Sour Swinger Predominantly follows my Army & Iraq Deployment. Also has some Geek, School, and other talk.

During the first week of August was my family’s big reunion. As usually we do one big family dinner. Clint and Carolyn ended up being quite drunk. I was fairly toasted though not quite as bad. We needed a DD so in comes Frank. Sober as can be but never drove stick in his life. Clint or Carolyn, not sure who, took the video of everything. It happened at night so its very dark. Clint and Carolyn being their drunk selves proves to be entertaining.

During the last week of April, I headed up and visited by brother and family.  I had a wonderful time playing with my nephews and being “parent like” by snapping 20 million photos and filming several videos.  I’ll put a few cute ones up here, however if you’re a friend/family member and would like to see them all, you’ll need to register and add me as a contact on Flickr.

My trip stayed pretty uneventful save for one thing.  I managed to loose my car keys my second day there.  I never did find them.  I was blocking Adam and eventually he had to leave for work.  My only choice was to roll the car back in neutral.  I accidentally locked the steering wheel and the car rolled off into the grass.  It sat like that the rest of the week until Denise mailed me a new key.  I do wonder where my original key went off too?

 

Cute pics of the boys:

Was in New York visiting my brother last week and took a lot of pics and videos. Alex was too cute and can’t help but post this video. Btw, this is also my first test try of Flickr Video.

Update: I really like Flickr video. It maintains the original video quality (unlike YouTube) and is easier for setting privacy settings based on friends and family, just like their pics. This makes it more ideal for uploading family videos then YouTube. Only problem is the time and size limit. I have a few family videos I won’t be able to upload now.

In this part I was gonna talk about the wedding that transpired in Washington DC.  However nothing real eventful happened in transit there and my cousin Vicky wrote a piece better then I on the whole event.  Utilizing the programmer’s philosophy “Why reinvent the wheel?” here’s the link: Mark And Denise’s Wedding.

Atlantis
After a somewhat long flight, customs line, and scary taxi ride (guy was doing 65 in a 25) I made it to the hotel. The rest of the Brady Bunch had their flight delayed by a day due to weather. It was lucky that my sickness didn’t push my flight back too much. Apparently Atlantis would have given our rooms away, even though Jonathan had already paid in full, if no one checked in on the first day. Being the only person there, I had to use my credit card to check in. Somehow it was approved, despite being at the limit. It didn’t last long though, as the following day the hotel left a message about the card being declined. LoL.

Atlantis itself is a beautiful hotel or more like tiny city. I felt like I was in Disney land, minus the kiddy atmosphere. There were clothing shops of all kinds, a movie theater, comedy club, casino, convention center, game room, and more all built in. Also can’t forget the plethora of swimming pools and slides. The slides themselves were awesome. One dropped 60 feet, others dropped you through pitch black tunnels, and some were just a lazy tube ride through a mock river. Usually us Brady Kids love breaking the slide rules via going head first or chaining, however many of these slides attained such high speeds that only a drunk frat boy from Animal House would have been crazy enough to do anything but slide on your back. We did manage to climb up several slides after the pool was closed down, but a certain adult discovered what we were doing and put a stop to that.

It was actually hard to stay at the pool after closing. From past experience, typically the pools stay open and just the bars, slides, etc around the area close down. Atlantis actually kicked everyone out. This brought one of many complaints we had with the hotel. The advertised pool times 0800 to 1900 were not the same as the actual pool times which was 1000 to 1700. Only seven hours!?!? What makes it worse is that many of the slides had a 45 minute wait. Why so many people? Once again, despite saying they never hand out day passes, they actually were. Cruise ships would come in, get some day passes, and completely swamp the pools. Ultimately we’d stick to the less fun slides as those lines were shorter.

Jonathan’s Good Luck?
Jonathan had some unbelievable luck at the casino. Apparently there is a strategy to winning slot machines that worked well for him. First night there Jonathan played a 5 dollar slot machine and won 300 bucks on the first try. He yelled “BOOM” and said it’ll pay for dinner. Our last night there, Jonathan played a 100 dollar slot machine. On the second spin he won 500 bucks. Once again he yelled “BOOM” and pocketed the winnings. This luck happened several times over our stay. He claimed that typically slot machines will at first let you win to entice you to stay and spend more money. One should just walk away after the initial winning. I tried a few times myself however could never seem to win more then I put in.

Jonathan also had a run in with some prostitutes. Apparently he was approached in the hotel lobby for their services. Kim was present when it happened and suffice to say I never thought I’d hear her wanting to physically attack someone. LoL. This of course was the last straw for Jonathan and more or less bitched out the manager. There were many other issues that had built up to that point which I don’t feel like getting into but in short Atlantis is a tourist trap and I highly recommend everyone staying away from the place.

Miscellaneous Happenings
I was able to get a good amount of exercise in. For a first, I managed to swim 25 meters non-stop via front crawl. LoL. I know, still a long way to go. The fitness center was nice except that it cost 15 dollars a day. At that price, it could have been better. I went on a few long runs outside of the hotel and I have to say I was really disappointed. Where the hotel grounds were beautiful, the local town was run down and dirty. Slum like would describe it best. Several times I ran past some scary looking stray dogs. That beautiful image associated with “The Bahamas” was flushed right down the toilet.

At one point, Chase inadvertently rolled his tube over poop. Apparently some person (we hope a kid) pooped at the entrance to one of the slides. Of course Chase didn’t notice the poop until it migrated from his tube to his body. LoL. Luckily the guy cleaning up Mr. Hanky was happy to disinfect Chase.

