Carrots, carrots everywhere.............

I've been really worn out recently due to lots of guests over Christmas and taking care of Kali while she's been sick. Certainly, I reached the pinnacle of parenting yesterday. I was carrying Kali 0.10 out to the car. Just as we started to enter the garage, a cascade of carrots came out of my daughter's mouth. It was a very solid stream and managed to get just about every piece of her clothing and every piece of my clothing. Just to make sure the job was done right, she managed to somehow send out another large stream of carrots.

I handled it like a champ. I sat her down for a moment and ran into the kitchen to grab a roll of paper towels. I ended up stripping down to my underwear and I stripped Kali down to her diaper (which was the only thing that didn't have carrots covering it). I tossed the pile of carrot-flavored clothes into the washer and got that all cleaned up.

I was hoping to get a good night's sleep last night with Kali starting to feel better. Kali did a great job of sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that the sickness that Kali had was contageous. I was up at least every hour all night long, on my knees worshiping the porcelein god (otherwise known as the toilet). It has to be one of the most miserable feelings a person could endure. The morning after is nearly as bad, as you try to remain awake and avoid getting sick again.

This day is going to be an awfully long day. Hopefully, my stomach can settle down a bit and avoid a repeat performace like last night. I could really use a good rest. Perhaps a nap with Kali is in order when I get home.

Trashy snow..........

I'm amazed at how much trash is generated by a Christmas gathering. We had around 10-12 people at our house for Christmas. Out of that group, we managed to create 12 large bags of trash and 3 full recycle bins. Most of the recycled stuff was cardboard boxes.

I got some clothes that were much needed. I also got a new vacuum (hair from Mrs. Lime and the dog always seems to bust my vacuums, so I always need a new one). Toss in a TV and it was definitely a good Christmas.

I managed to drive my Mustang to work today on snow-packed roads. Slow and steady works just fine. Left it in 3rd gear and drove 30 MPH the whole way to work. I did have some issues getting up the last hill to get to the building where I work. The only two roads to get to the building are both uphill. Both were snow-packed this morning, which is brutal for rear-wheel drive vehicles. It took me 10 minutes to get up a 1/4 mile hill. I just kept the car moving and eventually I wiggled my way to the top of the hill.

Great X-mas present.........

Our family received a wonderfuly Christmas present. Kali 0.10's grandma received a kidney in a transplant only a couple of days before Christmas. Great timing as everyone was in town and was able to be here when it happened. Hopefully this is a reminder to anyone who reads this post to always fill out the donor information on the back of your driver's license as it could save someone's life.

We think that the kidney came from a high school-age child. While it's a great time for us, we hope that the family of the donor finds some comfort in that they've helped a lot of people with their gift of life to others.

How to goof with a 10 month old..........

Here's a good trick for those of you that have a 10 month old baby.

1. Start by sitting down on the floor with a bunch of toys.
2. Let the baby play for a couple of minutes with those toys.
3. Introduce a rubber-coated 5 pound dumbbell to the baby.
4. Pick up the dumbbell and wave it around as a fun toy then set it back down.
5. Watch with amusement as the baby tries to pick up the dumbbell and then looks at you dumbfounded, wondering why they can't pick up the dumbbell like you just did.

Signs you've made the transition to being a parent............

1. You sing songs from 'Elmo in Grouchland' to all of your friends at the monthly poker game.

2. You walk up to the cashier to pay for something and pull a pacifier instead of cash out of your pocket, prompting the cashier to say "we don't accept pacifiers as payment at this store".

3. You generally don't care nearly as much if a child is fussy at a nearby table in a restaurant.

4. You admit to friends and family that the Gerber Turkey & Gravy jar food doesn't taste bad at all.

5. You can do a full cleanup of the toys in your living room in 1 minute or less.

6. You're able to anticipate the stupid stuff that your baby does before they even get to attempt it.

7. Your dog no longer even tries to run from the baby's attacks and instead just deals with it as best he can.

8. Your female co-workers force you to print multiple baby pictures to cover the walls of your office. Having a picture on the desktop of your computer is not good enough.

9. You have no problem wiping snot from your baby's nose with your bare hand and then wiping it off on your shirt or pants.

10. You assume that the socks your baby is wearing will only remain a pair for the initial wearing. After that, it's just a bunch of orphan single socks in the drawer.

Exciting weekend (for all the wrong reasons).......

Lots of excitement at the Lime house over the weekend. Kali 0.10 decided that she would get sick and spike a 103 degree fever. So we had a couple of visits to various hospital facilities to keep everything in order. Mrs. Lime mentioned a couple of times what a mess she was when it was her own daughter sick despite being a doctor. I suppose that's to be expected.

Kali 0.10 still has a snotty nose, but she's acting much more like herself now. Once the nasal problems run their course and clear up, she should be good as new with all new and improved immune defenses. This was our first major sickness for the baby. I'm hoping it will be awhile until we have a second one.

On a sidenote, we hosted the monthly poker tournament over the weekend. I ***shock*** actually won the thing. I was down quite a bit early on when I tried to bluff into a newer player who had a big stack (that never works and I should have known better). But I made a couple of good plays along with a couple of key folds (sometimes just as important) and managed to win the tournament. I seem to be playing well right now. Hopefully that continues.

Locks of Love..........

Mrs. Lime did something the other day that will no doubt make a sick child much happier in the coming days. She had her hair cut and donated the clipped hair to the 'Locks of Love' charity. For those that don't know, 'Locks of Love' takes donated hair and creates hairpieces for children to improve their self-esteem. The vast majority of kids who receive the hairpieces suffer from a incurable disease called "alopecia areata". It causes the children to lose all of their hair and can lower the self-esteem of an otherwise healthy child.

People who donate their hair must cut at least 10 inches of hair, so you have to grow out your hair quite a bit. Mrs. Lime had just enough hair to donate without cutting her own hair too close for comfort. Her hair will grow back out eventually, so it's only a temporary loss. For the child who receives the hairpiece (often donated to families who can't afford them), it can be a life-changing event.

I'm sure Mrs. Lime wouldn't want to get any special attention for her donation. I'm hoping that this post will spur others who have longer hair to make a donation that can really help a kid who wants a full head of hair, something that the rest of us take for granted. Below are some examples of the impact a hair donation can make...........

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Below is the website with all the details for those that are interested in finding out more about the charity.

Locks of Love Website

Random musings............

1. If you're a man and you wear white briefs underwear, do not tuck your shirt into your underwear. If you do that and you bend over at the salad bar, there'a an awfully good chance that your underwear will pop right out of the back of your pants.

2. If you own a cafeteria in the state of Missouri, remember where your business is based. Do not make the decision to hang up KU and K-State pennants and not hang up Missouri pennants. It's a good way to make the natives pretty restless.

3. When installing child locks on your cabinets, do not drill all the way through the cabinet door when it's not needed. It only creates more work to do than what was required.

4. If something smells 'poopy', assume the worst and take your baby directly to the changing table before a natural disaster occurs.

5. A 4-wheel drive SUV in the snow handles very well. A 4-wheel drive SUV on ice is a very heavy sled.

6. If you're a lady of at least 40 years of age, you should know better than to make out with a man in a car in the casino parking lot. Better yet, you should be sober enough to realize that your shirt is off and the guy getting into a vehicle next to your vehicle likely can see everything that you and your fling are doing.

Version upgrade: Kali 0.10 crawls like a ninja.........

Ah yes. Kali 0.10 is now officially 10 months old. Her crawling skills have improved over the past week. She has little to no interest in being held or sitting in laps. She has one goal: Go somewhere that she's not supposed to be going.

We have an area to walk through on either side of the couch separating our kitchen from our living room. In past weeks, when Kali headed for the kitchen through one of those spaces, I had plenty of time to walk over and block her off before she could break through the kitchen defenses. Now, she's too damn fast.

Worse yet, her intelligence has increased by leaps and bounds. When I blocked her path before, she would unsuccessfully try to crawl over my leg or body and become frustrated when she couldn't do so. Now, she simply turns and sprints for the other end of the couch to use the other entry. I'm all for having an intelligent baby, but it requires much more work than a dumb baby. I guess I'll have to count my blessings in that regard.

One other word of warning for anyone who happens to see Kali.......do not put your fingers near her mouth. Those new teeth will leave a mark and she hasn't figured out that they do damage yet. On a positive note, she's now eating dry cereal on her own. She's also eating oranges, but she doesn't fully eat them. She just chews the juice out of them and then leaves the leftover mangled pieces for Mrs. Lime and I to pick up. Playing the role of Kali's trash collector is a thankless job.

Kali 0.9 returns from another adventure.........

Mrs. Lime and Kali 0.9 are back from their latest trip. This time, they went to New York City to do some shopping and take in the sights.

