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"We have too many animals" -Me
"You can have no animals when you move out and go live by yourself." -Kat
"Would you choose Groot (our youngest asshole 3rd dog that we got 16 months ago) over me?" -Me
"At least she shows me affection." -Kat

Tuesday, 12-31-19: Last bootleg update of the year. Wait, of the decade!
2019 is over in a matter of hours. My awesome wife is setting up her gear in the living room, and we are getting ready for our first ever New Year's eve party at the house. Every year prior she has had to work so we've been out at the bar at midnight on New Year's eve. She has had a few people ask her to work tonight, but she said thanks but no thanks because we wanted to do our own thing.

^MADKAT DJ in our living room setting up for later.

I was concerned about having too big of a party at our house because the place isn't very big. We can host a badass summer party with 50 people thanks to the back yard, but this time of year the back yard is no use. Fresh 3" of snow and cold = NO. Thankfully I do have a plan to expand our own precious... precious available space and part 1 of that plan happened Sunday just before the Patriots lost to the Dolphins in their final regular-season game (what a bunch of crap that was!)

TARP CITY. I plan to go out shortly and install two tarp walls so people can have a space to hang out on the back deck. We have a sweet propane heater that we can put out there, and thankfully it's only going to be in the upper 20s for a low temp tonight so, for this time of year, that ain't bad at all.

I just finished all 18 credits of my tax training so I can get listed somewhere in the IRS website as a less bootleg tax guy. I had 17 done and only one left to do, and I failed the test for the final one 6 fuckin' times before I just passed it. Gods damned S-corporation basis course what a bunch of crap! When I worked for JH I never dealt with S-corps so it is a lot of new stuff for me to digest. I feel comfortable with it all, but some of the basis stuff is tough to learn. The training stuff is all voluntary, but I'd be a fool to skip out on it. The more I can learn the better I'll be and the more money I can make in the years to come. The goal isn't ever to get rich from the tax business, but having it be a nice supplmental income would be great.

I wasn't planning to work in the field at all today, so-to-speak, but one of my tenants texted me at 0606 about a leak in the bathroom so I had to go deal with that. Then as Kat and I were cleaning the house my phone rang and it was one of my heating guys parked over at my gym. He was on the schedule to install two baseboards in the basement there, but no one remembered to actually tell me about it. HEY GUYS THANKS FOR NOT TELLING ME YOU WERE COMING AND FOR JUST SHOWING UP. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I'm not really upset about it since I was nearby and since I want it done, but advance notice would have been great.

Thankfully the heating guys didn't try to show up yesterday because I was at the ol' homestead for several hours. First was a morning at Mom and Dad's to give them their Christmas gift of a new bathroom faucet. I allowed a couple hours for that install, but it went very well so I finished that in time to have a leisurely visit and lunch. Nadia was also there so I kicked her ass at some kid's game. I showed no mercy hehehe. Just kidding it was a game of chance based on dice and I just played it straight. Thankfully she is not a sore loser. She rode in my truck with me over to Jason and Holly's and I played some Def Leppard for her because she needs to learn to appreciate classic rock gods damn it.

I feel badly because I half-assed Xmas for Mom, Dad, Jason, Holly, Nadia, and Hawke. I was at Jason's place and he gave me about half a dozen gifts worth probably a few hundred bucks. OMG. Trail cams, grunt call, accessories, etc. They were very generous to me so I am a piece of shit for not reciprocating that. Oh well I suck at Christmas and that's just the way it is. Thankfully that bullshit is over for another 330 days or whatever.

Last year on New Year's even I got totally shitfaced down at Jester's while Kat ran the karaoke, and I was hungover for all of New Year's day. What a bunch of crap! I plan to get boozed up tonight, but I'll try not to get totally wrecked because hangovers are epic failers. I'd love to use my badass new treadmill tomorrow, maybe lift a few weights and do some yoga. I doubt I will do all three, maybe I will do none of the above, but I do have a great treadmill that my awesome wife got for me as a Christmas gift and it is not even set up all the way yet. I suck!

^Was going to finish it today, but it's already 1330 and I have to do a few other things before we start our party at 1700. We'll have lots of food and booze too bad we got 3" of fresh snow so I gotta go snowblow that away for parking. Oh well it happens and it sure beats getting 12"!

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Sunday, 12-29-19: Tax training, the new kitchen, and 80s tunes.
Revielle for my loser-ass today was 0558. I probably could've slept a tad more, but I bivouaced and was asleep before 2200 last night so I think I got a solid 8 hours of sleep. Not bad! Even better, I got a good night's sleep Friday night as well so in theory I should be good-to-go. Normally Friday night = drunk passed out few hours of sleep so I need Saturday night to catch up. Unfortunately, my awesome wife has not been feeling well so she didn't work Friday night. No Jester's, no boozing, and no complaints from me. I obviously would have preferred she felt good, but that just wasn't meant to be this time around so skipping the bar was okay with me.

I have the 80s channel on the TV, Fleetwood Mac Tell Me Lies. Great tune! It is quiet here in the house at this pre-dawn hour because the dogs are still crashed out on the bedroom floor and Kat is still hopefully asleep in there. She needs the rest if she plans to work tonight. When she gets up the dogs will rumble out of the room like they haven't seen me in days, but then we'll put them right outside so they can do business and burn a little energy. After that it's a little pill stuffed into a piece of hot dog for Tiger Lily. We give her three pills a day in the hopes of preventing seizures. She had two different seizures in the past so ever since the second one she's on medication. So far the meds have worked, but it sucks she has to be on the pills pretty much forever. What a bunch of crap!

I have a little more tax training to do today; I failed one of the courses about the newer QBI deductions Friday. What a bunch of crap! Fortunately I can retake the tests so I passed it on the second try yesterday. The training takes a lot of time, but it is important and I need to be a sponge and soak up all the knnowledge that I possibly can. Now that our kitchen is done I can focus more on the tax stuff again. Some people will get their w2s in as little as a week from now OMG. Most people won't get their tax forms and be ready to file for at least a month, though.

I actually finished the kitchen here at the house a couple days ago, but I didn't get around to posting photos. The bar still needs a little trim; I need to buy a piece of oak at Lowe's either today or tomorrow. I really love how the new kitchen looks and I think it came out great.

^The new cabinets in the bar. Redoing the bar didn't cost too much since I reused the old cabinet drawers and doors. I did have to buy some oak trim for the front, and a little more needs to be installed for the baseboard and corners. I could have used pine, but F that the hardwood won't gouge like the softwood would over time. I didn't add up the cost of the materials for the bar, but I'd guess $200 or less including the oak plywood top that I actually bought 1.5 or two years ago. Yeah I suck at getting projects done timely. What a bunch of crap!

The kitchen itself cost a little under $2500 not including the $200 or so for the bar.

^Since I took that picture I installed new outlets and got the cover-plates on. The top cabinets are the old cabinets just primed and painted and with new knobs. The base cabinets, countertop, backsplash, and sink faucet are all new. I did reuse our old sink since that was still in good condition and since it's a nice sink.

^The priming and painting took a shitload of precious... precious time. Kat picked out the color and I think she made a great choice.

I really like the maple butcher block countertop. One coat of stain and three coats of the butcher block oil makes the $700 (two pieces) look fantastic. The countertop itself was 30% of the entire cost!

