DadJack.com Blog

I saw it this morning!  I have two favorite times of the year for news, July and December.  Today I saw the “what fireworks do to a mannequins hand story” and come December I will enjoy “Here’s what your Christmas tree looks like in flames” story… Hey, it’s the simple things.

I’m picking up the kids to go hang this morning… This not being able to have them come over midweek thing kind of sucks, so I try and make up for it with a midweek adventure of some sort.

I went and purchased replacement betta fish number two… This time Lucy’s died, so we’ll have to see if the new one fools her!?!?  The color is almost perfect, but it’s a little smaller than “Shark Heart 1″ was. This time I went to a different pet shop… my logic is that I had been buying the fish at a local, small pet shop (Peggy Wood’s in Burbank) and they most likely don’t sell may betta’s, so their fish sit around in the tupperware for longer, this time I went to Pet Smart (or PetCo, Petville, PetMart… I can never remember the name of that place) where they sell more fish and should by my estimation have “fresher” fish… We’ll see.

I realized the other day that I now have health insurance… which means I can try out for Wipe Out!  I need to see if there are auditions anytime soon, Lucy would be so excited to see me fall and make an ass out of myself on there!

I’ve been slacking on my summer movie releases, I still haven’t seen Shrek or Toy Story 3… I think the next thing we will see for sure is Despicable Me, both the kids and I want to see that one. (Opens July 9th)

No resolution on Stench’s pod blind item?  And he’s not talking, he hasn’t even told me off the air (Because he knows I would talk about it here).

Thanks for all the great 4th of july suggestions on Facebook…  We will most likely stick to the valley, maybe watch the city of Burbank set the hillside on fire with their annual display (It happens every year, the display from The Starlight Bowl starts small spot fires… I have an idea Burbank, don’t have your cities display in the hills, there are flat, less flammable parts of the city!?!?)

Finally, a job I’m qualified to do!!!  Birdsssss!  What, the Skort didn’t make the list?  R.I.P. Paul Johnson.   I want to take the kids to see this.  Quick someone get a swoffin.   Holy pipe.   Ouch!

Rock On, Jack

We had another death in the family… This time Lucy’s betta, “Shark Heart” died.  I found him lying lifeless at the bottom of his bowl yesterday.  You would think I would be pretty anti-betta after the two recent deaths, but I actually like them… So far they have had the respect to not die while the kids are over!  This one might be a little harder to pull off, but I’m going to go today and try and find a look alike.  I may have to bite the bullet and get a really aquarium if these things keep croaking.

I haven’t done much exciting this week, yesterday it was laundry… No in-unit washer-dryer like at the old place, but we have pay machines in the building.  Got a stash of quarters and went wild.  Oh ya, and I got a walk in, cruised magnolia listening to my ipod… it was very nice.

Bing is such a funny little guy… this weekend he woke up first, I heard him get up.  So he walks into my room and looks at me, then walks out.  I figure he’s going to go get babies (yes, we have multiple Babies now… Not only “regular baby” and “new Baby”, but “stuffed animal baby” and “diamond baby“.)  When he didn’t come back I went to look for him… He was lying on the floor of his room holding babies.  I asked him what he was doing and he said I was sleeping and he didn’t want to wake me… So he now knows he can wake me whenever he wants!

Stench dropped a “pod blind item” on us yesterday and I’m still trying to figure out who he was referencing!?!?  He said someone in pod world had to go to the doctor to have an injury treated that was recieved during “funky” sex!?!?

If I figure it out I’ll let you know.

Rock On, Jack

2010!  It’s just days from July, we’ve already used up half of this year!  Time flies when 10% of the U.S. is unemployed, over 17% is under employed, oil is spilling into the ocean, Gary Coleman is being pushed down a flight of stairs and Lost comes to an end.  For me personally this year has been alright, but I know so many people still out of work or recently laid-off…  Kind of sucks!

The kids and I had a fun weekend… As you saw in the photos from the previous post, we went to the Malibu segment of Hands Across The Sand with Angela Channel…. Lucy was really into it, she’s into anything ocean related, Bing just wanted to play in the sand.  After we attended Line 6‘s Summer Picnic ( The company my sister works for)… Which is always fun.  As I’ve mentioned before, I think it’s so cool that they put in the effort (and expense) to show their employees that they appreciate them, that’s rare now-a-days.

