So, my wife started a tradition a couple years ago: end-of-school Messy Party. As you will see, it is aptly named.
For those of you desiring to throw your own Messy Party, here’s my wife’s recipe. Fair warning: messy parties are not for the faint of heart…nor do they help the resale value of your home.
So, my wife, our favorite teenager, and I decided to give the Warrior Dash a try. We totally rocked it. Here are a few pictures from our triumph.
“Wait a sec, Josh…I seem to recall from a previous blog post that your wife is pregnant.”
First off, feel free to share this post on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.
As you may have heard (or deduced from the giant ad on the right side of the page), I wrote a book last year. If you haven’t yet, you should read it. My mom says it’s great.
There are thousands of versions of the song “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” All of them contain some variation of the following verse: “Here I raise my Ebenezer. Here by thy great help I’ve come.” So, what in the heck is an Ebenezer? Why are we song-fully raising it? In case you don’t know (and since the song is probably going to be stuck in your head for the remainder of the day), allow me to help you avoid singing in ignorance.
Perhaps you know my wife and I personally. Perhaps know us from your casual reading of this here blog. Perhaps you know us from stalking us in your spare time. Regardless, you’ve probably gathered that we’re not normal. At all. There was a time, however, when our family was closer to “normal.” We had two kids. We drove a normal-sized vehicle. We did a normal amount of laundry. When we ate dinner, we ate sitting down. We slept sometimes. Our house was clean. We didn’t spend 10 hours per week searching for missing shoes. Or coats. Or toothbrushes. Or sanity.
Whilst cleaning out my drawer over the weekend, I found a couple Walmart gift cards. Hooray! So, last night, I drove on over to Wally World and purchased a fancy new blu-ray player. It’s one of those that allows you to stream Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, etc. After we put the kids to bed, I plopped myself down onto my bed and started setting up my new toy. I got the thing connected to our wifi, then pushed the “Netflix” button to set up Netflix.
The year was 2001. I found myself sitting in the middle of a little church in the middle of a little village in the middle of nowhere in Kenya, Africa. We were miles from electricity. The church was a small building made from sticks and mud. With the exception of a few people, everyone was standing because there was not enough room to sit. A decent-sized group of people stood outside, listening through the windows. About 45 minutes into the church service, my guide/interpreter gently elbowed me in the side.
Here in Amarillo, the Chick-fil-A closest to our house has a glorious thing called “kids eat free night” on Thursday nights. Since I’m sort of addicted to the Spicy Chicken sandwich and Chick-fil-A sauce (and since I’m cheap), it is a match made in Heaven. A few months ago, however, we replaced our regular outings to Chick-fil-A with another dinner tradition. Here’s why:
So, we’re all snowed-in here in Amarillo. Bummer. Actually, not bummer at all. Awesome. Being snowed-in is wonderful. We used some of our free time to contribute to the latest ridiculous internet craze. Yep, we Harlem Shaked. Enjoy.
Have you ever had one of those days when you realize that you are sitting in a front-row seat for a truly amazing life story? Today was one of those days–a milestone day–for me and my family. Here’s a little background:
Today is my annual clean-up day: the day that I clean up a ton of the messes I’ve made throughout the year. Here’s how I spent my day. I encourage everyone to take a day to focus on these tasks also. You’ll feel a lot less encumbered when the new year smacks you in the face.
It’s that time of year again. Time for the Elf on the Shelf. Confession: I’ve never even read the book that came with the Elf. It’s probably great. I don’t really care. All I know is that it’s fun to hide the creepy little dude. A little too much fun. Here are some of my favorite hiding spots thus far. Enjoy. Disclaimer: no, my kids were not witnesses to all of these poses.
Thanksgiving has come and gone. It’s December now. Wow. It’s almost 2013…or the end of the world-depending on your level of paranoia. Here’s a quick recap of our Thanksgiving break. I hope yours was equally wonderful.
