Your New Branch Manager is...

Yes folks...it is official. Kris Douglas is now again gainfully employed. For some reason, a bank in Pittsburgh decided they wanted this guy to manage one of their branches. I just can't imagine handing the plumber (this was from Halloween 2004) the keys to the vault, but then again...he was always a good bullshitter. Good luck K-Daddy...try not to get arrested or involved in any money-laundering schemes.

Tons of Chalk

How much more boring and predictable can this tournament be? No Cinderella stories this year. As of tonight, the remaining eight teams are comprised of four #1 seeds, three #2 seeds and one #3 seed. This is about as odd as me not drinking wine on a Friday Night..which is also the case tonight. Weird things are going on....

Scared yet?

And now on the "serious" side...here is today's winner for "parent of the year"...a wonderful photo of a child with a Hamas headband and a suicide bomber's vest. Does anyone wonder why this stuff is never shown on the news here in the US? I sure do. We keep trying to be "politically correct" and not offend anyone, but this type of shit just scares the hell out of me.

Hooray for a Protest

I am usually not a big fan of protests run by far-left wing whackos from San Francisco. In this case I will make an exception....

The Ghetto Leprechaun

Any of you who want to laugh your ass off need to head on over to frotuss.com and check out the story about the Ghetto Leprechaun. Once you check it out, here is a "remix" for some more laughter courtesy of Mr. Hickman.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDmEGebskXk&NR

Cats are dumb...

For anyone that owns a cat, you realize that they will climb into any empty box that is laying around the house. Onyx is no exception to the rule. But you'd think that she wouldn't climb into a box that was half her size. Well...she is a dumbass and here is the proof.

An apology is in order

Recently I complained about my favorite show Lost moving very slow recently. I need to now apologize for this as the last two weeks have been great shows. My apologies to all my fellow Lost fans for straying off the path...I am now back on the straight-and-narrow and repentant.

Hangin with "The Boys"

The good news is that I don't feel terrible today. I don't feel great by any means, but I feel a hell of a lot better than I expected. I even got a chance to do the yard work today..which was about 2 weeks past due. Here is a picture of Zach and I hanging out with Scott and Ryan on the back porch last night. A good time was had by all...

A Three Bottle Night

I am going to feel so shitty tomorrow morning! This is the damage after we had Scott and Robin over tonight. They are down here in Sunny Florida from New Joisey for about a week and we decided to host them for some steaks, rice, veggies, and lots of wine. Years ago (pre-Zach) this used to be no problem, but nowadays it is a little harder to do.

More on Hoops

So everyone now knows that I am a big NCAA hoops fan...that's a given. And every year for the past five years I run the office pool where everyone throws in $10 and the winner takes all. This year will be no different as I will be passing out the sheets on Monday morning. But this year I am thinking of doing something a little more for the hardcore fans and/or gamblers that I know. Call it excellent customer service (or maybe stupidity), but I was thinking of doing a separate pool that costs at least $25 or $30 to get in. This will weed out the non-fans and give everyone a little more money to win. It would also allow me to include people who are not co-workers. Anyone interested?

Here comes the Madness

Ah yes...next week March Madness begins and all will be right with the world. There is no better sporting event than the NCAA Basketball tourney. Sure, the Super Bowl is big and can be exciting. But nothing beats the weeks of excitement, upsets and buzzer-beaters that the annual college hoops tourney brings. As usual, Thursday and Friday afternoon will involve very little work and some quality time spent at Bru's Room downing some cold beers and watching for the early round upsets. Let the games begin!

"Lost" or "24"???

As some of you know, I am a big fan of Lost. Unfortunately, I think the show has kind of "lost it's way" recently as I find myself asking more questions and getting less answers. I know the big mystery is the intention of the writers, but after a while you start to get frustrated that things are moving too slow.

Luckily, Cheryl and I became fans of 24 last season. 24 is the polar opposite of Lost in that things are always flying by and evolving by the week. Sure, it isn't as "deep" as Lost, but for some people that is your thing.

So..here is the question...which show is better? I realize that both shows are complete bullshit in their own right, but what does everyone think? I've had precious few comments recently at the Margarita Lounge, so speak up and let me know your opinion....