Kali 0.9 behaved well for both of the flights. The only exception was a tumble on the plane, where she cried for a few minutes. Outside of that, she did very well. She was extremely excited to see Nova 7.9 when we got into the car. She stared at him all the way home from the airport and climbed onto him a few times when we got home. Nova seemed to put up with it as usual. He's used to her antics at this point.

Distractions and Sports Betting..........

I headed over to the local casino poker room this past weekend. As is often the case, the table had a wide mix of players at the table. On this particular night, it seemed that the more odd and seedy characters decided to show up.

On the opposite end from where I was sitting, there was a guy who sat down with about $500. He immediately started a discussion at the table with a couple other guys about sports betting. He was SERIOUSLY into sports betting, which obviously is illegal in our area. I'm guessing he had a bookie. They talked about parlays, spreads, odds........on and on it went. I'm somewhat of a novice better (i.e. I'll bet on a game or two when in Vegas), but these guys were planning on making money off this stuff. Note to these guys.........there's a reason why the bookies end up with quite a bit of money.

The $500 guy apparently was a gambler in more ways than one. He sat down with $500 and burned through $300-350 of it in just over an hour. He was playing all kinds of hands and more than happy to bluff with every one of them. He was having fun initially until the stacks started getting shorter. He started talking a whole lot less and kept looking down at his chips. By the time I left the table, he was down $300.

Another player was an easy read. He was likely in his 50s and it appeared that he hadn't played live poker much. Every time he had a winning hand, his hands would shake as he placed the chips out to bet. It was easy to see and it easily saved me $50 on a couple of hands that I would have lost more had it not been for his shaking hands.

There was a young woman who sat down at the table that provided most of the entertainment for the evening. First, she was wearing a shirt that exposed her navel and provided plenty of cleavage. We quickly figured out that she wore that shirt with the full intention of distracting the players at the table. It works to some extent, as several of the players started flirting with her. I even saw one player accidentally knock over his chip stack as he was chatting with her.

It also became pretty obvious that she was a pretty weak poker player. She was playing hands that were often behind. Unfortunately for the rest of the table, she kept getting lucky and taking people's money. I was personally up about $120 at one point in the night. I ended up facing off in a hand against her. With one card to come, I had a strong hand and I knew I was up against her. Unfortunately, she hit one of only two cards that she could win with on the river and took a big pot from me. I was pretty frustrated, but I'm not sure that I played the hand wrong. Unfortunately, I just got unlucky.

She also had a lot to say during the game. She constantly talked about 'sleeping with her cats'. She must have had quite a few cats, as she had all kinds of stories about them. I really could have done without her stories about changing the litter box. Note to single women.......guys aren't turned on by the thought of dirty kitty litter. She did, however, score big points with her conversation about Vegas.......

Girl: I just got back from Vegas.

Guy: Oh yeah? What did you do out there?

Girl: I went out there for a weekend to hang out with some of my girlfriends.

Guy: Do anything exciting?

Girl: Yeah, we went to a strip bar.

Guy: Guy or girl strippers?

Girl: Female strippers.

Guy: Really?

Girl: Yeah. I can tell you for certain that the female strippers are much better in Vegas than they are in KC.

Guy: (displays look of wonderment) Oh, I see!


So, this girl established that:

1. She likes to play poker/gamble.
2. She's been to see female strippers in Vegas.
3. She's been to see female strippers in Kansas City.

When you talk about women in a casino/poker room, that's about as good as it gets on a male degenerate gambler's attractiveness scale. She might as well be crowned with the title of 'Miss Casino 2007'. Better yet, she ended up getting in a verbal fight with the guy next to her. He evidently made a sexist comment that rubbed her the wrong way. She tore into this guy verbally like one of her cats would tear into a scratching post. It was a pretty immature spat, but it made for good entertainment from the other end of the table.

For the night, I played 8 hours and won a grand total of $13. Certainly not much of a profit, but it's never a bad deal if you can have that much entertainment and get paid to do it.

Let the blood flow.............

As I usually do when Mrs. Lime is out of the house, I decided to watch some movies that she's not interested in watching. That ususally involves two genres: off-the-wall comedies and horror slash-fests. Mrs. Lime just doesn't get some of the humor at times, so I know to not bother watching certain movies with her. Horror and thriller movies give Mrs. Lime nightmares, so I generally avoid those as well.

Last night, I watched Hostel II. Now I'm a big fan of the first Hostel movie, so I was excited that they now have a second one. Basic premise of the movie is that people in a Scandinavian town have a hidden secret. They lure outsiders into the city with thoughts of wild parties and lots of attractive men/women. As a result, innocent young kids come to town in droves. What they don't know is that the hotel that they stay in is a front to a black market where people come to town solely to prey on these young kids and eventually torture and kill them for nothing more than sport and a thrill.

As a kid, I loved movie series like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, etc. Good fun gore-fests (preface: I was smart enough to know that the images were not real). I was always amazed at the makeup effects that were produced.

In Hostel and Hostel II, the effects are ratcheted up 10-fold. Copious amounts of blood and knives. Even more over the top is the spraying blood, which doesn't even come close to reality most times. The opinion of most horror directors is that the more blood there is, the better the flick.

In the end, Hostel II had a few twists, but wasn't quite as good as the original. But a horror movies should be judged on the gore, not the plot. The 1,000 liters of blood sprayed during this movie (probably not overexaggerating) make this movie a great slasher B movie.

Moving at the speed of light..........

Mrs. Lime and Kali 0.9 headed to New York City for the weekend to hang out with Kali's aunt. There going to hang out there for a couple of days and buy cheap rip-off goods in the back alleys of Chinatown.

Meanwhile, I get a couple of days to get a full night's sleep and get a few things done. Early list is.......

-Decorate X-mas tree (lights are already on tree)
-Install baby locks on cabinets
-Go to Mizzou/Purdue basketball game
-Find time to take in a session of poker at the casino
-Sleep

The baby locks are a definite need at this point. Kali has suddenly become fully mobile. She crawls at a sustained speed of roughly 25 MPH (I've used a radar gun and can accurately confirm that speed). As a result, this is now my new routine when Kali plays on the floor........

1. Set Kali down on floor next to toys.
2. Look up to watch 15 seconds of the show currently on TV.
3. Look back and find Kali roughly 50 feet from where you set her just 15 seconds earlier.
4. Run over to grab her and bring her back to the starting point before she does something dumb.
5. Go back to step #1 and repeat.

Given that she's also learned that handles on drawers and cabinet doors are very useful for getting into things, the baby locks are now a must to save Mrs. Lime from pulling her hair out daily. With Mizzou football done until New Year's Day and the Chiefs being so bad, I should have plenty of time this weekend to get those installed.

The results are in...........

We had 4 candidates who got interviews for the open position in my work group. Interestingly enough, I was the one that helped the project manager interview all four candidates. My project manager is a nice lady, but tends to offer up softball questions in interviews. I think she's also fully aware of that. I'm just the opposite. I'm certainly cordial to the candidates, but I usually ask some questions based off the discussion that cause them to squirm quite a bit. As a result, we make a solid "good cop, bad cop" team in the interviews.

The first candidate was just not someone that I liked all that much. She spoke a lot about how great she was technically, but a review of her resume indicated otherwise. She also appeared to be overly friendly. Normally, that's not a bad thing, but some other things gave me pause. She seemed to be a 'right-fighter'. What that means is that she's often rather be right in a discussion/conflict rather than come to the best or correct conclusion of a situation. When asked about her mistakes that she had made in the past, she turned the question around and pointed the finger at another co-worker as a reason for the problem. She also showed some passive-aggressive tendancies in some of her comments that were a bit frightening. I left that interview hoping for better candidates in future interviews.

The second lady was an improvement over the first candidate. She was very good technically. She had the right answers for those questions. She wasn't quite as good from a social standpoint. We got a lot of one-word answers, which is always a concern when interviewing a candidate. Part of the problem was a bit of a language barrier, as she is a native of India. But she certainly was cordial. Only negative was, when asked about any mistakes in past jobs, she replied that she had not made any mistakes in past jobs. It's a good way to find out if a candidate is telling us what she thinks we want to hear or if she's speaking openly.

The third candidate was very nice as well. Her only issues was a bit less experience than the other candidates. It quickly became apparent that she wasn't as strong as the second candidate technically. She also had similar issues with the question about mistakes she might have made in the past and how she resolved the situation. She just said she had never made mistakes.

The final candidate was very nervous when he first came into the interview. As the interview progressed, he really did well. His technical skills were very good and the conversation was great. He also did something that none of the other candidates did......he actually admitted multiple mistakes in previous jobs. He also did a great job explaining those situations and what he learned from them. That's the kind of candor that you love to see when you interview a candidate.

We ended up hiring the final candidate. His technical skills were great and he was very up-front in his discussions with us on previous jobs. There's no substitute for a good interview and this guy did extremely well in his interview.

