Carving pumpkins

Tonight we carved our Halloween pumpkins. We had such a good time! We turned the music up, covered the counter, got out the carving tools and went to town. Zander picked the design for his pumpkin and carved the whole thing by himself! We had to really convince him to stick his hand in the pumpkin to clean it out, though. Mostly by refusing to do it for him. He's such a clean freak! But he's getting so big. Keagan was a big help getting seeds out and giving encouragement to everyone. He's such a big helper. Sadie sucked on the spoon we were using to clean out the pumpkins. Yummy!

Zander has adopted Halloween as his favorite holiday, and following suit, so has Keagan, so we've had to add to our decorations this year. He told us what we had just wouldn't do. So we bought some tombstones and web and decorated the yard. We didn't get the camera out there until it was too dark, so maybe those pics will come after Halloween day and all of us in our costumes!

Hey, Hey I am Monkey!

Grease Monkey that is.

Okay, most of you won't get this blog title. There was a sitcom featuring a band called the Monkey's when I was growing up that I watched a lot. Consequently, the sitcom made the band that went on instead of the other way around. This is part of the chorus line in the opener song/jingle.

So, being unemployed I find plenty of ways to keep myself busy. Or rather people find plenty of ways to keep me busy. "Fix the van" was a chore I had been given by Karma, my mother-in-law. This was supposed to be a simple thing, since the only thing wrong with it was the starter motor needed to be replaced. I had done this with a couple other cars I had while I was a teenager, so I didn't think much of it. Turns out there was a major adventure ahead and I didn't even know it.


First, it turns out the starter was under the driver seat. That was trick to figure out. I googled the problem and found the solution. So with directions and a picture of the starter in hand - literally - I started on the project.

It took me a few hours to get it out, but only about 30 minutes or less to put it back in. After I got the starter replaced and realized the battery was dead. So, I tried to recharge the battery, but it was toasted too. I bought a new battery put it in and started it right up. Dust and crap from almost 2 years of sitting came flying out and filled my garage. Then some whistling started. I thought it might just be the belts trying to work back in. After a couple of seconds smoke started to fill the garage and the whistling stopped. I thought, this can't be good! I used the air hose to blow out all the smoke and then checked the engine. The serpentine belt burned off. CRAP!! something else. I went back to Checker for the 3rd time that day and got a new belt. Came home and tried to figure out how to put it on. That took some time. Once I finally got it on, I tensioned it back down and started the van up. No squealing this time, then snap! the belt broke again, after just a few seconds of being on. Puzzled, I looked over the belt route and noticed a burn mark on the alternator wheel. Turns out the Alternator had seized. Great.


The tale just keeps going on like this.

You make funny faces hun.

Earlier this week I was trying to make dinner and Sadie was dying of hunger - so what's new. And I had the thought, "Hey Zander, wanna try feeding Sadie?" He was all to excited to try it out. I took a second to show him how and he was good. Check out this video. He was so cute and Sadie loved being fed by him.

Bid this farewell

Get your own graph at skinnyr

I made my goal! And since you can't really read it on the side of my blog anyway (because it's so small), I'm getting rid of the graph I've had to help encourage me to loose my baby weight. I now officially weigh what I did when I got married. Thank you. =) And say goodbye to my lovely graph.

holding on to my ding-a-ling

Wow. So, Zander is feeling much better and ready to go back to school. He's feeling so much better, that he is sticking Keagan in the laundry basket and pushing him down the stairs. Keagan is doing the same to Zander. Too funny!!

Oh, the title you ask...go Google Chuck Berry's song, My Ding-a-ling and you'll get it. It's a song I learned as a teen that my Dad introduced my to, which incedently became my friend's and my favorite song.

Here's a great video Clip. Oh, and here's a link to Chuck Berry's video of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLBfwblps8

Livin' the dream man

I've been wanting to write a book for a long time. For those of you who know me this may not come as much of a surprise. I often live "off-the-cuff," and have several business venture ideas. It's only too bad that we don't have the means to try them all out. I'm pretty sure a couple of them would be real winners. Right now I have the time, well sort of, and figure it might be a good time to try and accomplish this goal.

Any way...I'm writing a book about business upwards management, or managing up. There are plenty of books that discuss management philosophies and the like, I've always thought it would be fun to write a book geared toward the entry level or intern worker. If any of you have any funny stories about bosses, or yourself/ "someone you know", and would like to consider having published please send them to me at michaelgonzales99@yahoo.com. Not everything submitted will be published, and if they are, I will change names to protect anyone involved. I'm looking for stories where;

1. You as the "underclass (wo)man" was right and the boss was wrong, or where your efforts proved triumphant.
2. You failed and learned a big lesson going forward.
3. The dawning of, "duh! that's how it works."
4. DOH! I shouldn't have sent that
5. I can do this no matter what
6. you were able to make the most of something bad

Please provide background to the story. This book is more of a comedy than a serious business practices book, though I'm sure some will take it as such. Because behind most funny stories are good morales.

I look forward to reading your stories.

Looking for new work

For those of you that haven't heard, I was laid off the beginning of September as part of a labor reduction initiative at DeltaValve. I'm currently seeking employment in Marketing Management preferably in Oil and Gas, but I'm adaptable to take on anything. If any of you have any leads that may help, I would appreciate the insight.

The funny thing about family and friends is... many times, we know what's going on in each other's lives on a personal level, rarely are we aware of what each other do on a professional level. Heck, I still have a hard time explaining what my Dad taught after all these years, because his curriculum always seemed to be changing. To help out with this, below is a link to my professional site on LinkedIn. Here you can read a brief outline of what I do, what a few of my accomplishments are, and even some recommendations a few people I've worked with have said about me.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-gonzales/14/2a6/257