Weekend Video

This must be the funnest way to get home from work ever!

Christmas lights and Twisted Sister

Lisa had a post up last week showing a picture of our house all decorated for Christmas, but those of you who might not also read her blog, (That number has to be very small, since most of my traffic comes from when she takes pity on my blog and links it up with hers.) I present to you the Sorenson house for Christmas 2008, starting on the porch and working its way out.

Next to the door we have none other than Mickey Mouse greeting visitors.

Since we like to go with a candy theme, there are candy canes lining the walkway to the front door.

Continuing with the candy theme, we have lollipops that we made out of Styrofoam, wooden dowels and colored plastic stuff.

This year I decided to use lights on the trees instead of the spotlights I had used in years' past. Normally I am NOT a white light fan for outdoor decorating, but it makes the trees look nice.

When we first moved into our house 3 years ago, we had the idea to put a classic waving Santa in this window. Now the other houses of this design in our neighborhood throw something up there too. But like in writing a comment in the blogging world, we claim FIRST!

Another shot of the front of the house so you can get a better look at Mr. Claus. (Yes Heidi, I know his feet don't show. It is supposed to be like he is starting down a chimney bringing Christmas goodness to the little boys and girls of the house.)

And lastly a shot of everything. Since I snapped this pic I finished wrapping the other garage door as a present, and put bows on both of them. If I get around to it I will post the new pic I have, but even without it you can get the idea. I also have the blue banner there on the left that says 'Merry Christmas' on it.

OK, now that I have the house pictures up, I need to explain the music playing on my blog. Last year I found out that Twisted Sister had decided to make a Christmas CD for their final release ever, and to celebrate 30 years as a band. Yes, the same guys that brought you classic Glam Rock hits such as "We're Not Going To Take It" and "I Want To Rock." The word I heard is that they wanted to put something out that would finish off Twisted Sister once and for all. (Which is funny to me...I figured they had been finished since 1988.)

Twisted Sister even returned to their "classic" lineup featuring lead vocalist Dee Snider, guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda, bassist Mark Mendoza and drummer A.J. Pero for this final album.

Now this is a Christmas CD that has been classified as "NFL" which in the Sorenson household stands for "Not For Lisa." Therefore I am relegated to rocking out to it in my car on the drive to and from work, and while at work. And since at work I sit across from my old man, I keep the volume down pretty low when I play it. I get the feeling he likes it about as much as Lisa does.

Of course, this CD wouldn't be complete if there wasn't a totally twisted video to go with it. Since I quit watching MTV a looong time ago (Not that they show videos anyway!) I have only been able to enjoy this via youtube. But instead of making you search for it yourself, I have include it right here.

Twisted? Yes. Tasteful? Not so much. But a fun rocking Christmas song? Oh yeah!

El Donaldo's Christmas gift buying guide for the cash strapped

Are you not getting your annual Christmas bonus this year due to cutbacks your company made? (Unless you are upper management that is...you will no doubt still get yours. So if that is the case, click on the 'next blog' link above. This post is not for you.)

Have you and your family decided that the amount spent on presents is going to be considerably lower this year?

Are you currently out of work, but still want to give your kids the best Christmas ever?

Well my friends, if you meet any or all of the criteria above, I have some good news! Just because you don't want to dish out your hard earned dough for the gifts that your children put on their wish list, there are a few things that even though your kids didn't list them, they will end up enjoying a whole lot more!

So without further ado, El Donaldo's Blogo brings you his

2008 CHRISTMAS GIFT BUYING GUIDE FOR THE CASH STRAPPED!

First on our list of gifts that cost next to nothing has been a kid favorite since its inception in the year 1874. What has been holding children's fancy for over 134 years??

The Cardboard Box

To an adult, a cardboard box might only be something that you use to mail things in, or yet another thing you have to try to dispose of when you buy a new appliance. But to a child, it is like a case of ice cream sandwiches that has fallen off the ice cream truck in the middle of July.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to things that you can make out of a cardboard box. Just a few options are:

Mini Pool Table

Once just reserved for Taverns and your Great Uncle's garage, you can now have your very own pool table! Great for children of many ages.

Rocket Ship

What kid would not want his very own rocket ship? Now really, if given the choice between a Polly Pocket or Transformer or cardboard rocket ship, show me the child who wouldn't pick option #3.

Racing Car

One of the premiere uses for a cardboard box is to make a car. As you can see above, it is easily decorated with that electrical cord that doesn't word anymore, and a leftover paper plate that wasn't used at Thanksgiving time.

What is that you say? Your child can't think up fun ideas on their own because the Nintendo has replaced the part of their brain that thinks creative thoughts? And how a cardboard box won't cut it for them because they won't know what to do with it? In that case, there is yet another thing you can do with a cardboard box!

Put it over your head

Not only will your child be able to walk out in that bright bright sunshine that he has grown accustomed to hiding from indoors, but his friends won't be able to see that he is actually outside playing instead of being a shut in.

