July 27, 2003
Today was a historic day, one I won't ever forget. I saw the Matrix Reloaded - oh, sorry, McKaiden took a step by himself. I've been told he took three steps by himself, but I have only seen him take one step. Now, back to the Matrix - I think it's better than the first one, and apparently I'm the only one.
July 26, 2003
Get me, we went Salsa Dancing tonight! Yes, that's right, I'm Latin. It was actually a "charity event" for a local non-profit. The food was home-made Mexican food and the margaritas were provided by the Rio. Your jealous now aren't you? I now am a Salsa Dance expert - which in my book means I can do it without stepping on Tiffany's feet. It was a great night and there is no way in hell you will ever see pictures of me Salsa Dancing. Tiffany was very hot that night, so I might be able to track down a picture of her...
July 23, 2003
I am among the living dead today. For some unknown reason, I am now sick. Being sick in the winter is bad, but being sick in the summer is 1,000 times worse because you actually want to do things.
July 22, 2003
I spent about 45 minutes over the past 2 days trying to find a small plastic piece that goes to our new patio furniture. I had it in my hand and then went to put it on the new chair when it popped out of my hand. Well, I ultimately found it under a shelf in our garage, which required me to lay on the garage floor for 45 minutes looking under everything. It was nasty. Of course the irritating part was I then quickly finished putting that chair together (the first one) and then noticed there was an extra baggy. Upon closer inspection the baggy said "extra hardware" and yet an extra one of the plastic things was in there.
July 17, 2003
Not that anyone actually reads this blog site - but Ryan Joseph Gallivan was born today at 6:06 p.m., weighing 7 lbs 1.3 ounces. Don't ask me how tall he was, I'm lucky I can remember the other stuff. He is officially my only nephew. Having 3 kids I'm used to being dad, so I'm not really sure about the Uncle stuff, especially since growing up as an only child the concept of a brother or sister having kids didn't even occur to me. Well, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law have a kid now. I better figure it out, huh?
July 13, 2003
Yes, the pain is not over. After a highly successfuly weekend (last week) of sanding & re-finishing the deck, the task of putting up a railing arrived. Fortunately, my father-in-law was willing to suffer the brain damage along with me. Again, we encountered one of the more useless specimens of our race at Home Depot. After having pointed out to him that the box of 5/16 x 8 inch hex bolts were empty, he knelt down looked at the box carefully, looked in back of the box and officially announced that in deed the box was empty and they had no more. Well after 3 well spent hours at Home Depot the construction project began. So far it has been very successful (in my opinion) - aside from Tiffany's waivering on a 4 inch or 6 inch wide cap across the top of the railing (should I mention to her that the 4 inch is already cut and attached?). We are now only left with attaching lattice (for shade & privacy) and a gate to keep out the hounds of hell. If you missed the earlier post on my relationship with gates, check back to see if I actually go into depression about the stupid gate (or soak it in lighter fluid & burn it, either one will work).
July 12, 2003
Happy Birthday Jennifer. It was Tiffany's sister's birthday today and we celebrated by going to Elitch Garden's where Tiffany's 8 1/2 month pregnant sister can't go within 500 yards of without Elitch's Risk Management department hyperventilating. It was fun though. We spent the morning in the water park and warmed up in the afternoon by making ourselves sick on rides. Oddly enough, the highlight was the Ferris Wheel, aside from an almost assuredly mentally retarded Operator who couldn't remember which way she had the Wheel spin already. Oh yes, as it was Jennifer's birthday, we treated her to sitting around the Spaghetti Factory for an hour to an hour and a half waiting for us. They got there 30 minutes early and we got there 30 minutes late - not a good combination. However, in order to really get that food out of there, we went back to Elitch's and took in a few more roller coaster rides.
July 6, 2003
Well, 3 years after I started, I finally began to finish our deck. Technically I finished what I began 3 years ago. I spent the past two days sanding our deck and sealing it. What choice do I have now that we have new patio furniture? Well, thanks to our dogs who have single-handedly turned our backyard into Southern Utah Wasteland, NOW I have to put a fence around it and a gate. Did I mention that gates are literally my own personal anit-christ? Fence - no problem. Lattice on the side - no problem. A Jr. High Shop Class level gate - ummm, problem. Yes, I've purchased no-slant gate kits, 2x4's for 2 foot runners, everything imaginible - all my gates are proof that hell exists. On the bright side. I had to wait for the seal to dry and Tiffany and the kids went out to the boat for a couple of hours, so I rented Stark Trek - Nemesis. Geek? Sure, but really who am I impressing now?
