Dmac9000’s blog

CJ is a dog. He’s a black lab that used to belong to us, but now resides with Maria’s sister. He’s a good dog, but he’s old and now deaf. And he’s overweight too, but not as much as he was before we inherited him from Maria’s other sister. Yes, he’s a family hand-me-down dog.

But I have to say, he’s happiest in his current home. And although you would think that he would enjoy our home more, because there are four of us to administer the attention, Maria’s sister dotes on him and he does not lack for affection.

But then she had to travel and was going to be gone for a week. Of course we agreed to keep CJ. We like CJ. He used to be ours and lived in our house. He would feel right at home.

But then she dropped him off and flew out. CJ isn’t the same anymore. He’s still a good dog, don’t get me wrong, but he’s spoiled these days. He wakes up at all times of the night and whines. And did I mention that he’s deaf? We couldn’t just tell him to “get back in bed.” We had to get up and physically lead him to his bed and make him lie down. Over and over and over.

After the second night, Maria and I decided to take turns getting up with him. It was awful. We felt bad for him because he really loves Maria’s sister, and we knew he was probably getting up in the night looking for her.

But after a week of it, we couldn’t wait for him to go home. We met Maria’s sister at the airport, taking CJ with us so that we could drop them both home together. And they were thrilled to see each other.

Kudos to her for taking care of CJ the way she does. She spoils him mercilessly. And, it appears, he enjoys it immensely. But Freakin’ CJ is too spoiled for us anymore. And he doesn’t keep decent hours anymore.

~Doug

My sister reminded me this week of a tradition we used to have that I’d forgotten about. When I was a kid, I used to ride the bus to school. On the last day of school, the bus would stop at the local Tastee Freeze for ice cream. It was always a big deal and we really looked forward to it.

So the other day, my sister told me that she was picking up my great niece and nephew and taking them to Dairy Queen for their last day of school. I told her that was a tradition I needed to start back up with my kids. Well, Xavier is already in college so that doesn’t work out so well with him, but Sarah, now that’s a different story.

So Friday, I got off of work early and picked her up after school. We came home, got on the motorcycle, and went to Dairy Queen. We had lunch and then Blizzards. It was a lot of fun. Sarah even said it was a tradition we should’ve started a long time ago.

~Doug

Wow. I’ve been to Reno. I’ve been to Lake Tahoe. But I’ve never been to Las Vegas. I was totally unprepared for the experience. Maria has been to Vegas three or four times before, so she knew what to expect, though she discovered a lot of changes.

We started off on a 7:30 am flight from Austin to Las Vegas on Saturday morning. We had to be at the airport at 5:30 am so we had to get up a lot earlier than normal to make it on time. We planned on going to bed earlier the night before in preparation, but with all the last-minute packing and the excitement of the trip, combined with the rigors of our last workday, it just didn’t happen. That means that we started off on the first day a little tired.

We flew Southwest Airlines and the plane was only about 2/3 full, so we had lots of room to stretch out and kick back. With the 2 hour difference in time zones, we landed at about 9:10 am and tried to get a limousine. Maria has fond memories of drinking in limos on the way to the casinos, but come to find out, that’s all changed. Limos don’t come with stocked bars anymore, so we took a cab instead.

We got to The Imperial Palace and were lucky enough to be able to check in immediately. It was a lucky break, and not the last one I would get this trip. We went to our room, threw our bags down and nearly ran out of the door on the way to our first day of adventures.

We checked out the Casino at The Imperial Palace, and then went off in search of other casinos. We stopped into the Venetian and then Maria wanted to go to Circus Circus. Her father always stayed there when he went to Las Vegas and in all of her other trips, she’d never been there. I’d been to Circus Circus in Reno and I knew that it would be lousy with kids, and I was right. It wasn’t long before we were ready to go to the next casino.

We got a cab and went to Binion’s in what they call old downtown. We also wanted to experience Fremont Street, and they were right next to each other. Binion’s was kind of fun and I had a good little run on the Blackjack tables while I was there. We also took our picture next to a big pile of money. It’s $1,000,000, all in $100 bills and under plastic to keep anyone from taking it. We also ate there and then went out to Fremont Street.

We were a little early for the show so we wandered around a little, taking pictures and watching street vendors. The show finally started and we were a little disappointed. We thought it would be like a laser light show, but it was really like a music video that you had to look straight up to see. We left a little after 9:00 and headed back to the hotel. Turns out at 10:00pm, it was a tribute to Queen and would have been more along the lines of what we expected, but we left too early.

