Unknown Direction

The days of trying to figure out where I want to go and what I want to do have given way to thoughts of paying for the bills, and do we have enough to get through. It is a life I wouldnt trade for anything. B.I.G.gie said it best - mo' money mo' problems. It would be nice to be comfortable, but I wouldnt want to be filthy rich. I never said I wouldnt say NO to filthy rich. The job I do I like. The house we live in, we like. Just would be nice to not be under the gun all the time. Money doesnt buy happiness, but it sure makes living a lot easier. I dont like that I cant take my family on vacation. I dont like that I cant take the time off I would like to take off to spend with them. I dont like that my days off I dont have a choice but to work overtime to make ends meet.

These are my feelings. They arent right or wrong -- they just are.

My birthday went by withouth much fanfare - just the way I like it. Spent the morning with my wife and kids, then went to lunch at Joe Rouer's. They took an afternoon nap (mmmmmmmmm), then about 430 started dinner. Potatoes and onions grilled on the grill with steak. Had dinner with her folks, then went home and veg'd the rest of the night.

You know what the best thing about being 35 is? I can remember when music was real, interesting, and not being ripped off. Look at any new artist...odds are, they are ripping off an 80's song or 90's song to gain a top-10 hit. I like sampling - I mean, look at Chuck D - one of the best people using sampling without having to mainstream it. The latest in a string of wanna-be's is Rhianna, with SOS....ripping off Soft Cell's Tainted Love, which in its time, got very little recognition. Now, everyone thinks this is the greatest thing since sliced bread....this is why I continue to listen to my Joe Satriani, Metallica, Poison, Pantera, Foreigner, Styx, AC/DC, etc. I mean, yes, I like Eminem, 112, Public Enemy, and yes they sample. But not to the extent of every song they release being a mish-mash of samples. Like when Eminem sampled Dido, he brought her on TOUR with him! Let's see if there is a Soft Cell reunion - yeah, not!

One thing to end - I saw this and just chucked:

You may not know this, but many non-living things have a gender.
1) Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2) Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and is often over-inflated.
4) A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5) Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) A Web Page is Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7) A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8) An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9) A Hammer is Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10) A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it would be male, didn't you? But consider this - it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

I hope you all have a wonderful day - I am going to do housework! YAY! Peace......

The Catholic Church shows its true colors

Recently, this article was in the People's Forum in the Press-Gazette, and I just HAD to share it with you -- I couldn’t have written it better myself. It is in response to the firing of a teacher from Appleton's Xavier High School (Catholic school) after the school found out that she and her husband had a child using invitro fertilization:

HOWARD --- Wow, once again the Catholic Church shows its true colors. Is it just me or is the level of hypocrisy truly stunning? Fire a woman for wanting to experience the joy of motherhood and raising children because the way she went about it went against their doctrine? She would have been better off molesting a child; at least she'd still have a job, just at another school.

To make things (from my own perspective) worse, on Mother's Day, of ALL days, the priest at the church Michelle went to with her Mom and Dad, decided not to thank mothers, talk about family, talk about how special Mother's Day is, the meaning, or anything like that. He went on a 40-minute schpiel about how BAD this woman was for using IVF to have a child, and how people should not use artificial means to conceive a child. Let me see if I understand what he is saying:

• Priest touches child, no harm no foul
• Woman and man who love each other have a child together, this is bad
• Catholic church to date has paid over $850 million to settle abuse cases (reference) but yet they continue to beg for donations to help keep the church alive

She and her Mom were so put off by the sermon, I thought for sure, it was going to ruin Mother's Day...I told her that today (Mother's Day) was not about the Pedophile Brotherhood, or anything else. It was about our two beautiful children we have together, and the lady in Appleton can celebrate today because she, too, is a mother (article on teacher).

My two cents worth ... if you want a child, and you cant do it yourselves, and you employ the power and miracle of today's technology, and it works for you, the by all means Merry Christmas! My wife and I were blessed to be able to bring two beautiful children into this world in a "procreationary" way -- because practice does make perfect ;)

What right does the Catholic church have, to tell two people who love each other, they cannot have kids except by having sex? I mean, this is the same bunch of people who, when you go to get married, you have to spend a weekend with a bunch of priests who arent allowed to marry, and they get to tell you how to be a married couple. Does anyone else see a problem here?

I mean, I know the Baptist religion isnt sqweeky clean, but I know we arent ANYWHERE near $800+ million just to settle pedophile suits with our preachers. Like I said, I know they are not perfect. These are just my thoughts and observations.

OK, I am leaving my soapbox, and heading to Sleepy-ville :) Goodnight and good luck