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AOL Complaining Microphone

Seriously, this may be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Years ago, as an email admin, I ran across this, and seriously, its the epitome of the AOL user (at least the user from the late 90's.)

Click here to enjoy the AOL Talking Microphone. Yes, its an executable, but its safe, and funny.

I'm being more productive by working less

Well, just for a second. I need 5 minutes away from work just so I can hit the ground running again, if that makes any sense. Probably not, nothing does these days.

Killer weekend this past weekend. Went down to Thornton to the camp to just chill out. Bush hogged several acres, did some tractor maintenance, hung out with my dad and his buddy. Mom sent some incredible pork chop and sausage stew with dad for us hungry boys. Sure was good. I brought some "green" beer (as a famous poet once said - you drink green beer and you'll be humped up like a wild dog). Was a great couple of days just hanging out with the dudes, away from WORK.

Sunday we did the Mother's day thing. Went to church, then went to Babes for some great fried chicken and all the fixins. Came home to a nap while the kids did their Mother's day duty, and "cleaned" the upstairs. How they spent 4 hours doing that, and only got it as clean as they did remains a mystery.

Today it's a nice 83 degrees outside. I hope I away from the office early enough to spend an hour or so in this lovely weather before it gets dark.

Have a good week

Sometimes I just have random thoughts

My favorite type of tv show is the kind that doesn't make me think

My other kind of favorite show (documentaries) makes me feel better about myself because others lives really suck

Why WOULDN'T I enjoy a good beer?

Its getting hot outside

I'm glad my couch is comfortable

If I have to put another $ into car repairs this month, on either car, I'm going to take them out to pasture and literally shoot them (the cars)

My kids won't stop growing

The older I get, the more grumpy I get

I'm still into WWE Wrestling

I'm never satisfied with my cell phone. Latest is the Palm Pre

Carol Burnett was a flipping GENIUS

I'm COMPLETELY excited that Last Comic Standing is coming back soon

I have guilty pleasures, but you won't know what they are, because I won't tell you

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up

If I'm not at home, are my neighbors still loud and annoying?

Is it possible to manage talent if your talent isn't talented?

Can't wait to see Kevin Jonas on Minute to Win It

It's been a long time...

...and it'll be a long time. That's from one of my favorite SNL skits with Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks. Some will know what I'm talking about, others will just wonder.

I know no one is reading this, but its just a chance for me to put down a few thoughts to eventually bury in a time capsule.

Its been so long since I've blogged, I'm not even sure I know what to write. Just finding a few minutes free time while Wrestling is on in the background, and I get to let my creative juices flow is awesome. Any week lately requires a minimum of 60 hours of my time M-F, not to mention what happens on the weekends. Yeah, I'm bitching about the amount of hours I work, but know what I'm not bitching about, HAVING A JOB! TONS of people are way worse off than me, so I count my blessings, and say prayers for you others, every day. I really do.

So, I'm going to go decompress out in lovely Thornton, Tx this weekend. Taking a couple of furlough days off of work, away from Internet, and am just going to do guy stuff. Might drink a beer, might even smoke a, smoke a, smoke a cigar.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, there's a movie you MUST watch, its called Role Models. Go watch it.

I guess that's all I've got. Still working, somehow, at H R smart, but every week is another blessing to have a job, I think. Times are tough. Suzanne and the kids still love the school but will love summer more.

I'll write more in several months - just wanted to see if i did this if it would get me back into writing in my Internet diary.

peace

Richardson Wildflower Festival

Went with an old college buddy last night to the Richardson Wildflower Festival. What a time. Had a few overpriced beers and saw a few bands play. I was there for one reason, and one reason only, to see The Toadies. They are one of my favorite groups from the mid 90's, and they still put on a crazy show. I used to watch them in bars that had less than 200 people in them, they've come a long way.

Other entertainment at the festival included Night Ranger and Kansas. I watched the entire Night Ranger show but only about 20 minutes of the Kansas set. I really wish Kansas would have been on first. Since there were 2 big stages, Kansas' set started only 30 minutes before The Toadies came on, so we had to leave and hot foot it over to see The Toadies. Kansas did a good job from what I saw. Night Ranger, on the other hand, really looks like a bunch of washed up old dudes that are still trying to hold on to what they had 25 years ago. Still have the long hair, leather pants, leather vests with no shirt underneath, gyrating as if they really are as sexy as they think they are. They had 4 or 5 hits that I liked, they played them all, but it was kind of sad watching them. It would have been similar to watching my dad try to pick up chicks in a college bar somewhere. I'm sure one day he was really good at it, but that time has passed.

So, if you see The Toadies are playing somewhere near you, go see them. If you see Night Ranger is coming, save your money and your time.

Happiness...

