You can shine like silver all you want, but you're just aluminum

Beware of shrinkage...

2007-12-14T20:31:06Z

So, I decided to do this charity thing when I'm away on business in February, where I'll freeze my ass off to raise money for a good cause. If you're interested in donating, let me know!!

Just because I want to piss off Reese...

2007-11-15T14:16:41Z

Scrabulous - Game #7441706 is now over

Hello Ron,

The game being played by Reese,Ron is now over.
You have won game with 316 points!
Second place goes to Reese with 207 points.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To view the board CLICK HERE or paste the link below in your browser:

http://www.scrabulous.com/email_scrabble/play.php?gid=7441706&pid=2&password=8c6o
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You may also want to start a new game!

Best Regards,
The Scrabulous Team.

Only a few hours left!!

2007-09-25T19:42:19Z

</a

On the road with Elmo and the dead...

2007-05-04T01:51:48Z

This has been a very hectic week so far. I've been on the road the last 3 days - White Plains on Tuesday, Harrisburg yesterday, and Danbury today.

I was in Harrisburg for a travel showcase with our CVB, which was held in the Harrisburg Cemetary. It might seem like an odd place to hold an event, but it's a historic landmark, and it was actually pretty cool there. The theme of the night was a New Orleans-style wake.

We had a band there all night...good times...

You could take a carriage ride through the graves, if you wanted...

And what night would be complete without my flair for decorating a table?

Today and Tuesday I was with Sesame Place on their Elmo Mall Tour. We were the hotel sponsor for the tour, so I was able to go along and pass out some of our flyers.

This is the minivan they drive on the tour, complete with our logo on the back.

This is what the stage looked like, prior to 8 million kids piling in front of it.

And, of course, your day just isn't complete until you can hear this 10 or 70 times...

Quick update

2007-03-16T01:21:19Z

Pepper is doing much better. Apart from some blotchiness on her tummy, you wouldn't know that there was anything wrong with her. Tonight is the last night she gets Benadryl, and starting tomorrow, she only gets the steroid once a day rather than twice a day. She's a little tired and grumpy, but no more than she usually is. ;)

Tough night to be a daddy...

2007-03-15T00:24:12Z

Yesterday, Rachel was nice enough to take both Pepper and Tank to the vet's for their annual checkup. Pepper's rabies vaccination was due, so the vet gave her a shot while she was there. Fast forward to about an hour or so later, and Pepper starts throwing up, has hives all over her body, and is having extreme difficulty breathing. Needless to say, this concerned Rachel just a bit, so she grabbed Pepper, took her back to the vet, and called me on my way home to meet her at the vet's.

I get there, and they lead me down to the hospital section of their building. They had Pepper on an examining table there, and she did not look good. She had huge hives on her head and back, her face looked sunked and hollow, and she was having a hard time catching her breathe. The vet said that she had an allergic reaction to the rabies shot (which is unusal, but not unheard of), and he had given her a shot of a steroid and a shot of Benadryl to help her out. We said there with her and pet her for a while until she started to look and act more normal. The vet gave us more of the steroids and Benadryl in pill form, and we took Pepper home.

She was fine for a couple of hours, but then the hives came back with a vengeance. It was horrible to see, and all we could really do for her was to keep her from scratching herself constantly. I called the vet again (luckily he was still there), and he told us that it wasn't unusual for the hives to come back. Why he didn't tell us that when we were still at his office, I don't know. He said it would be ok to give her one of the steroid pills, but we would have to wait on the Benadryl. I took about an hour or so for the pill to take effect, and it tore my heart out to watch my poor little dog during that time. She was trying to lie down and relax, but she was so uncomfortable in her own skin, she just kept flipping around, trying to get comfortable.

By the time we went to bed, she was much better, but it was a long, difficult night. She seems to be doing much better today, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't have another major relapse.

Let's try this again...

2007-03-07T01:05:17Z

Crush this person!
Get your own ThisCrush.com CrushTag!

Still too lazy to do an actual post...

2007-03-02T01:44:58Z

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

Personality

You are more logical than emotional, more concerned about self than concerned about others, more atheist than religious, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more traditional than rebel, more engineering mind than artistic mind, more cynical than idealist, more leader than follower, and more introverted than extroverted.

