I must be REALLY sick

I can tell I am sick, really sick, not because of the antibiotics, the sinus infection, the pink eye, the generalized body aches, the vomiting , the fever, the sore throat, the head aches, or the doctor telling me I am sick. No, I know I am really sick because my wife looked at me the other day and said, “I feel really sorry for you” and she meant it.

Don’t get me wrong here, my bride is a beautiful and a near saintly person in many aspects but sympathy is NOT one of them. To illustrate, if you were walking on a trail and fell 30 feet down the mountain, she would not offer condolences or treat your wounds. No, she would asses the damage (assuming you aren’t bleeding) and tell you to, and I quote, “Suck it up.”

In her defense about 80% of the time she is right. There really is nothing else that you can do so you should just suck it up and keep going.

To make a long story even longer, the fact that she told me she felt sorry for me was not something I expected to hear short of my death bed. And to be completely honest, on my death bed I expect her to tell me it is my own fault.

Man I MUST be sick. I think I see a light…

Worst movie … ever!

Well that is a hard title to assign, particularly of late. I recently saw two real “winners”. One of them I shouldn’t have been too surprised with, after all it was picked by Parker and McKay. This cinemagraphic classic is titled “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.” And it … uhm…well … Parker liked it.

The more surprising one was Twilight. It was surprising because, one I actually went to see it, and more so because Kodie actually picked it. It was single handedly one of the WORST movies I have ever seen. Being the supportive husband I let Kodie pick the movie we saw and she dragged me to that waste of film, I was hoping against hope that she was going to pick the new Bond movie alas it was not to be.

I realized in full horror what I had been dragged into when the male protagonist first appeared on the screen. He was greeted by a cacophony of high pitched, heart throb induced squealing. I was either in a room full of stuck pigs or 14 yr old girls; unfortunately, as I looked around, there was no future bacon in sight. Nor were there more than six other testosterone bearing men in the room (and two of them brought books, a wise decision).

I never thought I would find a vampire move I wouldn’t like. I stand corrected. There go two hours of my life I will never get back.

Hello my name is Bulbo and I am a Denny's-holic.

I am finally willing to accept the truth. I am addicted to Denny’s. Does that mean I am ready to face my inner demons, fight the brave fight and emerge a better man for it? Sadly … no.

You can tear off the back two thirds of the menu at Denny’s and not lose anything worth missing (except the diet coke). If you order anything but breakfast at this shrine with the yellow sign, you are a sad and sick little person. I am sorry if you are one of these poor lost souls but that is just the way it is.

I have been known to venture forth on my pilgrimage of indulgence at the drop of a hat at any hour of the day or night. Nothing sings to my gut like a French toast slam with a side of hash and keep the diet coke a ‘coming ( I base my tip entirely on how full my diet coke is at any given point during the meal).

My wife doesn’t understand the depth of my problem but occasionally she allows me my guilty pleasure. This Saturday was one such blessed moment. On any given weekend if I am woken at 5:45 a.m. due to a size six toddler foot planted firmly in my stomach half falling out of bed being held in only by the tenuous grasp of entangled sheets, grumpy MAY come close to describing the beginnings of my emotional state. But this particular morning my wife piped up with the unexpected comment, “Let’s all go to Denny’s.” Suddenly the heavens opened and a choir of angels serenaded five befuddled people in pajamas as they piled into the mini van and were off to the greatest place on earth.

“I’ll have a French toast slam…”

Historic Day

I know I am not the first to say this, but I feel compelled to say it anyway. (Plus it helps me keep up my apparent theme of presidential pictures.)

Be you red, blue, green or some other shade of political affiliation, the people of the United States of America have spoken. We have our first African American president elect. Breaking from the mold of upper class older white males, we have made a very public step towards the equality our nation has paid lip service to for so long. As Tomas Jefferson penned in what may be called our nation’s first cry for equality, the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…”

Q. Did I vote for him? A. Does it matter? I am writing this not in support of or as opposition to his political stance or proposed policy issues. I am writing because I am awestruck that we have come to this point. Call me a dreamer, but I like to see this as a very public expression that as a nation we are really moving towards greater tolerance of those who are different than we are. Mayhap in my life time there will truly be a day where as MLK said “my … little children will … live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

There I said it.

The blind "following" the blind

Call it a social experiment, call it a overdeveloped need for acceptance, whatever, but please follow my blog. Not that I have a pressing need for you to feel as though you MUST know what ever I may say. No it isn’t that at all. In fact I fear it is moderate case of compulsive hoarding syndrome.

I take a perverse little joy in seeing the collection of faces. Yes, I may have labeled it “minions” but I promise the servitude required is very minimal. After the first year or so you won’t even notice…

The picture of honest Abe has nothing to do with the content of this post. Parker wanted it.

