G has made great strides this summer both in the pool and on the bike.  A few weeks back we went down to Lake Erie and took a bike ride along the lake with the G-man riding his own bike!  Way to go big man!  The other night, we decided to hit the trails around home the other night and G wanted to ride his own bike once again… for a while.

C was content to sit in his trailer (which Super Dad naturally pulls) but G insisted when we left the house that he wanted to ride.  We asked if he was sure as we were going to go for quite a while and he insisted that he’d be OK.  As you can imagine, he did great… for about a mile or so until he decided that he was tired.  So… what to do.  The G-man is tired, it’s starting to get late and we’re a mile from home on the golf course.  I didn’t want to leave the bike, so I did what every (stupid) dad would do… picked it up and rode home.

Now I get a good enough workout as it is when I’m pulling the boys.  Between them and the trailer, I’m pulling an additional 100+ lbs not to mention my fat ass.  Trow in the weight of this bike which I’m carrying with one hand and needless to say I was sweating like a pig when I got home.  (It WAS like 90 degrees outside with like a billion % humidity as well).  After all my trials though, I do have to say that it was totally worth it to see G & C in the back having the time of their lives.  Man am I going to miss summer.

Pip, to his credit, appear to be pulling this particular situation off rather well.  Not quite sure how I’d react to a random package grab but I’d hope that I”d handle it with such grace.  Well done sir!

There are currently 3 versions of these stand ups, where Kevin takes questions from the audience and extrapolates his show from there.  The first installment (An Evening With Kevin Smith) came out in 2002, followed by An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder in 2006 and Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith in 2008.  All three installments are absolutely hilarious and cover a wide range of topics from comic books, sex, drugs, movie making and child rearing.  As with Carlin, Smith’s language is definitely not for all audiences.  If profanity offends you, stay the fuck away from this one (sorry… couldn’t resist).

All three of these are absolutely hysterical if you’re a fan of Smith’s body of work.  The first was taken from a series of Q & A sessions done at college campuses in 2002 (Clark University, Cornell University, Indiana University, Kent State University and University of Wyoming if you’re interested).  The second was filmed on location partially at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto and partially at the Criterion Theatre in London.  Finally, the third installment was filmed in Smith’s hometown in Red Bank, New Jersey on his 37th birthday.  It’s also important to know that that these are LONG shows.  All three are on multiple DVDs if you get them from Netflix… just wanted to make you aware in case you were looking for a short show.  That being said, they’re segmented in such a way that if you need to pause and come back you certainly can.

Granted I’m a huge Smith fan, but I simply cannot recommend these highly enough.  There is a supposed 4th installment in the works which I can’t wait for.  Snoogins.

Event:

The opening montage talks about the special guest stars that will be in attendance at the event including Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, etc.  Looking like the WWF is starting to REALLY branch out into “sports entertainment” at this point.  We get a Special Olympian’s rendition of America The Beautiful.  She’s over singing BIG time complete with the waggle in her voice.  I don’t care if she’s “special” – she sucks.

The Allied Powers (Lex Luger and The British Bulldog) defeated The Blu Brothers (Jacob and Eli) (with Uncle Zebekiah)
The Blu twins look like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds.  Great character in a movie… not a great gimmick for a wrestler in my opinion.  Then again, I never was a big Hillbilly Jim fan either so I’m not a big fan of the whole “mountain man” thing.  Luger and Bulldog in charge early allowing Bulldog to show off with a HUGE suplex on one of the twins.  Cause they look alike, the twins pull the whole “change with no tag” spot.  Come on guys… leave that to the Killer Bees.  Hot tag to Luger who hits a lame looking power slam.  He then hits a flying forearm with no mention of the plate in his arm.  Guess that’s only for when he’s a heel.  The twins pull the no-tag switch again so he’s able to kick out of the loaded forearm.  One of the twins go for a pile driver on Luger and Bulldog comes off the top for a sunset flip and the win.  Bulldog and Luger pose after the match with music and lighting.  So so to kick off the show.

