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holy crap. the wife just called and said that she’s going to get the kids a little kitten for Christmas. Apparently, she was at the local pet shop looking to get a lil’ parakeet or something but wound up being lured by the calls of a cute kitten. I told her to stay away from that place. I just knew she’d walk out of there with something cuddly and adorable. I guess this’ll be an early Christmas gift for the boys since you can’t just stuff a kitten in a closet until Christmas morning. or can you?

so, any tips on raising a cat? I’m not really a cat-lover myself.

Well, I guess it’s about that time for “The Talk” with my 12 year old son. I just discovered him with this month’s issue of Maxim magazine.

For those that aren’t familiar with the magazine, it’s a monthly men’s magazine with a bit of pop culture, sports, fashion and of course photos of scantily clad women in suggestive poses. It’s NOT “Playboy” territory since there’s no nudity but still, I don’t feel it’s appropriate reading material for a 12 year old. Anyway, I’m more concerned about the content in the magazine more than the photos. There’s a lot of frank talk about sex and some recent articles featured an investigation (in graphic detail) on reality show murderer Ryan Jenkins and a behind the scenes look at what happened to the high-end strip club Scores in NY.

You’re probably wondering how my son got a hold of an issue of Maxim. OK, well, I happen to subscribe to the magazine. I know, I know.. Hold on, before you make any judgements… let me back up and explain why I get it in the mail. I was a subscriber to Blender Magazine (a pop culture mag similar to Rolling Stone) which went under earlier this year. The publisher converted over the Blender subscribers to a sister publication which happens to be Maxim. So, it’s not like I *chose* to subscribe to Maxim… it just happened to show up at my door after the demise of Blender. and who am I to complain about a mag that features photos of sexy women every month?

Anyway, I had a long conversation with my son last night about how it wasn’t cool for him to take my stuff without permission. I explained to him calmly that the material in the magazine is akin to a “R” rated film. Just like how he’s not allowed to watch a movie that’s rated “R”, he shouldn’t be reading Maxim.

Honestly, it was pretty surprising to find that he’d be interested in the magazine. He’s still into Pokemon and Nintendo for goodness sakes!! In our conversation, he told me he was just curious about the issue since it had Twilight’s Ashley Greene on the cover. I didn’t really push for more info and just made the point that he shouldn’t be taking or viewing stuff without my permission.

As for “The Talk”? I’m going to hold off for now. I’m not sure if he’s ready to get into the nitty gritty of all that. OK, OK, *I’m* not ready to go into the nitty gritty with him. I mean, he’s had sex-ed in school so he’s aware of the basics. But to go beyond the school info and into sexual images, urges and self gratification? I can’t go there just yet.

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Like most guys, I love little electronic gadgets. It probably all started for me back in the days of those primitive handheld electronic games like Coleco’s Electronic Quarterback and Mattel’s Electronic Baseball. As a matter of fact, I think I still have the Electronic Quarterback stored away in my attic somewhere. I make it a point to not dig it up and turn it on because my personal memories of it are a lot more fun than the harsh reality of what it’s like to actually play with it now. Those lil’ red LED lights and fixed block patterns aren’t going to “wow” anyone nowadays. But man, it was the hi-tech gadget to have as a kid way back when!

as you can see, I pre-date the Nintendo GameBoy-era but you already knew that about me, right?

Anyway, these days, I’ve been hankerin’ for one of those pocket HD camcorders. I don’t know why since I have video capable digital cameras and of course a regular camcorder. I guess, it’s the simplicity of those lil’ FlipHDs. I don’t know. but I want it!!

Gizmodo just posted a comparison of the popular pocket HDs a couple days ago. they declared the Flip Ultra HD as the winner of their shootout. but I’m personally leaning toward the Kodak ZX1 at the moment since it’s built a bit more rugged and claims to be “weather resistant”. So far, I haven’t seen a fully water-proof/shock-proof model yet. Since I’m known to drop things from time to time, I’d rather have something more rugged than stylish. Hopefully I’ll be able to find one for cheap during one of those after-thanksgiving sales.
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With the heavy rains in our area the last couple days, I was made well aware that I was overdue for tire replacement on my SUV this morning. I had a hell of a time driving into work on these slick roads. My old tires aren’t BALD or anything but they sure didn’t grip the roads that well. While on the interstate, I could feel the front-wheel drive slipping underneath me. I had to keep it well under the speed limit and also made a conscious effort to stay far from other cars. Especially when there are so many ignorant people SPEEDING down the interstate during these conditions!!

