Quite the week.

Frustration at work, missing my family, elated at seeing them again, sober, not-so-sober, hangover, exhausted, and finally, Friday Night Finish Line. kind of.

Took the kids to Chucky Satan last night at the begging of my wife, and reaffirmed why I believe that mouse to be the Anti-Christ. He scares the crap outta my daughter anyway, so why are we going there? Oh that’s right…because that’s where I left my migraine. Was wondering where that thing had run off to.

Then, off to find the elusive Burrito Zacatecas at my fav refried bean dispensary only to find that the economy had eaten my restaurant. I cried in the car for 15 minutes until my wife begged me to pull it together in front of the kids, and we moved on to another establishment, rated an extremely distant second in my book. sigh.

So this morning, after waking up with a belly full of substandard tortillas and vodka, it is time to corral the hooligans, and hunker down for a Daddy survival day in the house due to 30 degree weather outside. Makes sense, right? I mean it was 80 degrees yesterday, so clearly it was 30’s turn.

Well, there is one more thing I want to share with you before I launch into my day of rotating Kix, Fig Newtons, hot dogs and chicken nuggets.

I am coming out of blogger hiding with 30 other locals tonight to have dinner together in the Dallas area.

JillJill, EM, Sloane, Elaine, Shauna…bloggers I love to stalk will tonight be able to look me in my eyes, and judge me. The thing is, well, people don’t tend to like me in person quickly. Im not the guy that people are drawn to…definitely not “Fun Bobby”. I’m the guy that you get to know, learn how my sarcasm works, and find one day that I have worn you down. (usually it’s the same day you find yourself in bed with me, right honey? SLAP)

It’s something about me that I’ve always had to overcome, and it makes excelling at work a challenge at times. Essentially what I am saying is that sharing my personality in the real world may be a blog-killer.

So this morning, as much as I have been looking forward to tonight, I find myself quite apprehensive. Maybe I’ll just sit in the bushes outside the restaurant, shivering and peering in the window rather than putting myself out there. Maybe after being beaten up by my kids all day I will find myself with no remaining strength, ego, or sense of humor, and decide not to go.

And maybe I just have so much admiration for these people that I won’t be able to stay away. Maybe I’ll try to remember that I’m not 14 anymore, and that some people give you a chance no matter how uncomfortable you appear to be.

So maybe I WILL go.

…and keep my frickin’ mouth shut.

I’ll be the creepy guy in the corner. That’s better, right?

Wake up, my lovelies. I need your help.

My friend Sandy over at Momisodes.com is up for a big award opportunity, and if you adore her wisdom, photography, and spunk as much as I do, will you PLEASE go vote for her today? It seriously will mean the world to her, and will only take you 3 clicks and 3 seconds to help her out.

Go here to vote, and thanks for helping me support her.

Yes, I know she’s hot. That’s totally why Im helping her. If you’re hot and need help, please email me. We can meet for drinks and talk about how I can help you, too.

(slap)

ow…sorry, honey.

I missed you crazy kids.

Got back from Vegas last night, had to go there on business yet again. No, Im not hiding a girlfriend, boyfriend, or a special bank account that I fund hookers from. Thanks for your confidence.

So, I saw an amazing thing yesterday I wanted to share with you. I have such a deep admiration for the arts, whether in the form of music, canvas, or otherwise, and the motivational speaker that my company brought in was a truly incredible guy.

He spoke of being a father, an artist, innovation and more, and he really proved to be a man that you found yourself wanting to emulate.

And then, he painted. Three canvases on the stage, and as he began to paint on the first, U2’s Beautiful Day came up. He painted furiously and quickly, putting paint on the canvas in a technique I had never seen live, until finally the image simply jumped into your consciousness. And we sat there quietly until it did, and then as if he had reached into our heads simultaneously, we all erupted into cheering and applause as we realized what he had created, all in just the duration of that one song…a fantastic image of Bono himself.

Now, Im sorry I didnt catch the creation of the Bono painting on video, as it really was the moment of revelation as to what he was doing. But watch the other two videos I got of the other two paintings, especially the second. You will hear me realize what the painting is of on the audio…I caught on before anyone else around me, so see if you get it before I did.

In the spirit of Jen’s A Thousand Words Thursday, his talent and inspirational talk really left me in awe. Wish you could have been there with me…

Since beginning my annual St Baldrick’s push this year, we encountered a couple of very sad stories about kids losing their battles with childhood cancer, Tuesday and Cora. But more and more children are surviving thanks to technological advances in surgeries and chemicals, and I wanted to tribute a girl today who is surviving her extremely scary bout with cancer.

