PODS

Not the storage thing.... the coffee thing. And this is not a commercial, just sharing a once-in-a-year-time story about ME buying something non-essential (aside from the occasional $4 sega game).

I always thought that those single serving pod machines were kind of silly, primarily because you buy this somewhat expensive machine to make you a strong cup of coffee, using a "pod", which is a prepackaged little filter-bag filled with Folgers.

But then I found out that they sell a machine for making your OWN pods. So, I bought the Senseo pod coffee machine by Philips (at Target it costs about $60 after tax, and there is currently a $20 rebate available at http://www.senseo.com/NR/rdonlyres/EB365209-F36F-4391-9CEB-04FB4847D868/0/20RebateFor.pdf ), and thought I'd give it a try.

Now, mind you, I haven't yet ordered the pod making machine yet, because I wanted to try the Senseo out first and decide if it would be good enough to even bother.

I have to say that it is worth it. Even with the Senseo Pods that came prepackaged in it, it makes a strong cup of what my dad calls a "tall coffee". I think it is similar to an Espresso Americano at Starfracks. It's basically like a light espresso (an Espresso machine uses 9-13 bars of pressure, this uses about 2, so you can't expect an espresso out of it). And while I can taste the low quality of the coffee, I am convinced that once I use Grounds coffee to make my own pods, it will be pretty damn good. Oh and, from turning on the machine to completing your double coffee, the brew time averages me just under 2 minutes.

So, I ordered the pod making machine and the filter papers and hope to have some test pods made before 2007.

If anybody out there is thinking of getting one, you can put my name on as a referral on the rebate for and we each get some free coffee or something. If you have a pod machine already, or if you are getting one, then let me know and if my Grounds-pods end up working out, I can mail you some. Even if you don't have a machine, any ideas for a retail name? (I think I may try to recoup the cost of the machine by selling pods online and/or through Grounds.

hmmm, lately my blog sucks

Past few weeks have been about work, chores, work, and more work. working extra at the main job and working my side-job at Grounds again, too.

then there's the whole keeping the house up and clean thing, which I certainly asked for when I bought a house....

well, that's about how boring my life is these days. check back in a month, maybe there will be something worth while.

voting hassles

We went to vote at the VFW today (our new polling place this year), and there were no signs about the fact that voting was going on. The only door that showed light inside was a door to the VFW lodge/bar and a bunch of old guys eating breakfast were inside. They pointed us (my wife, my neighbor and me) to the other side of the building, which looked closed up. As we stood there commenting "so, where do we go?", a guy came out through the door and we realized we needed to go in there.

My wife presented her ID, and after re-spelling her name several times, they found her and said "OK, and had her sign the book". I then presented my ID to the same worker and said "and I'm right below her, same address". The women looked at it concernedly and pointed out that my address did not match my registration address (something that, according to the secretary of state's web page and the flyer at the library, is not a problem). They asked me for additional proof of my address, which I told them I did nto have. I explained that it didn't matter, as the flyer said this is no problem. Her response was "well, the rules they gave out were kind of vague". I explained that I had nothing else, and that I live at and own the home on the registration sheet. Finally, after showing my employee ID and then getting into an argument (they laughed after I showed them the ID, because it had no address), I was allowed to vote.

When we got outside, after complaining that it was hard to find the way in, the old VFW guys who eat breakfast there every morning had hand-written a sign with an arrow that pointed to the correct entrance door.

My parents had a similar experience over in a suburb of Cleveland, where the voting place was listed as the "Junior High", but they had to walk around inside to figure out that voting was in the "wrestling room", which is a side room off of the Gym. Read my mother's e-mail below:

**********************
Mother's E-mail:

There was no sign visible on the middle school to show to go into the wrestling gym. People were going into the main entrance of the Jr. High. I think they had a sign up there. Many people did not understand that they had to present an I.D. to vote. Also, people were voting on provisionals and not stopping back at the registration table to give a card to the workers, and 3 votes would have been just "chucked" if I hadn't said, "No, I am not in a hurry. Take care of this now so you can count those votes." It took them about 6 minutes to straighten it out. If it hadn't been for this old woman in her 80's that was working there, those provisionals would not have been counted, as it held up the line, and the younger (my age and older) workers were saying, "They didn't even stop by here to give us their cards, so that's just tough." The older lady said, "Well, what they had to do wasn't explained well enough." Then she started giving orders as to what to do, and they got it straightened out.

long time no post

As you've noticed, my posting rate has decreased quite a bit these days. I've been rather busy at work, or at least, I've been there more often, because I have been stuck on a late shift, which will happen every other month....

Of course, next year, I will likely be furloughed for two weeks without pay, as the congress is planning on cutting our budget dramatically next year (while asking us to carry the additional load of the new Medicare prescription drug plan AND only replacing 1 employee for every 8 retirees....). The solution proposed by the head of our Agency to this gap between our budget and the amount of work we can get done is to close our doors to the public once per pay period for 10 pay periods, thereby preventing us from filing for unemployment, while also docking our pay. The idea is that congress will "get the message" that the budget needed to be higher. . .and then next year they will up it in order to prevent that from happening again. Boy do I love being a pawn in that game.

