We just finished watching "Couples Retreat". C+ seems to be the consensus grade here.
Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
It's ridiculous that when all I have is my two sleepers of the family I still can't sleep past 8:30! UGH...
Ok, Livvie woke her dad this morning so he could play a dental hygiene game she got as a handout at school. People who know Dan see the irony here.....tomorrow a healthy eating/physical fitness game?!
Lisa
A snowfall - Feb 24th
From Facebook on Feb 24th: The snow is falling here in beautiful, gigantic snowflakes that look like they were shipped right off a Hollywood soundstage.
A normal, sedate day spent with LuLu
Saturday was a pretty good day, and very LuLu-centric.
After a leisurely morning I accompanied my mother-in-law as she took the girls to swim class. She takes them every Saturday but as of late LuLu had been refusing to get in the water, and I was asked to go and play the bad guy. She swam alright, and did fine. I was proud of both girls.
[btw, it was so odd seeing them in swimsuits w/out a summer tan. YaYa has my darker complexion but her Mom's skin; sensitive and dry. LuLu has my skin but Lisa's complexion. Looking at Lu you can see every vein and capillary. "It's like looking at an anatomy chart," I told her.]
YaYa went w/ her Grandma for an overnight, and LuLu and I took a nice, half mile or so stroll home. Then we made lunch and spent an hour searching for missing library books. A bit later in the afternoon we returned said books to the library and headed to Mass.
While there we turned in our parish census form. I belong to two parishes, one a thriving congregation, and the other (where we were married) a very small, very obscure church whose membership is dwindling quickly with age. Put it this way: Lisa and I were the last marriage in the church - 14 years ago - and only 28 people officially donated any money to the church in all of 2009.
The Archdiocese has long been contemplating the 80 year old parish, but hopefully my census form, which single-handily boosts the parish head count by double digit %'s, helps buy some time.
Then LuLu and I hit Wal-Mart, where we dealt with a clerk in the music section who pronounced Beyonce's name as BEE YON SEA. Hmm. Looking at it phonetically it doesn't sound as jarring and wrong as it did out of his mouth. Know your product sir, know your product.
After that we picked up Ginger from my Mom's place, stopped at Target to buy a NKOTB DVD, and headed home to have dinner and watch the disc.
All in all, a very nice day.
After a leisurely morning I accompanied my mother-in-law as she took the girls to swim class. She takes them every Saturday but as of late LuLu had been refusing to get in the water, and I was asked to go and play the bad guy. She swam alright, and did fine. I was proud of both girls.
[btw, it was so odd seeing them in swimsuits w/out a summer tan. YaYa has my darker complexion but her Mom's skin; sensitive and dry. LuLu has my skin but Lisa's complexion. Looking at Lu you can see every vein and capillary. "It's like looking at an anatomy chart," I told her.]
YaYa went w/ her Grandma for an overnight, and LuLu and I took a nice, half mile or so stroll home. Then we made lunch and spent an hour searching for missing library books. A bit later in the afternoon we returned said books to the library and headed to Mass.
While there we turned in our parish census form. I belong to two parishes, one a thriving congregation, and the other (where we were married) a very small, very obscure church whose membership is dwindling quickly with age. Put it this way: Lisa and I were the last marriage in the church - 14 years ago - and only 28 people officially donated any money to the church in all of 2009.
The Archdiocese has long been contemplating the 80 year old parish, but hopefully my census form, which single-handily boosts the parish head count by double digit %'s, helps buy some time.
Then LuLu and I hit Wal-Mart, where we dealt with a clerk in the music section who pronounced Beyonce's name as BEE YON SEA. Hmm. Looking at it phonetically it doesn't sound as jarring and wrong as it did out of his mouth. Know your product sir, know your product.
After that we picked up Ginger from my Mom's place, stopped at Target to buy a NKOTB DVD, and headed home to have dinner and watch the disc.
All in all, a very nice day.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Crud I wrote for an internet gig that didn't work out
Debt Consolidation or Bankruptcy? Which is right for you
- Like too many people in America, you lost your job when the economy crashed. You always paid your bills on time in the past, but now you're forced to pick and choose: do you pay the mortgage this month, your utilities, or your credit card bill? Of course you can't risk losing your family's home, but you also can't live with the constant, humiliating harassment by your creditors.
Is debt consolidation the answer? Your creditors may say it is, since under consolidation they'll continue to make money even while your family suffers. But for you, and those you love, it may mean years of endless payments and interest; years where you'll be struggling under the burden of a debt you can't afford. When all is said and done, it may feel like less of a solution, and more like the status quo.
No one wants to declare bankruptcy. But in the end, what you really need is a clean slate, a way to start over and begin anew. Bankruptcy can give you that chance - and in most cases let you keep your house and car while you do so.