I used three wooden 3/4" dowels and caulk to connect the two butcher block countertop pieces. At first I tried a mitered (45-degree angle) cut, but the butt-seam is better. Also we now have that lazy susan for the corner storage. Was that technology invented by a lazy woman named Susan? I could Google it, but who knows what I'll get for an accurate answer. Also, I stopped caring. I don't even care... whether or not I care.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tuff Enuff. Funny I always thought this was a Stevie Ray Vaughn song, and I never knew they chowdered the spelling. Maybe Vaughn was the lead singer of the group? I don't think my 80s channel has ever mined out this nugget before. That's why this station is so awesome!

When I was nearing the end of the project and it was time to start putting things back Kat got a little upset for a minute because there was still no room for many of our pots and pans. Nevermind the fact I spent days installing a new kitchen pretty much for her. Thankfully she got over it quickly and now does seem happy with the kitchen. Sometimes you just can't please a woman gods damn it. We put our heads together and came up with a costly but overall good solution as shown above. You can go to Lowe's (and I'm sure other stores) and buy specialized storage technology so that's what we did. The two in the photo above cost close to $250 so it ain't cheap. However, it is great and I'm glad we got it. We have one more for another cabinet not in the photo so overall the storage stuff was about $300 of the $2500 total kitchen cost.

I think a mostly new kitchen for around $2500 is a friggin' steal. If I had installed brand new top cabinets then we'd be closer to $3500-$4000, and that still ain't bad at all considering what I've seen other people pay. My parents dropped $20k on their new kitchen just a few years ago. OMG EPIC COSTLY. Of course they had a contractor do it all, and they do have a nice granite-like countertop. If I was really cheap I could have done it all for under $2000, easy. We spent $180 on a sweet faucet, $300 on the storage thingies, and $700 on the countertop itself. There was room to shave costs on any of those, but in hindsight I'm glad I spent the money because nicer things = nicer kitchen. Also, we bought the most expensive paint that Lowe's sells so hopefully the painted cabinets are easier to wash and keep clean. $42 for a gallon of semigloss blue paint. Money well-spent? We shall see...

I only bought the cheap unfinished cabinets. The cabinets themselves were $1000+, but fancier cabinets would have cost a tremendous amount more. The cheap cabinets are just fine in my world because the faces are a nice oak, and once installed who cares that the rest of them is just cheap particle-board? The cabinets look awesome, and no one but us will know they are the cheaper ones. Oh, for the first time in my life I actually installed a kitchen and then actually took the time to do knobs for the doors and handles for the drawers. Kat helped me pick those out, and thankfully we both liked the look of the basic ones that are sold in bulk. $50-$60 for all new knobs and handles?! Oh Jesus hell ya! I saved the old knobs so maybe I can use them at one of the rentals. I look back at my previous kitchens and I wonder why I never did knobs and handles? All I wanna know is why? Well the answer is I didn't want to take the time and spend the money, and that is a bunch of crap. I'll go back and put them on in every single friggin' rental unit that I own gods damn it. Obviously not all at once, but over time I'd like to make it happen.

Alright turds, all two of you who actually read this piece of crap blog of mine, I guess I should go do a little more tax training, squirt this annoying-ass cat with water so it leaves me alone, and then get some exercise. I think I'm done being sick so that is awesome for me. Unfortunately, my wife now feels terrible so that is all bad. I don't think she has a cold, I think it's more of a "flare" related to her lyme diseases. What a bunch of crap! I wish she could feel better.

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Thursday, 12-26-19: Gifts and things to watch on the TV.
We did gifts yesterday morning and I scored A-ok this year, especially from my awesome wife. She got me new running sneakers and a Gold's Gym brand treadmill along with several other awesome presents. OMG I GOT A TREADMILL FOR CHRISTMAS ON JESUS HELL YA WHAT A GREAT GIFT! A also got a Goonies flag that I will display in my bootleg gym and a RAMBO lego figure. The Rambo figure is really awesome. I have much more to say about Rambo in a few paragraphs...

I actually knew that I was getting a treadmill a couple weeks ago because my awesome wife bought it and needed help getting it in the house. The treadmill is heavy, and we were both really sick so we could barely even move it from the back of her GMC Acadia into her studio area of the house. There were no stairs, just a couple doors to get through, but I was so tired and ill that I almost couldn't do it. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully I am getting better [mostly] so I plan to go unbox the treadmill and *hopefully* take it for a test spin shortly.

After we all exchanged gifts the kids disbursed so Kat and I decided to just veg out and watch TV. Neither one of us was feeling very well, but I wouldn't say I was sick. I felt drained and exhausted, and I had to drink some caffene a few times during the day to keep myself awake. Katherine let us log into her Disney Plus account to watch The Mandolorian (A Star Wars series spinoff) and that was pretty good. There are 7 episodes out right now, and episode 8 comes out tomorrow so hopefully we can watch that Saturday since we watched all of the 7 already.

I used to really love Star Wars, but George Lucas and Disney kind-of fucked it up so now I don't even care... whether or not I care when a new one comes out. The new Star Wars (part 9) is in the theaters right now, but we won't go see it. I suppose we'll check it out when we can rent it at the RedBox for $2 in a few months, though. We wouldn't have even watched The Mandolorian, but I've heard it is good so we gave it a try.

After the Star Wars Mandolorian show we decided to watch one of my Christmas gifts: Rambo: Last Blood.

MY WIFE BOUGHT ME THE LAST RAMBO MOVIE AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT SHE IS THE BEST! Even better, she bought it when we were out shopping together so that shows how much of an unobservant retard I really am. I had no idea she was paying for that when we got to the cash registers hahaha.

WARNING: MOVIE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW ABOUT THE NEW RAMBO MOVIE:

Rambo Last Blood could have been a decent action movie. Not great, but passable and maybe even leaning towards good. Unfortunately the writer(s) made a couple poor decisions and that turned the movie into a fucking piece of shit. Rambo was living the retired soldier life, living with presumably copious amounts of PTSD from killing all those commies and other bad guys in Rambo 2-4. He seemed content enough living in Arizona near the Mexico border on a ranch with a lot of horses. His 17-year old niece lived with him as did some other random older chick who might have been a grandmother or a servant. That part was never explained so I have no idea. I would have liked to know, though. She seemed to get along great with Rambo.

Rambo's niece wanted to meet her real father so she went down to Mexico to get disappointed in what she found. Then, to make matters worse, she got kidnapped and sold as a whore. They drugged her and she went through hell. Of course Rambo found her, he got his ass kicked, but then he regrouped, killed bad guys gratuitously, and rescued his niece. At this point the movie was going okay near about the halfway mark. Then on the drive back to the USA his niece died in the passenger seat in the truck.

OMG ALL I WANNA KNOW IS WHY? WHY DID THEY HAVE HER FUCKING DIE THAT IS BULLSHIT AND AN EPIC BUNCH OF CRAP ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE FUCK OFF TO ME AS A VIEWER.

So they had to do the funeral and then the random old lady left and Rambo was all alone. FUCK THAT SHIT. Rambo knew the rest of the bad guys would come to his ranch so he set a lot of booby traps (Booty traps thank you Data from The Goonies!) and gratuitously killed a small army of bad guys. Some of these bad guys died hard, heads and bodies exploding, etc. I'm all for serious violence in movies when it is warranted, but it seemed in this movie it was just there because it could be. Rambo got his revenge, but he got shot a couple times and then he sat down in his porch rocker and the movie ended. There was a scene after a few credits rolled showing a wounded Rambo riding off on a horse then that was it.

FUCK YOU MOVIE THAT IS FUCKING BULLSHIT. THIS MOVIE CAN EAT THE PEANUTS OUT OF MY SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I DID NOT EAT PEANUTS YESTERDAY OR TODAY, BUT MY BODY SAVED SOME FROM TUESDAY JUST IN CASE GODS DAMN IT.