I am looking forward to having Veteran's day off and the long weekend associated with that. Several people are coming up to spend the weekend (or part of it), and if you haven't been invited, feel free to stop by. The original invitees were invited when the idea came up at Bryan Bird's cabin, so those people got the reserved spaces. If you are reading this (and you actually know me), feel free to drop in that weekend if you happen to be in BG. Just e-mail me ahead of time so know if/when to expect you.

movie review...well, not so much a review, but go see it.

Today, I saw a movie that I would have to rank as the best movie I have seen this year. . . possibly the best movie in several years.

I would recommend that you see this movie, BUT do not look up anything beforehand, and do not go in with any expectations. I will say that it should appeal to fans of numerous genres, and give you the following advice: don't let the fact that Jessica Biel is in it prejudice you, and enjoy the show.

So, this weekend, find the time to go see The Illusionist.

damn hippies and their treasonous lies

This article is preety interesting. What happens when a conservative, born-again, patriotic person joins the Army because he wants to serve God and his country, then get sent to Iraq to experience what's going on over there?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/us/13awol.html

I really like what he has to say about his fellow church members who who quote "render unto Caesar..." to him.

ahh, the smell of fresh carpet

Our carpet has been installed, and we are going to buy a couch soon. For the first time ever, we are taking on debt with a capital D. paycheck to paycheck. transferred balances...you get the picture.

oh yeah, in other good news, I have developed ganglian cysts and the beginnings of carpal tunnel and/or arthritis. even as I type this, my knuckle feels like it is going to pop out and my wrist is burning.

fun times. fun times..

dang blogger. or IE. or both

I had a really long post written about the renovations we are doing to the house, but after the pop-up from the spell check was blocked, somehow allowing it erased everything.

so here's the quick version: we tore up all the carpet downstairs and in one bedroom, painted everything, and tore up some of the actual floor so that we could crawl around in the inaccessible portion of the crawlspace and add insulation to the floors and a vapor barrier onto the ground (in opposite order). I have no pictures, but I wish I had taken some.

catchya later when my computer is back up. I hate typing on laptops.

bad bouffer . . .kind of sort of

The Humane society requested that Bouffer meet the soon-to-be-adopted dog before he came to our house--- so we took Bouffer over there to meet him, and they got along really well for about 15 minutes, with just one or two warning snarls.

Well, near the end, the lady walks us over by on of the doors of the building, and both dogs shove their noses up against the door. I said "wow, they sure smell something there", and the lady says" Oh, that's daisy, she's a really nice dog". Well, faster than I can say "crap, these dogs are gonna start fighting if their's an un-fixed female behind that door, especially since they are in a an area boxed in by a door on one side and 2 evergeen bushes on 2 of the other sides", Bouffer and the new dog start snarling and snapping at each other. We yanked them away from each other, and they stopped, although Bouffer resumed sniffing at the door.

And the lady says, "Oh, I don't think they are ready to go home together, Bouffer got really defensive there".

That kind of ticks me off. I don't know of many dogs that won't snap at each other when they are going nuts sniffing up hormones....and the to-be-adopted dog also isn't fixed, so he's still all manly, if you know what I mean....We have had over 2 dogs so far, and when kept on leashes they begin to snap at each other, but in both of those cases, once ofo of the leashes, they snarl and/or snapped a few times then just seemed to drop it. I think something about being on the leashes adds to their snappiness.

Anyway, I >>suppose<< they know best.......now we have to have another "doggy date" before they will decide to let him come home with us.....maybe they are just trying to see if we will jump through the hoops to get him.

New Dog's Name

Please vote: (reminder, it is a lab-mix-mutt, about 50-60 pounds)

Basil

Beeker

Bailey

Bunky

Benjiro

Other :__________ (your suggestion).


I wanted to name him Zaphod or Beeblebrox, but that was vetoed.

King Bouffer

OK, I've gotta brag about my baby. . .

At the Wood County Humane Society's annual "Mutt Strut", dozens of doggies took part in the ,,Beauty Pa(w)gent", and vied for the title of King or Queen of the Mutt Strut.

This year's winner (selected by two local TV weather women) was none other than our faithful friend, Bouffer. In addition to "beauty",they took into account his background story (rescued dog), his talents(speaking and fetching the mail)---- and I think they liked his name,too.

Below you can see his coronation, as well as a picture of him enjoying one of his many prizes.

P.S. - We've adopted out several of our Guinea Pigs, and are most likely taking in a friend that Bouffer made at the Mutt Strut. If that happens, you can be sure to find pictures of the new addition to our family here.

my first manual camera with a macro lens

From my garden this weekend:

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar

Monarch

Flower (columbine?)

Milkweed bug nymphs

Creepy Spider (a bit fuzzy because I certainly wasn't getting any closer to it.....)

today we saved a praying mantis

and our story/picture is now on one of my favorite sites:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com

M.Ed.

