Garbunzl.com

My response to Jonspach’s post.

What is this?
Well, you’re supposed to bold the things you’ve done so readers can find out how you’ve led an awesome life so far.

Here’s what I have done:
1. Started your own blog Ummm, yeah
2. Slept under the stars camping when I was a kid
3. Played in a band (Rock Band: start a band, rock the world)
4. Visited Hawaii(honeymoon 2000)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland(twice)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (Rockband again)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (7-eleven, egg-salad sandwich)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables every year
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort It was quite impressive…or so I remember.
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (To Victoria)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language HTML?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David (more…)

Well, Nick and I were playing Wii Sports on Saturday and I started losing to him at baseball. I started joking that they would have to invoke the mercy rule and that’s just what happened! In fact, I started throwing some real nasty stuff at the end, 93MPH (my max on the Wii so far), screwballs, etc. and he responded by hitting back-to-back-to-back homeruns to win. He also beats me regularly in bowling but I usually still come out on top in golf. Also, I never realized how important it was to stretch before playing video games. You get a workout throwing those heaters. The boxing game is a real workout though.

I’ve been tagged by my wife. Wow, reminds me of being on the playground back in 3rd grade. I’d spend my recess playing freeze tag (or other variants) on the big toys or kickball. …ah kickball, that’s another post entirely. Anyway, I’ve been tagged and have to think up some random/weird stuff about me.

1. I paid $400 for my first car, a 1980, red Buick Century. After working on it for over a year, it was “road-ready” (for the most part) and was dubbed by my friends, the “Bunzlmobile”.

2. I build computers for fun. May sound like work to others but I love buying components and assembling them into a working (and of course ridiculously high-powered) PC. In fact, I’m typing this blog using a “G-machine”.

3. I love hot food. Tacos must have hot sauce, Thai food must be at least 3 stars (5 being the hottest) and I put Frank’s Redhot or horseradish on almost everything. Jenn jokes that I’ve burned off all my taste buds. Oh, and I loooooooooove this stuff.

4. Not sure how weird this is…but Jenn’s commented on it. I tap my toothbrush on the sink after brushing to expel excess water, before putting it away. I do this because my dad did and the funny thing is, all our kids do it too. Watch out world…a new generation of toothbrush-tappers is on the way!!

5. I like to run the tank down to “E”. Jenn hates this. While I’ve heard this can be bad for the car, and often do this out of laziness, I have this idea that you actually get better mileage doing this. Makes sense since a lower tank weighs less right? While I’m sure the benefit is nomimal at best, I needed another weird thing to add.

6. I have a horrible phobia of bees, spiders and scorpions. I’m cringing just typing this.

7. I have a plastic, yellow chicken toy next to my work computer. This is part of a farmhouse toy set (Fisher Price I believe) that comes with several other farm animals. Doesn’t sound too strange in itself but it is actually a monument to Nick’s toddler-hood and learning to talk. When he was 2 or 3 we would ask him what it was, to which he replied “a quaw-quaw”. Then we would point the red “comb” on top of it’s head and ask what it was. His reply was “um….hai-wuh”, as in “hair” with a “w” instead of an “r”. Jenn and I thought this was so cute and were amused by it for many months.

Most of my friends aren’t bloggers so I will tag Jonspach and Tim.

Okay so the rules are…

Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

A little survey from Jonspach

Some jobs I€™ve held:

Fast Food Cook (Taco Bell)

Steward -fancy word for busboy (Zoopa)

Rough and Finish Carpenter

Payroll Wrapper (basically a mailroom clerk)

Mainframe Computer Operator

Software/Website Support tech

Four movies I can watch over and over again:

Tommy Boy

Any from the Die Hard series

The Empire Strikes Back (thanks Jonspach for prefilling this answer for me)

Ronin

{these are all the places I€™ve lived – for at least a year} places I have lived:

Tacoma, Redmond, Maple Valley, Bothell, WA

Silverton, OR
Four TV shows I watch:

24

Heroes

Lost

Four the places I€™ve been on vacation:

Hawaii [honeymoon] (thanks again Jonspach)

Disneyland (and again)

Victoria, BC

Canon Beach, OR

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Four of my favorite foods:

Pizza (yep, again)

BBQ’d salmon burgers (they’re phenominal)

Burritos (last time, honest)

Baklava (my dad made the best!!)

Four websites I visit:

I am passing this along to€¦

Well, no one else I know has a blog, but I’ll say Chris. He could post it in a comment…maybe that will finally break his silence in comment posting…not likely though!

It’s been a long………….long…………very long winter and I’m glad to say that it’s all but behind us, aside from some still chilly temps at night. Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting things ready for summer. A windstorm last fall mangled our aluminum Ikea gazebo so Jenn picked up a new patio umbrella. It came with a base that was bulky and a tripping hazard so I decided to anchor it directly to the patio. Let me tell you, drilling four 2 inch holes through aggregate concrete with a household drill is no easy task.

(more…)

It’s official, I’ve started working from home on a permanent basis. While I never thought telecommuting would work for me, I’ve been trying it out in the weeks since Ella’s birth and it has worked very well. Basically I just lock myself in my office and the kids leave me alone, except for the occasional visit from Sam. The IP software we use allows me to connect to the ADP network and login to our phone support queue. This routes calls to my home phone and also routes calls from my phone through the ADP switchboard. This means I don’t have to worry about expensing long distance…because there isn’t any. This saves over an hour a day in commute time, not too mention $20-$30 a week in gas. In the words of Napoleon’s brother, Kip, [singing] “Iiiiii love technologeeeeeeeee…”