Organizations like St. Baldrick’s are providing the funds necessary to find a cure, and I want to encourage you to give what you can to help kids become the happy stories rather than the sad. The exerpt below was sent to me from the St Baldrick’s organization, and again reminded me why I do this. I’m gonna raise as much money as I can, and then on March 21st I will shave my head to honor ALL of these kids.

Jay

The following story was written by childhood cancer survivor, Seneca “Sunny” Atwood, who shares her own experience with adamantinoma. (Published by Stbaldricks.org)

My story started when I was six years old and my Mom found a lump on my leg. My leg hurt to touch and it was very big. We went to my doctor and he said it was a bruise and it would go away. We waited and it didn’t go away so we then went to many other doctors and they also said it wasn’t anything. Finally one doctor said it could be a tumor.

I had my first surgery to biopsy my tumor and the test indicated it was not cancer. We celebrated the news but my mom had been researching and found out that she wanted a second opinion. The second opinion came out positive. My mom went to the Mayo Clinic and they confirmed that it was cancer and that I needed an operation quickly as the cancer had spread throughout my leg.

My second surgery involved taking out my entire right tibia, which was full of cancer. They took the fibula from my left leg and put it in place of my right tibia. After 10 hours of complete reconstruction of both legs, I came out of surgery and the doctors said it went well. I was in the hospital for one week and stayed home from school for many weeks. I was homeschooled by my mom and grandma. I have since had 3 other surgeries to add hardware or correct my legs and my surgery on December 8, 2008 was the last of my 5 surgeries to conclude my cancer treatment. Fortunately, they have not found the cancer anywhere in my body since my original diagnosis. I would never have made it through my treatments without a strong faith in God, a loving family, some great doctors and loving friends and supporters.

When I was diagnosed, my mom wanted to do something about this horrible disease. She heard about St. Baldrick’s and started the first St. Baldrick’s event in New Mexico. Since then they have raised nearly $400,000. St. Baldrick’s is a wonderful, fun thing that brings hope to the lives of kids who are threatened with cancer. I wanted to say God Bless all of you who help with St. Baldrick’s. Thank you for being HEROS.

Until a Cure,
Sunny (Seneca) Atwood

Yet Another Jay and Deb Production.

I’m not kidding.
On Friday morning I weighed myself…6′ 1″, 200lbs, on the nose.
Went away for the weekend, spent great time with friends who love to eat and drink, abandoned all self-restraint, and treated my body like a septic tank.
Weigh-in last night? 208.
Meaning I ate and drank the equivalent of a healthy newborn baby this weekend.
How is that even remotely possible??

Ok…I think I figured it out.

Vodka, beer, cake, vodka, cake, sausage rolls, cinnamon rolls, red wine, cake.

8lbs. Currently residing on my ass.

Congrats to Debi, and thanks for being my 200th follower on my sidebar! I gotta tell you, it has been a rough road to get to 200…I have been stuck at 197-198 for weeks…been losing followers as fast as I have been gaining them.

Can’t really think of anything about me that people dont like, I mean, Im pretty damn perfect…Must be because of the cancer talk…some people LOVE cancer, and I may have offended them by raising money to give to cancer research. If you are one of those people who love cancer, Im sorry I offended you. Please come back. That has to be the reason, right? Let’s see…what else do I even talk about? Vodka, screaming at my kids…cant be those, I mean, my mormon friends always tell me how great those posts are…arent I pretty? Is that it? Are you leaving me because Im ugly? How frickin shallow are you people? I mean, we cant all be pretty??!! That’s why I teamed up with Deb, anyway!! She’s pretty, and Im not, we compliment each other! Unless…you dont think…is this because I smell? How do you people even know I smell? Look, it’s a medical condition, and I dont think it’s fair that you…wait…you couldnt know unless…are you following me??!! I mean, how fucking creepy is that? Im calling the cops…leave me alone!!!

And to the rest of you…thanks for your unconditional love. Please dont leave me…my self-respect hinges on your presence.

By the way, Tuesdays are Tuesday’s Tributearound here…You got something or someone you wanna tribute? Come see what we’re doing!!

Got here to Austin and spending a bit of time with male friends…and in the process this clip came up…and now I may need a change of underwear after peeing myself laughing.How unbelievably true to life.