Well, congratulate my better half. Her e-mail address is her first name @ schutze.com She graduates today with her M.Ed. in Classroom Technology!

if only the camcorder had been running

So today I came home early from work, and my wife was off of work, too.

For months now, when we get home at our usual time, we have found the mail with some mysterious wrinkles and dents. We had finally figured out that the dog must be chewing on the mail (the mail guy drops it through a slot and onto the floor of the enclosed porch).

Well, today, as we were sitting int he living room, the dog gets and runs to the door, we hear the clank of the mail slot opening.........and IN RUNS Bouffer with the MAIL IN HIS MOUTH!

We never taught him or even remotely thought of teaching him this. He carried the mail right up to us and "gave" it to my wife.

Wow, and I thought it was cool that we had recently taught him to "drop the ball. drop the ball" after he had retrieved it...what a proud pappa I am.

sadness

http://www.apetcemetery.com/viewpet.php?theid=352

are doctors truly useless?

I am seriously starting to think that self-diagnosis with the internet
and trial-and-error is just as good as a doctor these days.

For those who don't know, throughout the past few years, my wife has had a few incidences of passing out for apparently no reason, as well as getting shaky or feeling like she was choking. She also began developing skin rashes and getting very dry skin for most of the year. She's gained some weight despite exercising "a ton", and has been getting sores on her feet. She also had a stretch of hair loss that was never explained (not to the point of baldness, but it was noticeable in the drains).

After reading up on it online, she thought she might have a thyroid problem. She asked a doctor, and was basically told that it was in her head. As it continued, we have gone through at least 4 other doctors/ERs, and been given diagnoses varying from hypoglycemia to scabies to possible diabetes to "psychosomatic", but the tests never panned out for any of those other things. On all of these occassions we inquired about a thyroid condition.

Finally last week, she went to a doctor who listened to the symptoms, felt her neck with his hand, and said "your gland is really swollen, it seems like you probably have a thyroid problem". So he sent her for a blood test, and whatdya know? HYPOTHYROIDISM. He said the test results were very convincing/obvious.

While I am happy that we now have confirmation, it seems like such a waste of time, resources, etc, to keep ignoring somebody like that for so long. It almost makes you wonder if the insurance companies would be better off letting you call them and explain why you want a blood test and just givign you permission to go get it...or something along those lines....right? Arrgg.

Well, I'm off to get $25 for being a research subject in a University study. Have a nice day!

netflix cancelled

well, i mailed off my move Tuesday before the last collection time on the post office mail box. and my expected arrival date for my next movie is Monday. So apparently out here in corn town, net flix is not the way to go.

maybe someday when they've sped it up I will re-join.

proud to be an american

so I was watching Jeopardy this evening, and one of the sections was "World Leaders". They showed pictures of the world leader, gave them additional hints, and expected an answer.....

Now, they did get a picture of Putin with Q: "This martial arts master calls this world capitol home" (A:Moscow)

But when shown a picture of Junichiro Koizumi, with Q: "The prime minister of this country" (A: Japan) they all just stood there.

Then, better yet (to me) when shown a picture of Gerhard Schroeder, and Q: "this man was elected as...the Chancellor of his country", the only person who answered said "Who is...Kohl?" Now, those two dude don't look alike, even if you've drank like a German.

The remaining two question were never answered, as they put them off until time ran out. The only two questions left on the board.

How can people who know the answers to all of these other questions not identify the prime minister of Japan, who just visit our country and loves Elvis? I mean, once you see that dude with his goofy hair and all, you can't forget it......

rant over.

Doctor Who Series 1 = Netflix SUbscription

Well, I decided that the most cost effective way to see the whole 1st season of Doctor Who is to sign up for a 2 week free trial of netflix and the unlimited 1 at a time move service. The most I think I will end up spending is $9.99 before I have seen them all and cancel.
If I really like Netflix, maybe I'll keep it. Anybody have experience with Netflix?

my first google video upload

Briana and her sister and I made this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9179890440038468946

Please give it a five star rating!

dah dah (or however you type that L&O sound)

In my continuing struggle to be cheap (or to attain zen-like fulfillment through self deprivation, whichever you choose) we have canceled our $11/month cable and reverted back to the antenna. I'm experienceing Law and Order withdrawal. I'm so used to seeing it (or at least Without a Trace) whenever I want, that I got home from work today and was like...what the hell...no wonder I watched L&O all the time, all the other channels suck.

Seriously though, I am truly missing my early morning Deutsche Welle time (one of my few ways of keeping up with German news/culture/spoken language). That and my CBC evening news. f.

finally (maybe) fixed (hopefully)

On Saturday I made my 4th call to Verizon to complain about the fact that my phone stops working every time it rains (even starts ringing and making strange noises when I pick up and creeping me out in the middle of the night).

Every time I call they give me a long spiel about how it is likely the inside lines, because they detect no problem, and every time I have to bitch to a supervisor to make sure I don't get charged because I KNOW IT'S NOT MY LINE. I know this because I tested my line from the nic box and it works.

