Dobrindts dot com...again

I had a Red Bull today for the first time. I was talking about it with a guy I work with and he bought me one during a break this afternoon. It was pretty good. He mentioned that it contains something called Taurine, which gives it a certain boost. So I used the World Wide Web to look up Taurine.

Taurine, from taurus or ox, as it was discovered in ox bile.

Hmm. Ox bile. Bile as in a bitter, greenish-yellow fluid secreted by the liver. That kind of bile?

So let’s say for a second I am ok with bile. After all, I was born in May and my sign is a Taurus, so all is well. So I did a quick search to see if there is any controversy around it. My first hit was about a person in Ireland who died after drinking three cans of it after strenuous exercise. Or maybe it was before the exercise. Either way, I am fine with that risk. Personally, I drink water or Gatorade after running but to each his own.

Then I read about some stuff related to Red Bull marketing but got bored quickly.

Then I read about how bars in Canada can’t sell Red Bull because vodka and Red Bull can create a dangerously high level of dehydration. Whatever. Who cares.

Then I read about how some countries have banned it, while others consider it a medicine or something. Not sure. My attention span was pretty short when reading it so I kind of glanced over it. Something about risk and death and be careful if you are pregnant and don’t drink it if you are going to run up a mountain or something.

It’s no Krating Daeng, but I found my one 8 ounce drink enjoyable.

I did find out that an Austrian company owns Red Bull, which makes me very very suspicious.

Posted by David at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My project for this past weekend was to put in a set of attic stairs, the pull-down kind that drops from the ceiling. We had a small (25 inch by 20 inch) square in one of the closets that you had to pull yourself up through to get to the attic. We use the attic to store junk so it was a huge pain to get up there.

I was fairly intimidated by this project. While most of my other stuff was probably technically harder, this involved doing stuff to the structure of the house, which could be bad. So here is a quick recap how it went.

Pre-Weekend. I did a ton of research on the web and consulted some friends about this project. While it all looked easy, the part that scared me was cutting joists in the attic to make room for the stairs. I know that they were not supporting anything in the attic, other than boxes and stuff, but I still didn’t want to do something that would cause the second floor ceiling to come crashing down. Web research is geeky, but it’s more than people had 20 years ago.

Friday Night. I went out and got most of the supplies. I bought the stairs, some 2x6 boards and assorted hardware. I have most of the tools I would need and borrowed what I didn’t have. I drew out what I was going to do so I could measure everything to the exact inch.

Saturday Morning. Damn it, the stairs are the wrong size. I wanted to get a sturdy set and bought aluminum pull down stairs, but they cannot be adjusted easily and my ceilings were too low for this set. What a pain, now I have to hump the box back into my truck, go through the hassle of returning it –and trust me, the box is huge – and find the right set of stairs. When I had the instructions out from the wrong size, I wrote down the exact model numbers that would fit the height of my ceiling.

Saturday Morning at Home Depot. It turns out the Home Depot I went to had one box, really beat up, of the right size. I was worried about it because the box was REALLY beat up, and looked like it was opened and resealed. So I sort of loitered in the millwork section for a while looking for some help, and got fed up so I went to the help area. They called someone from millwork over the loud speaker thing, but since I was just there I didn’t have much hope that someone would come quickly. I waited for about 10 minutes, a guy came over and said he would be right back. I waited for another 10 minutes and gave up and left. I went to another Home Depot and found what I needed and was in and out in 15 minutes. Weird thing about Home Depot I noticed when I was waiting. At the first store, a box of wood shims was 99 cents. At the second store, about 6 miles away, the same exact box of the same exact wood shims was 1.09.

Saturday Afternoon. Armed with measurements...

Saturday Afternoon. Armed with measurements, a drawing of what I wanted to do, I ascended through the tiny square I’ll call the Attic Portal, and realized that while the temperature outside was a beautiful 80 degrees with no humidity, and the temperature in the attic in the morning was cool, by 2 in the afternoon the temp in the attic was a tad cooler than the surface of the sun. There I was, standing in the only 6 foot high section of the attic, drop light on, sweating like I just spent an hour riding a stationary bike in a sauna. Holy Sweet Mother it was hot. But hey, works gotta get done and complaining ain’t gonna help.

