The Handy Geek

If you know me, you know that I most definitely not a handy man. To the point where even little household projects scare me to death. My wife has more confidence in my handyman abilities than I do. If you go back to last years blogs, you'll see the one about my putting together a gas grill and how she encouraged me to do it. Well the toilet seat in our bathroom has been broken for a loooong time. And my mom also got a new toilet seat for her bathroom and when you factor in Sunday's snow, I couldn't avoid the toilet seats any longer. So figured what the heck, and after unscrewing a total of 4 bolts and screwing them back in I had installed moms toilet seat and fixed the one in our bathroom. When you add that my shoveling a whole gang of snow Sunday afternoon I think I qualify for some kind of handy geek award :D

Snow Again

Ok, well we woke up to more snow this morning. Actually we woke up to my Pastor Porky calling to have me send out an email that church was canceled because it was snowing. I sent out the email and promptly went right back to sleep and didn't wake up til 11:30 or so. That was soooo nice, I can't remember the last time I slept that late and it was such a blessing to be able to do it. Not a whole lot else going on. I'm watching the end of this weeks race, and yes I've been awake the whole thing :D. Mark is 9th and I'm hoping he'll make a move toward the front soon.

More ramblings

In her comment to my previous post Kirsten made a couple of good points. First the comment about NASCAR being a good sport to snooze during is valid. I have been known to catch the first 20 or so laps, nap and then wake up for the last 25-30 laps and I know I'm not the only fan who does. Hehehe.

And I apologize to all of you for not keeping up with this blog. I started one over on battlecry.com and have been faithful with maintaining that one and unfortunately this one got ignored. You can click here or on the My Battlecry link over on the right and you can catch up on some of my previous posts. I promise I will try to more frequent with the posts here. Please feel free to leave any comments you'd like.

So I watched the 12 guys on American Idol last night and what a forgetful night of performances it was. I don't think anybody was fantastic. I thought Phil Stacey and Chris Sligh were the best of the bunch but that's not saying much. Nobody really wowed me last night and it'll be interesting to see how the ladies do tonight.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

Those of you who know me well know that I am a sports nut, and that I root for the Yankees, Cowboys and for Mark Martin with a passion. Well today's Daytona 500 broke my heart. I thought Mark had won the race that had eluded for sooo long and I was sure when cars started crashing again on the last lap NASCAR would do the right thing, throw the yellow and Mark would get the win. Well once again, NASCAR left me baffled with their inconsistency. No disrespect to Kevin Harvick either, I'm certainly not a fan of his but he made an awesome run to get up there and my hat is off to him. As with my previous post though, it seems as though NASCAR will continue to interpret the rules however they want to and fairness and safety will get rolled over. Oh I do hope this is Marks last season so I won't have to endure their inconsistency any longer.

He's AAALLLIIIVVVEEE!!!!

OK, I know it's been a really long time but I started another blog on Battlecry.com and have been posting there regularly. I'm gonna fire this one back up and see how it goes. First of all I'm glad to see NASCAR is finally getting serious about cheating, well at least they were until Wonderboy Gordon got caught and then all points deductions and tough talk went out the window and become a "mechanical malfunction." So his penalty is he has to start 42nd in the Daytona 500 and he gets to keep the win from the qualifying. Excuse me, but cheating is cheating and NASCAR had the perfect chance to say it doesn't matter who does it. I don't think it should have been on the level of the Waltrip, Kenseth or Kahne penalties, but 25 points deducted would have been enough to send a message that they aren't going to put with anything. But then Jeffy is the face of NASCAR and we've got to keep the egg of his face as much as possible.

OOOOOklahoma

I know it's been over a month, but it my defense I have been way busy. At the beginning of July we took our youth group to Kings Fest for 4 days and it really was a blast. Not enough of a blast to make me actually enjoy tent camping but I can at least tolerate it for the chance to ride rides, hang with some of the coolest teens on the planet and see some really good bands.

Muffin and I just got back from spending 10 days in Oklahoma and we had a great time. We got to celebrate her great-grandma Leecy's 95th b-day (that's her in the pic with Muffin and I) and to attend her family's reunion. I really had a great time and am sooo thankful to have married into such a great family. They have always been very accepting of me and even gone out of their way to make me feel like part of the family.

A blogging we will go...

I am such a slackah. Haven't really had time over the past couple weeks to blog but I figured I'd put a quick one up. Sp how bout that World Cup? Yeah I'm about as excited about it as I was about the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. I know, I know, it's the most popular sport in the world and the rest of the world stops every 4 years to watch it. Ok, great, good for them my question is...What channel are the Yankees on? Baseball and Football (American) are my national past times and judging from the US teams (apparently they are, or were, the 5th ranked team in the world) game against the Czech Republic (yes I did watch) all those of years of AYSO, youth leagues, and all the money and time spent to graft soccer into the American culture, we still seem to be a step behind the rest of the world. And they get to play Italy today, so there's a real good chance they'll be 0-2 and won't make it to the round of 16.