I’m excited for the three day weekend… Although, it makes things a little harder at work, everyone is already out of town so it’s hard to find guests to book!   We have a couple parties to go to, but no solid plans on the actual 4th yet… We’ll most likely stay close to home, getting anywhere near the beach this weekend is a nightmare.

I have found another reason “awesometown” is less than awesome… They screw you on fix it tickets.  When I received a ticket for burnt out brake lights in North Hollywood it cost about $50 for inspection and processing fees… Santa Clarita charges $160.00 – Not awesome, in fact it just seems like you’re trying to screw people out of their money!

Speaking of tickets, this is sad, that’s three this month!  Now I know I’m old… This doesn’t sound fun. Who doesn’t disagree with that stupid statement!!! Really?  This is the part of this whole scandal your upset about?  Especially if you’re Stench!  This is crazy!

Rock On, Jack

We joined Angela channel at today’s offshore drilling protest, Hands Across The Sand.  We were by the pier in Malibu.

The Surfrider tent, they organized the Malibu group

Wendy, Bing, Grandma, Angela and Lucy in the line

Hands Across The Sand - Malibu 6/26/2010

Angela Channel even had her protest shirt on!

The surfers came out of the water to join in

I competed in an ice cream eating contest… I did not win!

All this Farrell’s talk… Well today is finally the day.  Stench and I will be there tonight recording the podcast live and eating ice cream… What more could you ask for?  Alina is a confirmed guest tonight… She’s driving with Stench, so I know she’ll be there.

One betta down… I walked into the kids room yesterday and Bing’s betta was sleeping on the bottom of it’s tank.  I tried to wake him, but he was sleeping so soundly, so I shook his bowl a little harder!  I realized something was wrong, so I started CPR and hooked to wires to a 9 volt battery to act as a defibrillator… But I couldn’t bring him back, after 3 hours of trying to bring him back I called the time of death and made the very difficult flush.  Knowing the sensitive nature of this event, I did what any responsible adult would do… returned to the pet shop and purchased a look-a-like betta.  As of this morning, betta 2.0 seems to be doing fine.

Speaking of passing, I was arranging the disposal of the “Busty Old Car” yesterday… Why is it that everything revolving cars is a pain in the ass (even driving them most of the time in this town)?  It looks like the ’93 Altima will meet it’s final resting place later today.  R.I.P. Busty Old Car.

Stench and I had technical difficulties on yesterday’s pod…  Sorry, considering we’ve recorded over 800 1-hour episodes it’s bound to happen every once in a while.

I had to go to the Do It Center yesterday to get some keys made… There’s something about a hardware store that makes you want to build and/or remodel stuff!  Luckily, I realize I have no construction skills (Other than carrying bags of rock… That’s what I did when I worked with the construction company.  I did get to drive a truck, the kids thought that was cool) and only purchased my keys and not the skill saw that looked so cool.

I really feel like Ron’s Show (The show I produce) is gaining momentum.  Ron is such a great guy, I really want this show to blow up (I mean that in a good way… I guess blow up could mean go away too!).

It looks like they may have worked on each other!  Way to go Jimmy!  AZ might be anti-immigrant, but their nun’s are pro-choice.  I know people are mean… But don’t kill puppies!!!!  It’s a tough job.  You have to be quite when having sex with a homeless woman!

Rock On, Jack

Yesterday was the longest day of the year and summer has officially started… The only bummer of my new apartment is no swimming pool.  The kids swimming was getting very strong with all the pool time we got last summer.  My favorite part of this season are the warm nights… there’s nothing like sitting out on a patio on a warm summer night (Unless you live somewhere with a lot of bugs… then you need that bug zapping light thing!)

The new car is amazing… But I have to re-train myself, I keep rolling down the window and opening the door from the outside (That’s how you had to get out of the “Busty Old Car”)  Speaking of the B.O.C., I found a way to hopefully subside some of Lucy’s sadness over getting rid of it… I pried off the emblems and printed out some photos of us with the car and made a shadowbox with them (I’ll have to take a pic and post it, it turned out pretty good) and hung it in the kids room….  Kind of like a shrine to that beat up piece of metal.

I haven’t had a chance to watch much of the summer programming yet… I’ve caught the show with Jillian from Biggest Loser (Didn’t like it) and Last Comic Standing (Like it), but that’s about it so far.  Has anyone seen the new Betty White sit-com?  Any good?