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon (with The 1-2-3 Kid) defeated Jeff Jarrett (c) (with The Roadie) by disqualification
We get a promo of Razor and Kid backstage… Christ, these guys have been together forever! Good recap of how JJ won the title which is good cause I had no idea – interference by the Roadie in case you were wondering. Razor is in charge early with JJ playing the heel to perfection. Razor whips JJ into the corner and totally fucks up – he’s working moves that just aren’t there. Hilarious. Razor goes for his finisher and Roadie pulls JJ out to save him. As I watched this I realized that I’ve never been a big fan of “outside interference” matches. Let the guys wrestle… tell the story in the ring. I don’t mind a little bit, but when the crux of the story is outside the ring it gets to be a bit much for my liking. On top of it all, this is a very sloppy match. We then go into a portion of the match where both guys keep hitting moves on the same time and both keep going down (same time punch, etc.). JJ hooks the figure four in the middle of the ring. Razor has JJ up for the Razor’s Edge once again and Roadies comes in to cause a DQ. Cluster fuck after the match with Roadie, Kid and referees. Ehhh..

The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) defeated King Kong Bundy (with Ted DiBiase)
Bundy vs. Taker for the urn??? I’ve never liked that prop even though Taker is my favorite wrestler of all time. Absolutely love the purple outfit that Taker’s in here. For some odd reason we get an American League baseball umpire as the referee in this match. Doing some Wiki searching I realize that baseball was actually on strike during this time (ironically, the strike ended the day of this event). About a minute or so in, Taker walks out and grabs the urn from DiBiase. Ted then calls Kama out to ringside and he grabs it back and takes off… um, OK. He says he’s going to melt it and make a chain out of it. Remember, this is pre-Ho Train Kama/Godfather here so now we know where he got some of his bling. Bundy is in charge with some rest holds until he hits an Avalanche and the Undertaker stands straight up completely no selling it. Big slam on Bundy (was he going to try for a Tombstone?) and Taker adds to the streak.

WWF Tag Team Championship
Owen Hart and Yokozuna (with Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) defeated The Smoking Gunns (c) (Billy and Bart)
Yoko is a surprise as they interview the Gunns. Right off the bat you know they’re gonna lose the titles. Yoko is absolutely HUGE. I’ve always been impressed with the way Yoko moves for such a big man. Pretty typical stuff here with some good double team stuff thrown in by the Gunns. Vince starts to talk about how the Smoking Gunns have been having issues with Men On A Mission. Are we going to see them do a run in? Billy’s playing the face in peril here and finally works for a hot tag to Bart. Gunns go for a double team but Yoko gets a belly to BIG belly on Billy. He then follows that up with the Banzai Drop. Bart breaks up the tag, but Owen gets tagged in and makes the cover for the win and the straps. Outcome was obvious as soon as Yokozuna was announced as the partner.

“I Quit” Match
Bret Hart defeated Bob Backlund
Can someone please tell me why Bob Backlund is in this high profile of a match this late in his career? He’s got the charisma of a folding chair. Piper’s the special guest referee and quite honestly is completely annoying. He grabs the mic every two seconds when someone’s in a hold asking them if they give up. Hart gets a figure four on and is totally in charge early. Both Hart and Backlund do a good job telling the story here as Hart’s working on Backlund’s leg and Backlund’s working on Hart’s arm. I’ll say it again… I know it’s a submission match, but Piper needs to shut the fuck up. Bret whips Bob into the corner and follows him in getting posted on his shoulder. This sets up Backlund to go for his finisher the Cross Face Chicken Wing. Bret reverses the hold and beats Backlund with his own move though in all honesty Backlund never said “I Quit”. More of a “Arggghhshshshdhg” type sound. Good match here that from a historical perspective is a great precursor to the Hart/Austin match at WrestleMania 13.

