Training wheels and 800 numbers

Anyone who is a parent understands that it isn't piece of cake or a walk in the park, but that it's more like a roller coaster of some fun highs and dreadful lows. The times I get to be super dad while Maritza is away from the house are always an adventure. Yesterday, Maritza took Porter to his gym and then to do some grocery shopping. I decided I wanted to get a project done on the house while she was gone. I've been trying to put up an outside light that shines onto our built-in bbq. During which I hoped the girls would play with neighborhood kids and mostly stay out of the way. Well, one can only hope.

First off, is anyone tired of the political phone call yet? I had one phone receiver with me when a call from an 800 number came through and I assumed it was just another "vote for me" call. I ignored it and let it ring. Jaycie comes running to hand me the phone because the person on the line asked for me by name. I told her hang it up. She replies into the receiver that her daddy says to hang up. She listened to the caller and then hung up. She then turned to me and began to cry and told me that I hurt her feelings and that I was mean for not talking to them. I tried to talk to her and let her know that I don't have to talk to people just because they know my name and are calling our house.

Later, Ellie found me to tell me she needed help with her bike. Some how her training wheel had been bent straight up. Just like any other dad, I stepped on the training wheel and bent it back into place. In doing so a neighbor girl says "Why don't you take them off". This gets into Ellie's mind and once something gets there she's not going to budge until she get's what she wants. I tried to reason with her that I needed to get back to what I was doing and that I didn't have enough time to help her ride the bike without training wheels. Finally, I give in and I take the wheels off. I gave her the basic riding instructions and gave her a push and began to run along side to catch her before she fell. Well, to my amazement so didn't need me to be there. She zoomed up and down the street for nearly and hour and a half with only one little tumble. I never got back to my project, because I felt I should stay out there and help keep an eye out for cars. I guess it'll have to wait until the weekend.

So going one for two as super dad for the night will have to do!

Hiking Sunshine Mountain

We are not outdoorsy type people so any activity that gets us into the thicket of nature is a real accomplishment. Tutti and Papi Morejon recently moved into a neighborhood that has some great trails nearby. So this last Saturday, after all our weekend chores we completed, we hiked a little trail on Sunshine Mountain. Now, there are no real mountains in the Phoenix area. This is solely my opinion yet substantiated with my childhood memories of growing up on the foothills of the Wasatch front in North Salt Lake City. It was a great little hike and the kids had a great time. I think it was fun educating them on the wildlife and telling them the names of all the various types of cacti along the way.

Round trip to work costs how much??

In these current times of high gas prices and economic woes I'm always looking at cost savings and cost cutting measures for the personal finances. I recently stumbled upon a new little website that helps you estimate the cost of your trip by calculating the distance, the car brand and type and the current cost of gas. It can be found at http://www.city-data.com/gas/gas.php. So I put in my home address and my work address at $3.30 a gallon (which is about the average cost in Phoenix right now). So, based on this little calculator I'm spending around $6.00 a day just to go to work and back. That turns into $30 a week or $1565 a year and that doesn't include trips to go get lunch or run errands in the middle of the day. This doesn't even begin to include the cost of maintainence or purchase price of a vehicle. Luckily for me the car has been paid off for years, but within the last month alone I have plopped over $700 into new strut mounts and new breaks and then another $85 on a new tire.

Oyi...I wish mass transit was a more viable option. On the converse if I routinely worked from home one day a week for the whole year the yearly cost would only be $1251 which is a savings of $313 and possibly hundreds more on maintainence savings.

Time to get approval for more telecommuting!!

Porter and the Build-a-Bear Furniture

So, my little guy Porter is 20 months today. He's an extremely active kid and climbs in, out and on top of things better than King Kong on the Empire State building. Thus, it goes without saying that the crib walls aren't even a speed bump in his path to his sleeping parents in their bed.

I guess if we can't slow him down then we need to accommodate him. I figure if he had his own bed then he'd be more than likely to stay there. One of the furniture lines that my company carries is the Build-a-Bear licensed bedroom sets. They are really nice. We've been looking at two different sets. One is called Bearrific and the other is Libearty. The Bearrific is the lighter wood and the Libearty has a darker, rich color.




Porter's room has a dark, metallic blue paint job and accessorized with Fender gear and swag. A real swank room for any toddler if you ask me. In which either should look great. So, until we make up our minds on which furniture line to go with, I guess we will have to continue to have patience with the little bear in the middle.

I love good freeware

At work the other day, I was tasked with getting a couple of logos to go on our customer statements. The files I had were not sized right and I couldn't get them on the output correctly. My boss told me about a Photoshop like software call Paint.net. It downloaded easily and unlike Photoshop was not too difficult to use. If you've ever used Photoshop without ever taken a class on it, you know what I mean. So, I got a little adventurous and even created the header picture on this blog. I found a stock photo on the web. Cropped it, added a little effects and slapped a title on it. I'll pat myself on the back later for it.

Bailout my A$$

I found this article on-line today after another horrific day on the stock market that infuriated me beyond all belief.


I guess only time will tell whether the so-called bailout will help the economy but until companies learn to govern themselves this won't be the last bailout by the government in our life times.

Check out this link on AIG and how they have already begun to spend the money they have received from our government and our tax dollars. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/08/useconomy.insurance