Attention all you haters out there: Yes, I love Black Friday. Is it stupid to wait in line for 3 hours to save $20 on a muffin maker that I didn’t really need to buy in the first place? Yes. I don’t care. Black Friday is the #2 people-watching event of the year (#3 if your city hosts a county fair). That’s what it’s all about, really. I’m betting that most of you know the ins and outs of Black Friday; but, here are a few ideas for you Black Friday rookies out there:
Election 2012 is finally here. We all face an important decision. I voted. I hope that you did as well. I decided that now would be a good time to endorse a candidate since my endorsement will probably sway the states of Ohio and Nevada. I’m kind of a big deal there. (In case you’re new here; yes, of course that was sarcasm)
So, Twitter informed me yesterday that Disney bought out Lucasfilm and will be releasing a new Star Wars in 2015. Disney and Star Wars go together like peanut butter and jello (not a typo). Hopefully this venture ends up better in reality than it did in my mind. Here’s what Star Wars 7 looked like in my mind:
1.) Whatever happened to individual responsibility? Presidents don’t create jobs. American people create jobs. I’d like to see a president who has the following economic policy:
Those of you who are parents know how it feels. Fall is a busy time of year for families. We have piano practice on Mondays, ballet and gymnastics on Tuesdays, church on Wednesdays, 2 soccer practices and a standing afternoon meeting on Thursdays, some random get together or party on Fridays, soccer games on Saturdays, and church on Sundays. Dating your spouse is very important; but, when exactly is that supposed to happen?
My daughters love to capture crickets and keep them as “pets.” Unfortunately for my girls, a cricket’s life span isn’t very long in our house. “Hoppers”, “Jumpers”, “Squeekers”, and most recently, “Mr. Cricket” have all met the same sad end. Sometimes, there is a proper burial. Sometimes (when the girls aren’t looking), there is a proper flushing or tossing into the yard or trash.
So, the Wood family braved the fair over the weekend. Confession: I love the fair.
1.) Food. I ate a corn dog, cheese on a stick, potato spirals, and a bit of a turkey leg. Note to fair vendors: you should rename the potato things “Tater Tornaders.” You’re welcome. All the food was fantastic. Until 2 hours later. At that point digestive war ensued.
1.) Check eligibility.
AT&T: dial *639# from your cell. You’ll get a text telling you if/when you are eligible for contract pricing. My depressing text looks like this. Or check here: https://www.att.com/phoneupgrade/? or here: http://store.apple.com/xc/iphone_eligibility
Verizon: check here: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=eligibility&action=start or here: http://store.apple.com/xc/iphone_eligibility
Sprint: text “upgrade” to 1311 or check here: http://shop.sprint.com/NASApp/onlinestore/en/Action/DisplayUpgradeLanding?INTNAV=ATG:FT:UPG or here: http://store.apple.com/xc/iphone_eligibility
So, I’ve analyzed the cost of a few of my bad habits. Let’s take a look at the bad habits of you other heathens.
1.) Smoking
Admittedly, I haven’t really paid attention to the price of cigarettes ever. Holy smokes! Those little cancer sticks are expensive! Let’s look at a couple scenarios:
Hi, my name is Josh. I’m addicted to Ghirardelli brownies. Also, Ben and Jerry’s and vanilla Dr. Pepper from Sonic. So, I was wondering, “In addition to losing the respect of society, how much does this stuff cost me?” Let’s find out!
1.) Brownies.
My wife and I ended up with tickets to King Michael on Friday night (thanks to a birthday gift from my brother, who’s awesome like that).
It was, of course, legendary. Here are a couple of thoughts/highlights.
Hello again, internet. Yes, my blog looks different now. What do you think? Good? Bad? Let me know by contacting me, tweeting me, or by leaving a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts concerning things I should add, change, or take away. Thanks!
If you follow me on Twitter, then you know that I spent today at the Willow Creek Assocation Global Leadership Summit (well, at one of the many simulcasts thanks to St. Stephen andParamount Baptist Church). Good times. If my math is correct, there were 1,926,724 great ideas discussed. Here’s my synopsis of a handful of those. I’d be more thorough, but I think I got carpel tunnel due to frantic note-writing. I’ll break it down by speaker.
Dearest Internet,
My book is now available for download on most devices. I, of course, would be honored if you would take the time to download it, read it, and let me know what you think. I know that you are really busy and don’t have a lot of time. Good news! It’s really short. Here are the links:
Him: “I need to go potty.”