Right now kids shirts are on sale at Threadless … $9 bucks, got Lucy a shark shirt and Bing a cat shirt (They didn’t have any featuring bowling balls or golf balls).  While I’m plugging sites, Gilt has some cool kids stuff on sale too… They always have cool kids stuff, the adult stuff can be kind of pricey, and Groupon is perfect for Non-Diet Stench today with a great BBQ deal.

Farrell’s tomorrow!  Can’t wait to have a sundae… You cannot go to Farrell’s and not have a sundae!!!

I know he’s my kid, so I am a little biased… But I keep rewatching the Bing golfing video, no matter what that kid does he makes me laugh.  When I was a Michael’s getting my shadowbox I picked up some art supplies for Lucy, she is a very talented artist and is now into sketching … If she ever becomes a famous artist I will have the complete early years archive, I have hundreds of drawing and painting shoved everywhere.

I’ve always been super paranoid of this!  I can’t believe I missed this.  Beware of what you say to Rolling Stone… It may get you a quick trip to the President’s office.  What? L.A. didn’t make the list?  Has anyone seen this clown?   A 75M fixer upper.  Yeah, so? At least he’s clean.

Rock On, Jack

Bing shows off his golfing skills!

Rock on, Jack

This Wednesday Stench and I are live podcasting from Farrell’s in Santa Clarita!!! (7-9p)  It’s always great to get out… and ice cream and mini-golf just make it that much better.

We had a great Father’s Day, miniature  golf and lunch out… Lucy got two hole in ones (OK, so did Ethan, but he’s bigger so it doesn’t seem as amazing) and Bing putted like a pro.  We went to B.J.’s afterward and had a chocolate Pizookie with chocolate ice cream… It was so good!

We didn’t get a chance to work on Lucy’s cycling… The training wheels are off and we’re trying to learn how to cruise on two wheels.  Now that Lucy is trying to learn without training wheels, Bing wants to too… The thing about that kid is I think not only could he do it, but that he’d learn in about 2 minutes.  When Bing sets his mind on something he does it… and he does it quick.

I didn’t see Toy Story 3 this weekend, but the kids did and they loved it… well sort of, I guess there is a part with a trash can that scared Bing?!?!  Reviews have been really good, so I may have to drag the kids to see it again.

No more “Busty Old Car”, I finally got a new car this weekend… One that has all the modern features, like a radio and windows that go both up and down!  It’s really nice, but Lucy flipped out because shes going to miss the old car… remember, the kids never drove in that car and Lucy thought it was gross, but now she’s going to miss it.  I’m going to take something off it for her, so she has a memento of the Nissan Altima with 162,000 miles on it with 2 windows that won’t roll down and 1 that won’t go up, no heat or air, no radio, busted in right fender, brake lights that sometimes work and a bunch of other stuff I won’t miss.

Have a great Monday!  Hope to see many of you on Wednesday!

Rock On, Jack

It’s Father’s Day weekend… which us Dad’s always get screwed on.  Kids get out of school before the day, so we don’t get any of those cool, made at school craft things.  Mom’s get those great keepsakes made of toilet paper rolls or clay, but not for Dad… We like handprints pressed into clay too!  Anyway, I’m just excited to see the kids and get to hang out.

One of our Bettas looks sick… We’ve only had them 5 days!  The good news is it’s Bing’s… He will be none the wiser if I replace it with a new fish.

Toy Story 3 is out today and it looks pretty good… Although, I still haven’t seen Shrek, all this moving and unpacking has got in the way of our movie time.

I was at The CRN yesterday… It’s always great to get to hang with all the people there, it really is a family environment.

The new apartment is so much better than the old one.  The neighbors are nice and respectful, it’s bigger, the fire alarm doesn’t randomly go off all the time, my place doesn’t constantly smell like smoke… I could go on with this for pages!  Now I just need to get my security deposit back… They’re trying to screw me and charge me for all kinds of stuff.  Thanks to one of the pod people I was able to find all the relevant civil codes and I should be able to legally tell them to screw off and give me my money back!

Stench has been a little worked up on the pod lately… Could be that stuff he’s been taking, I think the doctor may need to check him out again.

I have already mentioned it a million times, so all I’ll say is see you at Farrell’s Santa Clarita Wednesday!!!!

Have a great weekend!  Be nice to your Dad!

Rock On, Jack