TeamCushman

I absolutely despise smoking. How about the folks that exhale their cancerous smoke as they walk into the doors of the restaurant while throwing their cigarette on the ground. Even worse, parents who hold their kid’s hand in the same hand as their cigarette. Moms and Dads … your kid’s cannot choose their parents but you can choose to help them breathe clean air. I Especially despise smoke when I am eating. There is nothing that disgusts me more. Look, I’m all for people’s right to choose and for as little government involvement as possible. Having said that, I also feel that one of the government’s main responsibilities is to protect its citizens. I would just like to take my family out to a place to eat without having to worry about walking through the smoking section or have the ineffective wall of house plants most places use to separate the bar and non-smoking section.

A number of states and/or cities have banned smoking in public places, mostly office buildings. I can’t remember the last time I saw a number of kids running around in office buildings with their parents. Smokers feel that others are showing a sense of malevolence against them, by forcing them to either smoke outside or in designated areas. Once more, their choice to smoke, not mine. Where are the priorities? Kids or Parents (or let me call it like I see it … rather than “parents” I should say … those that are able to buy cigarettes and vote).

Again, nothing against restaurant entrepreneurs, I would’t want to tell them how to run their business. I just feel that they need to decide if they are going to allow smoking or none at all, no more of this middle ground stuff! That way, everyone is happy. Its become too political. Politicians don’t want to piss off voters, so they just dance around the issue, especially in tobacco states. According to the 2004 Zagat Survey, which polled nearly 30,000 New York City restaurant patrons, by a margin of almost 6 to 1, respondents said that they eat out more often now because of the city’s smoke-free policy.

For now, we can only wait and hope that something is going to happen in our state. Meanwhile, we will continue to eat out and hope that the smoke from the cancer sticks will not flow towards us and ruin our meal.

Here are a few of my favorites and why …

Firefox. If you are not using Firefox, then you are so dated. While there are some sites that only work with IE, there is no better browser that it is safer and easier to use. don’t forget all the themes and extensions. I’ll list all my favorite extensions in a future post.

StumbleUpon This is a great way to find sites that interest you. Tell Stumble what you like, click the stumble button and presto … you are there!

Digg This is one of those sites that users can list articles and news from all over the internet.

Facts on Farts ok once you stop laughing, check out these facts. It’s pretty interesting … really!

How Stuff Works Similar to Wikipedia, but just a massive plethora of How To information.

Part of getting my physical this week includes blood work. For this, I went to a special lab today, Saturday morning (since we have a travel soccer game and a 2 hour softball practice, this was the best time), in order to draw blood. The easiest part was giving the blood. My arms are like a drug addicts dream. When someone asks me for directions, I pull out my arms and use my veins as road maps. Now for the hard part … the obligatory peeing in the cup and I do mean … cup. Not the “Urine Sample Container” that it says on the side, but its nothing more than a dixie cup without the word “dixie” on the side. (I am starting to see a pishing theme here!) Some of you may know that, yes, I am a germaphobe. Where this comes into play is when the nurse hands me my cup (did I mention its a dixie) and a magic marker and told me to write my name on the side.

Here’s where I start thinking … how many people have touched the “peeing in the cup PEN!” Don’t they have some type of label maker that can print out my name and stick it on the side? … no. Can the nurse with the surgical gloves write my name on the cup for me? … no.

What I learned about myself is that I just can’t pee on demand. No way, no how. After about 10 minutes of waiting to do my business, the sound of complete silence is interrupted by loud knocking on the door .. “Mr. Cushman, are you ok in there?” I need to say, at this point, that this lab is more like a factory. People come in, people go out … and blood and pee stay. Stay to be examined like me examining a salad and picking off the tomatoes. Since my bladder disregards my orders like my kids on the weekend, I was backing up the waiting line like human cholesterol. So, rather than taking care of business I was humiliated by given a “to-go” cup doggie bag to return to the lab later.

This can only happen to me.

So a few of you have asked where we came up with “Team Cushman”.  I tried to find a video link of the movie it comes from, but its from Jerry Maguire.  And, of course, its the name of our family, so it fits.  Here are some rejected names:

#5 … The Cushman Report

#4 … Your Weekly Cushman

#3 … All Cushman, All the time

#2 …  ESPCN … The Entertainment Sports Cushman Network

#1 … Cushalicious

I personally like the #1 above, but the kids didn’t want me to embarrass them in school!

Here are some headlines from around the internet that are pretty interesting .. .

 Man charged with DUI on the way to his DUI hearing.

Why men don’t lift the toilet seat.

Vacuuming and Gas just don’t mix.