I love starbucks. There are so many different coffee places in Omaha. Crane, Scooters, Winchells, Village Grinder, but I always come back to the Bux. My glass mug (in the pic) was cracked when I was still in Hawaii. I walked into this sBux and showed the girl, and she swapped it out for me, no questions asked.
Got a nice Thanksgiving Blend going for this rainy cold Wednesday.
On a Sunday outing, Carissa and I stopped into a starbucks to enjoys some coffee as well as use the Internet. We got onto the subject of tattoos and what we would want on our bodies. I would like to have the Star of David, on my arm, as well as my wedding band on my finger. I will be enlisting the help of my artist friend to see what he can come up with for the star. As far as the wedding band, all the artist needs to do is copy exactly what my band looks like right now.
This is the week where the majority of my staff goes back to college. I get to really work on my management skills in keeping the ratios as well as making sure the kids have everything they need to be happy and safe. I am in need of another morning person, just to be within the teacher to student ratio.
So far I have been put on committees I don't really want to be a part of, but don't have a choice. I also will be going through the accreditation process these next couple of years, so that too will keep me busy.
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The first week of school is over. Well, the first 2 days. I wish we could work into going a full week, like next week we only have 3 days, the week after 4, then up to 5. It's ok. I know next week will be tough with being there all day all week, but my beautiful bride finally comes in from Hawaii, with our animals on Monday, so it is a week I am definitely looking forward to.
To celebrate my completed week, Chad and I went to Charlston's for dinner last night. It is a fairly expensive restaurant here in Omaha. We ordered a creamed spinach artichoke dip to start, and it may have been the best spinach dip I have ever had, may have even been the best thing I ate last night. Chad then ordered the filet and I had prime rib, with fries (the girls at work said the fries are awesome, so I tried them) instead of the mashed. Each of our dinners came with salad and a croissant were both pretty full by the time the actual meal came out, but somehow managed to eat everything off each of our plates. Dinners were $23 each, not too bad, but I guess compared to some other places in Omaha, that is a bit high. Chad had a gift card for $75 that he had won at a work party, so dinner was free. Can't beat free.
A couple of shots to make you drool...
I am currently sitting in the Starbucks on 87th and Pacific. Just finished my first morning with students. I had three sets of parents show up without registering before hand. Um, no. I gave them applications and sent them home. I need to get the following the rules from day one, before I am so nice that they try and walk all over me.
I am very happy with my staff I have so far. They are all on time, and great with planning and working with the children. We are off to a great start, and I look forward to an awesome year.
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Location:Pacific St,Omaha,United States
Yesterday I finished my first official week of work. Took many hours cleaning out the old directors desk, the closet, and all of the other stuff she left behind. I have been working on all my sign in sheets, student files, staff files and just getting ready for the kids to show up on Thursday.
Meeting my staff on Monday morning, conference that afternoon, orientation all day Tuesday and shopping on Wednesday.
Pictures of the classroom to be posted really soon.
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Well, I am here. Start work tomorrow. Here is a pic of my ride until my element shows up!
Location:S 213th St,Gretna,United States
I think our society needs a huge “Wake-up” call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all…a view from the inside if you will.
First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the “back” of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know.
That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays”, that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.
The most common excuses I hear are; “We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).” Really? Where are you moving too that doesn’t allow pets? Or they say “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”. How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? “We don’t have time for her”. Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! “She’s tearing up our yard”. How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she’ll get adopted, she’s a good dog”.
Odds are your pet won’t get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “Bully” breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door.
Those dogs just don’t get adopted. It doesn’t matter how ‘sweet’ or ‘well behaved’ they are.
If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.
Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.
First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to “The Room”, every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep”, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.
When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?
I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work.
I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.
Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.
My point to all of this DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!
Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that
someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this and it made me want to adopt”. THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT
Please Be The Change and Adopt A Pet. There are so many good ones just waiting for a new home.
I got my dog from a shelter just like one described here. He is hyper nag playful, another couple of days and it would have been too late for Sonic. He was surrendered because they said hevwas getting too big!
So, I know the iPhone get's released tomorrow, June 24th. It is 10pm here in Hawaii, and I had a wonderful treat. Mr. FedEx man showed up this afternoon with a small box. Yup, my iPhone. Here is a little clip I took with my 3GS recording the unboxing.
More pics and video later.
Many of you who know me, know I love APPLE. On June 7th Mr. Steve Jobs announced that a new iPhone will be out on June 24, and you can pre-order one on June 15.
Over 600,000 iPhone 4s were ordered, or reserved and the apple system as well as ATT both went down. I am sure thousands of others did not get to order their iPhone, and were pretty upset.
Here is my story.
I got up 7am Hawaii time to try and place my order, Error.
Went to the doctors, @ 9:30am and was out and in the office @ Diegos @ 10:20.
Downloaded the new apple store app for my iPhone and tried to order that way...
This is what I kept getting. Thinking the 16GB was out, I tried with the 32GB and still got this same error.