It seemed that I wasn’t the ONLY one having problems with the rain-soaked roads. I passed a number of accidents and actually witnessed a Honda Accord spinning out of control after hitting a rather large puddle on the highway.

Luckily I made it to work OK. but the forecast calls for the rains to continue on for the next two days. ugh.

Here’s an excerpt from the local news about the wet road conditions –

Slick roads caused several wrecks across the Triangle Wednesday morning, and the Interstate 440 Beltline was especially treacherous.
A car hydroplaned and flipped over on westbound I-440 between Glenwood Avenue and Lake Boone Trail shortly after 2 a.m., and crews had to cut a woman out of the car. A pickup overturned on eastbound I-440 between Six Forks and Wake Forest roads about 10 minutes earlier.

“We are going to get a lot of rain in our area. We’ll likely have some flooding issues around here by the time it’s all said and done on Friday,” Gardner said.
Car dealers on Wake Forest Road cleared vehicles off their lots in case nearby Crabtree Creek flooded.

a week after our visit to Carowinds, one of their coasters malfunctioned with riders on board. yikes!

I can’t say that I’m surprised at the news since we had witnessed a number of rides breaking down during our visit to the amusement park. Luckily none of the coasters broke down while WE were on them.

It’s interesting to note that the coaster that broke down is their newest coaster. You’d think that the newer coasters would be “safer” than the older ones.

—
Carowinds coaster breaks down with riders on board
Published: Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 From Staff Reports – WSOC – TV

No serious injuries were reported.
—

yes, I get my kicks searching for konglish-type items at my local korean grocery store.

yup, I’m just a little kid trapped in an old man’s body. heh.

now with colder temperatures upon us, we took our winter comforters out from storage. They smelled like the needed some freshing up so we decided to head out to the local laundromat to get those comforters washed. as you might have guessed, they’re a bit too bulky for the washing machine at home. anyway, we haven’t been to a coin operated laundromat in AGES so it took a while to find one near us.

luckily we found one that had one of the washers that could handle larger loads. it took $8 in quarters plus a couple bucks for detergent (we forgot to bring our own – that’s how out of practice we are!!).

then of course there’s the additional time waiting around for the dryers to do their thang. anyway, it was fun sitting there reminiscing about our youngers days when a visit to the laundromat was a regular requirement.

of course we’re thankful that we no longer have to spend time each week at the coin operated laundromat!!

I’m such a klutz. no matter where I go, I’m bound to break or drop something. God help me.

This morning, while packing up my things after the middle child’s soccer game, I dropped my nice little digital camera in the mud.

of all the other things in my hands at the time, it just HAD to be the camera. lovely!

At least the middle child’s team won the game. I’m so glad about that since he was assigned “goalie” during the second half of the game. AND you know how everyone BLAMES the goalie whenever the team loses!

I got up to turn on the coffeemaker and then headed for the shower. part of the usual morning routine. heard one of my kids say that the coffee maker was steaming and making noise. I didn’t think much of it til I got back to the kitchen. I guess I should have check to see if the carafe had the lid in place. without the lid of the carafe placed directly under the filter basket, the hot coffee has nowhere to go but up and over the filter basket and all over the kitchen counter. yup, coffee and coffee grinds everywhere. simply a lovely way to start the work week! how’s your monday going?

the wife and I made the two and a half hour trek to IKEA yesterday. It’s just far enough to prevent my wife from visiting too frequently b/c if she had her way, she’d be there all the time. it’s her “promised land” if you will.

she’s got a ton of decorating and furnishing ideas for the house but she’s severely limited by our budget. We only purchased what we set out to get yesterday so it was good in that sense. I wish I could allow her to get all that she wants but we’d be more in the hole than we already are. and that would do no one any good, now would it?

oh and after wandering around the crowded store all day, I wanted to test out one of those little “5-hour energy drinks” for the drive home. I can tell you now that the lil’ energy shot is bogus and didn’t do squat for me. I was sleepy and worn out all the way home! *harumph*