An uncounted blessing

A little over a month ago, I caught some sort of bug and spent a week lying in bed reading and watching the tube. My wife would come home from work, make me some soup and turn the TV to Charmed each night at 5 on TNT. Me being the loving husband that I am, didn’t argue and let her have control of the remote. As it turns out, TNT plays 2 hours of charmed each week night. Not a show I would normally watch but after watching 10 episodes that week, I returned to work the week following and found myself coming home from work and plopping down on the couch next to my wife to see what the Halliwell’s were up to that day. Over the period of a month and a half, I think we went through the better part of 4 seasons at two episodes a night (not including watching the current episodes on Sunday night).

The day before yesterday, we got back from Arizona following a seven day fast away from the sisters (they were playing golf on Tuesday and Wednesday on TNT last week, bastards!) Got home from work, we made a mad rush to the couch and clicked on channel 27...

... Huh? Are they going through some kind of time loop? Everybody looked like they were still in high school. What’s Shannon Doherty doing on the series? Isn't she supposed to be on that 90210 show? All of the bad guys look like Power Rangers! Where’s my Paige? They had started the series over.

No! NO! Noooo! My wife has turned me into a Charmed junky!

While disappointed (and teary eyed), this has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I am no longer wasting two hours each day watching the show and able to pull myself away and do other things around the house, perhaps even blog a bit more.

Thanksgiving and the Grand Canyon

Made a road trip over the holiday weekend with my wife and the new bug to Arizona for Thanksgiving with my mom and a very pregnant sister. Saturday made a side trip with my best friend Larry, his wife Jen and my other son Alec to the Grand Canyon, pictures here.

Great weekend, didn't cook a thing, slave labor for my mom was mild and did not involve injuring myself and Grand Canyon impressed the everyone that went (first trip there for all of them). Fairly packed weekend and I missed seeing some folk, hopefully get a chance to see them in December when I come out there with the first born

Google searches

Okay, how in the heck did I become #1 on Google for "bossy cow syndrome"? So what if I called my mom a bossy cow, once! And I did tell her about it. (it was actually her brothers and sisters that called her that, I just put it on the blog). I'm not too worried about her reading this, the only time I've seen her on the internet is looking over my shoulder (I will laugh when she does find it). My other site is still number one for "Dustman" and I'm number 11 for "STELLA OBASANJO FORTUNE ". Thing about the internet and search engines is you have to be careful about what you write. Talk bad about someone and it will come back and bite you.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I'm off till Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I’ll be making a road trip to Arizona over the weekend and wanted to share a few things I am thankful for this holiday.

First off, I’m very thankful for my awesome wife. She has filled my life with wonder and joy, I don’t even know how I even survived before I met her. Each morning I wake up just to look at her for a minute and thank god for bringing her in my life (except for the other night when she tripped over that box in the middle of the night which made a huge racket and almost scared me out of my skin)

Second I would like to thank my very supportive family and friends who have stuck with me through thick and thin. Sometimes I wonder how I lucked out having such cool relatives (including my new ones on the wife’s side). I look forward to the fine fellowship we will be sharing this weekend.

Third, the brothers and sisters who have been on these globe hopping journeys with me and have put their lives on the line on my behalf, thank you. A little blood, quite a few beers, lot of sweat and much dust, each day we go forth and make history; one day in a far off future, historians will lay judgment on our work.

And finally thank you my readers who have stuck with me over the past 22 months, I know my politics are ambiguous at best, my writing mostly poor and my life lacking in any sort of excitement lately, thank you for sticking with me. Two hundred thousand plus visitors! This up coming spring, I’ll be journeying out to spend my third Easter in a row far far from home. I didn’t sign up to fight wars but I put my name on the dotted line to save lives and when my Marines go into harms way, believe me I’ll be there with them (keeping of course!)

Have a great turkey day everyone and be thankful for what you have.

I'm not sure I would have left the 8th grade

I've been watching CNN's coverage of Debra Lafave she's the 25 year old teacher accused of having sex with a 14 year old student. I bet the only regret that kid has is letting the cat out of the bag. I know I’ll probably get grief about saying this but a vast majority of males have had fantasies about hooking up with a hot teacher. What’s going to happen next? Playboy center fold?

