The Metallica Gods and a Split Lip

Hey there. Yesterday marked the release of the Guitar Hero: Metallica game. Our Sunday was pretty much planned out. My compa was to come over and we were to handle the game as a band to see just how bad ass it was. Well, things don't always go as planned.

First off, the guys at Game Stop lied to me. They told me the store would be open at 9 am so I should be able to get it then. So I figured, we can get the game early so that my son and I can get a head start on it. Well, turns out that the store was not to open until 11 am... We weren't going to sit around doing nothing so we drove back home. On the way there, my wife calls me, telling me that there has been an accident and that we need to go to the hospital. I need to hurry home. Once I get there, I see the severity of the accident. Her lip was busted open. Our daughter had a huge hole in her face. My wife did an awesome job on applying pressure and stop it from bleeding. Considering that our daughter had a hole in her face, there was very little blood, if at all, from her wound. When I asked our daughter to show me the cut, I could literally see inside her lip without anything obstructing the view. Pretty graphic stuff. Well, from what my wife was able to tell me, our daughter was playing with Lucy, our dog, and Lucy was not much in the mood to play. She did tell us that she growled at her, but she continued to play with Lucy. At that point, she picked Lucy up. Here is where the details get sketchy... We do not know if Lucy tried to wiggle herself free and snapped at our daughter to let her go. Our daughter just says that she was holding Lucy and then she bit her.

Now, before you start thinking that Lucy is a vicious dog and a menace to society, keep in mind that Lucy is a baby (a few months old) and is a chihuahua terrier. In other words, she is a small dog that doesn't know any better. We play with her all the time and I've warned the kids on many occasions that when a dog growls, you need to back off and leave them alone. Our daughter knew that she was mainly at fault. When the doctor or family members asked her what happened, she told the truth and said that after the dog growled at her, she tried to force the dog to play with her.

Anyways, after I get home, my wife fills me in on what happened and off we went to the hospital (after a quick online search of where we can take her). Our hospital stay wasn't too long, considering how long other people that I know have stayed. We checked in and approx. 30 mins later, we're checked into the "ER fast track" portion of the hospital. My mother in law showed up at that time and took our youngest daughter and son to her place so that they wouldn't have to be at the hospital. We're soon called in and shortly after, my mother, grandma, and aunt show up. At this point, I'm still pacing outside room where my daughter and wife (our daughter had her choice of which parent she wanted to go in with her) where being attended. I'd peek in every now and then, hoping I wouldn't get in trouble, so see how she was doing. Shortly there after, there were screams of pain. At first I didn't think it was my daughter. Well, maybe I was telling myself it wasn't her but when I saw the doc leave the door open, I went inside the room and see my young one in tears and a stitched up lip. We consoled her and after we get the clearance and instructions from the doc, we take off to have breakfast (at approx. 2 PM) with our family members.


Our daughter really can't open her mouth all that wide so that makes it pretty difficult to eat. She was in better spirits after she took a nap on the way home. Our mother in law suggested that we leave the kids with her so that our daughter can rest up and after a short discussion, we agreed. I also had to cancel our plans with my compa (our daughter's nino) so that she can rest. Well, rest she didn't do much of. She was pretty excited about the Metallica game. I figured that maybe she was just a little shy about the stitches.

She did, however, wanted to play GH: Metallica. She strapped in the guitar and started rocking away. I watched her play For Whom the Bell Tolls and the Unforgiven (the first two songs) and then she decided that she wants to get through Rock Band first before tackling GH: Metallica. She acknowledged that Rock Band is easier so she needs to get better if she plans on getting through GH: Metallica. She switched back and forth between the two games and then said she didn't want to play anymore. I asked her if she was bored and she admitted she was. I guess she's just not used to being alone. Even our cat missed the kids. Jack kept scratching at our son's door and continually jumped on the window sill looking for him. It was a little weird to not have the kids around. So I told her that if she's bored, I'd play GH: Metallica with her and she lit up and said, yeah.