The first thing to do was to get down back through the portal and mark exactly where I wanted the stairs to go on the ceiling in the room below. Before I went, I moved all the boxes out of the way, because hey, after all, I was up there so might as well get it done.

I went down, measured the spot where I wanted the 26x54 inch opening, found the center spot, and drilled a hole up into the ceiling. My objective was to mark the exact middle, measure it out on the scorching attic side, cut the joists, and frame it out. After I drilled the hole, I pushed a small antenna kind of wire up so that I could see it in the attic side. With tool belt on, tape measure clipped to waist and a pencil in my ear, I lifted myself up back into the pit of hell.

I then realized that the logical next step was to move the insulation out of the area that the hole was going to be cut in to. I was in the attic about 2 minutes and sweat was dripping from my forehead onto the floor. Oh, I forgot to mention that other than a board that runs down the center of the attic right below the ridge line, and other than a couple of loose boards I put up there, there is no floor. So when you are up there you have to walk between floor joist, and other than the middle which is 6 feet tall, you have to duck. So not only am I on the surface of the sun, I have to duck and balance myself on 2 x 6s. Oh well, no one said it was going to be easy.

So anyway, I had to move the insulation. On top of standard fiberglass rolls of insulation between the floor joists there was paper insulation blown in. The paper stuff is like tiny chopped pieces of paper mulch that gets everywhere and sticks to anything, especially sweet covered forearms. I had to get gloves so I went back down, to the basement, got gloves, went back up, and moved the insulation.

K, now I was ready to measure the area to cut out from the attic side, using the antenna sticking up from the ceiling below. Since the width of stairs was 26 inches, and the joists were 20 inches apart, and the center of the stairs fell almost exactly on a joist, I would have to cut one out, which would give me 40 inches, and frame it out from both sides. It probably sounds more complicated than it really was. I just had to cut one joist in two places and build a frame around it.

So I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon going up and down the attic, forgetting tools I needed, leaving tools on the second floor, cutting, measuring, and putting up wood to make sure the joist I just cut would be supported by existing joists, and that the frame would hold up the weight of the stairs and anyone walking up it. At around 6 I called it quits. With the heat and all the climbing through the small hole in the closet, I was feeling delirious.

Sunday Morning. I got up Sunday morning and went back to Home Depot. I needed more screws and wood and stuff. I came back and finished up the framing part. I had a friend who is a contractor coming by in the afternoon so I thought I would wait for him to do the stuff that required two people, like cutting the ceiling open and lifting the stairs up. While the attic was still hot, it was fine during the morning.

Sunday Afternoon. By Sunday afternoon I was feeling pretty good about the project. I had the frame build on top, all the proper support was in place, and I build it after taking precise measurements as well as taking the wood that was going to be used for the frame and putting it around the actual stairs. There measurements were exact.

When my friend Tom got there, he inspected what I did and said it looked good. We then went about cutting the drywall on the ceiling. To reduce the overall mess, one of us held the shopvac while the other cut. We did some things to help with the vibration and cut away. We took down the plaster and the hole I drew out on the ceiling was pretty much the exact size as the frame I build on top. We had to expand one side by about half an inch from below.

We then put fins on the attic steps, basically small pieces of wood on the side of the stairs, so that we could put it up, temporarily screw it in from below, drop the stairs, and secure it to the frame. Do-it-yourself guides explain it a little differently but Tom came up with this idea to avoid a step.

We then cut the bottom of the stairs to make it flush with the ground, trimmed the shims we put in, and we were good to go. It works great and we now have an easy way to store all of our junk in the attic.

Next time I am home, which won’t be for a couple of weeks, I have to put up molding to trim out the opening so that it looks a little nicer. Then I’ll paint the thing, put in electrical in the attic, and be done with this silly little project.