Next on our list of cheap presents is something that you don't even have to go to the store for. You can find all of the materials in your own back yard.

Mud Pies

By the time that cardboard box starts to wear out it should be around mid May. Which is where the mud pie fits in perfectly. The weather is warmer, and if your children are anything like mine, they are itching to get outside and play. (Unless your kid is Nintendo boy. His box should still be in tip top condition.)

Whether you have infants

Or older children

Mud pies are a timeless classic. The best part is you already have the materials at home!

Coming in as the third item on our list this year is yet another item that you can get from your property. Unless that is you don't have a tree, then you might need to break a few off your neighbor's tree.

Sticks

A stick is just about as handy as a cardboard box. You can play swords with a good stick. You can mix up your mud pie with a stick. You can cook hot dogs over a campfire with a stick. You can even use a stick to poke at a hornet's nest with. While sticks probably wouldn't be good gifts for infants, I would say any child over 3 would love to see a bundle of sticks under the Christmas tree.

The best gift on our list has been saved for last. Now keep in mind that out of all the gifts listed, this one will cost the most money. But mark my words, more things can be done with this gift than any of the other ones listed above. Heck, even Nintendo boy can use it to prop up his game system so it doesn't over heat.

Duct Tape

This is the mother of all gifts! Do you realize all that can be done with duct tape??? Not only that, but this also would suffice as a gift for your husband. Go ahead, give him 2-3 rolls of duct tape instead of a new tie. You will be all he talks about to his friends for weeks on end. Even teens love duct tape! In case you can't see the picture I am painting, here are some uses for duct tape.

Makes a fine babysitter

Car needs new paint? Not if you have some duct tape!

Works great as a girdle...

...As well as a wallet...

...Or even a Formal Dress!!

If the above photos do not convince you that duct tape is a prime gift this holiday season, then maybe this one will. Duct tape can also be used to hide unsightly images out in public!


So there you have it. Several ideas for those of you looking to cut back this year. I hope you all enjoyed my gift buying guide this year. From all of us here at El Donaldo Blogo, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

My most memorable day after Thanksgiving memory

I was going to post this last Friday, but since most of you would either be:

A. Waking up at the crack of dawn to buy the new Elmo doll that your child will not be interested in by March.

B. Waking up to a ginormous mess in your house from the night before when all of your relatives’ enjoyed your cooking, but when it came time to clean up, they all had tummy aches.

-OR-

C. So sore from the turkey bowl football game that you played with your church. You know the one where you took the opening kickoff almost all the way to the house before feeling your butt muscle pull? The one where 10 minutes later you pulled your groin on the other side of your body, but were still able to have 4 catches and 2 touchdowns for the game?

I decided to wait until today to post it. Because whether you were shopping, cleaning, or nursing a sore butt muscle, the last thing on your mind would be to check your favorite blogs.

With all that being said, I now must warn you about today’s post. This is a day after Thanksgiving memory post, and it might be a little gross to some of you. So if you aren’t in the mood to read about what transpired the day after Thanksgiving 1989 to yours truly, go ahead and stop reading right now, and go admire the talking Elmo you cold cocked another person for 3 days ago.

Like I said, the year was 1989. I was 12 years old, and it was 4 days before Thanksgiving. I had been feeling very sick for a few days and had even thrown up once or twice. Since we were going to be leaving to go over to Bellevue to my Grandparents house in 2 days, my mom decided that it would be a good idea to take me to the Doctor. After all, the last thing you want to do as a parent is travel across the mountains with a boy who is hurling out the window as you drive.

After waiting the obligatory 45 minutes in the waiting room, we were called back by the nurse. Of course we all know that is followed up by another 20 minute wait in the exam room, but since this post isn’t about the headache that is going to the Doctor; I will stop harping on the subject. Dr. Beck entered into the room and did the usual checks on me. Eyes…check. Nose…check. Ears…check. Slamming the triangular rock into my knee…check. After a few words with my mom, Dr. Beck turns to me and informs me that I have some little bug, which will be gone by Thanksgiving and I will be able to eat all of the turkey and pie that I could stomach.

I was stoked to hear the news. I loved going over to my Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. From the flattened out butter on the small light blue colored plate, to the bowl of ice cream that I would eat at night while my family watched the 10 o’clock news, the food just tasted better there.

As usual, we had a ton of people there for our Thanksgiving feast. We would line up another table with their dining room table so there could be room for the 20+ guests who were in attendance. My uncles Mike and/or Brian would have a whoopee cushion at the ready for when Grandma would get up to grab something out of the kitchen. You see us Brinkerhoff’s/Sorenson’s don’t believe in a quiet civilized Thanksgiving meal. I mean, where would the fun be in that??