- is getting a doggy door installed for my geriatric dog who needs to go outside 4 times a night
- is having a child old enough to mow the lawn. Dillon is all proud of himself. He apparently doesn't realize this chore isn't going to go away, EVER
- is when the Maverick's - Nuggets series will be over
- is having a new clothes dryer that isn't as loud as a freight train going through my living room
- is being drunk (oops, that has to wait til Friday).

What's making you happy?

Thanks for the extra 10% off, Best Buy!

So, our clothes dryer crapped the bed after 13 years of faithful service. This evening I went on a hunt for a new dryer. I'm still boycotting sears from 2.5 years ago, so I scouted Lowes, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Lowes had the model I wanted, but since I visited there first, I didn't want to buy right away. The same model was at Best Buy, but was about $50 more, it also wasn't in stock for pickup tonight. How does that equate to BB saving me 10%? Glad you asked. Best Buy had these 10% off coupons at the front door for a variety of items, including appliances. I took one, called Lowes and asked if they took competitors coupons, they said they would honor it. Saved me nearly $50.

Moral of the story, you never know if you don't ask!

Joys of a cube farm

Hey, I can appreciate why we have cubicles instead of offices in most buildings today. It's MUCH cheaper, does foster a sense of community (somewhat), easier to pull cable through, easier to reconfigure the floor...

I really try hard to not infringe on the space of those around me when I'm in the office. I bring my lunch, but try to bring things that aren't too smelly when they are heated up, I keep my conversations quiet, I NEVER use my speaker phone, I don't clip my nails in my cube, and I NEVER, EVER eat an apple while sitting at my desk. I have this weird aversion to food noises, and eating an apple in your cube, to me, is as tasteless as taking a shower in your front yard. Have some common courtesy people, slice that damn apple up BEFORE you get to work.

I cope with about 12 gigs of iTunes music and a set of Sony noise reducing (although it doesn't really reduce enough, but its better than none) headphones.

Guess what the guy next to me had for lunch today?

You're here thanks to LOTD

Yeah, I haven't blogged in like a year or so. I've been too busy Facebooking (I think that's a real word like Twibe or Tweets). Anyway, yeah, I need to get back to the blog and thanks to Cary, I've been motivated to start doing that again. Look out world, more meaningless diatribe from Big Lew!

But, since you're here, and we're all now BFF's, help me beat my wife in this important contest. I've bet her I will have more friends on Facebook than her. It was a dumb bet on my part as she's more popular, and good looking, than me. But Fans of LOTD can help. Look me up on FB and send me a friend request. I'm the kind of friend you want. I'll be there when you need a shoulder to cry on, or need validation. I'll even help you move if you live within a 300 yard radius of me. My FB email is biglew27 AT yahoo.com.

Thanks,

Jeff

Colorado Trip

I had the great fortune to spend a couple of days with friends in Colorado this past weekend. I got some good cajun cooking (you can take the cajun out of Louisiana...) and saw some beautiful scenery. You can visit my photobucket album to see more pics. Here are a couple of good ones:

From Garden of the Gods

From some Indian Cave Dwellings. James, what were they called?

How did you score?

I am a VERY SUPERIOR 1930's husband, regardless what James from Colorado would say.

154 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

3 slabs of ribs, 2 chickens...

...one happy crowd. For Labor Day festivities, we had several people over to the house (14 adults and their kids). I got a chance to break in my new upright smoker. It's gas, which really makes cooking easy. At any rate, I was taking a big chance since I hadn't cooked on this unit yet (you have to get to know your smoker), but things seemed to work out well. The ribs were OK, definitely not the best I've ever cooked, but they were decent enough and every one seemed to like them. I'm my own worst critic when it comes to cooking, but I have to say, the chickens (2 whole chickens) were INCREDIBLE. My mom gave me a beercan chicken recipe book a couple of years ago and I've never really had the facilities to put the book to use. That's no longer an excuse as this smoker has tons of room in it. That chicken was INCREDIBLE. completely full of flavor and very moist. It was so good, I'm going buy a couple of chickens tomorrow to cook during the week. It's easy, and healthy. My mouth is watering just writing about it!

Hundred pushups - My shoulders are beginning to hurt, so I took a few days off to give myself a couple of days to recover. I did my end of week 2 assessment, I pushed out 35 pushups. I'd imagine at the end of another week I'll be very close to 50. We'll see if this old body will hold out.

Enjoy Labor Day!

Wearing your dad's clothes

When I was 5 years old (1984), my grandfather (who was a railroad engineer for Southern Pacific) surprised me for my birthday by taking me on a train ride. I got to drive and everything. It was one of the greatest days of my young life, and I still remember it fondly. As part of my day, he gave me a set of engineers coveralls. I still have those, and as I was rummaging through a drawer today, I came across those coveralls. I remember that I loved them so much, as I began to outgrow them, my mom made them into shorts so I could still wear them. Tonight, I let my 5 year old wear them, and we snapped this picture. For those of you with a Cajun or French background, I'm sure you'll agree with me that the only words appropriate here are "awww, cher."