RAMBO LAST BLOOD = WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

I still love the Rambo character, he was not the reason why I hate the flick. No, I hate the movie because it took a giant shit on how part 4 ended. Part 4 had the perfect ending and that should have concuded the Rambo franchise forever. At the end of part 4 a war-torn Rambo finally comes home. You see him walking towards a ranch with a mailbox labeled RAMBO before things pan away to end credits. PERFECT. You can believe Rambo might have a few good retirement years left in him before he dies of old age.

Rambo 5, this new movie, takes a shit on how part 4 ended and it gives Rambo a toilet-bowl ending. All his family is (presumably) gone, and he leaves his ranch a tormented soul with no one left to love. Plus quite possibly he was about to die from his injuries. FUCK THAT SHIT. I wasn't expecting Rambo to start wearing Hawaiin shirts and join a timeshare vacation in the Caribbean, but I did expect some sort of positivity at the end of his epic journey. Rambo has been a part of my friggin' life since I was a little kid, and I love the character. Rambo knows how to do war like a boss, but he is a good, honorable man who deserves some modicum of hope and redemption at the end of his journey. Hell let the man find a hot chick, anything instead of the bunch of crap that we got.

Stallone is still the man despite how I feel about this last Rambo movie, though.

In conclusion I give Rambo Last Blood a 2 on a scale of 1-10. I own it and I am glad to own it since it is a Rambo movie, but it really does suck. First Blood is a 10/10, Rambo: First Blood part 2 is a 9/10, Rambo 3 is a 7.5/10, and Rambo 4 is 8/10. I basically at minimum like all the Rambo movies except for this one. Even though I "only" give Rambo 3 a 7.5 I still love the movie. From Rambo 3 I end with this classic quote of Rambo being interrogated after getting captured by the enemies:

Bad guy: Where in my sector are the missles being delivered?
Rambo: I don't know.
Bad Guy: You liar! Where? Where?
Rambo: Okay, I'll tell ya.
Bad Guy: I knew you were lying. Now where are the missles located?
Rambo: Close.
Bad guy: How close?
Rambo: IN YOUR ASS!

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Wednesday, 12-25-19: Merry Christmas at 0240.
All I wanna know is why? Why is my loser-ass up in the middle of the night again? I woke up around 0200, maybe a little before that, with a bit of a sore throat. Again. My bootleg fucking body has failed me so hard this month, and that is a bunch of crap. Thankfully I'm not as bad off as I was at this time a week ago. Now it's more of an annoyance than an actual sickness, but it is still frustrating. It's just enough of a burden to keep me awake for the time being. I probably do have mono since I've been unwell for about 75% of this month so far.

I'm not up in the middle of the night because I'm excited for Santa to haul his fat fake ass down our chimney. If some old lardass in a red suit does pop out of our friggin chimney then I'm gonna start going to church because at that point you might as well believe in the Tooth Fairy, angels, demons, heaven and hell. All I wanna know is why? Why does Santa have to be fat? He should buy DDP Yoga and a gym membership. Probably he can have his elves build him a gym. Speaking of elves, Doug emailed me this YouTube video of the late great Gunnery Sgt Hartman from Full Metal Jacket regulating on elves in a great spoof clip:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Isn't that a clip from the one where the elf wanted to be a dentist? Hell I dunno I don't watch that Xmas crap anymore because I'm like Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon and I'm too old for this shit. We did watch Elf a few days ago, though. On paper that movie should not work at all, but it's hilarious and a classic Christmas movie to me. The part where Ferrell thinks the dwarf is an elf, that is some great stuff.

I want to go back to bed, but I just had a coughing fit so I guess I'll stay up a little bit more. No sense waking my awesome wife up. At least one of us should sleep gods damn it. I can still bivouac for a couple more hours, maybe three if things really go well. I got 3.5 hours of sleep already so that's better than nothing. Glass half-full, right?

Fuck Christmas. Fuck this holiday it is by far my least favorite one. Hell I'll even take Easter over this shit and that holiday is horrible. Fucking Easter one year it's in March one year it's mid-April it seems to just randomly pop up at varying points in the early spring but never on the same date. At least Christmas is always December 25th each year and there are no fake rabbits and plastic eggs. Unfortunately with Christmas you have a social obligation to go buy crap for people that that is the part I hate the most of all. I don't want to get gifts and I don't want to give them anymore. I wish I could just go away for Xmas and come back when it's all over. One year I did just that, maybe ten years ago, and it was fucking awesome. Best Xmas ever. I wonder what I wrote about Christmas that year? Guy looks if guy can find it...

Ok I skimmed through some old crap before I got tired of looking at it. I was actually gone in 2012, Hollywood, Florida in a rented 2BR condo with Gavin. I was there for 11 days and flew back "home" early in the morning of Dec 26th. I had to put home in quotations because I was hauling on my chick at the time and sorta in limbo about where I would end up. I had options, but I hadn't decided what I wanted to do. I ended up back with the same chick in 2013, but it didn't last and now I am better off in life. She was a good woman I hope she found someone to spend the rest of her life with.

It's a little sad that I hate Christmas and my wife loves it. I don't actively behave like Scrooge and the Grinch. My disdain for this time of year is more subtle and bottled up. I can bitch to almost no one in particular on this worthless blog about how much Christmas sucks ass, but in the "real" world I don't go around acting like a miserable asshole. (Well sometimes I do but only when drunk at the bar and I have to deal with some of Kat's missing-chromosome karaoke "singers." That's a year-round thing for me, though. What a bunch of crap!) I'm very much looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning knowing that it is all over and we can put the Xmas stuff back into the cellar and reclaim the precious... precious space in the living room that the tree takes up.

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Friday, 12-20-19: I'm viral gods damn it. Oh, a new kitchen that is not done yet.
I have been varying degrees of unwell for about 16 of the 20 days of this month. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Some days I feel wasted like Doc-J and 8-Ball from Full Metal Jacket, and other days I feel weak but not quite sick. Sore throat, some coughing, etc. Today I was okay, but not good enough to play rball so I had to shut that shit down when the guys asked me to play. However, I did feel well enough to put in a lot of work here at our own house remodeling the kitchen.

I woke up yesterday morning and knew I was pwned. I felt like ten pounds of crap stuffed into a five pound bag. My awesome wife has been pressuring my loser-ass to go to the doc, but F that normally my body finds a way to fix itself. However, after being sick for over two weeks (twooooooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssss!) I knew I needed to get some advice from a professional so I went to walk-in care yesterday morning. I forked over $120 cash since I don't have health insurance, and I was happy to do that I thought it would cost more. I saw some medic-chick who took my vitals 120/80, 72BMP, weight 148 (with boots and jeans on), 98% saturation, all good I guess.

My throat has been the biggest culprit this month. Having a sore throat sucks. A lot. Kat and I both figured I had strep throat and the 8 amoxipillians that I took from her "overflow" stash just wasn't enough to kill the thing. It almost worked, but then it didn't. What a bunch of crap! The chick said the strep test took 7 minutes, but it took about 37 gods damn it. No joke they ditched my ass in the room-thing for a while. Oh well, it happens. Since I don't have strep that means I have a virus and amoxipillians don't kill viruses so I have to wait it out. I could have had the lab do more testing for more $$$$$, but F that I shut that shit down ASAP. Also, Kat has something named after two people, like mono but the after-mono thing. I have to check what she texted me because I am borderline retared when it comes to doctor shit. Guy looks...