So after about 40 mins of so playing together, we had our dinner and she was off to bed. We checked up on her from time to time to make sure that she did not have a fever. Thank god, she never developed one and the pain has subdued some. We gave her the option of staying home from school, since the doc gave her strict orders of no PE, but she decided to attend. When I dropped off the kids, she ran into some friends and instead of saying, "Hi" or "Good morning", it was "I got stitches!" lol She's definitely a trooper.

*sigh*

So our wife and I are at work, a little concerned about the fact that she's in school right after the stitching. You know kids in school... the run, the fall, they get hurt... we're hoping that she can manage to not bump her lip for a whole week. Thankfully, spring break is next week so she won't have to go to school then. She has a follow up visit tomorrow and the stitches will not be removed for another 2 weeks. We'll let you know how things turn out. Later!

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 - The Short Version

Hey there. I love me some samurai films. As many of you know, I love the art of the samurai (I even have my own sword) and just can't get enough of these bad ass shows like Afro Samurai and Rurouni Kenshin. There also have been some great samurai films, such as The Last Samurai (not a Tom Cruise fan but this movie is pretty bad ass) and Kill Bill. I also thought it was great that a pioneer of great Japanese samurai films, Sonny Chiba, even made an appearance in Kill Bill.

Kill Bill is a great story. My wife and I even dressed up as Beatrix and a Crazy 8 samurai for Halloween one year. Tarantino's version of "The Bride" had to span 2 whole films. I'm not complaining, since I thought it was great, but unless you got nothing to do during a Saturday afternoon, it's hard to find the time to sit on your couch and watch 4 hours of samurai action. Fear not, my friends! These people decided to do something about it! While sitting around one afternoon, with nothing better to do, they found a way to cut down those 4 hours to a mere minute! Don't believe me? Check it out!



Man, that was great! lol They even did it in chronological order and not the way portrayed in the film! I guess when you got a minute, you can't be jumping back and forth. The best part? The slo-mo action when Kiddo slices O-Ren Ishii. Classic! Later!

Why You Eat the Baby?!?

Hey there. We're around our 11th week of our pregnancy and my wife has started to show. We told the kids a few weeks back that we will be welcoming a little one later in the year. The kids are genuinely excited, but our little one more so than the others. She not only wants the baby, she wants the baby now. lol This past week or so, she's been giving us her money (a whole lot of coins) to go and "buy the baby". lol She would hand us the coins right before we took off for work and she would tell us to go buy the baby and not come back without it. lol

Well, I guess it finally got to her that we didn't come back with a baby. We would tell her that the baby costs more money so we have to go to work some more to make more money. She wasn't having it. My wife decided to go a different route and tell her that the baby is in her tummy. Our little one, a little perplexed, looked at my wife's stomach for a minute. Then she looked up in disbelief and yelled at my wife,

"WHY YOU EAT THE BABY?!?!"

My goodness, that was hilarious. Everyone in the room nearly died of laughter. Ahhhh... To have a child's perspective again. lol

I snapped this picture yesterday afternoon at my mother in law's while she was asleep. Damn, I'm just realizing... she's getting pretty big. Later!

Dish Cable for Only $9.99!

Hey there friends. I received my satellite bill and I must say, I feel like I need to chop an arm and a leg just to get it paid. With a new addition to our family on his or her way, I'm taking a close look at our expenditures, dropping or trimming expenses where I can. Though I love my football, I have come to except that I may have to cut our satellite TV programming for something more affordable and reliable. Well, how does $9.99 a month sound to you?

That's right. Our good friends at the Dish Network have put a package together where you can get cable TV for the low price of $9.99 a month. It doesn't get much better than this. Oh wait, it does! If you sign up now, you may be eligible to receive one of 4 gifts. How about an Apple Ipod, with 50 free downloads sound to you? Or how about a home theater system to compliment your new Dish Network cable?

And boy, do they know how to sweeten the pot. Sign up now and you'll receive a free HD upgrade. Which includes 6 months of free HD programming and 3 months free of HBO and Starz movie channels. This is something that is definitely a good deal. For more information, click out the image below and read about this great offer. Later!

