Crivitz.

This is my father in law, Dave.
He is shown here at his forty acre span of solitude.
He goes into the woods and cuts up trees and takes care of the land.
He does this to relax.
He sometimes takes Chloe.

Tomorrow we go to the doctor.
Truen and I.
We'll see what happens.
Alright, be good.
lvoemathtwe

Glory Days

I don't know, doesn't this seem like it could easily be an advertisement for
a video game that is actually an advertisement to join the military?

I feel like if people are going to try this hard, then nothing is going to change.

Earth on Moon Violence.

This is from an article that I read.

Scientists are priming two spacecraft to slam into the moon's South Pole to see if the lunar double whammy reveals hidden water ice.

That sounds interesting.
But do they have to call it water ice?
I mean, isn't that the same thing?
Kind of?
You know what I mean.

lvoematthew

You're a trooper.

I was singing a gun's n' roses song in my head.
I was taking a shower.
I was just singing it.
I was thinking about how it would be weird if there is ever a new gun's n' roses' album.
I think that that would be weird.

I rode my bike home in the rain.
I think I have to maybe not do that.
It was fine.

Pretty soon I will be in a new apartment.
We have had a good run with the current apartment.
But it is time to think bigger!

I hope you are well.
If you want to lift your way to riches in NYC, let me know.
ovmathwe

Me and Ashton.

I am older than Ashton Kutcher.
I just read it!
Do you want to pay for pictures of our baby?
I think that is a good way to make some pre-college money.
HA!
Like there will even still BE college by then.

Dang today it could have almost been the baby!
So, you should start bidding on the first photo rights.

Aren't celebrities gross?
They are the grossest.
They are the last people I save on the sinking boat.

loveamtewh

Things to distract.

So last night, and the night before, Truen was rolling around.
She was extra rolly.
And it kept me up all night!
And she was having fake contractions.
And it was nervous!

So today I am with her, in case we have to go to the doctor.
She has an appointment, and we will see what they recommend.
I made her some strawberry and cheese things I found at the store.

Moving on, good job on shooting down that satellite.
It was up there making me nervous!
So, now it is down, and we can all move along with our lives.
We can act like it never existed in the first place.
But just so you know, you are not fooling me into believing your reasons for shooting it down.
Since when does the "government" care about what toxic things go into the ocean?
I mean seriously!
I guess I don't have all the facts.
But neither do you.
None of us do.

Oh!
And Turkey invaded Iraq this morning.
At least that is what Yahoo says.
So what does this mean?
I don't think it can mean anything good.
Maybe it means that my Call of Duty 4 experience will finally come in handy.

I have to eat my food now.
I will let you know if the baby shows up.
lvomathew

Any day now.

Do you have the day off?
I have the day off.
I slept in until 8.
Then Truen and I walked over to do the laundry.
Now we are waiting to put our clothes in the dryers.

The doctor said that any day now Truen could give birth.
Now we are just waiting.
Now I am just trying to get ready to move.
Despite the fact that we have not locked anything down for a new place.
I am not letting that get to me.

I think that the most important thing is the baby, and everything else comes second.
Is that right?
Do I have that right?
Maybe it is backwards.

Truen and I went out with the guys from work the other night.
It was fun.
I lost my voice a bit from talking so loud.
We went to a place where the waitresses were dressed like beer maidens.
Beer maidens with bad attitudes.
And in the back of this place they have a grill where you can get all kinds of sausages.
I got us some brats.
But they were only grilled, not boiled in beer like how I like.
Still it was all delicious and fun.

And now we are just waiting.
Waiting for a little dude.

Be good.
loemahtew

Part Egyptian.

Today made up for yesterday.
BIG TIME!
I got to build a ramp to move this big stone!
Do you even know how heavy stone is?
Do you ever have to move a big stone at your job?
Are you a bulldozer?

It was such an ordeal.
I wonder how other people might have approached the situation?
It is such a good feeling.
It was like a real life video game!
I felt like I was in a video game!!!