Okay she has a printer mixed with a place to get drunk at. It is called EPSTEIN BARR and it is active. She had mono many years ago so maybe I have mononucleosis since obviously I friggin kiss my wife like a boss. Maybe I don't kiss like a boss since I'm emotionally impotent, but we obviously do kiss. I guess I might have mono, but who the hell knows? I was too cheap to have them test more ahahahhahaa! I'll either get better or I won't get better. If I get better great I can live more. If I don't then oh well it's been a great 44 years...

I planned to start ripping out our old kitchen cabinets yesterday morning, early. Unfortunately I had to go to the doc so by the time I started working on the kitchen it was very late in the morning. What a bunch of crap! Kat told me to rest and not work on the kitchen, but F that she needs a kitchen early next week so she can do mountains of food for Christmas so I got to work. Plus working when I am not feeling well feels like the right thing to do because I can focus on work and not just mope around.

Okay this is a first for me and it's funny and weird all wrapped up into one. A singer called VAGINA is on my channel 1928, the 80s channel. Oh wow I know this song! Never knew a pussy sang it ahahahahha. The singer is really called Vangelis. WTF is that?! Sounds like a friggin STD HAHAHAHA. The song is called Chariots of Fire from the movie of the same name. I never saw the movie, but somehow I know this song.

So I don't feel so well, my throat is a bit sore, but I'm not totally pwned and I'm about to make another drink before I go to Jester's. I finally stopped working on the kitchen not long ago. Yesterday night this is how the kitchen looked:

The countertops are maple butcher block, and working with those is a first for me. Today I got them stained and applied a first coat of sealant tonight not long ago. The sealant is this product that Lowe's sells:

I bought the el-cheapo unfinished Lowe's oak cabinets, but once they are finished they will look great. Maybe? Hopefully! Today I made great progress and I'm on track to get an operational kitchen in place by Monday-ish. Kat picked out a nice blue paint for the cabinets so I'm happy I get to paint them instead of staining them. Stain looks great, but it is more work than paint. I don't feel like posting a photo of how things look now; I should be able to post a newer photo next time.

The House of Representatives impeached president Trump Wednesday. Pelosi, what a piece of shit that chick is. She waited to vote until she knew her vote was the one tipping the scale to IMPEACH. She fucking sucks. I'd respect her a little more if she would just say she hates Trump, but she won't say it even thought her actions clearly indicate she does. Now she's not sending it to the senate because she knows she has no chance. The senate is NOT going to impeach Trump so she just wasted all this precious... precious taxpayer time. What a bunch of crap! Trump fucking sucks as a person, but the democrats are dumbasses for thinking they could impeach him because, essentially, they just don't like the guy. Like him or not he is running this country well. If he's that bad then won't he just get voted out of office in 11 months? Apparently the democrats don't think so when this fucking guy is the leading democratic candidate:

^BAD GUY FROM ROBOCOP AHAHAHAHA. HE'S WORSE THAN TRUMP!

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Wednesday, 12-18-19: Crap I might need to figure this out ASAP.
I'm up early this morning; revielle was 0530 for my loser-ass. I actually woke up a lot last night because my stupid bootleg throat is sore again. What a bunch of crap! It's weird that I have a sore throat yet I don't feel sick. I have good energy, and I even did yoga yesterday morning and had good racquetball games yesterday afternoon against Mike. No runny nose, no other ill symptoms. I am concerned that if it gets worse I'll have to go to the doc, though. Apparently my health issues from last week are still unresolved, and that sucks. A lot.

Tomorrow I plan to rip out our kitchen base cabinets, sink, and old formica countertops. In preparation for the big day tomorrow I have already purchased the new cabinets and wooden butcher block countertop. We also have a brand new sink faucet, and since the sink itself seems to be in great condition still we plan to just reuse that. 2/3 of the cabinets, the faucet, and the conuntertops are already here at the house. I need to go to the Bangor Lowe's this AM to get the rest of the cabinets that I bought online last night before bed on their website. (Brewer Lowe's was sold out of a couple cabinets that I need what a bunch of crap.)

I thought I was all set with materials, but early this morning when I was double-checking my figures I found a glaring error in my math. I bought a 30" sink base, but the one we have here now is 36". No big deal for a smaller sink, but ours is a larger double sink that is 33 inches wide at its apex.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

HEY SELF THAT WAS REALLY FUCKING STUPID HOW ARE YOU GOING TO ACCOUNT FOR THAT?! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Thankfully I do have a plan of sorts. Plan A is to get a 36" sink base and a 9" base cabinet to squeeze into the corner. If there is no 9" base cabinet then I'll make my 30 sink base and the adjacent 15 (that I already have here at the house) work by cutting some stuff. Do they sell a 9" base cabinet? I think 12 is the smallest. Guy looks at Lowe's website now...

GODS DAMN IT THAT IS WHAT I THOUGHT NO 9" EVEN SOLD IN THE UNFINISHED STYLE WE ARE USING. Oh well I'll make it work. I could just rip a piece of 9" oak as a spacer, but F that I don't want to lose the precious... precious storage so that ain't happening.

Our kitchen looks like this now:

^Photo from September with Kat's camera, but the kitchen looks the same still.

The kitchen now isn't run down and horrible, but the gap is where we used to have a non-working dishwasher. Actually maybe it worked, I can't even remember. I think there was something wrong with it. Doesn't matter we never used the thing anyway we always just hand-wash our dishes. Lots of people would rather have a dishwasher, but we'd rather not have one and have more cabinet space instead. Installing new base cabinets will give us that precious... precious space. I can't just stick a cabinet in there now without tearing everything apart, and if I could do that I wouldn't ever find one in that same style anyway.

The corner base cabinet between the sink and the oven is a shit-show. All I wanna know is why? Why did they build it that way? The pots and pans in there fall all over the place and it sucks. A lot. So instead of just sticking two cabinets in there and cutting out additional space like it is now we're going to have an actual "lazy susan" style base corner cabinet. Hopefully I don't F it up and it all comes out level and looking nice. The cabinets shouldn't be that hard to install (I hope!), but the butcher block countertops will be a new experience for me and will essentially be the showpiece of the kitchen so those need to come out looking great.

I'm not starting the kitchen itself today because I have a few other things to do. A 1000 tax appointment, the trip to Lowe's, and an 1130 appointment with my awesome wife that will take an hour. Plus if my bootleg throat gets worse then I need to go to walk-in care for what will most likely be a 2-hour wait and $400 just for more amoxicillians. I really hope I still don't have strep throat, but Kat thinks I do. I took 4 days worth of antibiotics already, but possibly that was not enough to cure me...

I can work on the bar more later today, and right now this is where I'm at with it:

^I'll finish the oak front facing today and sand the wood filler tomorrow or Friday before I stain the top and paint the bottom cabinet area. Also today I hope to do some of the drawers and the two cabinet doors. I'm pirating those from the existing kitchen, and I'll paint it all to match. So far so good. I did F up and measure wrong for the center oak trim so I'll get a small piece of oak trim when I pick up the cabinets this morning. Every time I have a project I screw at least something up, but as Bruce would say there are no problems only solutions so thankfully most of my F-ups can be fixed without wasting too much precious... precious time and money. [mostly hehehe]

Alright turds, all two of you who read this pathetic excuse for a website, I gotta go eat some more food and shovel snow. We were expecting 1-2" yesterday evening/night and we got 3.5" so that is a bunch of crap. It's the difference between needing plowing and not. What a bunch of crap! I won't even bother to snowblow our own driveway we can just drive over it. Our snowblower works now! Finally got it back from the shop last week. Bye bye $288 for that gods damn it...

