Lost but found!

Well, I've been away for some time and I really wanted to get back to updating this, so I thought I'd drop a quick post to let everyone know that I'll be back to updating this on a more frequent basis.

It's been a busy November and December for me so far and no time for rest and relaxation really.

The kid that helped me get down here to Structure was finally let go a few days before Thanksgiving. And it couldn't have come at a better time! Things were really starting to get stressful with him around and I wasn't learning much. Just kinda sittin over in my corner trying to get thru days. Now that he's gone, my days are flying now that I have so much work. I'm booked solid thru February right now.

Alex and family are doing great. The poor boy is going thru the teething stage (yes, at 4 months! Can you believe it?) and is just miserable. He hasn't figured out the whole "Your supposed to nap during the day" scenario either. You'd think that it would make him that much more tired at the end of the day, but he's a fighter and its taking him damn near an hour to lay him down to sleep for the night. After a few successful weeks of him sleeping thru the night, Tiffany's back to gettin up between 2-4am for a bottle. Unfortunately for Tiffany, he thinks it's play time!

Christmas is right around the corner now, just 5 days away, and I won't get to spend my first Christmas with Alex. Due to travel restrictions, children under the age of 15 cannot travel alone, so Tiffany is going to drive Brooke home for Christmas. I'm really disappointed, but I'm trying to be mature about it and not be so selfish. There will be plenty more, plus next year will be the first one where he'll really get to enjoy it!

Well, I was one of the lucky ones to score an XBox 360 upon release back in November. I didn't get the one I wanted and spent the next 2 days scouring Naples in search of all the needed accessories. The night before Thanksgiving I got it all set up and found out that the DVD drive was shot. Funny, but the same thing happened to me when I bought the first system. Microsoft was great in responding, sending me a new unit out about a week later. I haven't had all the time I'd like to have to play the system, but I'm having fun when I can with it. Nice to get done with a busy day and just lose myself in some racing or shooting at friends! Fun stuff!

In the meantime, I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday and is very safe!

I've got a few more pictures to post up and I'll be doing that soon. Plus I've just about got my digital camera fixed! Damn them flash cards and their mating pins! Grrrrr!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's everyone!

Jenny's married!

So my sister finally had her Day!

Jenny and Shannon married this past Saturday at 2pm at St. Pauls Church in Akron, Ohio.

We had some great family travel in for the event and it was so awesome to see my mom's sisters and her brother make the visit. It was a beautiful day and we had some great pictures taken from a fabulous photographer! Diane did a great job! I know it!

I have to comment though........The photo taking session would have been easier if you were herding cattle. It was damn near impossible for everyone to make themselves available during the day and I just felt bad for Jenny. I'm sure there were other photos they would have wanted to take, but like I said, everytime we turned around someone was not there to take the photos.

A few funny highlights from the day's events included my father getting a catholic priest to curse during the ceremony. Let me explain.........There we're several children at the event, and their parent's we're in the ceremony, thus hard to handle them while your in the event. So my dad has to walk Gavin, Jenny and Shannon's son around. Well, he picks a time right during the event to do so. The priest and Shannon share a glance, Shannon shrugs his shoulder, and with that the priest gets up, walks over to my brother and states "Will you please go get your father and tell him to get his ASS in the pew for his daughters wedding........" Now mind you funny as it sounds, it gets better! He does this with the microphone turned on and about 40-60 people there to hear him. I think the organist skipped a note!

And can't go without mentioning Neal. Neal was our limo driver. And quite the cool cat! He was great. When we went down to the metro parks for pictures, he was gracious and helped keep an eye on the wandering kids while we took some awesome photos! Kudo's to Neal! Look em up if your in Akron, it's called Budget Limo! Great, classy place!

We then headed off to Guy's restaurant for the reception. Not before spending the last hour hammering down a few drink's we all went and picked up, in our tux's and the limo, in the old Firestone Park area! We were definitely primed for the evenings events!

The food was great, but I just wished more people had showed up to show support for my sister! It sucks when someone spends that type of money and sends out the invitations just to have them not show. Again, it was a great time, we made sure of it!

The night ended for me around 12:30 after I called Tiffany (who had left and just walked in to her house) asking her where she was and why she wasn't back yet! Go me!!! Yes people, I was a bit blitzed! Tiffany found me about 1:30 passed out on Jenny's couch, with my hand up to my face (ala a typical pose of my son) and my son's blanket nestled up to me and Jenny passed out with her head on my shoulder! Gotta love it!!!

So congrats Jenny and Shannon! I wish you both the best of luck and give you my love! Love you sister!!

An update on Wilma

Well, as most of our friends and family know, we made it out of Naples safe and sound on Friday.

Tiffs family, Sandy and Tom were kind enough to open their home to us, and we couldn't be more greatful! It's so awesome when you have someone like that you can turn to and they are just so wonderful in helping you out. We can't thank them enough.

Wilma's now passed and left her destruction all across southern Florida. She hit about 22 miles south of where we live and really walloped us. I gave a call to our secretary on Monday to see if I could get a damage assessment. It took her til mid-afternoon to get near a tower that she could return my calls, and to hear the distress in her voice I knew it really punched Naples a good one. To hear the damage is one thing, we just have to wait a few days to see for ourselves. There is no power or water and with Alex and Brooke we just can't take the chance of going down there without those necessities.

I have to say it again though, we may have lost things like couchs, TV's, and the likes, but we as a family are together and the rest can be replaced. We move in to our new place on the 1st of November and it is fully furnished. Looks like the big guy was lookin out for us before Wilma even hit!! We'll keep our heads up and move foreward. Thats what we Spicers do!

I want to thank all of you for your love and support throughout this whole ordeal. And as has been mentioned several times to us, this looks to be a cycle of storms that will be working the Gulf for the next 20-25 years. Buckle up! We've now been initiated! True Floridians now!

Your kidding me, right??

OK folks! I've now officially been here 60 days and I am getting ready to witness hurricane #3. And no, these haven't just been little ones to pass us by. We're talking 3 of the worst hurricanes to hit land in recorded history.

Booked a hotel room up in Jacksonville and we're heading out probably Friday afternoon. Not gonna take the chance.

LOL, we knew there was the risk of them, but damn, 3 in 60 days?? C'mon, is that a sign??

UPDATE: Here is the latest tracking of the storm from NOAA, and they would be the ones to know!

Alexander, moving and a wedding!

So the weekend brought an end to the visit from the mother-in-law! Great visit. I'm glad she was able to make it down here. It had been 6 weeks since we had seen a familiar face and it was a great time.

Now it's time to start shedding some pounds I think, lol. I got down here and I, due to my stress-diet, was down to about 170. I haven't seen days like that since high school But after moving here and no more stress on hand, I've jumped back up to the 182 mark. I'm here and don't want to get much more than that, so I think a work out regiment is in order soon. I'm swimming once a day, because I can, for at least an hour at a time. Makes me feel great and refreshed.

As has become a staple now, this weekend, again, I spent with Alex. Saturdays have turned in to daddy/son day for us, and I enjoy every second of it. At 8 weeks old this kid is just amazing me more and more every day. He's just amazed anymore by the sound of your voice or any noise you an make and will just coo and try and reproduce your sounds as long as you can sit there and listen to it. He has really brought new life in to me! I've started to click at him and he just stares at you in awe. Funniest thing. And the past few nights we've noticed that he's trying to imitate it as well. I'm gonna take a video of it, cause no one would believe this unless I had proof, lol!!