What is this sleep you speak of?

Mrs. Lime had to work late last night, so I was the parent-in-charge last night if anything went awry. Normally, not a big deal, but Kali 0.9 has teeth popping through her gums in roughly half of her mouth. It's not a pretty thing. I made the obvious mistake of failing to give her some Tylenol before putting her to sleep. I ended up waking up several times to put her back to sleep over the course of the night.

I'm guessing that, between Mrs. Lime's late night of work and Kali's lack of sleep overnight, there's going to be a lot of napping today at the house. Meanwhile, I sit at my desk like a zombie, trying to figure out why I can't type worth a damn.

Kali 0.9 picture blowout!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another blowout of the cutest 9 month old on the planet.......

Smile!



Waiving to everyone...........



Time to eat........



Reading her first Halloween card.........



Then eating her first Halloween card........



I see you!!!!!!!!!



More pictures? Geez, daddy.........



Nova 7.7 smiles for a picture with Kali 0.9.........



Nova going solo........



Joking around with Grandpa...............



Giving Nova a hug..........

Translating an interview.........

I did an interview yesterday for an open position in our group. The girl that interviewed was super-smart despite only having 5 years of experience. The one problem that was evident was that she had a very heavy Indian accent which created some communication issues. We did manage to get through the whole interview and get a general feeling for her skills. A couple of notes from the interview...........

1. Folks, before you ever enter an interview, be prepared to cite a couple of weaknesses that you have in your skills. Everyone has them. The candidates that fail to cite a weakness (i.e. they claim to have never made a mistake) or cite a weakness that could also be considered a strength are usually candidates that you question whether they answered the other questions truthfully.

2. One word responses to questions are never a good idea. If an interviewer asks if you have, for instance, Java programming skills, do not respond by saying 'Yes'. While the answer may be accurate, the interviewer is likely to question your communication skills if you don't expound further on your answer.

I'm torn on hiring this individual. She has all the technical skills you could ever want, but her personal skills were terrible. Also, the communication gap makes you wonder if she fully understood the questions that were asked. Hopefully, a better candidate blows the socks off the group in the next interview.

The loud divorcee strikes again.........

First off, let me state that the stuff I overhear at work can be a bit wild at times. I have a woman on one side of me that speaks to her friends/family in Persian. The woman on the other side of me speaks to her friends/family in Mandarin Chinese. Culturally diverse workforce I suppose.

My favorite divorcee who often speaks far too loudly on the phone when discussing personal matters has resurfaced. Here are just a few of the snippets I overheard during her latest phone conversation......

"Well, he and I had worked out that we we're going to be peaceful and try to get along. Then I hear that he's filed another motion in court against me. That's not peaceful by any stretch of the imagination"

"Well, he's just being a jacka$$ and all of this make nice stuff was a load of bull. I could kill him right about now."

"There's certainly no way he's going to be seeing his daughter this week. He can kiss that visit goodbye."

Divorce, ain't it grand?????

Kali 0.9 sits in a family heirloom.............

My parents still have the high chair that Kali's great-grandfather used nearly a century ago. It may be an old, worn chair, but it still worked just fine when Kali was ready to eat.........

We're #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a day that I'll be telling my grandkids about 40 years from now. The Mizzou football team played Kansas last night at Arrowhead Stadium in a matchup of top 5 teams. The winner would clinch the Big 12 North division title and remain in the hunt for the National Championship. The loser would finish the regular season and be out of a chance at a BCS bowl bid.

We arrived at the stadium a couple of hours before the game. We headed over to a tailgate of about 500 people and grabbed some food and a few adult beverages. We then went into the stadium as the bathrooms outside had enormous lines fueled by the fact that people had been drinking and partying for over 3 hours in the parking lot.

Once in the stadium, it was pretty obvious that it was going to be a special night. Fans were standing up pacing or bouncing up and down in their seat. No one could sit still. Fans kept themself busy by screaming when players from their team appeared on the field and booing when the other team's players came out. The stadium was split right down the middle (claims by the KU AD that the fan split would be 70/30 were horribly wrong).

Before the game started, I headed outside to the concourse one last time so I wouldn't miss a play. We had a couple of fans nearby our seats. As I walked out, I walked over to talk to the two security guys in our section.......

Me: I just wanted to let you all know in advance where the problems may be in our section. There's two beakers right down there (pointing towards the seats).

Security #1: (confused) There's a what down there?

Me: I said there's a beaker in our section!

Security #1: (still confused) A what?

Security #2: He said there's a BEAKER down there.....a Jayhawk!

Security #1: (laughing) Oh, OK.......we'll be sure to keep an eye on them.

The rest of the game obviously went the way of the Tigers, capping a great big-game atmosphere with the win that I wanted to watch. Below are some pictures of the game........

Black and gold on the left in the stands and crimson and blue on the right.........



The Tigers line up in the tunnel, ready to burst onto the field..........



Split down the middle and ready for the opening kickoff..........



The Tiger offense lines up for a play.........



Touchdown Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!



Marching Mizzou at halftime.........



Touchdown Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!!



Marching Mizzou is rocking and the Mizzou fans are going nuts.......



Go figure. The beakers are behind in the 4th quarter and half their bandwagon fans have already left the building........



The Tigers celebrate on the sideline after sacking the KU QB in the end zone to seal the win.........



Beaker fans in the foreground with long faces as the MU fans celebrate their victory over the hated rival..........



MU fans hold up a single finger in the air, chanting "We're #1!!!! We're #1!!!!".......



The scoreboard says it all while the Tiger fans rejoice.............

Kali 0.9 builds her immunity..........

Ah, yes. The joys of parenting. Kali 0.9 has followed up her first cough/cold with an ear infection. I'm guessing at this point that I shouldn't have bragged about how healthy my child has been thus far. That has all gone down the tubes in a big hurry. Got to build up your immunity at some point I suppose. Hopefully this means that the rest of the year should be a bit less eventful.

Today is the final workday before the long holiday weekend. There's lots of people working from home today or not working at all. The ladies that did come into work today organized a 'food day'. Basically, that consists of them bringing in all sorts of snack food and just grazing all day while working. I personally don't see the purpose of eating a bunch of food on the day before Thanksgiving, but as long as it makes them happy, I'm good with it.

New week, new tricks........

Kali 0.9 has racked up a couple of new tricks over the weekend. She learned how to clap on her own about a week ago and is now clapping constantly. My parents reinforced the clapping this weekend, so she's got it down pat now. Mrs. Lime has been clapping to 'If You're Happy and You Know It' for some time now, so it was only a matter of time before the clapping started.

We've also done a lot of pointing to direct Kali's attention towards various people or things to look at. She's evidently figured that out as well. This weekend, she started pointing at various things. I'm not sure that she's figure out the exact purpose of pointing, but she definitely has the motions down. Hopefully, we can start working on ways for her to actually point at something for a reason rather than just to point at something.

Coke, Murder, and California high schools.......

While in Vegas, I had a male and female player sit down on either side of me at the same time. They were both in their early 20s. They were chatting with each other and it was pretty obvious that they knew each other at some level.

As we were playing, she was on the cell phone for quite awhile talking with someone. Here are some of the comments I overheard:

---Wait, so you're telling me that Jim is a coke-head now? Geez, he used to be such a hottie. Now he's nothing but a pile of sh*#.

---Yeah, I actually had heard that Shawn was serving life in prison. Serves him right. I don't know why he was so intent on killing that guy. Only thing worse than killing the guy was the fact that he wasn't even successful and now has to spend the rest of his life in prison for an attempted murder that he botched.

The girl was pretty bossy and demanding most of the time at the table. She always had something to complain about and was always telling her friend what to do. She was bored at our table because there wasn't enough money flying around and wanted to go to another table. Rather than getting up to talk to the poker room manager or asking for him to come over to the table, she berated her friend several times to go and get a seat for her at another table because "she didn't want to miss a hand".

After a few minutes, she was finally called over to the other table. I struck up a conversation with the guy once she was gone.

Me: So, what's the deal with all of her friends being on drugs and killing people?

Guy: (Laughing) Yeah, it's a mess.

Me: Are you all boyfriend/girlfriend or what?

Guy: I suppose we're kind of boyfriend/girlfriend.

Me: I was just curious. You seemed a bit miffed at her when she was bossing you around.

Guy: (smiling) Yeah, you could say that.

Me: So why aren't your friends as messed up as her friends?

Guy: Well, they're actually friends of both of us. We went to the same high school in California together.

Me: Oh, I see.

Guy: Yeah, it's actually pretty common in California to hear stuff like that on a regular basis. You just get used to people doing stupid things.

Me: It would seem you have a girlfriend there who will allow for plenty of excitement, that's for sure.

Guy: (Laughing) Thanks, I suppose.