And we used these 2 X 4's to pry the stone around!
I felt like an Egyptian.
Or a Mayan!

In the picture that is not the same people that are having a baby pretty soon.

Truen got me Steve Martin's new book.
It is so inspirational and motivating.

On my second trip to Arizona there was a VCR at the house.
And it was weird because we didn't even have one of those at OUR house.
But we DIDN'T have to leave the house to go to the bathroom.
But they had a copy of the Jerk.
That was so funny.
I watched that movie so much.

lovmahtew

I am so stressed out.

Oh man.
I am in a zone.
My brain feels so tired.
I have to rest.
Truen has to have this baby.
I had to work in the worst weather today.
And also it was the worst weather last night.
And yesterday during the day.
Now that I think about it.

I had to work so much.
And it wasn't that much work, but I feel like if it had been summer, I would have been less miserable.
Even in the rain!
Even in the rain it isn't so bad in the summer.

I am stress eating.
For breakfast this morning I had to make myself not eat my entire breakfast burrito.
It had Ham, Eggs, Cheese and Potatoes.
Wrapped in a tortilla.
It's delicious.
I had to look at it and force myself to put half of it back in the wrapper.
And then I ate it all anyways.
And I also had a Toasted Roll with Butter and Jelly.
Do you see what I mean!?

And it was just a miserable day like I said.
LIke I got soaked on the way to work.
So all day I had wet feet.
You know!?
Its uncomfortable!

I have to go.
loveatehw

Bowl of Cereal.

I couldn't sleep!
Truen is snoring and snorting.
I think I was barely sleeping, and then I woke up from all the snoring and rolling.
So then I got up and ate a bowl of cereal.
And now I will go back in there and try to fall asleep.

It is cold out, and windy also!
I can hear it.

loveamtehw

Axe is the Rat.

I am like a Donkey.
A pack mule.
I carried all this stuff home.
Stuff for the hospital.
For when the baby is here.

There were smaller things in the past that scared me way more than this baby.
I am holding up pretty well.
Thanks for asking.

I bought these little cans of soda.
Little diet colas.

And fruit snacks also.
And a heating pad to put in the microwave.

I tried to take a nap, but it is hard when it is bright out.
So I read a book instead.
Relax.

lvoemathew

Daily News In The World of Online Woodworking.

I went and bought groceries.
The passive aggressive war that Truen and I are waging has gone on long enough.
Someone needed to buy some dang cereal already.

I was in the store, and I noticed you can't really smell anything in those stores.
Like when you go into a fruit and vegetable stand how you can smell everything?
Well you can't do that at the grocery store.
I bought some potatoes.
I am frying them.
Right now.

Right?
Now?

I was thinking back on some jobs that I used to have.
I was comparing them to one another.

I think one of the best jobs I had was working at the Good Eggs.
It was a breakfast burrito stand!
It is delicious.
There were lots of things I liked about that job, but one of the best, one of my most favorite was cutting vegetables.
Mushrooms, Potatoes, Red Peppers.
I would get in a zone!
Chopping vegetables is very calming, but also it puts you in this zone where you are concentrating but also wandering in your head and able to do mental chores.

I don't know, don't you ever get that feeling at your job?
Like the little things that are rewarding to only you?

Dang, Truen just came in the door and she was wearing this tank top over her big belly!
BLAOHW!!!

Well, good for the Giants.
It was not as rewarding as a Packer win, but two things:

1. I like Eli Manning not for his skills, but because he is a little brother and I bet that was the best feeling to be able to win that game that everyone thought the Patriots were going to walk away with, and he got to do it in front of his Dad and Big Brother.
Cool!

2. It was nice to FINALLY see Tom Brady get roughed up a little. Or A LOT!
Dang dude, how did it take that long to get through that offensive line?

I hope you are well.
I am reading a book that describes how New York City will collapse in on itself when humans are gone.
Did you know that there would be a river running down Lexington Avenue?

Lovmeahtrew

I hung that shit perfect.

Did I tell you that I worked yesterday?
On Saturday?
I had to go to Connecticut for an install job.

