Coffee, Donuts, and Spades

i was sitting here at home playing on the computer when my roommate comes home and says do you want to go for free donuts and coffee? i was like sure. i had for got that the office of our complex was providing free coffee and donuts. so all three of us headed down to the office. as we were sitting there we started talking about playing spades. one of the roomies went back to his car and got his deck of cards. we spent the rest of the morning playing three handed spades. but to make it more interesting we changed some of the rules. such as the minimum bid was 6, minimum blind bid was 7, and after 5 bags we went back 100 points. also for the first time we allowed nil to be bet. in the end i beat them and pretty bad. it was fun.

I love Fridays

here is one of my most favorite songs. i know it is a bit on the dark side. however i have always liked crooner songs.

Finally It Is Friday

this has been a long week for me. with the daughter getting a job, my son going to the mall after school, working out with my roommate. the car issues and now issues with the gas company (i will have to explain later on the gas issues). so here is something up bet and fun. i have you have had a good week.

Hazy

not feeling overly well as of late. my sinuses are bothering me a great deal. my head is all fuzzy and i am having trouble breathing. i need fresh air. being trapped in an office all night is not helping.

Newish Look

so i have been messing around trying to change my template. i have not found a new template that i like and been able to get it to work. so i have made some changes to the current look. i have also added a new header tool to the blog that i will update with some information. but first i have to get out of work today and get some sleep. i need a fresh mind for that one. so stay tuned for the next exciting post and update.

Ihop

so the daughter got the job at ihop as a server and yesterday was her first day of training. apparently she was hired as full time, working 20 hours a week. we will see how that works out for school.

Hika Bika Boo Hoo-Sha

the other day i posted a video of Ron Stoppable singing about his naked mole rat. this is for any that do not know from the Disney show Kim Possible. as it turns out my co-worker has been watching every season on netflix while he is at work. which is no less then the rest of us do. but i have a clear view of his monitors from where i sit in the cube right behind him. anyway, many years ago i use to watch the show with my kids, that is when they were younger. apparently in my absents from the show the duo (Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable) have graduated high school and have started dating. personally i think seeing seeing other people kiss is slightly uncomfortable but it is just wierd seeing cartoon charictors kissing in a kids show. anyway enough of that. as he has been watching it i have been reminded about the show. the title of this post is a saying that Kim's little brothers, Tim and Jim, say. i thought it was funny hearing it again after all these years.

Car

last friday i think i mentioned that i got my taxes back. and i had all kinds of plans. like getting some bills paid off and getting the car tuned up and the rear brakes done, etc.. well i friday night i was pulling out of my complex when i heard a loud popping noise and then some grinding on the rear right side. with all the snow that we had that day i figured it was built up snow and ice that broke free when i took off. but i looked anyway and did not see any thing wrong. i continued to drive. i did not hear the grinding noise any more so i thought it was all good. i continued my friday night plans of hanging out with my roommate and friends. playing cards and the like. on saturday i planned to take my car in to get it fixed and i did not because i did not get up until late in the afternoon and decided i would wait. on sunday i headed to church and the right rear was grinding again. when i got home i tried to call a few different shops and all of them are closed. then my daughter gets a job interview at ihop. so i take her up there and still the grinding. today she had to go back to do paper work. and so i decided to take the car in this morning to get it fixed. brakes tune up and oil. after about an hour of being there they call me back to look at it.

this is were things go bad. come to find out that both of my front tie-rods are loose. the roters that i replaces last fall have gone bad. and the rear right spring broke. which with it going bad cause the right rear brake to foul up. the left rear brake is in some what good order. but now i have to replace the drums, cylinders and pads, along with both springs. and to top it off, the spring gouged my tire. really bad and i have to replace that too. i was already going to replace the front tires for ware. now i need to replace all 4. the worse part about the tires is that they are about $120 a piece.

today i am having the rear brakes done and the springs, because they are the most important. then i am going to replace the rear tires in about 2 weeks when i get paid again. then i will do the tie-rods, followed by the front tires. today i am about to drop $1200, and i have about $900 more to go. thanks for the tax refund, it is all that is saving my rear, both of them.

