Friday, December 24, 2010

Askmen.com: 12 Days to a Better Man

First Impressions
http://www.askmen.com/


We've all met people that we instantly like and want to get to know more or do business with."
 Askmen.com is doing a series of "How To" articles and informative sections on How to be a better man in various ways. No these instructions don't so much focus on the inner workings of a man and it is more aesthetic and vain in its nature than lessons from the Bible or the Dalai Lama, but its what most people want when it comes to the tools to achieve a desired lifestyle. With Sections like, "The Art of Taking Over a Room" and "Proven Ways to Impress Your Boss"  the articles are strong resources for putting yourself in to position to have a more successful 2011. Enjoy...


That means show up last without being late, and always smile like you just did something mischievous...

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Putting Stock in Experience

I took a recent vow to myself to FORCE my wife and I to enjoy more experiences together. Anyone who knows us knows that we have accumulated our fair share of "stuff".This would.t be  a concern of mine but for decisions to pass on the college experience of leaving the metroplex, the decision to pass on a long and rewarding search to find our first new house instead building so quickly, and our inability to participate in any  impromptu trips. All of these experiences were replaced by nice TV's, clothes etc. Well I had an epiphany! I suddenly realized that those things make for crappy framed pictures and we have none on our walls. So I decided as a way to get our feet wet we would start first with my new hobby of lawn maintenance and landscaping. Scoping Calloway's and Hardware stores for winter flowers and pots we began to get a small education in what we needed and what we need to know about successfully changing our landscaping. Next on my list was a tour of the Dallas Cowboys new stadium. The tour comes with a picture and something we can look back on doing together. That activity is pending as is a free trip we won for letting an EZ Water rep invade my home and hold Allyson and I hostage for over 2 hours (long story). Let's see how this goes because are walls are looking empty and this TV only holds other peoples experiences. I need my own reality reel. To be continued...

Christmas Starts on the Roof



Both Pissed and slightly petrified high a top an 8ft ladder I throw down the strand of lights in my hand, red and clear bulb glass everywhere, doing my best not be what my mother in law calls "being ugly" to my wonderful wife.  That was the scene an hour and a half  into a new Combs tradition, hopefully minus the shattered glass and frustration. In line step with many firsts this year for my wife an I, as new home owners we (more my wife) decided to embark on the tradition of hanging Christmas lights. We have done this previous years on a much smaller and less dangerous scale at our past apartments where scaling the side of the roof was not an option or consideration. But now the opportunity has presented itself and well you guessed it, too late for Halloween I'll playing spider man for Christmas! So the plan was  to do a red and white themed Christmas exterior (my language during the project was colorful enough) that involved me climbing on the roof of our home and meticulously positioning our lights to the satisfaction of my wife's expectations.  This would be slightly less eventful if I didn't HATE heights. How much do I not enjoy heights, Example, I considered the Bobsled and Mini Mine Train at Six Flags so thrilling that it took the "love conquers all" heart tug of my wife's big blue beautiful eyes to even get me to attempt a larger roller coaster at the age of 20! Now its 2010 and here I am 7 years later with The Batman roller coaster, judge Roy Scream, and The Flashback under my belt crawling up the side of my roof. Why? For two reasons, reason number one, I love my wife and want to prove she can count on her man. Number two, I know for a fact a friend and several other neighbors had climbed their roofs, and me hiring someone was not an option as a two scrotum carrying male. So I braved the project with a slow pace warming up to the height of the roof while still accurately installing our lights. I used these new shingle clips as opposed to traditional stapling of the lights which saved me precious inches when installing the lights.Inches from a slip and broke you name the bone. Fast forward to the job  complete with chest and head held high Allyson and I discovered our original mapping out of the lights had been "changed" due to our urgency to finish.  Here's the fun part, we managed to not only position the lights end to not use the PAID FOR AN ADDED OUTLET built into the roof with the house but we had 2 FEMALE ENDS left to connect for power. For those of you who don't know what that means try to plug in both flat ends of an extension chord and tell me what happens. With this new circumstance at hand a refulsal by me to rectify the issue (HELL NO I'M NOT GOING BACK UP THERE) I head to the local hardware store to see if I can make 2 male ends safely relieve me of embarrassment frustration and "being ugly". Well I came to the realization that they don't MAKE adaptors that can achieve what I needed (which means I can't say it happens enough to other people) so I was shown how to make it one. So I successfully and safely made the 2 male ended electric adaptor before my wife got home. Saving me from a safety speech and her cringing looks of distrust and fright but instead received her excited expression when she her eyes saw her perfectly straight illuminated Christmas lit home. That's one more win in the experiences of 2010 category.