Bob’s Ramblings

Lately, my wife and I have been trying to get more stuff done around the house.   She and I are both notorious pack rats, so we’ve also began the process of purging tons of useless crap.   So far, it’s been working quite well.  We’re both upbeat about the progress we’ve made and I have even gone so far as to start emptying the storage unit that I’ve had for the last three years.  

Yeah, I’ve had a storage unit for the last 3 years.   A 10×10 space to hold all of the junk that I owned when I was a bachelor.   The fact that it ended up in storage in the first place and not in the house should have been an indicator that the stuff in there will never see the light of day again.   So I’ve been shelling out $120/month for the last 3 years to hold junk that I (HOPE) will never need again.    So I’m donating it all.  Yep, just giving it all away.  Which in the end turns out that I paid all that money for a storage unit to hold stuff that I ended up giving away anyway.  Hmm, I fail to see the logic there. 

The goal was to have the storage emptied by the end of October…2008.  Then it was November.  Now the goal is by the end of May.  I have promised Susan that I would be 100% completely out of that unit within the next week (er few days).    The money that I would be spending would go towards paying someone to clean our house twice per month.  This will make everyone in our home happy.

My wife has been looking forward to that for a very long time, and it finally looks like it’s going to happen.  In addition to that, we have developed plans for other things in the house as well.  For instance, she’s been wanting a new sofa and love seat for our living room.   She’s also been wanting a new kitchen table as well.  So we went and looked at some furniture this past weekend and found some things we both liked. 

Now you would think that in regards to buying new furniture, there is a bit of stress involved….

• Have to pick the right color
• Have to pick the right fabric
• Does it recline?
• Does it go with our other living room furniture?
• What about the animals?
• Are we paying too much for it?

Sure, all of those things are concerns for stress.  Imagine my surprise when we experienced next to no stress in regards to those things.  I mean it’s almost like we walked right into the furniture store, she picked out a sofa and loveseat, I agreed and we paid.  Ok maybe I’m exagerating a little, but it went down pretty much like that.

Here I am right now, writing this on the day in which the new furniture is being delivered and now I’m feeling the enormous stress.  Not because we have a window of 11-2 in which the furniture will be delievered, because my wife is stressing out about what to do with the old furniture.

Seriously, we’re getting rid of stuff.  We already know this stuff isn’t staying in the house.  We already know someone that wants the old kitchen table and we’re donating the old sofa and loveseat.  Why should temporary placement of the old furniture cause so much damn stress? 

I had to clear out some space in a room for the delivery guys to put the old furniture.  No problem, except that my wife was still stressing out about it.  I guess I just don’t get it.  This should be a happy and joyous time because in a matter of hours, we’ll be enjoying the new furniture.  

Calgon, take me away.

Ramblings

I don’t know if anyone reading my blog has taken the time to visit any of the links to the right hand side of the site underneath where it says ‘Videos’ or not,  but if you haven’t, you really should.

Why?  Because I find them quite enjoyable myself.  Most of them are by the Lonely Island (which I mentioned in a previous post) but I added a new one today called ‘The Ultimate Showdown’.

The Ultimate Showdown is a flash video that was created in lieu with a song that was written and performed by Lemon Demon.  The song has quite a catchy beat and is actually quite humorous to listen to.  The flash video depicts images from the song (it’s animated) and does a tremendous job of capturing what the songwriter intended.

Anyway, check them out.  I’ll continue to add more as I see fit.

Ramblings

My wedding anniversary is approaching once again and it’s normally about this time where I reflect back upon the last year and begin thinking if I have done everything that I could do to be the best husband that I can be to my wife. 

Sure I mess up at times.  I’ll ocassionally forget to put the seat back down or I’ll rip a loud one and blame it on the dog, but all in all I think I do pretty ok.  I’ve learned a lot from being married.  In fact,  I would tend to think that when it comes to relationships, I’ve become quite an expert.

For example:

“Do these shoes look ok?”  - the answer is always yes, even though I didn’t look at your feet.

“Does this outfit make me look fat?”  - the answer is always no.

“I’d rather not, but I will go if you really want to”  -  Face it, you’re not going.  Don’t try and convince her.

“I don’t care what we eat for dinner”  - keep guessing until you suggest what I’m really craving.

Sure, those are simple.   But every once in a while there comes that time when you make that incredibly stupid faux pas that you wish you could just forget about and move on.   I’ll fill you all in.

My little brother (he’s actually taller than me, and he hates when I refer to him as my little brother, but I’m not going to start calling him my younger brother anytime soon) is in the Navy.  He does Public Affairs for the Blue Angels.   As luck would have it, an air show was coming to the New Orleans area during the first weekend in May and he would be there.  So I spoke to my wife about it and she was thrilled.  No problem there.

But it also turned out that an ex-girlfriend of mine was coming into town with a couple of friends and asked me if I could talk to my brother about perhaps hooking them up with some special treatment of sorts.  Now, Monica and I are still friends, so I personally didn’t see anything wrong with it.  So I called up my brother and he said that he would hook her up with some VIP tickets.   She was grateful and I was happy to do her the favor.  My brother was also setting me up with some VIP tickets too as well as my friend Kevin.

So the day of the show, we get into the car and start traveling towards to New Orleans for the show.  I think it was right about the time I got on I-12 that my  brother called and mentioned that he was looking for me in the VIP section but didn’t see me yet.  I told him I was enroute. 

It was at that point that I began to panic.  Apparently, this VIP section was small enough for my brother to visibly identify everyone from where he was standing.  This meant that I would have no trouble locating my friend Kevin, but it also meant that the possibility of running into Monica was very likely.  So I kinda casually mentioned that it’s going to be really cool running into Kevin again.  My wife had never met him, so she was looking forward to meeting him.  She then asked if my older brother would be there and I said that we shouldn’t have any problem running into him.  She was pleased to hear that as well.  That’s when I dropped the bomb…. “Uh, oh, uh we may also kinda see my friend Monica there….”

<pause>

<pause>

“Monica? Like the girl you dated Monica?”

Oh shit! She remembers the name.  Shit shit shit.  “Umm, yeah. We may run into her.”

“We’ll be in the VIP section, so we shouldn’t see any of your ex.”

“Well actually, I kinda spoke to Chris and he hooked her up with some VIP tickets too….”

“And your telling me this now?  You didn’t think I needed to know this until now?” 

Apparently there are some things that I still have to learn, and believe me, school was in session that day.  We had to avoid Monica the entire time we were there.  I did get to say hello though.  I also had to promise never to ever pull this stunt again, which I heartily agreed to.

We stopped off at the Bud’s Broiler (I love that place) on Vets on the way out of town.  Susan never relented from what I had done, and I began to understand why.  As we were driving through Kenner to get back on the Interstate, I mentioned the upcoming reunions I had coming up.  One is my 20 year high school reunion and the other is one from Jr High.   I mentioned that my friend Michelle would be at both…

“Michelle? The girl you dated Michelle?”

“Uh, no.”

“Didn’t you date a Michelle?”

“Yeah, but that was in Baton Rouge, I didn’t go to school with her.”

“Who’s Michelle then?”

“She dated my friend David.”

“Oh ok.  Just don’t ever pull that shit on me again”

Believe me, I won’t.

Ramblings

Ok ok ok.  I’ll post something new very soon.  I’ve been jammed pack busy lately and my site has been neglected as a result.  Rather than rush a post today, I’ll take the time and post something tomorrow.  Perhaps something will inspire me between now and then.

Ramblings