Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

Our Hotel Is Haunted

I suppose that it shouldn't be surprising in the least.  People die in casino hotels.  They die of natural causes (drinking that much alcohol without eating and not taking your life sustaining meds *naturally* leads to death).  They commit suicide ("What have I done?  How will I tell her that I lost all our money and our house?").  They are murdered ("Throw his arms in that suitcase.  I'll put the body in this one.  We can use a luggage cart to get him to the car.")

It's not shocking then that some of them weren't quite ready to leave this plane of existance.  Not shocking, as I sit here in the daylight in the safety of my home.  It's a bit more shocking when you're walking the hallways of the hotel by yourself at 2am.

Especially if that hallway is the 4th floor of Tower #1.

I wish I could give you a cool story about why this particularly hallway is haunted but so far, no one has been able to tell me.  Maybe two cool stories because most of the people that come down from that floor have had one of two things happen.

Road Trip with Mr. and Mrs. Success Warrior

We went looking for houses a couple of days ago.  You can read about the not-so-funny part of that trip HERE.  There were a couple funny parts during the trip (as you can probably guess by now, hardly a day goes by without something funny happening in my life).  One was the trip to Red Robin and the other was pretty much the whole trip.

Let me give you some of the serious background before we get into the good bits.  Our last couple of trips to the city in the van cost us about $100 in gas.  Not entirely true but it goes like this.  I put in about $30 to get us out of this town to where the gas is (hopefully and usually) cheaper.  Then I put in $70 and (hopefully) fill it up.  There's the $100.  That will get us around for the day and home and probably get us around for a couple of weeks at home.

We decided to take the new car this time.  We weren't going to be picking anything up that required the size of the van and figured it would save us on gas.

Now you're caught up, let's get to the story.

Yes, But It's a Wet Heat

"You've lived in the desert too long," my brother said after listening to me complain.

I never really notice how hot it gets out here.  I don't look at the temperature in the summer because if it's not cold, I'm okay.  When it's cold, I'm constantly checking the temperature to see when it will be warm.

One time, Trey and I came back from a walk and I was actually drained.  I was running out of energy and I thought, "It must be hot today."  I came in and checked the weather and it was over 100 degrees.  I was surprised.

Yesterday, it was in the 90s.  Here and in the city where we were.  We met my brother and his family for dinner.  I was sitting at the table waiting for the server to bring me a garden hose so that he didn't have to keep running back and forth refilling my drinks (yes, drinks, plural.  I had him refilling my water plus a raspberry/lime concoction because I could get two drinks at once and I was less likely to go without for very long). 

I took another drink of my fruity concoction sans umbrella and alcohol and I couldn't put the drink back down on the table.  Not because it was so good.  In fact, if the refills weren't free, I wouldn't have had seconds and thirds and fourths.  It was because my forearm was stuck to my biceps.

The Pros and Cons of Voyeuristic Sex Contests

If you will remember back a couple of days, you might remember my little story about my cats and my blinds and the fact that I suspect that my performance in bed is not only being judged but is also being televised.  I can't honestly say that it's a bad thing so I thought it might be helpful if I listed out the pros and cons of Voyeuristic Sex Contests for those people that are thinking about competing in the upcoming Peeping Tom Olympics.

My wife and I have lived in 4 different buildings in the last 6 years and we have had cats the entire time.  The apartment we rented, the house we rented, and this house all had the cheap, easily breakable blinds (that cats actually train for - I got a bill for the ppv pet home unimprovement channel, which tipped me off.  And they say cats are smart.  Ha!).  The last place was a house that was being built and I installed the tougher blinds right from the beginning.

Here's what this has meant for me.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 1

It was a beautiful September day with not a single cloud in the sky.  It was nice in the morning but it was going to be warmer than normal in the afternoon.  That was okay with me and Slider.  We'd be out of our uniforms and body armor by three and enjoying the warm fall weather at home in shorts and t-shirts.  That was the plan, at least.

Plans in police work are tentative.  All plans.  When you will go to work, when you will go home, when you will sleep.  They can all be changed with a ring of the cell phone or a call on the radio.  Even seemingly mandatory appearances like court are tentative.  It was early in the day and quiet so getting off on time and relaxing was the plan.

We got a tip that a guy (who we will call Billy in this series) was in town.  Billy had a couple of warrants.  Billy was a meth-head.  Billy was the suspect, on a good tip, in the burglary of some firearms.  In short, we wanted to have a bit of a chat with Billy.

Billy had obviously pissed someone off because we got a great tip.  There probably weren't a lot of fine upstanding citizens that knew about Billy and all his antics.  One of his "friends" must have made the call and gave us his location and a description of his vehicle, a purple Neon.