For me, and my list of stuff I have to do around the house, this project is a big one to get off my chest. I was worried about it but it turned out that the hardest part was in the planning. That, and moving insulation around while standing on the surface of the sun. Unlike a lot of my projects around the house, this one was worth the effort and I am glad I finally did it.

Posted by David at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I took Emily to the movies last weekend for the first time. We went to see Apocalypse Now, the Coppola classic staring Marlon Brando and Charlie Sheen. She was fine with it but has had nightmares every since.

Just joking, we went to see a claymation movie called Valiant. It’s kind of a Wallace and Gromit/Chicken Run type of movie about a bunch of British messenger pigeons during World War 2. Ewan McGregor is the voice of ‘Valiant’, the pint size pigeon with a gallon size heart. The movie was ok, nowhere near as good as Chicken Run, but to be honest, the movie was sort of secondary to the event. This was the first time I was taking Emily to the movies. I was more excited than she was. Since Ethan is way too young, Patti stayed home with him while I went with Emily on a Saturday afternoon. Emily likes to watch TV, like 100% of normal kids, and she loves movies so she was really excited. Here is how the day went.

- We walked in and the first shock back to reality was the price. Patti and I used to go to the movies all the time but we also had much more disposable income back then. We went to a matinee so the tickets were reduced, but there is no child price so we paid 7 bucks a piece. Since we hardly ever go, not a big deal, just a surprise.

- The theater we went to is really nice. For Emily, I think it was a little like walking into a magical world of candy and carpet. Besides the video signs pointing people to the right theater for one of the 14 movies, there were huge stands where you could buy candy by the pound as well as the normal concession stand. There were velvet ropes to form lines and a lot of activity. Wonder if she thought the lobby was the attraction.

- My first mistake was letting her pick out a snack. I, thinking like an adult, proposed popcorn. I pointed at the large bin of freshly made popcorn and asked her if she would like some. Since this was her first time, I told her she could pick out whatever she wanted, but suggested the popcorn. Of course she went right to the display of bars and bags of candy, and wanted some kind of gummy worm thing that is made with liquid sugar. So that is what I got. And then instead of soda which she doesn’t really like, I got a watermelon/strawberry fruit type thing which probably has twice as much sugar as Coke.

- Then it was time for her to go to the bathroom. Always an awkward moment when I walk my daughter, a girl, into the men’s room. I know that a lot of men’s rooms are disgusting and men generally don’t expect to see a little girl in there. But since it was an early afternoon, the place was empty and all went fine.

- Then we went into the theater. It was stadium seating and we were 30 minutes early so we got to sit pretty much anywhere we wanted. The lights were on but it was still dim. I think Emily was impressed at the small red lights that were on the stairs to help people see. Keeping with the theme of the day, I asked her where she wanted to sit. Thinking that the seats in the first row, about 5 feet from the screen, or the seats in the last row, about a mile from the screen, might not work, I urged her to pick again and we sat in the middle.

- I mentioned before that we were 30 minutes early. Big mistake. Especially when 1) you are holding a bag of candy a 3 year old picked out, 2) there are ads and stupid trivia things flashing across the screen and you have to explain that those things are not in fact the movie. But I was able to ration the candy and drink, and keep her occupied by letting her look around and stuff.

- As we all know, there are coming attractions before most movies. These coming attractions might not be claymation cartoons with pigeons and thus will require a parent to explain that the coming attractions are not the movie so no need to panic. Just wanted to throw that out there in case you are ever in the same situation.

- During the movie she was fine. She sat for a while, stood for a while, sat on my lap, sat next to me on the other side, but for the most part the movie kept her attention.

- Before the movie I explained that she needed to be very quiet and if she needed something, to pull my shirt sleeve. She did not remember this the first 10 times she needed something. She kept asking me loudly enough to be heard over the very loud soundtrack if she could have some more candy, or to hold the drink, or if she could stand on her seat. But after a while she pulled my shirt before yelling.

- It bugs me that I teach Emily to be respectful of others and to not throw her garbage on the floor and she has to listen to other kids talk freely during a movie and throw garbage over the seat in front of them without their parents making them go pick it up. Different values, different upbringing I guess.

