i am stupidtom dot com

Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Blogger went down for a few days but it's back and so am I. I'll post some re-cap tonight. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Tuesday, May 22, 2001

I want to include this on my regular site. Working on that now but it's late and I have to be up at 3:45am. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Monday, May 21, 2001

This is not easy to keep doing every day. The major problem is turning my home machine on every day. I’ll try and recap the last few days. Wednesday night Liza and I went to the U2 concert with friends (as mentioned earlier but I just let it hang with nothing said). Awesome time, skybox tickets, great show, too much liquor, perfect evening. Thursday night Max was so sick that Liza stayed home from work to take him to the doctor. [Ear infection, sore throat, 2 molars coming in, unrelenting fever.] Not much sleep for anyone, but Friday he seemed to be better. I had a work banquet in the evening and by the time I got home it was my shift with sickly. I slept about 2 hours and then our regular Saturday started at 06:00. Saturday sucked. Between the vomit and the runs I didn’t feel equipped to handle the outing to Katie’s game so the coach drove her. Luckily Sam & Julie were on a niece and nephew-athon and stopped by to watch the game. I didn’t feel bad because Katie and I were going to the Chicago Fire game that night for one of her friend’s birthday parties. The game wasn’t as bad as anticipated and we actually managed to have fun. Home by 11:30 just in time for the little one to arise from his slumber. 2 hours later I woke up with my arm asleep stuck through the slats in his crib where I had been rubbing his back. I pulled the useless piece of meat free with my good arm and stumbled off to bed. Luckily, Liza didn’t have to be at work until 07:00 so I had enough time at six to quick run to the store. I’m still moving around in a fog. More when my head clears. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Thursday, May 17, 2001

Sorry about the lack of content. We went to U2 last night and apparently I am a very old man. My ears were ringing all day and my hangover has decided to move in permanently. I need sleep but the kids aren’t feeling well. Happy Birthday LZA! 12:00:00 AM    says you

Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Once a week I’m going to try to do a State of the Family address. Now that I typed that I think in the future I’ll break that up into “kids” and Liza and or me. That’s not really fair either because this entire thing is basically about me anyway so my lovely wife will get her own segment. On with the kids: Katie is the unfortunate recipient of all things emotional from her mother and her father. She also wears all of that on her sleeve for the whole world to see. She wants to love and be loved by all. Her troubled introduction to this world makes her one of the strongest people I know. I am also slightly disturbed by her looks. Peeking through this little girl, my first born, are all the signs of a beautiful young woman. I am not now nor will I ever be prepared to share this child with anyone. Pray for the first few that dare to date my baby. Maggie on the other hand is my girlie girl. As much as Katie loves sports Maggie loves cloths. From the age of 1, my princess has never met a mirror she didn’t like. She wants attention above all else and she gets it. This one has a mean streak that was taken directly from my own. She is shy and aloof around strangers but things affect her more deeply than anyone expects. The basis for this theory comes from all of the wonderful time that “Uncle Tim” spent in the hospital. While Katie was visibly upset by the conversations that Liza and I were having, Maggie would leave the room. Same thing if Katie would ask how he was doing, Maggie would disappear. While Katie only wanted good news her sister would rather not know. I catch Maggie drawing Tim every once and a while and its always a picture of him “better”. She has yet to speak to him since he has been home from the hospital. I have a feeling that this child will cost me the rest of my hair. Now, Max. My son is the charmer of the group. He has already picked up on who and how much to use his weapons on. Targets are carefully chosen and artfully won over. I’ve told Liza that I hope he uglies up a little, for all of our sakes. I am afraid of how much these little people mean to me. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Monday, May 14, 2001