So, we took a 2 week road trip to San Diego. Here are some photos. Enjoy. We did.
Winslow, AZ (such a fine site to see)
Oatman, AZ
Sea World, San Diego, CA
Legoland, San Diego, CA
San Diego Zoo
La Jolla Shores (we were there an hour or so before this happened: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Shark-Spotted-in-La-Jolla-Shores-161143135.html. Terrifying.)
4th of July in San Diego. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if all of the fireworks accidentally went off at the same time, now you know. (more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/san-diego-fireworks-show-blows-up-in-15-seconds/2012/07/05/gJQALajePW_video.html)
Chick-fil-A Action Hero Night
Racing with cousins
Palo Duro Canyon
Discovery Center
Toys R Us
iPod time
By the way, you can find me on Instragram: joshwoodtx
I’ve had a fair number of people asking me why I haven’t posted in awhile; so, I feel as though I owe the internet an update. During the time that I would ordinarily waste blogging, I’ve been writing my first tiny book. It’s pretty much finished now; so, get excited. I’ll likely start boring you with blog ramblings again soon. The book should be available in paperback at Amazon.com and in downloadable form (for Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.) within the next few weeks. I will, of course, keep you posted.
Moths. Everywhere. Oh, how I despise these little beasts (on the bright side, at least we’re not in the midst of a spiderpocalypse). Anyhow, we should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Read the Amarillo Globe News article here: http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2012-04-24/old-testament-moth-invasion-should-end-2-weeks.
*03/30 update: looks like the jackpot is now up to a whopping $640 million.
$540 million. That’s the estimated payout for Friday’s Mega Millions lotto drawing. Interestingly, you could buy all of the possible combinations of numbers for around $176 million. You’d better hope that you don’t have to split those winnings though. Your lump sum payout after taxes would be a multi-million dollar loss if there is so much as one other winner.
was cleaning out some old files and found a spreadsheet from this time last year. On said spreadsheet I had recorded the prices of some random purchases at Walmart (what, you don’t do that?). Rather than dragging the file over into the ol’ recycle bin, I decided to use my numbers to take a quick look at my personal level of inflation for the past year. Off to Walmart I went. Here’s a look at my costs from 12 months ago vs. my cost today for various goods. Yikes. Apparently there was some sort of peanut crisis that I was unaware of. Bad news, fellow PB & honey sandwich lovers, apparently the man is not a fan of the PB &H…or generic crackers.
3 things overheard at the Wood house on Friday:
1.) 8y/o to her friend: “My great great grandma never calls. She never writes. Because she’s dead.”
———————————————————-
2.) 8y/o: “Why are big bottoms called badonkadonks?”
My wife: “Where did you hear that word?”
8y/o: “Grandma says it.”
Like the rest of the known universe, I sat and watched the Kony 2012 video a couple days ago. Powerful. It’s tempting to hop on a plane and try to hunt the guy down personally, isn’t it?
My kids love to play hide and seek. The 3 oldest kids are pretty fantastic hiders. The younger 3, not so much. They’re slowly getting better at the game, but haven’t quite mastered it yet. The last time we played I decided to take some pictures of their hiding spots. Enjoy.
^^^^^^ That’s pretty much how I felt. ^^^^^^
Admittedly, I haven’t watched the Grammys in a few years. I wasn’t going to this year. Then I checked Twitter. Apparently I was the only person in the world not watching the Grammys; so, I bowed to virtual peer pressure. Here are a few quick thoughts (which, if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve already seen) interspersed with some Twitter commentary.
More and more often I’m asked some variation of the following question: “How do I Twitter?” People want the formula for good Twittering. I never have a good answer because such a formula does not exist…until now. Kidding. Anyhow, I got tired of not having an answer; so, here you go: How to Twitter by @joshwoodtx. Am I an expert? No. But, as my wife would tell you, I spend way more time on Twitter than I should. A better description than “expert” might be “junkie.”
