Apparently screws are a meat additive now?

Last night I went with my family to Cheeseburger in Paradise on Southport Road (4670 Southport Crossings Drive, Indianapolis IN 46237, Phone: 317-883-4386, Fax: 317-883-4086) because my 3 year old really liked it the first time we went with my parents a month or two ago.  Last time they served up the best Mushroom & Swiss burger that I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot) so of course there was no argument from me.

So we got our food, ate our diner and everything was great.  I wasn’t terribly hungry so I cut my sandwich in half (left side above) and boxed the rest up to have for lunch on Saturday (today).

So around lunch time today (Saturday) I headed to the refrigerator to heat up my leftover sandwich, my 4 year old’s left over mini-burger (right side above) and my fries.  As I took a bite of my sandwich I immediately felt something hard in my mouth and thought that it might be gristle.  As I cleaned off the meat around it I suddenly realized that it was not gristle, but instead something metal.  I spit it out of my mouth immediately and was floored to see that it was some sort of small screw (next to the mushroom above).

Then I called the restaurant to talk to a manager who took my information and was going to get in touch with his supervisor and get back with me.  This is where we are now.

As I’ve thought about this more and more over the past hour I am getting more and more angry about this.  While I didn’t get hurt (hopefully there’s nothing on the screw or it was sterilized by the heat) what if this had been in one of my children’s sandwiches?  While my 3 and 4 year old would hopefully spit it out, I’m not sure that my 1 year old would.  And it’s just redicilious to have to worry about this when going out to eat.  I know that accidents happen, but this is downright insane.  Am I wrong?

Anyway, we’ll see what response I get back from Cheeseburger in Paradise.  In the meantime I’d suggest taking a metal detector with you when you go out to eat.

• I turned 30 this year.  I’m losing more hair and going gray at the same time.
• In April 2008 my wife and I lost a child (stillborn).
  • Yes, that sucks…you’re expecting a child and instead you end up planing a funeral and trying to explain things to the little ones that you already have.
  • Are we “OK”?  Yes and no.  No, if by OK you mean back to “normal”.  Normal has been redefined.  (While not always as drastic, I’d say that normal is constantly being redefined anyway.)  Yes, if by OK you mean are we pressing on.
  • Related to OK, yes, we’re coping and no, we’re not “over it” (I doubt that will ever happen as long as we have a “sound” mind).  I’d say that this is the first time that the concept of “grieving” has “clicked”…don’t get me wrong, I’ve been very sad at the loss of my loved ones in the past, but I have never felt the deep down emotions that have went along with this.  It’s another one of those life experiences that you can’t understand until you have been there yourself.
  • No, there’s not really anything that you can say to us that would really lend comfort.  BUT, just being “there” and not acting like we have some sort of disease or “elephant” is appreciated.  (Seriously, some people avoid you and others give you a look that gives you an idea of what they’re thinking but wanting to avoid.)
  • Yes, we’re willing to talk about it (to some extent anyway), but it probably won’t be something we bring up in normal conversation.  Yes, it may upset us at times, but please know that it’s not you.
  • Please don’t be alarmed when you hear us talk about it or have reminders around the house.
• We went to The Smokies in May and then surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World for close to a two week vacation.
• The kids are getting big…and very funny.
• We’ve became “members” of family things…The Indianapolis Zoo, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Eagle Creek Park.
• Business is doing great.  I have to thank everyone for their support over the past two years.  Some of you may have been thinking I was nuts, but at least you kept that to yourself or to where I couldn’t hear (not that I would have listened anyway since that has been my goal for as long as I can remember).

Pulling and Jekyll and Hyde, the work side of life is doing great.  Business is booming, which is truly a blessing.  But there are times that my personal life makes it difficult to concentrate.  Life (and work) goes on with or without you, that is clear.  Luckily I have excellent help and understanding clients.

So that brings me to another milestone which is exciting.  July 1st marked the second anniversary of me being technically “unemployed” (for whatever reason self-employed equals unemployed…something to do with taxes which I’ll leave to my accountant).  To say that I’m happy to be able to say that I’ve “made it” would also be an understatement…I’m ecstatic.  So that is why I’m a bit emotionally conflicted at the moment.

While cleaning out the garage the other day I ran across my list of life goals from high school and the major items on the list has been checked off…graduate high school, graduate college, get married, have children and run my own business.  The only items left are to learn to water ski and grow old.  I’m working on the later.  We’ll see about the water skiing (snow skiing was a bad idea).  So I think it’s about time to create a new list of goals for the remainder of my life.  That’ll be good to think about what the future may hold.

(CNN) — The sharp sound of firecrackers and the wails of grieving parents echoed Tuesday morning aboveJuyuan Middle School, where hundreds of students are still trapped 24 hours after a major earthquake in central China.

The firecrackers, a tradition to ward off evil spirits, sounded each time a child’s body was found, a reporter at the scene said.

“We heard firecrackers at regular intervals of about 5, 10 minutes,” said Jamil Anderlini, a reporter for the Financial Times.

Don’t get me wrong. This earthquake is tragic. The lives lost are tragic. Every culture has their own traditions and that is cool. But from the mindset of an American who has recently lost a child, I swear, if firecrackers were a reminder of my child’s death, I’d probably never light another one again and I’d probably be tempted to leave the States for the summer and never go to a good amusement or theme park again in order to avoid the large displays that seem to be everywhere during the summer.