July 4, 2003
Good Day - I was a bit irritating to my family for most of the day because I doubted the success of our venture, but we took out the super screen tent (see the lobster boil for pictures) and about 1/2 of our worldly possessions to Lake Loveland. Vastly superior to Fort Collins. All the kids were great and we spent a grossly unproportionate amount of time making jokes with Jennifer about her size (she's pregnant and due in 5 weeks) and about how many fireworks are her favorite, just like in "Meet Joe Black".
July 3, 2003
Well to give you an idea of how tired I am - here is a fun story. We have patio furniture on hold at Super K-Mart in Greely. I work from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., I pick up kids and drop them off at home and go to IBMC to teach class from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. WOW, what a day, aren't you tired David? Yes, thanks for asking. Do you want to lay down? Sure, but forget it, the spawn from hell at K-Mart require I drive to Greely. So I drive out to Greely, arriving there about 11:15 p.m. Holy crap, I can't find the receipt! No worries, they don't ask me for squat, they just bring it out to anyone that asks for it. Anyway, the GED failures that come to load this thing try for 30 seconds to put both large boxes in the back of an empty mini-van (I pulled all the seats out before I left). They then skillfully decide they need to strap the glass to the top of the mini-van. Well, as they tighten the rope, they pull on it to make it tight and yes the rope (a term I use loosely for crunchy yarn) snaps. As one runs in to grab more "rope" I ask why we can't just flip up the chair box on its side. The guy seems very annoyed with me for suggesting we try to put them inside the van again, but finally gives in. Well, 3 minutes later both boxes are shut inside the van. I got home about 12:30 - another wonderful 16 1/2 hour day!!!!
July 2, 2002
We all trekked to Super K-Mart in Greely to look at Martha Stewart patio furniture (apparently since she'll be in jail it won't sell so well). Well these mind-numbing business gurus make it near impossible to purchase one of these things. Tiffany called on the phone yesterday and they wouldn't let her pay for it with a card on the phone, but they would hold it for 24 hours. Well we get there and obviously realize with 5 of us we can't fit it in the van, but we don't want to lose it because Fort Collins & Loveland are already out of them. We try to purchase it at the cashier and see if they'll hold it till Friday (mind you this is Tuesday night so they would actually only have it there Wednesday and Thursday and I'd be back Friday morning), but NO WAY, they can't do that! We go talk to the Manager who ends up admitting that they can't do it because she is afraid they might do something with it (i.e. sell it again, lose it, etc...). So we can't buy patio furniture because K-Mart doesn't trust themselves. Eventually we reasoned with her that if they would be willing to hold it for 24 hours, they should let us PAY FOR IT and hold it (does it sound odd they won't let us pay for this thing?). She finally agrees and we go home, praying they aren't big enough morons to mess this up.
July 1, 2003
I got in a semi-argument with some Lt. from the Sheriff's Office today in front of the Commissioners (that'll help my career I'm sure). He asked me to review this 300 page contract in a couple of days and then we went to the Commissioners for them to sign it. Well, I had a couple of items to point out and let the Commissioners decide what they want to do. Well, I point out the first one and he starts arguing with me that it's typical. Umm, excuse me, I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU! So I spend like 5 minutes going back and forth with him saying, well this is what the contract means, until finally he admits, yes the other side could technically do that, but realistically they won't. Idiot - it's those "technically they could do that" parts that keep attorneys employed. 3/4 of the people that I see are there because the other side screwed them using the part that they "technically" could do. Anyway, I calmly stated, yes, it's unlikely, but it's up for them to decide what is acceptable so I'm just making them aware of what the other side could "technically" do.
June 24, 2003
It took long enough, but it seems the blog is starting to work. Yesterday sucked. I went to court at 1:00 thinking I would be there 30 minutes (after all how much can you argue about a kid going home when mom is in jail). Well, mom got out, dad showed up (nobody heard from him until yesterday) and grandparents showed. What should have been 30 minutes turned into 4 hours! Shut-up people! In the end it ended the same as if we took 30 minutes, except now I am missing 4 hours of my life.
It's my grandmother's birthday today, lets all hope I remember to call her.
June 22, 203
First Ever Blog!
Well, we'll see how this works out. We've wanted to set up a blog for a while (well at least I have) just to write stuff down as it happens - then I don't have to tell the same story lots of time. So it's obviously a laziness thing with me.
Well, on Saturday we had our first annual LobsterBoil.
It was a great time. Though it was difficult being out in the sun all day. It really was a perfect day to boil lobster and grill meat - and the kids learned not to get too attached to "pet" Lobsters. How exciting was the LobsterBoil? See for yourself.