Me-Me Monday - Tools

Where is your hammer and what did you last use it for?

I know where my hammer is.  It's on a shelf in my garage.  I have several as a matter of fact for some strange reason.  I'm not sure why I need 3 hammers considering that the answer to the second part of the question is, I don't know.  I can't remember the last time that I used a hammer.

What is your everyday cutlery like?

It's a collection of about 3 different types that have managed to somehow come into my possession.  I understand why I would have 2 types.  My wife and I both brought a set into our marriage.  I have no idea where the third set came into play.  Not that we have one complete set of any of them.  I'm pretty sure that most of my spoons are in a sandbox in Utah, left there by my youngest daughter.  Spoons, apparently, are great sandbox toys.  You do have to sneak them out of the house but it is possible and if you bury them, no one knows that you had them out there.

It is our goal to one day get rid of the tri-set collection and purchase one matching set but it's low on the priority list.

Showtime: Clint Black and Air Supply

There is a follow up post to the cats and blinds post called The Pros and Cons of Voyeuristic Sex Contests.  That post will likely be released on Wednesday.  Today is the Showtime post where I talk about the acts that played this weekend.  Monday is the meme and Tuesday is Ask-a-Cop.  Anyone know the number for the guy that invented blogs?  I'd like to call him and see if I can get my soul back.

My blog has been rated as PG because apparently, I have used the word "hell" twice and the word "pain" once.  And you thought Jerry Falwell was strict?  I checked on the rating for the Success Warrior Blog just out of curiosity.  It was rated PG also because supposedly I have used the word "penis" twice and the word "viagra" once. 

First, I'm not so sure that I really did.  Second, it seems odd that those words were used in the financial blog and not in the humor blog.  In fact, "hell" and "pain" are more likely to be used over there.  Maybe the program has mixed the two up.  Of course, at this point, I have mentioned all four words even more times and so some of you may want to turn the monitor away from easy view of your children.

Read on if you dare.  This PG stuff can get pretty risque.

Peeping Tom and Cats and IQ

As you know, except for this blog, I'm a fairly private person.  I would say that even with this blog, I'm a fairly private person when it comes to sex.  I'm going to disclothes some things today but I'm going to try to be discreet as best I can while still trying to convey the right feeling.

I'm not much into the "letting other people watch" thing.  I know some people are and you can even make a fair bit of money at it if you're okay with it.  "It's not my bag, baby," although no one has made a serious offer yet so depending on the amount of money we're talking about . . . (my email address is in the left sidebar and I accept PayPal).

Anyway, if you have ever owned cats and cheap blinds at the same time, you know what's coming next.

Nothing Beats New Car Smell

This is part of my car purhase posts which seems to continue to grow.  Check out part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and this side trip.

There is just something fun about having a new car.  It feels different, it looks different, and it definitely smells different.  Even though the car I bought is several years old, it has a very distinctive smell to it.

We had finished up the paperwork on the purchase and had done it with just enough time to meet my family for dinner.  The new car is essentially mine.  The van is now my wife's.  So, I was going to drive the car and she was going to drive the van.  After dinner, we would park one and finish our errands and then drive them both home.

Tia thinks I'm the safer driver so Trey was going to go with me.  I moved his car seat over to the car and loaded him up.  We turned on some tunes and went to the street.

The restaurant is to the south so I made like I was going to make a left turn because, that would be south.  Here's a tip for anyone trying to leave Saturn of Riverdale anywhere near rush hour.  Forget about trying to turn left when you are leaving.  Ain't gonna happen. 

It worked out okay though because my wife got a call while we were waiting.  A couple of the forms that we had signed were the wrong ones.  She honked her horn and backed up.  I backed up.  She went running inside and I waited out in the car with Trey.

I Make My Wife Laugh - Part 2

Last week, I decided to clean off my desks.  I do this every couple of weeks.  Okay, I mean to do it every couple of weeks.  Sometimes, it's every couple of months.  Sometimes it doesn't happen until I can't find something important.

Not much really accumulates here.  A bit of mail sometimes, a couple of magazines, notes for writing, and a few empty water glasses.  Why I can't take one out when I bring one in, I don't know.  Probably something to do with my routine where I get to the kitchen before I get to the office.

We had been talking about moving so it was on my mind.  Originally we had planned on moving in 2009.  With the job opportunity that has presented itself, we've decided to move as soon as I get a job that pays more than I'm getting here.

We have no idea when that will be and that's what made my wife laugh.  For the most part, she has gotten used to the fact that she's married to a quirky kinda guy that will do stuff out of the blue. 

"What are you thinking?" is a question that could bring any sort of answer, some that don't really have any base in reality.