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Sunday, 12-15-19: Time to put some work into our own house again.
I decided to remodel the bar and kitchen at our house so on Friday afternoon/evening I got to work on it. Instead of boozing at Jester's Friday night I worked here at the house. I started taking the bar apart:

^Later on Friday I actually got that top 100% removed.

The goal for the bar is two-fold. First, we want to lower the top from about 42" down to 38, and I actually have that done now. Lowering the thing was a pain in the arse and I made quite the dust-up at the house, but it had to be done. We wanted the bar a little lower (lower the bar hehe) because it just seemed too high before. Having it a little lower will integrate it better into the kitchen, and as an added bonus I can sit on the couch on the living room side and use it better as a table for my booze hehe.

Second and more importantly, I also plan to install cabinets and drawers on the inside of the bar because that has just been wasted space for all these years. When I decided to build a bar 5.5 years ago it was just me, myself, and I here in my newly acquired house and I didn't even think I'd need storage under there. It only crossed my mind fleetingly, if at all. What a bunch of crap! Of course I'm a much better builder now than I was several years ago so I can do more. Nice cabinets in the island bar will take some precious... precious time and finish work, but I feel confident I can make it all look nice. I could have done it 5.5 years ago, but the end product would not have been as good. Finish carpentry is still not my top strength as a carpenter, but I have come a long way in that area and these days my finish work is pretty good overall.

I also plan to install new kitchen cabinets and countertop. I did a lot of reading about concrete countertops since I want something nicer than a basic formica top. However, I decided not to do that and my awesome wife and I think doing a butcher block countertop is the way to go instead. Butcher block is just hardwood, but from what I have read if it is installed and sealed properly then it can last for a long time looking just like new. It will cost more than the basic formica couptertop, but it will be a lot cheaper than granite or marble. Looks like we can get some nice butcher block countertops at Lumber Liquidators right here in Brewer for $750. It would cost even less, but we need a 12-footer and those cost the most. Gods damn it!

So tonight I need to do a little more measuring and prep, and then tomorrow Kat and I will stop by Lowe's to grab some supplies so I can make more progress. Right now the bar looks like this:

^I'll try to get the bar mostly done before I start ripping up the nearby cabinets and el-cheapo formica countertops. Once the base cabinets in the kitchen go then having finished cabinets in the bar will be great so we actually have a place to put our precious... precious stuff (at least some of it!)

Can I get the bar and kitchen 100% done by the end of the year? I still have 16 days, and I can push it into early Jan if needed. The biggest thing is I don't want our kitchen to be all torn apart for a long time since not having a sink will suck. A lot. From what I have read it takes 24 hours for each protective coat of butcher block finish to dry so bye bye four days right there with no sink. Plus I might need Bruce to hook our sink back up so if he's not available when I need him then that makes an even longer wait. I know how to hook up a sink, but not if I have to rip out all the base plumbing and essencially start over with it.

Mom and Aunt Susie came up today and we had a nice visit over at Epic Buffet. That friggin buffet costs $18 a person for the Sunday brunch. EPIC EXPENSIVE WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Thankfully Santa-Mom had a $25 off coupon and would not let us pay anything. That buffet is great, but it is too expensive. The supper there on Friday and Saturday nights (only other times during the week they are open) are $24. OMG F THAT!

We got home and turned on the last half of the Patriots-Bengles game. Thankfully the right team won as pretty much expected since the Bengles are 1-13 on their season after today's game. The Greatriots are 11-3 now, but they haven't been able to beat any of the really good teams in the division so that is a bunch of crap. I finally feel recovered from my 1.5-week sickness so that is also great. This morning I was able to do yoga with my awesome wife, go drain water out of North Main (that fuckin cellar...), and play half-decent racquetball games with both Gavin and Deno. Overall not a bad day up to this point and not a bad start to the week.

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Friday, 12-13-19: Final floor photos and my gods damn 10-day cold.
I have been unwell for the past ten friggin days. TEN! By unwell I men varying degrees of sick. Some days just feeling worn down, no energy. Other days actual 100% sick. Wednesday this week was my worst day, and since then I have been very slowly improving. Unfortunately I am still not better, and that is a bunch of crap. Thankfully at least I have been functional and today my awesome wife and I did some shopping and found a nice rocking chair for North Main. I'll sit in it when I don't have clients and am reading/working on drop offs, ect. Hopefully Kat will want to use it, too. Marden's comes through for us yet again. We've bought quite a bit of our furniture from Marden's over the years. Sometimes that place has nothing but a bunch of crap, but today we made out A-ok.

The final office area just needs a desk, some organization, and a sink faucet. Bruce was gonna do the faucet today, but it got pushed back not because I'm sick still but because he had other issues come up. My plumber of 12 years not coming actually worked out better for me since I wans't feeling well anyway.

^From the entry looking into the final office space. Kat will most likely use that back area for storage and maybe some other things in the future. I'll use the front section for a "reception" area.

^The "reception" area. When I don't have customers I can sit up there and watch the door, maybe be a little more comfortable. My office is plenty comfortable, but I think the front will be a little brighter and since it's close to the entry that is a huge plus, too. In the future if the business really takes off I might need an actual receptionist so that would be his or her area.

All my big projects are done for this year. Oh Jesus hell ya! My body picked a "good" time to get sick since I don't have too much work to do. I still need to clean and finish the ceiling over at my bootleg gym, but I need Bruce to move some pipes before I can finish that and he's not coming for at least a week now. I can't sheetrock for Gavin yet since he is waiting on his insulation guy still. So now I can keep plugging away at tax training and planning. I spent a few hours yesterday at my new tax office doing training courses. I have to pay for the courses, but it will be money well-spent because I can't be in business if I don't keep up with all the knowledge.

I wish I could booze it up tonight and have fun, but my body is still too pwned. Throat a little sore, some coughing, reduced energy, all bad. My awesome DJ-wife is not feeling so well either yet she is at work at Jester's as usual for our Friday night. I'll have a little Dr. Miggillicutty since obviously that booze is recommended by doctors. Hehehe. I don't even know how to spell that what a bunch of crap! I like the Dr, but too much of it probably give me a sugar high in addition to an alcohol high.

^It's medicine and it also gets you drunk. You can stat to "time warp" through your sickness when you get wasted and pass out! Plus it is minty so you will have good breath when you drunkenly give your significant other a goodnight kiss. I had one shot already, but I'm not in a rush to have another one. I probably shouldn't drink at all since I have amoxopillians in my system still, but fuck it a little bit won't kill me. Right?

Mom and Aunt Susie were going to come up tomorrow, but we are expecting 2 inches of heavy rain during the day when they'd be making the 66-mile drive from the midcoast so they pushed it back to Sunday. That actually works better for me anyway so I can hopefully start to feel better. Maybe tomorrow I can do some more tax training and work on the next house project. I have a few things to do here at the house, things that have been on my list for over a year, and I have time now to tackle some of them before I get busy over at my tax office early next year.

I'm slowly getting ready for Christmas. I'm up to four gifts for my Sweet Pea, and one for my own family. I should get a few more things and order online before the shipping deadline comes and goes. I was in WalMart a few days ago looking for one of Kat's gifts, but I could not find it. I went to WalMart.com beforehand and they said it was in stock so all I wanna know is why? Why could I not find it? So I gave up and just ordered it off their website for the same price with free shipping right to the house. No problems only solutions! (Thanks for that awesome expression, Bruce.)