WWF Championship
Diesel (c) (with Pamela Anderson) defeated Shawn Michaels (with Sid and Jenny McCarthy)
HBK accompanied to the ring by Jenny McCarthy. Wow. Have to say that I absolutely love the HBK mullet here as it’s in full effect. Diesel comes out and the motions to the back. Here comes Pam who’s been missing all evening and was supposed to come out with Shawn. I remember this match specifically because it showed me what a great worker Shawn is with any size opponent. He takes some AMAZING bumps including a huge back body drop. At one point, he’s tossed over the top and lands on a photographer and get legitimately pissed at the guy. Pretty funny to see wrestlers break character like that. Shawn’s great at carrying the big men and it never ceases to amaze me how FAST he is in the ring. Some good stuff with Shawn attacking Diesel outside the ring here. Shawn’s in charge for a good few minutes mid match. Shawn hits the elbow off the top to Diesel’s ribs and follows that up with a sleeper that puts Diesel down for quite a while. Diesel works out and mounts some offense. I know HBK is the “Boy Toy” and all, but must he ALWAYS show his ass? The official is out of position at one point (twisted ankle) and Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music but doesn’t have a ref to get the cover. Shawn goes up to the 2nd rope and Diesel catches him in a sidewalk slam. Diesel hits the Jackknife (though a terrible one) for the win and retains the title. Good match that should have been the main event. Diesel leaves with both Pam and Jenny on his arm. I have absolutely no desire to watch Bam Bam and L.T. at this point.

Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (with Ted DiBiase)
Money Inc. and the All Pro Team are introduced. They star jawing pre-match though we KNOW that there’s no way in hell L.T. is going to lose this match. This was such a bad idea from the get go it’s not even funny. What DID Bam Bam do to deserve this? I’d love to see a celebrity actually lose one of these matches… has that ever happened? In any case… Taylor hits Bam Bam with a HUGE forearm to start the match and follows up with a clothesline over the top. I’ll give him credit – L.T. is really taking it to Bam Bam early on. Bam Bam takes over and we get a bunch of forearms and head butts from both guys. Taylor is just terrible and unfortunately Bam Bam isn’t good enough to carry him (though I’m not sure anyone would have been). Bigelow slaps on a Boston Crab and Taylor works his way out. Bam Bam goes up and hits a splash moonsault off the top. He goes for a cover and rolls off after a 1 count. Apparently he’s “hurt his knee”. Taylor hits a “Jackknife” because apparently he’s been training with Diesel and gets a 2 count. Bam Bam works back into it and manages to hit his patented head butt off the top rope and Taylor kicks out. L.T. gets a 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) wind and hits Bigelow with 2 forearms and the follows that up with a flying forearm off the second rope for the win. After the match L.T. looks like he’s injured himself. Absolutely awful way to end the show.

General Thoughts

• They’re having a ton of technical difficulties throughout the show.  What the hell guys… it’s not like this is your Super Bowl or anything.  Guessing someone lost a job over it.
• Nicholas Turturro is in Pam Anderson’s dressing room with Jenny McCarthy.  DAMN is she hot.
• The “celebrities” of this event are incredibly weak.  We’re getting back stage interviews with L.T.’s All Pro team calling out wrestlers and Bob Backlund playing chess with the kid from Tool Time.  Ouch.
• Bam Bam gives an interview part way through the show saying that he won’t be known as the man who lost to L.T.  Um… yeah you will.  I feel bad for you Bam Bam.  You deserved better.

Early in the afternoon, I was hanging out on the porch talking with my cousin and G was poking around down in the yard near the cooler.  I heard him calling for me so I paused from my conversation and asked him what he wanted to which he responded:

“Hey daddy… do you need another beer?”

My right hand to God, we never practiced.  Now that I think about it, I can’t recall a time in his life where he’s ever gotten me a beer.  That’s my boy… learning well!  Love you G-man!

I dug through my emails from Pip and my files on the hard drive and managed to find them.  I don’t have time to crop and post them all tonight, but I figured I’d give just a little taste of what you can expect once they’ve been posted (will probably be early next week).

As you can see, Pip hooked us up with some SWEET t-shirts for the event and naturally we had our list to help the night along.   Stay tuned!

At the tail end of that post, I’d received a follow up email from Mint thanking me for my message.  A couple of days later, I got this gem:

Thank you for contacting Mint.com.

Please use the directions below to cancel/delete/remove your Mint account:

1. Log in to your Mint account.
2. Go to “Your Profile”.
3. Click the “Settings” option.
4. Scroll down.  At the bottom of the page is a “DELETE YOUR MINT ACCOUNT” option.
5. Click on “YES, delete my Mint Account”.
6. Under the “Confirm your password” box, type in your password then click on “Finish.”
7. You’ll see a confirmation message stating that your account has been deleted and a confirmation email will be sent to you shortly. Just click on “OK”.

Talk about AWESOME.  The whole reason I’m CLOSING my account is cause I can’t LOGIN to my account.  So I’m now getting an (obviously) automated message telling me to login to my account to close it.  That my friends is what they call irony.