Wow, doing some cleaning and stumbled upon a bad day. This was the Saturday after Maggie's birthday: I went to Toys [backwards R] Us to pick up her new Barbie bike from Grandpa Stand. (not a typo, she thinks it’s his name and it cracks me up so I haven’t corrected her yet) SO I stroll into the chaos of this store on a Saturday morning with the intention of presenting my receipt, grabbing the assembled bike, and scrambling home. As I walked up to the customer service desk I was happy to see not one but two shifty looking manager types behind the counter in conference. By some miracle I was the only one in need of assistance so I placed my hand containing the receipt on the counter and cleared my throat. This did nothing but make these two huddle closer together. I figure they are discussing the current wave of area layoffs and how this will impact pokemon sales, so I give them a moment to finish. As I took 10 minutes to enjoy the mutant that was merchandizing the crate of 75% off Easter goods, I turned back to find a very polite woman saying “excuse me” with increasing volume towards the pair of customer servants. When she saw me looking she apologized and said she new I was first in line but she just wanted to know where an item might be found. No problem says I, hoping that she breaks one of these idiots loose from their mind meld so I can grab on afterwards. She is on her 10th or 11th repetition when Frick and Frack decide to try and escape out the other side. I’m roughly 15 minutes into a 5 minute trip so I’ve had all I can stands and I can’t stands no more. I firmly state in a semi shout that I think break time is over, now its back to work. With no apparent affect, I loudly exclaim, “get the manager up here because the 300lb guy is about to lose his shit.” This finally got a reaction, and it was the always infuriating – sir, there is no need to swear. This causes a flood of excrement to flow from my mouth but I manage to mention my mission and that of my polite cohort. As the two who had obviously experienced the likes of me before got ready for battle, a quick thinking teenaged cashier walked over, answered my counter mates question, and took my receipt to get the bike. I knew I had a minute or so to kill and the line behind me was just getting into the show. I opened with my observation that I now knew why Santa worked with elves ~ because the adult humans that choose to work with toys are scary mutations with poor dispositions. Just as the smoke from their churning brains was about to produce a witty retort, the Barbie bike floated over to me and I was on my way. 2 side notes: 1.) The part of me that wanted to drop the bike off and go back to the store for a pound of flesh has gone back into hibernation so everyone is safe. 2.) I know having the bike built was a questionable move. But, Stan likes to do it, and who am I to get in the way of a grandfathers fun. Besides, this thing is insane, basket/backpack, radio, streamers, spoke decorations, yikes. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Friday, May 11, 2001

Oops, missed a day. To successfully post my thoughts every day I have to actually touch a computer. Working overnights this week kicked my ass. I have no idea how people get sleep during the day. Its too loud, too light, and my brain won’t shut all the way down. I have a total of 16 hours of sleep since last Saturday night. I’m no doctor but I know that can’t be good. Liza is at the cancer walk @ Arlington Park tonight, all kids sleeping and accounted for. Time for bed. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Wednesday, May 09, 2001

This working overnight has given me a lot of time to think. I’m not quite sure if it’s good or bad but I know I’m getting a lot done. When you mix this in with the sleep deprivation, I’m a bundle of fun right now. The one thing I keep coming back to again and again is it’s time for some changes in my life. I’m talking about priorities and organization. I have always lived by Family, work, then everything else. Other things have crept in front of work from time to time but these two are my basic order of life. I have come to the realization that its time to expand the list. I need to include Health because if I’m not around, the rest is for shit. I also need to make some time to take at least one class. I think part of my current rut is the fact that I haven’t really studied anything in a long time. A money plan has got to become a priority. We are not poor by any stretch of the imagination, but unavoidable debt has placed us on a treadmill. It doesn’t help that the money in part of our retirement account is worth 1/3 of its former value. This is a particular kick in the nuts because we borrowed against this to get into this lovely little house. No tears here, just time for a damn plan. I think were both scared because the plan might just show that I need to work more, and we don’t see much of each other now. But, nobody said life was easy, so its time to figure out exactly what has to happen. I’ve got to get some sleep before I start listing debt and really depressing myself. Blog on. 12:00:00 AM    says you

Tuesday, May 08, 2001

Like the sign says, this is the only therapy available to me and I plan on going as much as possible. To start let me say that I have a life that a lot of people would trade for in an instant. This means that you’re not going to get a lot of “woe is me” and “if only I’d…” What you will see is a frustrated somewhat creative guy without many outlets. OK that didn’t make much sense, but a guy that went to college to teach ART / doesn’t finish school / winds up helping run and grow a private ambulance company / is bound to have some creative issues. Luckily, things seem to be finding me lately. Both of my girls love to draw so that is getting me back in that game (when there’s time) We have started a monthly newsletter at work so that lets me exercise my writer more often. The computer dork in me stumbled across this site online, and coupled with trying to learn web design; this might just round me out. This thing [I should get used to the term BLOG] is going to be filled with an extreme variety of garbage. Don’t look for a daily diary. If you end up checking in every once and a while you’ll probably end up a little scared. Please keep in mind that when you are the guy that has to keep it all together and make everyone around you think that it will all turn out all right you’ve got to have somewhere to release. This is it for me, for now. I hope as I go I start to make more sense. 12:00:00 AM    says you