It’s not a matter of wanting to forget. You can’t. But that constant summertime reminder in America would be quite a weight to bear, so I’m thankful that’s not the case. Watching pregnant women and those with newborns walk by is hard enough at times.

While I may lean Republican if only given two choices, I’m not a party loyalist and have voted all across the board…sometimes neither option is good and having a third (or fourth or fifth) party is great. Sure, some will argue that you’re “throwing away” your vote, but I say that’s b.s. since at least I made an effort to vote unlike the apathetic people who don’t exercise the right so many have died to defend. Don’t get me started…if you don’t vote, don’t open your mouth to complain about our representatives or “the system”. Better yet, pack up your bags and move to some politically oppressed foreign land for a while to see how you like that.

Anyway, to today…

Here in Indiana you have to declare Democrat or Republican for primaries. For most of the state the only races that really mattered were Democratic. So guess what? An estimated 80% of voters in a traditionally Republican state declared Democratic.

For my area, that got us a trifecta of Democratic opponents for the fall…President (which hasn’t happened in my lifetime), Governor (many Democrats AND Republicans can’t stand our current Governor, myself included) and Congressman (or woman).

For President it seems that around here most Republicans would rather see Hillary win for at least one of three reasons. 1) She has a better chance of losing to McCain. 2) The other guy talks but doesn’t really say anything. 3) For some reason the thought of the other guy running the country seems downright scary and just asking for trouble.

Honestly, when it comes to the fall elections I’m not sure I could vote for either of those three. And there’s one candidate that there’s no way in the world I’d vote for. At this point I’m just hoping that the Democratic Party and Republican Party ditch all three candidates and run a joint Al Gore/Dan Quayle campaign. Can you imagine how much fun those four years would be? I mean come one, wouldn’t it be nice to find out that those two invented democracy? I guarantee that CSPAN would be the highest rated television station four years running. If we can’t pull that ticket off, Tony Dungy might get my vote as a write-in…in all honesty I’d vote for Tony if he were to ever run.

For the Indiana Governor’s race, I’ll be voting for someone other than the Republican incumbent. The man cut funding for my old job (sure, that turned out great for me and drove home the fact that no job is “secure”, but it still irritated me a bit at the time and put a lot of other people out of work too) and sold one of our roads (he’ll say it’s a “lease”…a lease that will be around beyond my lifetime and probably my kids’ lifetimes). All of the other dumb moves he’s made don’t even need to be considered for me personally. He’s not my man.

For our congressman, well, that’s a tough nut to crack and I have never voted for the person who holds that office. But I keep voting, so maybe one day.

Anyway, there was actually a candidate called “Hippie Joe” who’s a neo-Nazi bartender who was running for the Democratic nod. Seriously, this guy had to sneak in (for a second time) somehow. My guess is that he’s too radical even for the third parties and snuck in as a Democrat. Our district has a huge population of black voters, so it’s no wonder I never even heard of this guy before looking at the ballot (I grabbed the Republican one two years ago)…man, that’d go over well and I’d love to see that debate…the (barely) incumbent Muslim, a few Christians and the neo-Nazi discussing their thoughts on the war in Iraq and terrorism. That might get ugly in a hurry.  [Just to clarify, I wish there wasn't a neo-Nazi running at all for people to accidentally vote for and wish there wasn't such a group in existence...but the oddness of it strikes me as, well, odd.]

So there are my voting rants for the day. I’m not a fan of political arguments and find them pointless since the issues are key and I find the idea of only two “major” parties silly, but feel free to flame away.

* Thank you Andrew Jackson! For those of you who don’t know, “the now-famous Democratic donkey was first associated with Democrat Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign. His opponents called him a jackass (a donkey), and Jackson decided to use the image of the strong-willed animal on his campaign posters.” – FactMonster, Wikipedia and many more

Anyway, I’m getting excited about the track opening up and am looking forward to the Indy 500 and festivities. The month of May is quite exciting around here. And I’m praying that we avoid any tragedy ourselves here…that’s been plenty of that through the years.

Also, let me note that this volume comes into existence due to extremely somber and heartbreaking circumstances. My wife and I lost and laid to rest our fourth child in the past week and a half. I am not ready to publicly share much more than that at this time, but as you read my blog from this point forward that knowledge will help make some things I’ll say make more sense.

That said, here’s the breakdown of my five and a half years of musings…

Volume 1: October 10th, 2002 – August 5th, 2006

• 578 Posts.
• Written after college during my first (and only) “real world” job.
• The last month of which was written after I was laid off.
• The births of my first two children occurred during in this period.
• My Age: 24-28.
• This volume has been archived and made private.

Volume 2: August 7th, 2006 – April 5th, 2008

• 214 Posts.
• Written during the period when Watershed Studio became my full-time job.
• Many new projects came into being during this period.
• The birth of my third child occurred during in this period.
• The birth and death of my fourth child occurred in this period.
• My Age: 28-30.
• This volume has been incorporated into Never Picture Perfect, at least for the time being.

Volume 3: April 12th, 2008 -

• This is where we are today.
• The tone will probably be slightly different as I make my way through dealing with the loss of my son. Don’t be surprised if I’m silent where I once was vocal. My perspective on life and what really matters in the grand scheme of things is changing…which of course will lead to similar, but different, musings.
• My Age: 30- .