That night I ate and ate, and when I didn’t think I could fit anything else in, I ate some more. I had been over my bug for about 48 hours, and felt fine. However, that “little bug” I had had one more kick left in it.

When I went to bed I felt totally fine. No upset stomach. No feeling like a fever was coming on. After a good night sleep in the room that was referred to as “The Black Hole”, I went downstairs to get some breakfast. When I walked into the kitchen, my grandma was sitting at the table eating her oatmeal. Across the room the TV was on KSTW 11. And it was right then and there that it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to barf, and it was coming out no matter what I tried to do.

My mind was racing very fast with the thoughts on the best way to lose all that I had gorged myself on the night before. Running to the bathroom was out of the question, I would never have made it. I didn’t want to go towards the family room, because then the spew would have been all over the carpet. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to put my hand over my mouth and try to block whatever remnants of pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes were going to come up.

Looking back on the whole situation, putting my hand over my mouth wasn’t a very good idea. Why you ask? Before I answer that, you need to be familiar with the scene in the movie “Stand by Me” when Davie Hogan, a.k.a. Lardass Hogan starts to hurl after drinking a bottle of castor oil and swallowing a raw egg before he participates in the County Fair pie eating contest. Because that is how my upchuck chucked. It was a powerful stream of puke, and I had tried to block it with my hand.

So what happens when something that would later be referred to as “The Thanksgiving Power Barf of 1989” goes down? Well, for starters, remember that I was standing next to my poor Grandmother. The mess pouring from my pie hole squirted out of the sides of my mouth and into her shoes, all over the table where her bowl of oatmeal sat, and all over her. It goes without saying that she wasn’t too thrilled to be covered with the meal that she so tirelessly slaved over the night before. Especially since said meal smelled waaay different than it did 12 hours prior.

Right at the moment the power barf hit, my uncle Mike was coming out of the laundry room that was hooked onto the Dining Room. He saw the whole thing. Of course since he was not involved with what had just transpired, it was the funniest thing in the whole world to him.

After much yelling and screaming from my Grandma, the mess was cleaned up. (I can’t imagine why she was sooo upset. Kids throw up all the time.) But the memory of my power barf would live on forever. I look back on it fondly, as does Mike. My Grandma though? Probably not so much.

Oh yes, and one thing I did forget to mention. While I still believe that I wouldn’t have made it to the Bathroom that I had in mind, I would have made it to the one that was right off of the Laundry room.

So there you have it, my most memorable day after Thanksgiving moment.

Are there any after Thanksgiving moments you hold dear?

The tale of the two Target bathrooms

Last week when I was reading this post, I was about to comment on a similar situation that I had many years ago, but decided that it was good post material. Of course I then forgot that I was going to write it. But when I went back to Mike's blog again today, it refreshed my memory, so here goes.

One day many years ago, before Lisa and I had any children, we went to Target to do some shopping. I really had to go to the bathroom, and kind of hurried into the store so I could relieve myself. Now I had only used the Kennewick Target's bathroom only one time before, and in my mind it was the first door you can to.

Without looking up at the sign (Like I said, I knew which one was the men's room!) I entered into the bathroom. Upon entering the bathroom, I found it a little odd that there were no urinals in the men's room at this Target. In fact, I had never seen a bathroom where there were so many loos lined up in a row. But since I really had to go, I pick a stall somewhere in the middle, and went about doing my business.

I had been in there less than 30 seconds, when all of a sudden I heard Lisa walk in and call out for me. I couldn't believe it!! How dare she come into the men's room?? The nerve of her! I yelled at her to get out, and that if someone saw her in the men's room she was going to get into trouble.

Up to this point I was still convinced that I was in the men's room. The thought had not crossed my mind that this could possibly be a women's bathroom. But right as I went to flush, I heard Lisa speak these chilling words: "YOU ARE IN THE WOMEN'S ROOM, NOT THE MEN'S ROOM!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING????"

I jumped out at the stall ready to tell Lisa off, and that she was wrong. But by now I had serious doubts in my mind that I was actually in the right place. It wasn't until I looked over on the wall and saw the tampon dispenser that I had known for sure I had made a horrible mistake.

Luckily, I was able to make it out before any other ladies came in. And I seem to remember seeing all the stall doors (except mine) open, so no one other than Lisa had to ever know that I was in there. And when I finally made it back into the hallway, I looked at the door. Sure enough, there was Mrs. Bathroom on the door adorned in her black dress with stick arms and legs sticking out.

No El Donaldo, this is NOT the Men's room!

It was many months, perhaps years, before I was able to enter into Target again without Lisa asking me if I had to go to the bathroom. Of course when she reads this, the taunting just might start back up again.

Going through The Amazing Race, one misstep at a time.

