Test taking...

Last week I was in class trying to add another MicroStrategy certification under my belt. I had a week long class for Platform Administration certification with a test on Friday.

I was confident in class and knew a lot of the answers that the teacher was asking, but that did not have me prepared for the class exam. In fact, I was more nervous about the test because MicroStrategy does not test you on using the application but on theory and terminology. You hardly ever discuss theory and terminolgy with coworkers on a day to day basis.

During the week we had several reviews and I did not do so hot. I had to study Thursday night. Aya usually helps me and quizzes me. This time she said I knew everything. Uh-oh. Not a good sign, because I don't want to go in over confident. You need a 75 out of 100 to pass. Basically that means you can only miss 7 of the 45 questions.

I breezed through page 1 of the exam but page 2 had me all messed up. I couldn't do answer any on that page so I skipped ahead. I did well on the other pages but then I started thinking about all the questions I was unsure about. Sure enough, 8 questions had me stumped. That means I would have to get ALL the other questions right and then get 1 of the 8 right to pass. Unfortunately I was not confident that I had ALL the other questions correct.

On the 8 questions I was unsure about I always narrowed it down to 2 possibilities. After a while I just forget it...I am not going to stress about failing...someone has to fail sometime...unfortunately this time it is me. I turned my exam in, got my parking validated and I was prepared to leave as the pathetic person to fail a MSTR certification exam. It is so nerve racking to test after being out of school for 12 years.

When I got back the instructor congratulated me and handed me my certification as I got 91 out of 100. I guess I really did know all the other answers and I must have guessed right on half of the 8 questions! Woo-Hoo!! One more thing to add to my resume!

Fantasy Football...

A word of advice for any guy out there thinking of having children. If you enjoy playing fantasy football, don't have your kid until AFTER football season! After you have a kid, fantasy football becomes a lot harder because you can no longer lie around on Sunday from 8 am (when I check injuries, probables and the weather) until 10:00 pm when the night game is over and I have watched all the ESPN highlights.

This year I felt like I was finally able to enjoy playing Fantasy Football again. I guess I enjoyed it last year as well, since I did win it all! Congratulations to me and Ron for making the playoffs. I am the #2 seeded team and if Ron wins the quarterfinal game, he will have to play the current undisputed champion...ME. (No whammies, no whammies, no whammies!)


Aya tolerates my fantasy football and sometimes evens helps me makes roster decisions. When I can't decide who to play I ask her which name sounds better...then take the opposite. Usually it works out pretty well. Not to mention, Aya is dominating her work pick league and is currently beating me in my work pick league. So, Aya knows a little something-something about football.

Aya and I were sitting around watching ESPN Monday night after the Patriots - Ravens game. The announcers were talking about Willis McGahee great rushing night, 120+ yards and 1000 yards for the season.

Aya: Whoa, he had a good night.
Miles: It was alright...maybe 18 fantasy points.
Aya: That's it?
Miles: Yeah, 120+ yards and a TD...18 points.
Aya: No way, he had 1000 yards!!
Miles: hahahaha
Aya: What's so funny?
Miles: 1000 yards!!! hahahahahhaa!
Aya: What?! Tell me. What is so funny.
Miles: 1000 yards would mean that McGahee would get the ball from his own endzone and run it all the way to HIS endzone...10 times. That would also give him 10 TDs. Thus, he would have 160 fantasy points...which is WAY more than a great day in Fantasy football scoring.
Aya: But the announcer said he had 1000 yards.
Miles: Yes, that was for the season, not the game.

I was laughing so hard. Funniest thing I have heard in a long time!

Call me Rev...

Just in case any one wants to get married, baptised or have any other religious ceremonies, I am now an ordained minister! Why? I don't know why, just because I can.

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Not to be out done by Jenny's Christmas tree, but this is our Christmas tree.

Tonka Tough...

A day after the doctor gives JT a clean bill of health he gets hurt at the park today. It is kind of hard to tell in the picture but JT has a little strawberry on his right cheek and it is starting to bruise.

Grandma took him to the park today and JT was running around a tree at the park, lost his balance, fell down....right onto a concrete block. The concrete block won. At least JT got hit in the cheek. One inch lower and to the left and he would have got popped in the mouth!


In a few days, he will be as good as new!

2 year checkup

Today was JT's 2 year check up. Everything is "a-ok". JT is 29 lbs and 2 feet 10 inches. Right in the the 50-60 percentile.


