Stranded in an airport

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Got up at 5:15am, got the kids up and we left for the airport. We got there to find that our flight had been canceled because of weather. Luckily, we got on a flight leaving just 30 minutes later than planned. But for whatever reason, they ended up putting us in first class which was nice. We had a layover in Denver and our 2nd plane was also in first class. Emily cried when we got to Oregon because she didn’t want to go. I got on a flight and was in Minneapolis by about 7:30pm. Once again my flight got canceled but this time I was stuck in the airport until 10:30 the next morning.

So I spent the night in the airport. I slept a little, watched some TV, played on the internet and IMed friends with my phone. Anyway, I was hungry and all the food places are closing so I looked at some vending machines and decided on Animal Crackers. But all I’ve got is a $10 bill and they don’t take those! So I move to the stamp machine and I OMG HAX it. I buy a 37 cent stamp and get back 9 gold dollar coins and 63 cents.

Then I use one of the dollar coins to buy Animal Crackers, hoping the machine will take dollar coins. It does. And I expect to get my animal crackers and 25 cents back. Instead I get my animal crackers and 4 quarters back! OMG! So I do the same thing and it happens again – a bag of animal crackers and 4 quarters. I do it again, same thing. I do it again, only with Fritos but I only get a quarter back for that. So I’ve got an unlimited supply of animal crackers tonight! I bought 3 more bags just because I could.

I can take all these quarters, load them into the stamp machine and I’ll probably get a bunch of gold dollars back as change. I went to an identical food machine and the animal crackers were in the same slot in the machine (C-0) so I tried it on that one but it didn’t work.

The only problem with this whole thing is that I don’t really LIKE animal crackers that much. I ate 2 bags and I’m full. I could buy out the entire supply of them from that machine but what the hell can I do with them? All I can think of is to sell them but that hardly seems worth the effort. What do I do?? I would post a picture of all these animal cracker bags comically spilling out of my backpack, but that’s too much effort for me.
Emily and Payton, enjoying 1st class

Pranking Bernadette

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November 19th, 2004: This is the lady who works at the Piasa Pantry near my house, laughing about the phone call she just received. While I was in there buying a Pepsi, my friend Amy called and said that her boyfriend would be in the store in just a minute and to ask him to buy a few boxes of condoms. Amy gave my description and said that I drove “an abnormally large truck.” This is the first time I’ve ever seen Bernadette laugh. Me and Amy do such a great public service to Alton!

Nov/Dec 2004 – Picking up the kids from Oregon

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Friday, 11-5-2004: After work went to the Galleria for the 2600 meeting but nobody was there. I didn’t feel like waiting so I walked around the mall for awhile and then left. On the way home stopped by Barnes & Noble and Home Depot.

Saturday, 11-6-2004: Tami came over and helped me paint the apartment next door. We did 2 bedrooms and the living room. Later I went to her house and we went bowling. Her friend Denise met us at the bowling alley. After that we went to Roper’s Regal Beagle for a few hours, then I came home.

Wednesday, 11/10/2004: Painted the kitchen in the apartment next door this evening.

Thursday, 11-11-2004: At 1:30pm my parents and brother picked me up and we went to Longhorn Steakhouse to eat. Randy came over this afternoon to fix my furnace but we didn’t get anywhere with it. Still broken.

Saturday, 11-13-2004: Finished doing a bunch of painting on the apartment. Went to Jamestown Mall and did some clothes shopping. Got new pants, a shirt, belt and some hooded sweatshirt things.

Sunday, 11-14-2004: Did a little work on the apartment next door in the morning. Then went to Hazelwood to meet Caerie and go rollerblading. Did that for a couple of hours and then headed home. Stopped by Jamestown Mall on the way home to exchange a belt I bought and went to see the movie Shall We Dance.

Wednesday, 11-17-2004: After work I went out with Jodi. She just moved here from California so I gave her a tour of Alton. We went to the Piasa Bird, downtown, the smallpox memorial, Lovejoy cemetary and her house. Also went to Applebees to have supper.

