Mammoth Vacation 2008

Its day five up here in Mammoth and we have gotten in some good skiing.  The picture of Tasha is standing at the Cornice run....you can see right behind her the black diamond indicator...(no we didn't ski down it we went down the backside)

The other picture is one that I took near the top of chair three as you are coming down into McCoy station...I always liked the view from that part of the run..it looks like you are coming out of the clouds....

Matt, Tasha, Dad, Mom, Jeff and the Boys went to "Sledz" yesterday and Kevin and Zach had a blast.  Zach had a spectacular fall out of his innertube, his nose is a little bruised but he is OK.  He wanted to keep going after that.  Kevin was flying down the hill and wants to know when we can go again. 

 The weather is perfect after 5 straight days of snow we get about 7 straight days of bright blue skies.  And the snow conditions are great.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone on this, the best holiday of the entire year.  I wonder if Santa Claus came again this year?  Lets fire up the Hot Tea...and find out shall we?

Best wishes to everyone on this day!!!!

Gluttony

Rick Warren-enjoys "picking and choosing" verses from the bible (Thinks gays can't marry because the bible says so in Leviticus--yet ignores verses saying you should kill yourself if you are a glutton)  

Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony

Proverbs 23:2

"Christians have been cherry picking the bible for centuries" -Christopher Hitchens

This is a very hot topic now because Barney Frank and others are disappointed in Obama for having Rick Warren do the inaugural prayer.    

Rick Warren is a morbidly obese pastor of a "mega church" in Lake Forest who wrote an incredibly popular leaflet called "The purpose driven life"    

Rick Warren continues to ignore his own bible because he persists in being an out of control glutton.  

The Gospels do not have Jesus saying one word about "gay marriage" and gay lifestyle...(he did however say that it is good sometimes for men to cut off their own genitalia)  Jesus never married and the guy who made up the religion Paul hated marriage.  

References to gayness come in leviticus alonside other archaic laws that are all ignored like "you should not wear a shirt made out of polyester and cotton blend"

So why does Rick Warren ignore the bible when it talks about Gluttony, but not when it talks about homsexuality?  

Any ideas?

"The 1000 dollar Duck"

This past Sunday we noticed that our ceiling was dripping after we ran the bath in the boys bathroom.  After further inspection we noticed that there was a slight bowing in the ceiling as well in the shape of a circle with about a 3 foot diameter.  

OK so we have AAA homeowners Insurance with a 1000 dollar deductible.  We noticed the leak stopped when we turned off the bathtub, and said to myself that we can wait until monday to call them...so Tasha called them monday morning and then they set the nonsense in motion...First guy who shows up is the "wetness detector and drier" actually these are two guys armed with a infared scanner.."Yep you have wetness there"   We don't do anything else you see...we aren't the plumbers, and we aren't the "leak detector" we just "find wetness"   Oh and  before we can go any further...an environmental guy needs to come out (he came this morning and it took him 5 minutes) to take samples of our drywall for asbestos because our house is about 40 years old....So then this afternoon the actual leak detector...."he finds the leak"  Doesn't fix it, nope he just finds it.    So here is where it gets fun folks..If your not sitting down at this point feel free to do so...if you have a cocktail go ahead and drink it....cause you aint gonna believe what happens next.  The leak detector goes into our crawl area in our upstairs closet after turning on the water....he then yells to me to turn it off which I do.....then he walks over to the bathroom and takes the toy duck off of the bathtub faucet.....asks me to turn the water back on...looks for a bit..then walks back to me and says the three most emotionally staggering words I have heard in my life since... "It's a boy" 

"ITS THE DUCK"

Now I am not normally prone to a foul tongue...but as this realization came to me I looked at him and said "You gotta be F'ing kidding me"  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the realization of my stupidity!  You see folks, this toy duck fits over the bathtub faucet to protect the boys (they probably don't even need it anymore)  But in order to activate the stopper that turns the shower on you have to turn the duck around and in doing so you reverse some of the water and send it back through the wall and thus drip out of our ceiling.  

We already have the claim going....at this point for these three guys alone the cash price is around 700-800 bucks  so we will continue on and get the wetness dried and the ceiling fixed....and I just spent 1000 dollars because of a toy duck.  

If I have learned anything from this it is one thing........

TROUBLESHOOT GAR!!!!!!!!!!

DID I MENTION THIS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE TOY DUCK IN HISTORY?

No its not me

Yes I know what you were all thinking when you heard of the Alyssa Milano stalker.  But no it's not me.  This is a girl though who has to put up with every male around my age making googly eyes at her and asking for photos.  Yes just like I did twice at Dodger stadium over the past two years.  And you know what folks....Alyssa was cool with me both times.  Next time I'm at Dodger Stadium and see her she's probably gonna be flanked by a gentleman who is protecting her....But gosh darn it, I really want her to see how much weight I lost...Oh well maybe I can hike to her house in the Hollywood Hills.....

Final Oatmeal Update

I would like to thank each and every one of you for your heartfelt concern.  This tragedy was on par with the Tsunami a few years ago...but instead of donating to the Red Cross many of you have sent heartfelt wishes.  But best of all I now have a one year supply of Kirkland signature costco oatmeal, for only the low, low price of 142 dollars.  On a side note, isn't it interesting that you can feed a 193 pound man 1/3 of his meals for one year for only 142 bucks?  Gotta love America.  So thanks to you all, and I am covered!!!

