A Princess HNT

Holy cow, where has this past week gone?

Well, it's been a looooooong day, and I didn't have the energy to come up with an idea for HNT, until I stumbled upon one....literally.

Like any little girl, my daughter has her share of Barbie toys. She's really into princesses, and her favorite one is Cinderella. What's funny is that Disney doesn't show Cinderella in the same light that I see her in. Disney portrays her as an innocent peasant girl who finds her way into a pair of glass slippers, and dances her way into the prince's heart.

The Cinderella that I see, however, is somewhat different. The Cinderella I know...well, just take a look below.



I don't know if she's caught one too many Britney concerts or what, but this poor girl can't seem to keep her clothes on. I'm contemplating an intervention.

Happy HNT everyone.

Piratey HNT

Arrrrrrrr, me fellow HNT mateys!

OK, it's 8:00PM and I'm tired of talking like a pirate, so that's quite enough of that. Since Wednesday was "Talk Like a Pirate" day, I figured it was fitting to do a related HNT picture. Unfortunately, I'm short on pirate gear, so dressing up for a quick photo op this evening is out of the question. Plus, it's been a long day and I don't really feel like taking a picture anyway.

Fortunately, I went into the office last Halloween dressed like a scurvy buccaneer. Here, you can see me during our office pot luck, eating a "special brownie" prepared by the neon hippie sitting beside me.



Happy Half Nekkid Thursday everyone. Arrrrrrrrr! (OK, I had enough for one more!)

Arrrrrrrrrr!

Ahoy, me hearty crew! Wednesday, September 19th be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ye best be goin' through yer day usin' yer most Piratey voice! If ye don't, ye may just find yerself on the wrong end of a blunderbuss!

What's this? Ye be interested in becomin' a pirate yerself? Well, this job ain't for everyone, landlubber! But if ye want to give it a try, best be readin' up on the Laws o' the Pirate first!

Now, if ye be wonderin' how to talk like a pirate, see below for the "Five A's of Pirating", which I pirated from the Talk Like a Pirate website.

Ahoy! - "Hello!"

Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."

Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."

Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!

If ye be seekin' a piratey tune, there ain't no better theme than the original Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Just click that there link, and you'll be listenin' to it in no time!

ARRRRRRRRRR!

It's Softball season

The summer heat has subsided (in Phoenix, that means the temp has dipped below 110), which means that it's time to pull out the aluminum bats and oil up the gloves...it's softball season again!

Here in Phoenix, we play 3 seasons out of the year...Winter, Spring, and Fall. Unfortunately, due to a shoulder injury (resulting in some surgery) while remodeling our kitchen, I missed out on the last season so I'm really looking forward to this one! The doctor has given me the OK to play, so I'm very excited.

I thought about going to the cage to practice my batting, but being the worst batter on the team, I figured why ruin a good thing.

Emotional (Sporty) HNT

My apologies for the long post. However, if you're a football fan, I'm sure you can relate.

I don't get emotional about too many things. I'm a pretty laid back kind of guy, and won't cause too much of a stir when things don't go my way. However, there's one thing that will send me into a counch-punching, profanity-driven tirade...

...Football. The college type, that is. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a huge Cornhusker fan. Like most football fans, I like to see my team win, and win big if possible. When we're not playing up to the level that I think they should be playing at, I let everyone within a three mile radius know about it.

For some bonus HNT coverage, I'd like to show you some of the emotions that I go through on any given Saturday (but more specifically, this past Saturday while playing Wake Forest.

First, there's the Preparation phase. This is right as the game is beginning. I have high hopes, and can't wait to see what we're going to do. My lucky 1989 autographed football is always there with me. I'm always wearing my #12 jersey (that's Bobby Newcombe from a few years back. He was a prick and left the team because he didn't get his way, but I've just been too lazy to go out and get a new jersey), and my favorite Husker cap.