Catering to the masses

As Red Skelton stated and the Kinks reaffirmed in 1981, "Give the people what they want, and they'll come out for it." Well the Kinks got the first bit right at least.

So per request I present to you the following:
1. A picture of Dwight D. Eisenhower

2. A public admission that my Aunt Missy is funnier than I am. (but looks...)

3. For those of you who feel I don’t post enough pictures of my kids I give you the following link: thekodiebear.blogspot.com

In regard to my recent poll, “Why don’t you comment on my blog?”:
1. If you have nothing to say, just tell me how wonderful I am.

2. For whoever voted that they hate me, well I hate you too. Now let’s be friends.

3. This banana would keep my mouth shut too! (ware the ninjanana)

4. For those who are afraid the internet will steal their soul, I Googled it and the answer was no. So be at ease. (Bur wait isn’t Google on the internet? Hmmm)

Now that all of your concerns have been addressed let the open dialog commence!

90% of what people think of you ...

I have been told that 90% of what people think of you is based on how you look or present yourself and only 10% is based on what you actually say. Thus JFK can go to Berlin and call himself a jelly filled pastry (a simple error of syntax) and people still go wild, maybe they thought it was American slang ("hey, I’m a jelly donut!").

Thus I present to you the new look of my blog. I figure that after three years it could use a face lift. Now as the theory goes, you will now find me to be more intelligent and sophisticated though the actual quality of the content will not change. This is due entirely to your perception of the page. Voila instant credibility!

Blog on a Blog

My wonderful wife has started her own blog. And the odd thing to me is that, at only two days old, her blog has received more comments than mine has cumulatively in its years of existence.

Oh well, I guess people know what they like. And honestly, I would pick her over me any day!

Life lessons are a good thing to gather.

I am starting to gather life lessons from others now so that i can improve my own quality of life early on. Here is one that was shared with me recently:

Working people frequently ask me what I do to make my days interesting now that I am retired. Well, for example the other day the wife and I went downtown and went into a shop. We were only in there about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, “Come on man how about giving a senior citizen a break?” He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him an ignorant fool. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So the wife called him a butthead. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. About then our bus arrived. We try to have fun each day now that we are retired. It’s important at our age.

Such wisdom.

Will I ever learn to say no?

As a continuing testament to the Sauron-esk power my daughter holds over me I present the following picture.


I dare any man to look into those big blue eyes and deny the request, “Daddy, can I have a yellow kitty?”

His name (though we have been instructed by our princess overlord we are to call it a her) is McKay Cat. And I think it’s feet have touched the ground a total of 15 minutes in the 24 hours we have had “her”.

Where is my Mt. Doom? What small hairy footed creature will save me from this servitude? How long must I toil in the shadow of her dominance over my will? I mean look at her…


…well maybe save me a little later.

Back in Seattle again...

...out where a friend is a friend, where the local people feed on the Thai food full of weeds, oh I'm back in Seattle again.


I am in Seattle for the week doing training on a data base program we use at work. Pros and cons:

Pros:
• I am in Seattle and I love it here
• I am getting great training on a critical program for my job
• I get to eat at so many of my old favorite restaurants
• I get to do some of the things I had always meant to do when I was here before that I never got around to (i.e. the Underground Tour)

Cons:
• I am not home the second week in our home (I can’t help unpack)
• I have found that if you don’t stay in touch with people it can be hard to find them 10 years later
• Most difficult is … I miss my wife and kids!

Tonight I am going to revisit the international district. Uwajimaya here I come!

New House

YEAH! We are closing on our new house on the 15th (barring unforeseen problems) *knocks on wood.

Housing Update

Well I have three items to report to you all today (and I apologize for the delay in getting them out).

1. Least important on the list is that I am now 31. Though I received many kind words, phone calls and gifts my favorite is my sister Boo’s tribute.

2. We sold our Orem home. Mixed feelings on this one. Very glad to have sold it and have gotten a pretty decent deal out of it as well. Not so glad to officially have it out of my life (I have a lot of great memories there. I brought home all of my babies to that house. *sniffle*)

3. We made an offer on a home in Meridian and have since walked away from it. I will admit we came in low but given the current market conditions I didn’t feel it was unreasonable. Unfortunately, the sellers were unable to get the house down to a level that I felt worked for us (they may be over their heads in it) so we dropped it. The real down point here is that my wife and I made the mistake of getting our kids excited about it before the deal was set in stone and now they are heart broken, but recovering.

So for all of you, that is the current update from the Boise front.

One man's trash...