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Wednesday, 12-11-19: Guess today will be a "sick day" from my "work."
I feel like ten pounds of crap stuffed into a five pound bag. I've gotten more sick, and this bullshit has been nagging at me for the past 9 days in some way, shape, or form. Last week for a few days I knew I was not feeling 100%, but I was hopeful my bootleg body would make the necessary repairs so I could have the precious... precious energy I need to do my yoga and to exercise. Unfortunately the opposite has happened and now I am pwned. I have a very sore throat, and as a new development I started sneezing a lot this morning. What a bunch of crap!

No one likes being sick. Who would like that? The thing that pisses me off the most about being sick is not the sickness itself but the lack of precious... precious energy that I need to go use my gym and/or to play racquetball. I tried to do DDP Yoga yesterday morning with my awesome wife, and I failed so hard that I quit about 30 seconds into it. I could not even properly do the breathing part so I knew it was game over. Yoga is mostly stretching for me and I think I could do that when sick well enough, but with a sore throat forget the breating part of it all. Game over man, game over. Where is my Bill Paxton gif of that classic movie quote?

^Aliens. Fucking awesome movie and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

Okay note to self, no more bitching to almost no one at all about my bootleg failed body. HEY BODY FIX YOURSELF! I am going to call out sick today for... myself? Just kidding I don't have a boss anymore (well my wife is the boss hehehe) so I'm not really calling out. Thankfully I don't have any work appointments today. No bedbug remediations, no furnace cleanings, no plumbing, no electrical, no nothing. Oh Jesus Hell ya! I was going to spend a chunk of the day over at my tax office doing some training modules and getting ready for tax season, but instead I'll just do some of that today on my laptop PC here at our house. I should also do some Christmas cards.

I have already been somewhat productive at this 0900 hour. I took the dogs out back so they could play for a bit while I shovelled up their shit. Yeah, one of my jobs is shovelling dog shit. I don't even get paid for that job either gods damn it! Three dogs make about 10-12 piles a day so it doesn't take long to become a minefield out back if I slack off. However, Groot might eat one pile here and there so that is less work for me. Yeah, she sometimes still tries to eat shit. I think I hate her and want her gone forever, but how can you hate a dog, really? Cats on the other hand...

It was 55 degrees each of the last two days with a lot of rain Monday night so the back yard turned into a muddy mess. The dogs can't help but track in the mud so the floors got pwned, but now they are nice and clean thanks to a good vacuum and swabbing. I mopped this floor like a boss, and it might actually stay clean for the next 2-3 days since it is cold outside again and everything refroze late last night. The rain ate up most of the snow that was on the ground so bonus there, especially since the snowblower is still in the shop and hopefully will be done before 2020.

We started watching a series on HBO last night called Watchmen, and it is interesting. We watched the first three episodes so today my lazy sick ass can lounge around with my awesome kinda-sick wife and we can watch the rest of them. I know there was a Watchmen movie, but I never saw it. Never read the graphic comic/book either so I really am not in tune with that universe. So far so good and it will help pass the time today as I hopefully start to get better. Kat "prescribed" me some of her leftover amoxicillians so that is awesome. Not having to go to walk-in care and pay $350 is a huge plus. I might have strep throat or pneuminoa or some shit. Hell I dunno I just hope her leftover antibodies get me better. She also told me to take Mucinex so I started that this morning as well.

Not having health insurance isn't something I think about too often, but the thought has crossed my mind more lately. I spend a lot of time going up and down ladders each year, and one wrong step = potential HUGE medical bills. Plus I could get hurt playing rball or have some stupid fluke thing happen. I could get cancer, who knows. I really need to get something going here, and right now I have two potential options.

My first and most likely option is the Marketplace. Since we are well below the 400% federal poverty level cutoff I can get health insurance for somewhat cheap-ish. I found a shitty plan on there that has a very high deductible for $150 a month that I might do. I looked into the requirements for getting hooked into the VA for health insurance since I am an honorably discharged veteran, but our income is likely a little too high for that cutoff. If you have no service-related issues and you make too much money then they say this:

I have some veteran friends and acquaintences who think I should be able to get health insurance through the VA, but I'm not so sure. I did some reading of the VA website itself and, based on our income each of the last few years, I just don't qualify. I'm not going to fake some bullshit service-related crap just to get hooked into the system either. I've been out for 21 friggin years so who would believe it anyway? I'm lucky to not have injuries and/or PTSD from my time on active duty. I wish more veterans could be as fortunate as I have been.

I dunno what our income will be for this year when it all shakes out onto the federal 1040 tax form, but I know it will be less than it was each of the last two years. I did sell Holyoke for a nice capital gain, but I spent a shitload of money on North Main and on both the Gilmore and Holyoke houses. Holyoke took a few grand in upgrades just to make it sell-worthy. My new tax business will be a substantially negative number with all the startup costs associated with that endeavor. If our income does end up being low enough I would qualify for VA with a small co-pay, but I just don't think it will and I'm not going to cheat on taxes just to make it fit. I could easily cheat since half our income (or more) has been in cash this year. Rents, carpentry jobs, some DJ gigs, etc.

Fuck cheating what goes around comes around.

I also need to see a dentist. I talked to Doug last week, and he told me his horror-story of not going to a dentist for the past 17 years. He recently went, and it was all bad and very expensive for him. He also brushes his teeth a lot like I do, but I guess that is just not enough. Kat thinks I do have a cavity, and I bet she is right since sometimes I have bad breath even though I do brush and chew minty gum. I have not been to a dentist in seemingly forever. The last time I had a cleaning must have been 15-20 years ago. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully one of Kat's friends is a dental student and she wants to use me as her subject for this coming winter semester so I hope that all comes together and I can get my bootleg teeth more squared away. My teeth don't hurt, but eventually if I don't do something they will start falling out of my damn head and that would suck. It would be a bunch of crap!

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Tuesday, 12-10-19: Up at 0130.
I've only slept a fitful 3-ish hours so far tonight. What a bunch of crap! Over the past week my health has been a failure. Thankfully so far I have still been functional in this world, but I have not felt good at all. Right now my throat is really gods damned sore, so sore I could not sleep anymore. So I got up and ate one of those sore-throat things. It is like a hard candy, but it does not taste good like candy does. If my throat was not so sore right now I would be feeling okay. Unfortunately, I am pwned yet again. My throat has not been this sore in many years so I'm hoping I don't have something worse than just a little bit of a cold.

Being able to sleep at night is something a lot of people, myself included, often take for granted. I'm lucky that on most nights I can bivouac and sleep a solid-ish 7 or 8 hours. I have met many people over the years who can't sleep well at night, and unfortunately my awesome wife is one of those people. She gets a good night sleep maybe 1/3 of the time, if that. Thankfully she is sleeping right now and I hope she does not wake up at all tonight because after four consecutive late nights hosting karaoke shows in the area she really needs the sleep more than I do. I didn't sleep well last night either because my snot-locker was all plugged up. Now at least my nose isn't plugged, but the tradeoff is a stupid fuckin' sore throat what a bunch of crap!

Yesterday I had tenants give me their 30-day notice over at the apartment above the one where I used to live. The two guys have been great tenants since they moved in 2.5 years ago, and actually one of the guys was a good tenant of mine before that. I knew this was coming so it is no shock. One of the guys is moving into a new place with his chick, and the other guy is going to leave town and head off to parts unknown to hang out with Mankind from the old WWF. I just made that last part up, but I always thought it was funny when pro-wrestlers were hailed from parts unknown hehe.

