Clearing out Thanksgiving & Cribs: Holiday Edition

Whew! The 4 day weekend is over. In a few ways, it will be really nice to get back to work tomorrow. Peace and quiet.

<--This picture was taken Thanksgiving Day. It's the two OhPrincess' and my still pretty fresh niece. Yep, OhCountess dressed every one of them in the same out fit. It's her thing and I've found it is just best to let it ride.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving weekend is the official kickoff to the great season of Christmas. Last weekend I did the prep work. I located all the boxes filled with Christmas crap decorations and got them into the basement to "warm up". 

A step back for all of you people that think cold is 60 F°. Here in Minnesota, if you want flexible wires, you thaw them out first.

Well, today we kicked off the holiday decorating. I've attached a photo of the Christmas tree. It's set up but it's not decorated. Lots to set up, the tree is a big process...I'll leave that for another post...

We also let the girls watch their first holiday movie. You see, we pack all the holiday movies away in the boxes with all the other holiday crap decorations so that no one can cheat and watch them out of season...

I could swear we have more movies then this, but ABC Family Channel seems to take care of the rest.

We try and make the day a lot of fun. OhPrincess1 tries on one of Mom's new holiday rugs.

She got the idea from her sister who found it easier to carry the "Ho, ho, ho" rug to the basement bathroom "Skirt style".

The other big happening of this weekend is the decorating of the outside of the house.
This is "Cribs: Holiday Edition"!

I'm hoping the other dad's that read this will be posting the pictures of the holiday decorating. OK, not really hoping more like, GET OFF THE COUCH, HANG THE DAMN LIGHTS AND TAKE SOME PICTURES!

I shared the pictures a few days ago (Cribs)...winter hadn't really taken hold yet, but apparently, Jack Frost has changed his mailing address for the season cause it's pretty cold and snowy here now.

No fears. I have gloves, hats and a wicked ability to just suck it up and take it. 39 consecutive winters here has given me some serious coping skills.

We really didn't get that much snow yet. One good, warm day and it will be gone, but for now, we have white lawns.

I'm not sure I'm done decorating the outside of the house yet. Since there was snow and ice on the roof, I couldn't get the lights on above the garage. There a few trees that might get the Charlie Brown Christmas motif. I might just let laziness cover me with a warm blanket and say screw it...it's good enough.

Tismee2 over at Squared Off has been posting about her holiday traditions. She seemed to start a bit earlier then I can handle. My plan is to post in near real time our traditions, kind of an as it happens approach. This is mostly because I can't remember them until I've already done them. Suffering from a serious case of CRS Disease (Can't Remember Shit).

I'm quite sure there is more I wanted to write about. I really need to just carry a notebook with me all day. I need a dvr for my brain.

Happy Holidays!

Look out the window!

There is a very good chance I will be shoveling the driveway today.

The Day After Thanksgiving Tradition

I got a lttile extra time in on the treadmill. Did you?

Happy Holidays from our family to yours

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Have an Elftastic Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was going to post a picture of my plate with the food on it but I
didn't take it fast enough.

Nap time!

Thanksgiving...

Tomorrow, I will be celebrating my 39th consecutive Thanksgiving Day. Just for giggles, I'm a geek remember, I looked up the definition of Thanksgiving in Wikipedia,

Thanksgiving, also known as Thanksgiving Day, is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and expressgratitude in general. It is primarily a North American holiday which has generally become a national secular holiday with religious origins. The dates and whereabouts of the first Thanksgiving celebration are a topic of modest contention. Though the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida[1][2], the traditional "first Thanksgiving" is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members.

I like to take this time to reflect over the last year. I read through what I wrote last year. That was a pretty good list. Most of it hasn't changed. I'm still really thankful for my family. I married the best woman possible...and as Weaselmomma would say, she's HAWT!!!!

I'm also very thankful to everyone that has commented in the last year. I really appreciate everyone that stops by.

It's time for me to spend some time with family. Be sure to say thank you to the people in your life. 

This is just wrong...

Almost enough....

to shovel.

But nah! Tomorrow it's going to be 10 degrees above freezing. We'll
let Mother Nature take care of this one.