Guitar Hero: Metallica - Dyers Eve

Hey there. HOLY CRAP! I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL SUNDAY!!!

Bioshock: Vita-Chambers = No Acheivement

Hey there. Last night, I finally got to getting through Bioshock on the hardest difficulty, HARD. It took some time because my initial run through of the game was just to get through it. Well, because the XBOX 360 has achievements, I just had to go through the game again to obtain them. One of the more difficult achievements require you to get through the game without dying. Any gamer that can do that, will be awarded with the achievement badge and can be displayed proudly on XBOX Live. I managed to do it. I finally got through all the Big Daddies, all the Little Sisters and kicked Atlas' ass. What? No achievement?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Time to Check Out the Dolphins

Hey there friends. It's the first day of Spring and the Winter cold is about to subdue. Cloudy skies will be less frequent and the sun will begin to warm us up more and more as Summer approaches. Now is the perfect time to start planning, and saving, for a trip to SeaWorld. San Diego is about a 2 hour drive from Los Angeles and, personally, I've never been there. The last family trip down to San Diego ended up being a trip to the San Diego Zoo. Not a bad family trip, but boy, was it hot and we constantly mentioned that Sea World would have been a lot cooler, considering that there would be water everywhere. I promised the family a trip to Sea World the next time around and why not now rather then later?

Maybe it's just me, but there also seems to be this wave of dolphin mania sweeping the States. There have been reports of pink dolphins swimming in the wild, which definitely turned heads, and there seems to be more and more intellectual "findings", if not just to mention, dolphins in the news. Even ABC's World News did a piece on dolphins and their natural phenomenon, dolphin bubbles .



Just look at those amazing rings? They're beautiful. They way they form just seems to defy the natural laws but look at how effortlessly they're created by the dolphin's blow holes. But not only are they able to create them, they can manipulate them as well. Look at how they make them change direction or seem to pass them back and forth with each other as if the dolphin bubbles are balls. Are dolphins are simply one of the worlds most talented and graceful creatures.

I know that Sea World Orlando has the dolphin cove where you can witness this in person. I'm not sure if the San Diego Sea World does, so I need to call them up to see if I can witness this in person. I'm sure that the kids will get a trip out of this, since they huge animal lovers and when we go to Sea World, this would definitely be a sight to see.

Check out the Dolphin Bubbles site for all things dolphins. Facts, pictures, video, they have it all. You can can also interact with other dolphin enthusiasts by leaving bubbles (comments) on their posts.

A Baby Shredder?!?

Hey there. I work in an office. There's all kinds of standard office machines here: copy machine, fax machine, "pdf" machine, etc. We also have a shredder, which I don't really use but it's nice to know that we have it. Well, yesterday, I took a good hard look at our shredder. Looks pretty high tech and it has this glowing blue light on it... and it's shiny. lol Men are usually attracted to shiny things and this was no different.

So while looking at the machine, I see the warning symbol and I assumed that the symbols below are the things to avoid putting in the shredder. Let's see, there's the standard stuff there, like hair. Gotta make sure your hair isn't caught in the machine. There's the hand. You don't want to have you hand sliced off. There's the tie. Don't want it to get caught and then you get choked to death. There's also a spray symbol. I'm assuming that the liquid would screw with the electronic components. Then there's the baby. Wait... WHAT?!?!! A BABY? Are you serious?


Zoom in on the symbols, if you can't see it very well. I'm having a hard time believing that the manufacturer of this machine was compelled to advise the consumer to NOT place a baby in the shredder. Did this happen somewhere that I was not aware of? The slot is not big enough for a baby so why even think of putting a symbol for something that is not physically possible? C'mon now. Are we that stupid that we need to be reminded that a baby does not go in the shredder? Then again, if a woman is calling 911 because a McDonalds ran out of chicken nuggets, I guess we do. Later!