2011 was full of all kinds of awesomeness. Rather than writing a 10,000 word essay-type summary of 2011, I thought I’d narrow it down to the top 11 new things that entered my life. I highly recommend all of them. Yes, I realize that you, being smarter than I am, probably discovered this stuff long ago. I don’t care. Just be proud of me that I tried some new things. Change is hard. Anyhow, here’s my list (in no particular order):
Today is my annual clean-up day: the day that I clean up a ton of the messes I’ve made throughout the year. Here’s how I spent my day. I encourage everyone to take a day to focus on these tasks also. You’ll feel a lot less encumbered when the new year smacks you in the face.
Like most of the free world, we have the Elf on the Shelf. He stays busy.
*Update: here are a few more hiding places: http://joshwoodtx.com/elfontheshelf2.
Wow. ‘Tis already the season again. In honor of Christmastime, I thought I’d repost this from last year. Enjoy my failure as a parent. Oh, and yes, I’m 92% sure that the situation has been remedied.
————-
Josh fact #127: I love Black Friday. It’s the people-watching event of the year. If you’ve never shopped on Black Friday, I encourage you to embrace the chaos. It’s awesome.
Stare at the red dot for 20 seconds. Then, look at a wall and blink rapidly. You’ll see me in full color. Fancy/creepy, huh? Everybody loves optical illusions, right?
In other news….I have a prediction: white suit + black shirt + aqua tie will be trendy soon. Black bean teeth, not so much.
It’s the season of giving thanks. I’m blessed beyond anything I deserve. I’m overwhelmingly thankful for my life. However, today I say “bah humbug.” Today, here are 3 things I’m not thankful for. >>>>Begin rant…
Yep, inflation is here. How do I know? Like any good wannabe economist, I’ve created my own inflation barometer. I call it “price increases of random stuff that Josh buys at Walmart.” I also have my own barometer that measures whether or not we’re in a recession. I call it “At 8am, are there an absurd number of cars in a drive-thru waiting for $4 coffee?” FYI…according to my barometer, we’re not currently in a recession.
If you missed my last post (part 2 of “surviving 6 under 6″), I wrote about some stuff I’ve learned from my kids by asking myself the following question: “What can I learn about myself in this situation?” Apparently, this is my week of deep, introspective blog posts; so, here’s part 2b: another lesson I’ve learned from my kids.
A few months ago I posted part 1 of how we survived life with 6 under 6. I think it is time for part 2 (mainly because I can’t think of anything else to blog about this week). Here’s part 2a of how we survived.
Well, that stunk. I’m sure as heck not going to sleep anytime soon, so here’s a quick & bittersweet blog post. I’ll try to focus on something positive for us Rangers fans…which was not game 7. I spent most of game 7 yelling about walked batters (new painful record for walks in a World Series by the way) through a mouthful of comfort food.
Well, ol’ Harold Camping is at it again. Apparently today is the day! Again. http://joshw.us/nvETQO. Eventually he’ll be right, right? Anyhow, you may recall that I posted my “top 5 ways to enhance your rapture experience” on the date that Camping mispredicted this event last time. In honor of rapture day 2011 take 2, here are 5 more ways to enhance your rapture experience. I took the liberty of naming them this time.
I’ve gotten a bit of flack over my “Occupy” rant. Just a quick note: I’m not so unlike you, protesters. I can empathize with the large number of currently unemployed college graduates. I graduated in May of 2002 with a degree in finance. I imagine that the job market for graduates with finance degrees during the summer of 2002 was similar to the job market for asbestos salespersons in the 1990s. I sent out resumes to over 100 companies. I groaned as my search broadened from large financial firms to insurance firms to pretty much anyone who would hire me.
First off, did you see the walk-off grand slam by Nellie Cruz last night? Legendary.
Anyhow, since I cringe every time I hear the words “Occupy Wall Street”, I decided it might make me feel better if I rant about it. So, here we go…
Great news: our 2-year-old pooped in the toilet for the first time on Friday! Ironic bad news: our 7-year-old dog, Samson, contracted an ailment that causes incontinence on Friday.
Great. As if changing thousands of diapers for stank-bottomed babies for the past 7 years wasn’t enough fun, now we’re forced to diaper our dog for the next 10 days.