Gail - this one us for you ;-)

Ta da! I wrote a guest post

Kat, over at 3 Bedroom Bungalow, asked me, ya I couldn't believe it either, to write a guest post for her while she's moving her family from here in the states to jolly old England. This guest post was posted today! (That's your cue to go click the link and check out)

Cribs...

Father of Five started this a little while ago. He put a called cribs to share the home he lives in. I'm always on the hunt for fun post ideas and this one caught my eye.

I have a special bond with our home. You see, our home was designed by my lovely bride OhCountess. She did a fantastic job. FoF was looking for curb appeal, and I think OhCountess has a great eye for just that.

The other reason I'm quite proud of this home is that we did a great deal of the work ourselves with the help of our friends and family. My wife's father is a home builder and drove down to join me on the weekends. Let's get one thing straight...I have a strong back and weak mind when it comes to being handy. I did exactly what I was told.

It took about 6 months for us to get this thing done. Building it ourselves, it took much longer then a conventionally built home. I was working a normal day at the office, going home, eating supper and heading to this place.

Our landscaping continues to be a work in progress. Some of it we have hired out and other parts we've done ourselves. The deck on the back of the house, yep, another weekend spent with the FIL.

This is it. We call it home. Our backyard sits on a city park. The kids love that. I appreciate the work it takes to build one of these things. There are days my back still hurts. 

I got this post done just in time. Winter is approaching fast and furious. Soon, everything will be buried in snow. Hopefully it's not as much as last year. Our house faces the west. The snow drift in front of my garage last year got to 4 feet one storm. Everyone is welcome to come help shovel.

Thanks for visiting!

Award Time!

It's been a big week(ish) for me. Let's start with the real world: I won the Bourbonators Series of Poker. Well, I'm pretty excited.

Now for the meme style:

The Charming Blog Award

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I was honor was given to me by Father of Five. Not only is he a fellow Minnesota and father, but he's a darn good writer as well. Being a father of five, he's got lots of stories to share about parenting. This time of year, he joins many of the other folks that live up here and practicing on of our oldest fall activities...hunting.

Thank you very much for your kind words FoF!

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Lemonade Award

Dmarks at throwawayblog decided that I qualified for this award. He felt I showed great Attitude and/or Gratitude. I do like to say thank you :-)

The rules are as follows -

• Put the logo on your blog or post.
  
• Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
  
• Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
  
• Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
  
• Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
  

Be sure to check out his blog. There is more information there about neck of the woods then I even knew about...and dmarks lives in Michigan! Go figure!

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Throwing A Nut to A Squirrel

Weaselmomma at World of Weasels threw this squirrel a nut. According to her site: 

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

On a spin of what WM had to say, I really like the phrase, "Even a blind squirrel can find a nut." And I thought I was stalking her blog.

I can't imagine I have any readers not already avid fans of World of Weasels. This mom of Weasels writes a blog I look forward to every day. From the FlatWeaselMomma tour to homemade commercials...she's got the goods. While you are there...remember to click her ads. You'll be glad you did!

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Here comes the point where I pick X bloggers to share this award with. Yikes. Here's what I'm gonna do. If you are in my blogroll, consider youself tagged!

A quick conversation

Tonight, when tucking our 5 year old into bed, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Seems they spent part of the afternoon going through the Toys-R-Us Big Book.

"I want a WebKinz, Daddy."

"Cool. Which one do you want?"

"I want the hawk."

I didn't even know they had a hawk. Normally my girls are all about the kitties and the puppies. This definitely needed more investigation...

"Interesting honey, why do you want a hawk?"

"Cause it will eat my sister."

Ain't my daughter sweet.

How to: Filling A Priorities List

In my never ending quest to provide the highest quality of drivel available on the Internet, I present to you today the highlights of what it's important or at least interesting to me. Cause, this is my blog, I have no editors and there is just a bunch of things I need to get out here so I can go back to be a slave to the reminder notices on my iPhone. 

Here are the things you need to add to your priorities list.

