I have a solution!

So my day has sucked balls. My kids are a little constipated, I am the opposite, they did not sleep well at all last night and neither did I.  I came in and had emails issues and had to deal w/ several unpleasant and unnecessary work issues.  Went for a run and my gym did not have any clean towels or anyone working at the front desk. On Track sucks... why do I pay for a membership at a beat up dirty gym w/ lazy employees and no towels?  Because I am a fool.  So I toweled off w/ the equivalent of a washcloth.  That is hard when you have as much muscle mass to dry off as I do.  The sandwich I usually get and enjoy at Logan's was super greasy and oily today. I went for a jog and a woman in flip flops ran by me leaving me in the dust.  So why am I not in a worse mood?  Well, at least I don't live in f*ing Detroit!  Seriously, that is a shithole. Bankrupt? Something like 60% of the street lights don't work.  The 911 response time is closing in on 1 hour.  There are whole streets of dead houses making virtual ghost towns in the city.  This was a once proud center of American industry. Somebody call OCP... we need Robocop!!!!! I'll take that for a dollar!

**anybody get that last reference?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

Watching Obama on TV... and getting pretty mad.

I am watching our president pander to some crowd in who knows where.  He rips the 1% as usual and then says he wants to get back to an America where if you work hard you can be successful. But not too successful apparently. Work hard, until you get to the middle class and then you might as well coast because the administration wants to crush you.  Some call that Socialism.  Obama calls that "Hope" or "Change".  He wants home borrowers the chance to refi and wants to cut red tape to make it happen.  So you want banks to be responsible but you also want them to lend to folks who can't pay that loan back?  Because the process should be fair and clear of course.  Oh, it was not clear you could not afford that 20K square foot home for $1MM when you only earned $30K a year?  Huh.  So let's sort out college loans.  Yup, we will cap those payback amounts to 10% of your future salary so if you want to take on huge debt for years of unnecessary schooling and then become a preschool teacher you can just wipe out those debts.  Because that money just disappears right?  It is not like somebody had to loan you that money and is now screwed by you not paying them back right?  Or the schools, they don't need that revenue you promised them right?  All of the resources they provided you as a student were free I am sure. Healthcare?  Why not just provide universal free services. F*** it.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that all of the loans he wants to forgive were based on someone who was willing to work hard and then loan someone else their hard earned money.  That social contract is now worthless.  Would you loan your co-worker $10 for lunch if you knew Obama was going to make it so that person would not pay you back?  Only if you were a fool. Do you think when you push debt forgiveness banks or private companies will ever loan money again?  Hell no!  You will get jammed in a 2 year queue and never get that home loan.

He just said in America you are not guaranteed success.  F*** you!!! When you guarantee nobody has to ever pay a loan back and can just get free shit you basically are making that promise.  Why work hard if you never have to pay your debts?!?!?!

This is America and you are not entitled to a house.  Or a free college education.  Or access to the best doctors or lawyers, or bankers.  You have to work hard for good things and make smart choices.  And yeah, you need a little luck.  So maybe you have to rent an apartment, or go to community college. Maybe you have to eat burger as opposed to steak. I want to help my neighbors but I don't want to blindly throw good money at bad and that is exactly what the President is trying to do.  It may be easier to give money away when you are rich.  I don't know.

We need more economic stimulus, there is not enough artificial money out there.  Somebody call Ben Bernanke.

Hey, Check this out.

These are my recent weekly stats.  As you can tell I am huge in Finland!!

Entry	Pageviews
Finland	54
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Russia	33
Latvia	7
South Africa	6
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Canada	1
Denmark	1
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India	1

Jay About to collect social security

I turned 37 this weekend and it is kind of brutal.  I am certainly in middle age territory. My son helped me celebrate by not sleeping all night.  Thanks buddy. My gift to myself was a brutal pre-birthday hangover. My wife was nice and let me sleep in, that was a pleasant gift.  We had good friends up and it was a lot of fun but 3 newborns and another small child made us all feel like the inmates were running the asylum. That many small people instantly turns the tide.  You realize there is a 98% chance at least one of the kids will be fussing, or hungry, or napping at all times. Trying to get out of the house is like trying to escape a maximum security prison. We did have a nice pizza from Folino's? To go of course.

The new ice cream counter at the Charlotte Brick Store is a nice feature.  I suggest the root beer float. The ice cream is apparently some sort of organic local thing.  Whatever... the consistency is not as good as the fake shit but the flavor is nice and it works well w/ the local root beer which is actually quite good.

So I have been watching the new season of Arrested Development on Netflix and I am not a fan.  The show always revolved around a silly family in turmoil and on the brink of disaster but it was just that, silly and cheeky and the jokes were solid.  This recent season is really just tragic. The actors all look haggard, the jokes fall flat, and I find myself just feeling bad for everyone involved. Please do not make another season.