As a blogger on 10/6/11, the internet requires me (as it should) to post some sort of tribute to the late Steve Jobs. I’m pretty much at a loss for words; but, I’ll give it a shot anyhow. What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said? The guy was too big for words.
Bank of America will begin charging $5/month to use a debit card starting early next year: read the AP article in USA Today (in which I make a cameo appearance).
It seems like, these days, my facebook feed is full of people internet high-fiving each other about the website pinterest.com. Well, today I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about.
I requested an invite, received said invite, and logged in.
The kids so loved watching their sister play soccer last year that 3 of them decided to join her this year (our oldest chose piano and our youngest is too young). We were a bit hesitant about letting our 4-year-olds play because we weren’t sure if one of them was “ready” yet. Alas, we couldn’t allow one to play and not the other so we signed them up.
I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now. Blogging has introduced me to a whole new world of groups & fellow nerds that I previously never knew existed. One of these groups is the large blogging community blogcatalog.com. If you are a blogger, check it out. I connected with them primarily to see what other bloggers were doing. It was quite helpful to see where I was failing at blogging…which was pretty much everything.
Well, I’ve got nothing meaningful to post this week. So, here’s a repost from almost exactly a year ago. Updated “our life in pictures” post is coming soon. Get excited.
Today’s “how to become more employable” topic: a few tips to help you improve your online brand.
Last week I posted tip #1 on becoming more employable: the infographic résumé. Continuing along with the theme of “how to become more employable”, today’s focus is communication. More specifically, the dying art of face-to-face communication. More specifically, like, actually talking to other humans with our mouths.
You may not have noticed, but the economy isn’t all that great right now. Due to this, I spend a good bit of time talking to people about increasing their “employability”. I thought it might be helpful to share a few ideas on my little blog.
Tax free weekend is coming up this weekend. You know what that means. Back-to-school shopping procrastinators are simultaneously rewarded with 8% savings and punished with retail’s version of the tribulation.
Here are 5 tips for you brave souls who are planning on venturing out into the retail pandemonium this weekend:
I’m up dark and early-ready for day 2 of the WCAGLS. I wanted to get some of my thoughts written down so that, when I’m reading my own blog for egotistical purposes later, I’ll remember (and hopefully be continually motivated) to be challenged by the content of the summit.
Today I feel like ranting about politics. It should make for easy writing.
Judging by the lack of media headlines related to solutions and the abundance of headlines related to finger pointing, it is pretty obvious to me where our politicians’ priorities are (or aren’t, I should say). I suppose I could be wrong. Perhaps our politicians have somehow figured out how to turn finger pointing into a viable problem solving technique. My kids will be ecstatic.
The ice cream man hasn’t driven down our street much this summer. You probably don’t care why; but, I’m going to tell you anyway.
I have 6 kids. Sometimes, they work together to completely destroy our play room. It looks kind of like a tornado ran through the land of imagination, doesn’t it?
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” – Jerry Seinfeld
You know what the internet needs more of? Social media.
Thankfully, Google Plus has come to the rescue. Honestly, the mere thought of creating another social media world exhausts me; but, I tend to follow the crowd like a lemming so I set up an account. Now that I’ve had a chance to play around with Google Plus, I thought I’d give you a quick review to highlight the pros and cons as I see them.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed; but, we could use some rain in Amarillo, TX. All this dryness is beginning to put a bit of a strain on our water system. The city is abuzz with talk of water conservation efforts. Our mayor even made a PSA suggesting that we Amarilloans wash our clothes by hand (WOW, by the way). The numbers: Amarillo used around 2 billion gallons of water in May of 2011. That’s 40% more water than we used in May 2010 (source: Globe News article). That’s a lot. I think we can all agree that conservation is important; and, I’m doing my part. For weeks at a time (and purely out of the goodness of my giant green earth-loving heart) my yard goes unwatered and undisturbed by the evil, carbon-infused exhaust of my lawnmower. Anyhow, let’s say that you, unlike me, hate mother earth. Let’s take a different angle on water conservation. Conservation can save you money! How much money does conserving water save you? Glad you asked.