^From the late 90s back was pro wrestling was fuckin'-A to watch. Monday night was my favorite night of the week for a while because we would be able to tune in to watch not only Mankind but also Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, The Rock, The McMahons, and many other greats on the USA network (our preferred station) and the "evil" NWO Hulk Hogan and his cronies on TNT in WCW.

There have been a few other wrestlers hailing from parts unknown over the years, but I can't list them all. Vader maybe? More recently Abyss in Impact Wrestling...

It's ironic and funny that Mick Foley, the man behind the derranged Mankind character, has written a couple books and is a legend in the wrestling business these days. I read his book called Have a Nice Day and he seems like a cool guy. His Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker is worth a YouTube because it is fucking awesome.

Pro wrestling just isn't what it used to be. Now there are no mega-stars on any wrestling roster. The Rock left years ago to go become a major movie star. John Cena was never as well-known as either The Rock or Hulk Hogan, but he was wrestling's biggest star for a long time and now he is also off to Hollywood. Now the guys are overall smaller, more athletic, and bland. We still watch wrestling, but we record it and fast-forward through most of it. What was once the WWF back in the glory days is now the WWE, and it is more heavily scripted and geared towards pleasing sponsors and kiddos. WCW went out of business nearly two decades ago, and some other smaller wrestling companies just haven't been able to recapture what wrestling once was back in those late 90s "attitude era" years.

I guess I should try to bivouac and sleep some more. My throat is less sore since I ate that medicine-candy, but I still think I'll have a hard time sleeping. If all I'm doing in there is tossing and turning then I might as well just stay awake for the sake of my exhausted wife who is needing a good night sleep way more than my loser-ass is. Hopefully I don't have to go to the doc for something like strep throat because that would be a bunch of crap. I actually have been reading up on health insurance options. I'll have to write more about that next time...

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Saturday, 12-07-19: Stupid being sick.
I'm sick. What a bunch of crap! I knew something was off on Tuesday morning when I tried and failed at using my bootleg gym. I just didn't have the strength to do a back and shoulder lift so I switched to a lighter arm workout, and I lasted all of about ten minutes. Gods damn it! I wouldn't say I was sick Tues, but I felt sore. Then down at Mom and Dad's Wednesday into Thursday I knew I was fighting a cold. I was not 100% sick, but I was teetering on the edge of the shit. Yesterday was more of the same, but today I actually feel more sick.

Boozing last night probably didn't help, but I didn't get wasted shit-show drunk. Just "regular" drunk hehehe. Sometimes booze helps when I feel sick, but last night it did not help. We stayed up until 0300 and had late-night Dennys with Neil and Ang so can definitely say I did have fun last night. I even "sang" karaoke last night, Motley Crue Same Old Situation. It was a bunch of crap, but I was drunk and powered through it. I woke up this morning with a very sore throat, and I slept for half the afternoon. I do feel a little better now that it's Saturday evening, but I am still not good enough to exercise.

When I don't have the energy to use my gym or even to do yoga then I know I am sick. I've been much more sick than this in the past so I'm thankful I'm at least functional still. No puking, and I have my appetite. The guys wanted to play rball yesterday and today, but I had to tap out due to having a bootleg failing body.

I need to start writing Christmas cards. I think I'll just hang out tonight and start working on those tomorrow. My awesome wife is actually working right now, her first time ever at The Elk's Club over in Bangor. Neither one of us has ever been to the Elks before, and it seems like a decent place. Their stage over there also doubles at a little putting green hehe. Kat will end up having four consecutive karaoke gigs this week. First was her seasonal debut at the Eagles Thursday night. Barry, their normal DJ, is being a snowbird in Florida lucky guy. He won't be back until around the end of April. Last night was obviously Jester's, tonight is the Elk's, and tomorrow is the Pour House. She hasn't booked regular dates at the Elk's; hopefully they like her well enough there to have her back for future events.

I gots some bills sitting here that I could be paying, but again I think tomorrow or even Monday I'll take care of that. November was cold, 4.3 degrees below average temp, but the gas bills are less than I expected them to be. Price per therm was only 57 cents for last month. I have shit on Bangor Gas a lot in prior years so they deserve praise for not fucking me this time around. Last year at this time my price was 84 cents per therm so that is a huge difference. Oh Jesus hell ya!

This month has started off cold so far, but we are expecting some warmer weather early next week with a rainstorm moving through. I'm shut down for exterior work at this point so I'll finish a few interior things this coming week and then start some tax training courses. I got the floor done at North Main. Finally! I still have a countertop to install and a few other things to finish up there, but the big stuff is checked off the list. Here is what the floor looked like a couple days ago before I started:

^FILLED WITH MISC CRAP. I need to take pictures of what it looks like now. Hopefully I can do that next time I update this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read...

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Friday, 12-06-19: Another job mostly well-done. The best-worst president of all-time?
I checked another couple things off my long "to-do" list this week. First, I finished the last of two bedroom floors at Mom and Dad's Wednesday and yesterday. Second, I finished the floor today in the final office space area at our North Main building. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

^The "computer room" at Mom and Dad's. Back in the day, let's say the glorious 1980s into the early 90s, that was Jason and Doug's bedroom. Then I joined the Navy in 1993 and shipped my ass out so that became Doug's room and Jason took over my old bedroom.

I did a damn good job in those two rooms. I felt no compulsion to rush the job like I might have felt at some of my bootleg rental properties in the past. I actually even allowed myself a couple hour break on Wednesday afternoon to go sit out back in the blind with Dad. We were deer hunting even though neither one of us brought a weapon or had any intention of tagging any game. Nope, we were spectators that night just hoping to watch something pass on by. We didn't see any deer, but that is fine by me I enjoyed just spending the time with my aging father. Man does he love hunting. I've actually enjoyed just going into the woods and hanging out a few times this fall. Being in the woods in the fall is awesome and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

Nadia left me a sweet note because I did the remodel in her "room" which funny enough was once my bedroom and for a few years was also Jason's bedroom. Wow that is a HUGE mind-fuck of sorts. One day when Mom and Dad can't keep that house anymore I will really be sad. Unfortunately it's coming sooner rather than later at this point, too...

Oh hey, The Cutting Crew (I Just) Died In Your Arms. Great song! Not sure why the I Just part needs parenthesis, but I already stopped caring. I don't even care... whether or not I care. hehehe. I need more booze!

So because Mom and Pop have lived in the same house since about 1982 there is bigtime history there. They have been married for over 45 years now. OMG! Sometimes I wonder why they never split up since they seem like two different people. Mom doesn't give a shit about the woods and hunting, and Dad probably shits lead. Dad could have become a badass carpenter, artist, or both, but he would rather shoot, hunt, and fish so good for him. That means he is a tad lacking in the carpentry department. Thankfully for both he and Mom they pumped out a kiddo who would grow up to become a slumlord so I "accidentally" got a bunch of carpentry skills along the way. Now I'm pretty much their carpenter so the two bedrooms were assigned to me.

^I fucking hate kids they can all kiss my hairy ass. However, that is a really cute note so that makes me hate kids a little less. I should tell my 8-year old niece that bedroom and "bead room" are NOT the same thing. IT'S NOT A BEADROOM YOU PATHETIC SIMP! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! THERE ARE NO BEADS IN THERE THIS IS NOT MADRI GRAS. I really know nothing about kids. Shouldn't an 8-year old know how to spell bedroom? I dunno, but I just wrote sleep and had to rewrite it to read spell so that's what I get for being half-drunk and writing on this bootleg site that no one will ever read! I suck.

