Today we went in to pick out the materials for our kitchen and bathroom remodels. It’s crazy how expensive everything is and how quickly prices added up. Granite countertops weren’t in the budget, but also probably didn’t make much sense in our house either. We did however splurge on the kitchen sink. After doing tons of research, we fell in love with the farm style sinks. It just seemed more practical for us to have one big deep sink rather than two smaller ones. We’ve been busy with the garden these past few weeks with canning and such, and many times though how much nicer a farm style sink would be. After installing the sink we bought a new toilet as well, if you are looking for a new toilet check out some of the toilets here that we were also looking at.

A month ago I had no idea what a farm style sink was. Here is what our sink will look like.

The downside was that that sink costs $2700 in the off-white color that would go good with our cabinets. A stainless steel one was only $800, but we really wanted white. So, I just spent $2700 on a kitchen sink. It’ll be eight weeks or so before they start the work. I can’t wait. Our kitchen and bathrooms are going to look so good.

Hank Green recently vloged about our addiction to outrage. Part of the reason I haven’t blogged a lot lately is I that didn’t want to join the outrage. My Facebook and Twitter feeds seem full of people outraged about something. It’s ether another black kid getting mowed down buy a cop, or a cop gets shot, or someone’s getting thrown in jail for breaking the law causing people on both sides to be outraged, or even a lion getting shot.

It’s always something, and it’s quite exhausting.

I wish somebody had the answers to solve all our world problems, but as long as there are people on this world, there’s going to be fighting. We just need to dwell on the negative fears less; because in reality, there is much more greatness in the world.

Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I hate when people complain about not posting, but here I am doing it.

What have I been up to?

Well, right now we are in the middle of a kitchen and bathroom remodel. We’ve looked at so many kitchens that we are at a loss for what we want. We go in Friday to make the final design decisions and work will start in eight weeks or so. It will be a mess, but should be worth it.

Last month I saw the Foo Fighters for the fifth time. They are always incredible. Dave on is thrown was awesome. Not too many guys would tour on a broken leg, but Dave doesn’t disappoint.

Also last month we lost a member of our family. My cousin’s husband, a former soldier, committed suicide. Soldier suicides are far too common. They are the unaccounted for deaths of war, and are another reason why war should be the last option.

That’s about all that’s going on with my boring life now.

So the other day I ran across this book at work.

It sparked my interest, so I read the first two chapters.

While I totally disagreed with most of what I read, it was still interesting. Just seeing what these Christian writers think of Atheists was actually kind of funny. You would think that someone who writes a book about Atheism would actually know something about it. Then again, if they knew anything about Atheism they would understand that we aren’t scary, that we aren’t trying to take over the world, and that we aren’t trying to convert people to Atheism; they wouldn’t have a book to write.

I might finish the book just for the hell of it. It’s a small book with a large point font and written at a 5th grade level. It shouldn’t take long to read, and I’m curious to see how much more Christians don’t understand Atheism.

I love my job. I don’t talk about it much on here because it is what it is. Like most people, I wish I made more money, but I guess I live in a decent house, bought a new truck, and went to Hawaii this year, so I’m doing alright.

I’ve been at my job now for 17 years. It’s actually only my second job ever. In 17 years I’ve only had one coworker leave for another job, so most of my coworkers I’ve been working with for 17 years. Well, this week I’m losing my second coworker to another job. He was a newish coworker. Everybody knew it was only a matter of time before he left. He came here from New Jersey and was a little bit of an odd duck. He’s worked at numerous places and we knew it was only a matter of time before he moved on from here. He definitely didn’t have a midwestern worth ethic.

This week was his last week, and guess what he does? He calls in sick. Sure, he could really be sick, I kind of doubt it. He’s called in many time when there was a crappy job to do at work. My guess is he called in sick because of who he was schedualed to work with. He has this unnatural hatrid twards country music and anybody who likes it. Yeah, that would be a big problem for someone living in Fargo.

So I guess I get to work tonight and get twelve hours of overtime this week.

After nine months my Mother-in-law has finally moved out. It’s so nice to be in a quiet house once again. She always had to have the TV on for background noise. She even slept with the TV on all night. I don’t know how many nights that I couldn’t get to sleep because of the noise from her TV.

It was three long days moving her stuff and getting everything set up. I still have sore muscles that I didn’t even know I had. I’m getting too old for this. If we ever move again I am totally hiring movers.

