Such a let down

You know those days when everything seems to be going right? Well today started off that way. It's Friday, and was sunny and nice out. On my way to work I caught EVERY green light (that rarely happens in the suburbs). And I went to the store to cash in my spare change, and was pleasantly surprised when the total was $173.00! BONUS!

Then I get to work, and everything falls apart. As I walk in my pager goes off, then I have a few emails that need to be worked ASAP. Wonderful. And, it is now cloudy outside and they are calling for thunderstorms.

I really should not be surprised, as I know my work days are exactly the same, but this day started off with so much promise.

I apologize in advance...

Mama Slinger and I had been talking, and she wanted to start up a Family Blog that is just for the kids and us. She did not want to use this site and take away from what I have done in the past year, so she started a new one HERE. It is still in the works, so keep checking for updates.

I am going to keep the name and URL of this blog the same, so there will be no need for anyone to update anything (I know Drier HATES that) and I will make this strictly a humor and useless information site, pretty much the same way it was when I started it. I may be changing the layout though, not sure yet. I am going to play around with a few ideas and see what happens. I like this layout, but the font choices are not easy to manipulate, and the small default print sucks.

So McGone, I apologize if I change the layout too much for your delicate eyes, but you have been warned.

So I finally watched 24 from Monday night. I actually watched it 24 hours later now that I think about it. This show is good, but this season is starting to fizzle. There have been too many slow episodes the past few weeks. And I know I need to just sit back and see what happens, but I am not used to Jack Bauer being all nice. I need to see him torture people, and beat the crap out of bad guys. Hopefully it will start to pick up now and finish with a bang.

What is it about the arrival of Spring that is both good and bad?

The Good? - NO MORE SNOW! I love winter, but there comes a time when you just want the snow and ice to melt. Especially when it is the second week of March and Tom Skilling is on the news, with a smug smile, telling you to expect 2-4 inches of snow for the Monday commute. WONDERFUL! Yeah it rains a lot in march and April, but at least it is above freezing.

Also, the warmer weather means the kids are able to get outside and work off some of the cabin fever that has grown to incredible levels during the Winter. We had the boys outside all day Sunday and they had a blast. Warm weather also means you can open the windows and get some MUCH needed fresh air inside to get rid of the Winter staleness. Hopefully rid your house of the germs that have been hovering around since October.

Also - BASEBALL season starts in a week! But by September I will probably be bored of it because my teams will be out of the playoff race.

The BAD? - Well, not really too much that is bad, unless you are a fan of hockey. You see, we used to play hockey almost every year. Even if it was just once a year, we still played. And I am not talking about playing indoors, we always played pond hockey. This year, however, we did not play hockey once. NOT ONCE.

Olde Time Hockey - Me (L) and McGone

There are many reasons - I live an hour away from mcgone (my yearly hockey teammate), I have 3 kids, we both have jobs, Utah Dagger now lives in UTAH, BPDP has many women and cant manage his time (Sorry Brian!) and Player #4 is no longer a friend of ours. but also, this year it didn't really get cold enough until February, and then it was below zero for like almost 3 weeks straight!

Hopefully next year we can get in some time for Hockey, as I would like to get Ryan on some skates to see how he likes it. I need to raise me a future Sydney Crosby!

Evil eyes
Originally uploaded by Slinger5.

I ask Ryan to smile nice for me, and I get this. I guess he was tired of me following him around with the camera!

Things you should never cook in a microwave at work:

1. Fish
2. White Castle Sliders
3. Eggs
4. White Castle Sliders
5. Anything containing Curry
6. Peeps

Wow, it's already been a year!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog, and also marks my 300th post! AND the Vernal Equinox. It's all related, (not really) but sounds good. HOLY CRAP! Time flies when you are wasting time posting your useless, random thoughts on the Internet for the world to see.

I was reading over my first posts and it is amazing to have something like this to look back on what happened that you may have forgotten. God bless the little Internet gods for gracing us with such technology. Over the last 12 months a lot has happened, and most of it has been blogged about. In a sense, an online journal (or diary, if you want to be a jerk about it). This blog has seen many, MANY changes in format, even had a guest author [McGone] for a few months, until he defected and started his own site.

I am not really surprised that I have been doing this for a year, but I am surprised that this is the 300th post. It just doesn't seem like I have had that much to say (granted, not all 300 are from me, McGone accounted for some). I hope to keep posting interesting stuff for a while. As long as my kids provide entertainment, and people at work (or in general) continue to be stupid, I will have material to add to this site.