(note: I'm very happily married and wouldn't trade my wife for a 1000 Debra's. In theory I think what Debra did is wrong because she was in a teaching position but I think punishment should match the injuried parties not the crime itself and unless his parents are forcing him to say Debra is evil, he's not going to say it. Why do you think this didn't go to trial?)

Time to Nominate the 2005 Weblog Awards

Once again it's time for everyone to put in their nominations in for the best of the blog-o-sphere for the 2005 Weblog Awards, Kevin of Wisbang gathers the nominations for 37 categories and then the voting starts on December 1st. There's even a spot for best military blog! There's two more days to nominate your favorite blog.

This American Life does Milbloggers

The title of this weeks show is called "Strangers In a Strange Land" and can be found on the This American Life website and broadcast somewhere between Nov 18-20th on your local NPR station. There are pieces from Colby Buzzel of My War, Trueman Muhrer-Irwin of Rebel Coyote, he was injured in November 2003 by one of the early IED's, Capt Chuck Ziegenfuss of From My Position... On the way! and Michael from A Day in Iraq. The online version should be up in a couple of days and I'll be listening.

Out with the old...

The car my wife has been driving around for the last 5 years just breathed it’s last breath and we’re donating her organs to charity. She was an old friend who had brought Heather and I together (but old and ugly as dirt). It was sad to see her go and my lovely wife shed tears when she turned her in. But like all good things, it was time to move on.

Her dad has been picking on her for years over her crazy love for boxlike Oldsmobile’s and I think between her dad and I, we have broken her of this twisted love.

She’s been admiring a certain kind of car for years, the image of this vehicle has been floating around in the back of her head. After mooning and fantasying about this for all this time from afar, she’s now the proud owner of ....

...a 2002 Electric Green Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S!

This is the newest car either of us have owned, drives nice and it even has this cool rear spoiler that pops up at 30 miles per hour to hold it down around corners.

Love you Pumpkin and I'm just glad to see the smile on your face, good choice, there isn't a car that fits anyone better then this one does you.

Saturday at Knott's

I have a secret to tell, my wife has never been on a big roller coaster so last Saturday we gathered up 2 of my nieces and made a road trip to take advantage of the Knott’s Berry Farm’s, Tribute to Veterans, good deal, with a military ID, you and a guest get in for free from November 1st till the 24th. Her car had just decided to take a dump so we were stuck driving up there in my extended cab S-10, not the best road trip vehicle but it's only an hour drive away (the burbin is polky).

Got there and it was packed, we ended up parking at the far side of the parking lot. We started off slow to get a feel of the place with the log ride and I said, "lets go on the next ride down this way…."


Which was this ride called the Supreme Scream, a 254 feet tower that drops you at 50 miles per hour while your feet dangle over nothing. Me and my younger niece Stephanie used peer pressure to get her sister Kate to go, the lovely wife showed no fear at all.

That is, till we were about half way up and she said “Sean, I am now having a panic attack”, saying this took us almost to the top where the ride stopped and I replied, “I think they heard you and stopped us” Woosh we fell down and there was screaming.

It actually was a bit spooky, once down on the ground, Kate spent a few minutes punching Steph and I in the arms.


Next stop was the Xcelerator, a O to 82 mph in 2.3 second ride. The line was huge and we stood in it for 45 minutes and were right up next to the gate when the ride broke. Figures.

This is where the wife put down her foot and wanted to go on a kiddy ride. Alright (silent sigh), we went over to Fiesta Village where they had a ride called the Hat Dance (like tea cups but with a huge Mexican hat on top), does the same thing spins about a big circle and you can turn the wheel to spin it faster. And we did. We were hungry but that soon went away and we stumbled around till we somehow ended up being steered into a ride called Montezooma’s Revenge which was Heather’s first loop to loop roller coaster. Yes, we all screamed.


Now we were ready for anything and anything was a ride called The Silver Bullet (my name sake) which opened up last Christmas, a huge inverted roller coaster that can stand head to head on anything I’ve ever been on (maybe not X at 6 Flags but it is close). Of course there was more screeming.

Couple more rides after that but they were mostly slower rides. Had a great time, might go up there again soon.

