We are the Grizzwolds

Great idea!!

2010-02-10T14:21:00.003-05:00

Here's a great idea for recycling/re-purposing those old T-shirts that you've outgrown or are otherwise unwearable (but hard to throw out).

http://hellorewind.com/

Clark

Blizzard 2.0!!

2010-02-10T14:05:00.004-05:00

We're getting hammered again.

This time we're only getting 10-15 inches of the white stuff. However, this time it comes with 20-40 mile per hour wind!

White out!! (insert Wipe Out music here)

In the midst of all of this, I caught the stomach flu. It was pretty bad. Not quite as bad as the dreaded New Year's flu, but bad nonetheless. I didn't make it home from work before I started puking. Thankfully, my dearest Ellen and I carpooled, so she could drive while I vomited into a Target bag (Thank you...would you like to apply for a Target VISA card today?)

I think I may have lost a few inches of intestine as a result of the amount of puking I did. I shivered and shook and ached. Nastiness!

Clark

Blizzard!!!

2010-02-06T21:32:00.006-05:00

Here are some wintry pics!!

The dog wasn't too happy about the lack of yard space...

I mean...it was more than twice as deep as she is tall!!

Clark

Blizzard!!

2010-02-06T11:43:00.002-05:00

It is snowing like no tomorrow.

It's been snowing about 24 hours now. Its about up to my waist on the deck. The DC area hasn't seen this much snow in decades. It's more snow than the nearly two feet we got right before Christmas (Dec 19th snow storm).

I will post some pictures as I get time to go out and take them.

Clark

Hired!!

2010-02-06T11:36:00.002-05:00

I've hired an attorney to settle or plead my case to a jury.

It will be months before things get settled of course. There are a lot of things that will have to happen, but I've changed. Every little twinge or feeling makes me wonder if I'm going to have a heart attack.

Stay tuned....I'm sure I can't post everything about the case, but I will do what I can.

Clark

Texas blogging

2010-02-06T11:28:00.005-05:00

Yahoo!!!

I managed to make it back from my trip to Texas unscathed.

I worked hard and enjoyed some really good BBQ. I also ate one of the most delicious hamburgers (a tie with Five Guys) at a place called Terry's. It was built inside an old gas station. Very cool.

I had to leave early because there was a massive snowstorm coming to the DC area. That was fun....not! The flight was packed and bumpy. It left at about 9pm Texas time and arrived at about 12:30 DC time.

My dearest Ellen had all sorts of trouble while I was gone. The Grizzwold curse really took over while I was gone. Just before leaving my middle daughter had gotten some sort of stomach issue. We thought it might have been some bad restaurant food, but when my littlest one got sick with the same symptoms a couple days later (bad enough to have to go to the ER) we were sure it was a stomach flu. Later on my oldest got the same thing (and had to go to the ER as well because my dearest thought she had appendicitis) . In and around all of that, my dearest had to go to the dentist and eye doctor too. I am very proud of her for flying solo.

Clark

A man knows...

2010-01-24T21:11:00.004-05:00

...when he's up against it.

I was in a car accident right before Christmas. Not severe, but the impact caused me some discomfort of the chest, so I was taken to the hospital.

Now I have a problem with my heart. I have no idea what the future holds. It's more electrical than functional, so I'm probably going to be having to watch it vs. getting a procedure for it.

I have a pretty good doctor, so I think I am in good hands.

I have to try and keeps things in perspective. So far it hasn't caused me to discontinue what I like to do. However, I have to lose more weight (I'm down 40, but I need to lose at least another 20).

Clark

It's been such a long time...

2009-11-20T21:52:00.002-05:00

(all apologies to Boston)

Time flies...

Sorry that it's been so long.

While I find blogging therapeutic to an extent, the time to do it has been fleeting.

I've been so busy with work and softball. I have two new clients that I've been working with in Maryland to add to the third one. I've been running up and down the road to the tune of a hundred miles a day or more back and forth.

Softball has been pretty good. The travel team did fairly well. We won about half of the the games that we played, beating most of the teams that we should have. We will struggle at times because we are going to end up playing 14U teams that are a year older and stronger.

We have been caught up in the whole swine flu epidemic the past two weeks. My dearest Ellen had a cold for a couple days, then my youngest (now 5) got sick a couple days later at the same time I did. It all lasted about 5 days. Now my dearest and my oldest are sick.

I will try and post some more later...

Clark

Picture!

2009-08-17T23:41:00.005-04:00

I've added an approximation of "me" to the left side. There's a web app on the "Mad Men" website that allows you to create a "Mad Men" version of yourself. I do sort of look like that. Here are the other pics I made:

Clark

Final Beach Blog

2009-08-14T16:11:00.003-04:00

Well, we're back.

Actually, we got back pretty late last night, so there was no opportunity to blog about anything (not that I'm that consistent or anything).

The truck managed to hold on long enough to get us home. We still need to figure out what's going on with the rear end (torque steer from a rear wheel drive truck?).

The rain came again in the morning while we ate a delicious breakfast at Mammy's Kitchen (Rt. 17 near the big parking garage and Rt. 501). We decided to do some souvenir shopping on the way out. I got a few T-shirts and other trinkets for the kids. Spent a hundred bucks. It was pretty easy to do that.

I think the highlights overall were the weather and the accommodations. We had a comfortable room at a reasonable price. Location was ideal as it was close enough to good places to eat, but not too far away from the hubbub. Best meal was a tie between Preston's and Mammy's with a "Surprise!" Vote to the Villa Romana. Villa Romana serves up traditional Italian cooking (4 course meal: appetizer, soup, salad, and entree'). It's pricey (14.00 for Spaghetti and Meatballs), but you get a lot of food for what you pay for.

There were a few lowlights. Some of the behavior of 9-12 year olds is trying at times. The Landmark didn't employ lifeguards, but there was a lot of staff around and some of them did their best to keep the rif raff down. Probably the worst was "Creepy Video Guy". I noticed this guy (a balding paunchy white guy with Aviator sunglasses) standing on his oceanfront balcony with his video camera scanning the beachfront. He'd record something for a few moments, pull the camera down, scan the sand again, raise the camera and record something else, etc. repeating the process several times over the course of my observations. When someone came out of an adjoining room to stand on their balcony, he slid back into the safety of his room, leaving the balcony door open to finish recording and then closing it slowly, while standing and seemingly admiring his handiwork. Creepy. My dearest saw him do it too. I'm hoping that impressionable young ladies in revealing swimwear have not been captured for any untoward website or DVD sales.

Clark

Beach Blog #4

2009-08-12T15:47:00.002-04:00

It had to happen eventually...

Rain.

It's been pouring here for the past hour or so. They chased us out of the pool at around 2pm. It's been pretty hot (around 97 degrees F), so it was bound to happen at some point, even if it was just the excess humidity kicking off.

The kids are trying to be good. We're heading out to see an IMAX 3D movie and perhaps shop for souvenirs.

Clark

Beach Blog #3

2009-08-12T09:48:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting here on our last full day at the beach having a little room service breakfast.

We had a good day yesterday, although I'm a little sunburned. We spent the day at the many pools and the beach. Then we had a nice dinner at a place called Preston's in North Myrtle Beach. Th buffet was really nice: full salad bar and dinner bar with seafood and country cookin'. The kids have been pretty good (only a small minor 4 year old meltdown today).

Update to Beach Blog #2. I mentioned that Ladies needed to keep their tattoos on their backs on the small side (no Constitutions or Dead Sea Scrolls, Ladies). I saw a replica of the South Carolina flag (palmetto and crescent moon) on the lower back of one woman (nice but unusual). I also saw another one that was a complete no-no: horseshoes. I can't imagine what someone would want horseshoes on their lower back. What kind of message does that send?

Clark

Beach Blog #2

2009-08-10T17:01:00.003-04:00

Tattoos...

I've been here in Myrtle Beach, SC for about 48 hours now and have seen a boatload of tattoos. I've seen cheap tattoos, expensive tattoos, small tattoos, large tattoos...the whole gamut. I have no tattoos on my body (not that I haven't thought about it though). Nor does my dearest Ellen. I've come to a couple of conclusions taking in the skin art here at MB:

1. Small is better, especially on women. Ladies, a large, amorphously shaped tattoo on your shoulder doesn't seem too sexy. However, a small butterfly, heart, or star on the front or back of your hip is really hot. Guys, a dessert plate sized full color picture of a Rottweiler on your left chest is nothing short of weird. Tribal designs are OK, so long as they don't end up looking like Ivy vines crawling up your pants leg.

2. Location, Location, Location: Ladies, make sure you don't put your tattoo in the wrong place. Unless you plan on covering a whole body part or parts, make sure the spot can be covered up or accents your body part. Large dessert plate sized animal art on your entire calf just doesn't do it for me. Back of the next, ankle, small of the back (again, small is better), or front of the hip are sexy spots. Guys, covering the whole leg with just one tattoo is fine, but it needs to look finished. Multiple tattoos need to be limited to the arms unless you plan a sleeve.

3. Where not to put a tattoo: ladies, never put a large dessert plate sized tattoo in between your breasts. It's just weird.

Clark

Back to tournament ball

2009-08-09T15:58:00.002-04:00

In the past, I have been a fastpitch softball coach for tournament level teams. Theses teams are together year round and play tournament on the weekends usually once or twice per month.

I've been out of that for a little while since my oldest was only playing in high school and my middle daughter had only just started to achieve that level.

An opportunity appeared one day in the form of a bridge between the 12U and the 14U level...13U!

This gave me an opportunity to get my daughter on a tournament team and then to bring her along as she grows, helping her to get the right skills to play high school.

This particular organization is pretty prestigious compared to the organization in which I used to coach. The caliber of player is higher and there is a lot of support.

I hope I'm able to fill the open spots with good players.

Clark

Softball Updates!!

2009-08-09T15:39:00.002-04:00

It's been a long spring and summer season:

My house league team was runner up in their 12U division. The team entered the playoffs having lost more games than they one, but the average loss was only by a couple of runs. They played very well throughout the playoffs, winning an emotional game against one of our rival teams in the last inning on a deadly change up pitch by my dearest 12 year old daughter.

I was asked to coach a summer league all star team. Despite being loaded with good pitchers, we only had a .500 record. My dearest 12 year old lead the team in RBIs and triples. Rain dogged us in our early tournaments, where we only got to play two games out of a four game tournament. Our second tournament was much better as we seeded #1 on Saturday only to lose Sunday to the eventual tournament winner. Our last tournament was rained out on Sunday. We played very well on Saturday despite losing one of two games. We were seeded #4 going into the Sunday bracket, so we had a good seeding, although if we had won we would have needed to most likely play the #1 seed.

Clark

blogging from the beach

2009-08-09T15:29:00.003-04:00

Hey!

As you all have probably already figured out...I'm not the world's most consistent blogger.

Nonetheless, when I get time to blog, I blog. (Sounds Shakespearean, doesn't it? To blog, or not to blog...that is the question).

I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Landmark Resort here in Myrtle Beach, SC (http://www.landmarkresort.com/). It's the first time I've been here, but my dearest Ellen and the kids have been here a couple of times. I haven't been on vacation with the family in about 4 years because of lack of available vacation time. It's a nice place, about 4 out of 5 stars, and has lots of cool stuff for the kids to do, outside of just being in the sand and the ocean.

I'll catch you up on all the happenings in subsequent posts!!

Clark

Politics as usual

2009-07-10T22:44:00.003-04:00

I sent a letter to my Senators the other day about the new Waxman-Markey bill currently in the Senate. I don't blog politically very much, but heard about this from a hyper conservative friend of mine. I read the major premise and section 304, the part where they force you to keep your house up to "Code" else they won't let you sell it. Here's the response from just ONE of my senators:

Dear Mr. ,

Thank you for contacting me about global warming and related legislation. I appreciate hearing your views on this important issue.

In order to best protect America's citizens and environment, I believe that we need to develop a comprehensive energy policy that both reduces our emissions and utilizes alternative sources of energy. Doing so would not only help to preserve the environment, but would also create green jobs and ultimately lower domestic energy costs. Any discussion of our national energy policy must also consider the international scope of this challenge as individual nations confront problems such as the finite supply of fossil fuels, overhauling outdated energy infrastructures, and many other important environmental challenges.

Members of the relevant Congressional committees are currently working on legislation that would address climate change on a national level, and I look forward to participating in this debate during the 111th Congress. Though the science surrounding this issue supports the need for dramatic changes in policy, any comprehensive legislation to address climate change must balance this interest with the need to keep our economy viable during this challenging time.

Thank you again for your input on global warming. Please be assured that I will continue to monitor related legislation and will consider your views as the Senate debates and votes on relevant legislation. I very much look forward to serving the Commonwealth during the 111th Congress.

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

Talk about doublespeak! Sheesh!

Clark

Leadership, part deux

2009-04-30T13:21:00.002-04:00

Recall my post on leadership? Well, since that post, the captains of my daughter's softball team have threatened her with bodily harm and told her that "I hate you".