So, after over one year, and (as I said before) 4 service calls, they think they figured it out. The junction box was hit by lightning, and when they fixed the pole, they forgot to replace the seal, which was all fiznitched up. Water was getting through during heavy rain and causing the wiring to get all fubared. Everybody please cross you fingers now and hope that my phone will never again die during a storm. And also cross your fingers that Verizon credits my account for the hassle.

the end.

fun with sinusitis

so I've spent the whole frakin weekend whispering most of what I say and being awake from yet another sinus infection. Once again I am on antibiotics, but this time with a steroid. on Thursday I will be getting a CT Scan of my sinuses/head because the doctor says that based on my history of sinus problems, and the fact that she more or less couldn't see up my nose far enough due to it being blocked, there could be something other than just allergies causing this (if not, then my non-formulary co-pays for Zyrtek-D and Rhinocort have been a waste of $70 a month....which I probably should have noticed about 2 months ago as I continued to have headaches...)

ANYway, my bro got laid off this week, so his "possible" move to Japan has moved up to a "probable" move. He's found some interesting government/Navy jobs available over there that would "fit [his] experience well", but the specifics remain elusive.

how time flies

No posts lately, but it has just been a busy past few weeks. Here's what's new.

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary, but she had to work tonight. Tomorrow we will go out to celebrate, but we have to find a place with wheat free dishes (for her wheat gluten allergy) and soft, non-chewy dishes (I just got a temporary crown yesterday).

Only one more day at the Charter school for my better half. Her one boss got really snappy with her and yelled at her on Tuesday, so she left and came home early. Then (this is the best part) on Wednesday, a third party that is doing an evaluation for the school's only potential sponsor came in and interviewed her about the school. By simply telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, she was able to get back at the meanie boss in a very meaningful way. Never mess with a Schutze.

Oh yeah, my brother may shift gears and instead of planning a long life with an immigrant wife, he may move to her country of origin. Her father apparently offered to buy them a house outright as a wedding gift. That would mean I could visit that country for the cost of little more than a plane ticket! Man would Tom and Kristy be jealous :-)

Well, other than that, not much else to tell. I have some exciting news about my job, but refer not to post it online (it's a union thing). If you are interested, just ask.

OH and one more thing, the flowers got off to a late start this year, but they are BEAUTIFUL. Must be all this rain the last two weeks. Our rose bushes went nuts.

Oh well, that's all for now.

super wal-mart, drunk daycare owners, and a smelly dog

Ah, the Ohio life. A Super Wal-Mart opened in BG this week, and a "gazillion" people appeared from the countryside. The traffic on main street has been non-stop, and the entire parking lot, along with Burger King's parking lot, has be nearly full almost all day long. Will this revitalize the South side of BG, or simply create congestion and low-wage part-time jobs, thereby increasing the number of trailer parks? I assume the latter, but only time will tell.

Next topic please:
Some of you may know that we live next door to a daycare. Well, this weekend, the owner and her best friend moved into the apartments above the daycare, as the nice Russian couple who used to live there had had enough. Well, they sat outside on the front porch all day Saturday with a couple of hill-jack looking guys, and once they were all drunk, they started screaming "Fu&k you a$$hole!"..."Oh $crew you b!tch!", etc.
Luckily, they quieted down by about 10pm. Well, I will still make sure to tell the two sets of parents I know who take their kids there, and if it happens again, I suppose I will call the cops. Maybe once we fix up the basement of this house and replace the carpets and the remaining windows, we will spend about another year here and then buy a house closer to Toledo (Maybe in Northwood or Perrysburg) so that I can start taking the bus...it used to be so nice here. It was our little downtown, and we had the good fortune of living on one of the few quiet, family filled streets in downtown BG...I guess change is the only constant...

And today's last topic: We took Bouffer to Petco to be groomed, because he was kind of stinky and the local groomer we usually go to was booked for another 2 weekends. Big mistake. I don't know what they did to him, but when I got there, he was standing alone on a tile floor with nobody around and he had gone to the bathroom on the floor (#1 AND #2). I called out and the teenager working there was like "my, you made a mess." then to me "I was only gone for a couple of seconds." All day long, he acted really weird, like when he has gotten into the trash and yelled at... and by the look & feel of his nails, they didn't even cut them. That's what we get for using a chain store instead of our local business. We should have known better, but I guess sometimes (sadly) laziness is the ultimate persuader.

maybe this explains it...

I found this article that explains why I often have to fight so hard to remain optimistic. As you will read, it's a cultural things passed on my dad.

And for those of you who think the author is exaggerating...I can tell you this is not true.

When my wife explained that she would be teaching, the mother of a German family we were visiting replied, "Oh, but don't teachers in America earn low wages and have very little respect? [slight pause] Why would you choose that career?"

NEW JOB FOR THE LITTLE LADY!!!!

http://www.northwood.k12.oh.us/nhs/index.htm

No more charter school!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry to disappoint

dude, seriously. There just hasn't been much to share lately.
I keep working, the wife keeps working.

