My luck....

I started the New Year out on a positive note financially and knew that this was going to be a better year. Things were looking good right up until I pulled in my garage and my muffler on my car got torn off. Are you kidding me? I knew it was hanging low and planned on getting it taken care of but I guess I was a tad too late.
I took it to the same place I've always taken my vehicles and hoped for the best.
He gave me a quote....
$894
I almost fainted
It had to be done, my rear view mirror was vibrating uncontrollably and my family knew I was coming from a mile away.
Mike (my mechanic) fixed it and told me he saved me some cash.
The total bill...
$504
I wanted to kiss him, but that would be wrong. Very wrong.
So I shook his hand and thanked him instead.

I felt better and cleared my first hurdle of the year. It sucked and set me behind only slightly but it's over with. Fast forward a week and a half, I receive a text from my wife....
Wife: Guess What?
I knew this wasn't gonna be good.
Me: What?
Wife: The washer died!
Me: WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can a grown man cry over a washer? It doesn't matter.... I did anyway. Why me? I guess in a way I expecting it to happen sooner or later, just would have preferred later. It's 11 years old and gets lots of use with 5 people here. My dilemma now is, do I fix it or go buy a new one? My tax return will be here on the 13th. I don't want to put a lot of money into something that may be breaking down a lot in the coming months.
Think I'll buy new.
Now, bad things happen in 3's. What next?

I had a weird dream. It's hard to describe but I found a picture that sums it up.
Man, I have issues!

Oh, one more thing. I think President Obama is gonna do a kick ass job.

My Weekend

I have to catch up on a few things that had happened this weekend. I had an action packed weekend and had a great time. It got even better come Saturday. I took a few days off work to use up some vacation time and I think it was very well spent.

On Thursday, my first day off, my sister in law, my wife and I prepared to have a garage sale. We decided to have it at the sister in laws house as she lives in a more populated area and wanted to get maximum traffic. We spent pretty much the entire day prepping for the event. Hanging signs, pricing out items, and setting up tents. It was fun, not loads but I had a good time. I also got to meet my wife's cousin who was in town from Florida for a family reunion that was taking place on Sunday. Overall it was a good day. I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Friday, I woke up early, and was at the garage sale all day long. We sold a ton of stuff and made some decent money. Nothing to brag about but I got rid of some unwanted items. What was really cool was going through all my old tapes. I no longer have a tape player so it's kinda purposeless to hang on to all these things. There was a ton of them. My brother in law was the same way. Lots and lots of tapes. All 80's music which really brought back the memories. Music is what kept me sane and alive in my teenage years so it was a nice trip down memory lane.

I received a phone call from a friend on Friday that I have not heard from in quite some time. He told me that he had been giving 4 tickets to the Jets vs redskins game in the Meadowlands for Saturday night. Now I'm a huge Redskins fan and he knows it so this was behind exciting for me. To top it all off, it would be my first NFL game. I was stoked. I could have jumped out of my skin I was so excited.

Saturday came and I was back up to my sister in laws bright and early to continue this garage sale thing. I just had to be back home to my house by 2:30 to leave for the game. The first part of the morning went quite well. We had a few stragglers come in but then it started pouring rain. Everything got soaked. You actually couldn't do anything but laugh. It lasted about an hour and a half with 3 times when it was a torrential downpour. After that, the sun came out and we had ourselves a beautiful day. We sold a lot more stuff and I was pretty happy. And that was all before 1 Pm as I left to go home to get ready to go to the game.

The 4 hour drive to the game was fun. My bro in law and my friend hit it off real well which was nice. The conversation was great and it went by pretty fast. I was pretty excited by the time we got there. The parking situation was weird but we made it. Nothing like parking 3 miles from the stadium and busing it in. I didn't care, I was there and it felt great.

The game was great. Even better so was the Redskins won on a last second missed field goal by the Jets. My buddy was so ticked. He's a Jets fan and although he's used to having a team choke, that was a hard one to swallow.

I had a great time and couldn't thank my buddy enough!

Well, we left the game and headed home. It was 11:00 and we had a 4 hour drive. We finally made it home around 3 am. I crashed immediately and my bro in law stayed at my house. No sense driving back to his house at that point. We had a family reunion to get to in the morning.

We got up around 9 and started getting ready for my wife's family reunion. It was in Alex Bay so we had yet another drive ahead. Only an hour and a half but it was still a drive. First we went to my in SIL's house so her hubby could get ready. While there I took this really cool picture. I thought it was neat so I wanted to share it with you.

We made it up to Alex Bay for the family reunion. It was alot of fun actually. I ate a lot, drank a lot and had a good time. One thing I want to do was take my kids to Boldt Castle. I have never been there so I thought it would be a cool experience. We took the boat over to the island, after my youngest had a nervous breakdown about being on a boat, and nobody was disappointed. If you have never been there, I highly recommend it. Lots of very cool history and absolutely beautiful grounds.