Aya is in New York this week, so no real postings this week as it will be the usual gratuitous pictures of JT for Aya's blackberry.

JT is TWO...

Along with the usual family Thanksgiving gathering, we also celebrated JT's birthday this weekend.

We weren't quite sure what to do for JT's birthday this year. We thought about Legoland but JT was only eligible to ride 1/3 of the rides. At the last second we thought about going to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Center but you have to buy tickets at least one week in advance. Naturally I looked up the information the day before I wanted to go.

Aya and I thought the one thing JT really likes is being outside and being at the park, so we ended out to Clover Park in Santa Monica to celebrate JT's 2nd birthday! After a long nap, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, presents and more cake!

Who is that handsome dude??

If you wanna see a picture of an GREAT looking guy, check it out:

http://jenjenkay.blogspot.com/

The picture is safe for work. Oh, and the picture of the great looking guy is the top picture. The bottom picture is actually a girl and not a guy!

Pre Birthday...

I don't remember ever having a pre-birthday party, but for the past week JT has been practicing for the his birthday. We have been trying to teach JT how to hold up two fingers to show he is TWO.

We also have been practicing how to blow out the candles. He gets so happy when he hears Happy Birthday!

He puts his face so close to the candle.

I bought him a drum. Crazy, huh? Not really. JT turns over empty containers that holds his legos and uses a plastic bat to beat on the container. At least now he doesn't have to make a mess by dumping out the legos and he is using the right equipment.

My Birthday!

Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes. I always try to take my birthday off from work whenever possible to basically lounge around. Even more so now with JT because I can rest in peace and quiet. So thanks to Ayumi, Jen and June for trying to get me to not watch TIVO on my birthday but to go to lunch instead. TIVO won out. I saw the Departed and the Marine. Both were not very good.

I spent most of the weekend eating all the stuff I like except for Tommy's. I picked Tommy's for my work bday lunch but somehow that got veto'd on the way to Tommy's. Grr. I hate that. I knew nobody would want to go and every one said wherever I wanted and yet we went some place else. Sucks.

Aya got my XBOX 360 for my birthday. I can't really say if it is good or bad. Not the present, I like the present. I can't say if I like XBOX much or not because I haven't had time to play. I read a lot about PS2 games and most cost cross platforms but XBOX is a next gen console so the graphics are much better. My debate at the store was should I buy games I have and like on PS2 on the XBOX? I was so confused I left the store empty handed. Good thing, because I ended up getting the games online for cheaper!

All in all, not a bad birthday.

And so it begins...

I always thought the "Terrible Two's" was just a saying. I figured it couldn't be that bad, could it? Could it??

In the past month, our slow talker has picked up a lot of new words. The main word is, "no". Or there is "NNNNOOO". Lets not forget, "no, no, no." Almost everything out of his mouth is the word "NO."

At first I just thought it was because he doesn't know what NO means....but he does. Once you say something he likes, he says, "Yeah" He has gotten so stubborn. He doesn't mind saying no 100 times until that one time you say what he wants and then it is "Yeah."

I know, some of you are thinking, "How can that be?" Well, for those of you that see JT he looks happy go lucky most of the time:

Of course at home, he is like this:

Taylor and the Green Eyed Monster...

This past weekend we went to see Hans, Tanya and their daughter Taylor.

It was also interesting to see JT reaction to me holding Taylor and Aya holding Taylor. Normally JT is very social and could probably care less what I am doing. When I held Taylor he didn't like it much and started to say, "No...no". I handed Taylor off to Aya to hold and then JT just started to cry as he absolutely hated Aya holding Taylor.

Kind of funny and kind of not funny. It was funny to see him get jealous. It was not funny because JT doesn't share and in the past month has really shown his 'spoiled' colors as he has become the Prince of the Castle. Naturally it is my fault and Aya's fault for giving in to him whim's but it is harder than you think.

There is always a constant battle of wills...his will or our will. Sadly, I think he is winning.

Shouldn't it be free??

Lately my cell phone battery no longer holds a charge. The problem is when the battery low warning comes on it is at 2, 3 or 4 am. I should charge it every day but sometimes the battery meter is full and then 2 hours later I am on low battery. What gives?

Yes, I could get a new cell phone battery, but honestly who does that? People get new phones. I hate cell phones, hate talking on the phones, but I decided I should upgrade and get a new phone. By new, I also mean FREE. See, all my cell phones are the ones that are sign up and get a free phone with the cheapest possible plan.