I guess this is the biggest current event:

Her school still hasn't actually signed the contract with their sponsor, so we aren't yet 100% sure if she will have a job next year.
They offered her her job back for next year, along with a signing bonus for being "highly qualified", but it is contingent upon the "possible sponsor" actually signing on as the sponsor.

Right now we are waying our options in the event of no more job. They seem to be as follows:
1. She works two part time jobs next year, hopefully one of which would be a teaching position, and then goes on my health insurance.
2. She finds another full-time job in a non-teaching field.
3. She goes back to school for yet another degree and way more loans.
4. She finds another full-time teaching job.

She has applied for two other jobs just to be safe, but doesn't want her current employer to get mad about this (which complicates things,because she can't very well list the current employer as a contact, but new employers prefer to talk to the current employer when you have only had one full-time job so far). Ideally, she would like to keep working with her students, as she has a great bond with them. So we are stuck in this uncertain state for the time being. Fun fun.

no surprise

I haven't had even one chance to lift or "box" since my last post.

We did take Bouffer to the Vet. You would think he had roomed with Bryan Bird for the last year...he gained almost 10 pounds, bringing his weight to a whopping 114 pounds!

Things remain the same around here. Lots of work, little play. This weekend I work 7am-noon, as we are all behind. It can be explained mathematically:

vacations(hiring freeze + retirements)^[new medicare prescription drug plan] = F!

schutze, smash!

I bought a hybrid power/speed bag today for the garage. I haven't felt that kind of a rush in a while. If I can keep it up, I'll be back to the old jock days of walking around feeling confident that I could "smash that guy's head in" at will.

Now if I could just lose my gut. F.

5 year license, and 36 years without a goodbye.

Well, Briana got her scores today, and (as expected) she passed her Praxis III observation with flying colors. Now she can convert to a 5 year professional license. And renewing that should be a breeze, since she completes her masters degree in August.

On my side, it continues to be a pretty slow news month. Somebody at work retired today, but she requested that her retirement not be announced until after she left. It was a little weird. Even the lady who sat across from her for 25 years wasn't told. All of a sudden, we got an office wide Windows NT message saying "[she] has retired effective May 10th. She will not be returning after her vacation that begins tomorrow. She requested that the news be withheld until after she left today." The whole office was like "is this a joke?".

I'm continuing to work on the new web-site for everybody's favorite coffee shop. I decided to use NOPCart, which is open-source java script. Non-secure, but he doesn't want to take orders anyway. It's coming along, but kind of tedious. However, it is free, and should work regardless of the hosting they end up choosing.

glad to be a DINK for another year...

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200660411008

thinly veiled, yet rather amusing

Last night's Dr. Who episode was a rather thinly veiled, yet rather amusing, poke at the type of hysteria that can cause humans to do the unthinkable.

After a space ship (loaded with pigs) crashes into Big Ben, the British Government declares a National Emergency. Of course, the Government in this case, has been body-snatched by some nasty aliens, out to make a quick buck.

Disguised as the Prime Minister of England, they announce that there are massive weapons in orbit, controlled by aliens and ready to destroy the Earth. Therefore, they send various diplomats (also body-snatched) to the United Nations, where they present "definitive proof" of the existence of these massive weapons of destruction, and ask for the password/code that will allow them to fire nuclear weapons at the orbiting/enemy aliens. Of course, as the Doctor figures out, there are in fact no weapons poised to strike, and no aliens in orbit. Rather, it was a ploy by the aliens to gain control of the nuclear systems and destroy the Earth (which would then be sold as radioactive fuel for low-class starships).

So, suspend your disbelief, realize that the aliens are campy on purpose, and enjoy the show!

please comment

So, I'm working on re-designing a web-site for a certain local business.

The owner would like a section of the web-site where you can view pictures of the staff, have links to other local businesses, post "events", and post "editorials" (still not 100% sure what is meant by that). He also wants to be able to announce new products, and have his staff log on to add the new products/descriptions (i.e., not have it relayed through a webmaster).

So as I was thinking of the navigational nightmare this would cause, an idea hit me: a blog.

So, the question that I pose to all of you out there is this: "Would you find it any less (or more) professional to have those types of things on a Blogger(TM) blog that is linked to from the business' site? Have any better ideas?"

not much

Pretty uneventful last week or so. Just work, eat, sleep, repeat.

My brother finally married his long time girlfriend, and they are now working on getting her her residency (and eventually, citizenship). Apparently, the fee to file the first form needed is $190, and must be accompanied by their marriage certificate, her visa, 2 color pictures of her, and a few other things. She wants to pay a lawyer $2500 to do all of it---but, being a Schutze, my bro is trying to do it all by reading the INS web-site and following the directions. I'll let you all know how that goes.

small animal liquidation

Today we gave away our hamster Tanka and a Guinea Pig named Spunky that Briana recently bought (and I complained about for 48 hours straight).

We are now down to 9 Guinea pigs and NO hamster.