Next, we have the Confusion stage. This is the point where I'm starting to question everything about the team. Who are these guys on the field, and what did they do with the guys that I thought we had playing for our team? I start to wonder what the hell Keller is doing forcing the ball between two defenders. Why does he have to stare down his receiver? Why in God's name does Callahan keep running Lucky up the middle when Castille is a better power back?

Next we have the Frustration stage. We aren't making any plays, and the lead is switching back and forth. The only thing keeping us in the game is the defense...and barely! By this time, the hat has come off, and there's a slight indentation in the couch. The neighbors start coming out of their homes to see what all the swearing and yelling is about. Fortunately, my wife isn't home or else she's probably be washing my mouth out with soap.


Lastly comes the End of the Game stage. This can go one of two ways. The first, and most preferable way for everyone in my path, is that we win. The second is that we lose. In this case, I go through a fit of depression for the next several hours, wondering about the what-if's and how-comes. My family knows to leave me to my sulking for the rest of the day. If it's a large upset, I might go until Sunday before I speak again.


As you can probably see in the last picture, we won this weekend (barely) against an unranked but decent Wake Forest team. Let's hope we can pull together a little more enthusiastic game this Saturday against the USC Trojans.

Happy Sporty HNT everyone!

Smart cat

It's nice to know that the animals
in the house are also fans!

My Playlist

I've got nothing worth posting this weekend, but felt a need to post something. So how about some music talk? I've got a wide variety of taste in music. I can listen to country, rock, pop, classical, and even some rap. I'll often pick up a tune that is hot at the moment, but just as often replace it with something else when it's become overplayed.

However, here are some tunes that have had staying power on my playlist, in no particular order:

Dobie Gray - Drift Away
Steve Miller Band - The Joker
Big & Rich - Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)
Billy Joel - Piano Man
AC/DC - T.N.T.
Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy
Trent Tomlinson - Drunker Than Me
Jimmy Buffett - Why Don't We Get Drunk
Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right
Tracy Lawrence - Paint Me A Birmingham
Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
Jason Mraz - Curbside Prophet
Don McLean - American Pie
Charlie Daniels Band - Devil Went Down to Georgia

So there are just a handful of the songs that are permanently on my iPod. How about you? What are some of your favorites?

A semi-dorky HNT

I had a dilemma when Osbasso declared this past Tuesday to be "Dorky Tuesday" My dilemma? Well, the problem is, I'm naturally dorky. Therefore pretty much all of my pictures are dorky, so it's tough to single out just one.

This week for HNT, I found a picture from a couple of years ago, when I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I happened upon the MSN Butterfly himself (who knew that butterfly was a dude?) and pulled him aside to get a quick photograph. Never in a thousand years did I think I'd be standing next to a million-dollar bug!


So alas, I was unable to find anything suitable for a Dorky Tuesday entry, but I sincerely hope that this makes up for it. Happy HNT Everyone!

Phew, what a weekend!

I know the weekend isn't technically over, but I'm exhausted!

I've been looking for a job in Nebraska. We currently live in Arizona. Why Nebraska, you ask? My wife and I both grew up in Nebraska, and well...there's a reason that the state slogan is "The Good Life". I moved to Phoenix 6 years ago for a job. Our son was 2 at the time, and we didn't really take into consideration how it would be to raise him out here. Then, almost three years ago, we had our daughter, and started thinking about moving back home (Nebraska) where we could have a house with a yard (the grass really is greener there...literally!) that is affordable, and be closer to family. So I've finally taken the plunge and sent off a boatload of resumes, and have been applying for every job that I remotely qualify for, just to try to get my foot in the door.

With that out of the way, we're trying to get our house to a point where we can sell it if I do get that great job offer. We've spent the weekend thus far painting, and will most likely spend Labor Day doing the same. I'm high on paint fumes. I'm likely stoopider from it.

Oh yeah, my Cornhuskers won on Saturday...kicked the snot out of Nevada, with a score of 52-10. I haven't been as enthusiastic as I am now about this team for several years. We've got an offense with a lot of potential and our defense looked stellar. I have a feeling this could be a great year!

Until next time, blog safely!