Saturday, 11-20-2004: Worked on the apartment a lot during the day. In the evening me and Tami went to Jamestown to see National Treasure. Then came to my house and watched some TV and Serendipity.

Thursday, 11-25-2004: Thanksgiving. Read a book of mine all morning. Went to my parents house for Thanksgiving lunch. Came home at about 2 or 3pm and spent my entire day/evening reading my book. Finished it at 11pm, playing on the internet for awhile and went to sleep.

Friday, 11-26-2004: Worked on my bathroom. Got a light and switch wired in there finally. And put up a few studs for a wall which will be a closet. Actually I think I did some of this yesterday too. This week is a blur.

Saturday, 11-27-2004: Did nothing all day. Slept until 9 or 10. Visited my parents. Went to Lowes. Ate at Wood River Subway.

Sunday, 11-28-2004: Worked on the bathroom a lot today. Got the closet door up in it and a bunch of drywalling done, including the ceiling.

Thursday, 12-2-2004: Went out with Tami and her kids. Went to Godfrey McDonalds, Rock Springs Park to look at the lights and then to my house for awhile.

Friday, 12-3-2004: Worked on the bathroom drywalling for awhile. Went to the Galleria for 2600 but nobody was there.

Saturday, 12-4-2004: Went to Caerie’s house. We watched part of Star Wars Episode 1, then all of Episode 2. I forgot to mention to her how gay I think Star Wars is. Okay, I don’t hate Star Wars that much. I’d never seen Episode 2 before and it was interesting to watch. Afterwards we went to Applebees to have supper.

Monday, 12-6-2004: Suzanne picked me up around 7:00 and we went to eat at Steak N Shake. Walked to Patty’s house cause I was supposed to help Mark fix his computer but they weren’t home. On the way there I saw Debbie and she told me that Karen Banghart died today.

Tuesday, 12-7-2004: Went to lunch with Tami, then to Target and to my parents house to let their dog out. After work I went to her house and me, her and her kids went to see Christmas with the Kranks.

Saturday, 12-11-2004: Went with Tami and her kids to a mall in St. Louis for ice skating, go-cart racing, miniature golfing and video games.

Monday, 12-12-2004: Went to Jerseyville theater to see the Spongebob movie. Met Tami, Amy and all their kids.

Saturday, 12-18-2004: Got up at 7:30am and drove to Jerseyville to help Tami move her parents furniture. Ate breakfast at McDonald’s before I got there. Her parents took us to eat at Pizza Hut afterwards. Came home and cleaned up the house. Went by my parents house for awhile to pick up a disc from my dad. They got a new dog. Came home and cleaned some more. Gina stopped by and picked up her computer and paid me $20 for fixing it. Tomorrow I get to fly to Oregon and pick up the kids for Christmas break.

Sunday, 12-19-2004: Got up at 5:30am and started driving to the airport by 6am. All the flying was pretty uneventful. I had a layover in Minneapolis and the temperature was negative 8. I got to the Portland airport at 1pm. Colleen and the kids were there when I got there. Had to hang around the airport with them for almost 4 hours before it was time to leave. They were pretty good on the plane. We had a 1 hour layover in Denver and then got to St. Louis at midnight. Then home at 1am.

Monday, 12-20-2004: Worked throughout the day. Bonnie came over with Brianna and Christian and left them. Then I took them back to Bonnie’s awhile later. Took the kids to my parents house for a few hours. Had some Little Ceasars for supper there, went to the grocery store and then came home.

Tuesday, 12-21-2004: Took Casey, Emily and Payton to see the Lemony Snicket movie at Jamestown. Got a Sidekick II phone while I was there.

Thursday, 12-23-2004: Tami and her kids came over today. Tami baked cookies that the kids made from cookie cutters.

Saturday, 12-25-2004: I got up at 8am and woke up the kids for Christmas. This year they got radio control 4×4 trucks, a Mighty Beans race track, an art set, random stuffed animals, Boggle, Simpson’s Clue, Don’t Break The Ice and a few other board games and puzzles. They also got a few DVDs and Xbox games. After a couple hours, we went to my parents house for Christmas. They got even more toys and games there. Came home after awhile and just hung out at the house all day. I think I actually napped on the couch for awhile.