Oh, my frigging niece should also know how to SPELL MY FUCKING NAME GET IT RIGHT YOU FUTURE DROOL BUCKET! I don't really know if she is 8 or not, but probably she is 8. Her birthday is in 5 days and I need to get her a horse-riding lesson because that is what she wants. $45/hour or $25/half-hour. Of course I'll do an hour because I'm cheap, but I'm not that cheap. If she could spell my damn name maybe she'd get 2 hours! Hehehe.

On a side-note, horse riding is fucking stupid. She should be learning how to shoot a 30.06, how to gut a deer, and how to install sheetrock. Also knowing how to change a car tire and write a check would be good. I guess knowing how to ride a horse would be great maybe 3 years into an apocalypse after all the gas goes bad. However, if you are in The Walking Dead universe then give that ten years. What a bunch of crap! I'll never live 3 years into an apocalypse because I would just look into the light and die. Preferably wasted drunk along the way... zombies can eat me I'd rather be dead that living in a trashed-out future shit-world.

Where's my psychologist gods damn it?

So I've been trying to follow politics a bit more lately. I'm not doing great at it, but I did listen to some Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh when I was doing that bedroom midweek. I also watched some Fox News yesterday and tonight. Not much, just a little. Mom and Dad are conservative Republicans so no doubt they support Trump. They just about shit in their britches a couple years ago when I told them I voted for a Democrat, Jared Golden. Hey, Golden is an ex-Marine and seems somewhat squared away. It has been the first and only time I ever voted for a Dem, and I'd do it again for sure if the right person puts in for the cicrus.

I think Trump is a scumbag piece of shit human being, but gods damn if he is not killing it as our president. He just doesn't give a fuck, and I do kind of respect and like that. Our economy is doing very well despite Democrats trying to downplay that all. Trump is probably a horrible human who has likely cheated on his wife, on his draft-notice back in 'Nam, and on his taxes, but he is running America like a frigging boss. He just gives no fucks, and he wants to make America great. That is a stupid red hat slogan, but it is working. Now that scabby beotch Pelosi hates him so much she is leading a bogus impeachment charge, and that really pisses me off. Like, a lot. I think I'm actually going to vote for Trump in 11 months (assuming he is not impeached) because he is great and terrible all rolled up into one enigma of prosperity.

Kat might divorce my loser-ass over that one, but she might haul on my anyway. My quote of the month for this month is funny yet terrifying at the same time. This is an exchange we had 8 days ago, Thanksgiving and my birthday morning:

Me: We have too many animals.
Kat: You can have no animals when you move out and go live by yourself.
Me: Would you choose Groot (our youngest asshole 3rd dog that we got 16 months ago) over me?
Kat: Silence for a few moments before saying "At least she shows me affection."

PWNED!

Okay you turds, all two of youz who actually read this bootleg site, I am going to mostly drunk-drive my ass to the bar. My life is some kind of weird shit-show that entertains even myself in some perverse way. I think I hate my life, but at the same time it is great. Is that even possbile? It might be possible for a little while, but in the end it probably results in EPIC FAILER.

Oh well, at least I never get bored. Hehehee.

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Tuesday, 12-03-19: Our first big winter storm of the seaon.
I had bedbug remediation, follow-up appointments, schedule for today. Unfortunately we got shit on by a big winter storm so nevermind to that. We got ice, sleet, and snow all day long and a few times this morning the storm was really cranking. Thankfully we didn't get feet of heavy snow since the snowblower is still in the shop. I'd guess we got 4-5 inches of snow and sleet/ice as well. Since we got the ice the snow was pretty damn heavy and I still had to waste a good 45 minutes of my precious... precious day shovelling before supper. What a bunch of crap!

The roads were pretty terrible this morning, and my truck was not doing so good. I think the 4WD is not working. Again. The 4WD didn't work for the first snowstorm of last year either gods damn it. I had to spend a lot of precious... precious money to get it fixed so it sucks I need repairs again. I'm wanting to get a newer truck, hopefully something with a plow, so maybe it is time to start shopping around. This is most likely NOT the time of year to be getting a plow since they will all be full price, though. Oh well, no harm in starting the process to see what is available. My 2010 F150 only has about 86k for mileage, but there is rust, the door seals leak in heavy rains, the tires slowly leak, and I pretty much beat on the thing. I've had it for over 9 years and it has been a good vehicle for me. Maybe I'll end up keeping it for another couple year, who knows...

I did some online shopping just to get an idea. Craigslist = mostly just dealers in NH throwing their stuff on there. What a bunch of crap! I really like doing business with Central Maine Auto in Waterville. They have some half-decent-looking used trucks in the $20-30k price ranges. A new f150 can be seen here:

I guess that one is $40,135? Not sure because of all the green pricing discounts there. Do I get an even lower price or is that $40k after every gods damn one of those discounts, many of which I do not qualify for (college student -500 for example.)

Alright, that gives me a good range to start with. I was talking to Gavin earlier about the siding I did for him. I got his invoice all ready and he has the money for me now. I told him to wait a bit in case his insulation comes in higher than expected. He was wondering why I just didn't take cash and not claim it on my taxes to which I replied I need to show some half-decent income if I want any bank to cough up precious... precious money. Same for getting a newer truck. I'd prefer to do a sizeable down payment and finance the rest, and when I got my F150 back in 2010 the dealership in Georgia wanted my tax returns. Plus who knows we might get a different house next year. Plus I'm a friggin' tax preparer so I can't really work the system too hard and call myself a professional in the tax business. Well I could, but I don't want to be that guy...

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Sunday, 12-01-19: Two road trips to make this week.
Kat and I have a trip to Portland planned for tomorrow so she can see her new lyme disease doc, and then later this week I'm going down to the ol' homestead to finish the last bedroom floor for Mom and Dad. Unfortunately it's winter now so we have some snow on the ground, and more snow is forecast for tomorrow. Road trips in wintry weather = what a bunch of crap! No snow expected here tomorrow until after we get home, but Portland area will see snow on and off all day tomorrow. It's been very cold lately and overall well below average so that means my next heating bills will totally suck. Gods damn it!

I need to start filling out Christmas cards, and I need to get serious about some Christmas shopping. Also in 1.5 weeks is Nadia's birthday so she will need a gift. I already sent Holly a txt and am just waiting and hoping to hear back so I have some ideas. Hopefully she still likes dolls and toys and shit. I dunno maybe she is too old for dolls? I think she's 8, but because I am a turd uncle I really don't even know for sure. What a bunch of crap!

Today has been a decent day so far. Kat and I did yoga and used my bootleg gym this morning. It's already down to 58 degrees in that gym. I don't think it has been so cold there for so early in the winter before, at least not since I did upgrades and insulating over all the years. Probably like 15-20 years ago it was colder down there when I didn't even own the building. There was a window with a small-caliber bullet hole in it so that didn't help at all in winter. The gym now is much nicer that it was way back then. In the beginning it was just some cheapo all-in-one used thing that I found in Uncle Henry's. Drove down to Orland to get it if I recall correctly. Now I'd laugh at something like that, but back then it was at least something to start with.

^From 2007. By then we had a nice gym setup; I don't have any earlier photos of the gym from when it was really bootleg. Even in 2007 there was room for improvement; the window in that photo is the one with the bullet hole. What a bunch of crap!

I still have that leg-sled and squat rack. Doug owned both of those about 15 years ago, but he sold them to me/traded for free rent before he moved to AZ for the first time. Now my old office is located where that pink-ish colored rug sits in the photo. The office room is still there, but I mostly use it for storage these days.