Notice anything odd about this picture? If you look closely, you’ll notice (as my wife and I did), that our horse is missing its tail. Hmmmm….
So, I was browsing Twitter last night and came across a photo posted by local sports anchor Brad Fralick (follow Brad on Twitter here). There are no words.
2 quick stories for you:
1. Our 5y/o found a magic 8 ball the other day. I watched her as she shook it while asking, “What is my sister’s name?” She then tossed it back where she found it. “Daddy, that thing doesn’t work at all.”
Josh, something is a little different about your blog. Yes, I completely changed it. Thanks for noticing. In an effort to be a bit more “mainstream” (i.e. do what my much more popular blogger friends are doing), I spent Saturday redesigning everything. I even created a Facebook page that you can “like”. Please do so by clicking here: Josh’s Blog on Facebook. It’ll be a little embarrassing if I’m the only one who likes my page.
Yesterday, my friends over at Amarillo Magazine launched a new online-only feature: “Tip of the Week”. This section will feature articles from local experts on a variety of topics. Since I’m widely known throughout the high plains as the foremost expert on sandwiches, today’s tip comes from me. Enjoy: http://amarillomagonline.com/article/380.
Parenting is hard. People are constantly telling us “6 kids? I don’t know how you guys do it.” Truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you have 1 kid or 10 kids…it’s a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK. I thought I’d take a couple of posts to share a few practical things we’ve done that have made our lives easier. Perhaps you’ll find them useful. Here are today’s 2 tips:
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my blog. Wow. I fully expected my third post to be “Forget it. Blogging is stupid. Just follow me on Twitter.”
Anyhow, my blog continues. To mark this not-at-all-historic 1 year anniversary, I thought I would write a note to 2010 Josh on why blogging is worth his time.
I spent the majority of last week at a conference in Phoenix. “But, Josh, why didn’t you post about the conference while you were in Phoenix?” Answer: because the post “sitting at a conference in Phoenix learning about stuff” can be translated “I am away from my house. Please try to rob me now.” Anyhow, I did learn lots of cool stuff. I thought you might benefit from some of the information; so, here are 4 points to ponder this week: 1. Quote: “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” 2. Ken Dychtwald gave a great speech. Here are a couple highlights: Quote regarding longer life expectancies: “2/3 of people who have ever lived beyond the age of 65 are alive today.” Wow. Quote regarding the growing influence of women: “73% of high school valedictorians in 2010 were girls.” Quote regarding the changing view of retirement: “80% of baby boomers plan on working (part time or otherwise) during retirement.” 3. Sky Mall is awesome.
Apparently today is the day! (at least according to some guy who thinks he’s better at math and prophecy than Jesus) Anyhow, let’s say he’s right. I’m not sure what the proper protocol is for a rapture. It sounds kind of boring to go out all solemn and pious; so, I came up with 5 cool ways to leave the planet….just in case you need some ideas.
It doesn’t show up well in the picture; but, you are looking at a nice little bruise just below my 5y/o’s eye. How did she get that bruise? Glad you asked.
Recently, I overheard the following statistic: 65% of AISD students are receiving free or reduced price meals (i.e. 65% of Amarillo ISD students cannot afford to pay for lunch at these prices). WOW. I called AISD to fact-check (yep, I’m that guy). AISD informed me that the number was probably somewhere around 60%. So, being the nerd that I am, I decided to compare this number with some other cities to see if Amarillo is out of whack somehow. Lubbock: around 62%. Abilene: around 79%. Tyler: a little over 60%.
It’s been awhile since I’ve told a kid story. So, here are 2:
1. Snail Toots: I came home one day and my kids were playing outside with some snails. They had set up a nice little upscale snail community. I noticed that one of the snails had been separated from the rest of the community.
You may have noticed a couple girly little badges that now show up on the left side of the page. They look kind of like this:
I had the opportunity to preach Saturday night at the EXP service at Paramount Baptist Church. The focus: finding peace in a chaotic world. I’ve received hundreds of emails and phone calls asking if/when my talk would be available for download. Ok, not really. By “I’ve received hundreds of emails and phone calls asking” I, of course, mean “my mom asked”. Anyhow, my talk is now available here if you are interested: http://www.paramount.org/exp-audio The link for direct download is here: http://paramount.podhoster.com/download/591/22964/exp043011.mp3 Thanks, EXP’ers, for letting me join you. Hope to visit with you again in the future!