Sunday, 12-26-2004: Didn’t leave the house all day. Just hung around the house with the kids.

Tuesday, 12-28-2004: Picked up Emily’s friend Shelby and she hung out at our house all day and spent the night. Took them to Rock Springs Park to see the Christmas lights and feed the animals.

Wednesday, 12-29-2004: Took Shelby home around noon, then took the kids to my parents house to spend the day so I could get some work done. Emily ended up spending the night there. Payton came home and played video games with Casey.

Pranking Rusty

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November 4th, 2004: Today I had to go to this heating/cooling place to get a part for my furnace. My friend Amy decided to prank call the guys there while I was in there getting the part. So she rang the phone just as I was walking in the door and I had to wait about 5 minutes for her to get off the phone before I was finally waited on. She was saying all kinds of weird things, like asking if they sold alternators and beanie babies and she said she wanted a service call. “No, you misunderstand, I want to be serviced sexually!” I think the guy finally ended up hanging up on her. She was just asking a bunch of weird, random questions about thermostats and stuff, I think.

After he hung up I got to listen to him recap the entire phone call to me and the other 2 customers in the store. Then he turned on the speakerphone and *69’ed Amy and it read back her number. She’s such a newb, she didn’t even *67. Everyone was really amused by the whole thing. As I driving somewhere else, me and Amy were cracking up about it on the phone when the AC guy calls her back. I’d told her that he *69ed her so we were expecting a call back. She answers, “Jenny’s House of Sex” and talks to the guy for a little while. She tells him he should thank her for making his day a little more interesting.

About 30 minutes later, I’m back in their store for another part. A different customer is in there and the guy is in the middle of telling this guy the whole story of his weird phone call. Amy’s phone call must have been the most interesting thing that’s happened to him in years. When he sees me, he says, “I’ve got some new information on that phone call!” and he pulls out a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. “Her name is Amy _______ and she lives in _______ Oklahoma!” I ask him how he managed to find that information and he says he’s got his ways, trying to be all mysterious with me. Then he tells me that he’s got a family member that works in an institution of some kind and they have access to databases that lawyers use or whatever. They were able to pull up her info by her number. I wanted to tell him that she was listed but I didn’t. At one point he said, “I don’t think this girl realizes who she’s messing with.” All pheer the AC guy!

I said, “Well why would some random girl from Oklahoma be calling a heating & cooling shop in Illinois?” He said he didn’t know but he normally spent about $20 a month *69ing people that prank called him and hung up on him. I didn’t mention to him that caller ID is a lot cheaper than $20 a month. He told me some bizzare story about a prank caller he used to get at home and how he caught that guy. He said that he gave her phone number to a guy who was in the shop earlier and the guy was going to call her up around 11pm tonight and see how she liked it. I can’t wait to see if the guy actually calls her or not. This guy sure seems to take prank calls seriously, though. A little 5 minute prank call seems to have consumed his entire day. I bet he’ll be telling stories of this prank call to people for weeks.

The rest of October 2004

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Tuesday, 10-12-2004: My internet has been broken all day. Went to Richards for awhile to finish up the election reports. Went to Jamestown Mall in the evening to pick up a new internet router.

Saturday, 10-16-2004: Today I worked on getting a light wired into the guest room closet. I’m tired of using that tiny lamp in there. Later I decided to move my room back into my room since I was sick of living in the guest room. I wanted to wait until my room was finished to move in, but screw it. It’s gonna be months before I get all that done anyway. My brother came over this evening so I could help him get some files off dad’s old hard drive. Amy called me at 3:30am and woke me up. We talked until about 5:30am.

Sunday, 10-17-2004: Spent all day working on electrical stuff in the guest room and closet. Doesn’t sound like a big project but somehow it took all day. Well, most of the day. Josh & Lori finished moving out today so I went over there and looked around the apartment. Watched Dead Like Me and it was probably the best episode of this season so far.