- The movie had some scary parts where she clung to my neck. But never to the point where she wanted to leave.

- I don’t think a movie about World War 2 Britain and Germany going at it was great for a 3 year old. It wasn’t terrible, but I think something “softer” would have been better.

All in all a fun time. I think the next movie will be a full-out cartoon like a Disney or Nickelodeon one. But Emily had a good time and I got to do something special with her, which I rarely have the opportunity to do.

Posted by David at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I spent the entire day building a small brick walkway I didn’t need. I ignored my family, spent a lot of money, and got really sore to build a walkway that is uneven and not straight. But hey, I did it and can now call myself, along with carpenter, painter, electrician, plumber and landscaper, a mason.

Posted by David at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My current project is with a Fortune 100 financial institution. I have a policy about never talking about my clients but I do have this to say; my current client is a financial company but has a very different “brand” in the marketplace and does wonderful things in the markets they serve. I truly believe in this client, they are good people, have been around for almost 100 years serving a market that gives more to society than people give credit, and it operates with a high degree of ethics and moral principles.

But that’s besides the point. This client specializes in retirement and helping people plan for retirement as well as living in retirement. Part of what I do for work is talk to executives in the company, managers who run the different parts of the company, line employees who make up the rank and file, and the end clients or customers. For the past 9 weeks I have been immersed in “retirement”. And for me, personally, retirement is so far away I might as well as be talking to people about building a space ship to take tourists to the far side of the moon. But for a huge percentage of baby boomers in this country, retirement will be happening in the next zero to 10 years. And while talking about the process of accumulating wealth to preserving it, to living off of retirement has got me thinking about my own retirement. And it makes me so very very sad. Because I know that retirement is realistically 30 or so years away. Not 5 like some of the people I have talked to. Or 2 years. Or 4 months away. I am not about to pull the trigger and start collecting on the money I have been accumulating over my lifetime. I am about 360 months away from that. And the thought of being at the point where I can start planning for permanent time off makes me anxious. Not because I fear that I won’t have enough, even that is a legitimate fear, but because I want to retire right now. Right freakin’ now. Tomorrow.

But truth be told, I think retirement is a scary thing. My father retired about 3 years ago and I never really talked to him about it. He has worked extremely hard, (never took a sick day), for over 41 years and I think he was ready to retire. For him, which will probably be the case for me, he found himself more busy in retirement than he did when he was working full time. Just like when I have a few days off I find my days packed with things to do, he finds himself running around all day. Imagine if me, with my two kids, and my sister Lori with her two kids, lived near him. He would have to add baby sitting to his project list. But getting back to my point. Retirement is, I think, in part pretty scary. You spend decades working, getting a paycheck, 10% taken out to a 401K, a pension plan building if you are lucky, working toward the one day when you don’t have to go to work on Monday morning. But there is the reality that you now have to live off a different amount of money that you have in the past. And that you have to now deal directly with the carrier, like Fidelity or Vanguard, instead of the company you have been getting your paycheck from.

Anyway, I want to retire soon. I like my job and like my company, it’s nothing personal against them, but I like the idea of finally getting something back from the years that you put in. Unfortunately I have about 30 more years of giving in before I can do that. But when I talk to my client’s customers who are about to retire, or when I talk to people who manage the retirement products and services at my client, I can live through them and pretend, even for a moment, that I am the one who is nearing the golden age of permanent days off.

Just thought I’d share.

Posted by David at 04:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello there. I know most of my posts are rants and complaints, I’m sorry. I do not post enough updates on the family or provide pictures so I have decided to make a concerted effort to add more “slice of life” pieces here on my silly little blog.

Ok, so here goes with a meaningless update that will be of interest to about 4 people, one of which will be my wife Patti.