The Worst Childhood Punishment

Hey there. We love the Kevin & Bean show on the "World Famous KROQ" radio station. We listen to it every morning on our way to work. For those of you that are not familiar with it, it's a talk radio show filled with silly discussions, lots of comedy, some idiotic antics thrown in for flavor, with some pretty bad ass music sprinkled in from time to time. One of today's topics of discussion was childhood punishments. They read an Email from a fan stating how her mother used to lick her face or armpit to keep her in check. Face or armpit... I don't think I have ever heard of a parent licking their kid to keep 'em in check. I do see how it could work, though. You embarrass the hell out of them and see if they'll do it again knowing that you're on the prowl ready to lick them. lol Some of the others that were mentioned as punishments included hot wax, soap in the mouth, and belt snapping. There was also the more traditional go to bed without dinner (which my mother in law finds extremely cruel), grounding, and timeouts. I didn't get a chance to hear the whole discussion but I was tempted to call in with some of the punishments that were handed down to me as a child.

Let me be frank. I was horrible. Jumping off of roofs, jumping off balconies, smashing windows, throwing "dirt" rocks at cars, which sometimes were not dirt... Young Metallman was a real pain in the ass. I remember being punished constantly. I remember running away from my aunt cause she was ready to whip me for being bad. I'm pretty sure she ended up getting me, since we lived in the same place. lol She'd whip us with an extension cord. That's right, regular old belt had no effect on us. lol I also used to be locked in the bathroom as punishment. I remember someone putting in one of those bar sliding locks on the out side of the door to keep someone from coming out of the bathroom. lol I guess those were my "time outs" since the bathroom is one boring ass place to just be in. Especially when you don't have to use it. And they were lengthy stays, too. Up to an hour, if I remember correctly. Then there was the "hand to the flame" thing. Whenever I got caught stealing or touching/breaking something that I shouldn't have been messing around with, I'd get the, "Te voy a quemar las manos!!!" (I'm going to burn your hands!) My grandma was usually the one that would carry this one out. She'd turn on one of the burners on the stove and grabbed my hand and slowly inched towards the flame. She never really burned my hand, but always got it close enough where you definitely felt the heat.

I deserved those punishments. You have to pay the price if you plan on doing the crime. Where they effective? I don't know. lol I'm not stealing, breaking windows, or being bad now, so I guess they worked. But then again, it could just be that I grew out of it.

I'm sure that many of us parents have our own methods, traditional or unorthodox, of punishing our kids. Of the above methods, I've really only used the bathroom punishment, but I did not go as far as installing a lock on the outside. If the kids really wanted, they could probably just walk out when they pleased. We usually do this to our little one, who sometimes just refuses to listen or clean up. After several warnings, we tell her that she's going to get timeout. She spends no more than a minute in there but I'm sure for a child that age, it must be hell.

Thinking back, I'm wondering if the methods used on me were considered "normal". A comment made on the Kevin & Bean show sparked that debate, since the child who got licked thought it was normal until a friend of hers told her otherwise. What kind of methods do you use to keep in line? What kind were used on you as kid? Think back, friends. lol We all had a little bad side to us, even if most of us don't want to admit it. Later!

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

Hey there. The weekend has come and gone... and it always feels like it's never enough to just sit back, relax, and recover from the work week. Especially when you got things you need to do at home. Woke up this Saturday pretty early to get some car work done. Those 3,000 miles have come and gone and the car needed the oil change. While under the hood, I decided to check in on the transmission. Everything looked good, but while at Autozone, I decided to buy this tranny additive that supposedly quiets down the idling. That's always been an issue with the car. It a little on the rough side while idle. Once that was done, we kinda just hung out at home. My wife and I ended up watching the film, The Tooth Fairy, on Netflix. What a funny film. lol


It's supposed to be a scary movie. I'm into those and I usually make my wife sit with me while watching them. While we stumble upon some great ones, Shutter and Amityville, to name a few, we also stumble across some bombs, Gothika and Slither... Well, I know for sure that The Tooth Fairy is not a great one, but I'm a little hesitant to place it on the bad list. The movie has it's moments that made us laugh and a movie that makes us smile and laugh can't be all that bad. Some of the highlights in the film, that we've been saying all weekend, include the "the tooth fairy" asking for a tooth by holding out her hand saying, "tooooooooooth" in a low grunty voice and the lead character saying, "Hey you b*tch" when he douses the tooth fairy in gasoline. lol Not too mention the bad slow motion scenes that were so placed in inappropriate times. We also laughed at the characters' thought process. Such as, "Oh crap, my girl just got murdered! Let me have sex with this other girl right now!" LMAO Oh man, what an experience. If you're looking for a good laugh, check this movie out.