Kara and David

What a train wreck, I’ve been reading the blogs of David Ludwig and Kara Beth Borden. While interesting, what is more interesting is the takes of all of the friends on their buddy lists. From people that worked with David, went to bible study with both of them, friends that live down the street and heard the shooting, show’s how interconnected everything is getting these days.

What went wrong here? Sad and dumb. Show’s anybody is capable of this kind of craziness. Two nice kids, hormones and a single moment of emotion cut a huge swath right down the middle of this Christian community. I don’t feel guilty about posting their blog addresses, David has already had 92 thousand visitors in the last two days, I don’t think my 200 or so is going to add much.

Here's some people that know them from Lancaster (work, friends, church) and some other home schoolers with Xanga sites that have posted about this, Ryan, Cristen, Matthew, Jess, Zachary, Kayla, Jessica, Phil and Ryan. Please don't go to these pages and flame these poor kids.

update: Kara's Xanga and myspace site have been pulled, guess she's back on line. Her best friend Kayla's Xanga has also been shut down.

update number 2: To those still following this story, OptyMyst has started a blog focused on Kara and David. Good foot work!

If this blog were a car, it would be time for a replacement

My sitemeter sometime today is going to roll over the 200 thousand mark! Unlike the first hundred thousand, I did the second without the AP sending 70 thousand visitors over at me in one weekend. Wonder how many Matt, Chuck and Greyhawk get everytime they get a story gets written about their site? They're all over the news.

Plan on heading up to Knott's Berry Farm tomorrow, every year as far back as I've been in, they've had at least one month, every year, Free for the Military, Seaworld does it too. You'll never see anything like coming out of Disneyland or Six Flags, it would spoil their bottom line. Have a great weekend every one, don't forget why you're getting this long weekend and how many people gave up their lives so you can enjoy it.

PS we're still ahead of the Army guys, keep up the good work!

Valour-IT update

Looks like we've sunk the HUGE Army team again!
Couple more days of poking fun at our sister services for a good cause, if you haven't met Chuck of TC Override, he was injured in Iraq and lost use of his hands (for a while anyway) project Valour-IT started when he put a request on his blog for someone to donate voice recognition software for his laptop and Soldiers' Angels took the idea and ran. Today his wife Carren was interviewed on MSNBC and the video is already on the web, good job Carren, way better then me!

Thank you to everyone who has donated, we've surpassed our goal and spread the word and I’m sure there are some happy campers at Walter Reid, we know Chuck is.

Happy Birthday Marines

230 years ago during the American Revolutionary War, a resolution of the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of men who were to be used as landing troops for the newly created Continental Navy. These gentlemen were called the Continental Marines. Every year since that date on November 10th, Marines gather around and pay tribute to a long legacy of steely eyed warriors. Months are spent getting ready, chow halls serve lobster and steak, dress uniforms have been dry cleaned and large amounts of money have been dropped on the mounting medals and buying ball gowns for dates. This is the event that every Marine looks forward to.

The Marines are world renowned as “America’s 9-1-1 Force” and over the last few years have re-enforced that image. Whatever the problem, they have proved that they are the premier fast-response task force, from house to house combat in Iraq to providing humanitarian assistance to thousands of people in the wake of the South East Asian tsunami, when called, they have been there and will continue setting a standard of excellence second to none.

Happy Birthday Marines!

Semper Fi

It's my Birthday today!

I'm 33, it was also my wife's birthday on Halloween, actually started feeling a bit better today, hopefully I'll be well enough to work on Monday. Not that I don't love lying about in bed all day but it's much more fun when I'm not coughing up large chunks of lung butter and having crazy fever dreams. Root canal, pneumonia, Heather's car went poop for a couple of days, had a staph infection on my eyebrow, oh wait didn't write about that on the blog. Yeah a while back ago, part of my eyebrow rotted off, just a small part. So in case you meet me in person some time in the future and I tell you some crazy war story about a knife fight with a bad guy in Iraq to explain the ugly scar, just tell me I'm full of it.

It has been a crazy month but I'm just thankful to be married to my wonderful wife. I could search for a 1000 years and not find someone that suits me as well as her. So even being sick, I couldn't be happier.