Me and Patti

Things are good for both of us. I have some interesting news but have not brought myself to share it yet, so you’ll have to wait. Around January of this year I decided to get back into shape and started lifting weights and running. Patti did as well but has since tapered off for a very valid reason. I have kicked it up a bit over the past couple of months and am now running (jogging, not sure what the difference is) 5 to 6 days a week. I have been in NY City for the past three months so I run the outer loop at Central Park (6.1 miles) or when I am home I have scouted out two routes, one at 6.4 miles and the other at 7.4. I pretty much do the 7 mile run because I want to be able to do a half marathon in the fall. Who knows? During the entire thing I have lost about 25 pounds.

Patti is doing very well. She is working...

Patti is doing very well. She is working as a stay at home mom and teaches a couple of yoga classes, one on Monday night and the other on Saturday mornings. She has temporarily stopped the Saturday morning but will hopefully continue after the summer. She is having a nice, albeit challenging, time running the house with a one year old and a 3 and a ½ year old. But she belongs to the pool and Emily has gone to a couple of different camps so she got a break.

I have been traveling a lot this summer for work, mostly to NY City, but can’t complain because I had a stretch of a couple of months with very little travel. Otherwise work is fine. I show up, they pay me in nickels and sacks of potatoes. I bill a lot of hours.

The Kids

I’ll start with the first born, Emily. She turned 3 in May but is the size of most 5 year olds. She is tall but, at least in my eyes, a beautiful and engaging little kid. She has her moments when she is a terror, a lot of moments now that I think about it, an ungodly amount of moments that little brat, but is sweet and fun. It’s funny, having her is more fulfilling than I ever thought. It’s almost like I was born to be her father. It’s hard to explain if you are not a parent, but it just feels…right. She is a very sweet and bright child and I (mostly) love being with her. But then again, I don’t have her from morning to night like Patti. She is going to pre-school in the fall three full days a week and is healthy, happy and bratty.

Ethan is a true terror. But as almost everyone has told me, he is just being a boy. He is mischievous and strong willed, has a bit of a temper, constantly on the go, rough and tumble, and competitive. If Emily has something, he needs to be involved. If she builds a block house, he needs to tear it down. He is into everything and apparently has no fear of climbing up onto anything. He turned one year this past week on August 5 and we had a small party for him the Sunday after. I know I am suppose to do this, but he is behind Emily is almost every category of development. No big deal really because he is right in line normal child development. While Emily is tall and lean, he is more solid. He is a tall kid for his age but is not lean at all. He has bright blond hair, which I had as well when I was his age, so hopefully it will turn darker as he gets older. I kind of want a little version of me. He is a good baby when it comes to being out in public and doesn’t cry much other than when he is hungry/tired/etc.

No big vacations planned this summer. We were going to have a family reunion at our house this past June but my mother couldn’t make it so we decided to do it in September. My sisters and their families will be coming in for a few days. Can’t wait, we always have fun.

We went to NY this past weekend for a friend’s party and got to stay with and spend time with Patti’s parents and her brother. It was a nice time and Jim, Patti’s father, is making significant progress on the remodeling of his house. Pat, Patti’s mother, has a beautiful new kitchen with appliances that are top of the line. She is a great cook.

Not sure if I ever mentioned this but my mother has been battling breast cancer. Terrible disease, cancer in general, and unfortunately the treatment is no picnic either. She had stage 3 cancer and is just finishing up her second chemo treatment. She had the usual side efforts like losing her hair, but my father has been taking care of her and it helps that he went through his own battle with cancer a few years ago and they are using some of the same doctors. I am doing the Susan Komen run for breast cancer in September so let me know if you want to join. It’s a huge event in Boston and raises a ton of money for research.

My parents came up for a visit in June and it was their first trip since my mother started treatment in the spring. It was a fun visit and we had great weather so spent the day outside just hanging out. The kids were happy to see them.

My sister Dora came up for a visit last month as well. She came up for a 4 day weekend and played the role of spoiling aunt. While I worked and was on the road she spent time with Patti doing the usual stuff like going to the pool and parks and stuff. Both of my sisters are doing well.

Well, that is about it for now. The house is fine. I am doing my usual projects. We are having a busy summer with parties and barbeques and the usual social events. I wish I had more time to spend with the family and to do more stuff around the house, but I do what I can.