He was a really nice guy and we chatted for most of my time at the poker table. I do hope he moves on to greener pastures because that girl was bound to drive him crazy (for all the wrong reasons).

Bless you........

When we were in Vegas a couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting exchange while at the table. The poker room staff was getting ready to open up a new table right next to my table. The poker room manager turned on the microphone to make an announcement......

Manager: We're ready to open a new 1/2 No-limit table. Will the following people please report to table 22: Bill, Tom, Jake, A-choo...........

Me: (talking to guy next to me at table) Did the manager just call 'A-choo' to the new table?

Guy: Sure sounded like it. I was ready to say 'Bless you' after I heard him say it.

Me: Yeah, I didn't know if he sneezed or actually called a name. But I think he was calling the name 'A-choo'.

Just as I said 'A-choo' again, an Indian man turned and looked at me from the new table.

Me: Are you 'A-choo'?

Indian man: Yes.

Me: Ah, OK. Just was curious.

I tried to feign interest while steadfastly trying to keep a straight face. I took a peek up at the waiting list for tables. In the 1/2 No-limit game, the name 'Ashu' was listed. Evidently, that's pronounced 'A-choo'.

Mystery solved.

The root (?) of all evil..........

We went to an Italian restaurant yesterday afternoon. They have all kinds of good stuff, including various veggies. I got two stuffed zucchini for dinner, while Mrs. Lime had the lasagna.

Mrs. Lime: (looking at my plate) Is that all you're going to eat?

Me: Yeah, two of these zucchini is plenty for me. I love the veggies they serve here: stuffed zucchini, stuffed eggplant, spaghetti squash......it's all good. When I was younger, we'd eat stuff like this all the time. We used to eat zucchini and eggplant pretty often.

Mrs. Lime: I guess so. You like all of those 'root' veggies.

Me: Ummmm, squash, eggplant and zucchini aren't the roots of a plant.

Mrs. Lime: (brief pause) They aren't?

Me: They all hang from the stem of the plant. They're definitely above ground.

Mrs. Lime: Oh.

Proof that Mrs. Lime's green thumb isn't exactly up to snuff.

The Scooby-Doo motivation factor........

Ever wonder what happens when you put a 9 month old baby at one end of the table and an animated Scooby-Doo 7 feet away at the other end of the table? Watch and learn........

Scooby-Doo video

Veteran's Day

I went to the Chiefs' game yesterday afternoon. They did a great job of honoring the veterans. Before the game, the Chiefs' GM walked to the center of the field with an older man. His name was George and he was dressed in full military uniform. He fought in WWII as a pilot and was shot down over Europe by the Germans. He survived a year in a German prisoner camp and was liberated by Patton and his forces in 1945. As his achievements were listed by the stadium announcer, the roar of the crowd grew until the list was complete. At that point, a HUGE roar came as a standing ovation of at least one minute was given to George. You could see the tears coming from his eyes as he kept saying 'Thank you'.

Following that, the national anthem was sung by a Marine who had a wonderful bass voice. He sang the national anthem slow and steady without any fancy ad-libs, just like it was meant to be sung. As the anthem neared completion, the west end of the stadium (the opposite end from where our seats were located) began to roar in excitement. We looked up to the sky as that meant only one thing......a fly-by. Over the stadium roared a B-2 Stealth Bomber. We're very lucky in the midwest as many aircraft are based in this region, so we get to see a lot of fly-overs. This was the 3rd time I've seen a B-2 bomber fly over a stadium. It's always impressive as you can't hear it coming until it's right over you. It's impressive to watch and I'm surely glad that plane is on my side and not someone else's side.

At halftime, they played some tribute music and rolled a set of images showing some soldiers from the KC metro area who had lost their life in the line of duty in Iraq. Everyone stood and watched for several minutes in silence as the list rolled by. It was tough to see the number of people listed, but as previous war veterans would tell you, war isn't pretty. You just hope for as few casulties as possible.

Moving stuff around.........

Mrs. Lime and I just recenty bought a new bed and mattress for our bedroom. As a result, the guest rooms in our home have received the hand-me-down beds, which actually are still quite nice. So future guests in our home should notice a substantial upgrate in the comfort department.

We switched up the mattress selection this time and picked up a mattress that is made to provide additional support. It's basically a really large sponge with varying materials to providea additional support. It's also wonderful because there's no springs in the mattress, so if one person comes to bed late or is stirring a lot in bed, it doesn't make any noise and won't wake the other person. It's a stealth mattress!

In related news, we're getting some new bookshelves built for Mrs. Lime. She's got a lot of medical books that are very large and VERY heavy. The stand-alone book shelves just aren't cutting it anymore. It should allow for a lot more storage space in our house.

Kali 0.8 is in the final stages of her first cold. She was feeling much better yesterday. The congestion is the worst part as it often wakes her up when she's not able to breathe really well through her nose. She usually just spits out the pacifier to remedy that problem, but it often causes her to wake up as well. Watching her drink her bottle is a bit amusing right now as well. She'll take a few drinks and then turn her head to the side to get a few breaths of air before returning to the bottle for a few more drinks. She's actually the system down quite well. If we could just add a snorkel to the bottle, she'd be doing even better.

Great news.......

I mentioned that my co-worker's son was in a bad accident last week.

Link to post

I found out today that his son is breathing on his own, has full range of body movement, and is talking to his parents. He'll be moved out of the ICU very soon. Wonderful news.

Vegas trip '07...........

I took a trip to Vegas over the weekend with the family, including the first Vegas trip for Kali 0.8. Let me first get Kali 0.8's impressions of Vegas out of the way......

---Flashing lights are very pretty and make me laugh.
---Dinging sounds when people win money are very pretty and make me laugh.
---Lots of people in the casino mean plenty of people to wave at and flash smiles.
---Having my aunts and mom take me around Vegas is tons of fun.

That sums her thoughts up. Now, on to the trip.

We got in early on Friday morning. Kali 0.8 did well on the flight until the last 20 minutes. 3 hours is a long time to ride on a plane, so she did awfully well. We checked in and found that our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked around to the various hotels for awhile. Mrs. Lime's sister, Blondie, got in around 10 AM and we met up with her along with Mrs. Lime's uncle and ate at the restaurant at Ellis Island. It's a small joint off the Strip where you can get enormous dinners for a cheap price in a place that looks like a 1970s-era restaurant. Always good food.

On the way back to our hotel, we got word that our room was ready. We got everything moved into the room. Mrs. Lime, Blondie and Kali headed out to check out the town. I headed down to the poker room in the Venetian.

Really fun table. I played $1/2 No Limit Hold 'em. Most players had between $100 and $200 in front of them. There was an Asian man who kept the table lively with constant banter and lots of bluffs that he wasn't afraid to show off. We also had a girl who looked like a poker player. She wore a cap, sunglasses, and an iPod. She had all her bases covered. The only thing she forgot to do was learn how to play poker well. She didn't raise enough when she had a good hand and got into too many pots that she never should have been in.

I profited off her bad play when she only raised to $5 on a hand and I called with 5/6 of spades. The flop came down Q94, all spades. I had flopped a flush and had two other players in the pot. I gambled a bit and made small bets to keep both of the players in the hand, hoping a 4th spade didn't hit on the last two cards. It did not and I raked in a $120 pot. The girl that had only raised to $5 had AA. Had she raised a bit more, I would have never been in that hand. Instead, I raked in a monster pot and she lamented just how bad my call was with 65 suited. I just chuckled and agreed with her, when in fact, the only bad play was her first raise which set up a big loss.

After a few hours and up $80, I left to go eat dinner with the girls at a steakhouse run by Emeril of Food Network fame. Great food and Kali was well behaved. Blondie had champagne and a cake ready for us when we got back to the room since we were still celebrating Mrs. Lime's birthday. Great strawberry cake that I'd love to try to make myself at some point. My sister and brother-in-law later arrived to finish off the champagne and eat some cake and then everyone headed to bed.

Saturday morning was a bit of a jumble. Everyone slept in late except Kali, so I got up with her and played for a few hours. She was on Central time and we were on Pacific time, so she woke up around 5:15 AM ready for action. Everyone else slowly got up and I headed over with the girls to the Forum Shops at Caesar's. First thing I noticed was that Pete Rose is still there. He has this deal with a sports memorabilia store where he signs autographs 5 days a week for about $35 a signature in addition to a flat fee that he receives from the store. Many of you know that Pete Rose was banned from baseball for sports gambling. Evidently, old habits die hard as I found out from a poker dealer. Pete still goes to the Rio and Palms casinos to gamble a few times a week.