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Spread the click love

It dawned on me today, that we, people of the blogging community, whatever the heck that is, could do some good for our fellow bloggers in this tough economy. Besides doing our best to make sure that the current President understands that he won't go down in history as a great prez, we should help those among us that might need a few extra dollars to get over the hump.

WeaselMomma is a proud Midwestern mother and wife of weasels whose hubby was recently laid off. Lay offs suck. I know as a father and husband that my fear of not providing for my family scares the hell out of me. 

WeaselMomma is not the kind of lady looking for a hand out, so I had an idea, well actually, she mentioned it on her blog and I'm running with it cause basically I'm lazy and this is really easy. Head over to her blog and start clicking the hell out of her ads. How hard is that? Heck, while you are there, give her a read. She's one of my favs. Be sure to find the video commercial and their constitution...good stuff.

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Father of Five: It's dark at like 3pm now...what gives?

Father of Five posted a few days ago pictures of his Crib. What a cool post idea! He challenged the rest of us to do the same. Well, I'm always looking for ideas of content to put here...I could do that. I'm a daddy blogger and the like...but this Central Standard Time thing is turning this into a huge problem. Last weekend, we had house guests for the entire weekend and I somehow didn't get out side to shoot pictures of the house. Crap! Cause during the week, I'm not a morning person. If I find it, I'll post the pictures of me, as a 4 year old, wearing my favorite t-shirt that said, and I quote "I hate mornings'. Yep. This is a life long love affair with sleeping in. Anywho. It's friggin' dark after work now. Seriously. The sun sets at noon now? More on my crib coming soon. OhCountess works this weekend...someone PLEASE remind me to take the shots.

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Christmas Traditions

Tismee2 over at Squared off, had another great idea for a series of blog posts. What are your Christmas Traditions. You know, what a fantastic idea! My traditions will be starting up here shortly. When they do...I'll be posting...I just can't start them until Thanksgiving weekend...that's the first of my traditions :-)

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She's moving to England and asked me to guest post

Kat is moving to England. This isn't news if you've been following her blog. You've been following, right?

The big move is going on RIGHT NOW. Their stuff is packed, the movers are moving, the pets are en route and so is the family. While in transit, she asked me to write a guest post. What a cool honor! I believe it will show up on November 21. Since I'm a daddy blogger and a husband, I am genetically incapable of remember dates...so I figure you should just go follow the blog every day until it posts. 5 other people are guest posting...you might just learn something useful.

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But I thought this was the life and thoughts of a Midwest geek

Yeah. I have pictures to post. Ideas swimming in my head and a job. Free time is coming. I've been promised. In the mean time, I've loaded up the queue at the photoblog. That thing has another week or so of pictures just lined up and rolling off 1 a day for the next week and half. Time permitting this weekend, I'll be back filling the list even more...I'd love to hear what you think!

That's it for now, I've given you a long list of things to click and do. So go do it!

Looks Like We Made It!

Think we will ever break $1 again???

You knew it had to happen eventually

OhPrincess1 had to wake me up this morning to make sure I saw this.

*sigh

Revolutionary War Comes Alive!

If you look really hard you can find OhPrincess1

Let Us Remember - Hope & Change

Let me confess. For the first time in my adult life, I did not vote for a Democrat running for president. This was the 6th time I've cast a ballot for the office of president and the first time I didn't vote for a Democrat.

I heard the message of hope. There just wasn't enough plan there for me. Lots of sizzle and Mr. Obama is one of the greatest public speakers I've ever heard, but I just didn't see how he could institute all of his plans without an economically devastating tax plan.

That doesn't mean I was overly impressed with any other candidate.

I watched the tellie last night. OhCountess had it tuned to an NBC affiliate so we could also watch the local returns. I was shocked at how emotional the broadcasters got. I watched the crowds celebrate as if we'd been liberated from a dictator.

Today, I was called a racist since I didn't vote for Obama. Apparently, a vote for any other candidate meant you must be a racist. I hope this isn't where are nation is heading.

I've watched as the Obama supporters have gloated and disrespected John McCain. This has saddened me to no end. How petty of winners are the Obama supporters going to be? I thought this was the campaign for hope and unity?