… is another man’s treasure. Apparently the “treasure” of my cute little brick home in Orem is not viewed with as high a regard by others as I give it. We have now had it on the market for 60 days. We have been #2 on many buyers lists but we stay there. No offers yet. I am trying to be patient but…

My biggest concern is getting into another home in time for my son to start the school year. He is hurting up here in Idaho. He loves the farm but he REALLY misses having friends. There are no kids close to his age in the area. One of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life is watching my 5 yr old sitting on the front fence watching the 10 yr olds playing with their friends across the street. He has literally done this for stretches of time up to 2 hours!

I feel in my heart that I did the right thing bringing my family to Idaho but sometimes I wonder.

Hey remember these guys?! (Pork and Beans)

I remember all of these guys from back when the intertron was fun. Now it seems i only get on for work. :( Oh well.

Remember Drivers Ed?

Just found this quiz. If you must know I aced it *brushes nails on shirt*. I know I am rather amazing *hears wife choking in disbelief in background*. HEY!

Dizzy

Have you ever had that feeling that EVERY thing is turned on its ear? If you have then you know how I feel right now. I left a home I loved, friends that I will always remember and a job that I was comfortable in and turned it all upside down. True, I do feel that in the long run it was the best thing to do but EVERY thing seems to be in a state of flux now. It is rather dissettling.


I now live in Boise, or I should say in Emmett ( two e's two m's two t's and, until the last few years, two stoplights), in my in-laws home. This is rather emasculating, though they are wonderful people and being very gracious about it. I am buried in trying to learn a new job. And did I mention that, out side of my family, I don't have any friends here yet?

I know I know, wa wa wa ... you did this to yourself. I know this sounds like I am complaining and for that I apologize. I do like it here! It is simply the overwhelming feeling of being well... overwhelmed.

April 27th

Yes it is my anniversary thank you! But it is also the day we are blessing little Deacon. I have had a little bit going on in my life lately and have been told that I was quite negligent in not posting this earlier. My most sincere apologies.

Please call me and let me know if you plan to attend.

Are you looking or know someone who is?

Yes, we did the hardest thing for me just recently, we have put our home up for sale. I LOVE this little house. I have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into fixing it up and making it the comfortable masterpiece it is today. I know it sounds silly, but i feel like I am letting a good friend down by leaving it.

Oh well I MAY be a little to attached to it.

Here are some of the listings we have out there for it:

KSL
Craig's List
Zillow

Zillow was valuing it at $199,000 before I said I would sell it for $188,000 but look at what it says all my neighbors places are worth to see what a steal it is.

And here we have Idaho...

And here we have Idaho
Winning her way to fame.
Silver and gold in the sunlight blaze,
and romance lies in her name.
Singing, we're singing of you,
Ah, proudly too,
All our lives thru, we'll go
Singing, singing of you,
Singing of Idaho.

It is official. Kodie and I along with our little family are moving to the Boise area the first part of next month (May).

We will be closer to elements of both of our immediate family so it is an exciting prospect for us.

My vote for 2008!

Shame faced at my own knowledge...

I am ashamed to say I got every question right on this currency quiz .

What does it say about me that I know this medium that well?

Deacon 2.0

Here are some more pics of our new little guy. (OK, technically they are pics of the family interacting with him, cut me some slack will ya?)


McKay and Parker being proud big sister and brother respectively.



McKay being apprehensive about holding "baby deacon" for the first time.



Annie you are way to young to be baby hungry!



I am so proud of all of my children. Next to my wife, they are the great things to ever happen to me.

Deacon William Davis

Here he is. 7lbs 5.2 oz 20inches. He and his mother are doing fine. This is 30 min after birth so please excuse the palor of his complexion.

Here is a really cute picture from the hospital.

The time has arrived...

We will be welcoming our new son, Deacon, to the world on Wednesday the 26th of March. Pictures upcoming.

Robot Power

A news cast from the near future in our robot controlled society.

The Boredom Threshold Reborn

This is a formal request that The Boredom Threshold repost again soon. I need more clever witticism in my life.

Also how well do you know your corporate logos ?

And Chuck Norris wins it by a fist (and a round house)

And here is a list of reasons why he apparently whooped the competition.

Click here for reasons to fear Chuck Norris

5 Years Ago

Years ago Saturday (the ides of March) I lost my little brother Cameron. His handle on line was Evil Octopus (thus the name of my blog). Even though my dad never liked the name (he always argued that there was nothing evil about Cameron and I agree) the name has since taken on a special meaning for me. So...

Fear the Bulbo

I just learned my Hobbit name is Bulbo Loamsdown. Hmmm ... this requires some deep thought, I fear.

Ultimate Battle?

See the poll. Vote in the poll. Participate in the system! (for write in candidates add them to the comments on this post and I will put them on the formal ballet, um ... napkin in my satchel)

Did you say hello...

"No I said 'ello but that's close enough." So my little sister has inspired me to make another run at keeping an updated blog. So this is just to let you know that I will be up and running again. I have very limited time right now so that is all.