Update

As you can tell, I have not written much this month. I don't know what the deal is, I have ideas but not the motivation to do anything. Part of it is just from this lack of a job and part of it is the soon arriving Logan. I'm hoping to get motivated, and get back to my normal two to three a week average.

Deja Vu

I'm sitting at home playing Madden 04 (I only have a PS1... sorry, I'm not cool enough to upgrade) when I get a phone call and The Wife is having problems with the Mazda... guess what's wrong... the transmission, again. She gets stuck on a busy street, fortunately for us we have AAA and get a tow back to the auto shop.

This is getting ridiculous, if it wasn't free I would be going to another shop. For the first time in a while fortune looked upon me and it was not the transmission, but the coolant line in the transmission. It only took a day, but how many weeks will it be before something else goes wrong. I haven't gone two months this year with out having this thing at the shop. We are just under $2,000 away from having this thing paid off. I'm wishing it was now so we could save that 265 a month a buy something that doesn't suck as much. Even a used rental car can't be this much trouble.

The problems don't stop with the Mazda, the tank of a Honda is running fine, but can't pass state inspection, why? I need two tired, or so we did a few weeks ago. Now all four tires won't allow me to pass. I understand why we have these yearly inspections and for the most part they are good, expect when I have to replace something. The back two tires are on the boarder and if I find the wrong inspector I would fail yet again. What's the running price, $356 for the lowest tires they sell. Great more money pumped into the car that does not involve my gas tank.

Baby Class

Last week we started out five week baby classes at the hospital and already I am learning way too much. First of all there are 12 pregnant ladies in one room, that can't be a good thing. That many hormones have to be some kind of health violation or fire code. Every thing started out OK till I heard the line "Husbands, you are going to learn somethings you may not wanted to know." Trust me, I did not need to hear most of them. Mostly the mucus plug and how it will come out and what it is, also what color it might be. This conversation took a good 20 minutes. At this time I sneak my cell phone out and text Shawn who has been covering a building explosion and wanted to know if he would trade. His answer was no. This is so bad that even though he has gone through this class he does not want to do it again and would rather deal with chaos or a police scene and a newsroom. I'm in trouble here.

We finally get away from that and go to breathing exercises, nothing bad here right? Wrong, I find out that men have kegels. I actually learned about them at an early age, from Night Court. There was an episode where Christine was taking a baby class and she went with everyone from court including Dan. The instructor mentioned kegels and that you need to do them and no one could tell you are doing them. "I'm doing them now... could anyone tell?" Dan raises his hand, looks at his watch and says "For about 20 minutes." Back to the class, we are lying on the floor breathing and the instructor starts at the head and works her way down the body. She gets to the kegels and I lean over and ask The Wife, do I have kegels? That's when I hear, OK guys even you have kegels, what do you think you use when you have a bowel movement. I'm done for the night. I keep thinking about the fact I have kegels.

This week was the one with the video. We watched as this head comes roaring out a small hole. Holy Crap that looks bad! The instructor keeps trying to convince everyone not to use an epidural. Hell, after watching that I want one. This class is suppose to be helpful, instead it driving me even further to the depths of crazy. I'm now terrified about the handling the baby class. Is it too late to return it?

Puppy Love

While driving home The Wife looked to the side of the road and gasped, "Were those puppies?" To me it looked like a group of sand bags. She insisted that they were puppies and we turn around. We get out and find an old coat and three very young puppies (to the left). With hormones set to full, The Wife goes crazy about people and then how we have to find a place for these puppies. We go back home and get a laundry basket and some old towels and found the closest shelter, 20 minutes away, in Louisburg in Franklin County (foreshadowing). We actually aimlessly drove around and tried to find a place closer but no one was able to give us a location. We couldn't even get a hold of the people in Louisburg.

After 20 minutes of this aimless circling Wake Forest we head north and finally get to the animal shelter. I found out why no one answered, the two workers were outside smoking. We get the guy to get up and walk over to the door for drop offs. The Wife is in tears by now, she has become attached to these lost puppies. I'm starting to think we are going to have four dogs. The shelter guy starts to take our info using as few words as possible and after I mentioned Wake Forest he says they can't take them. Even though they are closer they only take Franklin county dogs. We head back home, cancel an appointment with a pediatrician and after nine phone calls to local groups, that end in voice mail, we head out to the SPCA. We are half way there before we could get through and find out that they won't take these puppies. I'm almost to the point of understanding why the people just dropped them off. It should not be this hard to drop off a dog. We finally are told that the only place to take them was to the county animal shelter.