The latest craze for Alex is water. Doesn't matter, pool, sink, or out at a restaurant, he get's super excited by the sound of it!!! He constantly thinks its bath time now! But it's the funniest thing you've ever seen once he's in it. Nightly baths have become my latest task with him. Why? Cause he has so much fun with dad!!! He averages about 1/2-45 minutes per bath now. Seems a bit long, but the terror this kid shows if you remove him before that, and you'd be leaving him in there as well. But that time spent is just so much fun. So much so that the other night I had to bring the laptop and camera out so my parents could see this for themselves. He sits there and when you tell him to kick his feet, he just starts flailing away, spashing water everywhere! Ya fill the tub back up, and rinse, repeat cycle!! I could literally sit there for hours watching his enjoyment, but he wrinkles up like a prune soon after the 30-45 minute mark. I highly recommend ear plugs for the end of bath time. It gets really loud from his screaming! He also is not far from swimming, I'm sure of it. We take him out to the pool and swim with em at least once a day as well. Once we get him in the water, he arches his back, and from there all you have to do is support his little head! Away we go folks! The kids kickin his feet, flailing his arms, and just having the time of his life!! To some, it may not seem like much, but to me, it's the coolest thing in the world!

LOL, so I spent all that time talkin about Alex, and still have 2 more subjects.

2. The M.O.V.E! We were just getting settled in to our place (company provided for the rest of the year) when I was given a number to follow up with for a new place of permanent residence. The company says if we like it then they'll pick up the rent on it for the rest of the year as well. It's a great place too! We were blown away by it. It's about 2400 sq. feet, a condo, and fully furnished. But for 1750$/mo. it's a steal down here. It's located in a very nice gated community and has all the amnemities that you could possibly require. Luckily, it has a 2 1/2 car garage so we can store our stuff in there and avoid paying for a storage rental. So, hopefully, this will work itself out in the next week or so.

It's crazy, Alex was born the 16th of August, we move down here 2 weeks later to a furnished place, turn around 2 weeks later and move in to our newest abode, and now 2 weeks later, we may have to repack our stuff up, yet again, and move AGAIN! I'm seeing a pattern here..........

3. My beautiful sister Jennifer is finally taking the plunge! After being with Shannon now, for FOREVER, the 2 are gonna finally exchange vows on the 5th of November. I am so super excited for her. Out of all of us kids, she's the first to have the full blown deal happen. She has 175 invites out and I'm nervous for her. I know it will be great, but she's so worried about having a good turn out. I just want her to know that it's gonna be a great day, no matter who shows up!! With that said, we're planning our first trip back home since the move! I'm only looking forward to it since its her wedding. I have become a hater of the cold!!! My luck I'll get snowed in while were there!!!

Thats all for now. I've been slow with my updates, but its been hectic. Since my last post, the Tribe never made the playoffs, I'm working more, and Gene Simmons is selling something else branded KISS.

I'm out like a fat kid in dodge ball!!!

Rock Bottom indeed!!

Rock bottom my friends! That's where my beloved band is heading! No true'er a song was penned by this band that they will have to stand by!

Yes, I am a member of the KISS Army! Full fledged 4 Star General my friends! Ihave over $30,000, yes I said $30,000, worth of their merchandise.

I've been collecting everything with the logo on it since I was a child. I would be a much richer man if I hadn't found fireworks when I was a kid and used them against my Star Wars action figures. But today I have to admit we have found a new low........

Now, I'm not as big a complainer about Tommy and Eric replacing and wearing the Ace or Peters makeup. KISS has become memorable for the 4 original members. Let's face it drugs have been hard on Ace and Peter and if the replacements can carry on the tradition, then so be it. However, with that said KISS IS Gene and Paul. Without either of those 2 it's just not KISS. With that said, I hate to post it, but from Blabbermouth we have the following:

KISS To Continue Touring Without Any Original Members? - Sep. 26, 2005

Launch Radio Networks reports: Is an all-new KISS on the horizon, one that
doesn't have any original members? It's possible, according to the band's
manager. According to the New York Times, KISS manager Doc McGhee "has been
toying with the idea of recruiting an entire band to...don the band's famous
makeup." McGhee said, "KISS is more like Doritos or Pepsi, as far as a brand
name is concerned. They're more characters than the individual person. I think
(new members) have a legitimate chance to carry the franchise." KISS
singer-bassist Gene Simmons doesn't necessarily disagree with that idea. He told
Launch that the concept of original members isn't widely held by fans, and it
isn't really accurate anyway. "There's no question that there's a core of fans —
five-10 percent, my sense is — who believe in original members," he said. "And
yet, when you look at original members, THE BEATLES are not original members —
Ringo is not an original member; the STONES — barely. You know, they've had so
many members come and go, but it's the STONES; and AC/DC's aren't original
members; and VAN HALEN; and JOURNEY...you go down the list of every — almost every band you can think of."

Can you believe that?? A touring circus sideshow! Yeah, we've already seen this, their called TRIBUTE BANDS!! Next were gonna hear that this is strictly a Vegas show.........Good gawd!

A stressful week for Indians fans!

Man! What can I say? This has been a stressful end of the season for us Indians fans!

The team has just been playing tremendous baseball and I hope the gas tanks not running low! They've played their hearts out and to come back from 15 games down as of August 1st and to be within reach by 1 1/2 games just last week, and to now slip back to 3 games! C'mon guys, its the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, its not a playoff contending team!!

So here we are, one more with Tampa Bay and then the showdown of show downs! The way its looking right now, the Tribe has to win tonight and we need help from Detroit, yes I said Detroit! They have to beat the Sox again. We don't have much to worry about with the Red Sox and Yankess, their gonna blugeon each other this weekend and someones comin' out of the Bronx with a black eye!

Baseball at its finest folks! And I get to enjoy the whole thing in HDTV starting tonight!

C'mon Tribe! Its the season you promised us a return to the playoffs! Make it so!

The spending season's upon us.............gamer junkies!!

Yep, it's that time of the year again for all of us gamer junkies!

The 360 is 54 days away and XBox is making it that much harder to save for it with some killer games lined up over the next month and a half.

I got crazy last week and picked up 2 games out of peer pressure! I haven't had the chance to play much with the move and with Alex being born, but hey, that's a good excuse if you ask me! It was nice to sit down to a game after all the work and stuff I've been up to, just so I could space out for a few hours. I still haven't found myself sitting in front of the TV for hours like I used to, and that's a good thing.

So I'm trying to limit my spendatures for the next month and a half and calling my new console purchase my 'birthday gift'!! Now we just need to know what games are releasing with it and I can start planning the right way!

So I've picked up X-Men 2 Legends: The rise of the Apocalypse and Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes. Yes, you read that right X-Men 2! I couldn't believe I'd even play it but with all my buds over at XBoxLiveFriends ranting and raving about it, I just had to see what it was all about. I have to admit, I haven't even opened the other game that's how much fun X-Men was. Just a totally different pace of game for me and a nice added change. I can't even recount the last time I played a single player game. Just good fun here!

So this week it looks like FarCry: Instincts and Heroes of the Pacific! FarCry for all the XBLF boys who are having fun with their map editors and finding ways to stick Davidson to a tree, and Heroes of the Pacific becasue I'm a flying game junkie and I haven't had one game to fill that void in my life! It's finally here. Hey, it's World War 2 planes, but I'll take it. World Air Force is gonna make its way to the 360 and that's when my life will be over!

Other than that I think there might be 2-3 more games I'll end up scoring before the 360 launches. My hopes are that all of these games I've been buying will still be able to be played on the 360 at launch time. Theres a whole issue with backwards compatability and it is not clearly defined yet, even with 54 days left til launch. Next week is the last major event for Microsoft before launch so hopefully all of our questions will have answers. Major and the boys have been so mum about stuff that it's almost Area 51ish in feeling!

So the end of November, the 22nd to be exact is the big launch day. I can't get in on a pre-order anywhere now that I've pulled mine right before I left Ohio, instead of just transferring it. So I'm gonna have to take a chance with just walking in and getting one at Best Buy or something. We'll see.

All I know is that it's gonna be a very expensive month! Stay tuned to watch me blow my cash!

Todays lunch rocked!!

It's not often that I get to go out for a lunch like I did today.

Nothing against Tiffany, but she is more of a meat and potatoes kind of person. I like to experiment and try new things.

Well, today, the kid (yeah, the one that may be leaving us) asked me to go to lunch today. Hell, it was sushi, how often do I get to do that? Count me in!