As for specific personality traits, you are adventurious (100%), romantic (71%), greedy (68%), horny (64%).

Stereotypes
Geek	80%
Old Geezer	80%
Prep	69%

Life Experience
Sex	61%
Substances	26%
Travel	35%

Politics
Your political views would best be described as Socialist, whom you agree with around 83% of the time.

Socioeconomic
Your attitude toward life best associates you with Middle Class. You make more than 0% of those who have taken this test, and 38% more than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated R.
By the way, your hottness rank is 62%, hotter than 86% of other test takers.

TAKE THE TEST
brought to you by thatsurveysite

My first post in months, and I choose this?

2007-02-13T20:58:22Z

D.L. Hawkins
You scored 41 Idealism, 45 Nonconformity, 29 Nerdiness

I ain't wearing no tights.Congratulations, you're D.L. Hawkins! You've got a bit of a past to overcome, but you are a strong person and you care very deeply about the people you love. You are good at getting out of tight situations, however, you're not quite as good at simple, practical things like making lunches. Your best quality: Getting yourself out of difficult situations Your worst quality: No culinary skills whatsoever, refusal to don tights

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Idealism

You scored higher than 99% on Nonconformity

You scored higher than 99% on Nerdiness

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Hmmmm...dunno if I agree completely with this. I can't picture when I would ever wear tights...but I do have some MAD culinary skills.

Discuss.

My Xmas Stocking (totally stolen from Julie)

2006-12-12T19:44:22Z

Xmas Stocking

leave a gift for djronb

get your stocking

Birthday wishes

2006-12-11T21:38:45Z

Happy birthday to the hottest redhead I know, drunkitty!!

A few words of thanks...

2006-11-27T00:39:47Z

To the Tennesse Titans: I was already happy with the way that you bitch-slapped the Eagles in their own house last week. However, then you had to add to that joy by scoring 24 unanswered points in the 4th quarter today to knock off the Giants, thereby leaving the Cowboys all alone in first place in the NFC East. Much love to Vince Young and Pacman Jones.

To the NY Giants: Thank you for showing a lack of heart and talent. Plaxico Burress did a great job of deciding that he really didn't want to play hard today, and Eli showed why Archie Manning loves Peyton best. I'm really looking forward to see how you all give up against the Cowboys next week.

To Tony Romo: You the man. I don't know how or why, but you the man. Just keep doing what you're doing. And if you're banging Jessica Simpson on top of everything else you've done so far this season, we just may need to put you into the Hall of Fame this year.

Don't be wiidiculous

2006-11-25T16:54:04Z

So, I broke down and bought a Nintendo Wii. Does it live up to the hype? So far, it definitely does. When I read up on it, it said that the Wii doesn't really have any major advances in graphics or sound, and that's the truth. But, the controller is pretty cool. We only have the Wii Sports game so far that comes with the unit, but the games that are on there have been pretty fun (and exhausting) to play. The only problem is that we haven't been able to find another remote controller or nunchuck controller in stock anywhere yet. If you buy the Wii, make sure you get those if you can, because you will want them. There are also some cool games for the Wii, but I'm holding off on getting any to see if they drop below $50. (That probably won't happen until after Xmas, but I can wait.)

I took a look at the PS3, and the improvements they made on it are pretty cool, but I don't think I would make use of a lot of the features that you pay for. I'm not a "hardcore" gamer, so I can't see pay $600+ for something when I barely use the one I have now.

Sad days indeed...

2006-11-20T02:44:18Z

...if you're a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Not only do you lose to the lowly Tennessee Titans at home...not only do you lose your star quarterback for the year...but you do it on the same day that the Dallas Cowboys have their biggest win of the season, knocking off the previously undefeated Indianapolis Colts. If I were a more charitable man, I might feel bad for Eagles fans. But, being a Cowboys fan, I just can't find it in me to do so.

*cackles evilly*

Happy Halloween, ya bastards!

