Augie Bytes

A lot of people here in Michigan crack me up. With the first snowfall of each year, they start grumbling about the snow. They wake up to a beautiful white blanket of snow out the window and immediately become grumpy. They drop their kids off at school and they’re grumpy. They come in to work all grumpy. Many also seem to forget each and every year that the stuff makes the roads slick and they run in to things (and each other). I just don’t get it.

We are in MICHIGAN for crying out loud. If you really dislike the snow, why on Earth do you live here? It’s not Minnisota or Colorado and certainly not Alaska, but one thing you can count on here in Michigan is that it will (a) get cold and (b) snow. A lot. The specific area we’re in, we also get additional lake-effect snow from the lake.

I for one am not a fan of the summer sun for any length of time. I despise being hot. Therefore, I do not live down south where it is notoriously hot all the time. I actually like the colder weather up here. A perfect day to me is in the mid-60’s and sunny. Fall preferrably so that I can enjoy the colors and the smells such as burning leaves. But I haven’t forgotten how to have fun in the snow. So once it falls and sticks around, I’m out with the kids throwing snowballs, making forts, and (although I completely missed out on it last year) going sledding!

Well anyway, I need to get to my work. Just had to rant a little since I just got the first wave of “I live in Michigan and I hate the snow” conversation for the year…

So as I had mentioned many months ago (or sadly about two or three posts ago) my plan was to separate the personal “family & friends” site from the “geek stuff” site. Augiewan.com (this site) will remain the more personal site focusing on the recent happenings of my family and friends as well as some occasional personal views and rants.

The posts and content focusing on stuff like toys, art, comics, and other geeky things will now be found at theSpeakEasy.com.

So basically, family and friends stay here…

Geeks go here…

La la la…  I haven’t posted in well over two  months…  Plenty has happened, I’m just inconsiderate and don’t want to share!   La la la…

OK, so Randi’s been all loony the last few days because of her obsession with a flash video someone made about llamas. Apparently her teacher showed the class. Now she runs around singing “llama llama duck!” I can’t explain, you just need to watch yourself. I’m so sorry for doing this to you…

So here I am waiting for a report to run at work and I have a decision to make. Take a few minutes to write up a quick post to my ever-neglected blog, or clean my desk. It’s obvious by the fact that you’re reading this that my desk remains cluttered…

I’ve been torn recently because this blog has a split personality. I love talking about geeky things like toys, comics, etc, but I also love updating friends and family on what’s going on with everyday life and sharing family pictures. Unfortunately, I don’t’ think many of my family members are interested in the latest U.B.Funkeys figure I found or what comic I just enjoyed reading. On the flip, I don’t think the people finding my site by searching on Custom Invader Zim Figures are all that pumped to see a gallery on my kids bowling.

I think what I’m going to do is free the two from their bonds. Augiewan.com will remain my more personal “family & friends” oriented blog and theSpeakeasy.com (a domain I’ve wanted to utilize for quite a few years now) will become my “geek” blog. Sound good? Speak now or forever hold your peace!

OK, so I forgot about this post I started and now it’s time to go home. So here are a few proud pics of my evolving new office…

First, a shot of one wall in my ever-evolving office. Proudly displayed in the middle is my Invader Zim poster. Below is my small Green Bay Packers display. GO PACK! To the right you can see some figures which include Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy characters, Edward Scissorhands, and Smiley Bone in a cow suit. To the left we have some of the guys from Cartoon Planet and Rogue from the X-Men movie.

And lastly, we have my brand spankin’ new white board, just hung on the wall today. Tomorrow, I leave on a training trip so I needed to leave something on the board. I think Zim fills it nicely…

Booyah, and have a nice day…

Mixed in with all the gut-wrenching emotions that come with losing your job (and now hunting for a new one), there are still some wonderful moments. I’ve had a few those recently, so I thought it only right to discuss them as well.

First was finding out that the van breaking down was due to a simple bad hose. “That’s a wonderful moment?” you ask. When you’ve spent the prior 24 hours mulling over the other MUCH more expensive alternative things that could have been wrong, you bet it is!!!

Second was this past Sunday when I got to spend the afternoon with my four kids and a bunch of other friends playing some softball at the local high school. My kids have just discovered baseball this year (through videogames of course) and they just love it. They play in the backyard, just the four of them (or at times 2 or 3 of them) for hours on end. So they really enjoyed the outing. Here are a few images to enjoy…

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Third is the fact that I’ve become a great-uncle twice over in the past eight months or so, the second just arriving. On the slightly down side to that is the fact that I’m feeling a bit old because of it. I mean I feel like I just got married and the two new mothers were two of our little flower girls!

Here’s Kennadie…

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And here’s Autumn…

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Last are our beach trips. We love going to the beach in the evenings so the kids can swim and then we watch the sunset. Randi wasn’t with this time, but we got a spare kid in the trade to play with Hailee…

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That’s all, good night…

Wednesday night this was true in a literal sense as about 2 months worth of missing rain all fell on Michiana (that’s the really annoying nick-name this area of Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan has) over the course of about 6 hours.  What came from that storm helped fulfill the more philosophical angle of that saying as well. 

We had to hunker down in the basement for about an hour as “heavy rotation” in our area caused a tornado warning to be declared.  The flash flood warning lasted all night.  Randi was home with us, but the three youngest kids (who happen to be scared to death of tornados) were ALL spending the night at friend’s houses.  So the calls began back and forth making sure everyone was safe (and calm).  The warning came and went without incident, but we ended up with a nice river of water in the basement.  This was most likely due to the gutter system on the back of the house getting ripped off by all the ice build-up last winter and me not getting it repaired yet.  D’oh!

So…

1)      The company I helped build from the ground up declared (after 10 1/2 years) it’s plan to sell or merge and laid off all but a skeleton crew to keep the lights on.  I was one of the ones to go.

2)      The flexible spending account I’ve been paying in to (which is a use it or lose it type of account) closes upon termination, so all the sandbagging I’ve done building up to Randi getting braces this summer was for naught.  I may be able to get a bridge put in for myself in the small window I have left, but money WILL go to waste.

3)      Sheila finds a lump on her neck which added a lot of tension to an already tense time.  She did get in the doctor who was not concerned with it and made her feel a lot better. (follow-up next month if it’s still there!)

4)      The storm hits at night, frightening our children who were at friend’s houses.  Two want to come home at 11:00pm, but due to my having drank a few glasses of wine, their uncle Shane had to bring them home.  (he’s usually in bed by 9 or 10)  Sorry Shane!  Water comes flowing through our basement.

5)      And finally yesterday (well, hopefully “finally”) as we were driving around Mishawaka, IN our van (our only vehicle) starts to overheat and we lose coolant all over the Barnes & Noble parking lot.  Had to get it towed back to Michigan.  I now sit typing this and waiting to hear back from the garage to see what the damage will be.

Joy!  

But hey, it could be a lot worse.  I just feel like complaining right now…

I’m now officially one hour in to the 33rd anniversary of my mother’s pain.  Apparently I had a huge head when I was born…

For those who may not know, I don’t actually celebrate my birthday, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the fact that another year has passed…

Old “and” Unemployed…   Woot!