So we head over here and we're the only 2 clowns in there at 11:30 in the morning. Start off with a nice Grey Goose and cranberry! Ahhh, lunch the right way. The cute waitress talked us in to some appetizers. I had raw squid. Now, you may think, "what the hell are you thinking??", and trust me, I asked myself the same question when I agreed to give it a try, but WOW!! I was blown away at how frickin good this was!

For the main course I went with the Volcano. Now this dish had 8 rice and crab meat rolls with the wraps around them and THEN it was topped with a smelt roe (some sort of a fish I'm told), avacadoe and cream cheese mixed together and then fried. I took that and dipped it in some low fat soy sauce, and mmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmmm! What a meal!

Loved every moment of it. Now I can go home tonight and make Tiffany and Brooke gag as I tell em what we ate for lunch! Ahhhh, my favorite part!

New photos over on Flickr!

Just wanted to point out that I've uploaded some new photos to my Flickr Account! Again to get there go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/scary_aaron/ and your there!!

We'll be adding more, more often!

Check em out!

Boy! That didn't take long!

Well folks, looks like you can't put the faith and trust in people that you once were able to do!

Let me tell ya a story!

As a few of you may know, I came down here to work with a 'good friend' of mine! Now, he had left me high and dry last year, leaving me hanging for a Boston event that I was supposed to make and then finally hanging me out to dry around the holidays as he bailed for this job in the south!

Well, months of healing allowed me to lower my guard and put trust back in to him! Got me all moved down here, comfortable and happy, and now as of this morning, he's given his notice to the company! All he could say to me was 'Sorry dude!' and that was that! End of the line!

So now begins the task of preparing myself, again, for life with out my 'good friend' in the middle of projects! Gotta love it!

I'm not gonna let it get me down though. I've learned before with my feet deep in the fire, why should now be any different.

I'm kinda hearing stories about what will and won't happen, but for now I'm safe and they are really wanting to get behind me. But you know, it makes it awkward for a guy like me now. Here he's the one that moved me down here and I have to now convince everyone that I'm a team player and not an 'I' guy!

Say a prayer for me! This weeks gonna be interesting! I'll keep ya'll posted!

Just 4 KoW

Just_4_KOW
Originally uploaded by Scary_Aaron.

OK, so last week, as I had mentioned in my previous post about bringing up Alex on ESPN and bypassing the traditional route of Wiggles and Disney, the discussion continued with some friends and my bud KoW mentioned how we needed to get kids back on the route of Sesame Street.

Well, we got all of our stuff at the end of the week and unpacked all weekend. On Sunday Tiffany and I were getting all of Alex's toys in order and she ran across a little musical box. Well, low and behold it had the theme from Sesame Street on it. After about 5 times thru listening to this Alex was an immediate fan!

Here's a pic. of the boy rockin out to the theme from Sesame Street! Enjoy!

Pic's are here!

OK, so I went out and was bad and bought a camera yesterday!

Hey, I want to show off life in Florida! So shoot me!!!

Here's a pic of Lil Scary, sleeping it away under the air conditioning and ceiling fans. At this point it's been 2 hours and he's still snoring!

And I don't have all the pic's taken of the house yet since Tiff won't let me until it's completely unpacked. So I thought I'd show a few shots from the outside. These are from right outside our back door.

The screened in section is our patio. Yes that's literally 10 steps and your in the pool! How nice is that? Well, let me tell ya that when ya get the urge to swim at 10pm at night, it's really cool! The pic next is our back yard. This is the little canal that runs off of the bay, which dumps into the Gulf. We're about 1-2 miles from the Gulf right here. Can get up and smell the ocean each morning on my morning swim now! Just a great relaxing place to be for now!

I also took a pic of the girls swimming! So I thought I'd throw that up as well! Tiff will love me for that I'm sure! More next week everyone!

Finally, we have our stuff!!

Well after 2 1/2 weeks of waiting ITS FINALLY ALL HERE!

Tiff picked me up last night at 6 and we went picked up some Pizza Hut and headed home. I walked in and the place was just packed with boxes everywhere. Unfortunately, Tiffany and I have really been run down with a terrible cold (ha, funny seeing's how we're in Florida) and Tiff just had no energy so I spent the rest of the night unpacking stuff.

It's so nice to have everything back now and to be able to sleep in my own bed again. Great feeling. You never know how much you miss it until you don't have it for that long.

The only letdown was that the place we went in to didn't have any hot water. What a drag. I had to get up at 5:30 to shoot over to the other place (yes, I kept the key for now!) and got ready for work. It sucks, but it should be remedied today.

I'm going out and picking up a camera after work tonight so I can get everyone some photos. Watch for em next week.

This weekend will be spent getting ready for the Comcast installation so I can return to my home of XBox Live! I miss gaming and being able to space out for a few hours each week. Ya never know how much you'd miss it until you don't have it to do. Gonna go get a few new games for Alex and I (haha, nice to be able to throw him in to my bad habits, hehehehe!!) so we can get into some new games with all my XBLF and BoG buds!

See ya's online very soon!

Skipping tradition!

After a funny subject discussion over with my friends of XBLF (XBox Live Friends) I decided I wanted to post it over here as well.

The basic premise being discussed was a Finding Nemo club for those parents who have had to suffer thru Nemo somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 times!

I'm throwing tradition out the window with Alex. That's it!!! I'm gonna have him watching ESPN, ESPN Classic, and anything with the letters ESPN in it! Then I'm gonna go out and instead of buying Wiggles video's I'm gonna get old DVD's of Classic football, baseball and basketball games!

Now if I can just get the wife to buy in to my madness I'll be coming home to Alex demanding to watch another Indians game on DVD! Hey a guy can dream can't he??

That's it, Im raising the next Schwaby!! Stump the Schwab, look out!

Nothing new yet!

Well, another weekend and not much happened down here!

Got my first, nice burn going! I'm shocked really. The last time I was in Florida I was burnt to a crisp in the first few hours. I've been taking it easy though and moderating my sun intake I guess. We were at the beach for about 4 hours and had a great time, until a storm come rolling up on us from behind. Just got everything packed in before it hit hard!

Spent the night relaxing watching some college football and a cute movie with Brooke with Mike Myers and Gywneth Paltrow. Something different, but hey, didn't want to hog the TV. We only have one for right now.

Looks like our stuff won't be here now until Thursday or Friday. This is becoming painful. I spend almost 3200$ to have it moved here and have to wait almost 3 weeks for it. UNREAL! Won't be recommending them to anyone any time soon.

And in the weather department, looks like Rita's gonna pay us a visit tonight and tomorrow. Yeah, our first hurricane!! On top of it, there's a stronger one brewing just behind Rita. So, this week should be interesting. Hopefully I can get my camera in time to get some photos.

Really missing home, but then I just go out on to the back deck look into the Bay and forget all about it! Can't beat the weather! In the 90's every day and nothing cooler than 75 in over 2 weeks. Loving it!

Fantasy footballs doing pretty good for me so far. I again went 2-1 in leagues this week. My XBLF league hasn't been fairing too well for me. I'm getting trounced weekly there! I have the other 2 as moral support though!

Some photos to check out!

Hey, head over to my Flickr Account (<---- click here) and check out some new photos of Alex and the family!

Thanks to Aunt Laura for taking the photos and then sending them to me!

Enjoy!

First weekend report!

Well, the first week was quite the challenge here for me.

I had to start last week trying to pick up MasterCAM which is total garbage after using Pro/E for so many years. But I thought I'd give it a try and see what I could come up with. Let's just say that there's a reason it's called Master'Scam'!! Garbage I tell ya!

So on Thursday my buddy hooked me up with a much more robust CAM software, GibbsCAM. This is top notch and I've been picking it right up. I've had a few hiccups, but you'll have that with anything new you try to pick up. So the week ended better than it started, for sure.

Friday night Tiffany picked me up and we went for a few beers and some apetizers down at Tin City which is a nice little area with shops, restaurants and bars. She's busted her ass the past few weeks and she definitely deserved a night out on the town! After we got done there we headed over to my buddy Mikes house and spent the rest of the night with him and his girl Kristen. We hit the beach to check the sunset out, which we ended up just missing. No big deal, as that's been the case the past week here. The clouds are out in the Gulf covering it up each night so far. We'll see it soon enough though! We were a bit hungry so we headed over to 5th Ave. to check out what was going on over there.