We ate at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the shops. After that, I headed over to the Wynn to meet my sister and her husband while the girls did more shopping. Mizzou was playing against Colorado and I wanted to get in a bet. We sat down next to some people who were Notre Dame fans and watch the game with them. Great game that Notre Dame lost in 3 OT's. Once the Irish game was over, we took over their seats and watched the Mizzou game. Mizzou laid a beating on the Buffaloes, winning the game 55-10 and winning me $20. Lots of fun to watch all the games at the same time on the various TV's.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Venetian. Kali managed to charm the pants off of several Italian waiters. They also had musicians wandering from table to table, playing whatever music was requested. They walked up to our table and started playing the 'Barney' theme song, which Kali loved. She laughed at the violin player during the whole song. After that, they played a song which everyone was singing, which Kali loved as well. I think the musicians didn't even need a tip after enjoying Kali's reaction to all the music and singing. But we tipped them anyway.

I took the bullet for the team (since I was tired) and stayed in the room with Kali so she could go to sleep. Everyone else headed out to a bar. They evidently had a band performing there that was lip-syncing lots of Bon Jovi songs. Evidently, it was so bad that it made for good entertainment. I also got a text message from my brother-in-law that he was sitting near Johnny Unitas. Blondie headed over to get an autograph for her boyfriend, and the guy reluctantly gave an autograph. Mrs. Lime pulled up a picture of Johnny Unitas and the picture did look like the guy, but the website also noted that Johnny Unitas had died 5 YEARS AGO. So evidently, it wasn't Johnny Unitas.

The group also went to a nightclub in the Venetian called Tao. Evidently there was a lot of dancing and drinking. The report from my brother-in-law was that he "saw a side of my wife that he never knew existed." I enquired about this comment with my wife later on. Her only response was that the group wanted her to dance on the bar, but she refused to do it unless the whole group did it. So, in other words, it was just Mrs. Lime behaving normally.

Sunday, I headed down with Kali to get a reservation for dinner that night and get some breakfast. We happened to run into a man who was obviously from Britain who was a bit confused about the breakfast menu, so I helped him out with the ordering process. He sat down near me to chat while eating.

Brit: Thanks for helping me out with the order.

Me: Not a problem. You hear on business or pleasure?

Brit: Business, though I do plan to have a bit of fun too. Does this casino stuff go on all day and all night long?

Me: Yep, 24/7.

Brit: (laughing) Bloody hell! You Americans are crazy! The time change is about 8 hours, so my clock is a bit off.

Me: Well, that's the beauty of Vegas. Sleep when you get tired and when you wake up, there's bound to be something to do no matter what time it is.

Brit: So true.

We chatted about his family and his job. I also gave him a few pointers on stuff to do. He thanked me again for the conversation and shook my hand. I finished up and took Kali back up to the room. I then headed back down to put some money on the pro football games.

I went over to the poker room to watch the Chiefs game, as it's non-smoking. The Chiefs ended up losing, so that wasn't all that great. Had fun at another good poker table. I lost around $30 for the whole session. I did manage to make a couple of good plays. In one case, I noticed a guy who was severely on tilt (i.e. he was mad about losing and was betting recklessly in anger on the next hand). I called his raise and his following raises. He shockingly went all-in on the river. I was shocked because I had hit a straight on the river card. He flipped over a pair of 6's and I took down a $200 pot. I made another good play when I had AQ and there was an ace on the flop. I thought I had him beat and made a small raise. He called. The next card was a jack, which worried me quite a bit for some reason. I bet $25. His hand began shaking violently. As he reached for his chip stack, he knocked it over and then bet $75. I just laughed and said, "You just hit two pair! You have AJ, don't you?". I folded my AQ upright so he could see my fold. He smiled and flipped over........AJ. Great read. I lost money on that hand, but it could have been much worse.

Mrs. Lime brought down Kali and I went outside to watch Kali for a moment while Mrs. Lime took care of some stuff. Kali and I learned a shocking new trick. If you are a man and you stand at the bottom of the escalator with a cute baby who smiles and waives at everyone coming down that escalator, there's a good chance that you're going to get a lot of attention from a lot of women. If I was single, Kali would have easily landed me 15-20 dates over the course of 20 minutes. Who knew? Mrs. Lime was not surprised in the least by this revelation.

We had dinner with some friends who had recently moved out to Vegas on Sunday evening and then headed back to KC on Monday morning. Lots of fun as always and we'll likely be back there again relatively soon.

Gwen 0.5 and Kali 0.8 say Happy Halloween!!!!

Kali and her cousin, Gwen............

Just one more year added on........

October 31st is here again. Halloween for some, but in our family, it takes on a much greater focus. It's Mrs. Lime's birthday! Yes, Mrs. Lime is 29 years old again (for the 4th straight year). We're excited to have a nice quiet evening and pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters that wander by our house.

Kali 0.8 hasn't quite figured out that she's supposed to be scared of all of the Halloween decorations in our home. She laughs at the headless man screaming over the loss of his body. She giggles at the near-death butler, who's heavy breathing sends other children running in fear. She watches the spider that hangs above the doorway, fully knowing that it will drop at any second on its web to scare most others. Yes, we're obviously raising a child with a warped vision of Halloween. When she grows up, she'll be the leader of the group, dragging everyone else through the haunted houses. She'll tell them "there's nothing to be scared of" while the other children hide behind her. What do you expect from the child of a person born on Halloween?!?!?!

In an instant...........

I have a co-worker who has two kids. He has a boy who is 21 and a girl who is 17. He paints a picture of the two kids that could not be more contrasting.

His 21 year old son was never a great student. He is taking college classes here and there, but he's not going to school full-time. He does enjoy playing hockey and his parents try to support him in that endeavor. He wants to have money, but he constantly gets fired from jobs that aren't that difficult overall. He feels he is 'above them', despite the fact that he continues to not perform well due to laziness. His dad worries that he may not get out of his current rut.

His daughter is a straight-A student. She studies a lot and has some scholarships already locked up so she can go to college. She doesn't cause any major problems for her parents and is very responsible.

Today, I found out that his son was in a car accident over the weekend and is in a coma with a major head injury. His father had always said he drove wild and received speeding tickets. I just hate that his mom and dad has to go through this situation. He'd likely take back his ill-mannered, undisciplined son in a moment if it meant he would come out of this OK. I hope he has that opportunity.

Party time in the bath!!!!!

Click the link below to see just how fun a rubber duckie can be!!!!!

Bath time video!

Kali 0.8 picture blowout..........

Oh yeah! Grandparents rejoice (along with everyone else of course)! It's a Kali picture blowout.

Bathtime! The photos were taken at the proper angles to maintain the greatest level of privacy for our 8 month old friend.........







Showing off in purple...........









Playing with the lamb..........



Enough with the pictures, Mommy!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything checked out fine.........

Kali 0.8 has been growing like a weed. She's already growing out of some of her 12 month old clothing despite only being 8 months. We're lucky to get 10 uses out of a set of pajamas before she looks like a scuba diver in a skin-tight wet suit.

Last week, Mrs. Lime took Kali in for a check-up and a flu-shot. Kali reportedly took the shot like a champ, barely even flinching. The doctor did some measurements and found that Kali's weight and height remained at a steady rate, but her head size had jumped up to the 95% range. As a conservative precaution, the doctor wanted Kali to get an ultrasound of her head to make sure nothing was amiss.

I'm happy to report that nothing was amiss, other than the fact that our child is about to shoot off the top end of the children's growth chart. Hopefully her grades in school match her growth percentages.

Bath time........

Big-time bath last night for Kali 0.8. Here's the schedule......

6:37 PM - Takes off clothes and diaper (I actually did the work, not Kali).
6:38 PM - Run the bath water.
6:40 PM - Baby gets put into the bathtub with toys.
7:25 PM - Baby finally finished playing with toys and shows sleepy signs.
7:27 PM - Put soap on washcloth and give baby a scrub-down
7:29 PM - Baby is out and dry.
7:30 PM - PJ's are on and she's ready for a before-bed snack.
8:00 PM - Off to bed.

Just your average 50 minute bath before Kali goes to sleep.

The jail cell in our bedroom.........

I woke up at around 3:00 AM last night. I heard a scratching noise on the floor. That's not all that unusual as Nova 7.7 often scratches on the floor when he stretches or adjusts his body during the night. I closed my eyes to go back to sleep when I heard it again.........more scratching noises.

It sounded like it was coming from both sides of the bed. I peeked over the edge of the bed and didn't see anything. I laid back down. More scratching noises. I peeked over a bit further and found the problem. Nova's head was sticking out from under the bed and the rest of his body was stuck beneath it. Something like this had happened before. What happens is that he can fit under the bed when he's laying on his side, but when he flips onto his tummy, he can't get out. He sleeps on his side and likely scooted under the bed while he was sleeping.

So I got out of bed to assist him. I flipped him on his side and dragged him out. He came out of the ordeal unscathed and laid back down to finish out a full night of sleep.