I was responsible for hanging a large framed photo, 40 something inches by 90 something inches.
It was heavy and cumbersome.
And after measuring twice, Del and I hung that bitch perfectly!
BLAOW!!!

Then we ate some chicken sandwiches that were provided for us.
Then we left.

I said this before, but things like a perfect install job MAKE my job.
The sense of accomplishment I feel during those moments make my job so enjoyable.

Anyways, all day yesterday, I had a bit of a postnasal drip, and then this morning I woke up with it even worse.
So I made some breakfast, and then walked Truen to the bus.
Then I went and bought a bunch of Kleenex (the lotion kind was on sale!) and then I sweated my way home.
Even in the crisp morning air, I was sweating.

Truen thinks I am working too much, but I disagree.
True, I do work a lot, but I think it is more about the pending birth.
I am trying to get a lot done before the baby arrives (in the mail) and I am maybe working too hard... at life!

Well I wanted to share something with you, the casual blog reader, that I am proud of.
It is a solution I came up with to a problem that was robbing me of sleep.

There is a silver heating pipe right by our bed, and it makes this bumping noise on and off through the night.
I am a light sleeper, and this bump noise wakes me up immediately, and as long as it is bumping, I am awake.
So originally I stuffed a rolled up piece of moving strap between the wall and the pipe, and it worked.
It only worked for an hour or two, and eventually it would loosen and fall out of it's nook, and then the bumping would make up for lost time by bumping louder, like it was gloating.

So then I tied the strap around the pipe, and would simply yank on the strap every time the bumping would start.
This was also successful but it required me to really yank on the strap, and that wold wake me up as much as the bumping would. So I had to come up with something better, something to help in the long term.

What I came up with is a combination of elements that came into my life separately, but were meant to combine forces to become the useful anti bumping system that I created and implemented, saving me from having to suffer through any more "bumpy" nights.

I took a hammer, and a big chink of wood that I brought home off the street and what I did was I put the claw end of the hammer between the pipe and the wall, then I applied force against the handle of the hammer. This pulls the pipe away from the wall, and creates pressure on the pipe, tightening it in it's fittings which is where I think the bumping was coming from in the first place. THEN I simply put the chunk of wood against the handle of the hammer to keep the hammer in place, the pipe tight, and me sleeping!

It is a win win situation, and you better believe I already filed for the needed patents and copyrights.

Well, today is either a very big day for New York Giants, and everyone else that is sick of the Patriots and Tom Brady's robot like eyes, or it is just another boring Super Bowl.

We'll see.
lovematehw

Like Whoa.

Damn Rambo was violent.
It was refreshing in a very odd way.
I mean, there is carnage in this movie that seems very accurate.
I left this movie feeling sort of sick.
This movie doesn't glorify violence.
It just shows you violence.

It made me want to never have to experience violence.

I think that is a good thing.
lovematthew

Celebrity!

Dudes! It is so rainy outside! I woke up and I was all like, "Oh HELL no!"
I had my birthday.
It was just a day.

Now I am moving on.
I am reading a book called What is the What?
It is about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
It is very interesting, and at the same time sad and guilt inducing.
Maybe not intentionally, but you know what I mean.
Like when you take some time to think about how your life compares to people with so much less.
And I am not talking about the material things in life.
I am talking about the people that are displaced all over the world, with no place to settle down and live their lives.

It makes me feel grateful that the things that I have are the things that I have.

I was looking at this picture in the paper, it had an old jeep that was all burned out, and there was a mob of Kenyans standing around it while they burned a pile of tires on top of the jeep. They were all angry because of the recent assassination of one of their leaders. A man that was working, trying to heal his country.
He got dragged out of his car and shot in front of his house.

The book I am reading helps to explain a bit why things are the way that they are in Africa.
There was also another book called The Poisonwood Bible that explained how the tribes in the congo all were turned against each other back in the 50's and 60's.

But it is something that feels to me like there is probably so much more to it than you can learn from two semi fictional books.
There are problems that are probably only known to those that live there.