Working Out

for the last 4 days i have been working out. 4 days of running and 2 of the 4 also lifting weights. it is great other then the fact that i am really sore. now i need to adjust my eating habits.

Fat Flakes

it is snowing, and they are huge fat flakes. they have been predicting snow all week. and they were right. i do not know when it started. i was in bed and asleep by 8:30 this morning. but i awoke to thick piles of snow and large flakes falling from the gray clouded sky. this is of course not the first snow of the winter, but it is the heaviest for sure, this winter. and this in the middle of february too. it is very beautiful outside, and i do wonder about the temp. but i have not been outside yet. i do not think i will be going anywhere today, if i can help it.

Disappointment

i have been waiting for the last 2 weeks until i got paid again and or got my tax return, as it turns out i got both on the same day. however the waiting has been in vain. one of my favorite bands is coming to omaha. i was hoping to see them again. all i was lacking was the money to buy the tickets. today i finally got the money, the concert is sold out. very disappointing, very disappointing indeed.

Naked Mole Rap - Happy Friday

for all you mole rat fans.

Shaving

about a month ago i thought that i ran out of razors. so it took me over a week to buy new razors, but by then i had a very nice beard so i decided to wait on shaving. then about a monday of last week i got a hair cut and then i shaved to a goatee. i mentioned all this in a previous post. well at it turns out i was not out of razors and i found them under the sink. as a point of fact my daughter has always hated that i grow out my facial hair. and tonight i got annoyed with it, so i shaved it off. when my daughter got home tonight she saw that i had shaved and started to complain that i had shaved. so i told her that she needs to make up her mind. she complains that i grow facial hair and then complains that i shave it off. so she told me to not shave. we will see. it is weird to have a smooth face again.

My Name

here is something interesting. i am not sure if this is a statistical thing or actually proven fact.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 61 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

What Is This?

this is Me and the 200th post. this blog is one outlet that i have for my thoughts and emotions, an online journal if you will. it is my life, or that is what it has become. i started out with not knowing what i wanted it to be. at first it was a place to just relay some funny things going on in my life like the Chick-Fil-A Chronicles. then it turned in to a place to post quizzes and the like that i thought amusing as time has gone on i have shared much of my person life. and after almost 3 years of writing i realized what this blog is about. it is about me. all these thing that i have written about are about where i am in my life. so i figured that i would put together a blog were i introduced who i really was and not the M R Tool that is posted on the site. as many of you who are regulars may know i never use peoples names on my site. i do not even use face name. but i do your descriptions. and yes i know who some of you are that visit. i have a metrics site that tells me where people visit from and what is looked at and some other information but not directly who you are. that i have had to piece together with knowing where some of my friends and family life and where some of my friends friends live. so there is something that most of you may not know about me. i like to investigate. it is a lot of fun for me to look things up and try to fit the puzzle pieces together. this has a lot to do with my analytical mind.

But Who Am I

name - Shane Carlson (go ahead and google to your hearts content, there are many shane carlson's on the internet).

age - currently i am 33

family - i have 2 kids. a girl that is 15, and just got her driving permit yesterday, and a boy that is 12 and looks just like me, except that he just bleached his hair the other day. i have only one sister who is married and has a daughter. they live in California. as do my parents who are still married. i have a brother, that is not really my brother. he and i met in 8th grade and have been friends ever since, he is the closes thing i have to a brother. he is in the army in Texas. other then that all the rest of my family is Aunts and Uncles and there kids that live in other states. both of my grandfathers are dead and both grandmothers are still alive. and other then my kids i have no family in Nebraska.

religious facts - i attend a Church Of Christ here in Omaha. i have be apart of these churches for over 12 years. i grew up in a baptist church in Arizona. and first started attending church at 5 when we lived in Idaho. i do the audio/video for the church and have for 10 years nows. i was baptized in the Chesapeake Bay in Virgina along with my ex-wife.