Piecing stuff together.......

Spent some time getting some things done around the house this weekend. We purchased a new bedroom set so that we could have additional visitors in our house. We're going to move a queen bed into the empty bedroom. Eventually, that will be Kali 0.8's bed when she's old enough.

I did a lot of work to fix things up around the house. Changed furnace filters for the winter, glued some furniture together, moved boxes around, cleaned up around the house, etc. Lots of busy work that had to be done.

Fall finally set in today. The day started sunny and in the 70's, but quickly fell into the 50's later in the day. It's supposed to be no higher than the 60's all week, so I think Summer has finally left the building. Additionally, Nova 7.7 was kept busy all day by the squirrel activity in the back yard. They've been picking up the walnuts that have been falling off our walnut tree and burying the nuts all over the place. Our back yard is a squirrel buffet right now.

We're having our Halloween party this upcoming weekend. Should be a lot of fun. I'm interested to see what kind of costumes show up. Mrs. Lime is planning on losing her head for the event. I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I've got a few costumes in a closet that I'll likely dig through the night before.

Kali 0.8 still growing like a weed........

Kali 0.8 went for a check-up and to get a flu shot the other day. She's still at the 90% level for height and 90% level for weight. We've obviously done something to cause exponential growth in the child. Was it the food or the genes? You decide.

Where am I going?

So, as is so often the case, death of a friend or family member brings on the inevitable discussion of topics related to death. Mrs. Lime and I had one of those conversations after leaving the cemetery where my great-grandmother was buried......

Mrs. Lime: So, do you want to be buried or cremated?

Me: You know I want to be cremated. I'm not all that keen on getting stuffed and put on display.

Mrs. Lime: OK, so what do you want done with your ashes?

Me: I've already told you that as well.

Mrs. Lime: Yeah, you said you wanted your ashes spread around Mizzou Arena.

Me: No, that's not what I said. I said I wanted you to spill a sugar-filled drink under my seats at Mizzou Arena and then spread my ashes around in the spilled drink. That way, when the cleaning staff comes through, they won't be able to clean me up and throw me away. I'll be stuck to the floor forever.

Mrs. Lime: OK, so what do you want done with the rest of your ashes? I can't dump all of you under a seat.

Me: I don't know......you could put me in a locket for a necklace or something.

Mrs. Lime: Yeah, but I couldn't put all of you in that. It would have to be an awfully big locket.

Me: OK, so put my arm in a locket.

Mrs. Lime: I don't think that anything more than the end of your pinky would fit into a locket.

Me: Fair enough.

Mrs. Lime: OK, so where do I put the rest of you?

Me: I'm not sure.

So, I suppose I'm still stuck with half of me not knowing where it's going to end up. I'll have to keep thinking about. If anyone knows of any good places to stick my ashes, feel free to e-mail me and let me know. I'm looking for a good place to call my eternal home.

Sounds like a good life to me........

I'm really not too sure how long 100 years is at any level. I've only been around for 1/3 of a century. My great-grandmother does know. She finally decided that 103 years and 5 months was long enough to hang around here and passed away on October 11th. It was a bit discouraging because I was planning to head down to see her this coming weekend as we finally had some free time available, but it wasn't to be. I'm still very happy for her that she had a long life with many wonderful times and is finally able to see everyone who passed on before her, including her husband who she outlived by over 30 years.

Events that happened the year she was born (1904)........

-The U.S. bought the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.

-The first tunnel was completed under the Hudson River.

-Longacre Square in New York City was renamed Times Square in honor of the New York Times newspaper.

-6 days before my grandmother was born, Cy Young threw the first ever perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

-The ice cream cone was invented at the World's Fair in St. Louis.

-The first line of the New York City subway was opened.

-Theodore Roosevelt beat Alton B. Parker to become the President of the United States.

-'Madame Butterfly' and 'Peter Pan' both premiered, with both of them receiving lukewarm reviews. Both eventually became successful and are still popular today.


Some things I remember about my grandmother........

-Wonderful cook. We always got to have great meals when we headed down to her house

-The pool table in her basement. They actually put the table in before they built the rest of the house as it was too big to fit down the stairs. Someone will have to bust it into pieces to get it out of there. The grand kids would go down and beat up that pool table at every family gathering.

-The storm shelter in her house. The home she lived in was actually built with a storm shelter that was actually underground in-between her home and the neighbor home. You could actually go into the neighbor's basement through the storm shelter. Needless to say, homes aren't built that way anymore.

-Very good Pitch player. For those that don't know, that's a card game that the family played.

-Her old car. She had it for years and never put many miles on it. The one car garage was barely big enough to hold it. It was a monstrous vehicle.

-Afghan blankets which she crocheted herself. Later, when she was older (late 90's), she scaled back and made pot-holders instead of blankets. We still use those pot-holders all the time. They're mismatched and sometimes are split into multiple colors because she ran out of one color halfway through the process. She'd just switch to a different color and keep on going.

-Costume jewelry Christmas trees. She had tons of cheap jewelry that she would mount on a board and them in a frame and create Christmas trees out of old jewelry. They were gaudy and beautiful all at the same time.

-Candy dishes. They were everywhere in the house and always full of candy. She had one dish in the living room that always had candy that I didn't like. Thankfully, the other dishes had more than enough candy to keep me busy.

-The eye-glasses. She wore the same style of glasses for as long as I can remember. She would upgrade the prescription, but the frames would always be the same style. Her twin sister wore the same style of glasses as well.

-She loved lots of flowers and bushes. Always lots of both in her yard.

-The appetite. Even when she was 100+, she still ate pretty well and loved it when we showed up with some food from outside the nursing home. If we showed up with a pizza, she'd say that she only needed one piece and then proceed to eat half the pizza. If we showed up with a milkshake, she'd say she only wanted a taste of it and then finish off the whole milkshake.

-She's always called Wal-Mart "Wal-Marks". I'm not sure why or how that started. But I'd correct her and she'd always note it and then proceed to say "Wal-Marks" again. So I eventually didn't even bother with the correction.

-Sequins on her shoes. She'd always have some crazy shoes that she'd wear that would glitter and shine with bright colors. They were the kind of shoes that only certain people can get away with wearing.

-Her daughter's death. My grandma and great-grandma occasionally were at odds and wouldn't talk to each other at times for various reasons. My grandma died a few years ago and my great-grandma attended her funeral. When she saw her daughter in the casket, I remember her saying 'Oh baby, sweet baby!' while crying. You could tell that it was a great loss for her to lose one of her children. They obviously loved each other, but all I could think about was how much time they spent being upset at each other for small things that really aren't that important. I have no idea why that hangs with me so much, but it does for some reason. It's a good, but tough lesson. Life is too short to sweat the minor stuff in life, even when you live 103 years.

-"WOO-HOO!!!" When we went to her house, we'd always walk right in as she would have the front door unlocked. She'd never been in the front room. So we'd always yell "WOO-HOO!!!" as soon as we came in the front door. You wouldn't have to wait long to hear a "WOO-HOO!!!" reply from somewhere to let you know where she was at in the house.

-She met my wife and daughter. It's unbelievable that my wife didn't meet her until she was 90 and still was able part of our relationship and marriage for 14 years after that. My daughter was able to meet her great-great-grandmother. Usually, I would take center stage when I visited her in the nursing home. She would tell everyone that would listen that I was her grandson. But when we visited with Kali, I played second fiddle. To everyone that would listen, she would tell them that Kali was her grand-baby. It was only for a couple hours, but she couldn't have been more proud. Link to visit

A tale of two guards..........

I work in a federal building in the Kansas City area. Naturally, the building is pretty heavily guarded and fortified on the perimeter because of the 9/11/2001 terror attack. There are large cement pillars surrounding the building and there are 8-10 guards guarding the 3 main entrances.

When I walk into the building each morning around 6:00 AM, there's always the same two guards at the door. I find their demeanors to be pretty interesting and contrasting in how they present themselves. The first guard has a rough look to him. He's a chain smoker who is often guarding the building from the designated smoking area outside the doors. When he is inside the doors, he's often complaining to the other guard about something, often using curse words to describe the situation. I've also seen him in the cafeteria, bemoaning the lack of quality food and complaining that the one thing he likes isn't being offered that day. I just really can't think of a time when he's ever been pleasant to anyone.

The other guard is the exact opposite. He's a very clean-cut guy. Always has a smile on his face. He also says hello to everyone as they come in. Some people might think that his job isn't to say hi to everyone, but rather to guard the building. I'd argue that he's quickly learning faces by saying hi to everyone and it allows him to quickly identify new people coming into the building who he hasn't seen before who might be a threat to people in the facility. I also feel sorry for the guy because he watches the same door as the first guard, meaning he has to listen to all of the first guard's complaints on an everyday basis. But he doesn't seem to mind from what I've seen. Kudos to him because it would drive me nuts.