Now, 5th Ave. is not for the 'light in the pockets' type of people (read: ME!) so we walked up and down to see what the prices were like. Well, nothing cheap here, so we just hit Yabba Island Grill and said to hell with it! 75$ later and thee worst service I have ever had in a restaurant, we called it a night! Now, dinner was excellent! Mike and I jumped on a benefit for Katrina which after you donated at least $10, you got 10 glasses of wines. I used that to wash down a nice swordfish steak! Mmmmmm, yummy! Tiffany shocked me and tried something different! I was kiddin with her and pointed her right to the steaks so she felt comfortable! Well she went with the Carribean jerk chicken, AND ENJOYED IT!

We ended the night walkin around the town checkin out all of the hot cars lined up and down 5th along with the hot bikes that were there as well.

Saturday after a few hours of work we headed over to Naples beach for a little sun action! After about 2 hours we got back home and it was football time for daddy!! Started watching one of the best college games I had seen in quite some time with Ohio State losing to Texas. I was bummed as I thought OSU had that game locked up! But oh well! Off to bed at 10:30 on a Saturday!

Sunday was the big day for me, as it was NFL KickOff day! Well, being in lowly Florida, your stuck watching the CFL teams of Tampa Bay and Miami then for the kicker I had to suffer thru Green Bay and Detroit! Not exactly the way you want to start the season.

I didn't do too bad with my fantasy teams, as I am 2-1 for the weekend so far. My EASports team is blowing goats right now though. Not sure if there's much of a chance for them. The 2 Yahoo teams are not too shabby, considering I wasn't there for either of them to select my teams! Then ya have the Weak (yes I said WEAK!) 1 wonders that every clown and his brother jump all over for the weekend. What jackasses! Some people never learn about the 1 week wonders! They will once they have to dump em and go pick up another weakly scab!

That's all for now! More as it develops!

Update on Scary and family

Well,

It was a long and painful weekend, but we are finally in our new town of Naples, Florida.

Honestly, I never thought I would have ended up here. But after the way I was treated down here for a weekend and the way I was gettin handled back at my old place of employment, the decision was easy.

The company has treated us wonderfully and has us along the Bay, just off the Gulf of Mexico right now. The place that we had lined up is unfurnished and our stuff was not gonna arrive until end of this week so they threw us in to a very nice furnished apartment right on the bay! Not too shabby!

So in the meantime we are awaiting the arrival of our stuff, now slated for the week of the 19th. Gotta love that! Until then I'll enjoy my morning breakfast and dinner outside on the Bay!

My camera's and stuff are all packed in the moving truck, not by choice, so no pictures for a few weeks. I'll keep everyone posted as often as possible!

Ahhhh Florida, at least it's not Ohio!!

Everyone, please take notice! Myfamilycanhelp.com

Hey everyone!

Back near a computer again after my long move to Naples here and I got in this morning and was checkin out my buddies blog when I noticed that he had done a great thing here!

He and his company started up http://www.myfamilycanhelp.com . Please take the time to stop by and see if you can help out any.

This was a terrible tragedy down south and anything we can do to help should be looked in to!

I'd like to thank Jay and say "Dude, what an awesome thing for you and HitCatcher to do my friend! There is a place for you in the afterlife with the angels!! What a great thing to do!!"

Let's see what we can do to help everyone!

1 down, 2 more to go! Fantasy football season is here!

Well, it was long and drawn out, but my bud's over at XBLF survived and we got our picks done for this years league!

It was brutal, but very fun none the less. I'm not too impressed with my picks, but we'll see. I mean c'mon, last year I won with a less than stellar squad. It's just who has the best weeks that matters.

So here's this years first round of picks:

1. E. James - RB (IND)
2. B. Favre - QB (GB)
3. B. Westbrook - RB (PHI)
4. L. Coles - WR (NYJ)
5. M. Mohammed - WR (CHI)
6. R. Williams - RB (MIA)
7. D. Stallworth - WR (NO)
8. LJ Smith - TE (PHI)
9. Washington DEF.
10. B. Leftwich - QB (JAX)
11. P. Dawson - K (CLE)
12. Daniel Graham - TE (NE)
13. Panthers DEF.
14. A. Randle El - WR (PITT)
15. R. Gardner - WR (CAR)

Nothing spectacular, and a lot of guys that I'm hoping still have gas in the tank!

Next draft is Saturday, followed by my call-in votes for next Thursday in the league I won last year! We'll see how it all plays out!

Let the games begin!

Scary's on the move!

Well folks,

This year has turned out to become a great success for me!

I've been working in my industry as a CAD/CAM guy for 14 years now and this weekend all of that hard work has finally paid off!

I started out the month great with the birth of my first son, and now I have an opportunity to take on a new job/career. I'm pushing off 14 years of training on a system that I had become pretty good at to learn a few new tricks of the trade!

The blog may become a bit inactive for a few weeks, but I want to thank all of my friends and family for stopping in and saying hi! I'll get an update as soon as we settle in!

Details on the move will be posted then, with pics!

Wanna see something uncanny?

So Tiffany pulled out my baby book today which, just so happened to have some photos of me as a kid, now I just had to post these. Check out how freaky this is:

This is me at 2 weeks old (Click)

This is Alex, he's now 9 days old (Click)

Me at 3 months old (Click)

Another Alex shot (Click)

Talk about a freaky feeling! Just totally blew both of us away!!

Ahhh, the joys of becoming a father! I get to point out just how much he looks like his daddy!!! Life is good!

Chia seeds! Not just for your pet!!!!

Check this out!

I'm so excited by this that I wanted to share it with anyone who stops by here.

For years, since my teens, I've suffered with horrible stomach problems. Lots of acid and crap like that. Needless to say, I've been miserable with it for going on 15 years now.

I developed an ulcer by the age of 16, suffered with acid reflux, and ended up trying tons of different medications, over the counter and prescribed. I just never found a fix for any of it.

Well, about 2 months ago, a friend of mine at work and I were talking and I told em all about my problems. He's really big in to teas and herbs, all natural cures for everything. So he had my attention. A few days later he shows up with a bag of chia seeds for me. I looked at em and asked just what the hell I was supposed to do with them. Well instead of me explaining it, I'll let the experts:

Chia, is familiar to most of us as a seed used for the novelty of the Chia Pet™, clay animals with sprouted Chia seeds covering their bodies. Little is known, however, of the seeds tremendous nutritional value and medicinal properties. For centuries this tiny little seed was used as a staple food by the Indians of the south west and Mexico. Known as the running food, its use as a high energy endurance food has been recorded as far back as the ancient Aztecs. It was said the Aztec warriors subsisted on the Chia seed during the conquests. The Indians of the south west would eat as little as a teaspoon full when going on a 24hr. forced march. Indians running form the Colorado River to the California coast to trade turquoise for seashells would only bring the Chia seed for their nourishment.

If you try mixing a spoonful of Chia in a glass of water and leaving it for approximately 30 minutes or so, when you return the glass will appear to contain not seeds or water, but an almost solid gelatin. This gel-forming reaction is due to the soluble fiber in the Chia. Research believe this same gel-forming phenomenon takes place in the stomach when food containing these gummy fibers, known as mucilages, are eaten. The gel that is formed in the stomach creates a physical barrier between carbohydrates and the digestive enzymes that break them down, thus slowing the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar.

For more info, check this site out: http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html

I'll also give a plug for my friends lady friend that has her own natural tea shop, and has great prices on these. 1/2 lb. for around 5$. Check out her store, Naturl Remi-teas, here: http://www.naturalremi-teas.com/

Listen to me when I tell you that this solved all my stomach issues, and I've had a stomach free of any problems for the full 2 months. During Tiff's pregnancy she had horrible stomach acid and heartburn. I would give her a teaspoon full of the seeds and a full glass of water to wash em down and within a 1/2 hour no more heartburn. We swear by em now!