Talk to you soon.

Posted by David at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rock Star: INXS has been getting terrible ratings. Based on tonight’s show, one thing they are apparently doing to heat up viewership is to put MC and host Brooke Burke in revealing (holy crap, did you see that outfit) and gratuitously skimpy (not joking, I have seen naked people with more clothes on) outfits. I find this approach insulting to women (hope my wife reads that lie) and I might write them a letter of complaint (with recommendations for other outfits that will guarantee I will watch every show). To stoop to putting scantily clad (maybe she forgot to put her skirt on) women on the stage to draw media attention (considering the only attention to the show is about 200 people nation-wide) just highlights what new summer shows will do to increase ratings (more revealing outfits please). Is this the end to the reality TV phenomenon (when is Survivor and the Apprentice coming back, I am bored).

Posted by David at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh, Katherine Harris, thank you for running for Senate. Not many people really know how truly strange you are. And nice google image result, proud of that girlish figure are we?

Posted by David at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

es•o•ter•ic

1.
a. Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric cult.
b. Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people.
2.
a. Confined to a small group: esoteric interests.
b. Not publicly disclosed; confidential.

Why is Dave being so esoteric with his new information.

Posted by David at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Raphael Palmeiro was suspended yesterday for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Apparently he was drug tested and they found performance enhancing drugs in his system. Steroids.

Raphael Palmeiro is a strange kind of player. He has Hall of Fame numbers but never seemed to have had a call of fame career. He was always behind the “elite” pack of players and never got the recognition like the other big bats. Part of that is because he never played on great teams so it was implied he didn’t have a big enough impact, and he was never voted an MVP as far as I know. He never played in a World Series, never led the league in runs batter in, home runs or average, and has only been in 4 All Star games. He quietly put up some of the greatest career numbers of any player of my generation but just never was on anyone’s mind share. Do you think people paid to go to the game just to see him? But he just reached a milestone that only 3 other MLB players in history have reached. Pretty amazing.

Oh, there is one other thing. Raphael Palmeiro is a fraud and a cheat and he should be ashamed of himself. He stood up in front of Congress and pointed fingers and lied under oath. He traded jabs with Jose Canseco over comments in Canseco’s book. He evangelized about the use of steroids and joined round table discussion on the use of steroids. All the while he (allegedly) was taking steroids. What a freakin fraud and a joke.

One more thing. I hate those Viagra commercials. He should be kept out of the Hall of Fame just for making those uncomfortable cheesy commercials. Viagra. Ha, if that isn’t a testament of how little market appeal he has, I don’t know what is. Let’s see who else was a well know spokesman…that’s right, Bob Dole. Some crackety old geezer and Raphael Palmeiro. Very impressive.

Posted by David at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am going to retire a very close shirt of mine – my old and faithful long sleeve (I don’t wear short sleeve dress shirts so I guess I don’t have to say that) button collar blue dress shirt. I have had this shirt a long time as one can tell by the very outdated Tommy Hilfiger crest under the pocket. I love this shirt because it fits perfect, doesn’t wrinkle too bad by seat belts or shoulder bags, and seems to have been with me for important meetings and such. I love this shirt. But the collar and sleeves are starting to get frayed to the point that someone might notice it. And the crest really is out of style. Painfully out of style.

I am going to give this shirt the proper Viking burial it deserves. Usually I would downgrade it to a work shirt, or more likely cut it up into rags, but one of my favorite and most successful dress shirts in the arsenal deserves better than that. I can’t stand wiping off oil from the dipstick or cleaning up spilled gas with patches of this baby. I am going to conduct a dress shirt ritual (to be determined) and leave it in the one place that I think would make it happy in the afterlife – the New York Hilton. Yup, the place that epitomizes business travel and the black hole I call home three nights a week is going to be the final resting place for what could be my favorite dress shirt of all time.

Goodbye blue Tommy Hilfiger button collar 100% cotton made in India XL long sleeve with crest under the pocket dress shirt, thanks for the memories.

Posted by David at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)