One of our favorite shows to watch is The Amazing Race on CBS. Lisa started watching around Season 3, and I was hooked during Season 4. Over the years I have seen some teams that were very smart, athletic, but don’t catch any of the lucky breaks you need to win the race. And then there have been teams that would make Al Gore look like a genius and lose to a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. But for some reason have all the luck in the world, no matter how they Forrest Gump their way through things. For some strange reason, the latter team mentioned always seems to go far in the race. Do they win? Not a chance. Do they knock out teams that are far superior in athletic ability and brains? Yes they do. Which goes to show how much of the game is luck more than anything.

This year the team that falls under the latter category mentioned is a team of frat brothers from Arizona State. Officially they are Dan and Andrew, but they are known affectionately by the other race contestants as 'Dandrew.'

I prefer to call them by a different name. To me, instead of the frat boys, they are the fat boys. What is the reasoning behind this you may ask? It is because this team of nitwits has waddled their way through the entire race. It looks as if they are putting no effort into it at all. In fact, in one of the more recent episodes, Andrew (I think he is the one in the blue shirt.) was actually trying to run up a hill so they could get to their next clue. So what does the bumbling Dan do? He gets mad at his racing partner, telling him that he is going too fast, and he should be walking back with him because they are a team. What? Are you kidding me? You are racing for ONE MILLION DOLLARS!! Frickin Dr. Evil was willing to set off a nuclear weapon for that amount. But I guess to these brain stems it isn't all that big of a deal to win the money.

If you don't watch the show, all you need to see of these two fools is in the clip below. The assignment was to march across a field with some Russian Soldiers. Every other team had no problem doing the march. Just see what happens when Arizona State's finest take on the challenge.



Since the beginning of the season, I have been trying to figure out who these two Mensa's reminded me of. And then it came to me. I have seen these guys before. They were in a movie together! Hmm...lets see...one went by the name Arnold Poindexter, and the other was named Gilbert Lowell. Oh yes, that's it! They were in The Revenge of the Nerds!!

This all makes perfect sense. Dandrew were apart of a frat house at Arizona State. Poindexter and Gilbert were members of the Lambda Lambda Lambda, or Tri-Lambds, and in the movie, they were in Arizona. Dandrew believes that they are cool because they were in a frat house. Of course it might have been a frat house of misfits, but who is going to know?

So, mystery has been solved. I know fully understand the dynamic duo that is Dandrew. Now that I have outed their true identities, maybe their luck will run dry. That, or they will forget their shoes someplace again, and have to run in their socks...again.

Toilet Bowl..err Apple Cup time!!!

I would like to wish the Washington State Cougars good luck today. It has been a long suffering season to this point. Hopefully they can pull a win out today. It is a good thing that the Washington Huskies are a crappy team too. Maybe, just maybe, it will make for a good game.

GO COUGS!!!!!!!!

There is no such thing as a free lunch..but what about a free soda?

I was just reading this ladies blog, and I am glad that I did. Because if I hadn't read it, I would not have known about Dr. Pepper giving away free 20 oz sodas starting this Sunday. Read all about it here!

Democrat, Republican, or Redneck?

OK, once again, I can't take credit for this. I received it via email, (several times in fact) but since I haven't gotten around to working on my next post, I figured this would be a fun test to post until I have the time to do something of my own.

The question is: Are you a Democrat, Republican, or a Redneck?

Here is the scenario:

You are walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.You are carrying a Kimber 1911 cal. 45 ACP, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family. What do you do? Answers are found below.

A. Democrat answer:

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted? We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day, and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior. This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for few days and try to come to a consensus.


B. Republican answer:

BANG!

C. Redneck Answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

(Sound of gun reloading)

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! Click.

Daughter: Nice grouping Daddy! Were those Winchester Silver tips, or Hydrashocks?

Son: NO FAIR! Can I shoot the next one???

Wife: Ain't no way you are taking THAT to the Taxidermist!


This concludes testing for the day. Please turn in your comments, so I can grade how well you did. Thank you for participating.

Can't Hardly Wait For This One!

So last night I went and saw the new Bond flick. It was good and all, but the most exciting part of the night was the trailer I saw before the movie. I was so stoked. For your viewing enjoyment, (and for those who have not seen the new Bond flick) I bring you the trailer for the new Star Trek movie. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite..."Flippin' Sweet!"

A Holy War of Sorts

When the Catholics and Presbyterians battle, anything goes!

He needs your input!!!

So a couple days ago this blogging friend had a rather grumpy comment from someone who identified themselves as "Anonymous." Of course in the blogging world everyone knows that anonymous is code for chicken S***, when they have something to say, but don't have the sack to let the person know it is coming from them. So far I haven't personally had to deal with this.

With that being said, my cousin Mitch just posted the profile of Mr/Mrs. Anonymous blogger over on his blog. I encourage you real bloggers to go over there and add what you think are the traits of the pond scum of this blogging world.

Check it out

I have a friend out at work who also is a dog breeder. He breeds West Highland White Terriers, or Westies for short, as well as Norwich Terriers. You can check out his blog here. So if you are looking for a high quality pet, hit him up. He is based in Pasco, Wa.