Nice. If these are the future leaders of our country, I hope I don't live too long.

Clark

This little piggie...

2009-04-30T13:19:00.003-04:00

Caught the flu! Coincidentally, while a huge media splash about a hundred or so cases of "swine flu" virus H1N1 has been at the forefront. We've been hit by the bug.

It wasn't me actually, it's my dearest Ellen. She's down with the flu today. I was working from home since the Speck is in the shop and she came down with some nastiness overnight. So much for my quiet day away from the office.

Clark

Leadership

2009-04-25T18:23:00.002-04:00

I'm not generally one to get up on a soapbox and blather on, but I need to step up and make a statement about leadership.

You see, my oldest daughter plays high school sports. I won't say which one, but it involves a ball with seams. Somehow, two of the least likely kids on the team were "selected" captains. Usually this involves a vote, but there seems to have been some kind of skulduggery at that as well. No matter, on with the story. It seems that no one told these girls that being elected team captain does not immediately make them tin plated dictators. Being a leader is one of the hardest things to do (just look at our last couple of presidents) right, but one of the easiest things to do wrong. Boy, do these girls have it wrong. They seem to thing that barking orders and doing nothing to support the team is what a captain is supposed to do. WRONG! A captain leads through the examples they set. A captain should be the first one on the field and the last one off. A captain should be the first one to cheer their teammate when they do something exceptional and the last one to criticize them for making a mistake. A captain never uses the word "I" only the word "We". A captain doesn't sit around with a penis shaped lollipop in her mouth giggling like she's some sort of mental patient.

I'm done. The soap box has been put away for a while.

Clark

Major Dramz!!

2009-04-09T13:23:00.005-04:00

(With all due apologies to Perez Hilton)

It was a whirlwind weekend of drama last weekend.

The dog bit a neighborhood boy. It wasn't aggressive or anything, just going after a ball the boy was playing with at the time (the dog loves to chase them). Unfortunately, my middle daughter's friend was holding the dog's leash at the time and let go. The boy's stopped by later looking for my wife or I. The mother verbally assaulted my oldest daughter asking questions like: "Where is your mother? You do have a mother, don't you? When is your mother coming home? She does come home, right?" I'm a little more old school in that any adult should feel free to correct the behavior of a minor child, so long as they are not abusive. The questions and demeanor of this woman towards my oldest was bordering on abuse. She left my darling child in tears. So much so that she couldn't speak to me on the phone about it. I was very angry, but my dearest Ellen talked me down from the ledge. She handled speaking to the mother. Thankfully, the injury was minor and the mother must have come down off of her abusive "high" and spoke to my wife about the situation. No harm, no foul, she basically said. However, she chastised my wife for having a daughter "with a sassy mouth". I can't imagine what my oldest said back, but I'm pretty sure it was in response to her abusive comments and tone.

Saturday was a completely different story. My middle daughter (it was her major drama weekend) and a friend went to the movies. It was the last weekend of an already long run for this particular movie and it was in our small town theater. Besides my daughter and her friend, there were only three other children in the movie. From what I've been told, there was disruptive behavior by the other children: running, gymnastics, and noise. My daughter's friend decided to throw some popcorn. That escalated into some chair kicking and finally some mild touching/tapping. For some reason, my daughter's friend arm looked appetizing to the oldest of the other group, so she bit her! I would have expected this from a toddler or perhaps first grader, but not a fifth grader (the approximate age of the biter). I received this frantic call from the theater (my middle daughter is old enough to attend the movies with friends without a parent) about the biting incident, so I raced right over. I confronted my daughter and her friend and found out that the biter was still there. In fact, the biter's father was sitting in the lobby of the theater! After some searching I found the movie theater manager and I requested he make a report of the incident and take down names and phone numbers since I was responsible for my daughter's friend's well being. I lectured a little bit on the proper behavior in a movie theater and what they should have done if someone was misbehaving in the theater. I had to tell my daughter's friend's parents about the incident. They said "kids will be kids". Not quite the reaction I expected, but since the bite marks were superficial, there seemed to not be any sense of urgency (in their opinion).

I'm hoping this is the last of the drama for a while...

Town Council Recesses due to Passed Gas

2009-03-10T16:55:00.002-04:00

It was bound to happen at one point or other:

http://www.fox8.com/wjw-news-medina-fart,0,2761320.htmlstory

You have to admit it - farts are funny!!

Clark

Prescription Trouble

2009-03-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

I’ve had a recent experience that I just had to share with all of you. You see, my new employer, as part of our medical benefits, has employed a mail order prescription drug company to fill all of our “maintenance drugs”. You know them. They are the ones we have to take every day (sometimes twice or more). The rule is that we are “allowed” to have three retail pharmacy refills of a medication before we are “required” to use the mail order pharmacy. The Insurance company makes it pretty easy to remember when you have to do that. They just stop paying for the meds.

My dearest Ellen has been trying to get in to see her endocrinologist in order to get the necessary prescriptions for the mail order pharmacy (they won’t take a transfer or photocopy). The doctor has been OK authorizing her refills, but we were up against “the wall” and had only one more refill before being cut off. The doctor could not see her for four months since it wasn’t an emergency. As a result, we hit the wall and weren’t getting her meds paid for. We were able to get an “override” for a retail pharmacy refill from our insurance company, but we were “cautioned” (more like scolded) that this would be the ONLY override we’d get. In the meantime, my wife decided to change doctors, finding one that would take her almost immediately. We thought she was in the clear.

However, the new doctor would not write her a refill prescription because 1) there were still active refills on her bottle and 2) the doctor wanted to take a gallon of her blood to check her “levels”. Back to square one. We contacted the insurance company to explain our plight. Needless to say we weren’t received well because we had ALREADY used our ONE “override” the prior month. ARGH! No amount of explaining could provide the necessary refill. We were weeks away from another doctor visit. I decided to go to my HR group and see what they could do. They were very nice about it, sympathetic you could say and they were able to get me in touch (via email) with a “member advocate”. I thought this was a step in the right direction and we’d have more meds than we could handle in a few days. I articulated our situation (not being able to see a doctor in a timely fashion and quickly running out of medication in the process and having no more overrides) in a brief email and waited for the response. This was our golden opportunity.

SLAM! That was sound of opportunity slamming the door. The “member advocate” should have been more aptly titled “Policy quoter”. She advocated following the insurance company policy and nothing more. One of the more impolite quotes from the “advocate” was “… if your wife is in need of her medication, her Dr. is the only one who can write a prescription for it. Without a prescription, her medication is not able to be filled at any pharmacy (retail or mail order)…” DUH! How about taking a step outside of your protective policy bubble and see if you can help me keep my wife from running out of her medication!!

We ended up paying out of pocket for a supply of the medication (50 dollars for the initial 20 dose amount with an option to get another 50 dollars worth more) on which to get by. We are still waiting for the doctor to get the blood test results back. That should take about a week. I’m hoping we get something before we have to exercise that other 50 dollar option.

I can hear some of you saying “Feh” at my chafing at 50 bucks of medication. Sorry, I don’t have very deep pockets.

Clark

GM and Chrysler

2009-03-09T12:09:00.002-04:00

I fail to understand how it is that GM and Chrysler are at near catastrophe levels and am begging for handouts at the feet of government. Why are they not just filing for bankruptcy? How is it that Ford has managed to avoid having to beg for money? I’ve thought about this a little bit and have come to the conclusion that both GM and Chrysler just have too many cars to sell. It’s all about choice.

For example, Honda sells just a few models. Three sizes of car (if you count the hybrids), two sizes of SUV, one minivan, and one truck. GM has four car divisions: Cadillac, Chevy, Buick, and Pontiac. What about Saturn? I don’t consider them in the same vein, but I will get to that later. Each of those divisions has multiple models of car at varying price points with varying features. Simply put, most of the cars sold in the Chevy, Buick, and Pontiac divisions are the same except for some sheet metal and badges. There are Minivans and SUVs sold in three out of the four divisions (none in Pontiac). And the Chevy and GMC truck divisions are the only ones that sell trucks and large vans. Saturn sells cars, minivans, and SUVs out of its division, the only one to do all three. Pontiac seems to be a division devoted to young people only, while Chevy appeals across the age spectrum. Buick and Cadillac are supposed to be upscale cars with the Buicks seemingly for a more senior crowd.

Chrysler seems to be in the same boat. They dropped the Plymouth brand years ago because no one really could tell the difference between Plymouth cars, Dodge cars, and Chrysler cars. Smart move then. Chrysler seems to be the luxe division with cars, SUVs, and minivans. Dodge seems to be in the middle of the road with cars, SUVs, minivans, and trucks. Then there’s Jeeps, which are only SUV.

Ford seems to have solved the choice problem by limiting their divisions somewhat. They still have a lot of overlap between Ford and Mercury with cars and some of their smaller SUVs, but they have squarely placed all of the luxury models in the Lincoln division and the majority of their trucks in the Ford division (still trying to understand the Lincoln Blackwood…weird).

Anyhoo, here’s what I think GM should do:

1. Stop playing around with my taxpayer money and file for Chapter 13. We all know you can still operate, so do it. If an airline can do it and I can still board the plane maintained by that airline and get to where I need to go safely, then it should work for you. Clean the slate with the unions and start over. If they are interested in supporting your business and getting back market share by building great cars, then they’ll negotiate. Right now, their labor rates are unsustainable. If they aren’t willing to negotiate, start advertising for employees. Give the employee a reason to want to come help make a great car.
2. Stop making so many freaking cars! Drop the Pontiac nameplate for cars, minivans, and SUVs. Drop the Buick nameplate completely. Stick anything that could be considered a “crossover” vehicle into Pontiac. Make the crossover the “high tech innovation” line. Drop the GMC Brand of pickup trucks and SUVs. Put GMC on large trucks and semi’s only. Leave pickup trucks in the Chevy division where you will also make a “value line” of sedans, SUVs, and minivans. Cadillac will be your lux division with their unique cars and SUVs. Retain nameplates for limited edition cars like the Corvette, Camaro, and TransAm and produce them in moderate numbers or produce a model line every so often and make them unique enough for the model line to sell out. Retain the Saturn division for small cars and sedans. Stop trying to produce econocars like the Aveo to compete with the other econocars in the Saturn division. Niche vehicles should be carefully marketed between divisions so as not to compete with each other.
3. Adopt a marketplace style of sales model. Publish the costs of the vehicle on a central website and allow customers to pick from a small number of trim levels for that model (3 at the most). If a customer is intent upon loading up extras on a standard Chevy sedan, offer them the ability to compare online against a loaded vehicle from the lux model line. The packages can then be updated at the dealer should the customer wish to add something that isn’t part of the package. That cost is predetermined between the dealer and the manufacturer.
4. Give all vehicles a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty.
5. Stop financing vehicles at the dealership. Let banks to their thing. If you want to buy a bank to use nationwide, fine. You can also let local dealers establish a relationship with a local bank. Let the customer know how much they are going to spend before they even walk into a dealership. The dealership is going to make most of their money on extras and repairs with moderate sales kickbacks from the manufacturer to cover the cost of salespeople and management. The achievement model is the same as before. The more models you sell, the more money you make. Salespeople will need to be knowledgeable about the cars for questions, comparisons, and to help finalize the sale. No more “dancing” with various people in order to get your car. Even if you walked into a dealer without first browsing the online marketplace, you still should be able to start and finish with the salesperson. The only other people that should get involved would be a cashier or finance manager and on rare occasions, the sales manager. CARMAX seems to have done a real good job making the sales process more simplified. Even they aren’t perfect though.

Chrysler is in a similar pickle, but not quite as bad as GM. Based on experience, I’d never buy a Dodge or Chrysler car again. I’d put all my minivans out as Chryslers, stop building SUVs in either Chrysler or Dodge nameplate (leave SUVs to Jeep), and put 80% of the cars in as Dodges. Only the lux cars would be Chrysler. Import the new “A” class Benz as the Dodge compact car. Crossovers would be left to Dodge in a similar path as Pontiac.

Either that or just pick up the mess and fold.

Clark

World Events

2009-02-12T16:22:00.004-05:00

It's hard for a guy like me to stay completely silent on world events, so let me sound off on a couple of them:

1. The Stimulus package - Congress plans to try a jump start the economy by taking on more debt to fund more pet projects and other stupid political stuff. I don't feel so stimulated.
2. Israel - The election is so close they have to take it to court. I recommend Norm Coleman and Al Franken's lawyers. They are definitely earning their 500 dollars an hour.
3. Global Warming - It was 10 degrees with a wind chill below zero in late November and 70 degrees yesterday. Who the heck is right?

We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Clark

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-22T20:42:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning to my birthday feeling sick to my stomach and a little dizzy. I’m 45 today. Laying down didn’t help…in fact it got worse. I went on with my morning (I was better when I was up and moving around) and gathered up my things and was walking with my 4 year old to the indomitable Speck when…there it was…in all it’s rubbery glory. A flat tire!

