Strong Winds Are Blowing in Southern Cali

Hey there friends. This weekend was just full of howling winds outside our home. So much so, that the wind destroyed a canopy tarp that I had outside. The wind literally cut it in half Saturday night. It woke my wife and I up several times too, since it seemed to come out of nowhere and surprised us in the middle of the night. I got up, and looked outside and the trees were swaying and leaves were falling. My wife said to me, check on the bunny, he's probably cold. I checked and he looked fine, but I figured,you better go out there and cover him up. I sleep in boxers, people. I don't sleep covered up for some reason. Maybe it's cause I don't feel comfortable.

Anyways, I walk out there, half asleep, and cover the rabbit cage with three towels. It was freakin' cold. I didn't realize how cold it was until I was walking back in the house, in boxer shorts and still half zombiefied. I got up two more times that night, once to check on the rabbit, and second time because this loud snap woke me. I look outside and this is what I see...



I was also worried about our new avocado tree. My wife's aunt gave us a tree that she nurtured from a seed (or pit) and it's a good 7 feet tall now. She definitely has a green thumb. The tree is still young though, and the trunk is awfully thin so I was afraid that maybe the wind might snap it in half. Luckily, it's still in the pot so I was able to place it against the wall of the house to avoid it getting heavily blasted by the wind. I checked it yesterday and it seemed fine. Now I'm a little reluctant to plant it since I don't know if the winds are going to continue. I don't want our new tree to freeze to death, let alone be snapped in half. That'll suck be big time.



The winds continued through Sunday. I brought the rabbit (which still does not have a name. It's interim name is "Fluffly". We took it to PetCo when it was little but their "rabbit expert" said it was too young to be able to tell the sex) inside the house and he chilled in there all day. Better than a cage with wind blowing in your face. Odin stayed outside. I should have brought him inside. If the winds are still bad tonight, I'll let him come inside for a bit. He never got the concept of being house broken so I dare not let him spend the night inside. lmao At least he has his dog house to protect him.

Now, I need to look into getting a new tarp to replace the ripped one. Looks like I'll have to measure it to see what size I'm going to need. I've been complaining that it doesn't feel or look like Autumn yet. It's been extremely hot and sunny here in California, even though we're in November. Looks like mother nature decided to give me a good dose of what I asked for. lol Later.

Lay-Away Program Only at K-Mart

Hey there friends. Times are tough. The economy is not booming and cash is on a short leash. Thanksgiving is coming up and the mother of all holidays, Christmas, is fast approaching. You don't want to disappoint the family on Christmas day because cash was short. What's a family on a budget to do? Luckily for us, K-Mart has the solution.

K-Mart is the only retailer that has our backs. They understand the trying situation of our economy as many of us consumers are having cash flow issues. However, they are the only national discount department store that offers a lay-away program to help in tough times. They are the only ones that are willing to work with us instead of turning us away. The Kmart Lay-Away program is extremely easy to use. Click on the link above, enter your zip code and the web site will search your area for a local K-Mart store that offers the service. You then visit your the store and shop. It's that easy. Whether you need help in obtaining that one hot item, such as the Playstation 3, or various smaller gifts for family and friends, your local K-Mart store is there to help.


This could not have come at a better time. I mention the Playstation 3 because my son has been asking for one for well over a year, but I just can't spend over $400 without causing a huge dent in our monthly budget. However, with the Kmart Lay-Away , obtaining one is a lot more manageable. The lay-away program allows you to simply take the item or items to the lay-away desk, leave a small deposit and make payments on it every two weeks until you pay them off. You can pay it sooner, on weeks where you have a little extra cash, or you can extend it the full 8 weeks that the program allows. When all is said and done, your items will be waiting for you at a K-Mart desk while other shoppers are scrambling to find and pay for their gifts.

You got to give it up for K-Mart. For going against the grain and offering such a holiday saving program while other retailers removed their programs. Check it out friends. This is definitely a program that you want to take advantage of. Assure yourself, your wallet, and your family that Christmas will be great because you took advantage of the Kmart Lay-Away program. Later.

Another Great Reason to Love Guitar Hero/Rockband

Hey there friends. I'm a music lover. Can't get enough of the stuff. So when Guitar Hero first came out, I thought it was great. You're simulating playing a guitar and it does a pretty damn good job at having you strum when you're supposed to. But that's not the point of this post. I'm here to write about the effect that the music in Rockband and Guitar Hero has had on my kids.

Nothing beats hearing your three year old walking down the hall singing, "Slow ride, dun dun, take it easy, dun dun, slow ride". lmao How great is that? My wife even has her as a ring tone. I don't want to instill my, or our style for that matter, of music into the kids. They listen to what they like and we let it be. Case in point, The Offspring's latest single... I can't stand the damn song. They play it over and over but the kids love it. So I let it play so that they can enjoy it.



Anyways, I love the music selection in both of these games. It exposes the kids to wide array of music. The Donnas, Metallica, Pantera, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Guns N Roses, Queens of the Stone Age, Slayer, Soundgarden... The list goes on and on... And the kids ask for their favorites to be played. "I want to hear Black Hole Sun.", "Oh that's Black Magic Woman! Leave it there", "I love One!" These are just some of the phrases that I hear at home or in the car. Just last night, my daughter walks up to me says, "My friend at school can play Jordan on Expert and get 5 stars!!!!" Of course my son and her start debating about her friend being a liar cause Jordan is a pretty hard song to play. She then mentioned Buckethead.