Are you ready for some (crappy) football!?!

Every year when the beginning of September rolls around, I get very excited. The summer is just about over with, and football season is starting up. I love football. I always wish that I would have played when I was in school. If only they didn’t make kids give up the last 3 weeks of summer vacation, I would have been there.

With three teams on three different levels that I like to root for, there is usually a good chance that one of the three teams will have a good year, and I can enjoy watching them play. Sometimes if I am lucky maybe two of the teams will be good. But after a year like this, I would be happy if one of my teams would just finish the season with a .500 record. Although at this point, there is only one team that can pull that off, and from what I listened to on the radio yesterday, their chances of a non-losing season are not very good.

I will start with the lowest level of play, and work my way up. With that being said, the first team that I root for are from the high school that I went to here in Kennewick, the Kennewick High Lions.

I didn’t know what to expect from this years’ Kennewick football team. Last year they went 9-3, losing to the eventual state champions in the quarterfinals of the state football playoffs. It was the first time since 1993 that they had posted a record that good. And they lost a lot of talent to graduation. But after watching some of the underclassmen play last year, I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be too bad this year. I was hoping for maybe a 6-4 record. Heck, even a 5-5 record wouldn’t be too bad after what they had done the year before. I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.

Long story short, they finished the season 2-8. And due to scheduling conflicts, I was only able to make it to 3 games this year, which were all losses. But I do have hope for next year for the mighty Lions. They have a lot of talent that is coming back, and they should be good.

The next team I cheer for is in the college ranks. But through the first 10 games of the season, I think they should have penciled Kennewick into their schedule so they could have a chance at winning another game. The team I am talking about is the Washington State Cougars.

Now everyone knows that WSU has never been a football powerhouse. They have had some fine seasons, but have only strung together winning seasons a few times in their long football history. Mix in the fact that not many blue chip football players want to move to a small town in the middle of crop circles and cow pies, and you can understand why. But this year is one of the worst I have ever seen.

There are many factors that contribute to the crappy football that is played out on their field. I do not have the space to list them all, so here are a few highlights.

~Bill Doba. Mr. Doba was the coach of WSU from 2003-2007. He had to take over when Mike Price was hired away by Alabama. Of course everyone knows that ol’ Mikey then blew that job by taking an interest in partying (and taking back to the hotel) with strippers.

Mr. Doba was not a good recruiter. I am not saying that he didn’t sign some talented recruits. But when a kid has more arrest warrants than touchdowns in his H.S. or Jr. College career, he usually isn’t a safe bet. But that didn’t stop Doba from rolling the dice. Too bad for the program, they came up craps. Over and over again.

~Since the new coach, Paul Wulf, who was hired late in the offseason was busy cleaning up the junk that Doba had left behind, he didn’t have enough time to recruit. When you don’t have enough time to recruit, you end with guys who should be coming off the bench in a flag football game instead of starting at a D-1 school.

~Injuries. Not that they would be a BCS quality program this year, but when you lose 3 QB’s to injuries, with one of them being a career injury setback to a kid who waited at the school 4 years to start, it can’t be a good thing. Mix in players being sent to prison or kicked off the team, and it makes for a very thin roster.
So far the Cougs have racked up a 1-9 record. And with 2 more league games to go, they have already given up more points (502, while only scoring 139 themselves.) than any Pac-10 program ever has. In fact, the big story on cougzone.com was about how they “erupted” for 28 points against Arizona on Saturday. Sounds good until you read further down the story that they also gave up 59 points in the same game. But hey, considering the last 3 games before that they lost 0-58 against Stanford, 0-69 against USC, and 13-66 to Oregon St., scoring 28 points in a single contest is a big deal.

I would have never thought that I would be looking forward to the WSU basketball season. And one bright spot, the Washington Huskies haven’t even won a game yet this year. I do take some comfort in that, and with any luck, they will keep it up.

OK, after profiling two of my football teams, the combined record of both of them comes out to 3-17. I wish that my favorite pro team could help that record out a little, but the sickness of sucking at football seems to have spread all across Washington State this year. That’s right folks; my favorite NFL team is the Seattle Seahawks.

Unlike the Lions and the Cougars, who are also flailing this year, the Seahawks don’t have the excuses that the other two teams have. Sure at the beginning of the year they had all of their receivers go down with injuries, and now Matt Hasselbeck is out with an injury, but the main difference here is that they are a professional team. They get paid to play this game.
Up to this point it has been an ugly season. They sit at 2-7 right now, with no bright spots in the schedule. Well, they do get to play the St. Louis Rams again, but other than that I don’t know of a game where they will be favored to win.