2006-10-31T18:42:50Z

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
djronb goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as The Undead Steve Irwin.
antaresjb gives you 1 teal apple-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
bellwag gives you 17 teal passionfruit-flavoured nuggets.
drunkitty tricks you! You lose 13 pieces of candy!
elora416 tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy!
lampetia gives you 13 light blue evil-flavoured jawbreakers.
mbk_v2 tricks you! You get an eraser.
ohdanigirl tricks you! You get a used tissue.
squigglz tricks you! You lose 5 pieces of candy!
themanipulator tricks you! You get a scratched CD.
xreesex tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy!
djronb ends up with 11 pieces of candy, an eraser, a used tissue, and a scratched CD.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

*shakes his fist at drunkitty* Curse you! This isn't over yet! I will have my....REVENGE!!!!

Random thoughts...

2006-10-29T04:31:18Z

Since the clocks fall back tonight, I figured I might as well stay up late and maybe post or whatnot...

*Had a busy day at the store tonight, which was nice. Made the day go by somewhat quicker. Except the last few hours when I had to work with one of our slower, dumber employees. Thankfully, this was her last night. She said she needed me to write something down to bring with her to Welfare. Mind you, this is the same girl who would drive her Daddy's Mercedes to work, and thought that working at Quiznos was "too hard". It boggles the mind sometimes...

*I need to wake up Rachel tomorrow for a big breakfast. I want to go have a big breakfast. The kind that a sumo wrestler would look at and say, "man, I shouldn't have ordered all of that." The kind that Paul Bunyan would need a take-home container for. The kind that Oprah would have two of. That kind of big breakfast.

*Wendy's has come up with a little slice of heaven on a bun. It's a Jalapeno Cheddar Double Melt. Two beef patties, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos and Wendy's patented cheddar cheese goo. It's glorious, really. Sure, it's taking years off of my life, but it's all of those pesky ones at the end.

*Saw an interesting article on Sports Illustrated.com. Former heavyweight boxing champion Trevor Berbick was found dead this morning in a church courtyard in Jamaica. That wasn't the odd part. The thing that caught my eye was that they found him with chop wounds to the head, and police there were treating it as a "suspected" homicide. I'm not a member of CSI or anything, but if you find someone dead of ax wounds, there's nothing "suspected" about it. I'm pretty sure it's a homicide.

*Halloween is just a couple of days away, and I still can't decide on a costume. I was going to go as Steve Irwin, but now that they did it on South Park this past week, it's kind of lost its luster. I may have to dig into my Box 'O' Costumes in the basement and see what I can find.

Oh, one more thing...

2006-10-24T03:00:23Z

Did I mention that the fucking Dallas fucking Cowboys are fucking pissing me the fuck off tonight?

That is all.

Bush lies (and no one is surprised)

2006-10-24T02:48:48Z

So, as he's done many times before, Dubya tries to change what he's said in the past. Rather than put it all here, clicky here to see.

I honestly cannot see how anyone out there of sound mind can continue to support this president or this administration. We have been lied to. We have been misled. We have been ignored. We are trapped in a war that has cost us thousands of American lives, and billions of American tax dollars. There still are no WMDs. There still is no link between 9/11 and Iraq. North Korea has become a nuclear power, but we ignore them. Iran is on the path to becoming a nuclear power, but we ignore them. The people of Iraq do not want democracy. They do not want our way of life. On the whole, they do not want us there at all. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens. Ironically, more than Saddam Hussein did in his time in power. "Mission Accomplished" has quickly decayed into "Mission: Impossible". We need a change, and we need it now. These midterm elections are the chance for the Republicans to hear our voice. The Democrats have a great opportunity to retake Congress, so if you have the opportunity to vote for a qualified Democratic candidate, I strongly encourage you to do so. Notice that I said "qualified". If we just vote Democrats in because they're the lesser of two evils, then they will eventually get as bad as the Republicans. Get out there and make a change happen.

