FYI

In case anybody is wondering why nothing new has been posted the answer is simple. I'm currently out doing a field rotation and do not have any time to write anything. I'm not sure how long it will be until I can get something new up, possibly another month. In the meantime, feel free to shoot me an email.

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Hailey's One Year Photo Shoot

Hailey turned One-Year Old last month - Look how much this Little Princess has grown in the last year.

Our neighbor, Jennifer Cauthen, took the pictures, and did an absolutely phenomenal job.

Two links are provided to view the pictures. If you want to order any pictures then view the Snapfish Album.

If you are a member of Facebook, you can view all of the pictures from Celia's Facebook page. Obviously if you do not have Facebook, or have some difficulties viewing Celia's page, use the Snapfish link.

I didn't realize this until I posted the link, but in order to view the Snapfish album you will need to sign up for an account. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you absoultely refuse to create an account, and cannot view the photos via Facebook, email me at adromick@gmail.com, tell me that you want me to go the extra mile for you, and I'll give you the generic password to view the album.

Below is a sample of the pictures - Hailey worked it like she was a cast member of America's Next Top Model. This little girl is going to be death of me in about 15 years; mark my words.

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My Favorite Jeans

The quality of my favorite pair of jeans is questionable, to say the least – But that doesn’t mean I should stop wearing them, does it?

I own a pair of jeans that I have taken on and off many times over the years. I wear them around the house, I wear them to the grocery store, I wear them over to friends’ house, etc. If I could, I would wear this pair of jeans everyday. If I did wear the same pair of jeans ever day, would people begin to snicker snide, unflattering comments about my wardrobe and how it reflected me as a person? Could my hygiene become suspect to others, my wife included? Yes, but so what. They are my favorite pair of jeans. No other pair I own comes close in comparison.

The only problem with this pair of jeans is there are three significant holes on the left leg.

The location of the holes is not even obscene. There is one hole located at the bottom of the jeans, lower than my ankle. This hole is the direct result from the constant grind of the pavement that my shoes or boots delivered.

I generally wear my pants a little loose. Going back a few years now, baggy jeans was a fad that was quite prominent during my youth. The baggier, the better. To my older readers, the correct terminology used when describing the wear of pants below the butt crack is “saggin’.” I swear I saw guys who would have their pants sag to the their knees just as I swear I saw guys wear shorts that sagged to their ankles. I think we called those “shants” (quite original, eh?) for short.

Saggin’ in the house! I’m way to white to pull that off, aren’t I? I am completely driving on the wrong side of the road right now.

Many companies flooded the market with varying styles of baggy jeans, but one company was king, JNCO (Judge None, Choose One – JNCO). Thinking back to this fad, how did it ever work? I mean really?

I don’t know where the baggy jean phenomenon originated from, but thanks in large to Wikipedia and Google; I’m making an educated guess with the West Coast. They were everywhere I looked, and I remember so many people I knew wearing them. I never fully embraced the JNCO craze because I never owned a pair of JNCO’s, but I did enjoy a little space between my leg and the fabric.

(CHRISTMAS GAG GIFT IDEA TIME: If anybody could find me a pair of new or used JNCO’s that were sold around 1996, that would be awesome!)

I’m not fully sure when the JNCO fad ceased to exist, hell, it could have made it’s way back now for all I know. I’m so far removed from style and fashion that my word does not hold much credibility. The point is that even though different styles come and go my preference in jean wear remained loyal.

The second hole is slightly below my knee. For the life of me, I do not know how it was made. What I do know is the hole continued to grow with approximately every five wears. This is because my big toe would always find its way into the hole. I would be conscious about the hole, I would try to avoid the hole, but I always seemed to insert my toe into the hole and proceed to make it larger and larger.

The last hole is located on my thigh. When I bought the jeans I made the mistake of buying “trendy.” The jeans did not have a hole when I bought them but they did have the “worn” look. Everybody knows the “worn” look.

The worn look I’m referring to is when jeans are made with the holes, or made to look as if they were worn so much the threads are completely worn out. This was stupid and I know it. I never understood why people (or why I did for that matter) buy jeans with holes in them.

My stupidity was rewarded with the thin fabrics eventually breaking, revealing my thigh in the process. The hole is not up high enough to make anybody uncomfortable, and even if the hole did make somebody uneasy about sight of my thigh…Well I wouldn’t care.

