We don't need no stinkin' discount cards!

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I've been in the habit lately of leaving my wallet at home or in the car. Instead, I've been using the snazzy money clip that was one of my groomsman gifts from "David":http://bigbrit.blogspot.com/ and Casey's "wedding":http://www.flickr.com/photos/caseydave/ to hold a few bucks, my driver's license and my one debit card. Unfortunately, this means I usually forget to bring my grocery discount card when I go shopping. When I signed up for the card, I gave a bunch of bogus info. Being a homeowner means that you get plenty of crap mail as it is, and I didn't want to add to that pile. Last week when picking up a couple of things, I was cursing myself for not remembering to bring the card in, when the woman in front of me just gave her phone number because she had forgotten hers, too. Curious, and remembering my lovely step-auntie Margot saying that the stores' databases were so huge that pretty much any phone number would have a hit, I stepped up and typed in my real cell phone number. The cashier finished ringing up my total, handed me my reciept and said "Ok, you saved $2.32 today. Thank you, Mr. um... _Garcia_?" With as Hispanic of a look I could muster on my ultra-whiteboy face I grabbed the reciept and strode off, trailing clouds of glory behind me.

Halloween

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I was left to defend the house Monday night against the roving hoardes of kids. It's a quiet street, so I hadn't really expected too much traffic. A few bags of Snickers and Hershey's Kisses and blowpops (no crappy candy here!), and I figured I was ready. Oh, how wrong I was. I don't know where all these kids came from, but they popped out of the woodwork in full force when there was FREE CANDY at stake. The only children I had seen in my neighborhood before were the two slightly unwashed-looking tykes from next door who like to play in our yard from time to time. Monday night they were everywhere. I was working late trying to catch up after a travelling mishap that had me starting work late, and every 5 minutes was interrupted by the doorbell.

Even with all the interruptions, all the kids were pretty cute. Lots of princess/Barbie costumes for the girls (furthering my theory on why so many couples go for lavish marriages), some Grim Reaper/Incredibles costumes for the boys. One girl came as Morticia Addams, and was thrilled and a little shocked when I knew what she was dressed as. C'mon kid, I used to be goth!

There was only one group of older lazy kids. You know, mid-teens with no costume. They had a token mask or two, but I pointed out they were a little old to be doing this. Hell, they were probably driving themselves from house to house. Rest assured _those_ kids got to pick from my bag of weird Japanese candy. Hah hah hah, suckers.

Evil

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judy My stepmom is in town this week; "Evil", we like to call her. She's actually wonderful and I love her to pieces. Her sister lives not too far from me, and Evil likes to come out about once a month during the fall/winter/spring, when the weather is much nicer here than in New Jersey.

I hadn't seen her in quite awhile, so we've been trying to spend as much time as possible while she's here. Yesterday we went to Sabino Canyon and took the last tram up to the top of the 3.8 mile road and hiked down. It was absolutely perfect weather; warm and breezy, and cooling off nicely as the sun went down. Right as we were getting back to the parking lot, the sun was slipping down behind the horizon. Fantastic timing, really. On the way back to dropping her off at her sister's we had some delicious sushi grub, and I have to say it was a pretty great afternoon.

links for 2005-10-26

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links for 2005-10-25

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links for 2005-10-19

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Update in bullet points.

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* Vegas was a fantastic time. Kyra and I went climbing, she got shit on by birds, and we both climbed well considering our fairly off-the-couch state. I got absolutely destroyed at the poker tables, and thankfully Kyra fared much better. Heck, the only game I beat was $6/12 at the Mirage! I should have stayed there the whole time. * While I was away Otis had an old hematoma on his hip get infected and swell up to the size of a softball. He got sliced, which means that he's been steadily leaking blood all over the house for the last week. Not nearly as bad as when I was gone and he first got opened up; that was some seriously C.S.I-style shit. Kim took pictures, and I'll try and get them up.

* The weekend consisted of manly-man time with cutting down the mulberry tree in the back yard. I still can't really lift my arms today after hauling around all those big heavy sections of the trunk. Plus, my re-enactment of the door axing scene from "The Shining" might have gone a little overboard.

Family resemblance

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my dad and laura, originally uploaded by feralboy.

This is my dad with my older sister. Looks a little familiar, huh? Thanks to "Laura":http://commiescorner.blogspot.com/ for "scanning and posting":http://commiescorner.blogspot.com/2005/10/family-pics.html it.

Countdown

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My "sister is packed and ready":http://www.livejournal.com/users/fuzzyfruit/512978.html. I'm nearly packed as well, and excited as hell. After all the crazy shit of the last few weeks I can't wait to have a few days where I do nothing but climb 5.10 jug hauls all day and scoop monster pots all night. I'll do my best to keep both climbing and poker journals, so I can satisfy all 4 of my readers equally.

Keeping busy

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After having slacked off a good deal on house improvements, this past weekend I dove back into it. First up was the horrendous shrub/bush/whatever in the front yard, which looked like a christmas tree run amok. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

A trip to Home Depot and a chainsaw rental later, and the shrub/bush/whatever had started to significantly shrink.

And then there was none.

I think it looks a whole lot better. The plan is to re-rock the front yard with something a little more asthetically pleasing than what's there now... maybe some small dark brown stones or something like that.

Oh, and as an aside, using a chainsaw is the Scariest Fucking Thing I've done in a long time. I tried to do the manly "hold the handle in one hand and yank the starter cord with the other" thing, but _twice_ the whole thing twisted and I banged the blade into my shin. Lucky both times I hadn't actually started the thing, or I'd be Petey the Peg-leg Pirate by now.

When I was finishing trying to cut away the stump to a reasonable size I guess I hit a rock or something, because there were a few sparks, and right then the chainsaw became about as effective at cutting the stump as a stick of melted butter. I still have a large mulberry tree to cut down in the backyard, but given the choice of trying to figure out how to get the blade sharpened or returning the saw under the 4-hour window for a cheaper rate and trying again another day, I opted for trying again another day.

Next was floors. I finished up the two small hall closets and the threshold into the bathroom. Doing the small tricky little spaces is way less satisfying than laying down big chunks of floor in wide-open rooms. Also, I discovered an interesting side benefit to taking up carpets and reflooring. If your dog happens to puke on the carpet in a room that you're going to be reflooring, you can just cut out the offending section instead of actually cleaning it.

Coming to an informercial near you

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Clicky dog paws got you down? Can't sleep because your dog is restless?

Then you _must_ get DogzPaws(tm)!

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I mean, it's not like I "wrapped spaghetti":http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily_photo/09_30_2005.html "around his snout":http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/07_30_2004.html, but it's still pretty funny.

That joke isn't funny anymore

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So now I haven't seen "Manson's":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001630/ brother Poe in 24 hours. He was hanging out Tuesday night, I don't think he slept in the bed with me that night, and I didn't see him at all yesterday or this morning. I went out early today and walked the neighborhood and didn't see him. Out of the 3 of my boys, he was always the most adventureous, and would often stay out all night when I was at Paul and April's house, so I probably shouldn't be worried, but I'm just so hyper-sensitive to all the comings and goings of my two remaining boys... Aston Kutcher (or Allen Funt, if my dad is reading this), you can come out now; I'm tired of this joke.