Undaunted by the cold I sent the 4 year old back inside (that was the intent, she kept coming out to “check on you, daddy”) and set to work. I pulled open the trunk and lifted the cover and pulled out the temporary tire. It looked a little worse for wear, but I assumed it would be OK. I went back for the lug wrench. Where was the lug wrench? That was when I saw it: the Styrofoam insert holding a screwdriver and an empty indentation where a lug wrench would go. Crestfallen, I went back to the garage and sought some tools. I saw one of my neighbors and asked to borrow his lug wrench from his Acura. Sadly, it was too small. I then saw another neighbor who owned a Honda. Bingo! His wrench fit. I managed to get the tire off and the spare on using my floor jack. I inspected the tire. Yup, a wood screw head was clearly visible. I must have run over it the day before and parked on it that night.

No matter, I thought to myself. I can take it over to the tire shop and get it patched. I tightened the lugs and lowered the car. Ugh. The temporary was almost as flat as the tire with the screw in it. I didn’t have much choice. Towing would have cost me hundreds. I put the tire in the trunk and strapped in the 4 year old. Slowly I made my way to the nearest station which had an air compressor. Natch! It was broken. I hobbled to the next station. Topeka! I filled up the temporary and took the 4 year old to breakfast. I was feeling a little better, so we shared some pancakes and sausage. I dropped off the tire at the local tire shop for repair and decided it was in my best interest to stay local since the temporary tire made a pretty bad rumbling noise. After an hour, I drove the Speck back to the shop, had the tire put back on, and was on my way to work.

Happy 45^th Clark!

Inauguration Day 2009

2009-01-20T08:54:00.004-05:00

I keep hearing how things have changed now that Barack Obama has been elected president and is slated to be sworn in today. I don't want to make my site a political blog, but I have to wonder what it is that makes him so special outside of the color of his skin. We don't know all that much about him since he is a relative neophyte in the political world (only 4 years in the senate). We don't have much of a political record on him as a result and his voting record is somewhat odd (voted "present" a lot). The right side of politics is REALLY charged up about him since they can't seem to peg him for much (no college records available...sealed up). The left side has been disappointed with his cabinet and advisory selections (Clinton redux). Still, a neophyte may just be what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

There are supposed to be over 4 million people descending upon the Metro DC area today. I purposely requested the day to work at home. Roads inside the beltway are being closed down. Hotels have been booked up for months. Some folks are offering their homes for rent for over 100K for the weekend.

My dearest scheduled herself to be off of work today too, so I suspect I won't be getting much work done. She wants to watch the Inauguration on TV. It's cold and there's a dusting of snow on the ground. Perfect weather for an Inauguration.

Clark

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:42:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged. Sorry about that. Life has been pretty much a whirlwind since early December.

My oldest has been pulled over three times in the past two weeks by the local police. She's been driving the truck and doing a pretty good job, but the cops decided she needed to: do a better job of stopping at stop signs, make sure that she is doing her best to wear her safety belt, and to make sure her lights were on when driving at night. Fortunately, she received no tickets for these minor mishaps. The lesson was learned however. Still, she managed to bump into the back of a car just enough to dent the truck bumper, but not damage the other car. Weird.

Speaking of the truck, I spent three days trying to find two tires for it. Why so long you ask? Well, I purchased two tires back in September because the truck needed it. Why not four, Clark? Well, my pockets haven't been very deep lately, so I opted for two then and would pick up two more later. Well, the same tire shop, the local Super Wal Mart, was consulted on the latest tire purchase as they were the shop who did the tires in September. They have very good tire prices. However, this time I spoke with three different people who told me that the tires I purchased in September were suddenly not available there. I must order them from Wal Mart online. No problem, I said. Being Intertube savvy, I went to the site and tried to place my order. Tried. You see, the website said the matching tires were out of stock! I went back to the shop and explained my predicament and they said they would call around and get back to me the next day. The next day comes around and I get no phone call. Frustrated and concerned I would have to buy two other tires or FOUR new tires (that wasn't going to happen), I called and spoke with the assistant store manager. In five minutes he was able to determine that indeed the store did have the tires I was looking for (In fact, they had 8 of them). I was perturbed and happy all at once. Why didn't they bother to look in their inventory three days ago? The assistant manager was nice enough to discount some of the services to save me about 30 bucks overall.

I found out in December that I have diabetes. Not the really bad kind, but the kind that comes at you when you are too fat. I have to diet and exercise now. Blah. I have to give up tons of good stuff to eat and take meds. It was hard, but I'm doing OK. I've lost a little weight and have tried to step up my exercise. Since leaving my last job I've lost about 20 lbs. I think 15 of that came from having much less stress in my work life.

I've been working hard, but not too crazily. I am running around, but it's a good thing. My work stress level is near zero. I am working with nice folks who care for a change.

Christmas was pretty cool. It seemed to come and go pretty fast. The kids had a great time, too.

Clark

Fixed!

2008-12-06T10:06:00.003-05:00

Well, after a couple of weeks of torture and turmoil, the Dodge is fixed!

They did a nice job. I can't even tell where the accident happened! They washed the exterior and cleaned the interior. They even sprayed some nice smelling stuff inside. It almost makes me forget the following:

It took two whole days just to get the estimate
They lied about the kind of part they were going to put on the car (used vs. new)
The insurance company denied (at first) to repair the damaged driver window, but after sending my dearest to talk to them, they relented and fixed it
It took over a week to get the door
The replacement door had a defective "check strap" that had to be replaced before they could release the car. The "check strap" communicates with the driver display to show when the doors are opened or closed and to lock the windows.

Nice. All things being equal, this was probably a normal experience with an insurance company. However, the car is instantly devalued due to the accident, even with the replacement parts. Any CARFAX report is going to pick it up since it was reported to the insurance company.

Clark

Victory In Iraq Day

2008-11-21T18:39:00.003-05:00

I saw on the web the other day that November 22, 2008 is Victory In Iraq Day.

Victory in Iraq Day!

I'm posting it here to share in this momentus occasion. Let's hope what is posted is true, so we can bring our heroic soldiers home as soon as possible.

/skeptical

Clark

Sad Event

2008-11-18T22:25:00.003-05:00

I recently attended a funeral for a former colleague of mine who's daughter and my oldest daughter happen to be good friends and on the Color Guard together.

He passed way too early (he was 50) and will be missed terribly.

God Bless Tim and his family. They are now honorary Grizzwold's.

Clark

The dents, they are a changin'

2008-11-17T20:41:00.003-05:00

Well, the Dodge is in the shop, hopefully getting fixed. It only took them five days to get me to this point. Our own insurer had an estimate in around 4 hours.

They set me up in a pretty good rental. A KIA Optima. It's the largest KIA model and is about as luxurious as the Dodge. I'd much rather drive it than the Dodge.

Oh well.

Clark

Update: 10/21/08 - Well, I've found out that there is a larger KIA, the Amanti. So I'm in the middle of the road model, I guess.

Whoops!

2008-11-14T19:38:00.003-05:00

My dearest Ellen was involved in a minor accident the other day. Here's a pic of the damage. The other person was driving a brand-new Lexus SUV. The bumper was high enough to make a mess of the door. The Lexus driver was backing out of the drive through at a local fast food restaurant while my dearest was driving past. Yes, you heard right. The knucklehead was backing OUT of the drive thru.
I've spent the past three days negotiating with the other person's insurance company for money. I go to get an estimate on Monday. I hope they don't total the car. That would be bad. The car is about 5 years old and has over 92K miles on it. It's not worth a whole lot, but it would suck immensely if they totaled it because then I would have to go out an try and find a comparable car for whatever they give me (which probably won't be a lot). My insurance company said they wouldn't total the car because it's not that old and it was in good working order prior to the accident. I'm banking that my insurance company is right.

Clark

Another successful season

2008-11-05T13:31:00.002-05:00

Fall Softball is done!

I enjoyed getting back into head coaching. While we didn't win every game (we were 4-6, I think) we were in just about every one. We only got blown out once (16-5...yuck).

I had a good group of girls and asked all of them to come back. I hope I can get all of them and a couple more good players.

The kids gave me a gift certificate to a local restaurant. A hundred bucks will buy me a lot of food!

Clark

It's Over! Finally...

2008-11-05T13:27:00.002-05:00

I think we've been trying to elect a President since the last one was re-elected.

Thank goodness it's over. I was completely sick of it.

Don't ask your ol' pal Clark for whom he voted. I won't answer. Some things are meant to be private.

So when do the 2010 primaries start?

Clark

Open Thank you Note to all political candidates for 2008

2008-10-26T20:29:00.003-04:00

In this fine year of political missteps, mistakes, and misogyny here is an open letter to all of the candidates:

Thank you, O political candidated for your continued ads on television, radio, road signs, billboards, cell phones, bumpers, and junk mail.

Thank you for your continued obfuscation of the facts, details, information, and opinions.

Thank you for your stump speeches in small towns that: block traffic for hours keeping regular folks from going to/coming from work; providing opportunities for people to park on strangers lawns, walk on strangers lawns, drop trash on strangers lawns, park in front of strangers houses; give opportunities for the people best known for tin foil hats to protest on bucolic streets, haranguing locals into voting for their "fringe" candidate; provide opportunities for the media to troll neighborhoods for unsuspecting nincompoops to give ignorant sound bites to equally ignorant and plastic "reporters".

Thank for your incessant phone calls during dinner to ask if I am going to vote for the candidate on their script.

Thank you for "Change", "Straight Talk", gaffes, "improbable history", "ACORN", "Keating Five", Annenberg, POW, African Press International, Main Stream Media, blogs, polls, Ayers/Wright/Fleeger/Resko, Bush, "present", 90% for Bush, and "Sarahcuda".

Thank you for debates that weren't, moderators that didn't, and shameless plugs for books yet written.

Thank you for "nice" campaigns that called one candidate a "marxist" and made fun of the other candidates age by indicating that they could possibly wear adult diapers.

Election season.....priceless.

Clark

Hair

2008-10-20T20:51:00.005-04:00

As I get older I often wonder why we are as we are at middle age. Men in particular have things that happen to them that just seem to defy logic. For example, some of us are particularly hairy and others are not. Then there's you ol' pal Clark.

See, I was never blessed with a lot of hair on my head, nor the rest of my body. However, I have hair that grows where I really don't want it. My back, my ears, my nose, and my eyebrows.

Thankfully I'm not like those cave men on the insurance commercials. I have moderate hair on my back, but it's freakin' annoying! It only grows on my shoulders and its patchy. I do my best to shave it off, but I can't see it! Why does it grow there?

My eyebrows aren't so bad. I've seen some guys that look like they have caterpillars on their heads. Mine are not nearly that bad, but I have these random hairs that are twice as thick as the surrounding hairs. Plus, they stick out of my forehead a little bit. Kinda like a porcupine I guess. What is the deal though? My eyebrows were fine for nearly 40 years and now they act like there is some kind of mutant DNA in them. I find these annoying hairs randomly and yank them out by the roots. Momentary pain for a few weeks of gain.

Now that brings me to my ears. I have these random hairs that grow out of random places on my ear. My left ear is the worst. For some reason the ear lobe and the pointy part near the canal have random thick hairs that just sprout out for no apparent reason. I probably could rationalize the eyebrowns and back hairs. But why the heck are thick hairs growing out of my earlobes? If I don't keep them in check, my ears look like they belong on some simian relative.

Ugh. I guess this is payback for perfect skin?

Clark

Oops

2008-10-10T16:34:00.003-04:00

My oldest caught the pinkie on her right hand in the door of the truck. She tried to shake it off, but her threshold of pain is pretty low (she tends to faint too) so she couldn't hang with the finger in the shape that it was in. Through a consultation with the school nurse, we decided to get it looked at, so she met me at home. Her finger was in sad shape. The french nail she had on was punctured at the nail bed and it was swollen with blood. The nail bed was a delightful shade of reddish blue (purple for you "artistes").
We went to the local ER and the PA (we'll call him Dr. Apu) drilled a small hole in the nail bed to release the pressure. It took him a while (he didn't seem to understand that the french manicure was on top of her real fingernail, which explained why it took him far longer to drill the hole than I believe he thought it would take) to get the hole made, but finally blood started to come out.
Then they took the largest finger splint they could find and bent it in half to cover the end of the finger and the nail and wrapped it with some tape. It looked ridiculous. She held her pinkie up in the air like some affected snob at a tea party.
Oh, and she plans to attend Color Guard practice tonight. I told her that she was nuts and she was more than likely to injure her finger further. I sent her back to school. We only spent about 90 minutes in the ER. Quite a feat.

Clark

Politics

2008-10-10T16:15:00.002-04:00

Your ol' pal Clark doesn't want his blog to be a political one. I prefer to read those. But I'm about sick to death of the election baloney now. Most, if not all, politicians are crooked. Some are more crooked than others. Some also get caught. It's really odd that those that get caught sometimes are still elected and re-elected to office. WTH??