This pair of jeans is so comfortable! I can only think of one other pair of jeans I’ve owned that I ever felt the same about. The other was a pair of Tommy Hilfiger I bought my junior year of high school, and kept all the way through college. I wore this pair of jeans as much as possible too, and consequently, this pair too was accompanied by a giant hole.

(If you haven’t noticed, I tend to hold onto clothes for a while. I hold on to a pair of shoes longer than most people hold onto a 2030 retirement mutual fund.)

The hole in my Tommy Hilfiger’s was the entire back right pocket. The hole started small and eventually grew out of control. At the holes worst, I could literally put my head inside of it. So if you think about it, I had my head up my ass.

I tried sewing the hole and I believe I even had somebody attempt to patch the hole up. Nothing worked! With a hole that large the average person would simply trash the jeans or buy a different pair; but I didn’t want a different pair. I already had a perfectly good pair of jeans, at least in my mind.

What I did was wear boxer shorts or briefs, long enough to cover any controversial area exposed by the massive butt hole. My idea worked and gave me more time with my 1^st favorite pair of jeans.

I don’t know what happened to that pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans, but I wish I did. I think they got lost in one of the man moves throughout m life. I miss those jeans though. Sigh.

What I learned about myself over the years is I’m somehow engineered to embrace a grungy look. The holes in my pants and the continued wear are not so much white trash as it’s more lack of class. Maybe I present myself negatively to strangers when they see me wear jeans that belong in a dumpster – But that’s just the way I am.

I don’t need a new, current line of designer clothes or to budget a monthly shopping trip to acquire some new threads. I’m comfortable with the way I dress and I think it properly reflects my personality, whether that be perceived good or bad.

The last thing I can tell you, the first pair of jeans I described; I’m wearing them right now. I also wore them two days ago, and the day before that. So what. Maybe someday I’ll wake up and say, “Now this is just trashy. These need to go.” But I can promise you that today’s not the day, and tomorrow is not looking likely either.

I left this part at the end for a reason, because it strips me of my dignity. Remember at the beginning when I wrote, “If I could, I would wear this pair of jeans everyday?” Yeah, well the reason I don’t – the wife. Women. . .

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NCAA Tournament Bracket

No wild stories to write about. I simply wanted to post my bracket for all the world to see. So far I'm off to a rough start with Georgetown and UTEP losing. How is everybody else's looking after Day 1?

Oh yeah, click the actual picture to enlarge and critique.

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The 20-Minute Blog

Andrew has 20 minutes until it is time to begin dinner and he challenged himself to a 20-minute blog. All ideas, typing and editing was to be done in the allotted 20-minute time frame. The fun begins. . .

The misses and I are cooking steak tonight, a favorite of ours. In a strange way, I’ve been looking forward to this evening all day. Although, today has been pretty awesome! Let me explain.

Sweatpants. I have been in sweat pants all day, well all except for 90 minutes. There was a 90-minute stretch today I took Jadon out of the house to view some toys, in order to get a better idea what to buy for his birthday (April 7 for inquiring minds). Funny story, we ended up buying this incredible Hot Wheel toy that shoots out 6 Hot Wheels at once, really fast! Toys for kids today are the coolest. Everything I had as a kid, Jadon has – And then some! To think what my grandkids will have.

Jadon and I then went to Burger King; a favorite of his. In the midst of our extravagant lunch Jadon turned to the table next to us and said in the most adorable 2 year old voice, “Hi. I Jadon!” He then proceeded to dip his finger in ketchup.

I came back home, put Jadon to bed and enjoyed 5 quiet minutes with Ceila. We began watching How I Met Your Mother, which by the way is one of the funniest shows on TV today. The reason we had 5 quiet minutes is because Hailey decided to get incredibly vocal. When she wants to, that girl can display a deep set of lungs. I really enjoy getting a rise out of her; I will yell in a high pitch soprano voice, various combinations of baby babble, and she will reply back to me, fully comprehending what I said. I don’t even know what I said today, but Hailey was passionate about our conversation.