On the night of New Years eve, us Brady Kids played a game of capture the flag on the beach. Didn’t go very well considering it was 3v3 and some people weren’t following the rules however I did get to watch Elizabeth face plant into the sand.

As always, spending time with the Brady Bunch is wonderful, especially hanging out with the kids. Gives me an excuse to be one myself. Which reminds me, someone started referring to Jonathan and Kim as the old people. Name kinda stuck with us Brady Kids for the duration of the trip. :P Overall the trip was fantastic!

On The Way
Ok part two of my holiday happenings. Following my weekend drill, Mark convinced me to hang out in Philly for a few days so I could drive him out to Pittsburgh with me. He originally claimed he had a plan to get to Ohio where he was buying a refurbished car for Denise’s Xmas present. Stupid me believed him and discovered half way to Pitt that his “plan” was for me to drive him out there. Never mind I was already late for a bachelor party and leaving for New York the next day. I managed to convince him to try car rentals but none were available. This car was in the middle of bumble fuck, Ohio. He then managed to convince me in trying to get one of my friends to drive him out there. I felt like an idiot doing so, but that also failed. Suffice to say I was stuck driving him out there.

So next day, fresh from a bachelor’s party, I drove a total of 9-10 hours going to Ohio and then to upper state New York. BTW, that bachelor’s party was very Christian orientated. There were no sexual anything and I ended up having a very philosophical debate on religion with the bachelor’s reverend.

Ryan/Alex Initiate Sickness
I spent a good week with my brother and family in New York. Was able to relax quite a bit and play with my nephews. Unfortunately Xmas eve started a downward spiral. Little Ryan starting throwing up at bed time. He ended up getting puke in his crib, Adam and Chrystie’s bed, and the floor. He puked for a few hours straight. No one got any descent sleep that night except Ryan. He managed to sleep through everything. Us dragging through Xmas was followed by Ryan throwing up the morning after Xmas (Chrystie’s Bday). Just like Alex, Ryan was puking for several hours.

Further Sickness Issues
I left that very same day for Philly but since I forgot my passport in Pittsburgh, a 5-6 hour drive turned into a 11-12 hour drive. Unfortunately I never made it. Adam started (as Kim liked to say) worshiping the porcelain god that afternoon. I followed suite that evening, about 45 miles outside of Pittsburgh. Though the kids never got it, this virus brought diarrhea and fever for us adults. Both Adam and I suffered for several hours. At least Adam had a toilet, I initially only had the side of the road. Eventually I made it to a service station (in time for diarrhea) and hung out there for an hour. I was eventually forced to get a hotel and push back the flight I was catching out of Philly.

This was by far the worst stomach virus I ever had in my entire life. Never did I have to question which end to stick into the toilet first. Am I getting to graphic? LoL. It took 2 days to start feeling normal again.

Epidemic Spreads
My brother and family eventually left for the in-laws once he recuperated. Though everyone had been symptom free for 2 days, the virus managed to infect almost the entire Hathaway household. I say almost, because none of the biological Hathaway females ever got sick. Adam and I suspect they were carries. This stomach virus forced baby Zach and little Yomeris (probably didn’t spell right) to go to the hospital. As Chrystie and Adam visited friends, those friends also suffered the same sickness even though the visits were a brief few hours. In addition, the adult Hathaways further spread the sickness to each of there own perspective families. This all happened in about a weeks time, so I’m sure many had ugly, sick New Years. I estimate at least 20 people suffered this horribly contagious virus. Kinda lucky that I didn’t spread it among the Brady Bunch, however being on a plane in less then 24 hours of my symptoms….yup…probably passed it on to someone. :)

Well my brother has finally returned home from Iraq this past week and everyone (especially his wife) couldn’t be happier. I got talking with Mark this past weekend, and remembered his amazing email he sent out to a portion of the family just prior to Adum’s deployment a little more then a year ago. It was titled, If My Son Adum Is Killed. Amazingly I managed to find it in my old email address. Just a note, Mark literally wrote Fxxk. I didn’t censor it.

My wonderful son US Army Captain Adum, always dedicated and optimistic, deploys to Baghdad Iraq in August.Today on national Public Radio interview with Michael Berg, father of Nick Berg, who head was personally hand sawed off by terrorist al-Zargarwi, Michael blasted President George Bush and not Zargarwi for the brutal death of his son.

Fxxk you Micheal Berg, and fxxk you empathizing soft hearts who simply blame the president and his administration for the evils of the world and the turmoil of the middle east.

Fxxk you Catholic Church of Atlanta that ask me at Sunday Mass to sign a petition to declare the war in Iraq as illegal and unjust…then Adum’s death would be unjust???

Fxxk you all who complain and bicker how horrible and deceiving the president is without ever reading the joint house and senate bill 114 that overwhelmingly passed that listed 19 reasons why we are at war with Iraq and not just the audit failure of weapons of mass destruction.

Fxxk you and your version of Jesus and your interpretation of his love message without ever considering that Jesus had Anger and action in the temple breaking tables and whipping and blasting the hypocrites.

Fxxk you who never considered Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who thought it was God’s will to kill Hitler. Oh perhaps we should now start hugging and forgiving evil!!

Fxxk you for blaming everyone else but the evil at hand and the bias in your heart.. If Adum dies trying to protect and secure the people of Iraq and his effort with his soldiers to help ensure that water and sewage and medical care and a fair court system is established in Iraq (just cause?) through a democratic elected government……and you want to blame the administration??

If Adum dies I shall not blame the president but the man who evil efforts took my son’s life!! Who shall you blame?

Mark a registered Democrat who perhaps drank to much tonight