Yay.

the good, the bad, and the frakly

THE GOOD

Well, it turns out that getting a new car when your wife is driving an old car is not very smart. We are therefore, as of Sunday, the proud new owners of this four door version of my car, in a much less frakish color (and w/ automatic and A/C):

THE BAD

Of course, after getting further into debt by taking a loan out for the car, Briana found out on Monday that her school hasn't paid any premiums to the health insurance company since September, so all of her medical bills and prescriptions back to 09/30/05 are being retroactively denied. Of course, over Winter break, she made a gazillion appointments so they would be done during her vacation... we are awaiting some type of resolution, but at this exact point, all of the doctors want the money from us.

THE FRAKLY

The Friday night premier of the new Doctor Who was frak-tastic and did not disappoint. I think that they kept it just campy enough to give me that "I'm 12 years old again, watching Dr. Who" feeling, while adapting the humor and the storylines just enough to make them work for the present day audience. Like any "Dr.", it takes a while to get used to a new personality/actor, but I think this guy's got it right.

the good and the bad

The good news is that sci fi begins airing the new doctor who series on Friday!

Bad news is the elliptical started making a "clunk" noise with each revolution, so Briana isn't using it. My next step is to put a board underneath it, but the board smells like chemicals (it needs time to air out, but while it is stinky, she probably won't use it, either). I knew it was a mistake to spend that much on this thing...

...a NEW CAR!!!!!

DA DA, Dada, DA DA DAda! deedle deedle deedle deedledee... (that's an attempt at the price is right music)

The blue escort is gone, replaced by our new 2005 Chevy Aveo. This car brings a smile to the whole world. Literally! The second photo is not doctored in any way, it was just one of my dad's flares of creativity, and I intend to keep it that way.

This St. Patrick's Day

I would like to recommend that you check out the group "Black 47".

I would describe them as a mix between the Pogues, the Clash, Cypress Hill, and a few other groups.

Most importantly, they throw in some great Irish (and American) political ranting for your listening pleasure.

The Album "Home of the Brave" is probably my favorite.

big purchase

Well, thanks to Briana's constant begging me, and the fact that I didn't hide my coming raise, we are now the proud owners of this monstrosity.

So, if you are ever in BG and need to work out, just stop by. After your workout, you can listen to 9 loud Guinea Pigs, or get knocked over by our dog.

Seriously though, this thing was not cheap (although we didn't buy it at as high of a price as you see in the link), but since she has gone to the rec almost daily for about 6 years now, I think she will be one of the few people who buys a piece of exercise equipment and actually ends up using it.

weekend "to do" list

1. Play Starcraft...I bought it for $5 on a clearance rack.

2. Deliver 80 pounds of coffee to the Book and Bean in Berea. For those of you in the Cleveland Area, did you realize you can still get your Grounds for Thought Coffee (and even at a combo book and coffee shop!) in Cleveland?

3. Visit Granny at her new retirement community in Strongsville.

4. Visit my parents, hand over a check for the amount of my car that sold and give my dad our old monitor (we just got a 17" flat panel).

5. Come back to BG and if there is still light, clean up doggy doo doo.

6. Try and get Briana to relax---she was Praxis observed this weekend and she is still questioning every little thing that happened. Her observer was coughing/blowing her nose the whole time, so Briana is afraid this may have put the observer into a "bad mood"...

7. Figure out when Doctor Who first airs on Sci Fi this month, so I can set aside everything else and hopefully not be too disappointed.

promotions, passenger vehicles

Well, as of today, I have been at my job for one full calendar year. I had my annual review, and get my promotion/raise effective March 5th! Yay! Now when I send my entire paycheck off to various creditors (father, mortgage holder, second mortgage holder, student loan services, credit card, etc.), it will be a bigger check that I send them! Seriously though, it makes me much more comfortable to have a raise, given the uncertainty of Briana's school (charter school that might have to close).

In other news, it looks like I may be getting a Chevy Aveo as a result of the car situation explained in my last posting. I will owe my dad some extra cash, since it is a 2005 Aveo that will be replacing my 1998 Escort. But the car is pretty sweet. 5 door, 35mpg, stick shift.

funny? not funny.

For those of you who have heard stories about my Dad before, you may see the humor in what happened this weekend. Of course, all of you will see the horror.

So, mein Vati calls me on Saturday, and tell me that my mom will be taking over my Grandma's car, now that my grandma is in a nursing home. This means that they will have an extra car-- a 1999 Mercury Mystique with only 50,000 miles on it. If I were to sell my 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 with 100,000 on it, he would be willing to give me the mystique for the amount I get for the ZX2.

Too good to be true, huh? Well, my dad generally comes through, so I told him I would list the Escort on my.bgsu and see if I could get it sold. I listed it for $3400, the fair value on Kelly Blue Book. Well, within 3 hours, I got the first call. I told my dad about it, and asked him what the lowest offer I should take would be (since he would be taking the money from that in exchange for a 1 year new, 50k fewer miles vehicle). He said $2995.