I could say more, but someone already has, and he did it much better than I ever could. As you probably know, Pat Tillman played for the Arizona Cardinals, but turned down a multi-million dollar contract to enlist in the army after 9/11. He died in the Middle East due to "friendly" fire. His brother, Kevin, enlisted the same day that Pat did, but he survived his time over there. Kevin never said much publically following his brother's death, but he has come forward now and had this to say:

After Pat’s Birthday

Courtesy of the Tillman Family

By Kevin Tillman

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his
brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on
April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has
written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are
the day after. It gets me thinking about a
conversation I had with Pat before we joined the
military. He spoke about the risks with signing the
papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy
of the American leadership and the American people.
How we could be thrown in a direction not of our
volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us
without a voice… until we got out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was
a direct threat to the American people, or to the
world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the
September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade
uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or
WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to
establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop
a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil
war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow America has become a country that projects
everything that it is not and condemns everything that
it is.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting
international law and humanity by setting up secret
prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people,
secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not
charging them with anything, secretly torturing them.
Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault
of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant
having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a
picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping
stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra
pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on
his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing
from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as
his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a
helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws
his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes
apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more
legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is
lying to its people and illegally invading a nation,
has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and
honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion
decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an
illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is
tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is
tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The
Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to
keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma,
and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more
dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects
everything that it is not and condemns everything that
it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected
country in the world has become one of the most
irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted
countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and
skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active
ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic,
virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in
charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the
policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our
grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to
the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most
likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was
nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving
the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged
parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People
still have a voice. People still can take action. It
can start after Pat’s birthday.

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman

Word.

2006-09-30T13:48:28Z

How White and Nerdy Are You?

I still have a man-crush on Keith Olbermann

2006-09-28T01:50:28Z

You owe it to yourself to take 10 minutes and listen to this...

Code Red or Code......Black?!?!?!

2006-09-21T01:38:07Z

So, I'm at my Quiznos the other night, and I'm reading this mailer we got from Pepsi hawking their different Mountain Dew flavors. The part of it that really caught my eye was their description of Code Red. It said, "Code Red offers all of the great taste of Mountain Dew with a Kick of Cherry and resonates with ethnic consumers seeking variety." (italics mine) I had to have my manager read it to just to make sure that I hadn't gone insane. So, I guess you really do learn something new every day...ethnic folk loves them some Code Red.

Work really seems to get in the way lately...

2006-09-07T16:57:53Z

So, we didn't end up getting Buster and Winnie. By the time I heard back from the agency, they had already been adopted. They were adopted together, and that had been our biggest concern. It broke our hearts to think that this brother and sister might have been split up after being together for 7 years. Since we don't have a fence in our yard yet, it probably would have been tough to have 4 dogs. Oh well. The place we were dealing with doesn't have a shelter, so they are looking for more foster homes to help them out, so we may get a dog for a short-term basis while they try to find it a new owner.

Oh, and the first person that buys me this will have my undying gratitude...

Buster and Winnie

2006-09-03T14:15:28Z

So, even though I've told Rachel time and time again that we are at our limit of dogs in the house, I am serious considerig adopting these guys:

Everybody say "awwwwwwww!"

Personally, I think their old owners should have just tossed their kid some allergy medicine and told them to suck it up, but that's just me. At the very least, we may look into becoming a foster home for them for a while.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...

2006-08-04T02:17:36Z

OK, so I haven't exactly felt inspired to do a post lately. I can't say that all that much has happened over the past few months. This isn't to say that there isn't some things to mention:

*Quinzos: The bane of my existence. There was road construction in front of the store for the past 7 months, and it definitely hurt our sales (which were never stellar to begin with). Long story short, we're going out of business. It looks like our doors will be closed by September 1st. My feelings on the whole thing at this point are a mix of disappointment and relief. Hopefully the landlord will be a nice guy and be willing to work out a reasonable settlement for the lease. Then I'll just have to figure out who I owe money to and how much.

*Rachel: She's still here, and still putting up with me (for some unknown reason). She's definitely having an interesting summer - she'll be finishing her Masters in the next week, and she just got a new job in a school district that's a lot closer to where we live! Oh, she also has a birthday coming up on the 20th. I'm taking her on a surprise trip next weekend for her b-day, but I haven't told her where we're going or what we're doing. Maybe I'll let you all in on it through a friends-only post later.

*Other stuff: We keep working on the house, inside and out. The gardens were doing well, but between the massive storms and extreme heat we've had the past few weeks, they've taken quite a beating. We haven't been able to do much inside the house - just keep it clean, mostly. The dogs are good - actually behaving and all that.

Don't know what else to say. I'll work on the whole updating-more-often thing.

Hmm...

2006-08-03T14:11:49Z

I really suck at updating this thing, don't I?