Thursday, May 14, 2009
Neglect
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Buy High!
- Why it’s important to put your life’s savings down on the home so that you can lose that money too. (A financial cushion is your enemy!)
- How to move out of the house and rent it for 50% of the mortgage payment to keep from losing the home, only to find out that you are no longer eligible for the government bailout money because the home is now considered an “investment property.”
- When the mortgage companies say they want to help, DON’T PANIC. They don’t want to help.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Vomit in a cup®
Ok, so my wife and I have been playing this really fun game recently. Maybe some of you other parents have played it too. It’s called, “Who can avoid opening and cleaning the sippy cups with rotten milk in them the longest?” Or, depending on how long the game is played, there’s another variation; “Who can avoid opening and cleaning the sippy cups with the yogurt in them the longest?” Or, the new extreme version, “Who can avoid opening and cleaning the sippy cups with the water and tofu looking crap in them the longest?”
The object of the game is simple. If you’re cleaning the house, or the car, or the bike trailer you haven’t used since last summer, and you happen to find one of these toxic sippy cups, you try and make it more obvious for your SPOUSE to find but still hidden enough that it looks like you did NOT find it.
Now, sometimes you happen to be cleaning a room together (because you’re both playing another game called, “Who can avoid cleaning that OTHER room the longest?”) and there’s just no way to hide the fact you’ve just discovered Vomit in a Cup®. You’ve been seen either; a) holding a clear-bottomed sippy cup above your head to look for telltale milk chunks or b) gently shaking the sippy cup to detect chunk movement or c) closely checking the drinking holes for that solid, rubbery-looking milk residue.
In this case, there is only one solution; you take the cup to the kitchen sink and leave it there. Begin phase two of the game.
Invariably, during phase two, many sippy cups will end up together either in or next to the kitchen sink because there’s simply no excusable way to clean the NON-chunky cups and leave the chunky one(s) sitting there. After, say, 5 days or so (depending on the number of children in the household and number of sippy cups owned) your kids will suddenly find themselves drinking milk out of coffee mugs, measuring spoons and fine china. Seething resentment between spouses has reached its delightful peak, and gameplay becomes cutthroat.
However, and this is critical, THERE IS NO MENTION OF THE GAMEPLAY. If either of you acknowledges the cup being there amongst the water and juice sippy cups, that makes you selfish, lazy and a jerk. You simply have to appear to be too busy at all other activities to open and clean ANY of the sippy cups. Even if it means staying at work a couple of extra hours when you don’t need to.
Eventually of course, one of you will lose. The dishwasher will be empty and there won’t be any other dirty dishes. Or your spouse will deviously take all three kids to three different birthday parties on the same day and you just “owe” them. Or you yell at one of the kids for something like peeing on the cat and now they’re crying (the kid, not the cat) and the only thing that will fix it is a sippy cup.
So you break down and open up all the cups, breathing only through your mouth, holding them as far away from your face as you can, rinsing them quickly and putting them in the dishwasher. Doing everything in your power not to get a whiff.
And then finally it’s done. You’ve lost. But it’s over. So you start the dishwasher, go lie down on the couch to relax, and there under the throw pillow is another Vomit in a Cup®. You cover it back up, switch your head to the other side, and turn on the TV.
Game on.
I'm Matthew O'Connell, and I'm just sayin'.
Friday, April 17, 2009
I'm not a happy little Vegemite.
Hello?? Am I the only one around here with his eye on the big picture? Because it sure seems like it.
Sure, I know. People here in the US are up in arms about the economy and bailouts. Heck, evidently we’re even teabagging each other over it. And I know we’re concerned, rightly, about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
But people, c’mon. Don’t you really see what’s happening? It’s all a diversion. While we’re distracted with economics and wars and nuclear ambitions, the real threat to America is silently plotting against us. And it’s Australia.
Ok, so they’ve got cute little koala bears, and that opera house, and nice tans, and those accents, and those hats, you know, that are only folded on one side. And maybe their actors and actresses are like, really impressive at acting without the Australian accents, which always flips me out when I see them on Leno later and then they’re talking all Australian-ish. But don’t let that fool you. Because they ALL have an agenda. An evil, horrible agenda. An agenda called Vegemite. And if you thought teabagging left a bad taste in your mouth, well let me tell you—Vegemite is like getting teabagged after those teabags have been dipped in something horrible and nasty. Like Vegemite.
So what exactly is Vegemite, other than pure evil? I looked it up on Wikipedia, where all the world’s knowledge is securely locked away for future generations. This is what it says:
“Vegemite is a dark brown food paste made from yeast extract, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast and cracker biscuits, as well as a filling of pastries like Cheesymite scroll, in Australia.”
See, AUSTRALIA. Bastards.
But wait, it gets more interesting.
“Vegemite is popular with many AUSTRALIANS, who commonly consider it a NATIONAL food and a cultural icon. It can be found in shops around the world, particularly where there are large populations of AUSTRALIAN expatriates. Vegemite … is owned by US food company Kraft Foods. When seen in the United States, the Vegemite label often does not contain the Kraft logo.”
Hmmmm. Owned by Kraft but they don’t put their logo on it in the United States? Maybe that’s because Kraft is chock full of AUSTRALIAN expatriates on a secret mission to infiltrate the entire culture here. Maybe if you were to hide in a bathroom stall at Kraft and listen carefully, all of the Joe Americans would suddenly sound like Joe Australians. (Just like all those actors and actresses do when they go on Leno!) The bathroom door would swing shut and suddenly it’d be all:
“Did ya see Tawny in that skirt today?”
“See ‘er? I just ‘bout cracked a fat right there in the meeting.”
“Wouldn’t have made a difference with your little donger.”
“Kiss my clacker.”
They’re here. It’s beginning. And this is something we’ve got to stop. Do you really want our little Bobbies and Susans to go to school in a world where Vegemite sandwiches replace peanut butter and jelly on the menu? Because without diligence that’s where we’re headed.
People, please. I was forced to taste Vegemite once when I was in elementary school by a friend’s Mom. An AUSTRALIAN friend’s Mom. Back when Australia tried to take over more overtly, pushing its dirty-diaper looking spread with a little jingle from J. Walter Thompson.
“We're happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch and tea.
Our Mummies say we're growing stronger
Every single week
Because we love our Vegemite.
We all adore our Vegemite.
IT PUTS A ROSE IN EVERY CHEEK!
We're growing stronger every week!”
And I’ve never fully recovered. Don’t let this happen to another generation.
I’m Matthew O’Connell, and I’m just sayin’.
