Day Of Twisters

Sadly Syfy has gone completely batty, today they have no less than THREE tornado movies. Ice Twisters followed up by Alien Tornado, and then the stellar sounding Space Twister! Yeah...what happened to Japanese giant robot movies? At least I enjoy those...a lot actually. Yes I do have the Ultraman boxed set. Yes I do have a Godzilla boxed set and have followed that up with a couple of newer Godzilla movies (NOT the US versions thankfully) but the man in a rubber suit movies destroying tenth scale cities. Heck you can even watch Johnny Sokko and his Robot on Hulu for free! I watched that as a kid in Missouri and we only had three channels! If I had the money and studio space I'd make one of those movies! At least they'd be entertaining! Well to me anyway. So what do I do for a case of bad movies on Syfy? Easy, I let them know I don't watch this type of junk and change the channel until Ghost Hunters comes on Wednesday night.

Taking The Step Out

I've never been a fan of using the term "step" when referring to a parent that has taken on the task of raising children. Yeah there are bad step parents (If not Disney wouldn't have made such a fortune) but there can also be bioparents that are just as bad if not more so. Now that I'm a father for real and the step has been taken out I really don't feel that much different but I just know that it's real, make sense? I would do my best to protect the girls no matter what, ask Thing 1 about a couple of talks I've had with her former boyfriends. I'm a protective person by nature, add daughters to the mix and look out! I see idiots all the time with kids they don't deserve, it's really pretty special to be a parent now and to take care of what their mother entrusted me with.

The Adoption

Today is the big day. At nine thirty this morning I'll become a father for the first time, a real father. My wife has shared the best thing she has with me, her daughters. Her beautiful, intelligent, talented daughters. I'm grateful for my wife and I'm grateful for the girls, my daughters.

4

4
It was well into the next day when we first heard the noises. A shuffling, scratching thudding noise in the hallway. The radio batteries died a few hours before and the silence of the apartment was loud other than the slight drumming rain that persisted into its fifth day.

We were missing the reports of the floods now and all of the havoc many feet of water was causing. Other reports of people out in the rain during rescue efforts were starting to get sick. Those were interesting but then due to the dead batteries they stopped along with our only line of information to the outside world.

 The sounds in the hall kept up to the point of needing someone to check it out. Sam and I did rock, paper, scissors to see who investigated the hall. I lost, I'm not sure Sam would have been able to open the door anyway, but I was. Barely. Getting up I knocked over the beer can pyramid and found my way to the door in the hazy dark.

 I opened the door to see a couple of National Guard uniforms with bright reflecting vests. I felt better but they really didn't look well. "What's up?" I got a reply of "Aaarrrrggggmmmmm!" in a moaning cadence. "Aaaarrrrggggmmmmm!" not being a word I was familiar with I closed the door. And locked it.

1, 2, 3

1
It wasn't the the rain that woke me up, I guess it was the loud thunder clap. The scientist talking heads said this would happen once the satellite failed to reach the International Space Station. Shouldn't it have been burned to a crisp on reentry? Or fried by the ionosphere, troposphere, or magnetosphere, some sphere that protects us from our own hubris? Weather satellite? Really?

We'll never know what was on that thing for sure but I can see the effects of it pouring down the gutters. "A chance of a light rainstorm, just like a spring storm!" Right, "It isn't wise to mess with Mother Nature!" isn't that the old Chiffon commercial motto? Guess the only thing to do right now is roll over and go back to sleep.

2
 Three days of this downpour has even the lying scientists worried now. The worry has etched itself all over their sleepless expressions. The news channel stopped taking commercial breaks yesterday evening to run wall to wall weather coverage. New Orleans is underwater, mudslides have destroyed half of California, New York's sewer systems are backing up onto the streets. Florida's coasts are blurring with the ocean while Texas is flooding with great gusto.

3
What I wouldn't give for an airboat. My cell phone plays the ominous Imperial March tune that signals me that my friend Sam is calling. Good guy, a bit jumpy but good.

 "Hola" I answer. "It's the end of the world!" greets me from the other end. "On Channel 19 they are talking about our electric plant having three feet of water inside if this keeps up another day. The diesel powered pumps will run out of fuel and the roads are gone!" his anxiety getting the best of him this time, I gently reminded Sam that it's never happened before and the National Guard was called out. I said they had the right equipment to handle floods and stuff like this.

This seemed to calm him down so I said to come on over if he's scared and we'd ride it out together. He came from the second level apartment up to mine and we hung out on the couch together He opened the door at the same time the lights flickered and then went black. Sam immediately freaked. Whining like a little girl would be a kind description, a complete and total cheerleader that gets hit by a passing bird during prom pictures would be more accurate.