During the Clinton administration, a great change occurred and the Republicans regained control of the House and the Senate. They celebrated and gloated and squandered every opportunity they had for fundamental change. Instead of doing good with their power, they chose to waste countless years attacking Clinton and eventually impeaching him. I fear the same thing will happen again (hopefully with far less stuff on dresses)

I'm a moderate. Somewhere between a Democrat, Republican and a Libertarian. I tend to be extremely fiscally conservative. History has taught us that when attempting to right an economy that is turmoil, raising taxes is devastating. That was my main issue this time. Cut spending. Cut waste, get job creation going again. It's as simple as that.

I'm very proud of our nation. We elected a man of color into the highest office in the land. I look forward to a day when that doesn't even matter and isn't even mentioned. Although I could never vote for a Green Bay Packer Fan...those guys are nuts. I hope that he can live up to his own hype. Frankly, I'm not sure I can understand the hysteria. I haven't really seen him do anything yet. Like I said, he's a great, and I mean one of the truly great, public speakers, but he's really not DONE anything yet. I hope he does. I fear the let down could be devastating if he doesn't live up to the hype.

My guess, I've offended someone in the last 24 hours by not understanding. I'm really a wait and see guy. I'll be waiting and seeing but fear what might happen if there is disappointment. I think there were a lot of people that voted for anybody that wasn't even remotely close to George W. Bush. He will probably go down as the worst president in history. I never voted for him, I've never thought he was fit to lead, but I also tried to keep in mind that his presidency will end in January, no matter who is elected president.

I hope that we as a nation move on and move on quickly. I also hope we don't repeat the mistakes of the past and get spiteful and vindictive. This isn't the time to be dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past and who screwed who. We have very serious problems that will require very serious answers. Pragmatism.

Lord I hope this is my last political post for a while. I miss being a smart ass.

Make This Your Election Headquarters

Seems this humble blogger will be providing election results for those interested following them.


Update:
I'm at poker league. I'm catching cards. D'oh! Looks like my crack crew has updated the map. Way to go! If I hear or see anything here at the bar, you will be the first to know!

7:57 pm: no political talk at the tables. Consensus is the election was today.

10:03 pm: I made it home. I'm watching NBC news. Tom Brokaw is emotional. Obama has been declared a the winner.

I saw this tonight and became immediately frightened. Do we honestly have expectations of this president that we won't have to worry about paying or mortgage or putting gas in our cars?



I really don't understand this.

10:14 pm: Why did I not cry? For me, this election was a very difficult choice. I'm actually more afraid of what might happen to our nation if the congress goes filabuster proof and everything is controlled by one party. Absolute power for one party? Seriously. That frightens me more then anything. The Republicans had that a few years ago. It was a disaster.

10:19 - We missed the SNL Election Bash last night. We are switching to it. I can't stand listening to the news broadcasters cry. Yikes.

11:09 - OhCountess fell asleep. I'm watching Obama's acceptance speech. One truly great thing about the next 4 years. Obama can speak. 8 years of one the worst public speakers has been tough for this speech coach to endure.

11:19 - Could the NBC news guys gush any more? Holy crap! You'd think we just landed on the moon again. Obama has been president-elect for about 1 hour. I don't see one thing fixed :-)

11:26 - Going to bed. Election coverage has gotten annoying. I really want to know how the Coleman / Franken race is going and the constitutional amendment to cap environmental spending. Let's hope Obama can live up to the hype. I fear a let down and what that will do. In case you are wondering, this has pretty much been a flow of conscientiousness. I'm exhausted. These views may not represent the views of the author or has brain.

I'm going to let all of this sink in and evaluate the events of the day. For those wondering, I'm neither disappointed nor angry. My feelings about either candidate are difficult to express. I also hope to return to the regularly scheduled program ASAP. I am really disappointed the Tina Fey is going to not really be needed very soon. Sara Palin (uff) will quickly slithering back into the woods.

My Office Election Results!

We took a very formal poll here at the office.

I'm sure these exit polls will be coming fast and furious. I'll be covering the election live on this blog as long I'm able to. The power of the press can easily be repressed though by da wife, da kids or I'm dealt really rockin' cards tonight at poker league.