Not only that, but they are great for keeping the body hydrated, so if your in the need of trying to keep hydrated, give em a try.

If anyone does decide to give it a try, let me know what you think.

Satellite Radio......Now this is how you EARN a customer!

So I've been holding off for awhile on jumping on the bandwagon of satellite radio to see how the whole game unfolds before I dump my money into a system.

You have 2 options when it comes to satellite radio, you can either go with XM or Sirius. Well, being that I'm a Howard Stern fan (don't hold it against me!!) I decided to wait and see what happened with Sirius and how 'serious' they got about their equipment.

In my reviews so far I've found that XM just has better quality equipment and a nice selection of stations to listen to, but again, being a Stern fan, I just couldn't go that route yet. Another big plus for me was being able to have a Walkman-style system that I could carry around with me. I like portability and want to be able to pick up and go with my radio when I need to, whether that be my house, my car or around the office. It's a must! Sorry, I'm picky!

Being that I'm an impatient consumer, I tried to push my luck and contacted Sirius thru their website to see if they offered anything or if there was plans for them to do so.

Not even an hour later I'm getting an email from a tech. support girl that gives me a complete breakdown on their newest product that's coming in October the REGO system.

Go ahead, go back and read that last statement, they emailed me right back to tell me about a future product!

Well, now I'm just full of questions, and I fire them to her and she was kind enough to answer them all for me. Now that my friends, is customer support! Here I'm not even a customer yet, and this girl went out of her way to tell me about their 'upcoming' products. You just dont see that type of service anymore.

Now for the kicker! Today, I get an email from her, with a gift certificate for $50 off of the radio and service when it hits in October! You rock!!!!!

No price on the system yet, but I'll make sure to review it as soon as I get it. Man, I'm gonna need a second job come winter time with all the new toys I'm gonna get!

Everybodies bloggin!!

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to encourage you to check out some of my links on the side bar to the right!

A lot of my friends have jumped on the bandwagon with blogging and they have come up with some great stuff!

Enjoy with me as my friends travel down the same path, just on different routes!!

Parents......and the things they do to their kids!

Well, my parents stopped over Saturday night, after what turned out to be a long, wonderful day with the family.

Tiffany and I went out to dinner, courtesy of Akron General Hospital's gift certificate. We went to Red Lobster and took Alex with us, his first date as well!

He was so well behaved and just at peace, it was an awesome time for sure.

My parents stopped over after we got home, which made it around 11pm or so. They spent a few hours taking the boy in and having some pics (added to my Flickr account) taken with him as well. Gramma Gail just oggled over him for most of the night, I mean hell, he looks just like daddy did as a baby, so what's not to like, right mom?? :)

So after they left, we fed him his bottle and Tiffany got em all cleaned up for the evening. But, before the evening ended, she was lotioning him up and rubbing his head down and started goofin with his hair. The pic above had us cracking up for over an hour, not just the hair, but the look on the boy's face! Priceless!!

I'm sure this wont be the last pic we have fun with! There's also a pic of him with a mohawk! I told Tiff, alright already, enough, your gonna give the boy a complex!!! Mothers, gessh!!!!

Now that the dust has settled.......

So here we are, 3 days after my son was born and I can finally sit back and reflect on it.

We both were in dire need of sleep, as you can tell <----------------!!!

The experience was one I will never forget. Like I had said before, the past 9 months gave Tiffany and I time to reflect on our lives and decide where we wanted to go. We didn't focus on the negative aspects of things, we just stayed focus that in the end, everything would work out fine. And guess what? We ended up FINE!

I spent the past year preparing myself for becoming an adult. Hell, I'm 31, going on 32 in just over a month now, it's about damned time I grew up and started realizing that I was letting time slip by and needed to ground myself.

But enough gibberish, let's get into the event's leading up to his birth.

Monday morning Tiffany had an appointment with the doctor to see how she was doing. Alex expected delivery date was August 17th, and it was th 15th, so we were right on time. Well, the doctor asked her if she wanted to get this party started and go thru being induced. Tiff's been very anxious to get this done, so she was ready. We were told to be at the hospital at 8pm that night.

We get in to the hospital and spend the next 2 hours getting checked in and filling out paper after paper after paper until 10pm when the resident doctor stopped in and told Tiff that they were going to start with a Cervodil, which is used to relax the cervix, thus preparing her to be induced. The whole process there was to last 12 hours. So we headed to bed and laid listening to Alex's heart beat throughout the night on the heart monitor. At 6am, the doc. came back in to check on her and see how things were progressing. She was still stuck on 1cm, but had been having 'variable contractions' all night long. About 15mins after leaving the room, she stopped back in and said that they were gonna go ahead and remove the Cervodil.

Around 9am they put her on the Petocin to induce labor. It took until around noon before she made it to 2cm's but at least we had some progress. Now, Tiffany was being one hell of a trooper. She was offered to have an epidural on several occasions and had decided to hold off until and only until she desperately needed it. Well, at 1pm they checked her again and decided that it was time to break her water. Well, after sitting there about 45mins. after that she had decided that enough was enough, TIME FOR THE EPIDURAL!!! What a woman!

So the epidural was started and from there on out it was just a sit and wait. Most epidurals last up to 5 hours, and she was bound and determined to get this over before then. The betting was on. Tiffany said by 6pm, one nurse said before then, and the resident was counting on midnight that night. So around 3pm they checked her and she had made it to 3cm, again, progress! But it's a long way to go to 10cm's.............

Next check was at 4:30 and damned if she didn't go to 9 1/2 cm's! Well, her cervix was not completely ready, but they were betting on it being at least another hour or 2 before she would be ready to rock! Well, daddy to be was starving and miserable with a headache from lack of food and drink, so I stepped out, asked the nurse if I was safe to go, and she said, NO PROBLEM!!

As I'm standing there deciding what was gonna work for dinner, the girl behind the counter, a very sweet lady, talked me into a delicious meatball sub, a bag of chips, and a fruit punch drink! But as she's getting it ready we're talking about why I'm in there and tell her about Tiffany being close to 10cm's but still time to spare! The next reaction was classic, as my hogie is rolling thru an oven, she reaches in screaming at me "Boy, you crazy!!!! Your girl's about to have that kid any minute, what the hell you doin having me toast this sub for you!!!????" Hahaha, slaps it in to a bag and sends me off running back to my room.

Well, damned if this girl didn't know what she was talking about, cause as I came in to the room Tiff's tellin me to drop the sandwich, it was showtime! It was now 5pm.

So I cleaned up, went to her bedside, and the next thing I know the RN and I are holding Tiff's legs' up and encouraging her to "PUSH!!" 3 pushes later, the RN looks at and claims "I'll be back, we need the doctor!" I looked and questioned "WHY??" She say's that baby's ready to get here NOW!!!!

So the doctors and a few more RN's get in the room and encourage the 2nd round of pushes. And there I am, holding her leg, encouraging her, and watching the baby crown!!! What a sight! Now were ready to rock! Everyone in the room gets garbed up and ready to go. In the meantime, Tiffany, all doped up, starts telling the girls "C'mon girls, let's do this, I'm gonna push this kid right up out of me! C'MON!!!" NO pain whatsoever! Thank God for epidural! I was blessed with missing the screaming and yelling at me for making her this way!!! Woooo, hoooo!!!

So, round 3 of contractions, and another 3 pushes! By the second push his head was halfway out and moving fast!!! We looked up and told her 'One more push baby!!!' and she grabbed ahold of the bed, dug deep for a big breath and just pushed like nobodies business!! With me watching this child enter this world, he came head down and was moving quick, next thing ya know, he's right up out of her!!!! Quickly they clean his mouth, and bam! We have our first cry!!!! And a beautiful baby boy is born!!!

The greatest moment came when I had to cut his umbilical cord! Oh man! How cool is that? Gross as it may sound, but to cut and release him from his mother like that was just more than I could handle, I cried my eyes out!!