I pride myself at being mostly in the middle with regards to politics. There are so many people on the fringes of both parties that are just plain kooks. I was appalled at how much money went into this supposed bailout and it didn't really do anything. Stocks plummeted and banks failed. Why not just let the stocks fall and the banks fail? Not all the banks will fail, will they? Perhaps I'm short-sighted or naiive or something, but I remember that the government bailed out a bunch of savings and loans about 25 years ago when they failed and that turned out OK. At least after a while.

I think the reprehensible people are the fat cat CEOs that manage to be awarded contracts that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, stocks, and bling (ooooo, I'm so hip!) regardless of whether the company they run is thriving or failing. The CEO of Lehman Brothers (Fuld I think is his name) got nailed by Sen. Waxman in Congress the other day. You see, my friends, Fuld got an estimated $450 million (or $350 million if you believe what Fuld said before Congress) in severance when Lehman crashed and burned. He shouldn't have gotten a dime over his regular salary plus two weeks. Some guy at some other company was only on the job a month and got some $20 million (estimated) in severance. Thankfully, someone with a set of cojones punched Fuld in the nose at the gym in the Lehman Brothers building in NYC. I would have liked to be a fly on the wall for that one.

Other than legislate people's salaries, which is way too socialist for my tastes, how do we combat runaway salaries for CEOs? If I were in charge, I would have written into the so-called "bailout" that CEOs immediately forfeit any severance if their company has assets purchased by the government. Those "golden parachutes" would immediately go to the government to buy back the reworked securities.

Oh, and another thing, company CEOs caught cooking the books would be prosecuted no matter how much money they gave to lawmakers on the Hill.

Clark

Financial Panic

2008-10-10T16:10:00.003-04:00

Your ol' pal Clark is woeful like the rest of us since the US Government attempted to buy up the banking industry. Stocks are falling like so many stones and folks are losing their savings and retirement. Mine was wiped out long ago and I've not been able to get back into it. I'm hoping that will change soon. I'm supposed to get a personnel review at the end of this year or beginning of next (all of us get reviewed at the same time). I hope to be able to start to set aside at least 1 percent of my salary into something that will earn some decent interest. Not the lowly stuff like a money market...but something in the 5-10 percent range. I also have to get the Mrs. to do the same thing.

As a side note, gas is down to about $3.15 a gallon at one station near the house. I have to check out my fave spot, Sheetz, to see if they are at least that low. They were around $3.29 the other day. It's about time to fill up the Speck, too!

Clark

More on the new J-O-B

2008-10-10T16:03:00.002-04:00

I'm stoked (is it OK for someone in their mid 40s to say that?) to be working at my new job.

I'm settling in and feeling good about what I am doing. Of course, I said that after the first month at my old job too. Just before the "football bat" situation started. Anyhoo, I've been sent out to work on another site in the DC area that wants to increase their knowledge, improve their situation, and win the re-bid coming in about 18 months. I'm proud to be included in the group that hopefully will help them out.

I'm still waiting on my own personal company laptop. They've issued me a company credit card (God only knows how that went through), too. My buddy is going to Florida for a week to hash out some issues with a project down there. I was thinking that I was going to go, but he's gonna plan for a week down there and I'm sorry....I've got too much going on at home to spend the week hand holding. I'll be ready to support him from a distance. Plus I have to review a bunch of material for my site review. I'm hoping that goes well.

Later,
Clark

New job

2008-10-01T15:36:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone!

I've been at my new job about a month now. I've taken a sick day today cuz I'm feeling rotten with cold symptoms. My dearest Ellen keeps feeding me these zinc tabs that are supposed to help rid you of your cold faster. I don't think these work.

The new company covered me on the losses I had for missing the San Francisco trip. It was an honor to be selected, so I still have that.

More later,

Clark

Fast Forward

2008-10-01T15:24:00.002-04:00

Sorry...it's been a quick month. I should be more diligent in my blogging, but I'm a busy guy.

See, the boss came in on 8/25 and basically told me that I could go. I'd be paid for the day, of course, but not the rest of the week because...well...he wasn't getting any more money from the client, so he couldn't afford to pay me for the rest of the week. He offered me a laptop in exchange for the hours, but I really needed the money, not the PC. In retrospect, I should have taken the computer, but I wasn't thinking clearly at the time. That kinda sucked.

Oh well. I lost 5 days of pay. I tried getting on with my new company, but they wouldn't have an office for me for another week, so I was stuck at home. You'd think I would have blogged while I had all that down time, but I ended up doing stuff with the kids since school hadn't started yet. I did have one day all to myself, but I wasted it.

Clark

Sleepy Monday

2008-08-25T09:32:00.004-04:00

I'm here and the last guy left are here...but no one else is here. I wonder what time these guys get to work? Sheesh! Now I know what it's like to work at the corporate office!

Clark

Class Acts All

2008-08-22T16:29:00.006-04:00

Well, I'm free of that old client.

It wasn't the way I'd planned it, but it came true a week earlier than I'd planned.

You see, the class acts that were my clients decided that they would sever their relationship with me earlier than August 29. They sent the contract Program Manager in to let me and the last guy left go this morning at about 9:30am. They didn't even have the guts to come in and say good-bye. What cowards!

This is after I spent about 90 bucks on going away lunches where the bill was divided rather than separated. In one case, I had about a 15 dollar lunch (tip included) that I had to pay 35 dollars for!

What losers!

I guess now the "football bat" will swoop in and take over, saving the day! Ya know what? That would be poetic justice, I guess. The "football bat" and the client are made for each other.

Well, I'll have to see if I take an unpaid vacation or work some menial stuff at HQ until Sept 2nd. I take back what I said before about my current employer. At least the CEO cares something about me as a person and employee.

Clark

I'm saved!!

2008-08-19T10:07:00.003-04:00

I can happily tell all of you that your ol' pal Clark has found a new job!! WooHoo!

I'm going to work with the first guy who left the team. He's a good egg and put in a good word for me at his new job cuz they had a need for a new team member. Two weeks later, Ta Daaaa! Clark has a new gig!

I won't get paid anymore because I was at the top of their scale, but that's OK, I'll be half as far away and getting better bennies because it's a bigger company. Plus, I don't have to necessarily spend all my time on client sites! It's as near a perfect gig as I can get!

As you can see by all the exclamation points, your ol' pal Clark is stoked to get started. My first day is September 2nd. I've already turned in my notice to my old employer. I think they were glad to see me go because they really haven't said much except congratulations. I tried. All of the stress and bother (not to mention the chest pain and weight gain) of this job seems to be all for naught. I really haven't felt like a part of the company much. The new guy gave me some interesting insights as to what he feels is going on there. It makes a lot of sense. He feels that they are only interested in making money and they are going to get whatever gig they can to do that. I agree that its in the best interest of all CEOs to make money for their business, however, you have to have a plan of action. I sometimes feel that we are the cash cow that is supporting all of the other activities of the business.

All that being said, I feel bad that no one at corporate seemed to take an interest in what we were doing. There is one guy left. He's feeling left out. I think he got a late start on the job hunt (although my gig was achieved with help) so I extended contact information to him as needed. The other guy who left is trying to set up something else at our new company for him. I'm hoping that works out.

Thankfully, I won't have to deal with the "football bat" anymore.

Clark

The new guy is gone!

2008-08-19T10:05:00.002-04:00

Yep. His time was up (he actually stayed an extra week) and now he's gone. All the work he was doing with "football bat" now falls to me. Great.

Clark

Softball Season is over!

2008-08-19T09:53:00.002-04:00

Another softball season is done. My middle child performed well overall at the last tournament, smacking a single and a monster double over the course of the tournament. Her team only won a single game, but I think they had a good time overall.

Oddly enough, my oldest got an invite from her last coach to sub in for a girl who couldn't make a the tournament in the same location. That was fortunate. Her team did better, winning 2 of 3 in the pool play and 1 game in the trophy round. She did it as a favor, stating she was glad that she didn't play tournament ball anymore.

Word of advice: Avoid the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg, VA. The only saving grace about that place was the food. The accomodations weren't as stellar as they should have been, given the price.

Clark

The emigration...

2008-08-19T09:49:00.002-04:00

Shockingly, one of our other teammates gave his notice and was out faster than the new guy! I don't blame him. He left about a week ago. He gave me some contacts where he is now going to work (half as far away from home for him and the same for me).

I've had some contacts from recruiters and a couple of phone interviews, but nothing firm. I am dreading the day that the new guy leaves.

Clark

The new guy is audi5000

2008-07-12T18:53:00.004-04:00

A few posts ago I mentioned that we had a new guy at the office and that he was put in charge of the project. As a result of the messed up environment we have at work, he's decided to put in his resignation. He'll be around for a few more weeks, but the middle of august comes around pretty quickly.

It's sad that this environment is so toxic that talented people won't stay around. My resume is already on the street as a result. The "Football Bat" is still in charge of our ITSM project for which we have to complete tasks. I can't stand that woman. We had to sit through a presentation that was so screwed up (death by power point bullet, mispellings on the screens, lack of a coherent message, etc.) I wanted to walk out.

I'm wanting to stay around for the trip to SF, CA in the fall, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it. If the right job comes around...I'm gone.

Clark

Electrical Mayhem

2008-07-12T18:47:00.000-04:00

I often wonder at how it is that we've made it this far. The we I am referring to are those of us who are citizens of the United States of America.

Curiously, I had a conversation with a representative from our local power company (a monopoly don'tcha know) about my bill. You see, your ol' pal Clark has been going through a bumpy fiscal situation and sometimes doesn't have enough coming into the coffers to pay 100% of the bills. I try to pay the electric company in full, but if I do that, some other bill "recpient" will be forgotten, so to avoid all of that, I try to make sure that I'm paying everyone something. The electric company usually gets at least 75%-100% of what I owe them. So far, it's been keeping the lights on.

After a few months of paying the electric company "something" close to the monthly balance (and oh, BTW, they raised our rates another 10% recently), they dropped a letter in my mail box saying that we needed a "security deposit" and that it was about $500 dollars. Wow. I was a little dumbfounded. I'm already having enough financial trouble, but then the power company drops this bomb on me.

Since I had no idea where I was going to come up with the money, I called them up and got an "agent" on the line. After exchanging the usual name, account, address, phone, name of next of kin pleasantries out of the way, we got down to business:

Me: I'm having a little trouble making ends meet and want to know how to deal with this "security deposit" you are requesting.

Agent: Yes, sir. I can help you with that.

Me: Well, since I'm having trouble paying the full bill each month, how are you going to be funding this deposit.

Agent: We've conveniently split the payment up into three easy installments.

Me: OK, so on my next payment, you will be taking out money for the deposit?

Agent: Oh no, sir. You have to pay the first installment along with your next payment.

Me: OK, so what happens if I'm not able to pay. As I explained, I am having some financial problems. I have been paying most of my bill though.

Agent: Well, sir. We've been able to help you out by splitting the payment up into three easy installments.

Me: I see. That helps, I guess. So what happens if I can't come up with the bill amount?

Agent: I'm sorry to hear that sir. I have no idea how to help you do that.

Me: Right. So what happens if I am short again?

Agent: Well, I guess we would have to disconnect your service.

Me: So you're going to disconnect my service because you are asking me to pay another $150 dollars over the amount of the monthly bill that I've explained I'm having difficulty paying.

Agent: I'm sorry sir. That's correct. But we've conveniently split the deposit into three easy installments.

Me: What happens if you have someone that wants to pay their bill, but can't?

Agent: Well, we get involved with Social Services through the states.

Me: (Seeing where that was going...I thought it best to move on) So when is the deadline for paying the first of these easy installments over the regular billing amount?

Agent: The first installment is due next month on the 8th.

Me: OK, so I have a few weeks to come up with the extra money. Thanks.

Agent: Was there anything else I could help you with today, sir?

Me: No, thanks, you've been completely helpless for me today.

As you can see, I can pay the amount that I can't afford to pay in three easy installments. I felt like I was caught in an old Abbott and Costello routine.

Clark

bill collectors

2008-05-17T22:40:00.002-04:00

ugh...

Bill collectors are truly crazed. There's not one particular endearing thing about them.

They call at 8am on a Saturday morning.

They lecture.

They can be rude.

They will take ANY amount of money. Which leads me to believe that they get paid a stipend for each person they collect money from.

I realize that they are just doing a job. Everyone is entitled to make a living. But why make others miserable while doing it?

Clark

What's new

2008-05-17T22:25:00.002-04:00

Hey!

It's your old pal Clark. It's been a little while since I last blogged. I'm not very good at this yet, so time passes before I can get back to writing here.

The Speck is running fine. I still don't have a radio...but I have been getting consistent gas mileage...around 27 to 28 mpg.

We have a new guy on the team at work. He has more experience than I do, so the CIO put him in charge of the project while I retained a corporate management position. He's the subject matter expert, so there is a ton of hope that he can right some of the messes that are going along with things. One things for sure, I already like him. You see, he has a way about him. In fact he called "she" "weirder than a football bat". In his honor, "she" will now be known as "football bat".