At the hotel, I wanted to get a little writing in and discovered that the Internet isn’t free there. It was $30 for 3 days. So I didn’t pay and did blog, or twitter, or yammer, or anything. Bummer. But I did write until midnight or later.

But that was a mistake because we got up early the next day, at about 6:30. As soon as we were showered, we were off again; this time in search of show tickets. Maria found a place for discounted tickets and got tickets to see the Cirque de Soleil show, Zumanity. Once we had our tickets, we went to the Flamingo before going to MGM Grande where we watched lions in a habitat they have there.

Next it was off to New York, New York where we at lunch and exchanged our vouchers for tickets for Zumanity, and then we went to the Luxor. There, we found Maria’s favorite slot machine; I Dream of Genie. There were two side by side, so we sat down and started playing. We played for hours. Our waitress took really good care of us and we had a hard time walking by the time we had to go eat before seeing the show. We went up to The Cathouse and had expensive tuna and cheap spaghetti.

When we finally made it to Zumanity, all I can say is that it was awesome! There was a lot to see and it was pretty cool. After the show, we went to Mandalay Bay, then to Harrah’s where we at midnight breakfast before going to bed at 1:30 am after walking probably five miles that day.

Monday morning we were up bright and early again at about 7:00 am. I think it had something to do with the sun shining directly into our room in the mornings. We got up, got dressed, and we were off again. We did a brunch at The Imperial Palace and then each had a 15 minute massage. Once we had all the kinks worked out, we went out again, walking across the street to Caesar’s Palace. They had a neat aquarium and a laser fountain show that we caught. We also picked up souvenirs for the kids there.

We stayed on the strip for the rest of the day, going back to our own hotel so Maria could take a short nap. I played the Star Trek slot penny slot machine all afternoon, winning about $150 on it. One hand I won $100. I had four Captain Kirks in a row, then it went into Win Warp and it replaced the one that wasn’t Captain Kirk with one that was 10x. Five Captain Kirks are worth $10, but the 10x made them worth $100. I was stoked!

We finally made it back to Treasure Island that night for their outdoor show. It was almost cancelled because of the wind, but they decided to put it on anyway. We went inside to gamble for a while. There, Maria discovered that she still had a slot machine voucher for Caesar’s Palace so we had to go back there before we got back to The Imperial Palace. It was nearly 2:30 in the morning when it was all over.

Tuesday morning we got up early again so we could check out and get to the airport. We were early, our plane was late, we were tired, and I was hung over. What a bad combination. So I sat down at an oxygen bar and sucking in O2 while getting a back and head massage. It did wonders to make me feel better, but we were both really tired from an exhausting and wonderful trip to Las Vegas.

I didn’t think I would say this, but I can’t wait to go back. But I have a couple of things I need to remember for our next trip:

- Get on the treadmill to get used to all the walking before we go.

- Wear comfortable shoes for all the walking – ask Maria!

- Plan out your shows in advance. Sometimes it’s hard to make it from one spot to the next in time to see what you want.

Until next time,

~Doug

So, I have to ask; how does a boy need to be before it’s not okay to go into the women’s restroom with his mom?

Tonight, I swear, I was going into the men’s restroom, and as I was going in, a group of women were coming out of their restroom. Among the women was a boy who was almost as tall as I am; and I’m 5’10”.

Now he obviously looked young, but not that young. I’m guessing he was 11 or 12. So, I have to say, I’m not too cool with that.

Now don’t get me wrong. If I were 11 or 12, I would probably want to go into the women’s restroom with my mom. Hell, I’m 44 (45 tomorrow) and I still want to go into the women’s restroom. But that don’t mean it’s cool!

So am I alone with this, or is there anyone else out there that thinks we need to card boys to go into the women’s restroom?

“I’m sorry, you’re a little too old,” says that big, burly bouncer outside of the women’s restroom checking IDs.

“He’s my son and he can come in,” the angry mom replies.

Well, you see where this is going. What do you think?

~Doug

My wife did it again. Every time we go to Dallas, she not only finds us a great hotel deal, she figures out what else we should do while we’re there. You see, when we’re in Dallas, or Houston, or wherever, we’re usually going for a reason. This time we were going to Dallas for the Nickelback concert. It was awesome by the way, and you can read about it on my blog at: http://www.dougmcintire.com/blog/.

That was the main reason we were going, but today, she suggested that we go to the Dallas World Aquarium, just a few blocks from the hotel where we were staying. So we did, and I have to say, it was awesome. We spent almost 3 hours there looking at all the birds, monkeys, snakes, spiders, crocodiles, turtles, poisonous tree frogs, and yes, fish. And that’s why I say she did it again.