Well, today, somebody came over and offered $2800 cash for it. I called my dad, again, and he said to go for it, since they were offering cash. I figured I would give him the difference out of pocket. So, I met them, got the $2800 in cash, and signed over the title today, Sunday. Fast. huh?

When I got back, I called and told him. Again, he said it was good, it would be about a week and he could bring the Mercury.

A little later, he called and said it might take a bit longer, the engine light had gone on. Then he said he had the parts to fix it, but he had to work some things out. Then he said that my mother came home and said she thought he knew that she had changed her mind--she doesn't want to give up the car.

So my dad says "well, maybe we can get you Max's car (another ford escort ZX2 that was recently hit and has a smashed up front quarter). Of course, I would wonder what Max would drive then. His second offer was the 1997 Ranger pickup he was storing in my gargage. The one with pick-up truck gas mileage, a battery that dies every week if you forget to take a drive, and a smell that is not helpful to my sinus problems. Finally he said maybe we could have his new 2006 Aveo (which, despite the fact that that would be a great deal for me, would probably cause hard feelings, so I have to turn that offer down).

So now he is thinking about it. I have no car, and I took a lowball offer for a car that I just recently had almost everything fixed up on, new brakes, tires, rotors, tie rod ends, a transmission flush, etc.--and at this point, I only have a very complicated family mess to deal with.

Pretty funny, huh?

life, flavored with orange peels and exotic spices.

1:28 and I am flipping channels. can't sleep tonight for some reason. probably that after work nap that I took from 5 to 7.

there was a time when such an occurence would have prompted me to write a story or a poem or something.

krank

Well, I'm home from work today. My throat feels like I have a ball of spikes in it around which my tonsils and the back of my throat constrict each time I swallow. Apparently, Snap Crackle and Pop (TM) have hidden in my left ear canal, too.
Hopefully a full day of rest will get me back up to par. I'd hate to miss two days of work only a week before my first annual review/evaluation.

My guess is that I caught what Briana had last week and over the weekend. My further guess is that she caught it at the eTech Conference (the State educational technology conference). A conference full of teachers and other educators is bound to be a cesspool of sorts. It's like coming into contact with the germs of every school kid in the state. F.

>>Update: Just got back from the doctor. I seem to have a really bad sinus infection that is spreading into my ear and throat. Solution? $20 for the copay to get a massive antibiotic treatment ("At this dosage, you will have diarrhea for about 10 days"). And for the chronic sinusitis that caused it? $35 for zyrtek ("well, if claritin, nasacort, flonase, and nasanex didn't work, maybe this will"). Oh and a free sample of some nose spray that will also cost me $35/month if I start getting it. Of course, without insurance the medicines would be $120, $85, and $90 respectively, so I guess I should be grateful...

musicals and mucas

Bryan Bird came over today along with Jason Smith. The plan was originally to go get f-ing good gyros and then go to the Black Swamp Players' production of "Anything Goes".

However, Briana is in her 3rd day of a rather nasty "cough-your-lungs-up" sickness, and I decided to stay behind and play nurse (not like that, pervert). Actually, the problem seems to be that nothings getting coughed up, despite the promises of the Mucinex box...

I hope she gets better soon, and that I don't end up with what she has, because it is pretty nasty. No temperature, so that's at least a good sign...why does stuff like this always happen on 3 day weekends???

Tell me what you really think

I had to steal this Johari window from Kristy. Please tell me what you really think.

I won't comment on the results until I have received at least as many respondents as a barrel of monkeys has monkeys.

Right now it is about 7:45AM. I just got off the phone with my cousin Christian's girlfriend Betti. He is at work. They are really cool, and I got to know them this past summer when they came to visit (well, I knew my cousin before, but I had never really spent more than a couple of days around him until now, at least not while we both spoke the same language).

They are part of a middle ages club in Germany. But unlike such clubs in the US, their club preserves the history of their city's actual medieval castle--Burg Linn. My cousin towers over me in height, and looks like a real nordic butt kicker (see link above, top-right of the individual photos). But his career aspiration is not that of a Berzerker (yes, I know that's not German, but it is still funny). Rather, he is working on a degree in social work.

So here's the real point of this post:
Despite the fact that we grew up in different countries and barely knew each other until 2005, I found it amazing that we have the following common interests:

• He's going into social work, I work for soc ial se cur ity
  
• We both like Dr. Who (that alone is amazing) and various other cheezy sci fi shows
  
• We share many of the same political views (although he is a tad further to the left)
  
• We both like many of the same music groups, German and American.
  
• We are both inept at home and auto repair, even though our fathers are great at it
  

Of course, he dislikes coffee and is a vegetarian.

And today's random link is to an article written by Jim Schutze (no relation, as far as I know)

Charmed, I'm sure

So what is it that makes me like corny sci-fi/fantasy television so much?

I can only asume it goes back to the younger years, when my dad always watched Dr. Who on PBS and played both the record and the BBC movie of Hitchhiker's guide with great frequency.

Of course, he also played Opera and masterpiece theater, and I never really picked those up (yet).