The kids are doing well in school and their teams are doing reasonably well for their spring seasons. Oldest has done a great job on her varsity team. The middle has done a super job on her house league team. She's played first base and pitched well. Youngest has done a super job being toted around like luggage. She's been practicing her hitting in the back yard. I must say she can smack a whiffle ball pretty good.

Clark

New toys!

2008-04-03T16:30:00.003-04:00

I bought a new car!

Ahem...let me be honest. It's new to me. To the rest of the world it's a 2002 KIA Spectra with 55K miles and dark green paint.

Since my dearest has returned to work, she's been filling up the Grizzwold family SUV each week to the tune of around 80 bucks a tank. Your ol' pal Clark was eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches in order to afford the near $500 a month gas bill. Now, my dearest is driving my Dodge and I'm driving the KIA (or Speck as the kids call it).

Believe me folks, it's just basic transportation. Check out these pictures:
http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2002/kia/spectra/photos/index.html.

It has an engine, doors, wheels, glass, and a host of other features. However, it is lacking a radio, power windows, and power door locks. I miss those features a lot. But, it gets decent gas mileage (27 mpg in city commuting). I hope I made a good choice. So far, it has performed flawlessy.

Clark

I can't make this up folks....

2008-04-03T16:25:00.003-04:00

Hey folks!

I am really not making any of this up. Really.

"She" is back and "she" is in charge of a project that I will have to work on. We are upgrading our IT Service Management product to the latest version and "she" has been put in as the Project Manager working for the PMO team. I kid you not.

This "person" is serving out a settlement of some kind or other and has a contract to not work on the same types of projects that I work on. Now we are working on the same project.

It looks like your ol' pal Clark is in for a rough summer.

Clark

Teamwork

2008-02-22T15:10:00.003-05:00

I've spent a great deal of my career working with people. I must say that I've gotten along quite well. Except for "she", I can't recall too many people whom I would label "enemies". However, I'm struggling with the group of people where I work that don't seem to want to participate in the concept of "teamwork".

In general terms, being a member of a team means that there is a common goal. In most sports, the goal is to win the game, match, or tournament. Having been a coach I can tell you all that a single person who spells the word "team" with an "I" can really bring a team to its knees. It's really not that different in the IT world. When you are a consultant, contractor, or employee, we all get our goals from our leadership and we try to make the goals happen within a specific time frame.

Not so recently where I work. For some reason, some people on the team have decided not to cooperate. They have no professional ethic, they are disrespectful, and they have their own set of goals that aren't necessarily in line with the rest of the organizations. It's sad. I guess they are selfish and only have their own best interests at heart. But, if they participated in the team dynamic, they would be part of a larger success. Win as a team, lose as a team. It doesn't matter if you think you spell it with an "I", the team falls when those around it are marching to a different drum.

Clark

OCD threes

2008-02-22T15:03:00.003-05:00

For those of you out there that have little children (or remember how it was when your big children were little) I'm sure you can remember "the terrible two's". Tantrums and crying and misbehavior...I'm still having nightmares about it. Well, my dearest and I have come to a conclusion that there is another life stage of the toddler: "the OCD Threes".

Our littlest obsesses over certain things to the point of absurdity. She has to close the door. She has to pour the ketchup. She has to set the plates on the table. It's to the point where I think the child needs therapy. If she doesn't get the response to "let me do it" there are tears and much gnashing of teeth. Anyone that's been through this with their children feel free to drop me a note. An especially juicy story get's an Honorary Grizzwold mention.

Clark

Final Chapter?

2008-01-28T12:57:00.001-05:00

You'd think by now that everything would be back to normal regarding "she who's name will not be spoken" (heretofore referred to as "she"). I guess I was wrong. However, I think we may be at some sort of crossroads.

I can pretty much guarantee that "she" won't be going away. She's managed to leverage all of her friends from the government and land a job supporting some kind of IT project for the same division where I work. According to the folks in the know at my company, some sort of "settlement" was reached between my company and "she's" company and mine. From my position, it would have been nice to know the terms of the settlement. Regardless, she's been slithering around my area recently. I ran into her two times in the space of a week. I overheard someone say to her: "sometimes things happen for a reason". I'm sure that she was talking about her "ordeal". Lest we forget about the things that lead to her "dismissal", here they are:

Constant disagreements with other team members
Lack of communication with the team to the point where important information was not disseminated, resulting in embarassing situations and emails
Emotional ourbursts in public and private
Inappropriate social relationship between her and the client
Falsified credentials - she claims to have a PhD. However, the college from which she received this PhD. is a "diploma mill". While this didn't really contribute to her dismissal, it was more of the same kind of dis-information she touted as "real"
Refusal to accept the generous offer of a paid leave of absense from the company. This would have given her time to get her head together (something that I personally recommended to her)

There were a couple more, but those were the big ones.

I have to live in the environment where each time I run into her I'm reminded of the stress and turmoil she put me through (the nasty comments, emails, dirty looks). Perhaps your ol' pal Clark is a little paranoid? I personally think it sucks, but I have to stick it out in order to pay the bills, if you know what I mean.

Clark

Honorary Grizzwold

2008-01-26T14:26:00.000-05:00

To the family who drove their sainted Grandmother to the great Northwest in their RV only to have the woman pass away on the trip: you are an Honorary Grizzwold family!

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_011408_news_grandmother_roadtrip.1fd45426.html
Reminds me of our trip to Wally World!

Clark

Nused car

2008-01-26T14:12:00.000-05:00

My cousin (You remember my cousin, the one who visited at Christmas time in the RV?) had a car he was trying to unload. He had it checked out and everything. I looked at it myself and thought it was a pretty good car. The kids were even excited because it had a connector for their MP3 players!

Well, we worked out a deal that I would pay him in a couple months with the tax return I was getting. The car had a lot of miles on it, but my cousin took pretty good care of it. The car did great on the trip back home. I thought we were very lucky to find a decent car for not a lot of money.

Well, everything was good until I drove it to work. It did great on the way to work, but started acting funny on the drive home. It started missing under acceleration. Well, I stopped by my mechanic and he took a look at it. He thought it was either a spark plug problem or a distributor problem. I tried to leave with it, but it wouldn't start up. So I left it there. Long story short, what seemed like a great car was in need of about $1000 dollars worth of repairs. Not such a good deal. The mechanic was able to get it running right again

Thankfully, my cousin was cool with it and he decided to donate the car to charity...eventually. Right now it's sitting in my garage with a mostly flat tire. I hope I can get it inflated before the tow truck comes!

Clark

New job!

2008-01-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to announce that my dearest Ellen is back to work full time!

Since money has been so tight, Ellen decided she would get a full time job and we would put the baby in child care full time. It was really weird...it took her three weeks to get her resume together and about three days to land this job. She is working at a call center for a pharmaceutical company. You know, the folks at the end of the 1-800 number on the back of the package? She loves it and she's making good money.

I'm very proud of her.

The kids have made the transition fairly well. We found a neighbor with a set of home-schooled kids that agreed to watch my 11 year old. The baby has even taken to the day care setting. It took a while and a great many tears, but she is almost completely transitioned. I have had kind of a harder time because I have to get up at about 5:30am in order to be able to leave work at around 4pm to make sure that I am home in time to pick up the baby from daycare. By Friday I'm pretty exhausted. I've also picked up all the dinner obligations. I really don't mind cooking, but the cleanup really stinks.

Happy Holiday!

2008-01-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Hi folks, it's your old pal Clark again.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas (or Hannukah...or Festivus...or whatever you do this time of year) and a safe New Year. This Christmas was just OK. Money was way tight, so we really had to cut way back on presents. Still, the kids had a blast.

I got the worst flu I've ever had the weekend after Christmas. I honestly thought I was having some awful headaches. My heart was racing, I was wicked hot or cold, depending upon my fever. I begged Ellen to take me to the doctor, but she kept telling me they wouldn't really do anything for me. So I suffered. I had horrible things coming out of both ends of my body. The worst of it was coming out the back end...if you know what I mean. I was sick for about a week. I couldn't stray far from a toilet for 5 days. Even after that, my digestion was affected for about another week after that. I really couldn't eat anything with any substance. I ate a lot of soup and pasta and drank a ton of water and soda. Ellen said she had never seen me so sick (I don't get sick much).

I did manage to wean myself off of diet soda while sick (and without the withdrawals too!) I was drinking so much water that there wasn't room for soda. Your ol' pal Clark used to drink 4 or 5 diet cola a day. That's a lot of caffeine. Now I drink (on the average) 1 diet cola a day. I drink tea or water the rest of the time and indulge on decaf diet sodas (not colas) the rest of the time. I've also gone back to making fruit smoothies and drinking juices. Not sure if this is going to lead to any kind of long term benefit, but I think I'm the better for it.

Clark

Playing catch-up

2008-01-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted...the holiday seasons took a majority of my free time away. So what have you been doing since January 1 you ask? Slacking off, obviously.

Thanksgiving this year was pretty average as they go. We spent our day at my mother in laws eating and watching the games and then eating again. It was a nice time. Now after that, I lost part of my life to....Black Friday!!!

Yes, your ol' pal Clark camped out in front of my local Big Box electronic store in order to queue up for the possibility that a $200 laptop would be available for him to purchase. Problem was it was wicked cold and windy. I had layers of clothes on, camp chairs, and a cold weather sleeping bag. I started out at around 8pm. There were already a bunch of people in front of me. I bundled up and sat...and sat...and slept...and sat some more. A friend came by to check on me about 1am. I must have been quite amusing as they made a recording of me snoring on their cell phone and sent it to my wife! According to this friend, I was keeping people around me awake! Sorry!
It all worked out for me thankfully. I managed to get the laptop and survive the human ice box and onslaught at the 5am opening of the store. I hope that next year is different!

Clark

In true Grizzwold fashion

2007-11-16T22:52:00.000-05:00

We had an extraordinary (and stressful) Grizzwold implosion recently.

Our youngest had been sick off and on over the past few days, so my dearest Ellen decided to take her to the Dr. I had been in a training class during the week, so I had finished that a bit early and started home when my love called me from the Grizzwold mobile in a panic. The baby (now 3) has pneumonia and has to go to the hospital. To add to the stress, she said the Grizzwold mobile was acting funny. The battery light on the dash had come on earlier in the day and now that it was nearly dark, the dash and headlights weren't working.

I found her in a close by neighborhood that was under construction. We swapped cars and managed to get to the hospital without incident. The battery was nearly dead according to the gauges, so I knew that it wouldn't be going anywhere after I shut it off.

Baby Grizzwold was admitted with bacterial pneumonia. She and her mom are there right now. She is getting better, but she hasn't kicked the fever yet. It got up to 103 yesterday at the pediatrician. Lots of love and prayers being sent her way.

clark.

You'd think I was making this up...

2007-11-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

...but since there's already one writer's strike going on....ha!

In all seriousness, I have found out some interesting information about "she who's name will not be spoken" and her whackyness. It turns out that she was hired back on by a competing consulting firm on a contract WITH THE SAME GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION!!!

I also found out that she DID INDEED sign a non-compete clause in order to get her last two paychecks. Therefore, she is working on our job site illegally. Let the lawsuits begin!

On a side note, I also found out that the whacky wonder has a fruadulent PhD. HA!

clark

Hard to believe

2007-11-11T12:06:00.000-05:00

Sorry its been so long between postings. Sometimes we get way too busy at the Grizzwold house.

It's been my suspicion all along and recently confirmed that my government clients have hired back the nut job that nearly cost me my sanity. I haven't confirmed where exactly she's working, but other people on our contract have seen her and I've heard her name mentioned in conversations outside my cubicle.

I fail to understand how someone like this could be hired back after the disaster she made of things.

clark

Another Chapter?

2007-08-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

I guess that perhaps I had relaxed a bit too soon.

I noticed on two occasions that the government project manager was emailing (or had received email about) the wacky nutjob!

I suspect she's trying to get nutjob back to the office in some squirmy way.

I hope to hell not. She's contractually obligated to stay away from people in our company. Maybe she WANTS to get sued.

Ugh!

Clark

Finally...

2007-08-11T10:08:00.000-04:00

I've survived!

The two week "transition" is over and I've now finished my first week as project manager. As a result, I've started drinking, smoking, and mainlining heroin!! (Just kidding, your ol' pal Clark's only vice is food and the internet).
In all seriousness, the past two weeks have been hell. The wacky wonder managed to get paid for doing very little. I tried to keep up with her hours, but she spent very little time around us. We got very little transition during that time, but we did have a nearly 5 hour meeting on her last day where she made up this "list of activities" which really told us a lot of the stuff that she kept hidden from us. The rest of the stuff was mere fluff designed to make the list seem long and to "scare" me.
I spent few moments along with "she who must remain nameless" but when I was, the nasty comments flew out of her mouth like vomit. She accused me of plotting against her to take her job (like I really wanted that in the first place). She told me that I could go on and report all of the nasty things she said because she would deny it anyway. And she finally suggested that I stop by the street corner where she planned to stand with a tin cup to collect change because she had no job (remember folks, our company offered her a paid "leave of absense" for several weeks so she could get her act together, but she burnt all the bridges and quit).
I couldn't have done this without all of the support of my company. I hope that it all works out in the end.