Tuesday, 10-19-2004: Today I had to hang out at the apartment next door all day to wait for the cable guy and gas guy. Worked from the downstairs kitchen for a few hours before they showed up. The cable guy was here for several hours and I had to help him run the cable through the attic for Kelli’s apartment. After work me and Tami went to Edwardsville to see Team America.

Friday, 10-22-2004: Worked until 2 or 3, then drove to Nashville for Phreaknic. Got there around 9pm and wandered around for awhile. Called Zeroknowledge and ended up hanging out with him and some other guy. We tried to find murd0c but we were told that he was passed out somewhere. We ended up taking all my ‘Milk Matters’ stickers all over the hotel – on doors, walls, elevators, tables, etc. We spent a little less than an hour sticking them everywhere and it really pissed off the Phreaknic staff. Later we did a bunch of pranking hotel guests which really pissed off the hotel staff. Amy called me around 3:30am and I was in the lobby talking to her and listening to the front desk guy and security guy talking about the pranks. At some point we met up with murd0c. I ended up sleeping in his room with about 8 other people.

Saturday, 10-23-2004: Left the room around 8am and went to the Waffle House for breakfast. Ended up leaving the con quite early, maybe around 2 or 3pm, for reasons that I shouldn’t get into right now. Got home at 9pm.

Tuesday, 10-26-2004: After work I went to Florissant to meet Caerie for super at Applebees. Then stopped by Gamestop and Barnes & Noble by myself. Got the DVDs Pleasantville, Phenomenon, Timeline and Fightclub and a book on bank robberies.

Thursday, 10-28-2004: I told Casey that I would go to the East Alton holloween parade to see him marching in the band. So I filled up my mp3 player with music and walked over there. Casey’s band was the first thing out so after I waved at him, I left. I walked across East Alton, stopped at Piasa Pantry for some gum and ended up where the parade was ending. I saw Joe T. and hung out with him for the rest of the parade. He gave me a ride home and we hung out for awhile. Went to his house and he showed me all of his renovations.

Saturday, 10-30-2004: Wasted most of my morning sitting on the laptop and converting old UPL issues into HTML. Around 2pm I went next door and scraped wallpaper off the wall for a couple of hours. Tami IMed me and asked if I wanted to go to the Alton holloween parade so I did. I parked by Fast Eddies and walked a few blocks until I found her and her kids. After the parade, we went to Golden Corral to eat.

October 27th, 2004: My plan is to continue not updating my journal very often. I’ve been sticking to my non-online (unline? nonline?) journal for the past few months instead. I have started a photo log, though, which lets me upload photos to it directly from my camera phone. Thanks to murd0c for pointing me to textamerica.com.

My day in pictures

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October 9th, 2004: My friend Amy documented her evening out with lots of digital pictures. I decided to outdo her by documenting my entire day with pictures. So here they are…

Here's me in the shower completely naked. Here’s me in the shower completely naked.
After the shower, it's time to brush my teeth, etc. After the shower, it’s time to brush my teeth, etc.
I stop by the neighbor's house to scare the small children. I stop by the neighbor’s house to scare the small children.
I drive to the post office only to find the whole street blocked off by cops. I drive to the post office only to find the whole street blocked off by cops.
I go into the post office and check my mail. I go into the post office and check my mail.
Walk around the corner to Subway for lunch. Walk around the corner to Subway for lunch.
Turkey & cheese... Turkey & cheese…
I sit at my table, eat and photograph the lunch rush. I sit at my table, eat and photograph the lunch rush.
A picture of myself driving. A picture of myself driving.
A lady approaches my car and asks for a donation. She's happy to let me take her picture. A lady approaches my car and asks for a donation. She’s happy to let me take her picture.
Some CDs in my seat - ICP, Steve Miller Band, Blackeyed Peas and Dean Friedman. Some CDs in my seat – ICP, Steve Miller Band, Blackeyed Peas and Dean Friedman.
I go to Circuit City to do an hour of browsing around. I go to Circuit City to do an hour of browsing around.
I stop in West Alton, which is across the river from Alton, and take a picture of Alton. I stop in West Alton, which is across the river from Alton, and take a picture of Alton.
Creative grafitti. Creative grafitti.
The smallpox memorial in West Alton. The smallpox memorial in West Alton.
Here's the first thing people see when they come off the bridge into Alton - the porn shop! Well, it will be the porn shop. It's not open yet. Here’s the first thing people see when they come off the bridge into Alton – the porn shop! Well, it will be the porn shop. It’s not open yet.
This guy in front of Wal-Mart asks for a donation. I give him one and then tell him I need to take his picture. He isn't happy about that but he doesn't have a choice. This guy in front of Wal-Mart asks for a donation. I give him one and then tell him I need to take his picture. He isn’t happy about that but he doesn’t have a choice.
Here's a Wal-Mart greeter doing a shitty job. Here’s a Wal-Mart greeter doing a shitty job.
Me getting on Wal-Mart's overhead paging system. Me getting on Wal-Mart’s overhead paging system.