Instead of going to the rude AT&T Cingular store I normally go too, I went to a bigger AT&T Cingular store closer to my house. All the phones there are over 100 bucks. They also have TWO prices. One cheap price, if I get a 2 year plan and data package and one super expensive price that I would never pay.

So I asked the chick, where are the free phones. She tells me there are no free phones. I tell her I went to the AT&T Cingular website and they have free phones. She said that is not the same thing as a store. Hmm. I am thinking she has no clue.

I go back to the car and Aya asks if I got a new phone. I tell Aya that they wanted 120 bucks for the phone I want. Aya asked if I bought it.

I said, "Didn't you hear me? $120 bucks"
Aya said, "So? You can't pay"
"NO way Jose!! I am not paying no stinking $120 bucks" I can charge my phone daily.

Later, I went to the OTHER rude store where I got all my free phones. They were still rude. I got there and they guy said you have to be fast we are closing in 10 minutes. Stupid. They have an even smaller collection and phones and only EXPENSIVE phones. No free phones.

What happened to getting free crappy cell phones? How come stores don't do this anymore? Does everyone pay for a phone? Seriously. What kind of jobs do people have where they need email, IM, internet and texting features? I can understand certain jobs that need that technology. Heck, my job requires that stuff but I don't get a fancy schmancy phone.

So, I went to the internet and ordered the $120 phone I wanted from the AT&T Cingular site. After price discounts, upgrades and rebates I had to pay $18 bucks. I am so NOT happy about the $18 buck charge. The phone ended up being free, but $18 bucks to upgrade. What is that fee for? Luckily I registered a few items wrong and the stupid CRM software sent me 3 free ringstones so that totals 9 bucks...so I guess my phone will end up costing me 9 bucks.

Why aren't phones free at a store?

Mean Miles...

I haven't updated the website that much lately because there hasn't been much going on at home.

See, 3 weeks ago my parents offered to watch JT on the weekend so Aya and I could go out to dinner and spend some time by ourselves. One of the things about being parents is that you sleep less...which translates to more arguments. Most are petty arguments by in large caused by the lack of sleep.

Of course the day when Aya and I are suppose to be alone we get into a huge argument. Granted, the argument was probably about 75% my fault. Most of the morning was spent arguing. By mid-afternoon, I was no longer upset and I apologized to be the bigger person, but Aya was still upset and didn't really accept my apology. In fact, when I was upstairs, Aya was down stairs and vice versa. We could not be in the same room together.

Around 5:45 pm, Aya comes into the bedroom and attempts to apologize. Now for those of you that know Aya, you are probably putting 2 + 2 together. 5:45 equals dinner time. Of course that does not go unnoticed by me. I asked Aya if she only came to apologize so I could take her out to dinner! Aya proceeded to get angry again saying that I only think of mean things to say.

We eventually went to dinner but we hardly spoke. The next day, we both went our seperate ways and didn't talk. The whole week was spent just being cordial since JT was home. We try not to argue in front of him, but usually I mess that up. On a totally seperate issue, Aya also said I should not be yelling out, "c*cksucker, m*ther-f*cker" to people when I drive.

Things finally got better toward the end of the week but then something trivial happened again and I got all upset. Thus, instant replay. Another week of not speaking. This week, I was accused of being unsympathetic because Aya got food poisoning and I told her that was no excuse. She also passed out and fell and hit the ground and has this huge bruise on her face. NO, I didn't do it because she was in St. Louis when it happened. I found out when she got home, but I basically ignored her and told Aya, "I got problems of my own and I am tired myself." Yes, I know most people will think...jerk...but I have met a few other guys who think exactly as I do...so I am not the only one.

In the end we tried to be civil since we had to take Christmas pictures this weekend but basically I think Aya is trying to sabotage the weekends for me by making them all subpar. Hence, that is the reason I have not updated. Since Aya and I don't speak, nothing funny happens. We don't go out, we don't speak, we just sit around alternating on who watches JT.

Hopefully this week and weekend gets better for both of us.

Writers Strike...

With all the reality TV shows, how come America can't take game shows from Japan? Who needs writers when you can have games like this:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/249.0/popup/index.php?cl=4878187

Aya is in St. Louis for a few day so it has just been me and JT, so I haven't had time to update. There hasn't been much going on anyway.