Stay tuned.

One such time I looked up and he was on the patio looking like he was going to go in the house.  I figured maybe he had to go to the bathroom so I didn’t think anything of it until I realized that the girls were nowhere in sight.  I looked up again and I see G taking off his shoes and I stopped the mower to ask him what he was up to.

He looked at me the way only a 4 year old can and said, “Dad… I’m just showing the girls my room.”

The kid is a PIMP.  I suppose I could have been pissed that he’s planning on the headed up to his room with the 9 & 7 year old “girls next door” but I was really struggling to keep my Super Dad disciplinarian face on while basking in awe at the balls on this kid.  Well done G-man… love ya!

A few months ago I signed up for Mint and added all of my accounts.  This was a pain in the ass, but I don’t blame Mint for that… it’s the nature of the beast.  Everything was going along swimmingly for a while until about 2 weeks ago.  I went to login one evening to check a balance and got the following message:

“Either your username or password were incorrect.”

Hmm… that’s odd.  I’m PRETTY sure that I entered everything correctly, but I suppose there’s a chance that I fat-fingered my login so I give it another try.  Same response.  Now if you’re like me, you’ve got about 3,000 things in your life that you need to login to ranging from your work computer to your toaster.  Personally, I have about 5-6 username and password combinations that I work with, so I went through all of these in my head continuing to get the same “You’re wrong” response from the site.  Even after all of this, I was giving the site the benefit of the doubt and figured that MAYBE I actually had forgotten my username and password.  Highly unlikely, but technically possible.  So, I used the “forgot your password” feature and received an email immediately from Mint… with absolutely nothing in it.

That’s it… no subject, no body, no instructions, no new password.  How helpful is that???  So finally, I decided that it wasn’t in fact my fault and reported a bug on July 26th.  Here’s the email response that I got:

Thank you so much for your email. We love hearing from you, whether you’re sharing a great testimonial or something we’d better fix. All of us are working really hard to make Mint better for you.

If you’ve asked us for an answer, we will to get back to you as soon as possible.  If we’re not fast enough, please check out our support community at https://wwws.mint.com/support.event .  Other Mint enthusiasts and our own customer service team are posting answers to commonly asked questions.

Also, please do not submit multiple support requests for the same exact issue.  This will slow down our response time to you.  Our response times are currently 18 hours.

All the best,
The Mint Customer Service Team

An obvious form letter, but I appreciated it and went to bed figuring that it’d be fixed shortly.

The next day (July 27th), I received the following “update”:

Thank you for contacting Mint.com.

Our apologies for the inconvenience. We are aware of this issue and we are actively addressing this now. Please be advised that it may take time before issues are fixed, but rest assured, our engineering are continually fixing the product bugs and functions. Sorry for the frustration this has caused.

Thank you,
Clarissa P.
Mint.com

Hey thanks Clarissa… totally appreciate your worthless response.  I especially appreciate you including your time line to get it fixed.  (Essentially akin to “we’ve got no idea when it’s gonna be fixed).

I’d actually forgotten all about this till about 2  nights ago when the wife and I were talking about finances again and I decided to log back into Mint.com.  August 8th, I tried again, and got the EXACT… SAME… MESSAGE.  What the FUCK?!?!?  At this point I’m more than frustrated, so I fired off this email in response to the email that I received from Clarissa above:

Tried to login again this evening 13 days after my initial request.  Still not able to.  Please close my Mint.com account immediately.

Thank you.

You want to know what I got back?

Thank you for contacting Mint.com.

Our engineering team is currently working on it. We’ll inform you once we here from our engineering team and we have the resolution.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you,
Clarissa P.
Mint.com

Awesome. Talk about super customer service. Long story short stay away from Mint.com folks. I ended up going with JustThrive.com and so far, I’m VERY happy with both the interface, site speed and features (all of which I think are better than Mint.)

The first that jumps out is Dark… not much else to say when you’re the dude in the photo LICKING someone else.

But don’t overlook Gookins… the look is priceless and definitely is in the running for being “that guy” in this particular photo.

And you know what’s really cool?  Pip’s wedding is in a few short months.  I’m guessing there’s going to be quite a few of this type of photo floating around.  Can’t wait!