I must say, I had a great weekend. It was long and I was totally exhausted but, it was so very worth it. I made the wife drive home. I had to work in the morning and it was 10:30. I was happy. My kids had a really good time and that's all that mattered.

Golf and Other Things

I've gotta vent on a couple issues. One kinda leads into the other so I'm just going to start by telling about my day yesterday. This could be a long one. Grab a drink and enjoy.

I had some semi plans with my brother for a round of golf scheduled for early yesterday (Sunday) morning. By semi I mean, we talked about it, and said we would meet up at a course for a nice round of golf to catch up on our lives and swing some sticks. The only stipulation that I had was that it had to be early as I had a my wife's birthday party to attend at 1:00. I would say that was a rather important event. Her birthday was the day before, therefore she didn't mind me going as long as I was in time for this party. No problem, I'll just go early.

I got up pretty early, got ready for golf and waited. And waited. And waited. Now, I was up at 6:30 and ready to go by 7:00. I tried a couple times to get in touch with my brother but was pretty unsuccessful. At 8:30 I told my wife, I was leaving. I was pretty sure he'd call and he only lived 10 minutes from the course. I was on my way and tried to call a few more times but no answer. I sent my wife a few text saying I was pretty upset with him and if he wasn't there when I got there, I was golfing alone.

I arrived at 9:00 and paid for golf and was getting my stuff on the cart when my brother called. I told him I was at the course getting ready to tee off. He told me he'd be there in 10 minutes as he had fallen asleep. No problem, we'd still be OK time wise with just the 2 of us. I went to the putting green to practice as that seems to be the part killing me this year. I didn't realize how much time had gone by until I heard my brothers truck pull in. It's loud and has a distinct rumble. Even my deaf ass can hear it. I drove up to the lot and there he is........... with his father in law and his brother in law. And it was now 10:00. I was pretty ticked off at this point but decided to let it go as I wanted to enjoy myself.

His In Laws are good people but not my favorite. The brother in law can't keep track of his score and doesn't follow too many golf rules which drives me insane. Oh well, can't win em all right?

We played the round in 4 hours. Now if you do the math, that makes it 2:00 when we finished up which makes me 1 hour late for something I still have to drive 45 minutes for. I put the 2 and 2 together and surrendered to the fact that I was gonna get my ass chewed out. I called my wife, she was already there and was very short on the phone, understandably. So off to the party I went. Oh and by the way, I beat everyone on the course. I putted better than I have all year.

I got to the party by 3:00. Everyone was just sitting down to eat. No problems what so ever. My wife ended up not being mad at me at all but was not too pleased with my brother. So we sat and ate with some great conversation. I always enjoy my sister in law and her husbands company. We get along great and things are pretty smooth with us. My mother in law and father in law, who are divorced are a different story. My mother in law, I hate. That's a whole new topic I'll get into another day. My father in law, well, he's a coward. He strives for attention from his son, who is again, another story. He takes his son's word as gospel even if it's bashing other people. This leads to animosity between us and I have felt it for years. I think it started when he accused me of poisoning his daughter, my wife. Nice guy huh? He blamed me for her getting sick.

He built a new house and needed to furnish it. I work for a furniture company so I told him to mention me and he could get a discount. Pretty simple right? Well, he went and bought new furniture and had it delivered. This he told me yesterday. I said "great, did you mention me and get the friends and family discount?" He said no, he got a discount through his son, Keith. I said, "oh really, they gave you a discount for someone that was fired from the company a year ago and does nothing but bad mouth the company?" I said, "I'll be sure to mention that to the sales manager." He didn't like that at all and it ended the conversation immediately.

I had a conversation with my wife 2 weeks prior to this discussing how I feel like her dad doesn't really care for me. She told me I was reading him wrong and I was fine. By some of the things he said yesterday, he verified it all for me. I was pretty pissed to say the least and was quite happy when he left.

The discussion that came afterwards with my wife's sister and husband made me feel 100 times better. We discussed our life's and why her dad is the way he was. They pointed out the root of the problems and made me realize, he's more of an ass than I thought. I don't want to deal with him or my mother in law any more than I have too. I will tolerate them for my wife's sake but she is even in agreeing that they suck. I have enough of my own issues in life and don't need the added stress. I love my sister in law and her husband more than ever and thank them for there kindness and understanding.

By the end of the day, I was beat. I wanted to get to bed.

I just don't understand why family has to be backstabbing idiots sometimes. My family is whacked, my wife's family is whacked. I don't ever want my kids to say this stuff about me. It just gives me more incentive to be a better parent.