The Times They are A'Changing -- Again!

Seeing as its been over a year since my last blog post it seemed like the right time drop in say "Howdy" to all my faithful readers. I'm sure most everybody that reads this rag keeps up with via Twitter or the dreaded Facebook, but if there are any of you non-interweb socialites that see something worth reading in what I have to say, here is my last year in a nutshell.

My son, Jake, is truly a miracle from God. My life has never been the same since he has come along, sometimes he can be a handful, but he is truly a blessing. He has had an amazing 15 months of life, and he has touched the hearts of everyone who meets him. Healthwise, God has blessed me with an extremely healthy and resilient child, although we went through a six month stage of VERY frequent, severe ear infections, but nothing that quick ear tube procedure couldn'y clear right up. Now his little feet are running 90 to nothing throughout the house, and he is jibber jabbering up a storm, I thank God everyday for that little boy.

On a more dark and somber note, I am about a month into divorce proceedings with my wife, Wendy. As much as I hate it for our son, this is the right decision for everyone involved. There is no alchoholism, drug addiction, abuse, or infidelity to contribute this to, just two people realizing how wrong they are for eachother and that their son should grow up seeing them apart and happy, rather than together and truly miserable. One of the most amazing things that has come to light in this situation is my realization of just how strong of a support system that I have behind me. My family and friends have been my foundation through all of this. My long time blog friends have been there for me through thick and thin, I was even fortunate enough to go out for an evening with some of the best friends I'd never met, and had one of the best times of my life. Anobiter, Sili, Jarhead, Gator, Buenohead, Gerald, and all of you guys that have sent me your words of love and support, I am eternally grateful to all of you, you guys are truly some of the best friends that I've ever known. New friends have also given more support than anyone could ever possibly imagine, friends who don't know me from Adam but only want the best for me, friends who truly love me despite all my shortcomings in life and this situation, no names on this one but you know exactly who you are.

So in short, even though I am going through the darkest period of my young life, I am one of the luckiest guys on the planet to have the friends and family that I do. I look forward to meeting all of my "blog friends" soon, and being able to thank you guys in person for always being there for me.

The smiley face outfit and the hat come to you compliments of Obi and family, Thank you again!

This big boy just keeps getting bigger! When he was born he weighed in at 9lbs. 2oz., at his two month check up he weighed 14lbs. 3oz.!! He is two months old and already wearing 6 month outfits.

I am thankful to be able to say that we have been blessed with a very healthy child. Besides a little bit of tummy trouble that was solved by switching to soy based formula, Jake has been perfectly fine. He is already sleeping through the night every couple of nights, and even on his worst nights he only wakes up twice. Jake has finally started really smiling and laughing, and he even clicks his tongue at us! He is holding his head up pretty good by himself, and I don't think it will TOO much longer until he figures out that he can roll over. Now burping him is a different story, he is very hard to get to burp, even with gas drops. Anyone with any tips, I will gladly accept the advice. He is hard work sometimes, but worth every bit of it!

The Times They Are A' Changing

I know I sound like every other first time parent out there, but I honestly cannot believe how much our lives have changed since we brought Jacob into this world two months ago. Along with meeting and marrying Wendy, this has been the greatest experience of my life, and it's only just begun. Parenthood can be best described as this : the most joyful, terrifying, stressful, calming, hopeless, uplifting, boring and exciting thing ever. And I have been loving every minute of it. Here are a few things I've observed since Jake showed up:

--I used to stay up until 12:30 or 1:00a.m. playing video games or watching TV. Now, we are dragging if we aren't in bed by 9:30.

--I used to gag and get as far away as possible when my sibling would change their kid's diapers. Now I've learned that can hold my breath for a solid two minutes.

--That white truck that drives in the left lane everywhere it goes has a "For Sale" sign on it.

--A night in three times as exciting as a night out used to be.

--I understand why people put those "Baby On Board" stickers on their vehicles, geez I think every car is out to hit our C-RV.

Everyone told me our lives would change more than I could ever imagine, mostly for the better, I honestly didn't believe them. Things have changed and I could never imagine my life without Jake or Wendy in it. So yeah, I'd say everything has changed for the better! So I just want to take this chance to thank everyone on the blog and Facebook for all the kind words of congratulations and encouragement (and gifts!). An especially big thanks to all the blog friends, Obi, Jarhead, Sili, RPM, Denney, Gerald and anyone else out there!

He's already growing up!

Jacob Ryan

Born 1:49 p.m. 6/3/10. 9lbs 2oz 21 1/2"

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Good Stuff

Painstakingly copy & pasted from Fox News.