Bonnie, Josh, Lori

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Wednesday, 10-6-2004: Today Bonnie called me and we ended up going to the downtown Subway for lunch together. After work I wired new cable and phone jacks into the apartment next door. That took all evening. Took a trip to Lowes to get some cable & phone stuff I needed to finish it up.

Thursday, 10-7-2004: Guy from Alton came to inspect the apartment next door today. Went to Subway for lunch, as usual. Took at walk around 7:30pm. Today I got Dead Like Me season #1 on DVD in the mail. So I started watching those this afternoon and have been watching them all evening, except for when I went on a walk. Talked to Josh & Lori today and it looks like they’ll be moving out around the middle of this month. So now I’ve got another apartment to get rented.

September 2004 – Home from Oregon, Suzanne,

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Sunday, 9-5-2004: Drove all weekend and got home at 3:30am Sunday. Cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed.

Wednesday, 9-8-2004: Worked all day. Went to Applebee’s with Suzanne for dinner. Went for a 3 hour walk after she left. Let Josh & Lori borrow my car earlier to get to church.

Thursday, September 9th, 2004: Journals are stupid. I quit.

Saturday, 9-11-2004: I spent all day today cleaning up the basement. I built shelves along one wall to put all my computers and monitors on. Then a desk in the same room (the old wine cellar room) and set up my old TRS-80 on and got it working. Around 8pm I had quit and was playing on the net when Tami IMed me and wanted to know if I wanted to meet her and a friend in downtown to hang out. I said sure, got ready and walked to downtown Alton. It was an hour and 15 minutes walk. I met them at Catdaddy’s at 10pm and we went bar hopping until 1:30am or so. I finally got to see Alton’s gay bar which was about the most entertaining part of the night. They took me home around 2am and I didn’t fall asleep until about 4am.

Sunday, 9-12-2004: Slept in until almost 11am. Worked on the basement for a few hours, then Suzanne came over for awhile. We went to Applebees for supper. After she left, I continued on the basement. Gathered up a bunch of scrap wood, brought it to the yard and set it all on fire. Bo, Mack and Ryan ended up coming over and roasting hot dogs over it while I sat on the deck and played on the net.

August 2004 – Cal, Spessa, driving back to Oregon

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Sunday, August 1st, 2004: My kids are going camping for a few days. Cal and Anita are visiting me so we found a theater playing Napolean Dynamite and went to see it. We all agreed that it ruled. After that we went to downtown Saint Louis to take Anita to the Arch. We didn’t end up going into the Arch since the wait was too long, but we did a lot of nothing instead. That was fun. Then we went to the Alton Belle Casino for supper and gambling.

Monday, August 2nd, 2004: Me, Cal and Anita drove to Fairview Heights to attempt some more Dash For Cash fun. It was a lot of fun but we didn’t get any really great footage. Instead of making people run, we tried to get them to dig through a trashcan to look for a secret code on a soda can. We also had some lunch, looked around Slackers for awhile and drove around town for awhile. Later that night, we finally got around to putting the new McDonald’s prank sign up. My neighbor drove us there and I installed the sign. Then we drove around the building and took a picture of it on our way out.