On the flip side of that I watched Expendables 2 over a couple evenings and it is fabulously terrible. Stallone can't move his face but it has been frozen in a crusty beat up Stallone pose. Arnie looks like he is done in CGI, and Bruce Willis is in full on mail it in mode.  I am not sure when Dolf Lundgren forgot how to speak English? Van dame is an amazing cheesy villain. He nails the camp.  Chuck Norris is well, Chuck Norris... w/ a fake black spray painted beard.  The whole thing is so over the top it is like a SyFy movie but w/ once real big actors who all seem to get the joke.  Jason Statham (or however you spell it) is great. Overall two thumbs up then shot off and shooting fake CGI blood in my face!

BTW this summer is a mess.  It rained non stop for 2 months, now it is hot as f*** w/ 100% humidity.  You may ask hot hot f*** is?  REAL F*ING HOT CHIEF!!!!  My kind are going bonkers.  They are like little space heaters covered in a sheen of drool.  Can't strip them down enough to get comfortable.  Even in diapers they are at 125 degrees... and chirping. I meanwhile have infinite patience for this at 3AM. I am like a skinny very attractive Buddha in that way. Needless to say, I walk around during the day like a zombie from the Walking Dead.  I am sure more than one coffee barrista has thought me stoned when I stare through them for several seconds pondering how I will compensate them their $1.75.

Jay About the Bell & Anchor

We took the kids on their first big road trip this long weekend down to the Berkshires and they did great.  One added bonus was that my special lady and I had a night out for date night.  We decided to head into Great Barrington and have dinner at a newer place the Bell and Anchor.  I was a little suspect of the fact that they did not have an actual website rather they used a Facebook page which I find obnoxious at best but whatever.  The place was cute and there was not only a good looking crowd but ping pong and cornhole (the game) out front on the lawn.  The place is a redone big old mansion.  Even though it was like 90 degrees and 120% humidity the outside was packed but the inside was open and we got a table right away. The waitstaff was also good looking and well dressed.  The crowd was NY hipster replanted w/ their parent's money in the Berkshires.  Except me who has no family money and was a sweaty no tattoo mess. I liked that the maitre di who we guessed was an owner was drinking a cold Tecate... solid.  We ordered a couple drinks and got down to it.  My "Trophy Wife" sounded feminine but was juiced w/ white bourbon, cava, and Saint Germaine and was delicious. We started off w/ a Parmesan broth soup that was salty and delicious despite the heat in the air. Next up was roasted beets w/ golden raisins, roasted squash and yogurt that was excellent and a house mad coppa (headcheese?) w/ greens, shaved Parmesan, and focaccia that was a little greasy but really wonderful.  We then shared a Pollock dish finished w/ black eyed peas and garlic scapes (every dish seemed to feature scapes) and was also well cooked, and very fresh tasting. We finished up w/ a delicious sponge cake w/ roasted rhubarb and creme fraische whipped cream that was sick.  Overall expensive but great service, good crowd, and solid food. 1 7/8 thumbs up.

We finished w/ a beer in town and were able to witness a stupid young woman irrationally freak out about a bug in her hair and then a possibly drunk woman berate a maitre di for 10+ minutes in a totally unnecessary way before storming out into the middle of the road.  Fantastic!

We stopped in Rut-Vegas to change diapers on the way home and had a couple cheeseburgers at McDonalds. Really a high to low weekend. Very low.

BTW, I know I spelled a bunch of shit incorrectly here but spell check in Blogger sucks. So F*** off smart guy!!

Boy oh Boy!

I have a feeling that header will garner unwanted hits on the interweb?  In any event... the kids regressed so my sleep is a mess.  I have gotten REM sleep maybe twice in 2 weeks.  We were able to get down to see friends in Barnard this weekend and that was nice.  My lovely wife also let me sleep in on Saturday which was amazing. Funny how well you sleep when you have more than 3" of space and no one is making noise and punching you in the face w/ tiny hands?! So the Skinny Pancake opened their new expanded space and my co-worker and I went for a little look.  The patio was huge and very busy.  Inside it looks like the kitchen is a little bigger and the space is huge.  It is industrial meets forest and it pretty solid looking.  The bar is not huge but still much bigger than before and the open space means you could easily get a beer and stand w/ friends if a seat was not available.  We hit it early so we were able to belly up to the bar. We had to wait for a dip shit from Jersey to figure out what beer to order in the absence of Miller Light.  He was confused by the concept of Morrisville (is that where you just ski and make beer?). Yup... that is all they do. And hump cows, don't forget that one. We settled on a pilsner and finally moved away.  We ordered up a couple delicious Zero Gravity double IPA's and I followed up w/ a Lost Nation Pilsner. The beer and liquor selection are very well thought out and quite interesting. I thought that the bartender was easily distracted and did not provide great service (grabbed tips too fast, only 4 people at bar but took awhile for him to notice my empty beer, was often wandering to the back for no apparent reason) but I find that alot around here. That said, I liked the space and what they have to offer so it will no doubt have a spot in the rotation.

Also had a nice lunch at San Sai w/ my lady Monday afternoon.  Place was empty, food was delicious.  Very odd. Great lunch spot, a little pricey but quiet, private, and good food.

So now back to no sleep town... population 4.