I also managed to handle a few achievements in Rock Band. I got through Expert mode on guitar, which felt pretty damn good. And I also got though Hard mode on drums. That felt even better. I'm not a drummer, I'm a guitar guy so to be able to get through that was pretty bad ass. I'm going to attempt to get through it on Expert but I struggled to get through it on Hard so I'm not so sure if I'll be able to do it. It's great exercise and it's helping my eye-hand coordination. I enjoy doing it since it's challenging. Moving your hands and feet while keeping time is pretty difficult and a new experience for me so I'm glad that I'm expanding my musical horizons through a game.

Sunday was to be our "lazy" day. We were just going to lounge around and do nothing. Well, it started out that way. We got up at around 8 ish and we lounged around in bed until about 10:30. We couldn't sleep much since our little one has these sandals that squeak as you walk in them. Since she was running around in them, our nap was quickly killed by the loud, constant squeaks. Thanks grandma. lol We ended up giving the house a good scrub down. half way through the afternoon, we finally sat down to catch some I Love Lucy and do some online shopping for some maternity clothes. My wife, not really wanting to buy new clothes that she will only wear for a short period of time, went on Ebay and scored a lot of 16 items for about $35. All practically new clothes. Good stuff. We also received a text from my brother in law, that morning, saying that he was a hospital. Turns out that he hit his head on some exercise equipment and had a gash on the side of his head. After spending the whole day at the hospital, he ended up getting a few staples to close the gap. He showed us the staples this morning. Ugly stuff, that is.

Well, that sums up our weekend. How was yours? Later!

There's a Bun in the Oven!

Hey there. It's official! There's a bun in the oven. We're going to have an addition to our family! We had taken "the test" a few weeks back but cause those things are never 100% accurate, we made our appointment to check it out. This week, my wife had her check up and they've confirmed the good news. Now, don't think my wife didn't go to a doc, we went to one about 2 weeks ago or so. But the place where were went seemed to half ass everything that we didn't feel very confident with the results. My wife then, made her appointment with her real doctor, which coincidentally is one of the doctors that star in the Discovery Health show, Deliver Me . Dr. Bohn was the one that cared for her during our last pregnancy but because she recently had a child, Dr. Hill tended to my wife. When my wife went to visit Dr. Hill this week, my wife told me that the camera crew was hanging around the clinic. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up on TV. lol

So the official counter is at 9 weeks. Which means that we have approx. 31 weeks to go before the next little one is here. Our family, and most friends know (now), so I decided to let my readers know as well. Its still to early to know if we're having a little "Metallboy" or "Metallgirl", but I'll keep you guys posted the moment we find out. I have an ultrasound picture that my wife refuses to let me use, only because you really can't make out the baby. It's more like a little bean swimming in a sea of black. As soon as I get a more detailed pic, it's so going up. Later on!


UPDATE: 3.13.09

My wife just read this post and is embarrassed as hell that I posted that pic. lol

The Dragon's Knight

Hey there. I have a dragon statuette that I obtained a while back. It's sitting there on my desk, protecting my desk from any evil doers that wish to do harm. I love me some dragons. I think they're bad ass. I have one tattooed on my arm. A great symbol for strength, power, protectiveness, and best of all, fearsome. It's basically my guardian, in ink form. So here's a little something for you, my dragon king.