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004: I woke up at 6:30, quickly got dressed and ran downstairs so I could go to McDonald’s and check on the sign’s status. Anita was downstairs and told me that she just got back from there and it’s still up. We drove there again so I could snap a picture of it. An hour later my neighbor calls me and tells me that it’s still there. Another hour later, Cal and Anita go there for breakfast and give me a call to let me know that it’s still up. I think it’s 9:00am by this point. Then at 11:00 we stop by there on my way to the post office and it’s gone! At least it lasted longer than I expected. Both the posterboard and the wooden sign are gone, leaving the original sign showing again. But the really weird part was around 6pm, my neighbor calls me and tells me that the entire sign is gone! It’s just 2 posts sticking out of the ground now. Either they’re sick of the fake signs being put up so they’re just going to take it down forever or they’re putting a new sign up.

We went to Applebees for lunch today and then to Jamestown Mall. Fun fun.

Sunday, August 8th, 2004: Today I was gonna take the kids to the zoo but they outvoted me and we ended up going to the Magic House instead. We took Braden with us and stayed there until about 5 or 6pm.

emily and braedon at the magic house

Monday, August 9th, 2004: Finished up work by noon and took the kids to the swimming pool for the day. Stayed there until almost closing. Then stopped by Blockbuster for some movies. Mowed most of the yard this evening while they watched movies.

Saturday, August 14th, 2004: Ryan and Allison were over all day and then they ended up spending the night. Ryan and Payton were quiet when I put them to bed but Emily and Allison kept me up until 1:30am with their giggling and talking. They claim they stayed up until 4am but I doubt that. Around 5pm, I left them all at Ryan’s house and drove to Hamel to pick up some bed matresses for the guest room. We’ve got company coming this week and I thought it’d be nice for them to have something other than a futon to sleep on.

Sunday, August 15th, 2004: Today I was tired all day. Besides staying up until about 2am, I woke up a lot during the night. Then my brother called me at 8:30am with a pointless phone call. I put the kids to bed early tonight. I used the excuse that they were fighting too much so they needed to get some sleep. I’ve been letting them stay up until 11:30 just about every night this summer to watch Family Guy, Futurama and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Those are some great shows. Overall I really hate TV, but cartoons just get better and better every year. I can’t believe I didn’t watch Futurama when it used to be on Fox. And I never saw an episode of Family Guy in my life until just 2 months ago.

Friday, 8-20-2004: Took all the kids to the city museum today. We stayed there from about noon until 5 or 6.

Saturday, 8-21-2004: We went to see the Robert Wadlow statue and chair today. Then to the cemetary to look for a Geocache. Then to the smallpox memorial.

Sunday, August 22nd, 2004: Me, the kids and the Spessas drove to Evansville, Indiana for the day. We visited some science & art museum, then went to Kentucky for supper. It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had much time to write about anything we’ve done. Probably on Wednesday I’m taking the kids back to Oregon.

Wednesday, August 25th, 2004: Got up early, got everything ready to leave and was on the road by 10am. Drove all day, stopped for awhile to eat at Taco Bell, drove some more and then stopped in a South Dakota Motel 6. I forget which town, but it was a few hours before Wall, SD. We had planned to make it all the way to Wall, but wimped out around 9:30pm because of the heavy rain.

Thursday, August 26th, 2004: Got up at 6am and managed to get back on the road by 7:30am. Drove a few hours to Wall Drug and had breakfast there. We stayed there for another 2 hours, just looking at all their shops and kids stuff. Drove the rest of the day, stopping only for gas. I’ve got the TV and Xbox hooked up in the car again so that’s helping keep the kids entertained. Drove until 11:30pm and stopped in a motel in Butte, SD. I got separated from the Spessas a few hours ago so I assume they’re still driving. I should get there before noon tomorrow if we don’t sleep in too late.