Either way, I'm sure that both of these guys are helping to keep the facility safe. I'm just amazed at the stark contrasts between the two guards.

Sandwich dissection............

I went to the Subway shop to get some sandwiches a couple of nights ago. I already had ordered my sandwiches and was letting the girl at the counter know which veggies I wanted on each sandwich. To my right was a man who had just finished that process. The girl working for Subway was cutting the sandwiches and was getting ready to wrap it........

Man: Could I get that foot-long sandwich cut into fourths?

Subway girl: Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I already cut it in half.

Pure comedy gold.

Just so you understand................

The Mizzou Tigers football team is now ranked #11 in the country. That's the highest they've been ranked since I was in 1st grade (that's 1981 for you all keeping score at home). That's a LONG time ago. They're now 5-0 and face Oklahoma in Norman this weekend.

If Mizzou can manage to win in Norman for the first time since 1966 (which was 8 years before my birth), they will be in excellent position to push for a Big 12 North championship and have their first shot at a Big 12 football title. Also, they would jump into the middle of the top 10 in the nation and would be one of only a few teams mentioned as a national championship contender.

Let me put this to you bluntly.......

If MU does not win this weekend, they're still in a great position to win the Big 12 North.

If MU beats OU in Norman this weekend, I will openly weep like a little schoolgirl. Consider yourself warned.

Could you kick their dog too??????

One of my friends had to drive up to Nebraska Sunday afternoon on I-29. Of course, many Nebraska fans were headed back to their home state on that same road after being in Columbia, Missouri late Saturday night for the Mizzou/Nebraska football game.

I was told that an industrious group of Mizzou fans made the trip home for Nebraska fans one to remember. On several bridges going over the highway, people had hung large Mizzou banners complete with Tiger Tails attached to the banner. Better yet, they only hung the banners from bridges that didn't have any exits (i.e. there was no way Nebraska fans could take the exit and remove the signs from the bridges). So in case the whipping that Mizzou gave Nebraska on Saturday wasn't enough, the Nebraska fans had to relive the whole episode all the way home as they passed bridge after bridge covered with Mizzou banners.

Tip of the cap to Columbus.......

Thanks to Christopher Columbus, I had the day off today. Mrs. Lime had done some late night work, so the baby duty was on me for the morning. We took some time to play, ate some squash and turkey, took a nap, and changed a couple of diapers. All in a morning's work.

Kali 0.7 has learned a couple of new tricks. She's now waiving and anything and everything. She sees a painting.....and waves at it. She sees a witch decoration in the house.......and waves at it. A clock on the wall.......deserves a wave. She's greeted the entire house at this point.

She's also pretty good at standing on her own against the coffee table. She can set her arms on top of the table and stand on her own. She is also to the point where she can pull herself to her knees from a sitting position by grabbing on to the coffee table.

She's improving by leaps and bounds with her mobility as well. I set her down 8 feet from the coffee table and went in to get a bottle. I came back in the room a couple of minutes later and she had scooted over to the table on her own. Going to have to start hancuffing her to furniture when I leave the room.

Poker, birthdays, football, and baptisms.......

Mrs. Lime and I finally got a will written and signed. It's always nice to sign some documents about your death. Hopefully I live forever and no one has to bother trying to translate it. Kali 0.7 played and giggled on the table the entire time while we were signing the wills. She saw the terms of the will, so she was likely already counting my money in her head. I'll assume the next time a bottle comes flying at my head that she's trying to take me out.

Today is my birthday as well. I'm now sitting at the very interesting age of 33. Why is it interesting you say? Well, I suppose it's more interesting than 32, but I'll get back to you on that after a few days of being 33.

I went with Rudy to the poker tables last night to try my birthday luck. Managed to win about $40 and Rudy broke even, so all is well in that regard. We had some pretty bad players sit down at our table through the night and about half the table was poker room regulars. I made some pretty good reads all night long. There was a few hands where I had absolutely nothing, but it was as if the other person had turned over their hands and I knew exactly what they had. Makes poker awfully easy when you can play it knowing what your opponent has in his hand.

I also managed to put a regular player 'on tilt'. Putting a player 'on tilt' means you push them to a point where they are playing emotionally rather than playing logically. If you can get a player to do that, they're going to give away some chips in a big hurry. I had played with this guy before and put him on tilt, so I knew it could be done. I won a hand off him and then told him that I was convinced that he didn't have anything. This sent him on a pretty quick downward spiral. Over the next 1 1/2 hours after that hand, this guy dumped $200 into the table. That's a best-case scenario as a player, especially when you know they're likely playing some bad hands and making unwise decisions. During that same time, I went from $70 down to $60 up. That 1 1/2 hours made for a profitable night.

We have a busy weekend coming up. My birthday is today, tomorrow is the huge Nebraska-Mizzou football game (which will likely decide the Big 12 North winner), and Sunday is Kali's baptism. Just another weekend at the Lime household I suppose.

New sign needed..........

I was driving back with Kali 0.7 on Sunday when I noticed a sign at the border that was posted by the Missouri Dept. of Transportation. It read:

Hit a worker?
$10,000 fine
Lose your license

Maybe it's me, but that seems like an awfully lenient punishment for whacking a construction worker with your vehicle. I'm guessing that worker that is hit would likely feel the same. I propose a sign to portray a much more accurate situation of what may occur.

Hit or kill a worker?
Felony conviction
Spend your entire life in a cell with a guy named Bubba

Now that's a sign that would get my attention.

Kali 0.7 and Mr. Mom survive the weekend........

Kali 0.7 and I survived the weekend with flying colors. She only woke up once the first night and slept the whole night on Friday and Saturday night. She was pretty well behaved other than a few hours Friday where she would fuss every time I set her down. For some reason, she wanted to be held all the time. She woke up suddenly while my dad and I were out to eat and was frightened. I'm guessing that is what caused her to act like that.

For the record, the final staggering totals for the weekend were......

25 dirty diapers
90 ounces of formula
24 ounces of meat
40 ounces of vegetables

......and a whole lot of love and play time.

Dubious impressions........

I went in to the dentist office yesterday to get some impressions done. That's the process where they stick a big pile of slimy pink stuff in your mouth and 30 seconds later, it comes out as a perfect mold of your teeth. It's really not fun and somewhat icky (for lack of a better word).

I get to the office and find just one lady taking care of the whole place. My dentist has two offices and evidently they're all at the other office. This lady is evidently the one that does impressions and helps out with some of the cosmetic procedures.

Attractive girl in her 20s who's pretty flirtatious. She sits me down in the chair and starts some side-chatting.

Lady: So, how are you today?

Me: Great.

Lady: Outstanding. My name is Susan and I'll be doing the impressions for you today. Here's the remote. I'm not sure how to get the TV to work. I'll let you give it a try.

I fumbled around with the remote while she was out of the room. Couldn't get it to work. She eventually came back in.

Lady: So, you couldn't get it to work either? Bet you thought I was just the dumb blond who doesn't know anything about technology!

She pushed a few buttons and finally got the TV to work, but there was no sound. She left it on a luau show on the Travel Channel.

Lady: Ah, well. Hawaii's nice, even without sound. So, do you have any kids?

Me: Yep, I have a 7 month old.

Lady: Boy or girl?

Me: Girl.

Lady: AWWWWWWWWWWW! What's her name?

Me: Kali.

Lady: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I bet she's a cutie. I have a 5 and 7 year old. Love 'em. OK, we're ready to do the first impression. I'll go ahead and put a bib on you and treat you like a baby!

At this point, she had loaded up this impression thing full of pink goop and was ready to do the impression. At this point, I made a comment that I didn't think fully through until after I said it..........

Me: Are you going to stick that whole thing in my mouth?

Lady: (laughing at my comment) Yep!!!! Are you one of those people that gags when it's put in your mouth?

Me: Ummmmm, I don't know.

Lady: Well, just breathe through your nose and don't think about what's going on.

I'm not sure I need to comment any further about the above conversation. The best thing was that I had no way of talking any more at that point with the impression mold in my mouth. I was drooling all over my bib while staring at the ceiling trying not to toss my cookies all over myself. Meanwhile, the lady is still smiling and occasionally giggling from our previous conversation.

Lady: OK, all done! Thanks for not throwing up on me!

Me: Not a problem. It was the least I could do.

She did the other bottom impression without any issues. She let me rinse out my mouth and sent me on my way with a smile and a wave. I'm pretty sure that I was the butt of multiple jokes at her home last night. I suppose it's my special way of bringing joy into other people's lives.

***sigh***

Thus, the great crusade begins.........

