This has simplified my Christmas shopping for all my married friends.

Me?  Naahhh, I don’t need that!  Right honey?

I realized this has been around for a while, it is so dead on though, I couldn’t help but share it.

My wife seems to be addicted to strollers… or maybe it is just to the action of buying them and finding every little possible flaw in them.

Disclaimer intended for my beautiful and beyond perfect wife: Honey, I love you, but this has got to stop.  A stroller is a stroller is a stroller.

Going on for about 2 years now, but most definitely a lot worse during the last year.  Those that I can count and recollect, she’s gone through SIX (6) different stroller, not counting the ones she accumulated in the garage that she picked up in what seems to be random places as she drove past.

She has bought them direct from different places the majority of them coming  from craigslist.

The following are pictures of the ones currently in our possession including:

a) A double Burley bike trailer

b) A “jogging” (wink-wink) double stroller

c) A double “regular” stroller.

d) Our first and reliable Graco single stroller.

She “just” bought “b” as a “bargain” from Craigslist and took it out this afternoon.  Upon returning she reported “I don’t like it… its weird”… which only means one thing:  a new stroller will be added to the line up.

God help us.

I am on my way out the door today, with many expectations yet, however with a certain degree of certainty that not before the day is over this coming Monday the 12th, I'll be a dad for the 3rd time.

My wife Tammy is scheduled to be induced that day, and if baby Mia comes before then we'll be extatic.  If she doesn't we are ready to coerce her into coming to us and making our lifes that much richer.  I can't wait for yet another round of incredible experiences and constant learning... for all.  My kids have been not only a source of inspiration but also many, many life lessons.  HA! If they only knew ;)

I've just recently realized that I hadn't realized that if I thought the last 3 or so months have been incredibly busy and crazy, what awaits us the next 3 or so is orders of magnitud those 3 previous in the crazy department.  We adjust and then develop amnesia for how it was "before", and then even if we do remember, never ever what to go back to the mundane life of a single guy (you know I am just kidding right?).

Don't wish me luck!  I don't need it, because I have just that.  I have all the luck in the world having them in my life.  Wish me continued happiness, and that I take all of what I can get my hands on.

for my age… and it will be officially the Hexadecimal base to define my age. 

So today, I am 0x26!, yes 26 (hex).

I am not one to get into any political discussions, I reserve my opinions and understand it when others passionately get into it and make it their main content.  This however is not the latter, but a very interesting and unbiased way to present content in a visual way.

Below is a wordie of both candidates acceptance speeches at their respective national conventions.  McCain’s on top, Obama’s  the bottom one.

work by Thomas Hawk

This came to me via my friend Benny, who can't wait to jump on any chance he gets to highlight everything evn remotely mentioning Apple and specially if it is "anti" Microsoft.

Battered and bruised by a long-running advertising campaign on the part of rival Apple, Inc., Microsoft Corp. is turning to sitcom star and world renowned comedian Jerry Seinfeld to help clean up the public perception of its Windows Vista operating system.

Full Article here.

Also funny is that Benny does not "own" any Apple hardware... he did buy his wife an iPod and once in a while plays with her PowerBook.  His main workstation is a Dell Inspiron 9400 (which you can say is what pays the bills)

Ironically, the computers featured in the 9-year situation comedy Seinfeld, for which the comedian payed a semi-fictional version of himself, were always Macs.

Back on July 2nd of this year, my wife Tammy and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary.  Today, one month later, I thought it would be a nice way to commemorate it once again by bringing in some alcohol talk into the mix.

Now, I don't need excuses to drink, and of course I am not saying that marriage is a reason to... I can feel myself digging a hole deeper and deeper...

The reason I mention this is because around that time, my Father and Mother in Law took a road trip down south and on their way up they stopped at the Woodford Reserve distillery, and brought us back this beautiful bottle of 90.4 proof whiskey!

w00t!

I felt the need to post this because a) I am grateful and this is one way to show it, b) I think the bottle is kick ass and c) I don't drink whiskey... (hmm, ok, I don't CHOOSE whiskey as my first option, but I drink just about anything with alcohol in it).

Since my wife and I are also expecting a new member of the family, due mid January, we couldn't possibly (yet) put this present to good use.  I will wait for her patiently, then maybe after the new munchkin is here and she regains strength she would agree to add willingness to do at least one shot with me.  Until then this puppy will age a year or so, and maybe we'll use it to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, or plan B could be that it mysteriously disappears and end up with a mammoth of a headache!

All joking aside, it is a beautiful gift, a great bottle, it looks great and gives me one dumb excuse to write a post about it.

Care to share?

this includes most of those on facebook that don't quite get what its about.

follow this simple decision tree:

This past Saturday evening, Tammy and I inadvertently (literally) got sucked into watching the 2004 "Build A Better Burger" food contest that the Sutter Home winery hosts every year, shown on the Food Network HD, I couldn't help my mouth watering at the parade of the very creative burger recipes. 

The outcome couldn't have been any more obvious: I set out to reproduce the winning recipe of 2004, the very next day.

Armed with the printed recipe, found on the site along other year's winning recipes, I shopped for the "delta" ingredients, and diligently assembled the heart attach on a toasted bun.

Pictured is the fruit of that labor.

My verdict:  I think the oregano and perhaps the seasoned salt may have combined to be too overpowering of a flavor. I should have thought better about the <amount of> Italian spices that the recipe called for, but that only became apparent once I had already "poured" all the ingredients together.  Next time I make this, I'll hold back on the those 2 ingredients and let the others find a better balance.

The blue cheese spread was phenomenal, and I will for sure repeat it on any sandwich calling for blue cheese.

The recipe is presented for 6 burgers, but I made 4 a little big bigger, and had enough for a second round the following day (yes, that is today and that was dinner!).