Currently
Reading:
Shadowmancer - G.P. Taylor
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Pettidee - Thug Love
Sanctus Real - The Face of Love
Day Of Fire - Cut & Move

10-A-C

There are 9 reasons I love to visit Tennessee. The first 6 are Dana, Sherry, Kyle, Kullin, Cassie and Cody. For those that don't know that would be my brother, his wife and my nephews and niece who I love to death and don't get to see nearly enough . Well Muffin, Mom and I drove to visit them over the weekend and had a great time. I got to see and hold Cody for the first time since he was born. I got to see Kullin play T-ball and I got to see Kyle get his first extra base hit and pitch the last 3 innings to close out the first win of the past 2 seasons for his new 9-12 year old little league team. Now the other 3 things I love about the visiting Tennessee are Cheerwine, Sonic and Sundrop. Cheerwine is a absolutely the best tasting cherry cola type soda that there is. Sundrop is a citrus flavored soda that is similar to Mountain Dew but I think it tasts a bit better and tend to load up on it when I visit anywhere that actually sells. The problem is both of these sodas are unique to south and are independently owned, which means Coke or Pepsi don't own them so they can't get national distribution like Coke and Pepsi products. Sonic is like fast food heaven. Most Sonics (the ones I've been to anyway) are the drive up type where you order your food through a loud speaker and a carhop brings it to you. Some of them even do this on roller skaters. If you're an American Idol fan, Sonic is where Kellie Pickler worked before she was on the show. Anyway, anyplace where you can order a large order of tater tots with chili, cheese and onions on them and then wash them down with a chocolate coke can't be wrong. I know, I know, 'but I thought you were on Weight Watchers Dwayne???' I am and for the most part I kept up with my points and I've lost 29 lbs so far. So :-P

Take Me Home...

Well as you may or may not know I am a native West Virginian, and I really do love my home state. The problem is I live in the far eastern part of the state and culturally it really is quite a bit different from the rest of the state. The area I live tends to pull alot of it's cultural from the east coast, whereas the rest of the start tends to be more like the south or midwest. I got the chance this past weekend to do some camping with Muffin, Pete, Bec and my godson Paulie and I had a great time. It had been a long time since I had ventured into the "hills" of West Virginia and I was reminded was an incredible scenic wonder my home state is. The pic on the right was taken at Blackwaters Falls and I would encourage any one, native West Virginian or not, to take a day or two and explore some of the beauty that West Virginia offers. Wonder if I can score an endorsement deal from Governor Manchin???

Reading:
Shadowmancer - G.P. Taylor
In the CD/MP3 Player:
Flyleaf - Flyleaf
The Prayer Chain - Shawl

David and Goliath

Well it's been an interesting few days. I told you in a previous post that I was going to Philadelphia with some youth from my church for the Acquire The Fire Battle Cry conference. Well we went this past weekend and it was absolutely spectacular. Great Bands, Great Speakers and a fantastic time of worship and growth for not only the teens but also myself and I'm sure a lot of the other youth leaders that were there. Now you're probably asking yourself 'what does the have to do with the topic, D??' Chill, I'm getting there. On Friday after we had checked in at our hotel in Mt. Laurel, NJ we decided to get something to eat and drove to the Mandarin Buffet. I got salad for my first plate and went back for a second. I got some steamed veggie dumplings (among other things) from the steam table. Well I guess it was 5 mins after I started eating the dumplings that my throat began to tingle. Here's the point where I explain that I have a shellfish allergy and the throat tingling is the first sign that I've had some type of exposure. Usually I can get some air and worst case scenario I have to take a couple of Benadryl and it clears up in a bit. Well I went outside and it was getting worse, I checked the car for Benadryl and there was none. My friend Carey came out and asked me if I was ok and I told him no, my throat and chest were tight and I probably needed to get that Benadryl. So we got in the car and by the time we got out of the parking lot I knew Benadryl wasn't gonna help. I told him we either needed to find a hospital or call and ambulance. He pulled back into the shopping center and we went into a store next to the restaurant and got directions to the hospital. By the Grace of God the hospital was maybe 10 mins away, although it seemed much further and in all honesty my throat was getting tighter and I was beginning to think about dying and never seeing my wife again. With the hospital in site I called her and told her what was happening and that Carey would call when he had more information. After we found the emergency room; we had to fill out this form, drop it into a slot and wait in the reception area. By this time, I could feel swelling in my mouth, my throat was very tight, and I noticed that there was a lot of saliva in my mouth. Carey asked how I was and I told him how tight my throat felt. He walked out and came back with the triage nurse who took me back put a blood pressure cuff on and started asking me some questions. She looked up and asked someone behind me if there was a bed available for an allergic reaction. Right after this a woman (I would later find out this was Dr. Angelo) came around my side and said "sir, can you swallow your own spit?" And since my mouth was now full of spit I told her no. They immediately took me back and had no sooner gotten me on the bed than there were at least 6 different people surrounding the bed, hooking me up to different devices, checking pulses, breathing, starting an IV. If I had any doubts as to how serious this was, at that point they disappeared. Carey would later tell me that my head and neck were red and swollen (you can see some of this in the picture above, keep in my mind that Carey took this picture well after they had stabilized me and I was out of any danger) by the time they took me out of reception and I know it had him extremely worried. Well they gave me epinephrine through the IV and Dr. Angelo told me 'when it kicks in you're heart will race like it never has before and it will scare you, but that's exactly what it's supposed to do and you're fine.' She was not incorrect, when this stuff kicked in it was like riding every roller coaster I've ever ridden all at the same time. At about the same time, some of the swelling in my throat loosened and I began to cough and wretch and expectorated what most have been a quart of saliva. After that things began to get better little by little. Now since about our third date, Muffin has been telling me to get my doctor to prescribe an EpiPen and I haven't done it. Well once I was stable Dr. Angelo said I'm gonna give you a prescription for an EpiPen and told me that I need to keep it with me at all times. Once things calmed down and I was out of danger I has Carey call Muffin and tell her that I was ok and the doctor has prescribed the EpiPen. And when I think that he could have been calling her to tell her that I had died, having to admit that she was right and eat a little humble pie is really not such a bad trade off. So I am extremely grateful to be home on this Mother's Day to spend the day with Mother and my wife and I thank God for just being able to breath.