seems foreign. Not that it was all that familiar. So sorry for the gap from last post to this one.
All is well here. We did not die from the strep, in fact. The lazy bug sure jumped up and bit me though, at least as far as this blog is concerned. I've also found more enjoyment trying to get some things done around the house. I took some time and finally cut down a huge weed that was on the verge of turning into a tree in our backyard. I made our elderly neighbor so happy that he finally talked to me after we've lived here for almost 3 years! It was a good feeling to get that thing cut down.
Boy, that sure sounds boring in print. Here's something fun. Check out this video. Its from a band called The Avalanches. It's an older song, but a good one. Nothing objectionable, really, just look out for the freaky old man with a turtle body. Enjoy!

Blech

2006-06-13T20:42:00.000-05:00

So I have strep throat. My wife had it about 12 days ago, finished her antibiotics, and then I end up getting it. Nasty stuff. My fever overnight was up to 100.3, and this afternoon got up to 101.
So yeah its awesome. I feel pretty good right now though, but will be contagious until tomorrow afternoon.

More bad news: we noticed last week that our son had an irritated navel. So we brought him to "Urgent Care", it's like an ER, just at a doctors office. The Dr. who saw him took one look and said that it was fungal like yeast or athletes foot, and to put Lotrimin on it.
Didn't work. In fact it got worse, fanning out across his stomach in the form of small pimple-like welts. It had also spread to some um, nether-regions.

Needless to say, this freaked us out.
We were able to bring him to his regular Peds Dr. yesterday, and he confirmed that it was indeed bacterial, and spreading. He promptly got him on an oral antibiotic, and instructed us to cover the area with gauze and paper tape, after applying triple antibiotic ointment.

Then he scared the crap out of us. As he was having the nurse do the initial dressing, he told her to be careful and use gloves, because it may be MRSA. Now, I won't get into all of what MRSA is and isn't, and also, browse the internet for its meaning with caution, there are a lot of conflicting reports out there, and some real scary stuff.
In short, it's a really bad Staph infection that is very difficult to get rid of and is highly contagious. It can cause some bad problems as well.
Well, though the Dr. said this, he wouldn't know until a culture was done. I got the call with the results today. Now, the nurse was very nice, but the conversation went a little like this:

*RING!*
me: "Hello?"
RN: "Yes, I have the results of your son's test."
m: "okay."
r: "Looks like strep, so stay on the antibiotics, and let us know if his symptoms worsen."
m: "But he doesn't have any symptoms, he only scratches every once in a while. Do you mean if the rash spreads?"
r: "Rash? Oh I thought this said he had strep throat. No its actually a staph infection."
m:*Almost faints*
r: "Sir?"
m: "I'm here. It can't be staph. That would mean MRSA."
r: "One second please."
*Little Girl From Ipanema Muzak Interlude*
r: "Sir?"
m: "Yes."
r:"Its a strep infection. On his skin. Not staph. Sorry."
m: "Thank you so much!"
r: "Yes, just keep doing what we told you to do, and let us know if it doesn't get better."
m: "Thank you, we will."

So it turns out that strep throat can pass to the skin. Who knew?
Bottom line: we're gonna be okay, Lord willing. And be carfeul, if any of you ever get strep.

Sorry About My Absence

2006-06-08T09:06:00.000-05:00

Alrighty. Since there are so many of you weirdos out there that actually like reading this, and have decided to pressure me into posts by linking to me, here's something new.
Its not terribly exciting, but its a recap of the past few days.

Saturday June 3:
I got up early and went in to work. My wife and I were to meet my sister and her family at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Since I had to work, my wife and son drove down by themselves. And some fantastic things happened to her on the way: first, she was cutoff on the expressway, and almost ran her van off the road. After she recovered from that and made it to the zoo, she was feeling better and decided to get something to eat for her and my son. As she was making her way to the pavilion, she noticed a 4 year old boy with no adults around. She asked if he was okay, and she could tell he had been crying, and then he ran away from her. She chased him down, and got some help from security who had been looking for him. So all was well. However, she had been holding him on her hip, where upon he had urinated all over her. So, she had to buy herself a new shirt.
At the checkout, she pulled out her debit card, only to discover that it was not indeed her card, but a Red Lobster gift card, redeemable at Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, or Smokey Bones. Not the Lincoln Park Zoo gift store, unfortunately. Luckily she had just enough cash.
There is more to this story, but as you can see, its getting to be a bit long, so I'll move on.
Our son loved the zoo. The funniest thing that he did was call the polar bear a white fish!
Everything was a fish, except the lion, which he roared at. It was a great time overall, except for the aforementioned fiasco my wife had, and the insane amount that it cost to park. But we will be going back for sure.

Monday June 5:
After work, I decided to cut the grass. I usually start in the back, but decided to start out front.
As I was making a pass next to my neighbors house, I noticed a person coming from their house that I'd never seen before. Now we don't know all of our neighbors by name, but I usually recognize their faces. What proceeded to take place can't be put into words that make sense.
Only that I meet the strangest character I've ever known, who frightened me a bit, knew a lot about my family and I , and oh yeah, has been living next door to me, less then 20 feet away, for the past 2.5 years, and I had no idea that he lived there.

Well, thats a brief recap, I may fill in some more of the dates later, but I wanted to post SOMETHING, cause nobody hipped me to that fact that I need to post daily, or I wasn't cool anymore.

"...In Another Life."