The Hawks can’t seem to do the following things: (get ready for a long list)
~Tackle
~Catch
~Throw
~Run
~Score

Now for those of you not familiar with the game of football, if you are not able to do those things at least partially well, the chances of you winning games on a consistent basis is slim to none. Take for example the game that they lost to the Dolphins this past Sunday. They had dropped passes in the end zone. They couldn’t tackle. And when you drop passes in the end zone, you CAN’T SCORE!!! If this is the way the Seahawks thought that their coach would want to go out, they have been listening to Obama supporters for too long.

So as you can see, it has not been the football season that I envisioned back when the days were still long and warm. My 3 teams are a combined 5-24. I can only hope that next year things will get better. But until then, I will continue watching the Seahawks get shot out of the sky, and hope that the Cougars will at least beat the Huskies in the Apple Cup. Because like I said, one thing that would salvage this year would be if the Huskies complete the perfect defeated season.

A day to remember America's heroes

November 11th. Veterans Day. A day to remember the real American heroes. Brave men and women who fought bravely for our country. All gave some, some gave all. And today I want to give a big thank you to every single one of them.

Known as Veterans Day in the Unites States, and as Remembrance Day (Or Armistice Day) throughout Europe and the rest of the world, this day was to honor the signing of the Armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

Originally only meant for WW1 veterans, in 1953 a shoe store owner named Al King petitioned to have the day recognize every veteran of every American fought war. After being pushed through Congress, President Eisenhower signed it into law May 26, 1954. Later that year in November the holiday's official name was changed from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. I just found this out today, but the official grammatically correct way to spell it is not Veteran's or Veterans', but Veterans. So today I would like to thank every person who has fought for this country. Thank you for standing up for my rights as an American citizen. Thank you for defending freedom, even when the decision to defend it isn't a popular one. Without the brave men and women of our Armed Forces, we would not be where we are today."I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. DID NOT come back."

~ John Bradley, Navy medic who fought on Iwo Jima and helped raise the flag, to his son James after James' third grade teacher told him that his Dad was a hero.

“I do not believe that the men who served in uniform in Vietnam have been given the credit they deserve. It was a difficult war against an unorthodox enemy.”

~ General William C. Westmoreland

“From the War for Independence to today in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am inspired by the courage, professionalism and patriotism of our men and women in uniform.”

Congressmen Tim Ryan - Ohio

HAPPY VETERANS DAY, AND THANK YOU VETERANS!!!

Happiness is...

~Filling up my gas tank this morning for $32.82, when a couple months ago it would cost about $55.39.

~Watching Lorelai be the most loving big sister to Elisabeth. Those two have a special bond.

~The upcoming weekend.

~That Lisa's music teacher, who has like 3 PhD's and is a world class musician, agrees with everything I had been saying about the election.

~Getting to go home a little early today so I can go with Lisa to pick up Alexandra from school.

~Working on my new favorite project, my 1971 Chevy Nova.

~Spending time with my wife Lisa after we put the girls to bed. It is our time to unwind.

~ The $4.50 BBQ Burrito from Chico's Tacos. (Hey, that sounds good tonight Lisa, lets go there for supper!)

~Knowing that no matter what happens, I will always have the love and support of my wife and children. In their eyes I am #1. And I feel the same way about them.

This might sound like a girlie man post, but every once in awhile you need to look at the bright side of life. Too many times we don't.

Have a good weekend everyone. After this week, you all deserve it.

Five More Things...A Tag Long Overdue

So my Mom tagged me several days ago, and has been on my case night and day since then for me to do it. So here goes.

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago

1. Excited to be 21, and old enough to sing Karaoke with my best friend Brad in Bars instead of just at the Pizza Barn.

2. Going to as many rock concerts as I could. My favorites that year were Aerosmith with Spacehog opening for them, and watching Everclear, Marcy's Playground, and some other band that escapes my memory right now on top of Silver Mountain in Idaho. Nothing like a concert on top of a mountain!

3. I started to go back to Church. For a little over 2 1/2 years, waxing my car and playing basketball on Sundays was more appealing than dressing up and sitting in a pew. Best decision I ever made. I might have never met Lisa if I would have stayed away any longer. It was amazing to me to find out that I missed having the church in my life so much.

4. I would wash my car every 3 days, and wax it once a week. I had the cleanest car in the Tri Cities hands down. Whenever the kids in the neighborhood didn't see me washing my car, they would think that I had fallen ill.

5. Meeting and dating as many girls as I could. I never really dated much in high school, and had a lot of catching up to do. Looking back, I would have to say I definitely made up for lost time.

5 Things on my to do list today

1. I WAS planning on working OT tonight before my old man decided that he wanted to work it.

2. Now I will go home, watch the girls while Lisa goes off to Orchestra.

3. Watch The Office and 30 Rock with our good friends Ian and Lora.

4. Tear down and throw away any political sign that hasn't already been properly disposed of.

5. Do some work on the 1971 Nova sitting in my garage that is soaked with awesomeness. Last night it was new door moulding. Maybe some engine cleaning tonight. Or keep the house clean for Lisa. I would rather be doing to former, but I have a feeling I will be stuck with the latter instead.