Next they get him over to the scale to weigh him in. Well, for days and weeks we were being told he would be undersized. Well, the astonished look on the RN, Tracy's face, was priceless. She turns and claims, 'You guys! 7lbs 7ozs!!!!' 20" long!!! Yeah!!!!!!! A healthy baby boy, who scores 100% on all tests as well! A perfect 10!

So the momma and I spent the next hour by ourselves with the baby just taking it all in, crying our eyes out at how beautiful he was and how striking he resembled daddy!!!! He had all my features, which to me was enough, but we did a test anyways! Hey, we didn't need it, but to put everyone elses minds at ease, we did anyways! (And by the way, I was handed the results on Thursday, 99.97% for the daddy!! I balled it up and threw it away! I already knew that, thank you very much!!)

We had a few visitors, including my mom and dad, Brooke and her gramma, and Gramma Sue made the first night visit! Tiffany and I spent the rest of the night up with him (minus my moment of sleep pictured above!) just soaking him up! The more we looked at him, the more it just choked me up!

What a great life experience! Now I feel apart of the world after bringing my own child into it! What a feeling people!

Baby and mom were home by 11am on Thursday! Short stay and home where they should be! We spent last night in awe of him again after visits by Uncle Dylan and I think I went to sleep at around 2:30 am! Boy, I'm on such a high from all of this!

You wanted the best, you got the best.......

The cutest kid in the world, Alexander Christopher!

Lil Scary's here!! Pic's in a min! Stand by!!!!

Well, the wait is over! He finally made it here!

At 5:24pm on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005, little Alexander Christopher Spicer finally joined his mommy and daddy in this world!

Give me a few mins. to get the photos uploaded. Come back for the link in about an hour!

FINALLY, THE WAITS OVER!!!!

Well, tonights the night!

Tiffany just got back from the doctors and has been told that her and baby are ready to go, no more waiting! We head to the hospital at 8pm tonight for her to be induced!

Pics and news soon everyone!!!

A new season of Jackass! Oh wait......I mean......

Yes, yes, I know..........

Some of you might find this shocking, but to be honest with you, this one goes beyond ridiculous!

I've been a KISS fan my whole life, just ask my mom. She's got pics of me in diapers dancing to the sounds of Rock and Roll All Nite at the ripe age of 2, headphones and all! But I was sitting there watching VH1 with the wife the other night (she's really into all the celebreality shows there lately) and an ad came on for Rock School!

Now, I find this just absolutely hysterical. I mean I knew the show was being taped, but as far as I had heard, it was only going to air in Britian, but VH1 now has the rights to it and will air for all of us Americans to poke fun at Gene.

From the reviews I've read so far, Gene is just crucified by these kids, not withstanding the fact that several of the children started blogging about what kind of a Jackass this guy really is.

The music was what got me into them, along with the theatrics at the time. The toy's in the mid-70's really rocked, but ever since the reunion back in '96, it's just been Gene pillaging and raping us fans for every dirty dollar he could squeeze us for. 1000$ to go backstage and meet them, dolls after dolls after dolls.....you get the point. And just recently, being enshrined into the Smithsonian for their support of sex with condoms, with their condoms displayed in front of pictures of some very nasty venerial diseases! Gaaaack!!!

I just wish they could get back to making the music that brought me thru the ages, and forget all the marketing. I mean, come on Gene, you could buy Isreal now with all of the money you've made off us! Yes, you've lived the American dream, but there are people out there that really think your a moron! I'm starting to drink their Kool-Aid!

Now, when's Pauls solo album come out??

Roasting Pam!

I won't go in to too much detail on this, since I try to keep it somewhat clean around here (lol) but I have to mention it anyways!

This was on Comedy Central last night and an unedited version will air next Saturday (8/20) at 1am. This is a must see, if not for Pam, for all the cracks that just had me in tears for 2 solid hours last night!

A few no names that I didn't recognize, but they were just as funny as the stars of the show as well.

I really could have done without that tramp Courtney Love though. What a pig!!!

No pun intended ehhhh??

LOL, and my favorite news article quote of the week, courtesy of 1UP.com

"X05 Will Be Hashed Out in Amsterdam "

LOL, just genius!!

Todays musical selection........

Some of you may or may not know, but I'm a big music fan. I listen to pretty much everything. If it's got a catchy riff or beat, I'll check it out.

A few years ago while working out in Pennsylvania, a friend of mine turned me on to quite a bit of music. Music that I had heard of but wouldn't have rushed out and bought it myself.

These were the early days of Napster and stuff like that and we exchanged quite a bit of music betwixt the two of us.

One of the more interesting finds for me was this band that formed now over 10 years ago called Gov't Mule. Warren Haynes, of Allman Brothers fame, was a founding member with Allen Woody and a few other great musical talents. They are your basic jam band, but the music is just killer! Very bluesy and very melodic!!

Right now I'm jammin out to an album they put out a few years ago called 'The Deep End Vol. 1' This is a spectacular album and has some great remakes from the Allman Brothers, John Fogerty and even has an appearance from Bootsy Collins (Of Funkadelics fame)!

I would recommend if you have an open mind to music to pick this one up and give it a listen.

***** STAR RATING FROM SCARY!

This week's 'Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!'

This has to be the nastiest play I have seen EVER!

Yesterday during a game between the Mets and the Padres, Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran (yeah great, you haven't done shit for me all year long as it is and now this!!) had a head on collision.

Now, let me set the stage for you: There's a shot to mid-field and both Cameron and Beltran zero in on the incoming flyball, not paying attention to one another. Like Superman, both men dive to catch the ball and Beltran slams head first into Cameron, knocking the boy clean out of his jockstrap!

Now, I know this was a nasty shot, bcause during SportsCenter last night Tiffany and I are watching this and she sat up in gasped at the devistation that this looked like. "Oh my god! He's gotta be dead after that!" She uttered in disbelief. To see Beltran get up from that was amazing, and unfortunately Cameron wasn't so lucky.

He was taken to the hospital where both cheeks were broken and the boy had to spend the night in the hospital.

This is a sight to see this in action. And to hear it played back with make your ass cheeks pucker! What a hit!!!

Coming to a next gen system near you............

And by next gen. system, I mean no other than the XBox 360, lovers!!!

I've been keeping a close eye on a few games that really have my attention right now and what's gonna keep my playing games way into my 30's, and I've found 5 right now that are standing out to me, so here goes:

1. Gears of War, by Epic games - This game is just stunning from the first photos I've seen. Not slated til almost summer of 2006, this is the game that I am most craving. Heading up the team is Cliff 'Cliffy B' Bleszinski, of Unreal fame and fortunes! It's a game based on horror survival and tactical shooting. Oh, who cares, the monsters are freaking huge and scary looking! And we like Scary!!! Don't we?? Reading thru Cliffs Blog I'm intrigued by the scare factor that's gonna come with this one. C'mon, sneaking up on someone and then chainsawing them??? Put a fork in me, I'm done!

2. World Air Force - OK, big reason this one's #2 on my list is simple. We are going to finally get an air combat game based on today's military aircraft! Nuff said! It's a Japanese company developing it, Taito, and their claiming only 15% is complete so far, but wow, for 15%, the graphics are stunning. Here's hoping that those photos are in-game shots! Just look at these screen shots! Yeah, you like that don't you??

3. Huxley - This one is a killer epic game with what their touting as a MMOFPS, yes, you read that correctly! Going on record, they were touting battles of up to 5000 people simultaneously. Time will tell!

4. Condemned - You hunt a serial killer........OK, I'm done! That's gonna be fun!! Here's a quip from a favorite game site 1up:

Combat consists of frenzied scrambling to fend off murderous nut jobs--you'll pick up whatever's at your disposal, be it a lead pipe, wooden plank, or shotgun, to stay alive. Don't expect pure fighting, though: The CSI-inspired forensic puzzle elements add a clever twist (e.g., scoping mysterious stains with a black light). Plus, the grisly narrative violently intrudes on your progress, thrusting you into heavily stylized crime-scene flashback cut-scenes.

