Holy heatwave, Batman!! I just checked my little WeatherBug program on my PC, and it's officially 102 degrees in beautiful downtown Raleigh as of 3 p.m. Let's see, with the humidity at 150 percent, that makes the heat index . . . TOO DAMN HOT!!! Just going outside for a smoke is getting dangerous. Take that humid, hot air, add cigarette smoke, and what do you get? I don't know, but it ain't pretty.

I just hope it gets cooler tomorrow. The better half and I, along with J, P and M, are heading to Busch Gardens for a day of fun. It's an "office outing" (no, not THAT kind of outing!), so a bunch of folks from my office will be there also. It should be fun; heck, if it weren't for the office paying for this, there's no WAY I could afford to take my bunch anywhere like that. Have you seen the ticket prices for theme parks lately? Anyway, once the kids fill up on all the fun at Busch Gardens, we're all gonna spend the night in Meryl's new neck of the woods (Richmond, VA) and then try to catch a couple of museums on Sunday afternoon. The better half sent off for a Richmond tourist guide, and right away I noticed that there is a train museum in Richmond. Now, J is a total train freak. I mean total, as in he wants to work on a train when he grows up. That will probably be one of the stops we make. Heck, it might be the only stop we make. I get the funny feeling that once we get in the door, it will take dynamite to get J to leave.

I can hear some of you (all right, one of the two) out there saying, "You don't mean you're taking those little babies out in the heat, do you??" Not to worry. One of the things about being foster parents is that you are entitled to something called respite, which means that once a month you can farm the foster kids out to other foster parents for the weekend. We usually don't bother, but in this case we took advantage of the respite thing and have farmed out all the kids except our own. I was trying to get the better half to farm them out, too, but she wouldn't go for it. Damn.

I'll fill you in next week (maybe) on how well it went and if I survived the weekend. Hmmm . . . let's just say, if you don't hear from me, it means I didn't survive. Or that I did survive but am now a slobbering wreck locked in a rubber room. Gee, sounds like being a work, doesn't it?

  ¶ 3:24 PM 0 comments

  I'm baaaack! Just when you thought it was safe to enter the blogosphere again. Shoulda known better, bubba.

Well, let's recap the week that was. And boy, was it a week! First, the scandal that hit the Catholic Church hit home a few months ago, when our priest was removed for "administrative leave". No further comment on that. After about three months of having an interim priest fill in (and Father Dan, if you ever read this, you were most definitely the right person at the right place at the right time), we received not one, but two new priests. One of our new priests is from the Congo (or Zaire, depending on what day of the week it is), one is from the Phillipines. We also had a brother come with them. These gentlemen (and they are that) are part of a religious order based in Belgium. So, let's see -- one priest from the Congo, one from the Phillipines, a brother from Indonesia, and an order headquartered in Belgium. Geez, my little corner of NC is starting to look like the United Nations.

I have mentioned that the better half and I are foster parents. Well, last Tuesday evening, we received a little gift -- twin boys! They are eight weeks old and cute as buttons. They're 26-week preemies, but they don't have any apparent major problems. The smaller of the two is still on oxygen, but that's a temporary measure. They both eat good, considering they're not much more than five pounds each, and they sleep through the night, as long as you feed them around midnight. Let's see, quick head count here . . . that gives us four in diapers, eight total children, unless you count Beelzebub as an adult, which I certainly don't.

Another Knights of Columbus meeting last week. Now I've got more things to do with my "spare time". (insert hysterical laughter here) I know it sounds like I'm complaining (as opposed to pissing and moaning), but I really like being depended on to do things for the Knights. The new priests (remember them?) want to join, so we're gonna get them in. That can only help our recruitment efforts (I hope, since I'm in charge of recruiting also).

Lemme think. Anything else? At the moment, I can't think of anything, so I guess I'll quit for now. Besides, lunch break is over. Back to the salt mine!

Note: I originally tried to post this on 8/21. It is now 8/23. Amazing how time flies when you're having fun, ain't it?  ¶ 11:31 AM 0 comments

  Aaaarrrggghhhh! Must . . . control . . . urge . . . to . . . strangle . . . management. Deep breath (in . . . out Man, I gotta quit smoking one of these days!). Now I'm supposed to find out about something that happened ten years ago. Ten years ago? Even the IRS only requires you to keep records for seven years! I don't remember what the hell I did yesterday! How are you supposed to get any work done when you have to stop and dig out shit that happened before you even started that part of your job??? Wait . . . deep breath . . . well, maybe just stop and think for a moment. Don't want another coughing jag there.

Had a Knights of Columbus meeting last night that ran for almost two and a half hours. I was not pleased. I keep getting more things to do in the same amount of time. I wonder if anyone knows how to squeeze more time into a day. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I would do with less sleep, but I'm getting by on about five hours of sleep a day as it is.

Another day, another dollar. Yeah, I got a raise, how 'bout that?