Wow! The Kamehameha Schools. My alma mater made this lip dub clip. Technology is amazing. Looks like hundreds of students went into making this work, and a big thanks to the staff for allowing all this craziness.
Check out this Korean girl who sings and makes music with the iPhones....
Let's see your EVO do that!
I can't believe I am 34yrs old today. Wow has time flown by. I moved back to Hawaii in 2002, I was 26, single, and back in the islands after living in Nebraska for 8yrs. Now, 34, married, tons of animals, home-owner (well, I owned my house in NE too) and still unemployed. Haha. no it's not funny, I have actually had quite a few jobs in the past 8yrs. Just for the moment I am unemployed, but that will all change...soon...I hope.
Anyway, I woke up early this morning to my cat crying at the door for one of us to feed him. I got up, fed him and the others, then came back into bed. When I got back, my wife sang me our birthday song, "happy birthday to the birthday-boy, the birthday-boy, the birthday-boy. Happy birthday to the birthday-boy." I guess you had to be here. She then got up and gave me a present. Wrapped in pages from Entertainment Weekly, was a 160GB Apple TV. Awesome. How great is that? I am excited. I wanted to jump up and hook it up to my tv, like now. One problem. It doesn't come with an HDMI cable! ? Bummer. I have to wait a few hours before I can run to my local SamsClub (the cables are a lot cheaper) and get a cable, then get home and fire this thing up, pair it to my laptop, and we can then streammmmmmm the movies, music, etc.
While reading the box, and checking it all out, she passes me another present. This one is hard, like a wooden box. Wrapping paper ripped, and what do you know, it is a wooden box. But wait, this one came off of my dresser. I opened up the box to find an iTunes Gift card for $25. Yes. More books and stuff to buy for playing with the Apple TV and on my iPad. 
I did it! Made it to day 10 of no meat. Tonight, I will be having a ribeye steak from BLTsteaks, Med.Rare
It is looking pretty good for me to make my goal of 10 days. Last week I decided to eat like a vegetarian for 10 days, right before my 34th birthday. I knew we had reservations to eat at BLT steak which is a restaurant in the Trump Tower in Waikiki. Known for their dry-aging, and super hot cooking style, needless to say, I am excited. Back to the Veg thing. Sooo, I decided I would only eat like a veg for a couple of days, which turned into going on 10 days. I was allowed to eat fish, which has saved me a few times. Don't get me wrong, I like salad, but not that often, and I do like tofu, so that helps. I think the hardest for me is when we go out to eat dinner. See at home, I make salsa, avocado dips, grilled cheese, etc, but when we go out, there are so many other great things to eat like fried chicken, big hamburgers, etc. A friend had a bbq out on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, out in K-bay, and I was the chef. I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs, but only ate chips and trail mix. That was a tough one. Hot summer day, middle of the ocean, charcoal grill going, burgers and dogs, with all the fixins and I eat chips.
As day 10 approaches, I can taste the steak. I know it was gonna be good 10 days ago, but now with it being the first meat I eat coming out of a "meat fast" I am really looking forward to my 34th.
Here is the Honolulu Dinner Menu in case you wanted to drool along with me.
Day 5. No meat, chicken. I have been eating fish, and tofu. It actually is easier than I thought. I went to cheesecake factory last night and ordered a fish sandwich instead of a burger. That was tough. This coming Saturday is my birthday, and I will be having a huge streak to celebrate the 10 days of no meat.
Ok, I think it is the fried chicken that I am missing the most right now......
Sooo. My wife is a vegetarian, and has moved more to being a Vegan. I guess she is the true definition of the word. She has wanted me to change my diet, and eat veg as well. Today is day 4.
So, I know a few days back I posted something about Ndamukong Suh. He was drafted #2, and went to the Detroit Lions. Good for him.
I love my iPad. I have written about how I wanted one, got one, and now what I love most about owning one. There are a few apps that you absolutely have to have on this "magical" device.
1. Netflix. With the app you can stream movies, Tv shows, anything that Netflix offers as their play now list. It seems as each day they are adding more and more items to this list. The screen on the iPad is beautiful so having a huge collection of movies to choose from when bored is awesome.
2. iBooks. Apple's answer to Amazon's Kindle. The app is great. Purchase the book right through the app, using your iTunes account, you can even have a sample sent to your iPad before you purchase the entire book. You can change the font, size, color, brightness, etc. Perfect to read from, especially when you are in a place without Wifi. The only "con" I see so far is compared to the Kindle app, there are way more books on Amazon's site, than in the iBookstore.
3. Pandora. Once Apple allows multitasking on the iPad, this will be a #1 app. Right now, you can stream music through the pandora app, and they allow you to request a style, or artist for that playlist. There is also a biography of that artist, band, etc. you can read about while in the app. For now once you exit the app, the music stops, unlike the iPod function which allows you to continue to listen to your music, once the app is closed, and you go into another app.
