dandiaz’s Neighborhood

If you could be an expert in any one field, which one would you choose?

  My life!

How are you spending Valentine's Day?

I don't hate Valentine's Day, but I really don't celebrate it.  Dan and I don't get each other gifts.  Of course if there's something we've had our eye on, well that's different.  We do go out to dinner, but not on the actual day.  After years of working in the restaurant business, going out to eat on that day is a nightmare.  Unfortunately, it seems the people that are out are those who don't go out to dinner unless it's a special occasion and they're a nightmare.  Besides, food takes too long to come out.  I would beat Dan down if he showed up with roses.  The prices are so hiked up that if he would spend that much money on something that's already dead, I would be highly disappointed.  The reason I'm not crazy about this holiday is because it forces you to be romantic when this should be an ongoing occurrence.  I shouldn't have to wait until February to celebrate my marriage.

So tonight, Dan is actually bartending and my sister and the kids are coming over.  Tomorrow morning, Dan, Will, and I are going out brunch.  That's it!

My Cutie!!

Isn't this the best smile?  He's already 8 months old!  Sigh...He's growing fast.

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I usually post at my other blog, but I'm at work and don't have access to blogger.  I wanted to get this picture out there.  On Saturday, the three of us decided to go to Van Saun County Park.  This is officially the first time Will is in a park.  I know he looks serious, but he had a lot of fun.  We swung him a bit and he kept on laughing.  It was soooooo cute watching him look around at the other kids.  We even put him on a slide.  Of course we took tons of pictures.  This one is from my camera phone.  As soon as we load them up, I'll post some more.  My little guy is growing so fast!  He's already saying "da-da."  Dan is so excited about that.  Anyway, I have to go.  Enjoy the pic!

It's a new year so it must be time for me to relaunch one of my websites, right? While Spindle's official launch isn't until January 9th, I snuck in some work on my own website, loudpoet.com, over the past two days and have officially relaunched it today. It will once again be Command Central for all things Guy: Writer while Vox will be for the more personal stuff, like family updates, silly memes, and non-essential rants. (LiveJournal will be for x-posting from Vox for as long as the Russians allow loudpoet.com, and commenting on other LJs only.)

Happy New Year!

One of my all-time favorites from the 80s!  Thanks for the flashback, Rich. :-)

Clemens on HGH

1a) Roger Clemens has always been a douchebag, but now he's a cheating douchebag. F.P. Santangelo's candid comments about his own usage really put that whole bat-throwing incident with Mike Piazza back in 2000 in perspective, too: "[HGH] changes who you are. If you're a jerk, you become a bigger jerk. If you're impatient, you become more impatient. It accentuates whatever personality you have to the utmost. It gives you this false confidence."

1b) Haven't really dug into it yet but this site -- http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/ -- looks like it will make for interesting reading over the holidays.

2a) "Moral victories" are bullshit rationalizations to make losers feel better about being losers. The Jets D played pretty well on Sunday but the offense was terrible again and it's clearly not just Chad Pennington.  I have a feeling he's going to end up having another career year next season playing for someone else -- Miami? Baltimore? Kansas City? -- while Kellen Clemens, Leon Washington and Thomas Jones (if they don't trade him) continue to struggle until the offensive line gets a complete overhaul. Not paying Pete Kendall the extra $1m was a bonehead decision.

2b) Tony Romo picked the wrong Sunday to lay an egg, as his minus-17 point performance almost surely killed my playoff run in the poetsleauge fantasy football semi-finals, unless the Minnesota D can turn Kyle Orton in Rex Grossman tonight and return a few INTs for TDs. The worst part is that my team scored 201 points last week while we enjoyed a bye.  Ugh!

3) Realized Friday night that we don't have the current title for the old car and need to get a replacement one issued before we can sell it.  Ugh!  Took it out to Long Island so we won't have to move it around every other day for alternate side of the street parking rules, probably the main reason we're not keeping it.

4) Spent most of the day Saturday Xmas shopping and ended up buying more stuff for the kids and ourselves than the people we were supposed to be shopping for.  Went out on Sunday morning to get a few last minute things from Target and got a little carried away.  If they'd have had a Wii in stock, I'd have probably picked one of those up, too!

5) I could never remember which Christmas movie Heat Miser was from but Kevin's handy list of Christmas movies reminded me that it was The Year Without a Santa Claus. Coincidentally, while I was at Target yesterday, they had a Deluxe Edition DVD that I snatched up and we (Salomé and I, not Kevin and I) watched it with the kids before bed last night. It's pretty dated and doesn't hold up as well as Charlie Brown's classic tale, but the Snow Miser and Heat Miser intro songs still work for me and seemed to catch the kids' attention, too. (Salomé fell asleep halfway through!)  Makes me wonder if Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is as good as I recall, or if the Island of Misfit Toys is better off left as an untainted memory.

If you could easily choose to live in another country without all the red tape and legal stuff, which one would you select and why? 
Submitted by Matthew 25.

I would live in Madrid, Spain.  Why?  Well, for the simple fact that if my parents hadn't gotten to the United States in 1975, I would have been born there.  My mom came to the US when she was three months pregnant with me.  I've gone to Spain several times when I was a kid and absolutely loved it.  My grandmother and two aunts live there.  I mean, if I really wanted to move there I could.  Well, of course, being that Dan would come with me. 

I love the more relaxed atmosphere Spain has to offer.  I remember people enjoying their day.  Everyone works like they do here, but time seems to go by slower.  The afternoon naps the entire country takes also helps.  You walk more.  I remember walking everywhere and it was so much fun. 

Now that I'm older, I know I would enjoy it more.  The wine and food is absolutely outrageous.  I love that they eat their heaviest meal in the afternoons and have a light supper at night.  People stay up late, too.  Also, everyone seems closer to each other.

If we ever get a chance, we're taking a trip to over there.  Dan's never been and I want my family to meet Will.  Hopefully, we'll be able to make this trip soon.