Here are the results from my office:

McCain / Palin : 13

Obama / Biden : 6

Get the hell out of my office! / What are you talking about : 4

The Deed Is Done

I voted. Did you?

2 days until the election

[WARNING: This post got much longer then I anticipated. It might piss you off. Sorry about that, but then again, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. Cry if I want to. Cr...never mind. One last post. Father Of Five - I'm posting my pictures of my crib tomorrow night...don't let me forget. Kat has asked me to guest post! November 21st is my day...oh crap! I left the oven on...enjoy!]

When I was in college, the first time, and even in high school I was seriously the biggest geek weirdo on the planet liked to study things like logic and rhetoric. Even for a while in college, I was completely fascinated by anthropology. What in the name of Sam Hill was a late teen/early twentysomething doing studying this stuff?

I don't understand people. Never have. I don't get how people think but I figured if I studied this stuff, I might someday understand where other people are coming from.

What I do understand is logic, reasoning and that absolutely nothing is unrelated. In my universe, there is nothing but shades of grey...oh yeah! Shades of grey.

This political season has brought something together in my head that I had never really seemed to fully grasp before. People will congregate around other people that they perceive as being similar to themselves.

My two undecided posts came with some really great comments. People really tried to explain their reasons in a positive light. Some even gave me sites to visit. Being the follow through blogger guy that I am, I actually followed the links (thank you for not sending me porn / spam / phishing / nefarious links. (a little porn would be fine)

The links sent were to sites that shared the views or ideas of the people that sent them. This has often made me wonder if people seek out these links to validate their ideas or do they go to them and get persuaded. It's probably a little of both.

I spend much of my time researching issues by first finding out what the relative terms mean and the doing searches based on those terms looking for research and findings on those terms and then cross checking them with various sites to see what all the sides are saying. I like to pay particular attention to the rhetoric used. Good lord. Can you find a bigger geek?

Wikipedia (I'm seeing a trend here) defines rhetoric as:

Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art (Latin) or technique (Greek) of persuasion through the use of oral, visual, or written language. A rhetorical question is a question which is asked to have a persuasive effect, rather than to elicit an answer.

If you pay particular attention to the terms and general tone of a particular presentation of information, you can begin to understand what the presenter is trying to help you believe.

For the last 8 years, the Republicans have been using fear to persuade the people. Reminding us that there hasn't been another terrorist attack since Bush got things under control. Never mind that several (think most) previous presidents could easily make the same claim. (Also note that 9-11 came on his watch...just sayin)

The Democrats came out of the blocks this year and rode the fatigue that this method has left us in and promised "change". That can be quite convincing. People are really tired of being afraid. They want hope.

I will never be a card carrying liberal Democrat. I love life without taxes. I believe people need to work and work hard. I strongly believe that the government can not and will not ever be able to solve our problems. Buuutttt.....I do believe that government should stay out of our lives and let us make our own decisions about who we live with and who we love.

I will never be a card carrying conservative Republican. I love life without morals being shoved down my throat. I'm not now and never will be an evangelical who believes the world was created on November 12, 1800 b.c. (no, it's true. I don't think it's wrong to teach evolution...shhhh...don't tell the PTA). Buuutttt...I do believe in a world of smaller government. Lower taxes. Far fewer social programs and a free market system where hard work is rewarded and sloth is punished.

So our two party system has left me screwed. I know, I know, we have more then two parties, but lets understand something. Most of the lemming that live in our country don't hear the other parties. I enjoyed our brief brush with Governor Ventura. Maybe someday we can have a 3rd party candidate with enough legs to make a run. This year...not so much.

On one of the links given to me, it was pointed out that the party of hope and nice messages was the Democrats. UppercaseWoman (you can call her Tori) shares some writing of another blog she reads that she thinks sums up her view perfectly. She summarizes:

Sarah L. just reminded me of this great blog written by two best friends of 60 years and I think their most recent entry sums it up brilliantly:

Which party has been screaming terrorist, socialist, Marxist, murder him and kill him… and which party has been talking about hope and unity.