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law of the prophets. Matthew 7:12

This past week the creators of Comedy Central's edgy cartoon series "South Park," wrestled, as they have in the past, with their network over their depiction of the Prophet Muhammad on their show. Why? Because the 200th episode of the show included a caricature of Muhammad disguised in a bear suit. Muslims do not allow Muhammad to be represented as an image, and they consider it a great insult when someone does it.

When a non-believer shows Muhammad as an image, extremists have been known to resort to revenge murder. When 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, worldwide protests ensued. The result was shooting deaths and the burning of Danish embassies. One of the artists, Kurt Westergaard, has had to fend off at least two murder attempts since the publication of his drawing.

A radical Muslim group last week suggested that "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone may end up like Theo Van Gogh, a newspaper columnist and movie maker gruesomely murdered on a city street in Amsterdam for his criticism of Islam.

While I condemn the violence and threats, as a Christian I’m obligated to follow the teaching outlined in the book of Matthew. I must at least consider the insult Muslims are feeling when Muhammad is drawn. When I ponder this, I wonder how I would react if the sacred icons of my religion were similarly disrespected (it matters not that I don’t understand how a drawing is disrespectful, it matters to them). I can think of two times in my own lifetime where similar insults happened to Christian images.

In 1999, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made news when he cut funding to the Brooklyn Museum after it displayed a painting by the artist (again, I use the term loosely) Chris Ofili. The painting depicted the Blessed Mother Mary surrounded by pornographic images and covered in elephant dung. A judge later reinstated the funding.In 1987 the artist (I use the term loosely) Andres Serrano photographed a crucifix in a bottle of his own urine, and titled it “Piss Christ.” It caused a public uproar, first because of the insulting treatment of the symbol of Christianity and second when it was revealed Serrano received a $15,000 prize, partly from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment of the Arts.

As a Christian I was no less outraged by the disrespect of the symbols I revere than Muslims are when they see any depiction of Muhammad. I find an insult to religion as unnecessary in discourse as they do.

The difference, of course, is that unlike extremists, I’m bound by a religious covenant against violence, a legal covenant against violence and a personal morals covenant against violence. When my religious symbols are disrespected, I suffer the great frustration of not being able to do anything about it. It hurts. Muslim extremists do something about it.

This leads to the question, why should Muslims or I be put in the position of having to do anything about it? The beginning of our inquiry into this problem should not start with what the reactions by the insulted will be. The first inquiry is – what do the folks hurling the insults get out of doing it?

What does it bring to the cartoonist drawing Muhammad or the painter disgracing Mary for them to do those things? I can’t think of a benefit to them or anyone else when those things are done. The hurt and pain to the religious are obvious.

Some will argue the non-sequitur: “They have the freedom of speech to do it.” So what? With freedom comes responsibility. I’m free to say a whole wide mess of things that can insult and hurt people. I don’t. I live in a society with others – and while I’m not going to curb my behavior for subjective claims over arguable insults – when something is widely understood as being hurtful to many, I’m a better person to refrain from doing it. I don’t use racial epithets, and I wouldn’t draw Muhammad or put Christ in a glass of urine. Why not? It would hurt others, and I gain nothing.

One can criticize Islam without drawing a picture of Muhammad. One can criticize Christianity without creating horrid images of Jesus or Mary. The purpose of criticism is persuasion, and not one person has ever been persuaded by being insulted.

I’m certainly not suggesting anything be outlawed. It shouldn’t be. Here’s what I am suggesting:
Fight like hell for the right to draw a picture of Muhammad – then choose not to.

Tommy De Seno is a writer and attorney. Read more at JustifiedRight.com.

Friday Freeze Out

--Why freeze out? 'Cause that's what I wanted to say. Big whoop, wanna fight about it?

--I locked the keys in my work truck today and had to break into it, I felt like a real bad ass. People would drive by and stare at me, so I would hit them with the "Yeah, I'm stealing this truck, you got a problem with that? Try to stop me and I'll cut you" look. Yeah, they knew....

--Wendy got me a MacBook Pro for and early Christmas/Anniversary present, now I can play with the cool kids! Ever since we got an iMac, I am a total Apple user. I hate using my PC at work now.

--I've been watching a ton of movies here lately, so rather than review each one, I'll just give them a 1 to 5 star rating.

-The Men Who Stare at Goats - * - (This movie could have been GREAT with the cast, but it just sucked. Hard.)

-Law Abiding Citizen -****

-The Big Lebowski - ***** (I can't believe I had never seen this before, awesome movie.)

-Gamer - *

-Up in the Air - *****

--Next on my list to buy: Avatar and Crazy Heart. I really stoked about Crazy Heart, just because Jeff Bridges is such a great actor.