Project Valour-IT is back in time for Veterans Day

Notice there’s a HUGE button on the top of my sidebar. The lovely Mrs. Smash is leading the fund raising drive for the Navy Team and we’re blowing all of the other services (scroll down to the bottom to see the current numbers) out of the water which I think is odd considering Army milblogs out number the Navy 6 to 1. If you haven’t read up on Project Valour-IT, they provide voice recognition laptops to troops who have lost use of their hands in combat. Veteran’s Day is coming up, let these Vet’s know that we haven’t forgotten about them. It's a tax-deductible donation and eligible for employer matching funds.

Greyhawk has the numbers, a post everyone should read (even though he's leading the Air Force team)

Matt from Blackfive is leading the huge Army team

Holly Aho is leading the Marines which I almost joined but that would look bad because I'm still a squid

Lex wants your five dollars

Donors may also send in donations to:

Soldiers AngelsValour-IT Fund
1792 East Washington Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91104

Good cause and I know I would like to have a voice activated laptop if I get my hands chopped off on my next trip out there!

Update Saturday night (it's my birthday too!)

Sgt Hook is going to needs 2 dollars from everyone if he plans on closing the 1200 dollar gap with the Navy. And the Marine team isn't above using bribery! I'm going to go pop some meds and hit the sack, have a good weekend!

Blah, nothing going on here

I’m trying to come up with a post but my brain has been stuck in la la land from a couple of different sources. Couple of pounds of snot clogging up my head and lungs and some very snazzy medications that my kind doctors kindly given me have mushed out all of my higher thought processes. The only thing going on in my life has been going up and down the stairs and running out of breath that goes with that. My laptop is still on the fritz and I’m not going to tackle that job on narcotics. I can tell you when I started feeling sick the first time around, on the 9th of October, I went out boogey boarding with my sisters boyfriend (also took some cool surfing pictures) that night I developed a low grade fever and sore throat. The next weekend was laid up and was better the week following till this sickness showed up last Saturday.

Guess this has been a pretty bad week, my wife’s car took a dive and I was unable to work on it (every time I bent over my head felt like an over full water balloon). So we brought it in and discovered that she had a cracked sparkplug from her tune up 6 months ago (no I didn’t do it). But for two days she got to drive my diesel suburban, she’s the first person other then me to drive it. It’s big and oh so slow, I was afraid for her and every other driver on the road. She did great and didn't run over anybody.

I’m going to try going back to work in the morning (fingers crossed), hopefully this isn’t some evil spell set on my by an ex.

It's Halloween and if you sound like Darth Vader...

….something is very wrong.

I got over that horrible cold a couple of weeks ago, my house was decorated with a bunch of Halloween stuff and I was expecting to have a great weekend. Mine and Heather’s birthday is coming up this week so we decided to throw a Halloween/birthday party with everybody dressing up. Instead of this well thought out plan, I started feeling froggy and feverish that morning, by the time of the party, I could only handle 2 beers and wasn’t in the party mood (the party did go over well though). Sunday rolled around I was laid out in bed.

Go to work on Monday, my head was feeling like a balloon with a marble rolling around inside. I leave the building every time I have to cough bits of lung butter. Yes I was paranoid about washing my hands and using hand sanitizer but my coworkers couldn’t hide their sigh of relief when I went home a bit early. It’s Halloween night and also my brides birthday, our first birthday together as a married couple. I’ve discovered something that sucks about having your birthday on Halloween, it’s difficult to make dinner plans and give out candy at the same time.

I wake up Tuesday morning to my bride telling me I’ve kept her up all night with my hacking and loud breathing. At work they kick me out and tell me to go to sick call and when I step in the exam room, the corpsman there tells me that I sound like Darth Vader. Great, the Doctor spends a few minutes listening to my lungs and sends me over to X-ray where we discover that I have pneumonia that can even be seen by my untrained eye from across the room. I am told to go directly home force fluided and given some heavy duty antibiotics and a goodie bag full of other get well meds.

It’s Wednesday and I’ve been lying here on the couch, still sound a bit like Darth but breathing a bit easier. Hopefully I’ll be better soon. Free medical kicks butt.