See, Laurence? I can't compete with your level of insanity. Give me time and I'll see what I can do.  ¶ 5:33 PM 0 comments

  Whew! A busy couple of days there. Working for lawyers can really be a pain at times, especially when you're in the bookkeeping department of a large law firm.

Things are moving at their usual hectic pace at the hacienda. My 19 year old, affectionately referred to as Beelzebub, has the usual large hairy insect lodged in his posterior. J, P and K are being their usual little boys selves (squared), and the better half keeps earning her halo as she tries to keep order in the middle of chaos.

Blogging is going to be light for the next however long. My Knights of Columbus council is starting up our Operation LAMB campaign, and guess who gets to lead it again? Yours truly, of course. Like I don't have enough going on already. (Moan, moan, piss, complain - you've all heard it before) I'll blog when I get a chance, but it won't be often, 'cause I usually blog around lunchtime at work, and guess what I'll be doing at lunchtime for the next few months? Ding, ding! We have a winner! That's right, Operation LAMB stuff! I guess both of you readers will have to wait for wit for a while.

Gotta run. People to see, things to do. Or is that people to do, things to see? Whatever.  ¶ 5:47 PM 0 comments

  Check out this post by our friend (and fellow North Carolinian) Bigwig. I'll warn you now, it's a long one, but it's well worth reading. It's one of those thought-provoking things that I usually avoid like the plague; they make my head hurt. But in this case, it was well worth the pain. Bigwig, you rock!  ¶ 4:23 PM 0 comments

  Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the music! Whoa!! Stop right there, Bubba, before I get into a full-blown rendition and start doing my Three Dog Night impersonation (which ain't half bad in my opinion). Why celebrate? J has a birthday today -- he's 12 now! That's physically 12; mentally and emotionally, he's still around 8 or so. Whatever. Anyway, you know what a birthday means - a birthday party! Nothing big, just 2,000 of his closest friends, the better half's family (all 75 of them) and various and sundry friends of the family. All crammed into the house and the back yard. Hmmmm. . . I wonder if I can arrange an "emergency" somewhere that will call me away for about 3 hours (or maybe 3 weeks). Don't get me wrong here, I'm glad J is having a birthday, I just don't like crowds. Call me crazy (why not? the better half does), but I'm just not at my best in large groups of people. My inner caveman moves to the surface, and all I want to do is find a dark corner and cower.

Well, since the party isn't until Sunday afternoon, I have time to prepare myself. Meditation usually works. So would a fifth of Jack Daniels, but since I can't drink like I used to (oh, and I suppose you can?), I guess I'll just gird my loins (gee, another loincloth reference!) and face the music.  ¶ 11:50 AM 0 comments

  Has The World Gone Insane, Part Deux

Update: The teenagers kidnapped in California have been rescued, presumably unharmed, and their abductor has been killed. At last, justice has prevailed.

OK, maybe the "justice" part above is a bit aboveboard. However, as a parent, I can only imagine what the parents of those teenagers were going through during this ordeal. Sure, it was tough on the girls, but I believe it was tougher on their parents. Not knowing if your daughter is alive or dead at the hands of a possible homicidal maniac; THAT will bring shivers to your spine.

Hopefully I can get back to the usual controlled insanity tomorrow. If not, what the hell. There oughta be something happening at home tonight that would make good fodder for this foolishness.  ¶ 5:09 PM 0 comments

  Has The World Gone Insane?

I said at the first that I wasn't going to get into political discussions or discuss the news, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. The bombing at the university in Israel has sickened me to the core of my being. No, I take that back. The bombing disgusted me; what sickened me was pictures of Palestinians partying in the streets after the bombing (pictures courtesy of Little Green Footballs). I actually had to get up and leave the monitor for a time after seeing these pictures. What is wrong with these people (using the term "people" loosely)? Is their hatred of Israel so deeply ingrained in their beings that they actually celebrate killing people who are doing nothing except trying to educate themselves? How low can a people sink? I used to think that Palestinians as a people were probably being led by a bunch of sociopaths; now I'm starting the think that the people as a whole are sociopaths.

Now there comes this report from a local TV stations' website that two teenaged girls were kidnapped at gunpoint in California. The suspect allegedly tied the boyfriends of the two girls with tape and stole one of their vehicles. As I type this, there is a massive manhunt going on. Another psychopath? A sociopath? Or just another damned lunatic?

That's it. I'm calling NASA to see if they need a permanent resident in the space station. Or maybe they need someone to volunteer for a manned mission to Mars. Anybody wanna go with me?

OK, that tears it. I've tried to post this @*%$& thing three times now and Blogger's telling me this page cannot be displayed. Lissen, Bubba, am I gonna have to get medieval on yo' ass or somethin'? Don' git me mad, ya heah? I'll open a big ole can of whupass on ya!

Oh, I see. It's an internal server error. Hey, (tap, tap) anyone out there got a virtual bottle of Pepto-Bismol?
  ¶ 3:36 PM 0 comments