My Current Guilty Pleasure:

I love it, in all its cheesy, glitzy, big-haired, shoulder-padded glory. I actually think it's more of a "comfort" thing to me. Dallas has to be my Dad's all-time favorite T.V. show, I used to sit up late and watch the reruns with him on TNN, The Nashville Network, when it was still on cable. I'll always remember the way he calls J.R. "that ol' swindler". He would send me off to bed but when I would hear the closing credits I would start humming along with that familiar theme song, just to get yelled at to "shut up and go to sleep!". I guess it just let's me revisit some special childhood moments me and my Dad shared. Who would have ever thought a 1980's soap opera would give a guy memories about his childhood? I started watching the series again just a little while after we found out Wendy was pregnant, when we were discussing name choices. We told my parents that if was a little boy, we would be naming him Jacob Ryan. The first words out of my Daddy's mouth were "We're gonna have a little J.R.!", and he gives Wendy fits over it! So that got me to thinking about the box set of the first two seasons I bought him for some occasion a few years back, I dug them out of the cabinet still sealed up like new and popped the first disc in and haven't been able to stop since.

Anyway besides nostalgic value, it's just a damn good show. I'm currently on season 6 on DVD; which is the only way to watch a series I might add. Jock's gone, Pam and Bobby are split, J.R. and Bobby are in war over Ewing Oil, Miss Ellie and Clayton are getting hot and heavy. You never see shows like that anymore, sure it's got sex, lies, ALOT of drinkin' and cheatin', but it somehow just seems more "wholesome" than some of the crap on T.V. today. Now don't get me wrong, I'm addicted to Brothers & Sisters on ABC, but most of what is on T.V. could be replaced with reruns of Home Improvement or Family Matters I think everyone would be in a little better mood, but I guess that's what they have T.V. Land and Nick at Nite for. Is Nick at Nite still on anymore?

Christmas Morning

My sister-in-law took this picture early Christmas morning at my grandparents house, I just thought it turned out pretty cool.

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday

-- Its starting to sink into my mind that in less than six months, I'm going to be a Dad. That's exciting and incredibly scarey all at the same time.
-- It really irritates me when someone lives to correct other's spelling and grammar mistakes, not that it makes me feel dumb, I just don't really see the point in pointing out an obvious "typo" in a BLOG COMMENT. Ah well, I guess some people need to squeeze that little bit of nastiness in to complete their day.
-- This weather is wreaking havoc on my hands, if I make a fist my knuckles bleed all the way across. It's actually pretty bad ass looking, one might presume I had a been in a bar room brawl.... Yeah that's what I'll tell 'em.
-- I guess I could put lotion on my hands, but that would be gay and not nearly as bad ass as a bar room brawl look. What a dilema...
-- I have never really been into video games, even in high school when my friends practically lived on the things, but I am completely addicted to Halo 3 on XBox Live. Sure, I look ridiculous wearing my headset and yelling at the eight year old kid across the world that just killed me at the top of my lungs, but I just can't stop playing it!
-- I am still an idiot when it comes to Facebook, when MySpace was "it" it was just so much easier, maybe then I just cared about how many friends I have. Blogger friends are way cooler anyway, their some the nicest people I've never met!
-- I'm in a lazy rut this morning that I can't seem to get out of, I blame it on the democrats.
-- Or is it "Democrats"?
-- That there is my Christmas present from my most awesome wife, I give her a kid and she gives me a Beatles box set. Sounds like a fair trade off to me.

Testing out the blogger app for iPhone

If your reading this, it works.

It's A Boy!

Well, after Wendy's doctor appoint on Wednesday, theres no doubt about it!

Meet Jacob Ryan:

Monday's Updates

--No pictures this time, but we got to hear the baby's heartbeat today! Talk about exciting stuff, it made it feel so much more real.
--In less than a month on January 4th we get to find out what were having, I can't wait!
--After trying to think of a million ways to get out of it I dragged Wendy along with me to my company's Christmas Party on Sunday, and was surprised to actually have a really good time!
--I love Christmas, so I tried to ape shit with the Christmas lights this year, but holy cow that stuff is expensive when you have to buy a tree and everything! I am for sure gonna stock up on stuff right after Christmas this year. I'll be the Clark Griswold of the block, you just watch. Or not. Maybe.
--Commercials that really irritate me: the Old Navy "Modelquins", the Levi's "Pioneers" commercials, the hamburger commercial where the guy is eating the tiny little meal, any commercial that uses the term "anal seepage" or "have a happy period". Nice.
--I had a whole list of these in my head when I was watching TV twenty minutes ago.
--Oh yeah! Those commercials for that damn Flip video camera, I bought one when they came out two years ago and it was a royal piece of crap. It wouldn't work with the then cutting edge Windows Vista.
--I get irritated when someone goes out of their way to spread their bad mood around. I get irritated when people get about things that cannot be controlled. I'm in a really "irritated" mood this evening.
--The s*#% was definitely about to hit the fan on Twitter Saturday night, that was tense. Why do Mommy and Daddy always have to yell?!?!?
--FYI, never drive all the way to Wal Mart to pick up Dramamine four your nauseous, pregnant wife. IGA is about the only place that has it.
--Something I'm not afraid to admit: My wife got me completely hooked on Brpthers and Sisters.
--This blog always feels like a burden when you don't update it, but it's pretty satisfying once you get to typing.
--I went against my better judgement and watched Bruno the other night. My review: DONT.
--Start Trek really ended up being a really cool "crash, boom, bang" kind of flick, and that was the first time I have ever watched Star Trek.

Top Fuel Dragster Facts

I stole this off my company's forum, crazy stuff!
I can't stand any type of professional racing but these numbers are insane!

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more
horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the
Daytona 500.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2
gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747
consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy
being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to
drive the dragster's supercharger.

With 3,000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger
on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a
near-solid form before ignition.

Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full
throttle.

At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and
technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical
reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane, the
flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F.

Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen
above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from
atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is
the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass.
After halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression,
plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 degrees F. The
engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro
builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with
sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in
pieces or split the block in half.

In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must
accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach
200 mph (well before half-track),the launch acceleration
approaches 8G's.

Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have
completed reading this sentence.

Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from
light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only
survive 900 revolutions under load.

The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.

Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for
free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated
$1,000.00 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441
seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher).
The top speed record is 333.00 mph. (533 km/h) as measured
over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

Putting all of this into perspective:

You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter
"twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up
the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch
down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the
advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up
through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest
200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at
that moment.

The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your
foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears
your eardrums and within 3 seconds, the dragster catches and
passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile
away from where you just passed him.

Think about it; from a standing start, the dragster had
spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted
you off the road when he passed you, all within a mere 1,320
foot long race course.

Edited to add:
I learned also that as of the last few years, Top Fuel dragsters are now limited by the rules to not exceed about 330 mph for safety reasons.