So, I will be partying today to celebrate this magnificent accomplishment. And to all the readers of Team Slinger, I just want to say THANK YOU for sticking around so long, and for all the comments and links to my site. And I promise to post more often starting this week.

CNN sucks

Wow, CNN is really turning into a crappy reference for news. One of the main stories was Heather Mills and her wodden leg on Dancing with the Stars. Good Lord, who really needs to hear about her? I know I don't, and I am sure it makes Paul mad that she is just doing this to get more public sympathy.

And of course, Dick Cheney goes into the hospital, yet again.

Bad names for apartment/condo complexes

The Fields at Overlook
Amity Apartments
Elm Street Manor
Black Lagoon Apartments
Condos on Silent Hill
Meyers Manor
The West Craven Condos

*sorry, I know this is filler, but I saw a really cheesy name for an apartment complex today and made me think of some of these.

Seeing as how tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, I am sure plenty of this will be consumed. Personally, I will be spending the day helping a friend hang drywall in his basement. But I am sure a few beers will be had by all.

So, hope everyone has a safe weekend and I promise to start posting more next week. I know the past few weeks have been slow here, but work takes priority, most days.

My Mid-week Ramble

So last week was the early Daylight Savings change. Personally, I like it. More time in the evening after work to get stuff done. Even if it was spending time picking up my yard, thanks to little gifts left by the family dog! And it didn't really seem to effect the sleeping patterns of the kids, which is always good. But I had seen a few blips on the news about how the early change can cause computer problems, and also cause commuters pain at the pump.

"The early change and the rise in gas prices is causing headaches for commuters. Longer daylight hours mean people are driving more and using more gas."

Is it just me, or does this not make much sense, if any? It's not like people don't drive after it gets dark, and the longer hours of light does not mean longer hours of work (for most people anyway). I don't know, just seems to me like people complaining for the sake of complaining.
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Recently I have had people contact me in Flickr to use my photos for web articles. That is pretty cool. I guess more people see my photos than I thought. Last month my photos were used in an article about the Berthoud Pass avalanche.

And this month a blog author for the DCist in Washington asked for permission to use one of my photos in an article about High Occupancy toll roads. The article should be online next week and I will post it when he notifies me that it has been completed.

I am not trying to brag or anything, I just think it is cool that some of my photos are wanted for stuff like this. I get no money for them, so it is just about seeing my stuff somewhere else. And I don't claim to be a great photographer either, so this is cool.
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For some reason this week I was reminded of an old band that I used to listen to, Love/Hate. I looked for them on iTunes and then found out you could listen to all their tracks online, FOR FREE. SWEET! Then today I went to a used CD store hoping to find a copy of the CD, nothing. DAMN. I really want that album, so I guess I will have to get it on Amazon.

It's so funny to look back on some of the late 80's/early 90's hair bands and the names they had. Check out the members of Love/Hate:

Vocals: Jizzy Pearl
Guitar: Jon E. Love
Bass: Skid (Rose)
Drums: Joey Gold

Wow! With names like those, how can they NOT be rock stars? I was telling McGone about it and remembered when I bought this album (I think on cassette) back in 1992, we were with Utah Dagger and Assface, driving to the mall in my 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Good times!
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Oh yeah, and why do I care if Angelina Jolie is in Vietnam right now getting ready to adopt yet another child?? (Damn CNN bothers me lately, I need to remove it as my home page) I am not against the wealthy helping impoverished children, but I think the media is playing WAY TOO MUCH into this. In my opinion, I think she is trying to make her family a little United Nations of children.

Isabel room

Well, we finally got all the bedrooms finished. Here is Isabel's room finally all done. She got the bigger of the three because of all the furniture she has.

Isabel is also about to cut her first tooth, and is crawling all over the place. She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING now and I would not be surprised if she is walking in a few months!

The boys are also getting big, they are starting to play very well together, rather than just fight over who has what toy. Here they actually look like they get along! They like to wrestle, and actualyl Brett has beent he one to start fights lately. he will actually pull Ryan down and then climb all over him. I don't know how many times I heard "Brett, get off of me!" this weekend.

Busted!
Originally uploaded by Slinger5.

We are trying to decide what color to paint the dining room, and have put up a few paint samples in the dining room, and I thought I had put this one out of his reach.

Turns out I did, but as soon as I turned around, he moved a toy over there and stood on it. Then was cheering about what he did. It was pretty funny, and since it was water-based paint, I was not worried about cleaning him up before I captured the moment.

And yes, the wall still looks like this, 5 days later.