Which party has been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you everyday for the past two weeks hoping to scare you into thinking that there is an Un-American part of the country… and which party has been saying that there is no red America and no blue America but only the United States of America.

Which party thinks war is the answer to everything… and which party has suggested that maybe we need to sit down and talk this out to see if peace is possible.

I fully understand this sentiment. I'm not buying this whole scary rhetoric that we've been spoon fed these last few years. Creating ghosts in our closet and showing undue linking of events to perpetuate of myth is a Fallacy of necessity.

But, studying the ads from the Democrats shows that even they aren't free of this. In our local elections here, many of the Democratic ads attempt to scare you into believing that all the bads of the world will continue if you don't vote for their guy. Huh? I could have sworn that Bush's term ends in January of 2009. Have the Democrats had the power of Congress for the last 2 years? You mean to tell me that they couldn't do anything? Pffttt....

In the race for our open U.S. Senate seat. We see Norm Coleman (R-MN) as the incumbent vs. Al Franken (D-CA). You know, the actor/writer/talk show host. Ya...that Al Franken. His ads against Coleman have been all about fear and the corruption of Norm Coleman. Ya, I know he paid the back taxes in the states, that is true, but it is also true that his books weren't exactly clean either. He paid back taxes on taxes he didn't realize he needed to pay. It's weird how you can always spin issues...ain't it.

Anywho, why I mention this is last week I actually got a call from the Democrats hoping to persuade my vote. I'm always polite when I answer the phone, unless of course you violate my "No calls unless you are in the emergency room or with a coroner after 9pm" rule. Then I'm rude. Since both parties are so far doing everything possible to piss me off, this exchange did not really endear me to the party of the donkey.

Caller: Have you decided who are voting for this election?
OhCaptain: Well, I'm still undecided for president, but I'm pretty sure I'll be voting for Coleman in the Senate.
Caller: Why aren't you voting for Franken?
OhCaptain: I gotta be honest. I didn't really care for his views on his radio show and I figure he's nothing more then a celebrity candidate that has no idea about Minnesota. His campaign reminds me a lot of Hilary running in New York.
Caller: You know Coleman is not from MN.
OhCaptain: (thinking "nice change of direction...but that's not we ain't talking about Coleman...are we) how long has it been since Franken really lived in MN? Sure he grew up here, but the was 30 years ago. Seems to me it's possible things have changed since then. Besides, did you ever listen to his radio show?
Caller: You know he's the candidate for change.
OhCaptain: (for the love of all things reasonable...can YOU answer the dang question?) I've heard that. What does he plan to do to help us find a solution to our railroad problem here in Rochester?
Caller: So, why aren't you voting for Obama?
OhCaptain: I didn't say I wasn't voting for Obama. I said I was undecided on the presidential race but knew for sure I wouldn't vote for Franken. Is it OK if I don't necessarily vote a straight ticket? (I seriously doubt this person even knew it was possible to not vote a straight ticket...do you know what a straight ticket is?)
Caller: Well, we'd like your support next Tuesday. Thank you for your time. [click]

Well, that couldn't have gone much worse. Now, not only am I undecided, but I'm more pissed off then I was before. I was really starting to think their might be some hope. It struck me that this lady could not comprehend the idea that it was possible for someone to not be a party person. I don't find any of the major or minor parties match up with my beliefs. Each and every year, I struggle to find the candidate that pisses me off the least. Each party has a plank on their platform that I feel very strongly about and each party has a plank on their platform that I find patently offensive.

Someday. I hope we elect a candidate that understands the concept of pragmatism. That does what is best for our nation as a whole. A candidate that can set aside his own beliefs to do the right thing. I yearn for the day when the politician can tell his party that they are wrong. Logic and reason are good things.

And I just blew any chance of this blog being labeled "humorous". Crap. Did you read this far? I suppose the title of this blog does say "The life and thoughts of a Midwest geek." These are my thoughts....:-P Now, in comments, I leave it up to you. The reader. The person that's wondering if they can get the last 5 minutes back. The answer is no. But thanks for playing. Complain in the comments. Gush in the comments. Don't hesitate to look at pictures of my kids and say things like "they are so cute/adorable/up to something evil".