Bill O'Reilly and the ACLU guy

Love him or hate him, everyone has an opinion of Bill O'Reilly. I personally enjoy his show when I get the rare free time to watch it. I don't agree with him on everything, but he has some good points. I am also becoming a huge fan of Glenn Beck (Pimpbling's boy), but that is something all together separate.

My point here is that I just read Bill O'Reilly's current column (March 1st) and I thought it would be an interesting read for any of you who have kids. I think one year ago I would have ignored this story, but having an innocent little 10 pound (yes he is getting chunk-alicious) infant in my house I have become a lot more sensitive to anything involving kids. I am interested to see if any of my leftward-leaning friends have the guts to defend this ACLU guy. Here is the link:

http://www.billoreilly.com/currentarticle

Blood on the screen

About 5 years ago, it was a common situation to have blood on your screen. This was 2002 and we were in the middle of one of the worst sell-offs in modern stock market history. Every day was more miserable than the last and life sucked on Wall Street. On our quote screens at work, a stock that is up for the day is shown in green and a stock that is down is shown in red. Thus on really bad days, the screen was literally full of red...blood on the screen. Luckily for me and for investors around the world, these types of days have been rare since October 2002.

Today was a very bad flashback to those depressing days of 2001 and 2002. We were down 415 points on the Dow. I almost shit myself around 3pm when the market tanked 125 points in about 30 seconds. Something like that really scares the hell out of you, even if you are a professional who watches the markets all day. Even when it is a technical glitch like this one ended up being, it really can freak you out.

We just got our asses taken out behind the woodshed today folks...pure and simple. Sometimes its best to not ask questions, take your medicine and move on to the next day...

How fast they grow

Zach came home from the hospital at just over 6 pounds and he is already somewhere between 9 and 10. When everyone told me to take lots of pictures, they sure were right. The little dude's newborn clothes aren't gonna fit soon and the 0-3 month ones are next on deck. Unbelievable!

Payback time

As payback for locking up Onyx, I am convinced that Zach decided to be a real pain in the ass last night and keep both Cheryl and I up all night with his rather poor attitude. Somehow Onyx and Zach must have decided on payback for my actions of last night (see "I am sick" below if you haven't read it yet)...it is a conspiracy!

But it gets better.... At approx. 6:15 am, Onyx started her morning routine (about an hour earlier than normal) by sitting outside our bedroom door meowing and demanding to be fed. I put her in the garage. When I got up at 7:30 and finally fed her, she proceeded to vomit all the food back up on the floor in front of me. Coincidence? I think not. The moral of today's story is that the kitty rules the house and don't piss her off.

I am sick

I just decided to throw Onyx and Lucy together into Lucy's cage for a few minutes. Considering the cage is only about 3 feet by 2 feet and they don't like each other, this is really fun!

Enough! Please!

I know I mentioned this recently, but I am SO sick of hearing about Anna Nicole Smith. All this crap is going down less than an hour from the Margarita Lounge and I could vomit every time the media wastes MORE time on it. To use the term "circus" is really the biggest understatement of the year.

On another note, all three residents of the Lounge are doing great. Zach is behaving himself for the most part and is six weeks old on Saturday. He has already gained a few pounds and has a new nickname...Meatball.

More pictures of Zach

Here is a link for any of you who want to see more pictures of the Z man:

zachpollock.shutterfly.com

Some perspective on Iraq

I was slacking at work yesterday afternoon and decided I would do a little research on the Iraq war as well as other wars/conflicts since World War 2. As things stand now, we have been in Iraq for about 4 years and the total death toll is about 3100 US troops. Before I go any further, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea here. I am NOT trying to trivialize the deaths of US soldiers in any way and I am NOT trying to be offensive or indicate that lives are not important. I just wanted everyone to know the actual facts and numbers that we are talking about in Iraq.

Here is the LINK where I got the numbers. The summary looks like this:

World War II (5 years) 405,000 total deaths
Korea(3 years) 54,000 total deaths
Vietnam(11 years) 90,000 total deaths
Iraq(4 years) 3,100 total deaths

So..the next time you hear someone out there say how bad Iraq is and how many Americans are dying, remember these numbers. I think these numbers show how good a job the military does in protecting lives. World War 2 averaged 81,000 deaths per year and Iraq averages 775. Deaths in wars are inevitable and nobody likes wars, but to label Iraq "unprecedented" or "the worst war ever" or any of the other crap I keep hearing in the media is just wrong. End of sermon.