We started this trek at 2:00 and arrived at the shelter at 4:45. As I start to open the door of the car one of the shelters called me, Puppy Paws Rescue. The lady was very nice and my favorite part of the conversation with her was "People suck" when we told her how we found these girls. Come to find out she knows the shelter people well and wants us to pass along that they might be taking them in. This makes the two of us feel a whole lot better.

We walk into the shelter and everyone is nice and they laugh at the fact that Puppy Paws Rescue will be on their way later, seems to happen a lot. On the way home we find out that the three pups do not have the dreaded parvo and will be kept alive and hopefully some one will adopt them.

Just look at those cute little faces, how can you just dump them on the side of the road and hope for some one like us to find them. With the raging hormones The Wife was wanting to quarter the people involved. She also became very attached to them and we are almost considering fostering one of them till we can find a good owner.

Hitting a Small White Ball

After yesterdays thought provoking moments I needed an escape and I decided to go golfing. Normally golfing would not be on top of my list to clear my mind, but while in Ohio I bought a $90 club for $40 and wanted to give it a try.

Holy crap is this new club working. Along with some tips I've been given over the last few months I hit the ball well. After four holes I had three double bogeys and a par. As a reference that would be like an average golfer shooting three birdies and a hole in one. I will admit that part of the reason I was doing so well was the course. Paschal Golf Course in Wake Forest is the farthest thing from the PGA you can get. When you hear municipal golf course this is that place. The only good thing is it's easy and cheap.

By the time I got to the eight hole I double boggied everything and was thinking I could do no wrong. The golf gods frowned upon me and the next thing I know I'm hitting trees and a creek. I finished the hole a par 4 with an 8. With my humility back I pulled the new drive back out for my last hole of the day. I swing back slowly, only did a partial back swing, kept my head down and did not move my feet and the next thing I see is my ball flying through the air and land 210 feet from where I was standing. I finished the par 5 last hole with a par. That is a new personal record for me. Now the trick will be going back out and doing that again. Usually after a day like this, I'll lose 10 balls and shot 8s on every hole.

What to Do?

For the first time since being let go I have a serious problem, do I go back into news. I kid you not in the same day I found two openings and I have no idea what to do. I'm not going into deal about either one, nor will I say what market or stations. One sounds cooler than the other, but do I want to go back to the belly of the beast.

One would involve an hour of travel and is only weekends. The other is mostly weekdays with random weekends. They have one thing in common... part time. I would lose my unemployment, but at least I could have a real job and not this Do some work for free and maybe something will happen gigs.

If I get the weekend gig, then I will have a harder time starting up a small production company. The weekend is when all the weddings and recitals happen. What little ground I have made into this business will be lost.

Why can't anything be easy with me. I always feel like have to make a decision of these natures. Do I want to go back into the industry that felt a nasty taste in my mouth or do I want to try and get this thing off the ground. I'd also lose my new favorite day, Sunday. No longer will I be able to go to church and then play ultimate Frisbee.

I just wish there was a giant billboard telling me which path is the best to take. No matter what happens from this point forward I will always be second guessing myself. If I go back into news, then I will wonder if my life would have been less complicated as I am standing on a beach being pounded by a hurricane. On the flip side, I will always wonder if I made the right choice by not going back to what I know.

Why can't real life be more like the board game.

It's like a Fiesta in My Mouth

During our Ohio round trip/baby shower we got to go to our favorite place in Columbus, Fiesta Jalisco. If you have not been there you need to. When God wanted Mexican food he created Fiesta Jalisco. When you walk in, it appears to be your run of the mill Mexican restaurant. That's where it stops being normal.

I don't know what they do to the chicken, but it taste like happy. On the day we went I had a craptastic day, my car died AGAIN, I had a horrible round of golf (it was so bad my brother at times was doing better than me). I order the ultimate burrito with chicken and my world changed. I don't know if it's laced with LSD or Ecstasy but I don't care. It's so good my in-laws loved it.

We have some great Mexican restaurants here, but nothing that can compare to Fiesta. I wish I could open a franchise down here. I'd gain 80 pounds, but I'd be happy.