Friday, July 31, 2009

Mango Salsa

I'm spent from work, had this post planned but blogger erased it. Woe is me.


Some quick thoughts though....


Love when people run for the train and miss it. Always makes my day.


Training camps (NFL) are open. GIDDY!


Are the Mets making a run?


Love when white people flash the "Peace" sign when taking a picture. Total hilarity.


Figured out why we get fatter as we get older. It's simple. We used to not like things and as we get older we start to like them more. For instance I was never a big cheese fan. Actually other than Mozzarella I didn't care for anything else. Now I wouldn't turn down any cheese (other than stinky ones, like real stinky ones). Hence why we get fatter, as we get older. I'm a genius.

Rap music is dead.

It rains alot and this summer has not been hot at all.

I have to clean my grill, wife is mad at me cuz it's dirty. She's so silly sometimes.


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Happy Birthday to El Pad's Daughter

What a difference two years makes!




Thursday, July 23, 2009

2's, Terrible

So my daughter turns two on Tuesday and we're having a lil party on Sunday. But that's not what this post is about. We've noticed that my little angel has been behaving a bit different lately. Behavior that is somewhat similar to what they call the "Terrible Two's".

"To help you cope with this normal stage in your child's development, you should always remember that your child isn't trying to be defiant or rebellious on purpose. He is just trying to express his growing independence and doesn't have the language skills to easily express his needs."

Maybe it's my patience wearing thin but damn this chick is trying me. First off she's a terrible sleeper, since she's been born. But now it's worse, she won't go to bed until like 11pm if we don't force her down. Yet she loves 3 hour midday naps and gets pissed if you wake her up. Then there are days she skips nap. Point being a counter attack to tantrums and bad behavior is the use of routines. She always tries to break the routines, probably not on purpose but it happens.

She is not a good eater but I'm not worried. She ain't starved and still gets vitamins from milk. But so far, very picky eater. If it ain't chicken nuggets or fries or pizza she wants no part of it. Yet devours cookies, chocolate, candy, etc. No shit right. Shocker: Kids like candy.

Tantrums suck. I mean I don't want to make her out to seem like a problem child, she's not but she has her fair share of tantrums. And they suck. Because they are loud and long. They are real good at breaking patience. Time outs usually do nothing and we aint slapping the kid around (yet). So really you just let it play out.

All in all her first two years on earth have been awesome. Couldn't imagine life without her, just sometimes, you bite the fist ya know. It ain't easy being daddy or mommy for that matter. She's with her most of the time. Let's just hope the terrible two's come in like a lion and leave like a lamb.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Summer Cut

Every summer when the bell rang letting us out of school for the last time until September my dad would be waiting for me in the 1984 Oldsmobile with a smile on his face. The smile spoke to me, he was ready to have some fun and so was I. But first, we had to get business out of the way. So we'd drive down to the Frankie on New Utretch Ave, I'd saddle up in the chair and 7 minutes later I had a crew cut. Just like the one below. I am 29 and without fail, every summer I rock this look. Luckily I'm attractive enough to wear it. And luckily it always grows back.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Water Park Review

With summer here I think a good topic to cover here at El Pad headquarters are water parks. Now, I know a thing or two about water parks. Despite hating standing in line I love me some water rides and been to many of them. Here's a quick rundown of the water parks I have frequented and my favorite attractions.

Hurricane Harbor, Six Flags, Jackson NJ
Favorite ride there. I'm a fan of going faster than fast on a body slide. The more stairs I have to walk up the better. And tubes just slow me down.

Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark, Poconos PA
I like Triple Venom and the Vortex.

Wet N Wild, Orlando FL
Craziest ride I've encountered in a waterpark is the Bom Bay. Your in a rocket, hovering over a body slide and then the bottom falls out from under you, 1 second later your at the bottom. Awesome.

Blizzard Beach, Orlando FL
Disney water park within Disney. They have a great Rapids ride you can do with a group which is always ariot but the best is the body slide Summit Plummet. 120 feet is fucking high. And you get down there quick, 50 mph for a body slide is serious shit.

Rapids Water Park, West Palm Beach FL
Black Thunder is it. I know Black Thunder sounds like the name of an African American stripper but it's not, it's a kick ass ride into darkness.

Mountain Creek, Vernon NJ
Bombs Away. Also the free diving off Big Moe is fucking awesome.

Jolly Roger Splash Mountain, Ocean City MD
The Stealth Mark III is as good as a ride as I've been on. The dude that pushes you down the drop is attached to the top with a bungee chord in case he falls. Gangsta.

Splash Zone, Wildwood, NJ
This one is a bit tame but fun nonetheless. On the boardwalk too so no driving and shit.

Busch Gardens Waterpark, Virginia
I was like 8 years old so don't remember much. Looks nice.

I feel like I'm missing some. Maybe I'll remember and update it. Maybe I won't. Water parks are good times man. I like taking like a Tuesday off and going because the weekends are crazy packed with snot nosed kids.

Check out CNN's top Water Parks across the country.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Ocean City, Maryland

Yeah so I was on vacation last week. Was trying to post pics from my phone but blogger for some reason didnt except them. Here are a few of them.

We took the Cape May Lewes Ferry to cut the driving a bit. It was a nice little way to start the vacation. She was not scared, obviously. The beach shot is the view from our balcony. And the pools at the hotel.




















Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy 4th, Thomas Jefferson was smart















Declaration of Independence, word for word. Suck it Britain.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


HOO RAH!

DOI


Friday, July 03, 2009

Cell Phone Pics Fridays

Tired ugly people on the train.


















This guy's neck is going to feel wonderful when he wakes up.