Buckethead. I haven't seen that guy since forever and look what resurfaced him. My kids arguing over a game. He's been around since like the late 80's and for my kids to be mentioning Buckethead, and saying that he's cool, astounds me. This is music before their time. Santana, Buckethead, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Queen, these are all great artists that my kids would not be exposed to as much as they are because of the music on these games. Yeah, they would hear Iron Maiden when I played it, but they wouldn't know who it is or the name of the song. They would know of Iron Maiden as "a band my dad likes". Now, Number of the Beast is one their favorite songs. Because of that, they venture off to listen to the rest of the album and enjoy other songs that otherwise they would not be interested in. I can now say that my kids are Iron Maiden fans, as well as Metallica fans, and Santana fans and Buckethead fans.

I love it. Anything that will expose music to the youths of our nation is great. And even though the games are a challenge to complete, the bright spots are definitely in the music. Just for the hell of it, because I'm feeling a little nostalgic here, here's Buckethead's Jordan as it's played in Guitar Hero II. I chose this version because even the mighty Buckethead created a solo just for this song. From what I hear, it's the only studio version of the song. You only hear live versions of this song so for him to do a studio version for a game says something. So without further delay... Here's Jordan. By the way, this is not an actual person playing the game. He's got a computer trying to do it cause it's so damn hard. lmao Later!

An Ode to Coffee

Hey there. Like millions of other people across the globe, I tend to start my day with a cup of joe. Been drinking the stuff since I was little. I know caffeine is not good for you at a young age, but eh, grandma used to give me coffee (usually black) while eating pan dulce (sweet bread). Now that's I'm in the work force, coffee is basically the forgotten food group. lol So here's to you, coffee. Enjoy!



Oh warm, sweet nectar of gods
Day in, day out
You quench my thirst
While dispelling the Sandman's dust
You heighten my senses
And liven my body
To start a day with you
Is to be destined for greatness
You are never dull
You never taste the same
With many colors to suit everyone
You never argue
And always go down smooth
Oh warm, sweet coffee
In a world full of turmoil
I can always count on your aroma
To quiet demons and bring angels
Bringing peace to millions
One cup at a time.

Yaba Daba Doooo!!!

Hey there friends. Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween. Our Halloween evening started a little rough... We were at work again til close to 5 and that kind of put us in a not so good mood. The end of the month always sucks and for those of you working in the finance industry, you probably know what I'm talking about. After we left, we headed over to my mother in law's to get the kids ready. We snapped a few pics there with the kids in their costumes, ready to hunt for candy. Check em out.





Once we dressed, we were off to my uncle's place. He has a yearly thing there with a haunted house. He seems to be the only in the spirit in his neighborhood, but he always has a good turnout. This was his sign to attract the haunting guests.



That's my little "Daphne" standing next to the sign. She didn't want to be called anything else that night. My wife and I sat down and had us a little grub after saying hi to everyone. She snapped this pic while I was eating. She already dubbed it, "My babe doing what he does best... eating".



Yup, that's me as Fred Flintstone. I walked around telling people I forgot my bowling ball. That didn't stop me from showing off my twinkle toes moves. lol Everyone got a laugh out of that. Wilma? She's there too, check her out.



My little cousin, in the pic above, got a hold of "Wilma's" make up. She was walking around applying it to herself. By the end of the night, the little pirate looked like this. lol



We soon after took off looking for candy. Check out the "crowd" that we hung out with. The sidewalk looks eerily empty. It added to the creepiness of Halloween. It was raining earlier that day so there was this mist still lingering.



After getting ourselves bags of candy, we headed back to my uncle's place. Daphne was so happy with her haul that she just had to shake it. lmao



My bro then came out with his get up. Don't know what the hell he was supposed to be but I called him Eric Estrada. lmao I sometimes wonder how I can be related to him...



Soon after, our kids started dropping like flies, falling asleep everywhere. Even my babe started to look tired. We packed up our stuff and jumped in the "Flintstone Mobile" and headed home.



We had a blast. We already came up with what we're going to be for next year's Halloween. lmao We're like that. My wife loves to plan ahead and the costume idea for next year pretty much came from her, but I like it so it should be good. We're thinking of getting the costumes sometime this week since we figured they'll be discounted since Halloween is over this year. What are we going to be??? You'll just have to wait and see! Later!

The Ultimate XBOX Experience with Charter

Hey there friends. Resistance 2, Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2, these are just some of the most anticipated games that will be monstrous hits for the XBOX gaming system. And what better way to get the full experience than with blazing fast internet and HD service. If you don't have any of the above, don't worry. Our friends at Charter Communications bring you the Charter Communications Xbox Sweepstakes .

Charter Communications will be giving away ax XBOX 360 prize pack a day until Dec. 15th. (80) The prize pack includes:

XBox 360® Pro Console
XBox LIVE Headset
Wireless Controller
Component HD AV Cable
20Gb Detachable Hard Drive

There are multiple ways to be entered into the sweepstakes. You can automatically be entered into the drawing by purchasing one of their low cost bundles, you can mail in a post card with all the information needed, or you can register online with Charter and be automatically entered. There is no purchase necessary to enter and a purchase will not increase your chances of winning but if you don't have the high speed internet or HD services, you're not doing the XBOX 360 justice. (169) The HD quality of these games have astounding detail that cannot be matched and the high speed internet will allow you to get with friends to team up or go head to head with other XBOX players across the world. With a game like Gears of War 2, a head set is a must to be able to communicate with your team mates as you navigate through the world blasting enemies and saving lives.

Charter Communications is giving away all you need to have the ultimate XBOX 360 experience. You have nothing to lose but the XBOX world to gain. Sign up for your chance to win at Charter Communications Xbox Sweepstakes . For official rules of the sweepstakes, click here. Later.