I can’t speak for anybody else, but I wonder what goes through my kids’ mind. Celia sings all kinds of songs to Jadon and Hailey. Over the last few months, Jadon has become so familiar with the songs that Celia is now a live karaoke machine to him. Jadon loves music but the short list of his songs would be:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

The Wheels on the Bus

ABC

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Baby Bumble Bee

Any Imagination Movers song – Playhouse Disney (A personal favorite of Hailey’s too.)

Music is everywhere we go. Music is in the supermarket, in the car, at restaurants, and on TV. It is practically impossible to avoid music in today’s society; even the simplest of jingles can get stuck in your head.

I have not been in the United States for 2 years now; consequently I have not seen a US commercial for 2 years. I remember many years back that FreeCreditReport.com had this jingle that instantly was in my mind for a week. It ended something like, “free credit report dot com baby.” It was so awesomely annoying, but it worked. Now I wonder this, are these songs stuck in Jadon’s head?

Does Jadon ever ride in the car, glance over at Hailey and begin nodding Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? I wonder if he ever approaches his Baby Sissy and says, “Man I can’t get the ABC’s out of my head!” Hailey shouts back, “Agghchg, zuhhuh pah duhhdaah,” which of course translates to, “You think that’s bad, that Mom and Dad don’t stop blowing on my belly!”

I guess what I’m saying is every time I hear a Gwen Stefani I think “I aint no holla back girl” for the rest of the day, easily. Do Jadon and Hailey fall asleep thinking the same thing? Are the Imagination Movers consuming their thoughts at night? "Everybody shout what's the big idea? Hey! What's the big idea!" I don’t see how the two of us could be any different.

And that friends is my 20 minutes.

Deuces!

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Running on Empty

It’s been too long since I’ve done anything remotely active, and one thing is abundantly clear – It’s time for a change.

My current level of physical fitness is pitiful. I cannot recall the last time I felt as worthless about myself as I do now. I’m not sporting saggy man boobs or cottage cheese on my buttocks, but on the inside I feel like the ambassador of Hostess Twinkies.

The last time I conducted any type of physical activity was on or around the 29^th of January. A few days later, on February 1^st, I received my “routine” vasectomy, and I use the term routine very loosely. Nothing was ordinary about my vasectomy, at least not in my mind.

The recommended time off from physical exercise is anywhere from 1-2 weeks following a vasectomy. Due to the complications following my procedure I was instructed to stay away from the gym for at least a month, but that fast of a recovery was unrealistic barring world-class trainers and copious amounts of steroids. My situation placed me in a 2-3 month recovery, with hindrance to the most trivial day-to-day activities.

Despite my initial hesitance of surgery, I decided the surgical route to be the best choice after listening to my doctors. See, on one hand I could ride out the storm and let my body naturally absorb the swelling; or I could endure 2 more weeks of solid pain, and be roughly 80-90% at the end of week 2.

I had surgery on February 19^th so the doctors could remove a hematoma that was larger than a golf ball.

Recovery consisted of bed rest, and lots of it. Being that the pain was excruciating to simply walk to the bathroom, I openly embraced my newfound laziness. I was not about to further reinjure myself on account of being stubborn and thinking I knew more than the doctors.

I thought about exercising plenty though, I really did. However wishing for something doesn’t mean jack squat as far as physical appearance goes. Since my surgery, the most exercise I’ve done is walk up two flights of stairs. In the past month anytime I tried to be somewhat physically active, the misses would march me to the bedroom, throw some M&M’s at me, and order me to watch TV.

Since I began working out at the age of 14, this is the longest I’ve gone without any form of exercise. I’ve slacked off for a week or so in the past, but I always became so disgusted to let myself slip any further.

During the time I’ve been unable to exercise I realized how much I need physical activity to feel normal. In the last week I’ve been a shell of myself. My ambition has/is steadily dropping, and to describe my behavior as lethargic would be a compliment. Celia summed it up the best when she told me “get the poop out of your pants.”

If all goes according to plan I should be able to ease my way back into the gym this weekend. I know I will have to fight a strong urge to not push myself to the limit right out of the gate. For the past month I’ve been on a steady diet of M&M’s, Sour Patch Kids, Percocet, and Jack Bauer.

What would you do if you were me? Probably the same thing I’ll end up doing come Saturday – Try to get it all back at once. I know it will take some time until I’m back to my old self, but I do know one thing for sure. I’ll finally get the poop out of my pants and begin feeling better about myself.

And it’s about time!

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