5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire

1. Pay off our house, our van, and the credit cards we owe money on. Oh ya, and open up Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt shops all over Eastern Washington. (Sorry wet siders. Once you stop getting Christine Gregroire elected, you can share in the Golden Spoon goodness.)

2. If my Grandma was going to live any longer, set her up in the nicest place that money could buy.

3. Take my family on a nice trip.

4. Pay it forward to the 20 people lined up behind me in Wal Mart at 10:20 on a Saturday night.

5. Since my Mom is already a Millionaire (She did tag me for this after all, so she already has her money.) find a nice family whose head of the household is in need of a good high paying job, and train them to take over one of my many Eastern Washington Golden Spoons. Once they are trained, I will give it to them, and they will be able to prosper.

5 Places I have lived

1. In Kennewick on Grande Ronde Road when I was a wee little baby.

2. An apartment in Richland off of Aaron Drive. (Still very young, and my parents had not yet realized that Kennewick rules and Richland drools.)

3. 226 E 8th Ave Kennewick, Wa 99336 (The house that I cried and cried when my parents sold it. when I was 8 years old.)

4. 3 W. 3rd Ave, Kennewick. The first abode of Lisa and I. It was less than 400 sq feet, had no foundation, a plastic stand up shower, a kitchen floor that no matter how many times you would mop it it would still be dirty, and drafty windows that would let ginormous spiders in that we would have to check for in our bed sheets when we went to bed every night. Don't believe me? Ask my wife. She has never told a lie in her life. On the bright side it was only $200 a month plus utilities.

5. 5716 W 14th Ave. Still in Kennewick. My current residence. I don't plan on leaving this one for quite some time.

5 Jobs I have had

1. Paperboy.

2. Burger King.

3. Mall Employee. I worked at Eddie Bauer, The Gap, The Sunglass Hut, and Columbia Center Mall information booth.

4. B and B Printing.

5. Chemical Technologist, Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

5 People I tag

1. Lori

2. Nicole

3. Ian

4. Janice

5. Libbie

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the fun begin. And now my mother can get off my back.

Is this the "change" Obama supporters are hoping for?

Man, I was going to do a tag that my mom sent my way a couple days ago, but then I saw this. Like I said yesterday, I support our new President. I will pray for him that he will make wise decisions, and that he will build up our country. But then I see something like this, and the fears that I have of him bringing a Marxist/Socialist state grow inside of me. Watch the following video to see what I mean.



Now let me get a few things straight before any of my liberal readers cry foul that I am not doing what I said I was going to do yesterday in my post, which is respect our new President. I realize that this was NOT a sponsored Barrack Obama rally. There are NO Obama officials there. It is just a bunch of sauced college kids celebrating the fact that their nominee won the election, and the current President that they have been taught by their college professors to hate is on his way out. (Just for the record, I might not have a red hot hate for Bush, but I definately have not approved of his ways over the past 2-3 years. He is not the conservative that I thought he was. Not by a long shot.)

But does anyone else find it odd that Obama supporters would whip out the Soviet flag if they themselves do not also think that Obama will try to take us in that direction? Of course this is all just speculation, but it makes me think that there are a lot of his supporters that are hoping that this is the "change" that he talks about. Once again, I hope that I am dead wrong.

OK, that was my last political post for a long while. I promise. Next up later today: The tag from my mom. It should be an interesting one!

Black Wednesday...Or is it?

I had a post written out about how this country just swerved off the road of Democracy (Well, actually we are a Republic, but I won't get into that right now) and onto the road of Socialism and Marxism. And while I do believe that, I decided to look on the bright spots of what transpired last night. (I will leave the funeral march song playing though. I have to mourn a little bit.)