 

Metallica: James Hetfield Hospitalized

Hey there. Metallica front man, James Hetfield, was hospitalized in Sweden this Sunday. Turns out that their show in Stockholm, Sweden had to be canceled minutes before the band was to perform. James had some kinda stomach flu/virus that keep him out of commission. Even metal gods are vulnerable to the almighty "flu bug". There are also reports that he was dehydrated, which pretty much means he was blowing chunks back stage. Good news is that he's already in the States or on his way back, feeling better. The Stockholm show will be rescheduled, so our Swedish friends will get a chance to see them if they didn't catch them already. Feel better James. On top of your tour, you got your Metallica game to promote!!! Later!

Hell With Pascual & Associates Tax Service

Hey there. Last night, we went off to do our taxes. We've been loyal customers to Pascual & Associates Tax Services. Well, last night was the last straw. Many years ago, on our very first appointment, we were well taken care of and had excellent service. As the years went on, service greatly diminished, prices went up, and the wait time has gone to HELL. EVEN IF YOU HAVE AN APPOINTMENT!!! That is what peeves us the most. We're understanding people. We know sh*t happens so we usually say expect to be called 15 to 30 mins after an appointment. But last night, the wait time was an unprecedented 90 mins. 90 MINS!!!! Even though you had an appointment, you had to wait 90 mins to get called in. That is ridiculous. Every single time that we've had our taxes done, we spend no more than 30 mins in the chair. You pass over your forms, they get entered, you answer some questions, and before you know it, you're done and on your way home... Happy. I was NOT happy last night. After sitting there for an hour, I got up to ask the receptionist how much longer, she calmly looked back and said and least 30 more mins. Hell with that. I grabbed my wife and we went home. Mouthing off in the car and extremely frustrated. We both agreed that they have just lost clients for life.

We want to say that our main gripe with them is that they cannot manage their time correctly. Considering that 30 to 45 mins is needed to prepare taxes, why in the hell would you schedule appointments every 15 mins??? That's just ridiculous and stupid time management. If you know that you can't get it done in 15 mins, then why would they make their customers wait? They have about 8 tax preparers, all handling their business at the same time. During the time that we sat there waiting, we only saw one couple leave. ONE COUPLE! Are these people preparing taxes or are they socializing?!?! Don't they know that people HATE waiting. It was extremely frustrating. Ugh...

I checked out Turbo Tax this morning and was able to get em done in no more than 30 mins. Quick, fast service. Turbo Tax is the best damn thing the government has come up with since, well... tax refunds. If you can plug in letters and numbers, than I would suggest going with Turbo Tax. Quick, easy, and convenient. AND NO WAITING!!! Just how I like it. Later.

A Pink Dolphin?!

Hey there. As I was drinking my first cup of coffee this morning, my wife started conversation about some stuff she saw online the day before. The one thing that really stuck in my mind was the pink dolphin. That's right, a PINK dolphin. A living, breathing, out in the wild pink dolphin. I couldn't believe it. She immediately stated something along the lines of Hello Kitty being responsible for it being pink, since Hello Kitty is responsible for making things "happy". lol So I went online to check it out. Take a look for yourselves... What do you think? I'm still having a tough time believing my eyes. Later!

Our Hearts Are With You

Hey there. We just received word that my cuz and his wife just lost their unborn child. From what my aunt is telling me, they have locked themselves in their room and are refusing all calls. I'm sure that they will want to spend some time alone during these devastating times. But we're all here for you when you need us. There are some things that you just want to tackle on your own, but there are times when friends and family are what you need to stay sane. We're a strong support system and if there is anything that we can do for you guys, let us know. Stay strong cause I'm sure god had other plans for the little one. It just sucks that we were not in those plans. Later...

Blogs of the Month of February

Hey there. It's that time of the month again... No, not THAT... It's time to update my blogs of the month section. Septagon Studios has a kung fu grip on my top spot, continuing their reign as the top dog. Blazing Minds and Mr. Soleh's Outburst stayed strong to stay in the top, meaning that 2 friends dropped off giving way to two blogs making their first appearance in my top 5. Here's how my top ten came down.



Thank you all for stopping by, commenting, and dropping. 1000 ECs go to the top spot and 500 ECs for the following 4. Later!