I am a very lucky man – I’ve got an amazing wife and am the father to three wonderful kids. Lylli was born on Halloween in 2008, Gracie was born November 2010 and although she only lived for 17 months, she will remain as much a part of this family as the rest of us, and Mickey Gray, our first son, was born in June of 2012. I’m not going to say that life has gone exactly as I would have wanted, but it is a good life and I am determined to make the best of it.



This blog is an attempt to document my quest to become a dad that my family can be proud of.






Thursday, May 21, 2009

Slim Down to Sin Town

I must have heard on one of the KQRS Morning Show podcasts on my ipod about something juicy on their website or something. I really can't tell you why I ended up on their site. While I was checking it out, I saw that they are having a contest called "Slim Down to Sin Town" I recall hearing from many about how much fun they have in Vegas on the morning show trip, so I checked it out -- I actually filled out an entry form. Of course it was one of those long shot entries that a person fills out on a whim. Yesterday on my way to a meeting I got a call from someone that wanted to give me a phone interview. Let me go back a bit -- the contest is through Seattle Sutton and would consist of 16 weeks of free meals. They are picking only 10 people to do it, but the person that loses the most weight, wins a trip with the morning show to Vegas. When my phone rang, I answered and the person said they were from Seattle Sutton, I got real chippy with her because I had that dooped feeling that you get when you sign up to win something and someone calls you a couple days later with en elaborate sales pitch -- so until I realized she wasn't trying to sell me anything, I came across as kind of a jerk, but as the interview went on, I think it went well -- Not sure when I'll find out if I made the cut and I'm sure it's a real long shot, but if I am chosen, I will be on the air at 9 AM on June 1st for the kickoff of the contest and will check in each month until the contest is over. Keep your fingers crossed - Me with mic time? - this could get interesting!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Gap in stall #2's door is a bit too big

I hate when I get stuck with the stall where I have to lean to the side to avoid making eye contact with someone walking past through the gap in the door that is just a bit too big. 

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Here are a couple of suggestions for those of you responsible for the puddle I found my shoelace in while standing at the urinal today.

1) either use both hands to tame that firehose that has so much pressure that you can't control the thing or
b) shake it over the urinal and not over where it'll land in a puddle on the floor so the next guy has to stand in it

and one more thing, if you have to dig so hard to get it out that as a result you leave a goatee on the urinal ledge, you might as well go in the stall and sit down

RIP Turkey Day as we know it

So one of the big events going on in my building at work is that the owners of the building brought in a new company to run the cafeteria.  They kept "D" -- the short order guy at the grill (and by far the best around), but got rid of everybody else.  They've changed the look a bit and tried to liven things up by playing music and displaying things in a fancier way.  For the most part, I've been as excited as anybody about the change. 
 
Lets be honest -- no matter what company is running your cafeteria, it all comes from Sysco, which brings me to today's issue.  
 
For years, the cafeteria has been having "turkey day" every thursday.  Long gone were the days when my buddy Shane and I could go down there and give "grandma" that little wink, giving her permission to double up on the mashed potatoes -- grandma has been gone for years now, but the meal has stayed the same.  a couple slabs of turkey loaf (size dependent on the mood of the slicer), a scoop of mashed potatoes ( always a little lumpy, but never quite sure if they were real or instant).  Some stuffing (spitting image and taste of your standard Stove Top version), and some corn.  Next to the meal line were three containers -- one containing butter packets (that I could put in my container next to the corn allowing it to melt perfectly on my way back to my desk) another with some warmed buns and the third and most important one was a bowl of cranberries (stirred up to attempt to remove the lines from the can) along with the little condiment cup and lid to scoop in the cranberries kind of like that old mcdonalds sandwich that allowed you to keep the cool and hot pieces separate until the exact perfect moment.  I had just gotten to the point that I could perfectly space out my cranberries to where my last bite of turkey would contain the perfect sized last bite of cranberries and were pushed onto my plastic fork with the last bite of bun - and then this happend. 
 
Today I go down to partake in turkey day and enter into the cafeteria  to the upbeat sound of Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson (some might say Ironic, now that I think of it).  I order my meal which consists of Turkey - similar to the old loaf, but appears to have more muscle strands than before, in an attempt to make it look a bit less processed I guess.  The mashed potatoes were very runny and included chives and who knows what else nto to mention the potatoe skins themselves mixed in.  The stuffing was like someone threw the wet part of stuffing in with a couple loaves of wonder bread and then chopped it up, and get this, threw in some carrots (it was like a mushy sandwich).  And answer me this -- where was the corn?  There were three vegetable options -- one included corn, but was also a medley of other cube shaped vegetbles resembling the frozen vegetable medley that my grandma used to try and make me eat.  Another option was steamed cauliflower with strips of green and red pepper (are you kidding me?) and the final options were green beans with peppers and almonds slices (the only green beans I want to see on my turkey day better include cream of mushroom soup and those crunchy fried onion things on the top).  As I got to the end of the line, I realized there were no containers waiting for me containing my bun, butter, and most importantly my cranberries. 
 
If this is the way things are going to be, this is goign to greatly effect my Thursdays
 
To give you an idea of how bad this is got me going, I started typing this before I finished the meal.  Maybe I'll write them a letter, or better yet -- Maybe I'll print this out and stuff it into the complaint box!

FACEBOOK

I've been slacking on this thing for quite awhile now - everytime I head to the library (AKA stall #1) at work, I think about five different things that I could talk about, but never quite get around to it.  Today will be a quick one.  I know a 36 year old man has no right to be on Facebook (and addicted to playing texas hold 'em with imaginary money against 14 year old kids in India), but let's just put that aside for a moment and allow me to make a small commentary on something that bugs the crap out of me.  I admit that I have quit Facebook a couple of times because I think its so ridiculous, only to be pulled back in by curiosity and boredom.  The "Status" option on Facebook there is to enter funny, interesting, exciting updates about what's going in in your life or editorials about the times.  If you think for one second that people give a crap that you are "going to bed" or "at work" -- Think again -- Maybe its dumb for me to put oneliners in my status in an attempt to crack a smile on my acquaintences faces, but everytime I see that someone took the time to write that they are at work, makes me want to go down to their work and break the fry machine.  And another thing -- if your life is so boring that you need to spend it taking quizzes determining "what 80's love ballad best describes you" or "what color are you?" -- don't post it for everyone to see -- I don't care.  I look at Facebook to passively keep "in the know" on what's going with people that I know not too see that you're "Sister Christian" or the color "Orange"