Beginning tonight, I embrace my parental independence for an extended period of time. Mrs. Lime is heading out to Baltimore for a medical conference, so I'm going to be Mr. Mom for the next 3 days and nights. It will be a long and arduous task, one fraught with great peril (i.e. poopy diapers and spit-up). I will have to bring my 'A+' game to vanquish the tyrannical foe otherwise known as a baby's short attention span. The weapons against this foe include funny faces, bad dancing, lots of 'patty-cake', and several trips to play with the dog laying across the room.

If you don't see many posts in the coming few days, fear not. It's likely that I've been beaten by my itty-bitty nemesis to the point of silence. Mrs. Lime will likely come home to find two people sprawled out on the couch. One daddy and one baby, both having pushed each other to the point of exhaustion over the course of 3 days. However, if Kali 0.7 and I do survive the weekend, we will likely be awarded the 'LPABPCGA' medal (that's the Little People And Big People Can Get Along' medal for those who might be unaware). I hope that my 'mini-me' and I are able to succeed and conquer this difficult challenge. Wish us luck.

Big development in the poker community.........

Amazing development that will likely change the poker landscape as we know it. A 18 year old Norwegian woman has become the first ever woman to win a main event World Series of Poker bracelet. This is a huge development in the world of poker on three levels.

First, it should provide a monumental boost to female interest in the game. Poker, despite having no barriers to entry regarding sex, is still generally played by men. Most tournaments have at least 90% of the entrants being men. A boost in the female poker population is sorely needed as it's an untapped market thus far. With a woman finally breaking through to win a main event, the interest in poker will grow exponentially, much like the growth in amateurs playing the game after an unknown amateur named Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP main event in 2003.

Second, there's going to be a large influx of both online and live female poker players, especially in Europe. Annette (the woman who won the tournament) is likely to get a contract from an online poker site between $10-20 million dollars. That's an insane amount, but the number of players that she will draw to a website will pay for that contract in a year, if not sooner. It's great for poker because it draws women in to play the game and it also brings more money to the tables.

Third, it may well be the final straw in the battle to legalize online gaming in the U.S. The European countries are likely to see a massive inflow of tax dollars from the increased poker play and resulting tax dollars. There are currently two bills in the U.S. Congress that would legalize online gaming, regulate the industry and tax it. As the revenue from these forms of gaming continues to increase, lawmakers will be pressed further by lobbies and constituents to tax the online gaming in the U.S. that is currently going untaxed. The sooner the U.S. government removed the online gaming prohibition, the better for both the poker community and the tax income of the U.S.

Here's the article from CNN:

Norway's 18-Year-Old Annette Obrestad Stuns Poker World With 1 Million Pounds Sterling Win In First World Series of Poker(R) Europe


LONDON, Sept. 16 -- Annette Obrestad became the youngest bracelet winner in World Series of Poker history early today by conquering the Main Event at the first annual WSOP Europe.

The 18-year-old Norwegian played masterfully over the course of the five- day 10,000 pounds buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'Em Championship, outlasting a field that included the strongest showing of professionals in European poker history.

"I never expected to win," said the composed and articulate Obrestad, who turns 19 in just one day. "I'm speechless. I really don't know what to say."

"In the end, the Europeans dominated here," said WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. "But this is the start of a new tradition for the World Series of Poker and the European and global poker communities. WSOP Europe will provide more exciting action in the years to come and we're confident poker greats from all over the world - and across the generations - will shine here, just as they have in Las Vegas."

Obrestad's win capped a series that saw European players - make that young European poker players - shut out veteran American professionals by winning all three WSOP bracelets up for grabs. Her victory over 22-year-old John Tabatabai of London came when her three sevens beat his two pair.

Obrestad won the 1 million pounds, or $2,013,102, first-place prize and the most coveted prize in all of gaming, a World Series of Poker 18-karat gold and jewel-encrusted bracelet created by luxury Swiss watchmaker CORUM, the official timepiece of the WSOP. Tabatabai earned £570,150, or $1,147,770, for second place.

With her performance, Obrestad's payday snapped two records held by poker pro Annie Duke. The first was Duke's one-day-old record as the first woman to exceed $1 million in official WSOP winnings, thanks to her 21st place finish in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Duke's 30,770 pounds, or $61,943, payday saw her edge just over the $1 million earnings mark. Duke also held the single- event record win for a woman with her $2 million winner-take-all victory in the 2004 Tournament of Champions staged by Harrah's Entertainment.

Time for some new teeth.......

Went to the dentist yesterday to get checked out. The dentist himself did the teeth cleaning, which was a nice touch. Most of them leave all that to their assistants. The new dentist has individual flat screen TV's on each chair (with remote control!) and was taking digital x-ray films that immediately downloaded to the computer. Pretty cool stuff.

I was warned by my dentist that there was going to be a patient in the room next to mine that may be a problem. She had evidently caused the assistants a lot of problems the last time she was in, so the dentist was prepared to toss her out of the office if she created similar problems. He said he had never done that before, but this lady was over the top. Thankfully, she behaved relatively well, although she did complain quite a bit.

The dentist plans on giving me some new teeth in a couple of weeks. My front two teeth are false from an accident as a child. My sister and I were at the bus stop right after a big ice storm. Everything was glazed in ice. My sister started walking up the curb and using it like a treadmill. I decided to do the same thing. Unfortunately, my feet slipped out from under me and I went teeth-first into the driveway, busting out my two front teeth. I've had my current teeth for about 15-20 years, so it's time to get some new ones. Hopefully, these teeth will last another 20 years.

Busy-bodies............

Mrs. Lime and I had a busy weekend. We went to a fancy bar downtown on Friday night to meet with some of Mrs. Lime's friends. Had a great time. Kali 0.7 came along for the ride and loved the bar, which had a lot of back lighting under the bar, causing the bar to glow. She kept smacking it with her hands and staring at the bartenders. I'm sure they don't have a 7 month old belly-up to the bar that often.

Saturday, we dove into some projects that really needed to get done. Mrs. Lime organized her office and I cleaned up stuff in the spare bedroom that will eventually be Kali's new bedroom once she's old enough to sleep in a bed. It was badly needed. It's one of those things that you have to actually focus a free day to get done with a baby in the house. Otherwise, it will never get done.

Yesterday, I headed out to the Chiefs' home opener. We went over to tailgate with one of my fraternity brothers. Great food. They had grilled marinated chicken breasts and fresh curly fries cooked on-site. We also played redneck golf. It's a variant of horseshoes. You drill a hole in 2 golf balls and then attach them with a rope. Then you try to throw the rope and balls over a contraption similar to a clothes drying rack. I won my first game, proving that it's luck more than any acquired skills. I may consider building a set. It was a lot of fun and easy to learn.

Oh, and the Chiefs won. Finally picked up a win. Their division looks terrible at this point, so the Chiefs may still be in it. I'll hold out hope until proven otherwise.

Lime versus 'The Artist'..........

Mrs. Lime and I went over last night to a photo studio to get some pictures taken. Most of the photos were obviously concentrated on the lovely Kali 0.7. Mrs. Lime and I were there for some token photos just to make sure that there was some pictoral record of us ever being there.

The studio was a loft apartment with one end of it converted into a photo studio. Several computers in the area for them to work their photo magic. Mrs. Lime had set up the entire thing and talked with them, so I had no idea what to expect. We immediately started with a brief sit-down discussion where the lady asked what we wanted. Mrs. Lime mentioned a few things and just said that she liked the casual nature of their photos. Little did I know how casual it would get!


Lady: Well, with babies, we focus on naked pictures.

Me: (puzzled look shot at lady)

Lady: Let me show you all some examples.

Me: Ummmmmm, I don't think we need a bunch of naked photos.

Lady: Well, let me show you some of what we've done.......

Me: No, I don't think we want any naked photos.

Lady: I'm not sure what the point is if the baby isn't naked.


It's at this point that I decide to internalize my dialogue. In my head, I'm thinking "You'll shoot pictures of my baby in her cute sun dresses and you'll like it!". Listen, I get the whole 'pictures as art' thing that she wanted to do. But if I'm footing the bill, you're going to take the pictures that Mrs. Lime and I want, not that you think would be artsy-fartsy.

I noticed the lady's husband go into evasive maneuvers as he said, "I'm going to go into the studio to set things up". That was his way of running away from the situation as quickly as possible because it didn't take a genius to figure out I was not too interested in his wife's opinion at that point. Smart man.

Once we finally did get in the studio, the man did the photo shoot and did a really good job. He chatted with me about photos and how to get good ones. He worked some artistic stuff into the photos while getting some good pictures that showed off our baby. I noticed that the lady left the photo shoot about halfway through to do other things. I think she was just peeved that I didn't agree with her 'vision' of the photo shoot, but I didn't really care too much.

I'd still use them for future photos. The photos were excellent from what I saw. That's all that matters in the end. Stick a big baby photo on the wall and enjoy. I fear the grandparents may have a heyday with the proofs.