When you decide to consider bankruptcy, it's important to have the guidance of an experienced lawyer at your side. They can help you determine if its the right option for you, and determine what you owe and what you can keep. They can also can help you restore your credit rating in the quickest time possible, sometimes in as little as two years.
Remember, you are not alone. If you are in Houston, contact our lawyers at XXX-XXXX for a free consultation.
* * * *
GM must make deadline deal on debt or face Bankruptcy
- General Motors and Chrysler face an upcoming June 1st deadline to negotiate a deal with debt holders or risk defaulting on $1 billion in notes.
It's one of two high profile dates on the automakers calendar. On Tuesday the companies must submit a progress report to Washington on their post-stimulus restructuring program. If the data they present doesn't meet expectations, the Obama administration could call in the $17.4 billion loans, an action that would undoubtedly drive the companies under.
Washington has signaled that unpopular scenario is unlikely to happen.
More pressing is the $1 billion in bonds that mature on June 1st. Neither GM nor Chrysler appears ready to meet the requirements of the loans, despite viability plans submitted February 17th.
If they can't reach a deal with bondholders, GM has warned they will seek protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The main sticking point in negotiations is GM's $28 billion in unsecured debt. The loan terms require the company to try to shed all but a third of that total, as well as convince the United Auto Workers to accept half of the money owed to them for its retiree health care trust as stock, rather than cash.
Despite agreeing in principle to concessions with the automakers, UAW has accused bondholders of disrupting changes dictated in the loans. For their part, bondholders are critical of the viability plans, believing among other things that the sales projections in the plans are too optimistic for the U.S. market.
Sources say a last minute deal is unlikely to happen.
David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, summed up the atmosphere of the negotiations. “It's a cage match,” he said, “The idea is for everybody to come out of the game alive.”
- Like too many people in America, you lost your job when the economy crashed. You always paid your bills on time in the past, but now you're forced to pick and choose: do you pay the mortgage this month, your utilities, or your credit card bill? Of course you can't risk losing your family's home, but you also can't live with the constant, humiliating harassment by your creditors.
Is debt consolidation the answer? Your creditors may say it is, since under consolidation they'll continue to make money even while your family suffers. But for you, and those you love, it may mean years of endless payments and interest; years where you'll be struggling under the burden of a debt you can't afford. When all is said and done, it may feel like less of a solution, and more like the status quo.
No one wants to declare bankruptcy. But in the end, what you really need is a clean slate, a way to start over and begin anew. Bankruptcy can give you that chance - and in most cases let you keep your house and car while you do so.
When you decide to consider bankruptcy, it's important to have the guidance of an experienced lawyer at your side. They can help you determine if its the right option for you, and determine what you owe and what you can keep. They can also can help you restore your credit rating in the quickest time possible, sometimes in as little as two years.
Remember, you are not alone. If you are in Houston, contact our lawyers at XXX-XXXX for a free consultation.
* * * *
GM must make deadline deal on debt or face Bankruptcy
- General Motors and Chrysler face an upcoming June 1st deadline to negotiate a deal with debt holders or risk defaulting on $1 billion in notes.
It's one of two high profile dates on the automakers calendar. On Tuesday the companies must submit a progress report to Washington on their post-stimulus restructuring program. If the data they present doesn't meet expectations, the Obama administration could call in the $17.4 billion loans, an action that would undoubtedly drive the companies under.
Washington has signaled that unpopular scenario is unlikely to happen.
More pressing is the $1 billion in bonds that mature on June 1st. Neither GM nor Chrysler appears ready to meet the requirements of the loans, despite viability plans submitted February 17th.
If they can't reach a deal with bondholders, GM has warned they will seek protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The main sticking point in negotiations is GM's $28 billion in unsecured debt. The loan terms require the company to try to shed all but a third of that total, as well as convince the United Auto Workers to accept half of the money owed to them for its retiree health care trust as stock, rather than cash.
Despite agreeing in principle to concessions with the automakers, UAW has accused bondholders of disrupting changes dictated in the loans. For their part, bondholders are critical of the viability plans, believing among other things that the sales projections in the plans are too optimistic for the U.S. market.
Sources say a last minute deal is unlikely to happen.
David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, summed up the atmosphere of the negotiations. “It's a cage match,” he said, “The idea is for everybody to come out of the game alive.”
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sentry (at least the one in Bay View) no longer accepts Internet coupons, rendering many popular sites useless. I'm told they were burned on a Velveeta forgery (snort). So, for the sake of a lost 40 cents here and there, they have turned the clock back to 1963 and pushed more biz to the Evil Empire that is Pic 'n Save. Nice.
Shame on Them
My niece's 2nd grade teacher (she's in 3rd now) was fired today. She'd begun to show signs of mental illness, writing things like "20+20+10" on the board and saying it equaled 30. Other teachers started to shun her. On the way to a staff outing she went back to her rm for her purse & returned to find everyone had left w/out her. I guess there's so little pain in the world they felt they had to add to it. A*holes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)