And yes it was Dennis Nespor, captain of the Serenity Now, and greatest Uncle of the world.  Who went to Costco and filled up his cart with 16 boxes of Oatmeal!  

A date which will live in infamy

"The United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan" ---President Roosevelt

It was a sleepy Sunday morning in Honolulu 67 years ago when we were attacked by Japan.    Here were the results of the attack...

4 Navy Battleships sank

3 Cruisers sank

3 destroyers sank

188 aircraft destroyed

2402 personnel KIA

1282 wounded

After the attack FDR declared war on Japan, which in turn caused Germany and Italy to declare war on us.  

Only four years later after an unprecedented effort by the United States and our allies...Germany, Italy, and Japan had all surrendered to The United States and we won!!!!!

The Obesity Clown

Today at one of our christmas expos here in Santa Clarita we had an invasion from an insidious and brilliant marketing tool.  Ronald McDonald pranced around like a creep handing out pencils and telling kids to "stay in school and read"  But what McDonalds is really doing is setting up emotional triggers in our kids that they will have for a lifetime.  Clown=happy=cheeseburgers and fries=happy.   When I worked for Mikes Mobile Windshield I went to McDonalds almost everyday and got a supersized double quarter pounder value meal.  Because it was a comforting part of my daily routine.  I remember Ronald and the pretty color scheme of McDonalds and their tasty fries.  What did this happiness get me?  Man Boobs and a gut folks!  McDonalds is extremely unhealthy, their fries alone are incredibly bad for you, (would you like to supersize that?)  

We have nearly banished smoking (which is great) But we have more and more morbidly obese people waddling around like some sort of giant sea lions.  

Bottom line is this.....there needs to be a law against marketing McDonalds to kids.  Just like Camel can't market "Joe Camel" because it is appealing to children.   Smoking is highly addictive, and so is McDonalds.  Here are the risks associated with smoking...Heart Disease, Cancer, Emphesema.       And here are the risks of being a great big fat person....

Heart Disease and stroke

High Blood Pressure

Hypertension

Diabetes

Gout

Cancer

Osteoarthritis (joint pain)

Breathing Problems

Wake up America!!!!!!!!!

1/3 Dodger Season Ticket holder

Its that time of the year folks as Matt and I now have tickets to 27 of the 81 regular season home games played in 2009 at Dodger Stadium.

That means that if there is a game being played next summer at the Ravine, there is a 1 in 3 chance that we'll be at said game.

We kept our same row, just under the overhang, but we were able to move two full aisle lengths closer to home plate...aisle 151 Row K seats 1-2.  Pretty cool eh?

OJ gets 16 plus years!!!!!

OJ will most likely die in a Nevada State Prison, after having a 13 year respite for killing two people.  

Fred Goldman can get a little bit of peace tonight.

Oatmeal Update

Well folks today I did not go the Costco in Canoga, or the one in Porter Ranch because this morning I got a physical and let me tell you it was the works.....Sonia was the NP who performed a digital prostate exam on me..she gave me a choice, "you can either drop your pants and bend over the table, or you can lay on the table on your side with one of your legs pulled up to your chest"  I told Sonia that I would prefer to opt for choice number 1....well it wasn't too bad, one of the benefits of having a woman perform the procedure is that their fingers are smaller.  So I checked out ok, Sonia told me my prostate felt normal, just like a pencil eraser.    Now on to the blood work I am "fasting" and I begin to feel a little lightheaded after they fill up the fourth vial with my blood....(Incidentally I have never 'fasted' because of Jesus, but I can see how you may feel it is a religious experience because of how lightheaded you are)  I broke out into a cold sweat and started in with a little nausea, It was the last thing and I just wanted to get out of there.....So I am driving on the Old Rd to a Subway, when the phone rings and I answer it, and proceed to get lit up by a CHP unit behind me that I never see because I am woosy....I thought I had the perfect excuse but the guy writes me up anyways!   

P.S.  The reason I didn't go to Costco is because I also got a Tetnus shot and it feels like someone punched me in the arm.

No more Costco Oatmeal!!!!!!!!

Why am I so sad?  Well folks I am holding one of the remaining 3 boxes that I bought today at Costco during a routine oatmeal pickup.  Ladies and gentleman, I saw to my horror an asterisk next to the price display.  (If you are a Costco expert like me then you know an asterisk means discontinued) the tragic fact is that Costco has decided not to renew their supply of this life giving Oatmeal.  So tomorrow, I am going to go to multiple Costcos in the valley and buy up all the remaining stock....I potentially could spend over 100 dollars tomorrow just on Oatmeal.  And I need your help...please if you want to do something nice for a needy person, if your in Costco, buy some Oatmeal for me eh?  I'll pay you back....the brand is 

Kirkland Signature

Organic Instant Oatmeal (variety pack)

Thanks and happy holidays!!!!

P.S.  The existing stock says best if used by June of 2011...so buy away people!!!!

World AIDS Day

One of the most noble things the Bush administration did was the unprecedented 15 billion relief act that has combatted AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa.  This is one of the only bright spots in this dark failed presidency.  Anyways, it's Xmas time folks, and what better gift for you and yours than an IPOD?  Apple has a red ipod on their shuffle and nano product lines which they donate a portion for AIDS relief...so if you are gonna get one...click here to order!

www.apple.com/ipod/red