Clark

More changes

2007-08-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

The saga of the workplace continues!
One of our team members, the other half of the fighting females, has been ordered off the contract. Fortunately, our CEO is smart enough to know a valued employee from a nut job, so she's been transferred to a new contract.
The whack job is allowed to stay on as a 1099 based contractor for a specific daily fee. I have to keep track of her hours and I've already made requests to have materials downloaded from her desktop computer.
The next two weeks should be very stressful...as if I need any more stress.

Clark

It's Not Over....

2007-08-11T09:36:00.000-04:00

....until the psychopath sings!
Truly my friends, I am not making any of this up. In my last post, I told you that my crazy project manager had quit. Sadly, in the intervening days between the end of the week and the beginning, she managed to worm her way back in to the office.
I believe it to be the work of the government manager and her nearly illegal social relationship with this wacked out wonder. As a result, I have to endure an additional two weeks of suffering. While her resignation was officially accepted by my company, the government manager made it clear that she wanted the spaz to stay behind and "transition".
I fear that this woman will continue to make life difficult for us on the account, both during and after she leaves.

Clark

Out with the old and in with the new

2007-07-21T12:43:00.000-04:00

After two weeks of Dante's flames, my micro-managing control freak of a project manager has burned her Kwai River bridge and quit. The company upper management tried to do right by her by giving her some paid leave to perhaps go off and clear her head, but she threw that back in their collective faces and was quite disrespectful. What's worse, she called the client manager (with whom she is VERY social outside of the office) and tried to undermine the whole team. The client manager called each of the members of the team to try and make some sense out of it all (a rare thing and usually something that will get an account cancelled), but that didn't lead to anything that would change what had already happened.
As a result, there were many late evening phone calls and meetings, a ton of added stress, and more than a few emails. The project manager has sent more than a few hate-emails, so I've blocked her from sending me email (at least to my work accounts). It's over now and the team has regrouped with the help of upper management. As a result of my level-headedness (not my words, upper managements) I've been named project manager.
I never intended to march up the corporate ladder in this fashion. I was quite content being a team member until the former project manager decided to make life too miserable. I haven't detailed all of the strife in my previous posts, but there's enough there to give you an idea. After all is said and done, I've managed to stay above water. Now all I have to do is sail the ship (and try to save face with the client).

Clark

My new job stinks

2007-07-21T12:14:00.000-04:00

Well, its been nearly two months (since early May) on my new job and from what I can tell you, it is really stinking right now. It seems that I've walked into a real hornet's nest. Over the course of the months of June and nearly all of July, I've found out that one of my teammates and the project manager can't stand each other. I've also learned that the project manager is a micro-managing control freak that keeps information from the team so that she can be viewed as the only thing holding the project together.
The fact that my one teammate (a white female in her mid 40s) and the project manager (a black female in her mid 40s) can't stand each other was pretty much a forgone conclusion between them as I arrived on the scene. Over the time I was there it got pretty apparent and vocal between the two of them. I hated being in meetings with the two of them. The icy tones and the rigid body language made for tense and unproductive meetings. The project manager accused her rival (at one point, the white woman was being considered for the project manager position) of being a loose cannon and only doing what she felt was necessary. The teammate accused the project manager of purposely holding back information, talking poorly about her both behind her back and in front of her teammates, and yelling and screaming at her when they were alone or speaking on the phone.
The real problems started when the project managers lack of leadership started to affect my job. We were already pigeon-holed enough because the project manager required everyone to publish all their work through her before going to the client, but when it took days to get work reviewed, it started to become frustrating. When work was reviewed, the changes requested were more cosmetic than substantial. The other team member (a black male in his late 20s) privately made comments and then when he'd heard me make a comment, he called me in privately and agreed with them. Information was starting to be held back from me, information that would have made my job easier. One afternoon, the project manager started to talk to me privately about some really difficult private matters (matters that probably shouldn't have been disclosed). After listening to it all (and feeling pretty bad about feeling negative towards her) I suggested that she take a couple of weeks off to collect her personal life, reorder it, and relax. With all of what was going on at work and her personal disasters, I felt that it wouldn't hurt. I don't think she minded me making the suggestion, but a few days later when I asked her if she'd considered taking the time off she simply remarked "yes". I knew then that she'd never take time off because she was too much the control freak.
The last straw for me was when she embarrassed me in front of others by not telling me about some unwritten rules that I should have been told about before going into a meeting. What's worse, it happened twice in the same day! I finally complained to upper management (the white woman had been complaining for months, so now she had a compatriot) and they took things under advisement. We'll see what happens. I think that the client and other contracted employees are noticing, so I think our account here (and my job) are in jeopardy.

Clark

In true Grizzwold fashion

2007-07-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

My dearest Ellen took my oldest daughter to one of her away tournaments this past weekend (June 23-24, 2007). The middle daughter came along for the ride. As is typical for the Grizzwold family, mayhem ensued.
During the prosecution of the tournament, the middle daughter decided to go back to the Grizzwold Family SUV for some much needed escaping from the heat. At some time during the hour or so period in which the middle child was in the car, some facets of the electrical system were used. When my dearest Ellen made it back to the vehicle to start it up, she was met with a whole bunch of NOTHING! It seemed that the battery had been stressed to the beyond its ability to start the vehicle. Several parents stepped up to help by removing some corrosion on the battery terminals with Coca-Cola and checking over the fuse boxes to see if perhaps a burned fuse was the problem. At the point where people were searching around for jumper cables, a man in a big pickup truck pulled into the empty parking space next to the Family SUV. Interrogatories ensued (something like “hey, is your battery dead?”) and it so happened that the pickup truck driver had a battery charger! Less than an hour later, the Grizzwold’s were up and running again.
The story does not end there. At the point where Mrs. Grizzwold entered the sports complex, she had more than enough gas to get back to the hotel where they were staying. It was a short ride, maybe 5 miles or so. As soon as she got the vehicle up and running, she decided to take it for a ride to charge the battery up and to refuel. Shockingly, the once ample fuel supply had been rendered to mere droplets! The computer display showed ZERO miles left in the tank, the needle on the dash was on “E”, and the “Low Fuel” light was on and blinking. Not knowing what else to do, she pressed on. She knew there was a gas station across the railroad tracks on the main highway leading to the sports complex. It was no more than a mile, she estimated. Surely she had enough to go a mile. Not this time. In true Grizzwold fashion, the truck ran out of gas on top of the railroad tracks! My dear Ellen was panicked as she expected that a train would be soon upon her, smashing the Family SUV to shrapnel. Being that she was in Southern Virginia at the time, another pickup truck pulled up behind her. Interrogatories ensued (something like “hey, is your truck out of gas?”) and it so happened that the pickup truck had several gallon sized gas containers on board. Fortunately, one of them had gas inside. The pickup truck driver was nice enough to give my dearest Ellen enough gas to get off the railroad tracks and proceed to the gas station.It’s puzzling how it was that the gas disappeared like that. The middle child had the keys to the vehicle, but claims only to have turned on the key to run the radio and turn on the lights (which explained away the battery situation). More than likely, there was less gas in the tank than there was and the computer did not accurately display the number of miles left in the tank: Garbage in, garbage out. In true Grizzwold fashion, she ended up no worse than from where she started.

Biological Warfare

2007-05-26T08:57:00.001-04:00

Having a passel (three) kids is hard work, especially for my dearest Ellen. We've been especially challenged over the past couple weeks since the kids have been passing the strep throat around. The Typhoid Mary was the two year old. She started it a couple weeks ago. A few days into that episode, the 15 year old started with symptoms. My dearest took them both to the pediatrician for treatment. The Nurse Practitioner and a Student Nurse saw them. Big mistake. The two year old was diagnosed with strep because of a positive 5 minute test. However, the 15 year old's sample did not test positive. We've since figured that the Student Nurse who took the 15 year old's sample didn't do it right. Even so, the fact that the two year old had it and was most likely passing her germs on to the whole family should have been enough to prescribe anti-botics for the whole fam-damily, right? WRONG! "Oh, your older daughter isn't showing that she has strep. It's probably just a cold" claimed the NP, even though my oldest was showing outward symptoms of strep.
Fast forward a couple days to where the oldest was on a softball tournament outing with my dearest Ellen and the 10 year old. Well, the 10 year old comes down with it bad, including some vomiting. The missus manages to keep it together that weekend and bring it all back home. Meanwhile, the oldest is getting sicker. She has a bad cough and has broken out into a rash. Another visit to the doctor. This time, both kids have positive strep tests (yay!). We actually saw a real doctor this time. Since I'm with the kids this time, I point out the cough and the rash. The doctor downplays the cough and the rash as unrelated. I asked if she could get a shot to combat the hives and Z-pack, a powerful antibiotic I've taken in the past. She prescribes some ointment and antibiotics, but not Z-pack.
A day later, the oldest comes home from school saying that she is having trouble catching a full breath and her coughing is disrupting her day. We keep pumping her full of meds, thinking that it's just a matter of time. Overnight things get worse and we decide the next day to call the doctor. In the morning, the oldest faints twice. Immediately, the missus takes the oldest over to the hospital and has her seen. Lo and behold, she has strep induced pneumonia! Lovely. The ER doctors ask all sorts of questions related to the two weeks of symptoms and the related treatment by the pediatricians office. My Ellen was given the impression that the pediatrician's office (two medical practitioners mind you) pretty much botched her case. The ER docs pump her full of fluids (she was somewhat dehydtrated) and recommend she see her pediatrician again. We were already on antibiotics, so it was not necessary to get more. The next day the missus tots typhoid Mary (the two year old who started all of this mess) and the oldest down to the doctor for a follow up. All the ER records were transferred over. New antibiotics and a breathing treatment program (including a machine to do it all) were prescribed INCLUDING a steroid for the rash. Guess what antibiotic this doctor prescribed? You guessed it, Z-pack!!

At this point, everyone is doing much better. The two year old is on the last few doses of her meds. The 10 year old is a close second. The oldest is missing the first day of a big three day softball tournament, but the doctor said she might be able to play on the second day, depending upon how she felt. Given the breathing apparatus, the inhaler, the steroids, and the anti-biotics, she should be able to fight off just about anything.

Sadly, my dearest Ellen and I are exhibiting cold and sore throat sympoms. It might not be over yet!!

Clark

Growing roots

2007-05-26T08:53:00.001-04:00

New news on the job front!

My bosses and the government management have asked me to stay at NIH permanently. One fellow will transition out and perform some R&D work that he hasn't been able to focus on since he's also been doing consulting work.

Start decorating the cube!!

Clark

Politically (In)correct

2007-05-26T08:48:00.000-04:00

Your ol’ pal Clark didn’t want to make too many political statements in this blog. Our lives are already cluttered up with so much political “nitwittery” that I felt it a little distasteful to drag it into my little window into my life. However, since this IS my blog, I can pretty much do what I want.
I want to call attention to the current immigration bill pending a vote in Congress. The likelihood that it will pass is pretty slim since there don’t seem to be enough votes to pass it through both Houses. We admittedly have an overflowing border problem. As your garden variety white male, I’m more than a bit worried that our ability to absorb the folks into our infrastructure is slipping (remember, we’ve been giving amnesty periodically since the mid 80s). No one seems to know with any degree of certainty how many illegal immigrants are living within the US. Now before you all jump to a huge conclusion and assume that ol’ Clark is a racist let me clarify myself. Since my own family immigrated to this country from Western and Central Europe many moons ago, I feel that I can be connected (somewhat) to those who are looking for a way to live life to the fullest. There are few countries on this planet where you can be assured that if you work hard and live true, you will achieve greatness. Given that, both sides of the fence have to really meet in the middle:

Immigrants:
1. Learn English
2. Bring your culture with you, but don’t expect others different from yourself to bend over and accept your culture over theirs. We’ll end up like Quebec if we keep it up
3. Behave yourself
4. Don’t come over here illegally
5. If you’re here on an H1-B visa, student visa, travel visa or some other temporary document, make sure that you keep it current. If it expires, go home.