2006-06-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

So this is kind of weird to blog about, since I wasn't really intending on making this too personal of a thing, (my profile picture is a picture of Rambo, for crying out loud) but I had a cool dream and I want to tell you all about it.
My dream starts out with me as a military recruit. My drill instructor is not a nice man, and not just to his recruits. He is mean to his soon to be wife as well, a young, pretty blonde girl, who to me looks familiar.
Well, my dream then fast forwards. I learn more about these two, and for some reason, am compelled to write this woman a letter, telling her how I think she deserves someone better, not a jerk like her fiancee.
Skip to her and I meeting after she receives the letter. I am worried that I'm in trouble, but when I see her face, I can tell that it is my wife! Only we aren't our present selves, and I get the sensation of falling in love with her all over again.(it felt so good!). And in a weird thing that can only happen in dreams, I realize our situation, that we have somehow reunited in another place, and I ask her; "What if I told you that in another life, you and I fall in love, get married, and have a beautiful son?" . Her response? "I would believe you."
I am truly the luckiest man I know, to have a wife that loves and respects me so much, and cares for me and our son with such compassion and willingness.
I love you honey.

What The Heck Did I Just Drink?

2006-06-01T12:45:00.000-05:00

So I just got done drinking a sweet Mug Root Beer, and I noticed that something strange was in the ingredients. So I asked Internet what he thought, and quite frankly, he upset me a little. Check it out:

http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v17je24.htm

Yikes.

Where My Peeps At?

2006-05-31T21:17:00.000-05:00

What's going on? I pour my heart and soul into a post, and I get nothing back? You see Scott, its all your fault. Way to go posting about my dead blog. Thanks alot.
Bah! (actually, I didn't pour my heart or soul into it, just a few clicks around Google Images, and a couple minutes of typing.)

The Tomato Made Me Do It

2006-05-31T18:13:00.000-05:00

Since I'm being attacked on another blog, I guess I'm going to have to tell you all the story of why I've lost my blogging "thunder". In picture form of course.
So here is the real reason why I haven't been able to make a post in awhile. Kind of.

"Hey, Eric, are you uh, going anywhere for an extended period of time? Like where you won't be able to see your computer screen for a while?"

"Why?"

"Oh, no reason, just curious."

"As a matter of fact, I do have something to attend to. Make sure no one messes with my computer."

"Oke-ly doke-ly. You can count on me buddy!"

"Vroooom, wahhhhhh, go fast noises, etc."

"Yesssss!*pumping fist once with bowling glove on* Now I can bounce over to his computer and apply my +20 power of Sticky Note attack!!!!!!1"

"Take that, defense-less CRT monitor!!!1"

"Well, that didn't take as long as I......What the flip!!!!! Tomatoooooooooo!!!!"

"Now I must bounce away quickly, before he can catch me! MUAHHAAHHAHAHHAHA!"

And thats why I haven't been able to post in awhile. Rest assured, the perpatrator was apprehended a few feet away, after hitting a low spot in the floor.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Brother Danielson Is the Most Amazing Person Ever

2006-05-26T00:17:00.000-05:00

Danielson is awesome! They rock so hard! DETHOLZ! is awesome. I only have half and eardrum left. K I'm gonna go pass out on the kitchen floor with one pant leg on and one off. , thanx , bye!

encoded

2006-05-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post. I want to see if anyone can crack this code. It's something that I came up with, and I want to know if I'm an evil genius or not.
By the way, Scott isn't allowed to participate, seeing as he has the other half of the secret decoder ring already. Post your answers in the comments.

Here it is: og upi vsm trsf yjod upi str s hrmoid, nye.

Comedic Value Return = 2%

2006-05-24T09:04:00.000-05:00

Comedy is wonderful. It is especially great when you get to a point in a friendship with someone, where everything has the potential to be funny, and it all happens seamlessly. The ability and willingness to find humor in everyday things, inside jokes that are so deep, you couldn't explain them to someone if you tried. But therein lies the problem.
You see, my friend Scott and I have these abilities. Inevitably, we end up cracking each other up on a daily basis. However, to the outside observer, I imagine that we appear as two mad men, laughing at how funny buttons on overalls are.
And this is a shame. I would love to be able to invent a product that could make things appear as funny to other people as they do to you. Yeah. That would be awesome. I don't know how it'd work, I just now that it should be done.
Well, this was just something that I was thinking about. I'll try to post some links to things that I find funny. In the meantime, if you see us laughing like lunatics, just know that we aren't laughing at you, we probably don't even know that you're there. Really. We're not laughing at you. Seriously. Okay, maybe just a little. But not that much.

Danielson Concert

2006-05-23T22:26:00.000-05:00

Danielson Famile...check out the sweet sashes

So, I stumbled upon an awesome opportunity. The chance to see the mighty Danielson live in concert. You see, when I first heard Danielson, I was bombarded with Failing a Test Falling In Love. To be honest, I wasn't quite ready for that. But after some time, I stumbled upon their work again, and in a word, it is good. Now I'm not trying to be blase, its just that it is difficult to explain how good they are. When you come across a group that has no regard for how people may accept or shun them, it's refreshing. For example, Brother Danielson's falsetto screeches and yelps, combined with the hodge-podge of instrumentation, provide a strange refuge form everyday life, even amidst the cacophony of their arrangements. Now this is simply my opinion, and its is a bit limited, but I am really looking forward to discovering the live performance side of their music, and thankful to have a friend that is tuned into this realm, because without him, I would have driven right over the Danielson Famile.

Probably the worst blog on the Internet actually

2006-05-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

Probably the worst blog on the Internet actually

This is my friend Scott's blog. The title is true, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't check it out.

NEWS FLASH

2006-05-23T21:14:00.000-05:00

In borrowing a line from a very good friend of mine...
"Yes, I have a blog. Yes, you should be scared."