No sleeping tonight

Well...here it is, a quarter to 1AM and I'm still awake. Ironic considering that today is the first day I've woken up at 6AM since school let out.

First day of school - both kids came home excited today. Kylie is no longer nervous about Kindergarten and she's written a "letter" to her "boyfriend" from last year. It's nothing more than a piece of paper with a bunch of stickers on it that she folded and put in an envelope, but to her, it's of utter importance, no doubt.

Dillon informed me tonight that he likes the way I think ahead, and that he thinks ahead too. Here's how our conversation went:

• Dillon - If I had a girlfriend I would tell her I was a racer and I would go to her house in my racing uniform. I would tell her that I came in first place in my race. But she would ask where my trophy is, and I would tell her I came in 4th place.


• Jeff - Good thinking Dillon. Did you have a specific girl in mind?


• D - No, but I would like a girlfriend.


• J - You would?


• D - Yes, I think that would be good for me, but I'm a little nervous about asking a girl to be my girlfriend.


• J - Well...you can have a girlfriend if you want, but you should probably just take your time getting one.


• D - Yeah, you're right. Good night daddy.

Pushups - I'm still on my quest to 100 pushups. I've added crunches / situps back into my routine. More than my scrawny arms, I'm really unhappy with my gut, er stomach. I lost a LOT of muscle as a result of my injury a couple of years ago (you don't know, I might have had a lot of muscle then), and it just never came back. My stomach and arms atrophied the most, so I'm really on a quest to get them back into decent shape. I pushed out 66 pushups tonight (in 4 sets.) Not too bad, my initial test to see how many I could do was only 14 just less than 2 weeks ago. In a single set now, I can run off about 26.

DNC - I started to watch the DNC tonight, but then I saw James Carville on and that was enough. I got in all of 13 seconds of the convention, that's enough. Bring back rythmic gymnastics from Beijing please.

Enjoy your week. Work hard, you have a nice 3 day weekend coming your way as a reward!

First Day of School

Well...we managed to get the kids off to school, and Suzanne officially started the new school year. Kylie was "nervous", and Dillon was so excited he wasn't "even tired" at 6:30 this morning. I wish I had more pics of Dillon, but as soon as we got to the school, he took off to hang with his buds in the cafeteria until classes started. Kylie hung with me until time to go to her class. If her teacher looks familiar, that's the same teacher Dillon had when he was in Kindergarten.

Week 2, Day 1

I'm still on my quest to 100 pushups with the help of hundredpushups.com. Today was week 2, day 1 (I'm not like most normal people, I didn't start my routine on a Monday.) I had to do 50 pushups today, which was a LOT harder than the 63 I did on Wednesday. I get the weekend to rest and then on Monday I have to do 66. Considering my level of "Fitness" today, I'm a bit concerned I may hit a wall at week 2. Worst case scenario, I do week 2 twice. I've had bigger problems in my life.

Big night tonight, huge concert. As many of you know, I'm a fan of all kinds of music. I have an appreciation for everything from Gershwin to jazz to Christian contemporary to country to rap, but my heart really lies with 80's metal / hair metal (longing for the good old days, I guess). So, tonight is the "Masters of Metal" tour with Judas Priest and Motorhead. I'm looking forward to hearing some songs from back in the day, but more than that, I'm looking for affirmation. Every time I go to one of these concerts I feel better about myself when I walk out than when I walked in. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Getting ready to take the kids to school to meet their teachers. School starts on Monday. Dillon is absolutely excited and anxious about starting 4th grade. Kylie on the other hand...is a little "nervous" about starting Kindergarten. Justifiable in her mind, I'm sure.

Have a great weekend.

Photobucket Album

Day 2, Week 1

I'm on the 2nd day of my 100 pushup challenge. It's not as fun as it sounded when I started, but I'm going to keep up with it. Did 54 pushups this morning, I get tomorrow off and then on Wednesday I have to do 63. Of course, right now it comes in 5 sets. The end goal is 100 with no break.

The program has already done a LOT for my physique, as proved in this picture.

Hundred Pushups

So, Mark Daddy posted on his website how he's trying to get to, and maintain the ability to do 100 pushups. Not to be underdone, I've decided to go for it as well, except I'm applying the same program to not only pushups, but situps as well. I'm only a couple of days into it, but man, I'm sore already, but feeling good about what I'm going to achieve.

Let me know that you're going to do 100 pushups by publishing a comment here.