4. We Rule. We Rule is a game, sorta like "Farmville" on Facebook. You have a "kingdom" where you plant, grow and raise food to sell for $ in order to buy more things. I have become addicted to this game, so much that it has made it to the bottom dock on my iPad. I have farms, a fish pond, school, lumber yard and tailor shop. I also have houses for the help to live. That allows me to collect taxes and get more $$.
5. Apple Apps. Calendar, Contacts, Mail. All of these apps, I use daily. The Calendar is an extension of my desktop, with MobileMe my calendar syncs over the air. Same with the Contacts and Mail. With Contact is is like the old days of carrying a little book with your contacts, except you can make changes without a pencil, click on an email address and it opens up the Mail program and start up an email. Mail looks like my desktop Mail app without the integrated inbox. We hear that iPhone OS4 will cover this problem.
Mr. Suh will be drafted later this week into the NFL. My hope is that he goes #1 or #2. Most critics and industry heads have him going #2 after Sam Bradford the quarterback from Oklahoma. He is one of the most powerful defensive lineman to come out of college. Sports Science a show that looks at the science behind the sports. Knowing he is going to be drafted so high, he already has promised $2.6 million to his school Nebraska. 2 Million for the Athletic department for the Strength and Conditioning program and $600,000 to a scholarship program for the School of Engineering (where Suh graduated from this past December). This is the most anyone has donated from a single player. How awesome.
So... I have had my iPad for a week now, and I absolutely love it. I use it for everything. I facebook, tweet, watch movies, stream Netflix, and play games. It truly is a "magical" device. Stop by the Apple store, and try it out for yourself. You will probably be walking out with one of them.
New Moon the second movie in the Twilight Series was released this morning @ 12:01am. I stopped in at about 10 to pick up a copy of it on Blu-ray at Walmart. It was priced at $24.95, for the special "fan edition."
I am guessing tonight at my house will be a New Moon Night, hopefully with a nice dinner... it's ok, I've read all the books, and actually enjoy the movies.
This March Madness has been awesome so far, and we are only on day 2. Here is the blank bracket for this years games.
On January 31, I wrote about the iPad and pricing, and all the good stuff. Well it was announced this past week, that today, March 12, you can Pre-order an iPad, reserve it to be paid for and picked up on April 3rd. Got up, went out to my computer, and went through the 2 minute process to reserve my iPad for pick up on the 3rd. 16GB wifi only.
Just saw the new trailer for Eclipse of the Twilight Saga. I am sure my wife is going to be excited about this one, just like how she was about New Moon.
Well, yesterday was my 5th year anniversary. I bought my wife a blender, and she gave me an awesome Starbucks travel mug, and a gift card for Gamestop. With that GC, I got a game called Prototype for my PS3. Now, I am pretty bad at playing games, but I got playing this game for about 4 hours, and didn't want to put the controller down, nor throw it across the room. If you like to game, try Prototype.
So TLC's website has published an article about the 10 meals that are "Proven" to make you happy. From the B vitamins, to the endorphins in the dishes, is the reason they are proven. Here is their list...
10. Mac and Cheese
9. Salmon and Brown Rice
8. Scrambled Eggs and Oatmeal
7. Spaghetti and Meatballs
6. Mashed Potatoes and Turkey
5. Banana Split
4. Chili and Cornbread
3. Sweet Potato Souffle
2. Beef Stew with Veggies and Potatoes
and the #1 thing on the list.....
1. ANYTHING CHOCOLATE!
There are a few on this list that I do not agree with. I know that they all include different things that will trigger your inner happy, but for me, I would take out the mac and cheese, oatmeal, sweet potato, and replace those with pizza, chicken pot pie, and Meat Jun. I am now hungry for some chili and cornbread, and I'm always in the mood for a banana split.
Mmmmm.
Happy Eating!
I love this show. I was very sad they took it off the air after one season. My buddy Roper was the one who told me to watch it, and after it was about 3 episodes in, I started up online. I finished the season online, as they took the series off the air. The show is so good, and the last episode, the season finally was one of the best cliffhangers of all TV.
Landed last night in Phoenix to be with my mom and dad as my mom attends the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. I asked the cabbie to make a stop at 1am. Here is what a 6hr trip is worth...
We all know last week the iPad was announced, and yet we still do not have a date in which we can place an order. However tonight on the Grammy's, Steven Colbert shows up to announce the song of the year, and can't find his envelope. He then proceeds to pull out an iPad from his jacket. Lucky Guy.
I still want one. No camera, 3G with At&t, not a true tablet computer, but yes, the apple fanboy in me still wants one... I am pretty sure I can get away with the 16GB Wifi only. $499, not too bad.
Here is the break down of the prices and models being offered by apple.
As much as I like the mobile version of wordpress blog on an iPhone, I decided to come back to blogger. You can do so much more here, and this site is faster, and easier to upload to, etc. For now, I am back to being a blogger fan. I will try to update more often, as I have only 2 posts in 2010 as of now.
This is my last blog on my blogspot page. I have decided to switch to
Wordpress since they have a mobile version which is viewed perfectly
on an iPhone.
Please check out http://iamfudge.com
Thanks.