C'mon, doesn't that just get you warm and fuzzy inside??

and

5. Ghost Recon 3: Advanced Warfighter - Holy crap!!! I'm a huge GR series fan, and this one is just blowing me away! The video clips I've seen have me sitting her in sheer giddiness! Won't you join me in shooting up friends relentlessly?? Take a look at the beauty that is Ghost Recon and you will quickly say, PS what??? RIIIIIIIIGHT!

This week in gaming!

Well, as I've already mentioned Madden '06 came out this week and on top of that, last week brought me another game to my beloved series, Ghost Recon.

Ghost Recon: Summit Strike hit the shelves a week ago and with it brought a bit of anger to start off with. Seem's Ubisoft has issues with creating a good game from the start and always deals us something to bitch about with each game. Well, low and behold with the first boot up we were all dealt a big fat red x on our screens! NICE!!! Seem's you had to stand on your head, click your heels and kiss your own ass before it would work, but eventually it did!!

After dealing with getting it to load at first, I've fallen deeply in love with this game. This is the best to date! Tonight alone I had 22 friends online playing it. I haven't seen that much action since Halo 2 hit last November, so this is a great sign.

Speaking of 22 friends online, I had the greatest thing happen last night. I have a great group of friends that I used to work with in Pennsylvania at good 'ol Tech Tool and Mold . Well I decided to stop in and say hi to a buddy of mine Dave. Whilst in the room another mate joins in and knows immediately who I am and the guessing game is on as to whom this character is. I quickly identify him and proceeded to play 5 hours of great gaming with these guys! Man I miss that place, but again, thanks to XBox and XBox Live, I can keep in close contact with old friends!

I'm telling you guys, Sony totally blew goats by not jumping on the online gaming community like Microsoft did. It will be their demise, you watch and see.

Now, go out, spend your money on the XBox 360, and make sure you throw Scary Aaron a friends invite! You wont regret it!

Another season of getting owned!!!!

Well folks it's that time of the year again that all of us guy's look forward to: FOOTBALL SEASON SUCKA'S!!!!

And with football season for most of us geeks comes to highlights

1. Fantasy football

and

2. Another year of Madden football, on your preferred gaming system.

You know my ass is hangin on the Live side of things, fo sho!!!

But even being a fan of both items above, I consistenly have my ass handed to me in Madden or whatever other football game it is that I pick up. I just can never figure the shit out! I absolutely dominate when I'm playing offline, BY MYSELF!!!! But when it comes time to face the real deal, I just get trounced and look like a guy who's never even picked the controller up before. It's utterly embarrassing!!!

Tonight started my continuation of being dominated AGAIN, this time going down to Lil Bones in the first XBLF league of the season, thoroughly getting kicked in the dick 27-6! And trust me, it took everything I had to score that 6, yeah, piss off, I missed the extra point attempt! I'll keep trying though. Practice makes perfect!!

However, when it comes to #1 up there, I'll pound you into submission. I've become quite the fantasy manager and get a kick out of it each year. I've won several leagues throughout the past few years, and last year was my best year ever! I stayed in the background all year long, having drafted 5th in a 10 man league and snuck in to the playoffs with the help of Mr. Jerome Bettis, who mind you, I picked up 3/4's of the way thru the season. Yeah, there's money involved but it seems we never collect on it, and it just turns into a pissing contest to see who can dog who the best on our message boards! I won there too!!!

So, we're 3 weeks away from the drafts, and I'm already in 4 fantasy leagues to boot! This ought to be interesting.

Oh yeah, and that gosh damned T.O's already spreading heracy in the locker room of my beloved Eagles! Andy, don't take that crap from him. Yeah, he proved his value last year, but that doesn't give em the right to think he OWNS the Eagles now! We'll get 'er done! Now bring the trophy home this year!

FLY EAGLES FLY!!!!

A stubborn Spicer, about to be born!

alex-ultra001
Originally uploaded by Scary_Aaron.

This kids showing very good signs of being a Spicer with both being stubborn along with a being a procrastinator!

Tiffany's quite relaxed now, but still is a bit antsy to get it over with. She got back from the hospital on Tuesday after the doctors told her that her fluids were doing great and she should just take things naturally.

So here we are again, in the waiting patiently stages!

More soon, hopefully! The kid looks like he's in for the long haul!

It's about that time!

Well, we are right around the corner from baby Alexander joining our family.

The journey has been one I have grown proud to be a part of. Tiffany and I had so much to learn along the way and we really learned quite a bit about each other, not to mention everything we learned about ourselves.

Tiffany was in the hospital this morning for a thorough exam and ultrasound. The doctor was very happy with what he saw with Alex weighing in right now at a healthy 5lb's 11 oz's. There was thought that they were going to induce today if the fluid in her was low, but 5 days of refueling has done the trick for her!

So now we're in a holding pattern, waiting for Alex to decide his arrival.

Look at that, already showing signs of being a Spicer, being a procrastinator!!!

Dammit it's hot!!!

OK, I live in the gosh damned Great Lakes region, why the hell is it so damn hot this year?

The heat really isn't all that bad, its the damned humidity that is just killing us here.

I work in a machine shop, where for my comforts, I get to sit in a nice air conditioned office and then walk out and watch the lackies suffer profusely out on the floor when it is approaching the triple digit mark with all the equipment running out there.

But as irony would have it, the central air in the building is broken and being in that nice little chiller box of an office I have, it has turned in to a baking oven. Pretty soon the paint chips falling off of the vent system in here will lead to baking paint chips and the fumes should make me forget all about how hot it is!

One can only hope!

My digital lifestyle! I may be over the edge!

I was thinking about it today and I realized that I spend more time on the computer than any activity I do on a daily basis.

I work with computers so a computer is a part of my day no matter what. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I rely on electronic communications more than anything else I encounter on a daily basis, including a phone.

Now I'm not into cell phones and Blackberries, but I would dare say 95% of my daily activities and contacts are handled on my laptop. Be it by email or instant messages, forums or private messages, I watch my laptop like a little school boy waiting for that phone to ring back in the days of waiting for that cute girl in class to call.

I can't find much fault in my ways of communications being that most of my friends are now apart of my digital way of life, and most have come from some interation on the PC. I've been a part of the XBox gaming community since its inception and have created a great group of friends that way, and almost every day I'm somehow communicating with them there. I've even gone to meet some of these clowns (lol, I kid! Their all great friends!)!!! And the sad (to you maybe, a hightlight for me!) part is, I have more friends now, this way, then I did growing up! Being so glued to this thing I've picked up a program called Skype, which if need be, allows me to call people right over the internet. If ya have the program its a free call, and you can even pick up phone cards to make regular land line calls with it as well.

It just makes me realize what a cluster bomb mess I'd be in if I lost this line of communication! How would I function!!!???? Ooooo good grief, the thought alone is dreadful!

Gaming the way I like it!

I've been a big fan of military shooters for years now. I loved the feel and playstyle of the XBox versions as of late, and would be lost without my beloved Ghost Recon series to keep me warm at night.

I've shy'ed away from the XBox for the past few weeks just because I 1.) hadn't really had the time and 2.) I was a bit burnt out of gaming for awhile.

Well, a few weeks ago, the newest Official XBox Magazine hit the news stands and had a playable, online version, of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. My buddy Brian (Vitamin B) was instantly hooked and got us all in to it immediately as well. The game was an absolute blast and I couldn't get enough. Unfortunately, being that it was a demo, it had a few issues. First, you could only play 2 sessions, then there was the 1 game mode and 1 game map to play. I fell in love though, that didn't stop me (and hasn't stopped B yet, I think he's still playing it even as I write this!)! But I made the fatal mistake last week of picking up a new military shooter, Black Hawk Down. If I had been on the second floor of a building playing this game, I would have found the nearest window to jump out of. What a horrible piece of gabarge this game was. It made me want BF2:MC on the 'Box that much sooner.

Well, fortunately for me, I spent the extra $3 and had 14 days to return my smelly piece of garbage game for a full refund. But when I walked in to that store, there, glaring at me in all its box art shininess was Battlefield 2 for the PC. C'mon, I couldn't resist! I snagged it right up!