Sunday, 8-29-2004: Got up early, packed the car, got the kids up and headed for Oregon. We started driving at 9am and got to Colleen’s house at 5pm. Me Colleen and the kids went out to eat at Red Robins, then I started driving to Portland. I went to Dignity Village to visit Jack but he wasn’t there. So now I’m in a Econo Lodge, watching 16 Candles and writing this.

June and July 2004

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Tuesday, June 22th, 2004: Took the kids to see Harry Potter #3 which was pretty good. Much better than #2 which I didn’t expect since I didn’t really like book #3. I guess they weeded out all the boring stuff from that book. There’s something that I’ve kind of noticed ever since I read book #5…being a wizard or witch is completely pointless. You’re not allowed to do magic in the muggle world, your life is always in danger, grownups argue and fight like kindergarteners. In book #5 Harry had to choose a career path and all of his choices revolved around various magic things. There’s all these professions that involve regulating magic. It seems like, overall, magic is just a huge burden. I think Hagrid said in the first book or movie, “We can’t tell muggles about magic or they’ll be wanting to use it to solve the world’s problems.” What a bunch of selfish bastards. Lots of magic spells also screw up electronics which I think was explained in book #4. Or maybe it was just wireless transmissions. It seems like they just spend their entire lives learning magic so that they can work at magic-related jobs and defend themselves from people that are using magic to kill them. Do they even teach regular subjects and skills in their schools?? I’m not saying I don’t love the HP series, I just think that if it were real it’d be very pointless.

Saturday, June 26th, 2004: We went to the races tonight to see Casey and Ryan race. Guess we spent about 3 hours there. It got cold and I forgot to bring jackets. What’s up with the weather this year? I’ve only turned on the air conditioner a couple of times this month. It’s not supposed to be in the 60’s and 70’s in June. I want to go swimming. We did a bunch of other random things this week that I can’t remember. It’s been a really busy week but I can’t remember what happened. We saw the Garfield movie at some point which was better than I expected. Went to Casey’s birthday party at Pizza Hut, a baseball game. Hmmmm. I need to find time to write in this thing more often.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2004: Had Kristine’s kids all day. Took everyone to see Spiderman 2 which opened today. Great movie. So great that I went and saw it again 4 hours later! Me and Tricia decided to go out and saw Spiderman 2 again. Only this time we drove to Edwardsville and saw it in a theater with a bigger screen and much better sound.

Saturday, July 3rd, 2004: Did stuff all day. Lots of stuff. At dawn we drove to the Alton police station and watched the fireworks. We were kind of far away from them this year, but it was still good.

Sunday, July 4th, 2004: Did more stuff all day. Lots of stuff. At dawn we set off a bunch of fireworks. Didn’t get arrested.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2004: Went to Jamestown with the kids and saw Two Brothers at the theater. I hate animal movies, but the kids liked it. Went to a gaming center and let Emily play Halo Online for awhile. The gaming center didn’t even have the full version of Halo, it was a demo. I sure am complaining a lot.

Friday, July 9th, 2004: Took the kids to run a few errands with me. Instead of driving to them all, I parked in the middle of where we needed to go and walked to all of the places. I usually only do this when I’m by myself and the kids weren’t too happy about it. But it’s amazing how much fun a little thing like a walk can end up being for them. Between walking to the post office, Blockbuster Video, the bank, convenience store and Walgreens, we ended up buying water rifles for $1.99 each and playing in the uptown fountain for about 30 minutes. They were both soaked by the time we left so when they got home they continued to play in the hose for another hour. That’s good, cheap entertainment.

The other day I put an ad in the paper for our cat. I’ve convinced the kids that getting rid of her is a good idea. I’ve tried asking friends and family but nobody wants her. The 5A place says they have too many cats to take mine. The humane society says they can’t guarantee that they won’t put her to sleep. So I’ve resorted to an ad and it’s working pretty well so far. I’ve gotten 3 calls today and one lady stopped by. She seems very interested and promises to call me tomorrow morning with an answer. Here’s a picture of the cat – it’s the first photo on that page. Since the kids don’t live here anymore and the cat seems really bored without them (and I’m sick of the cat hair all over the house), it seems pointless to have a cat. I’m too lazy to take care of animals anyway.