I, like most of you, was up late last night. I finally calmed the adrenaline rush by watching a couple episodes of NCIS-mainly because I couldn’t find my “24″ dvds. 5 quick thoughts:
Admittedly, I’m not really one of those “Spring cleaning” kind of people. I’m more of a Spring-shove-a-bunch-of-stuff-in-a-closet type of person. However, this year I decided that my e-world was getting chaotic…chaotic to the point of collapsing in upon itself like a dying star. So, I decided to institute an annual “E-Spring cleaning” day in order to stave off a literal collapse of my virtual world. These 10 things created so much peace in my life that I-lacking a less nerdy outlet-decided to share them on my little blog. Do this stuff. You will be more peaceful. Or not. But probably.
As I was reading other blogs the other day, I noticed something. My blog doesn’t contain nearly enough over-the-top, annoying ranting about politics. Good news. The time has come.
It appears that our leaders have agreed to a deal touted as “the biggest annual spending cut in history”. Let’s look at that “biggest” decrease shall we?
With all the talk in the news about food prices going up, I decided to run my own little inflation test. If you follow my blog, you’ve probably guessed where this is going: a spreadsheet’s a’comin. Back in June of 2010 I compared the prices of various items at different stores. You can find those comparisons here: Walmart vs. United Supermarkets Walmart vs. Sams Walmart vs. Target vs. United Supermarkets
I recently discovered that there is a “Top 25 Daddy Bloggers” poll going on out here in the internet. I was honored to be included….and by “honored to be included”, I of course mean that I honored myself by entering myself in the poll. Anyhow, please take a second to vote for me in the poll here: http://www.circleofmoms.com/blogger/life-josh You don’t have to register or enter any contact info. All you have to do is click the little “thumbs up” button. Apologies to all of you who dislike my blog. There is no “thumbs down” button for you to click on. I’ll be sure to let you know if I enter myself in a “Worst 25 Daddy Bloggers” poll. Vote early. Vote often. Thanks! **Edit: Looks like you are allowed to vote once per day until the 5th. So, vote early and not so often.** 
View the current top 25 here: http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/daddy-blogs
So, my wife and I decided to give this P90x thing a try. We finished day 3 yesterday. I think I can safely file this decision in the “overly optimistic” category (like the time I said “yes” to dodge ball with middle schoolers…but that’s another story). Here’s my brief synopsis of the experience thus far:
The kids (all 6 of them) asked to sleep together last night. I told them that they couldn’t fit in the same bed.
I walked into my daughters’ room later as my oldest was teaching the kids, classroom style, why Daddy was wrong. She was using a diagram she’d drawn of the bed as a teaching aid.
Here’s the deal. For at least the next month, I’m going to follow everyone back who follows me on twitter…well, almost everyone. I won’t follow you back if: You or your avatar is following me in the nude. You are vulgar, offensive, degrading to others; and, your name is not Charlie Sheen. Why am I doing this? Realization based on conversations: apparently not following back sometimes hurts people’s feelings…kind of like back in 6th grade when you tried to sit at the “cool” kids’ table during lunch and got rejected because your slap bracelet and hypercolor t-shirt weren’t cool anymore…and you smelled funny because you insisted upon wearing your awesome Dallas Cowboys Starter jacket in 90 degree heat. (purely hypothetical) Anyhow, apologies to those of you who spent hours refreshing your Twitter page and sobbing due to a lack of a follow back from @joshwoodtx. Your days of mourning have come to an end. Oh, and if I somehow miss following you back, just tell me on Twitter. Something like “Hey @joshwoodtx, don’t be a liar.” will suffice.
Josh is a fan of God, his wife, his 6 kids, business, finance, politics, spreadsheets, and Dr. Pepper. This blog is a lot like following him on Twitter (@joshwoodtx); but, it will take up way more of your valuable time.