I'm sitting here watching Charmed on a Friday afternoon...I don't get to watch it much because Briana thinks I watch it for the girls. But it's not that. I like Stargate SG-1, too (and I certainly don't have the hots for big dudes with weird things on their foreheads, or for McGuyver).

I think maybe it's the simple idea of good versus evil, and the fact that lots of science fiction plays out the way that good and evil can blur. Oh well. Commercial break's over.

Valentine's Day

It is Valentine's day. Mrs. Schutze is off at an Educational Technology Conference in C-town (Ohioans are funny when they call their city C-town, since every major city starts with a C). Bouffer is sleeping on the couch, and I am trying to think of something clever to post. But alas, I can not share the good stories from work, and I don't want to share stories of the past few months without a reason to do so. Nothing's worse than a "forced" blog, you know?

Well I don't. You could live in the Sudan, have leprosy, or be sold into slavery. That's much worse.

So, on Valentine's day, remember that all things are relative. What is cripplingly difficult for you to deal with in your own life can be easily scoffed at and made to sound insignificant by rattling off some other horrible things. And remember, as Farin says, "Die Sonne scheint auch weiter hin Das ist ja grad die Schweinerei | Die Sonne scheint, als wäre nichts dabei".

Now, smile.

Strohwitwer

Well, the wife is off at an Educational Technology conference, so I'm playing bachelor. If, by bachelor, you mean "doing the same things I always due, but it is eerily quiet and much more boring". I think the most exciting thing I will do is work overtime in order to recoup the cost of paying for parking downtown.

On top of that, it is friggin' freezing in the house. Despite the new windows and the new furnace (all of which cost a whole lot of money), the house still doesn't do very well when the temperature goes below 20 Fahrenheit. Then again it probably doesn't help to be eating ice cream, does it.

So, happy Sunday and hopefully something I post in the next day or two will be worth you reading.

OH yeah, one thing I heard about from a Special Ed teacher recently... The Kids of Widney High. Apparently, this is a group of special education students who's teacher started having the kids try songwriting. Once on the site, you can see their video for "pretty girls". Just click on Videos, then look along the right-hand side for the link.

Is this a great way for them to apply what they learn and build self-esteem, or exploitation of these special kids the likes of which we have not seen since, well, the middle ages? Discuss.

If you lived in Darrow . . .

you may know somebody like this.

and for those of you who bug me about when I am going to have kids:

Watch this public service announcement about children

cutting Guinea Pig nails

One of the many joys of owning 9 Guinea Pigs is that you have to cut their nails. With 3 nails on each rear foot, and 4 on each front foot, that gives me 126 chances to cut a nail too short.

Cutting a nail too close to the "quick" (the pinkish reddish part that you can't even see if the nail is black instead of white) causes them to yelp and then bleed profusely.

I managed to do that last night to Ginger (pictured below). Sorry Ginger!

Luckily, there is something called styptic powder (which seems to be made of clean dirt and various metal shavings?) that we keep handy for such situations, which stops the bleeding pretty quickly.

beagles?

This post is for Bryan Bird. But don't ignore my doggy post from earlier today...

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_039115107.html

Uninvited guest

About every 3 months or so, our dog Bouffer (seen to the right), decides that 3:47am is a good time to wake up, start circling our bed, then jump into it. Last night was one such night.

Mind you, he weighs about 110 pounds. And of course, once in the bed, he continues his antics by stretching his legs into my face, and shoving his nose under any part of my body that he can.

About 10 minutes after he falls asleep, he promptly wakes back up, sits up, then stares at me for a few minutes. He then lays back down, starts again with the leg-streching/nose-shoving, and repeats the cycle until it is time to get up.

Like I said, he only does this every few months.

Does anybody have an explanation?

W-4s

Standing in line last night at Taco Bell, I overheard a girl say "I already did my taxes, and I'm getting back like $400". Her friend said, "What? I thought we made the same amount this year, you must have a good tax guy, because I only got back like $50."

OK. Maybe, just maybe, this girl made enough donations or took some college classes and got a tax credit. But most likely, both of these girls actually did pay about the same in taxes, and both of the girls' parents claimed their tax credits. The difference? One girl probably filled out her W-4 incorrectly, which means she had too much withheld from her paychecks. What a patriot! She made an interest free loan to the government!

Just imagine if people all filled out their W-4 correctly. Fewer refund anticipation loans to rip off the low-income folks, no annoying Turbo Tax commercials where the wife goes "if it's so good, how much are we getting back? [pause] [stupid face] WOOWWWW!", and more money to spend on Elvis throw rugs every pay day. OK, maybe it wouldn't be that great. And maybe you don't always plan on the IRA deposit or charitable gift until half way through the year (although you CAN change your withholding at anytime). But dude, seriously, W-4s.

jumping on the blog wagon

Dude, seriously. I'm starting my own blog. Just like most people, I have no good reason why. I suppose the topics will range from my ineptness at home and auto repair, to the inordinate number of Guinea Pigs in my house, to whatever. Plus, I just wanted to get schutze.blogspot.com before some German did.