Now, just a little history on games of this origin. Most of the FPS (first person shooters) out there are your basic run and gun mentality. No one takes the time to plan out your strategies and they maintain the me, me, me attitude of gaming! Everyone's Rambo!

Well, gaming with Dave (Dagon Fel) and the other BoG'ers really got me in the mindset of gaming with a strategy. Take on the concept of working as a team to control an area, or working together to overtake a flag position. This is what the game is about to me. Organizing your guys to work in a fluid motion, having your team work together to come up with the best strategy in-game. Drawing up maps and planning your attacks and defenses. To me, this is what its all about! This is gaming the way it's meant to be played!

So many people today are in to modding games and coming up with hacks and cheats and it becomes frustrating to a guy like me who plays the game to simply be competitive on a fair and balance battlefield.

Well, in picking up the game, I wanted to find the best experience that I could and get the biggest bang for my buck in the investment I just made. I cruised around the web looking for BF2 sites to see what was going on out there and I happened across a site called Battlefield 2 Combat: A tour of duty based on Battlefield 2 ! Now you've got my interest! A tour of duty? What could this be about. I spent the rest of the day Thursday and most of the day Friday researching what was involved here. I'll break it down for you:

You spend anywheres from 9.99$ for 4 months to 34.99$ for a full years subscription to this site. What you get is servers that are controlled by the site for you to game on, a controlled environment. You don't get the hacks that don't want to work as a team, these guys are organized, and they mean business!! So I plunked down the $9.99 to give it a shot.

They start ya off by filling out all of the necessary documentation to get you enrolled, you almost get the feel as if your entering the military, with all the paperwork! You then decide what group you want to be a part of, the US, Chinese or Iranians. What the heck, throw me in the meat grinder! Put me where ya need me! Well, the Iranians are in need! So off to camp I go. The whole process is very methodical in its approach of being simple, yet it is to the point.

You get a message in your inbox telling you to report, in my case to the MEC 3rd - New Recruits section where you are given your orders. You sign up here as well and within 24 hours you are assigned a division you will be attached to. In my case I was assigned to the 21st ID. Here you meet your team leader, who for us is Captain Comrade. Being that this division is fairly new, he's getting a lot of the new recruits that are coming in. These of course are going to be your front line guys! Hoooo rah!!!!

I spent the better part of Saturday just going over all of the intel. that is available to you on specific maps, strategies for those divsions, and just proper procedures of how this ship sails! There's a great tool that they use for communicating back and forth during battles called Team Speak. The software is nice in that it is a stand alone deal and allows for you to just talk with your team mates.

The way it is organized, Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for practices. Each group has their own practice servers to get together on and strategize with. Which kicks ass! You again can avoid the rooms full of tyrants and not have to worry about laggy rooms and having to kick people. See the nice thing about this is that you PAY to PLAY. So someone that spends the extra money to be a part of this is going to be a little more attentive to his investment and want to work with you or risk losing that money when he's removed from the competition for not being a team player. Sundays are the big battle days. When the war officially begins, teams will battle it out from noon until 8pm EST in what is sure to be epic battles.

I'd seen this in the past with a guy I used to work with that was diehard, like this, with Medal of Honor. He was part of a group that was structured the same way and competed in tournaments as well. But here, your not going out competing against another clan or team, your battling it out in a mock tour of duty. This is a war that is waged and going to the site you get headline news from around the globe talking about the developments of the war. It really brings a different edge and feel to the game.

So, this past Sunday (July 31st) I recieved my orders for deployement in the early A.M.! I was to report to Team Speak and my divisional section of Team Speak by 11:30am to go over some basics for the match. It was a great turnout. We ended up with 8 guys in our division showing up, and a hand full of us were new recruits, not even having been in competition yet, let alone the game. Captain Comrade had it all under control though. He had is troops ready for battle and everyone was quick to follow thru with their assigned orders and duties. We gamed our hearts out! I played for about the first 4 hours and had to take a break for some weekend lawn duty, but jumped right back in to finish up the rounds with my team!

Low and behold, MEC took it to the NATO 1MC's! We had 2 maps, Area 4 - Zatar Wetlands and Area 11 - Strike and Karkand. We seemed to dominate on the Area 4 map and really did all we could on Area 11. In the end though we came out victorious.

For the first few weeks, these are organized scrimmages, so that we can get up to speed with our teams and start becoming a cohesive unit. And for a first run thru, we seemed to work pretty damn well together.

The next few practices should be fun. We seemed to all get along great and follow the plan perfectly. It was very well exectuted. I'm sure there will be bumps along the road, but thats' what makes this so fun!

This for me is my kind of gaming!

Hahaha! Gotta love horiscopes!

Ya know, Im not one for horiscopes, but Tiffany ended up signing me up on some daily email that I get and here is todays read:

Scorpio
October 23 - November 21To makes ones own mind up has never been an easy task. For you, dear Scorpio, it is particularly difficult. Today, something in the air will enable you to unify your thoughts. You will be able to take decisions fairly easily. But if you can't make your mind up on certain subjects, feel free to think a bit longer before you decide. There is no need to rush into things!

Sometimes ya gotta wonder if it's just pure luck that they get these like this! Yeah, today I've had to make some very difficult decisions, work-wise and even in my personal life.

Anyone else think these things are hokey??

Any day now............

Well, we're now down to days before little Alexander Christopher joins this world in which we live in.

If anything, the past 9 months has taught me a lot about myself and the kind of person I am and who I want to be. I have looked forward to this day my whole life, when a baby is born unto me and I get to partake in his/her upbringing and helping them mold into the person they will become. It really does make you stop, take a look around, and appreciate life for all its worth.

With doubts still at bay, Tiffany and I have both learned one thing, this is our baby! This baby will be brought up and raised as our child! I love the fact that this has brought Tiff and I this much closer and allowed us to again grow into a loving couple.

Tiffany is the love of my life. There is no other. Each day before I get out of bed, I take a few minutes to just lie there and stare at her sexy face, get under the sheets and kiss Alex and her belly good morning, and thank the heavens above for another chance to make things right in my life.

This process has really made me grow as a person and I'm starting to not take things for granted anymore. It's time to start thinking about my family and what I can provide for my family. After 9 years, its just not about me!

TABS!!!! You've won me back Explorer!

Hate on 'em all you want, but I've found a reason to return to Internet Explorer.

I'm an avid reader of Major Nelsons blog and he always is keeping us up to date with the new toys from Microsoft. I wasn't too keen on the whole MSN Search but when I discovered (yes, it's been out for a few weeks I guess) today that you can now use tabs in Explorer, I dumped my old girlfriend, Firefox, and rushed right back over to Explorer to give her a shot.

I'm gonna install all of the new toys that are out there for it and give it a thorough once over to see if I like it.

I'll post my thoughts in a few days after using it.

Goodbye Firefox! It's been fun, and you've kept me very happy. I must now go back to my first love!

Return to Flight

top.discovery1.ap
Originally uploaded by Scary_Aaron.

Yes, geek that I am, I was glued to NASA.tv to watch the launch of Discovery this morning, and as planned, at 10:39am, she blasted off of launchpad 39B to give chase to the ISS.

It was a gorgeous launch and great to breathe a sigh of relief to finally make it back to space!

Check out www.space.com for a complete breakdown on the mission and to follow the crew along in their travels.

Telsa, still kickin ass!!!

Had a great time seeing one of my favorite bands, Tesla!

Yeah, yeah, a band from the 80's 'hair band' days, but wow, these guys can still kick some major ass. All 5 members of the band were in top notch form.

This being my 7th time seeing 'em I was a bit disappointed, they only played an 1hr 1/2 set. Kinda a bummer. Started out of course with 'Comin atcha! Live! and ended the night with Modern Day Cowboy.'

It was nice to hear 4 new songs from their latest album as well.

Couldn't beat it. My buddy Dylan picked up the tickets and we rolled with his wife and his brother. My brother was supposed to go but backed out at the last minute. Not sure what was up with that.

Good times though, can't wait to catch em again. Hopefully with a longer set list.