Government:
1. Make English official language of transactions and government
2. Embrace the diversity of immigrants, but don’t subjugate American culture, integrate it
3. Kick out those who don’t behave themselves (this includes folks without “papers”, immigrants who commit crimes, and “visitors” who overstay their welcome)
4. Prevent folks from coming over here illegally (in any way shape or form that doesn’t violate simple human rights…it is our country after all)
5. Logically interconnect the intel between SSA, DHS, CIA, FBI, and local responders (believe me folks, the stuff is already there and ready to be interconnected, it’s just incompetence that is not getting the job done) so that we can more easily catch the “bad guys” both in and out of country
6. Make it a crime to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant
7. Eliminate the “anchor baby” concept. There’s no need for it anymore.
8. Make the visa application process more efficient. However, that does not mean cut corners. If possible, turn it all over to the military since immigration does affect national defense. If we do turn it over to the military, then the commander in chief is the ultimate decision taker on immigration.
9. Eliminate the ability of immigrants and visitors to get federal, state, or local government “assistance”. However, freely allow private institutions to assist in the migration of the legal immigrant to citizen. Make it mandatory for private citizens and institutions to report any and all illegal immigrants to the local authorities. Only churches can provide sanctuary to those who “need” it.
10. To our elected and appointed government servants: “Grow a set”! We need to ensure that another 9-11 doesn’t happen. In order to do that, we need to take drastic measures that may be unpopular with the influence peddlers (and the media) that make it their business to represent any and all “victims” in the “struggle” to become a US Citizens. Faw! Sovereignty doesn’t go to the group with the biggest PAC or campaign war chest. Protect the US as you would protect your family.
Thanks for your kind indulgence. Now back to our regular blogging.
Clark

New Digs

2007-05-26T08:47:00.000-04:00

So far, my new job is pretty cool. I’m doing some consulting at the National Institutes of Health for a portion of their IT department. NIH is like a college campus and is quite a distance from Camp Grizzwold (40 miles or so). It takes me about an hour to ninety minutes to get to work. I leave super early in the morning (6-6:30am) so that I get there faster. I determined that to be the norm on the first day when I spent the better part of nearly 90 minutes going 20 miles per hour (or less)! Leaving early allows the ol’ Dodge to get up to highway speeds most of the way.
I don’t know how long I’m going to be here at NIH. The new company wanted to send me to the US Treasury department first, but there is some sort of paperwork holdup there. I hope that it gets resolved soon because there’s a leadership opportunity there vs. being a subject matter expert only here at NIH. It’s been a little hard to get acclimated here because I’m on temporary status. I don’t get an account for the network, so I have to play a lot of “sneaker-net” transactions to get people information. Thank the computer gods for thumb drives.
I’ve got my own cubicle here (but I have to be careful leaning back in my chair as the walls are pretty close together. There’s also a window with a nice view of the loading dock. NIH gave me a laptop, but I can’t use it without an account. Thankfully my new employer saw what was coming and issued me a nice new HP laptop. At least I can get some sort of work done.

So far the Grizzwold mantra has been true to form: Struggle with a variety of obstacles only to end up seemingly landing upright.

Clark

The Great Migration

2007-05-26T08:45:00.000-04:00

It’s been about a month since I last wrote. Sorry about that. Transitioning from a job can be daunting at times, especially one where things change at the last minute. I think I may have told you all that my previous employer wanted me to pay a princely sum of $950 dollars to cover my insurance for the month of May (prorated of course) to cover my family since my two weeks notice crossed over the end of April to the beginning of May. I’ve had a few jobs in my time from selling lumber to my current job as a consultant and I have never….EVER…been asked to pay an insurance premium after giving notice. That’s a corporate loss, IMHO and can probably be written off on some balance sheet somewhere. Ol’ Clark was trying to do the right thing by his old firm and give them two weeks of my time to transition out of my position. Sadly, that company shot themselves in the foot by wanting me to pony up a HUGE chunk of my paycheck to insure myself. All of the wrangling that I tried ultimately led me to issue the ultimatum that I would be leaving MUCH sooner than two weeks. It was about 6 days all told. Since my old company was large enough to fall into the COBRA statutes, I was able to receive that should I need it. Guess what the difference in COBRA insurance vs. what I would have paid to cover myself for May? FIFTY BUCKS!

Clark

Jobs, they are a changin'

2007-04-30T15:22:00.000-04:00

I like stability. The odd part about my life is that I'm in a job environment where stability is hard to come by. I guess that's part of being a Grizzwold. As a result, your old pal Clark is moving jobs. His current contract with the government runs out in about 6 weeks, that in and of itself should be a good reason to want to find new work, but there were other mitigating circumstances (politics, poor communication, boredom). We all know it's hard to pay the mortgage when you don't get paid. However, there was a glimmer of hope over time that the contract would be extended in the longer term or perhaps your old pal Clark would get picked up by another contractor at the facility. No such luck. So, I took things into my own hands and found more work. Still with the government, but with another contracting firm. Hopefully this will last a bit longer. I will miss my relatively short commute (25 minutes one way) as I'm probably going to be going about 90 minutes one way. Once I get the hang of it, it will probably get a tad shorter. I'm hoping that I won't be on that contract too long (gas prices being what they are).

Sadness….

2007-04-16T13:20:00.000-04:00

A horrible shooting took place at ol’ Clark’s alma mater, Virginia Tech. Over 20 people have been killed and another 20 some wounded. By the time you read this posting, the gunman has been killed as well.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070416/D8OHQA5O0.html

Yours truly lived in Pritchard Hall which across an open lot from Ambler Johnston and the other side of the Drill Field from Norris Hall (where engineering and science classes are held). This is already being touted as worse than the Texas University shooting back in the late 1960s when a psycho climbed up into a tower of some kind and picked off students sniper-style.

Hearts and prayers to those who were involved and their families.

Clark

No more Screamette!

2007-04-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the oldest Grizzwold daughter was going to be quitting her high school softball team due to mega-personality issues with Screamette, her awful coach. She's done it and not too soon for her mental state. When she confronted the "coach" the coach actually told her she was a very good player, she just hadn't proven herself yet. Well, if you don't get to do anything but practice, it's awful hard to prove yourself, isn't it?

Overall, her high school experience (en toto) has been pathetic. This is just one of a long line of negativity emanating from the dark space that is the local high school. Why just recently, a local gang phoned in a Columbine-style shooting threat. Fortunately, the boys in blue were on the job and surrounded the school in preparation for a full on frontal assault!! That and the fact that we have an award winning principal should make all of us feel much safer.

I'll turn the sarcasm off now.

Clark

The camel is broken...

2007-04-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

“Coach” Screamette has finally broken the back of the camel. Last night, one of the other girls didn’t bring her uniform pants with her to the game. Rather than make the girl sit out until the correct pants arrived from home, she turned to my daughter and asked for her pants. Astonished, my daughter thought quickly on her feet and said that her pants size was medium and didn’t believe they would fit said girl. So the coach had a three way exchange between two other girls, one of which was sitting out anyway (OK...so why did she ask my daughter first?). The right pants came in the second inning. So, rather than make an example of the girl who forgot her pants, the “coach” turned to my oldest and asked for her pants, which three able bodied girls were sitting on the bench! It’s not like Miss Forgot-her-pants was playing a key position. She was the Right Fielder!

Sadly, due to the continued disrespect from the “coach”, my oldest has decided (against her father’s best wishes) to quit the team. She is planning to do it this afternoon, I suppose, rather than face another practice. I could make her stay on the team, I suppose, but I also wonder how many more post-game sob-fests it will take until my daughter will need extensive therapy. Thankfully, she will be able to increase her tournament team practice time.

Clark

Easter Bunny!

2007-04-09T14:56:00.000-04:00

The annual arrival of the Easter Bunny to the Grizzwold home was preceded by the female Grizzwolds (except for the dog) returning from a short spring break trip to the beach after an all night drive. My wife Ellen Grizzwold endorses "5 Hour Energy" as a method of keeping the shiny side of the SUV up at all times during the 8 hour road rager.

As a result of Ellen and the girls tripping in the warmth of the beach, this left yours truly in charge of the Easter Bunny purchases. I consulted over the phone with my lovely Mrs. and got a pretty good idea of what to get. The local CVS Drug Store chain was the one-stop choice for easter basket grass (three colors), chocolate eggs (2 kinds), miniature chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, jellybeans, lollypops, peeps, and a giant hollow rabbit for each Grizzwold child. In addition, the oldest received some books and an iTunes card, the middle got a digital toy camera, and the youngest got fairy princess shoes and a wand. It's almost like Christmas in April!! Since the Mrs. and the children napped most of the day, your boy Clark was pretty tired and headed off to the rack after the late local news.

About 6am, a sharp elbow woke me up. Evidently, I forgot to assemble the easter baskets! Holy hollow bunnies! I didn't even know I was supposed to assemble them! Sleepily, I went down to the super secret location, loaded up the baskets, and staggered back to bed, nearly running over the middle daughter in the process. I had evidently awakened her with my staggeringly sleepy footwork. Darling Ellen headed the 10 year old off at the pass and ran her back to bed before she broke for the goodies. I plopped back into the rack and resumed my slumber.

Most of the rest of the day was uneventful, save for the bizarre shenanigans of the dog, who seemed to be extra needy (the dog ate my candy! Exclaimed the two-year old…probably the reason for the dog’s weird behavior). We cooked breakfast, had an early dinner at Grandma Grizzwold’s house, and returned home to baths and bedtime. My dear Ellen told me that forever more I would be banned from making the easter purchases. I was shocked, to say the least. Since we’d discussed things over the phone, I thought I had a pretty good list. Not enough variety was the retort from my dearest Ellen. Nonsense, I replied. I’d bought at least 5 different kinds of chocolate, 2 different kinds of non-chocolate candy, and peeps which are in a category of confection all their own (the Clark Grizzwold “gross” category). The hollow bunnies were too short, she informed. I guess I should have purchased the two foot tall hollow bunny instead of the 18 inch hollow bunny. There will be months of therapy behind that lost 6 inches of bunny ear. I kept reminding my betrothed that we discussed the purchases over the phone several times and there was ample opportunity for “variety” and “hollow bunny size”. You should have known what I meant, came the reply. Easy Clark, I thought, you’re in the “no win zone”. I put it in neutral and settled in for a good nite’s sleep agreeing not to be involved in the easter purchases next year.

Clark

Mental Anguish...

2007-04-05T13:33:00.000-04:00

Sadly, coach Screamette continues the mental mumbo jumbo at our precious older daughter. Earlier this week, Screamette said that she would decide if our girl would get playing time behind the plate based on how she practiced. Bolstered by the glimmer of finally proving herself to the "coach", she worked her butt off in practice and overall felt good about being on the squad again.

Unfortunately, the mentalness of the "coach" took over and she didn't get any playing time. She didn't even get a reason as to why. Consolations and tissues were the order of the day after that game. Ol' Clark couldn't even watch without getting supremely angry. Since we Grizzwold's don't quit, she's gonna stick to her guns and hope for some playing time later in the season.

Word to the wise: if you have a psychotic coach who knows little about evaluating talent, don't have a meeting with the coach and athletic director and give them reasons not to play your child.

Clark

Periodic Success...

2007-04-03T09:47:00.000-04:00

A special congratulations goes to the oldest Grizzwold daughter, who's softball team won a championship this past weekend.

We are especially proud that she has the "stick-to-it-iveness" to deal with her psychotic high school coach, Ms. Screamette, and maintain her sanity enough to step up and contribute to an undefeated weekend.

Clark

Coaches

2007-03-22T16:32:00.000-04:00

If you’ve read my profile, you’ll note that my wife and I were blessed with three children, all girls, who are now 14, 10, and 2 (yes, ol’ Clark failed family planning). The two oldest are very active athletes and love girls softball. The fastpitch variety. The oldest plays both tournament and varsity high school ball. The middle one is currently playing recreational league games, but wants to be just like her sister. Even the two year old likes to participate with her plastic bat and ball. Your ol’ pal Clark has even been their coach off and on over the years. Over that time, I’ve learned a lot about kids and how to get them to perform. I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a few things along the way. OK, OK…I know….get to the point, Clark!

My oldest’s varsity coach is a very disturbing coach. Her idea of discipline is screaming and running. I’m not talking about the kind of screaming that is just an increase of volume coming out of one’s mouth. I’m talking the brow-beating, beat down, self esteem crushing kind of screaming. The kind of screaming that makes you wince, even if you aren’t the target of the screamer. In her eyes, discipline means you must dislike me, but respect me. How can you respect someone when they are constantly screaming at you for following directions correctly?

Case in point, my oldest was benched for the first two innings of last night’s ball game. The coach, Ms. Screammette, decided that she would put my oldest in to play in the middle of the game, the 3rd inning, in Right Field. She told her this after announcing the starting lineup. In the bottom of the second inning, my oldest was sent by the coach to warm up her arm (it was a cold night). Five minutes later, Coach Screammette comes out of the dugout screaming at her “What are you doing? You’re on deck!” Flustered, my oldest ran in to bat, unprepared mentally and physically, striking out in the process. When the teams switched places for the start of 3rd inning, my oldest ran out to the outfield. Coach Screammette yelled, “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be at first base!"

We are the Grizzwolds, we come to expect this kind of "challenge".

I think you get the picture.

Clark

Once a Grizzwold, always a Grizzwold

2007-03-20T13:20:00.000-04:00

Remember the post for our Honorary Grizzwold member (I'm sure you remember, it's right below this post!! HA!). Well, they are REALLY having a tough time this week:

Fourth problem today - We have a staff meeting and [Boss Name] (yes, he's still my boss) says to the whole team "I don't know if this is an [Name] problem or a PWA problem, but [Name] has no time logged at all this year and even late last year." Again, pointed out of the crowd. ugh. :(

If [Boss] weren't my boss, I'd be in BIG trouble for all of this negative exposure. Any other boss would be in my face pointing a finger saying 'no no no'!