She moved into a cute little old house that as lots of character. The rooms are really small though, so we were coming up with all kinds of space saving ideas, and I guess I’m pretty good at mounting TVs. I’ve never mounted a TV before, but they had three to mount. Apparently their friends liked my work and I may have some more mounting jobs in the future. I hope I didn’t make too much more work for myself.

I lied to get confirmed. I was lucky and we moved right before I was suspose to be confirmed. I told the pastor of our new church that I already completed all my requirements at my old church. I didn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. So all he made me do was write some bullshit paper. I was so thankful that I didn’t have to go to some bullshit bible camp. 

Growing up I hated going to church, Sunday school, and youth group events. My Mom pretty much forced me to go. I didn’t fight too hard though. I don’t know what my Mom would have done if she knew I didn’t believe. That was the one plus after she passed away. I would never have to explain my Atheism to her. I’m sure she would flip her lid and never understand. 

Growing up I was an Athiest long before I even knew what it was. I don’t ever remember believing in a god. I thought a god was just as far fetched as a Santa Claus. I’m sure when I was really young I believed in both, but I have no memories from those times. It was never about being rebellious, or wanting to insult believers. Bible stories just sounded like fairytales to me. The more bible stories I heard along with learning more science, the more I knew I was right. Growing up I didn’t know any Athiests, hell, I didn’t even know what that word ment. Now, thanks to the Internet, I know tons. In the circles I follow online, Athiests are the norm. I no longer feel like an oddball. 

So I lied to get confirmed easier. It was all just to please my Mom anyway. It ment nothing to me. 

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here before or not, but my Mother-in-law has been living with us since August. She’s finally found a place to live and will be moving out May 1st. I can’t wait.

It hasn’t been that bad having her stay here, but she’s driving us a little crazy. My main complaint it the added clutter. I can’t stand clutter. I might have a mild case of OCD. Everything has its place, and if it’s not there it drives me crazy. I can’t even make coffee in the morning without first doing the dishes and wiping down everything in the kitchen.

My Mother-in-law has basically taken over the kitchen table. It’s piled full of crap and driving my crazy. Also she buys way too much junk food that doesn’t fit in out cupboards, so it’s piled up on our counter.

I also need to clean the house at least once a week. Yes, I’m the housecleaner in the household. The dirtiness must just get to me before others. It’s usually no problem. I usually clean the house during the day when my wife it at work, or on the weekend before she gets up. I don’t know why it is, I just don’t feel comfortable cleaning with other people around.

I also don’t like picking up after people. I clean up after myself, I don’t understand why everybody else doesn’t. Both my Wife and Mother-in-law leave stuff laying around all the time. They never put there shoes or coats alway. I kind of feel like an asshole complaining about these petty things, but they drive me so crazy. I can’t explain it. 

I don’t think I have serious OCD, and I probably don’t even have OCD. I mostly just have OCD tendencies. I can usually manage it quite well, but this past weekend my OCD really got to me. It was the first time that it’s really affected my like that. I had an anxiety attack I think. I’ve never really had anxiety before, but I just couldn’t get out of bed on Saturday, and when I did, I went to work early just to get out of the house.

Thankfully my Mother-in-law is gone today, so I was able to get the house cleaned. I’m sure it’ll be a mess again by the weekend, but at least it’s how I want it now.

Today we are headed to Hawaii for our first Vacation in a few years. This will be our second time in Hawaii. We went five years ago for our tenth wedding anniversary, and this time for my 40th birthday. How the hell did that happen?

Last time we went to Oahu and the Big Island. This time we are going to Oahu, Maui, and spending one day on Lanai. It should be fun. We got fun stuff booked for every day. Maybe some Instagram pictures will end up here, or maybe I’ll ignore the Internet for a week. Who knows?

All I know for sure is that I will be enjoying much warmer weather than here in Fargo.

I’m not much of a car person. I don’t really care what I drive, and long as it gets me from point A to point B reliably. I’ve been driving a 1998 Ford Ranger since well… 1998. I bought it brand new shortly after I started my current job. I’ve taken excelent care of it, and it really still felt new to me as of last week. I only had 63,000 miles on it. Part of me wanted to drive it forever, but part of me wanted a new truck with all the fancy things like power windows, locks, and CD players. So over the weekend I bought a new truck.

After 16 years with my old truck, I probably deserve it.

It’s not super fancy, but it pretty slick selecting my music by voice with Ford Sync. I love it. The only complaint I’ve had is it has TOO MUCH leg room in the back seat and it’s hard to reach the cup holders.