relationship status - i am currently single and have been for about 5 years. i have had 2 meaningful relationships in my life. i am currently interested in a very nice young women at the church that i attend. however i have never been very good with the pursuing of a relationship.

misc - here are 25 odd facts about me that you may all enjoy.
1. mustard on cheese creeps me out. i like both, and i like both on a sandwich. however i do like the two to touch.
2. i run on the warm side. it is rare that i ever get cold. i even ware shorts in the winter.
3. music influences my moods. it is also my outlet for my moods.
4. the only type of sport that i enjoy to watch is racing. any kind of racing, car, bike, running, etc.
5. i do not like to be touched. for the most part it makes my skin crawl.
6. i trust very few people.
7. i am obsessed with time. i like to keep track of the time. but i cannot ware a watch
8. i am a really bad speller. i use spell check for everything and the internet some time to look up words.
9. i am claustrophobic (had to look this up on Google by the way).
10. when i type i do not capitalize most things.
11. i have always wanted to play the bass.
12. i like peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches.
13. i prefer to ware glasses then contacts.
14. i love to cook.
15. i never wanted kids, however i have two.
16. when i have trouble sleeping i do binary conversions in my head.
17. i have lived in 7 states, visited 19 states, and driven through 35 states
18. i have never had a nickname that stuck, i have had several of the years.
19. i got my first grey hair when i was 25.
20. my favorite game is spades.
21. my favorite pastime is reading.
22. i have wanted a turtle since i was 13, i finally got one at 31.
23. i like working at night. i just wish i could sleep during the day.
24. i can solve a rubix cube.
25. i never wanted to move to Nebraska, but it has become my home.

Q n A - this is of course an incomplete portrait of me, so if you have any questions about me please feel free to ask. that does not mean that i will answer them but you are free to ask. i will however answer to the best of my ability.

Bare Necessities

keeping life simple on this friday. my next post is number 200, and coming just short of 3 years of having this site. i plan to introduce myself properly.

Hair

it has been just over 3 months since i got a hair cut. i know that does not sound like a long time. however i should get a hair cut about every 3 weeks if i want it to look presentable. so i had to whole chia pet look going on. now i am all cut. i have also for the last month aloud my facial hair to grow out. i had a full beard. after getting a hair cut the beard was longer then the hair on the side of my head. so i trimmed the beard down to a goatee. so now i am all cleaned up and no where to go. such is life.

by the way i am quickly approaching my 200th post. at that time i intend to reveal some personal information. not sure what it will all be. you will have to stay tuned after these messages from our sponsors.

Frolfing In The Mud

yesterday was a beautiful day. it was warm and sunny, so my roommate and i went frolfing. for those that do not know what frolf is, it is frisbee golf. it was a nice day but the course was a mess. most of the snow had melted leaving soft squishy mud, other of the snow had melted and refroze into sheets of ice. then there was actual snow in other places. we only played 12 holes then called it quits. by the end of 12 hole we where pretty muddy and so where our disks. but it was fun to get out and play and enjoy the sun and have fun together. and before you think that we were the only crazy ones, there where others out there as well. as a matter of fact we played through with a couple of guys that we met on the course, we joined them for about 6 holes. then we went on when they stopped to smoke a bowl at the 10th hole. i am looking forward to the spring when we can get out there and play more.

Football

as all of you should know last night was the superbowl. football is the bane of my existence, i have a strong dislike for the sport. at least watching it with my friends that is. or most anyone that sits there and talks threw the whole thing and argues every call and praises some of the players while comparing them to other that played the same position. so i sat and watch football and ate. at one point some others and i went downstairs to shoot pool. the most interesting thing of the night is when one of the guys brought out his python and some of the ladies freaked out. but the Cardinals lost and i am not upset. i found it hard to root for them simply because i never had. and i grew up on Arizona. but maybe in another 20 years or so they will make it again.