[He] has got to be tired of me this week. I'M tired of ME this week!

Wear it as a badge of honor!

Clark

Honorary Grizzwold

2007-03-20T13:15:00.000-04:00

I share this with you as I feel this ranks right up there with some of the misadventures of ol' Clark:

First, someone up in the [Home] office called my boss to ask why I [Name] is always hitting another co-worker's myspace page. I'm like "what???" I don't even know this girl and she's accusing me of hitting her myspace page all the time. I have never been to her myspace page; didn't even know one existed. Anyhow, my boss said "even if you are, so what; it's a public page on the internet." I'm like "but I'm not, I don't even know her. They've got it wrong and have the wrong person. Besides, there is a [Company] myspace group, so it could be anyone." He's not upset or anything, but, man! The seed is planted, you know? I'm peeved about it.

Second, my boss rarely comes to my cubicle. Twice today he has come to my cubicle and I've been eating both times. He says, "how come whenever I come here, you're eating?" How embarrassing, huh? It's not like I eat all the time; only when he comes to my cubicle.

Third, my boss comes to my cubicle and asks how often I fill out my time on our time tracking system. I said, "well, not as often as you'd like, I'm bad about that, but I do it." He asked when was the last time. I said probably up to mid-February. He said that he has no time for me since December. We checked all my time on the tracking system and, sure enough, all my time is zero going back to 11/18/06. Now, I know I have filled it in until at least the end of January, and possibly mid-February. But, definitely filled it in passed 11/18/06. Again, I look like I'm slacking. But, I'm not! My time is missing and it looks bad.

Gosh, I've had a really really bad week. Everytime my boss turns around, my name is in his face. Not good.

Welcome to the family!!

Clark

Interview?

2007-03-20T13:06:00.000-04:00

If it were anyone else in this position, I'd have to say to them that their run of bad luck would be over soon. However, being a Grizzwold, we just shrug and move on.

Remember the car accident I had on the way to a job interview? Well, I finally got to the interview last week. I'd been diligent in reviewing the company website, learning about their environment, their contracts, and other stuff. I'd asked for a comprehensive job requirements letter, but the recruiter was unable to secure it. Even so, they said that ol' Clark was a perfect candidate for the job!

Fast forward to the job interview. After the handshaking and introductions were over, the interviewer looked at my paperwork like he'd never seen it before. He asked me two very general questions and then shook his head and told me that he wasn't sure why I was here. Evidently, the recruiter had it all wrong and that I wasn't qualified for the position at ALL!

Yours truly put on his magnanimous hat and apologized for wasting the interviewer's time, shook his hand, and left the building. Time spent: two hours drive, about 3 dollars in tolls, a couple gallons of gas, an opportunity cost of missing a school meeting for my oldest daughter, and my own time. Not to mention the damage to the Grizzwold family cruiser.

PS - I conversed over the phone with the recruiter that night and he was apologetic, but confused as to how they could have misread the position that badly. They promised to get back to me, but I have yet to hear from them. That's probably a good thing because I would probably have given them what for, like I did for my boss in "Christmas Vacation" when I thought I wasn't getting a bonus that year.

Clark

What can I say?

2007-03-13T09:06:00.000-04:00

Being Clark Grizzwold I expect things to happen and shake my head when they do.

Case in point: I was driving to a very important job interview when I was rear ended by a "spatially challenged" driver in an econobox. Since your ol' pal Clark was driving the family SUV, guess who was the winner in the collision? Fortunately for Clark, he was wearing his seat belt.

I'd worked hard to get this interview, scheduling and rescheduling so as to not draw attention to myself at my current job. Hopefully, the prospective employer will understand.

clark

Mama Grizzwold gives birth!

2007-03-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

Hello!

As you might have guessed, Mama Grizzwold had an operation last week and brought something into the outside world...her gall bladder! Yes, after several years of suffering (us Grizzwolds do that well), she had a horrible attack that put her into the ER. This isn't the first time this has happened, but the circumstances surrounding her visit this time sent her to the OR to have it removed. Everything went well and she was sent home after almost 24 hours in the hospital.

Thankfully, we Grizzwolds are a sturdy people. Mama Grizzwold is back in the pink and caring for the little Grizzwolds!

Clark

Never buy these 10 things...

2007-02-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

...if they are used!

The Grizzwold family has to pinch pennies just like the rest of America. However, these 10 things are not on the list of used goodies ol' Clark likes to buy!

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/10ThingsYouShouldNeverBuyUsed.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

clark

Why bother?

2007-01-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

Ever to punctuate the fact that I am truly the patriarch of the Grizzwold family, I saw an article on my birthday (this past Monday, 1/22/07) that kind of put it all into perspective:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23382572-details/Blue+Monday:+The+unhappiest+day+of+the+year/article.do

Here's a brief excerpt of the article:

Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year.
Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year's resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.

Happy 43rd....ugh!

clark

Telephone companies, the sequel!

2006-12-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

Lest you all think that the total sum of all Grizzwold experiences are bad, let me bring you all up to date on the telephone company situation:

There's no new information on the lawsuit, but I have been assured that the phone company has paid the landscaping company (I got the check number and date of issue). Sadly, the phone company waited to pay until I was threatened with a lawsuit.
The billing stuff has all but been erased, even the nasty collectors have gone away.
I now have a new friend at the phone company, Mike, who managed to make all of this "go away" in a matter of hours (I personally think that I "primed the pump" as it were, but as long as ol' Clark is out of the woods, it's all good).

I'm hoping that this is the last posting on telephone companies, but remember....we are the Grizzwold's!

Clark

Telephone companies

2006-12-08T13:58:00.000-05:00

The mantra is that you don't know how much you take something for granted until it's gone or breaks.

I guess that can be applied to services provided by the telephone company.

You see, about two summers ago, the local phone company started digging up yards in our neighborhood as they were installing fiber optic data lines. Eventually, they got to our street and finally to the Grizzwold mansion front yard. Things had been going swimmingly for the contractor until they hit our yard. You see, the front yard of the Grizzwold mansion is about 8 or so inches of topsoil over top of about 1 million feet of solid rock. We found this out when the contractor said they had to dig down about a foot or so to bury the data lines. Since they missed their mark because of the rocks, they said they had to shoot a "missile" into the rocks to break them up. Since we are the Grizzwolds, the "missile" not only blew up the rocks, it blew up the water line! This mishap left the Grizzwold family without water for a day, which was kind of disconcerting considering we had a new baby in the house. Thankfully, the line was repaired late that night.

You might think the story is over, but nooooooooo, we are the Grizzwolds, so there's more:

The continued construction damaged at different points, the electricity and the telephone service.
The yard was a mess and was put back together several times by the construction contractor only to sink into the indentation left as a result of the "missle" mishap. You see, if you take rocks out of a hole, you have to replace the rocks with an equal volume of dirt, something that the construction contractor didn't seem to understand. The indentation in the front yard persisted throughout the winter and into the early spring when they dug it up again to make a "repair" and install junction boxes.
A family friend stumbled and fractured an elbow as a result of falling on the uneven mess of a front yard that was left. The mess was never marked clearly, so the friend wandered too close to the edge of it and was nearly sucked into it as the ground slumped away.
The yard was finally replaced in the middle of the second summer by a landscaping contractor. I had to water it frequently, which resulted in a massive Grizzwold water bill. I did have the best grass in the neighborhood (at least in the front yard).
At first, the telephone company wasn't going to reimburse us for the costs incurred, but they did say they would provide us 4 months of phone services (about $200). It took three months to get that (they finally sent us a check). During that time, we signed up for the new fiber optic service. They said it was free to install and free to connect. Since that time, we've been billed for the installation and connectivity, but on a different account! A collection company came after me for the money that hadn't been paid (in which we didn't owe in the first place). It took several two hour phone calls to try and fix that.
The landscaping company called us a couple of times to ask us when they would be paid. Funny that, since we didn't screw up our own yard and have to contract out someone competent enough to repair it, that was the phone company. More two hour phone calls...supervisors...district managers and stress from seemingly empty promises. This week, during one of my many phone marathons to the phone company call center, the landscaping company calls Mrs. Grizzwold and says that if they don't get their money, they are taking us to court! At this point, old Clark is ready to pull out his hair. Not to worry though, the phone company is ready to serve!!

At this point, the Grizzwold's are in limbo. Not sure if we're going to have to pay the over one thousand dollars to the landscaping company to avoid court or wait for the phone company to pull their records and figure out where the check is. From what the phone company has told me, they haven't found it yet.

Only 17 days until Christmas...and small claims court!

Clark

Pets, Dogs this time

2006-12-08T13:48:00.000-05:00

We Grizzwolds love animals. Well, my kids and I do. Mrs. Grizzwold could really care less, although I have a new found belief that her attitude might have changed somewhat.

Grandma Grizzwold decided to raise West Highland White Terriers upon her retirement two summers ago. She got two purebreads and put them in the back yard and let them have the run of her place. Long story short, the dogs mated and had puppies. Sadly, Grandma Grizzwold hurt her hip and couldn't really take care of the puppies in the manner in which they needed.

In swoops Mrs. Grizzwold! We took in the whole litter (5 puppies - 3 male and 2 female) to the Grizzwold manse and took care of them from the point where they were getting around. We found homes for three of them right away (2 males and 1 female). The other two left were kind of sick. You see, puppies are pretty much born with worms. The puppies had been treated for worms once, but they need multiple treatments. None of the other puppies got as sick as the one female and male we had kept. Additionally, the male exhibited an irregular heartbeat! A couple thousand dollars (including a night's stay in the doggie hospital) both dogs were back in the pink!
We've since found a nice home for the other male as his irregular heartbeat has resolved, so we're left with our little female.

Thankfully, Grandma Grizzwold felt bad that we had to do all this for the dogs, so she pitched in some funds to help take care of them.

Clark

Whew!

2006-12-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that...

The Grizzwold clan has been through a lot, but we perservere.

More to come!

Clark

She had a what?

2006-08-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

We Grizzwolds are accustomed to having bizzarre stuff happen that wouldn't normally happen to anyone else.

Case in point. Our oldest of three daughter's plays fastpitch softball as a catcher for her local team. During a point of a recent game, she was hit in the right breast. Now, Clark, you might ask, don't catchers wear all sorts of protective gear? Right. They do. However, in this particular case, the breastplate had moved to the side or something and exposed her right boob. Over the course of a few days, it hurt more and more. It wasn't really bruised, although you could see seam marks from the ball. A lump appears and she starts to run a fever. The Doctor's suspect an infection (mind you, there was no open wound) and give oral antibiotics. Nothing really changes and the lump on her breast gets larger and it starts to turn red. Next thing you know, we're at the hospital for two days having an abcess removed from the area adjacent to her right nipple.

Kids being what they are, after the surgery she bounces back to play in a national tournament. I suppose you might think that since she didn't die from the infection, I shouldn't be posting this. However it's not the ultimate outcome that makes us the Grizzwolds, it's the circumstances and the wacky path that we take to get there.

A Grizzwold Moment - Pet Style

2006-07-18T13:11:00.000-04:00

Since we are the Grizzwolds, we're unique in our lives and experiences. However, it's completely possible for others to have what I call a "Grizzwold Moment". Case in point below is an experience related to me today:

Good morning!!! I have a good dog story to share with both of you - I knew you'd appreciate this.
Yesterday, I had to take my cat Christina for her annual check up and shots. This is a traumatic experience for her - she literally loses all her bodily functions during the 25 minute ride to the vet (ie: she poops, pukes, pees, and foams at the mouth BIG TIME). Anyway - she is processed like normal and all is well. She is at a healthy weight and her ears were clean as a whistle. Next, I have to go over the boarding place to pick up Buster, who has been boarded since Thursday afternoon. The boarding kennel is part of [name withheld] animal hospital and is right next door to the hospital section. I had scheduled him for doggie day care on Friday and yesterday.
So…I pay the bill, which included a new prescription for heart worm meds and a heart worm test so it was a steep bill. They bring Buster out to me and he is really happy to see me. He always looks great when he comes out, especially after he has his bath and toenails trimmed. Anyway - off we go to the car and Buster jumps up as usual but needs help getting in the back seat. I'm driving down Falls Road and I start looking at Buster in the rear view mirror and notice that he doesn't have as much grey around his muzzle as usual. Then I notice not as much grey on his stomach - and his eyes looks different. THIS IS NOT MY DOG!!! Yes, it is a chocolate lab and yes, this dog is named Buster. Thank goodness I had not gone too far - I high tail it back to the vet and bring back the dog to them. Of course, Christina is still freaking out and foaming at the mouth in her cage!!!
What are the chances that there would be another chocolate lab named Buster that really looks like him?????????????? They were all extremely apologetic at the boarding kennel - no one could believe it!
Now we are trying to figure out if my Buster really did go to doggie day care and really did get a heartworm test, etc……I'm disputing the bill until we get this all straightened out.
I did finally get the real Buster home and he looks completely exhausted - he couldn't get off the bed this morning to go out and do his business.

Poor Buster!

Clark

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