Saturday, July 10th, 2004: Payton’s friend Braden came over for the morning/afternoon. We went to Riverview Park for awhile for a picnic of chips and soda. But mostly we just hung around the house all day playing video games. Yesterday we rented Ratchet & Clank Going Commando for PS2 and me, Emily and Payton are all addicted to it. For the past 2 days we’ve been fighting over who gets to play it. We’re pretty far into the game but I have no idea how much longer it goes on. I think it’s due back on Wednesday so I hope we can manage to complete it by then. Last year we ended up with a demo of the same game and we were pretty addicted to that for a few weeks. And that was just one level. I can’t believe it’s taken us a year to finally get around to renting it. I’m usually not into games but I love this one.

Emily’s got her friend Shelby spending the night tonight. Right now (it’s midnight) they’re in her room, singing songs to each other and recording them on my digital recorder. Hopefully they don’t erase them – that’s the kind of thing a parent can embarass their kid with when they’re a teenager. Muhahaha.

Sunday, July 11th, 2004: Today I was supposed to meet the infamous Roxanna but she stood me up. She was supposed to be in town, visiting a friend who lives nearby so we arranged to meet at Steak N Shake. I waited for awhile, then gave up, got a shake and left to do birthday shopping for Payton. Since I didn’t have the kids for the rest of the night, me and Tricia went out. Had some supper at Applebees and then went to see The Terminal in Edwardsville.

Saturday, July 17th, 2004: Took the kids to Target to buy toys. Their mom sent a $20 gift card for Payton’s birthday for him to pick something out. He picked a Spiderman Lego set. Emily got a $5.00 gift card and she combined that with some of her other money to get a $10 set of Pokemon cards. Payton’s birthday was earlier this week. He got a Spiderman web-blaster, a couple Power Ranger sets, a bunch of magenets and a few other things that I can’t remember.

Sunday, July 18th, 2004: Took the kids to the City Museum for the day. I also brought along their friends Mikey and Andrew. Watching 4 kids in that place by yourself is pretty exhausting! We came back home around 5pm. Took Mikey and Andrew home around 8:30pm.

Monday, July 19th, 2004: I worked a lot today. In the afternoon I took the kids to Blockbuter to pick out some games & movies. I ended up buying The Butterfly Effect on DVD for myself. It came with a bunch of extra scenes and a director’s cut with an alternate ending. Usually a director’s cut is interesting to watch but it doesn’t ever make the movie any better. And deleted scenes are fun too but you’re always glad that they left them out of the movie. That wasn’t the case with this movie. Watching the director’s cut made this movie so much better than it was in the theater. The extra scenes tied in perfectly with the alternate ending. And the ending was so much better, I don’t know why they used the other ending in theaters. I guess it wasn’t happy enough. I loved the movie when I saw it in the theater and now it’s even better. Everyone who’s reading this should immediately go out and rent/buy The Butterfly Effect on DVD. Go! NOW!

Tuesday, July 20th, 2004: Finished up work early so me and the kids went to the swimming pool all day. Stayed there until almost closing time.

Saturday, July 24th, 2004: Went to a few yard sales today. The kids got cheap toys, a large box a Legos for $2.00 and I got a Sony Clie’ with a 128 meg memory stick for $30. I’ll be able to sell both items on Ebay for about $70. Free money! Emily ended up bringing a friend home from one yard sale and she’s been at our house all day. The temperature is pretty weird for July – it’s been in the mid-70’s all day. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be even colder. Weird, since it was in the upper 90’s a few days ago.

Friday, July 30th, 2004: Took the kids to see Spiderman 2 again. This is their 2nd time to see it and my 3rd. EvilCal and his girlfriend showed up tonight for a visit.

Saturday, July 31st, 2004: Went to the Alton Block Party with the kids. Hung out there for a few hours until they closed down the kids stuff. Watched a Blues Brothers tribute band play for awhile and then went home for the night.

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