• First off, the conservatives of this country did not lose the election last night. John McCain lost, not us. McCain was by no means a conservative Republican. He is more comfortable attacking his own party instead of the Democrat party. The only time during this campaign you would see his poll numbers rise would be when he was standing up for conservative values. As soon as he would go back to attacking conservative values, or supporting socialist values (The most glaring example is the bailout.) his numbers would go down. If there had been a true conservative candidate (Romney, Huckabee, Jindal) this election very well could have gone the other way.
• If you look closely at the election numbers, they aren't that impressive for Obama. In 2004, G.W. Bush received 62,040,610 votes, which at that time were the most votes ever received by a Presidential candidate. How many votes did Obama, the "savior" of our country get last night? 62,979,092 votes. (Up to this morning that is.) With all the hoopla surrounding Obama and this election in general, you would think that a huge majority of this country wanted him. But it wasn't the case. In fact, there were almost 3 million more votes cast in 2004.
• I believe that many conservatives stayed home this election, believing that they did not have a candidate that they supported. I also believe that from what will transpire in this country over the next 4 years will motivate people towards the conservative side of things again. We still live in a center-right country. If you don't believe me, just look at what happened with Proposition 8 in California.
• The Republicans had a lot of strikes against them this election year. You had Bush. You had the war on terror. And you had the economy going in the tank. And while the economy was NOT the fault of the Bush administration, the Democrats were able to paint the picture that they were. With all of those strikes, you would have thought that Obama would have won by more than he did. If the Republican party can regroup and start standing up for conservative principals again, instead of getting into the kind of game liberals like to play, they should do OK.
• Because of Jimmy Carter, we were able to be blessed with Ronald Reagan. My hope is that having Obama for 4 years will have the same effect.
• Going off of what I mentioned in the bullet above, the Republicans need to get back to Reagan style politics. McCain might have been a Reagan foot soldier back in the 80's, but he had long since gone AWOL from conservative Reagan values.
• The democrats won because they were united as a party. The Republicans were nowhere near united, mainly for the reasons I stated above.
• Lucky for us, it looks like there will not be a filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate for the Democrats. Hopefully that will be able to keep this country out of some of the trouble we face.

So those are my thoughts about last night. Am I disappointed? You bet I am. Am I going to bitch and moan about Obama the way every democrat I know has bitched about Bush for the last 8 years? No I will not. I choose to be a bigger person than the liberals who have called for the death of Bush, and accused him of killing innocent people.(The WSJ hit the nail on the head about the subject of Bush bashing with this article.)

I will respect Barrack Obama as the new President of the United States of America. I might not have voted for him, but he is my President none the less. And when I do not agree with him, I will use my right as an American citizen (while I still have that right) to voice my opinion in a civil and respectable way. After all, we are still the best nation in the world today. And while we might have made a huge swing to the left last night, if you and I, and others like us stand up for what we believe in, we can make a difference.

With all that being said, I am so HAPPY that election talk is over for now. I can get back to the fun things about blogging. Thanks for reading El Donaldo. I really appreciate it.

Time to get out and vote..finally.

The day is finally here. After the longest campaign for president in our nation's history, the day where it will be settled is here. I filled out my ballot this morning. I was going to do it earlier last week, but I had not decided who I was going to vote for. It came down to two men, (Obama was not one of them. DUH!) and after reading many different articles last night, and doing more research, I finally made my decision.

So be sure to get out and vote. Vote for who you think will be right for this country. Look past the rhetoric of both campaigns. I just hope and pray that when I wake up tomorrow, our national anthem will still be the Star Spangled Banner, and not this:

Weekend Video...AAAANOLD STYLE!

Aaanold may not be the most conservative of Republicans, but he sure can rile up a crowd. I love it how he knocks on Nobama's wee little bird legs. Don't look now, but McCain is surging. Maybe we will be able to avoid a Marxist president after all. We will find out on Tuesday night.





I don't know about you, but I am pumped up! Hope your Halloween was a happy one!

A Bad Luck Wish For....

....The Oklahoma City Thunder. May they suck not just in tonight's opener, but for the whole season. I hereby curse them to be the suckiest team in the NBA until Seattle is awarded another NBA franchise. Worst of luck to you OKCT.

Decisions Decisions

OK, if there are people across this country who are going to vote for Nobama just because he is black, (I happen to know of a few in particular. None who read this blog though.) or the other side of the coin, not vote for him because he is black, (Which is equally as stupid. There are so many valid reasons to vote Nobama.) I decided that there must be people who vote on how attractive the person is.

So lets just say for fun that you vote for the "pretty" candidate. Based on the pictures below, which party would you vote for?

OR.......

I have an idea where my vote would go. Of course the only reason why I even did this post was so I would have an excuse to put that picture of Rosie O'Donnell up. I didn't know she was John Belushi's long lost sister.

Happy Wednesday to all!

Yet more proof about how Obama will destroy us

I was going to try and go the whole week without any political blogs, but then I heard this. This is scary my friends. If you Obama supporters think that what your candidate said to Joe the Plumber wasn't exactly how this man thinks, I have a feeling that you will not be bothered by this video. You might also say that this is politics of old, and how we need to look to the future. But anytime I hear someone say these type of things, it worries me. When I hear someone talk about how the constitution needs to be reinterpreted, it worries me. I just hope that America will wake up and see what this guy really is. After all, we can only find out what is in store for us by looking at a presidential candidates' past. From what I have seen, Barry's past isn't all sunshine and flowers, unless the sunshine is blotted out with storm clouds, and the flowers have been stomped on and are wilting.

Oh yes, one more thing. Do you wonder why you never see Obama/Biden asked any tough questions? It is because when they are, they shut down the people who are asking them. Read about it here.

Thursday Funnies

I receieved these in an email yesterday. And instead of forwarding it out, I decided to use it as blogger fodder. As usual these lean to the right, but would you expect any different from me? Happy Thursday everyone!