Monday Music Post

Rage Against The Machine

Rumor has it that RATM is going to reunited for a few shows this year. I am not really shocked at this, only because Rage has stayed intact, with the exception of their singers. So seeing as how Zach De la Rocha has not done much of anything since the split, I am sure they decided to get back together after Cornell split from Audioslave. I wonder if this will result in future albums?

Snow Patrol

I actually only heard of these guys sometime last year, but after downloading their previous albums, they used to be really good. I say "used to be" because, let's face it...."Chasing Cars" is only popular because ABC and the radio plays the hell out of it. That song is not that good, but once it showed up on that Anatomy show, it was all over. Their older stuff is much better, not the greatest, but it is much easier to listen to.

U2

I am a U2 fan, and have always liked them, but lately I am kind of getting sick of Bono and all of his causes. Granted, if I had all that money I would probably want to help the world as well. They have a new single "Window in the Skies" and I must say, I am not too impressed with it, at all. It has been out for a few weeks, and I actually turn the channel when it comes on. I have to give them credit for their staying power over their 20+ year career, they have never failed to amaze me. let's just see how this new album is though.

Well, it's Friday, and thank god! This week has been one of the longest weeks in recent memory.

Last night the boys FINALLY slept all night, the first time in about almost 2 weeks. And I think the main reason was because Ryan took a nap during the day (he was starting to get out that habit) and Brett's 2 teeth cut through yesterday! And I know so many people ask why we were not giving him Tylenol or Orajel. Frankly, it doesn't work for him. Tylenol almost seems to guarantee that he will be up in 3 hours. Orajel does work, but only for a limited time. Plus you have to make sure you get it all on his gums, and when his teeth hurt, he doesn't want anyone sticking fingers in there!

Had an interesting event happen at dinner.
On the menu: Chicken Breast, rice and green beans

Ryan, as usual, was not eating. Brett was chowing down, as he always does. he is a great eater. Well he was throwing the rice all over (thank god we have a dog to clean up!) but ate all of his chicken and beans. Then he was pushing on his nose and complaining. I thought he wanted down, but as we put him down he started crying. MamaSlinger looked in his nose but didn't see anything. We were both certain there was some rice up there.

10 minutes later: Brett sneezes, and what do you know? Out comes rice. Quite a bit actually! I knew sooner or later he would sneeze, I just hope it all came out!


Father of the Year

I taught Ryan something. Something that I really shouldn't have.
He was in our bedroom and kept asking questions. Just random questions:

"Daddy, what did you take?" - I took a shower buddy.
"Daddy, what are you doin?" - getting ready for work

So then I got this great idea. And I leaned over to Ryan and asked him a question...

"Ryan, can you pull daddy's finger?" Being the braniac that he is, he jumped at the offer, and pulled my finger. The result was... well, you know. And his eyes lit up and he smiled. "Daddy! You tooted!" MamaSlinger and I just started laughing and I immediately regretted showing him that.

Well, about 2 minutes later, he says "Daddy, pull my finger" and I put my finger out to pull, not understanding him clearly, and he corrected me; "No, you pull MY finger!" Being a grown child, I did what he asked, and sure enough, HE TOOTED! Then he laughed and smiled. He was so happy that he did the same thing as daddy.

I have to admit, it is cool to see your kids retain things you teach them, but I can already hear the phone calls I am going to get from the Pre-school teachers.

A Rather Lengthy Post

Despite what all the critics and fans are complaining about, this show is still one of the best on TV. Last night's episode was a nice break from the usual mystery cliff hanger episode. It was full of light comedy, a rusted out hippie van, Cheech Marin and the boys drinking beer with "Roger Work man". Was nice to see something different and also nice to see Hurley having a good time. Next week looks to give some more answers, so I look forward to that.

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Painting and set-up continues

We are still working on getting the kid's rooms all situated. Has been hard since everyone has been sick, and our sleep pattern has been so bad the past week. At times it feels like we have 4 month old triplets waking up all hours of the night. Crazy!

Here are a few shots of the rooms that are done.

Here is Ryan's room. We were going to paint this room Navy Blue, but decided to keep it brown, and add the navy curtains. Turned out nice, and one less room I had to paint!

Here is Brett's room. This room really does not look this dark of a red, but it is pretty close. We were a little nervous about painting it such a dark color, but it turned out to look very nice. Actually may paint the downstairs bathroom the same color.

I am going to be painting Isabel's room this weekend and then will be done, hopefully!

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Brett is talking more and more each day.

He is actually starting to form sentences now. When we are done with something, he will ask "all done daddy?" This morning I taped him talking and doing some stuff. Enjoy.

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