--In seven weeks I'll be a DAD!!! I really can't believe how fast Wendy's pregnancy has gone, I guess that's just a precursor to how fast Jake is going to grow up.

--After three of the five baby showers, I've come to the conclusion that our families are going to spoil that boy rotten. I have cut tags off so many clothes, washcloth, and bibs it's insane.

--That's all I've got for tonight, have a great weekend everyone!

Calling all Gearheads!

First off, if you don't like working on cars this isn't the post for you. All right guys, I've myself in a bind (literally), and I need HELP! I've tried just about everything I know to do, so I'll take any suggestions. So, here goes...

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away....Actually, earlier this week, in Bridgeport, I had a customer come in looking for an intake manifold for a 1948 Jeep Willys with a 134 4 cylinder, so I thought no problem and I pull out the handy dandy Dorman catalog. Uh-oh, Dorman doesn't the intake manifold, uh, isn't Dorman supposed to make everything!?!?! So I betray the ways of the old time parts guy and put away the dusty old book, and pull it up on the net, of course I find it at KaiserWillys.com, which I can't buy from due my boss not trusting me with a company credit card, and uh I'm not using my personal credit card.

To make the long story about getting the part short, I picked up a used intake/exhaust manifold assembly from 820 Jeep in Fort Worth, which is a really cool place if your into old Jeeps. The exhaust manifold is cracked, which is no biggie because he doesn't need that part, and they're just bolted together so he can take them apart. Now, I'm not sure if it was boredom, or me just being an extremely nice guy, or just wanting to get my hands dirty, but I decide that I'm gonna take the manifolds apart for the customer, and sandblast it and get it all nice and purrrty.

Here is where the real dilemma begins. There are four little bastards, er bolts, that hold the exhaust and intake manifold assemblies together, I try to take the first one off and immediately round the head off. A minor annoyance, I should have know better but no big deal, so I soak the rounded bolt along with the other three in PB Blaster for a good six hours, I just keep going back and spraying and spraying hoping that the lubricant can get under the bolt head and down the threads. I go back and try the next bolt, with a cheater wrench on the end of the original wrench it busts loose and backs right out. Great! This is gonna work out just fine, right? Wrong. The next bolt loosens after about the same amount of pressure as the second, and comes out, only it didn't come out. The head broke right off the bolt. OOOOOk, that's not as bad as rounding the head off, but this is still going to SUCK.

So, I spray some more Blaster on the final bolt and go back a few hours later ready to take it out. I put the pressure on it and snap, it breaks too! In case you lost count, that's two bolts broken clean off, one with a rounded head and one that came out without a hitch. The flange where manifolds come together is only threaded in the exhaust, so I get a cut-off wheel and take of the head of the rounded bolt and separate the assemblies. Now I'm getting a little cocky thinking that I've got this under control, I'll just get a stud remover, bite down on 'em and pop these bad boys out. Nope. Instead these little bastards BREAK THE STUD REMOVER. Ok, ok, Plan B, or C, or D, or wherever the Hell we're at now: EZ Out. I go up to the front, get some cobalt drill bits and drill the studs/broken bolts out, which was waaaay to easy, and put the EZ Out in and start twisting. What happens? You guessed it, the EZ Out snaps, I actually snapped two of them on these things, a spiral and a square design.

This is where I need help, I've tried everything I can thing short of heating it with a torch because I don't have one readily available, but that might be the only option Do any of you guys have any suggestions? I'm getting desperate!

'Atta Boy

Newest Sono Pics of Jake

Funny Stuff #2

Thanks again to WonsAndZeros

Funny Stuff

H/T WonsAndZeros

--31 weeks as of Tuesdsay! 9 more and I'll be a Dad!

--I can't believe just how fast Wendy's pregnancy has gone, it seems like just last week we had the first Dr. appointment. I guess it's just a precursor to how fast Jake will grow up.

--I haven't been in much a writing mood at all here lately, not a bad mood, just not a blogging mood.

--I've let my yard get out of control, the previous spent a ton of money on the landscaping and I've completely let it go, I guess I just didn't get my Dad's green thumb. This weekend I'm going to try to change that though, I've recruited my little brother-in-laws and were gonna pull some weeds, cut some grass, spread some mulch, and plant some shrubs. Either that or they'll do it and be around for moral support, gotta mold those young minds, ya know.

--Anyway, after several trips to Lowe's, we should be ready to get started this afternoon, wish me luck...

--So, it turns out that if you have a dog that likes to chew, along with your AC unit in the back yard, bad things will happen. Like the little bastard chewing through the wires and causing you to have AC repairman come out to add freon, only to find out he chewed the wires and popped a fuse.

--I don't have a dog anymore.

--Congratulations to Sili on BabyAlley #2!

More Keyboard Cat!

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.