The trip before, it was to a Scott Sigler book signing, but we also went to the King Tut Exhibition, which made for a great weekend! Well this was a wonderful weekend too, thanks to all the research she does.

So, if you find yourself in Dallas looking for something to do, check out the Dallas World Aquarium. It’s worth the effort.

~Doug

I just heard that two of my friends and former co-workers were laid off yesterday. It just brings the economic situation into sharp relief. And it bums me out too, both for them and for what it might bode for me in the future.

We’ve been hanging on, layoff through layoff, wondering if it was our turn next or if we could hang on by our fingernails. For my two friends, their fingernails gave out.

But what makes all of this so much worse is that as the economy continues to spiral, the jobs seem to getting scarcer. So now that I’ve decided to hang in there, it seems like it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. If I don’t make it through the layoffs, then there won’t be any jobs left by the time I hit the open market.

Which then begs the question, when will we see the end of this? All I can say is soon, I hope. And I hope my friends are able to find employment. But just in case, I think I’m going to sharpen up my resume and start looking for openings that might come up.

~Doug

Yeah, I know it’s all a lot of hype, but for some reason, I’ve always wanted to go see the King Tut Exhibition. I would say that it’s probably one of the top 50 things I’d like to do before I die, you know, the (before I kick the) bucket list. And a couple of weekends ago, I was able to go see in at the Dallas Museum of Art.

My wife is the one who found it. We were going up to Dallas for a Scott Sigler Book Signing and she was checking to see what else was going on that weekend when she came across King Tut. She didn’t know it was on my bucket list, but she suggested it, thinking that it would be something our 13-year-old daughter would like.

So, we jumped at the idea, and I have to say that it was well worth the time and effort to go see it. They recommend that you allow 90 minutes for the tour, but we were there over four hours. It was awesome!

There were things I’d never seen before. The craftsmanship of the artifacts was incredible, and I have to say that it was a bit overwhelming. It’s in Dallas until May before it goes on to other cities. If you have a chance to see it, I would recommend it.

And now, I’ve got to find something else to replace the King Tut Exhibition on my top 50 bucket list. Maybe The Great Wall…oh wait, that one’s already there.

~Doug

Disturbed, a band I listen to, is coming to town. Well, they’re in the neighborhood. They’re playing February 3rd at the Bell County Expo Center.

I love their album, The Sickness, and I would love to go see them live. But February 3rd is a Tuesday. Granted, the Bell County Expo Center isn’t that far away, about 40 miles, but on a Tuesday night? I am not going to want to work on Wednesday.

So, do I take Wednesday off, or do I just take the morning off, or do I wait until Disturbed comes to town the next time?

Decisions, decisions.

And yes Kimmmbo, I know you’re going to read this and I know you like Disturbed too!

~Doug

I’d never heard of a drabble until I started listening to The Drabblecast, an online podcast of short stories. They start off many of their episodes with a drabble before they get into their main feature. So what is a drabble, you ask. It’s a short story of exactly 100 words. Not 99; not 101; one hundred.

And they’re fun. So, I tried my hand at writing them. They’re a little hard to write because they’re so darned quick, but that’s also what makes them so easy to listen to.

I ended up with a few and sent them off; finding that there are other markets for drabbles besides The Drabblecast. And suddenly, I’ve had three of my drabbles selected for publication within the last week.

Sweeeeeet! So, if you don’t know what a drabble is, you should look them up on the Internet or check out The Drabblecast, among others. You may find that you like them.

~Doug

I should start off by saying that I’m not a big one on New Year’s Resolutions. I do have a lot of goals for the upcoming year, but I wouldn’t call them “resolutions.” I like to think of them as a “work in progress”; constantly changing, constantly updated to be relevant and to take the ups and downs of day-to-day life into consideration.

Having said that, what I like to do at the beginning of the year is to look back and see what I’ve accomplished. I have to say, this last year has been a good one for me.

In 2008, I had my first short story published. Not only that, I also had seven additional short stories published. That’s eight in all. Not bad.

I also wrote a lot of short stories, fourteen in all. That’s a lot of writing.

I also wrote a 55,000 word novel during the month of November for the National Novel Writing Month. I am pleased with the way the novel came out but I still have a lot of work to do on it. This was the third year I’ve participated.

But that was the only novel I wrote, but I did polish up another of my novels and I bean to shop it around, looking for an agent. That’s a lot of work.

I attended the Agents and Editors Conference for the second time this year. I really got a lot out of it this time and it was a great experience.

So last year was good…really good. So I guess if I had to make a resolution for 2009, it would be to have a better year than last year.

~Doug