 I pick him up and haul him to the couch and offer him one of, as far as I now know, a beer from the last remaining intact thirty packs that inhabit my refrigerator. I weighed my options carefully before offering but decided if the world was indeed ending as Sam has earlier surmised then I might as well have a beer with him. Since the electricity was now out, for who knows how long, I scrounged up a radio and sent Sam back down to his apartment to find batteries.

 He did and returned, and brought back, as far as I now know, the last remaining six packs of beer in existence. It took us a while trying to find a station to find out what was going on. Nothing like listening to the impending doom around you on a static filled station. We tried the aluminum foil antenna trick, I had Sam hold the antenna while extending his other arm out. There was just a lot of interference in the air so we settled on the only station we could barely hear that allowed us to sit on the couch and drink the slowly warming beer.

Begin Again

Here we are again, the beginning of the week. Welcome Monday! The sooner we get you started then the sooner the week will be over and we can start the weekend again! It was a good weekend. I think we all had a pretty good weekend actually. The Date was happy, Thing 2 was happy with her new violin, and Thing 1 was happy because of prom. So all in all things are pretty good:) Far cry from a few months ago!

Good Saturday

The day started off with waking up after my darling wife knocked it out of the park again singing on the Jazz Stroll! While she and her guitar player accompanist had a different set of songs they were comfortable with they still meshed on a few songs and did a great job! My honey's sultry voice resonated through the Turpin reminding the audience of true cabaret entertainment with smoke filled rooms and jazz speakeasys! A true event! After that I trimmed up a brisket and got it injected and rubbed down. Then I wrapped it all up and put it in the fridge to marinate for about fifteen hours. I put it on at midnight last night and pulled it at six this morning and wrapped it up in foil and it's now resting for lunch. I took Thing 2 to work at eight and we picked her up at one. Then she took her money she was saving (and gifted) for a new violin and purchased a very old fiddle. There was an indoor garage sale with nothing but musical instruments. The owner fixes old violins, guitars, and other string instruments and sells them. He's a very nice man that loves to see young kids have any interest at all in playing! Thing 2 picked up the fiddle from the wall she really liked and he gave her a bow. The rich tones from the two hundred plus year old fiddle resonated throughout the house! It sounded amazingly beautiful! So after she decided on that fiddle the negotiation began on price! This is where her mom and I stood back and let her handle it. Thing 2 laid out her cards right up front and said she had a certain amount, the gentleman countered with twenty five less than she had (which was way less than asking price) and said he would throw in a bow and case for her! Her pick of what he had! He only wanted to be told when she played it so he could come and watch her. So Thing 2 went around and picked up the bow she liked and case and then put it all on the floor and put it together. Then the wonderful gentleman gave her twenty five back and said to buy herself lunch with it! After we got it and her home she played it all afternoon! The sound is incredible, it is rich, full, and vibrant. It's two hundred five years old and was repaired once by a master in nineteen twenty nine I believe. She's thrilled with it and so are we!

Friday!

Well yesterday I took Thing 2 to take her written driver's exam. She passed! I now have another permitted driver that's a teen! I'll start letting her drive short distances with me in the passenger seat. After that we'll probably hit the country roads, every kid should learn on country roads. That's one of the best benefits of living in a rural place, you do have country roads. I don't imagine there being much in New York City as far as unpaved anything so I'm just partial I guess. Last night I worked Third Thursday, something I'll likely do more often because of the imminent departure of Tech Guy and his family from town for greener pastures. It was pretty packed last night. Lots of people wanting to play now. It's grown quite a bit since it first started and has become a mainstay of the local music scene. I'm looking forward to after work, I'm planning on visiting my favorite barber shop and having a trim and possibly a shave. We'll see.

Nice Evening

I took off work early to take Thing 2 to take her permit test. She barely missed passing by two questions! So close! We'll let her study up a few days and try it again. She'll ace it this time! I know she will! Crime Reporter came over last night for supper and all three of us, The Date, Crime Reporter, and I, had a nice conversation for a few hours. We enjoyed cigars in the front yard and just chatted the evening away. I had grilled bratwurst and hot dogs and made shells and cheese for a side. Over half way finished with Bloodstains, it's darn hard to put down but I've wanted to several times. The ramifications of this book are really pretty big if they are true. He would be one of the most prolific killers that is not named Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, or Pol Pot. Holmes was nothing but a predator and everyone was game around him. He walked in a different reality where stalking someone lasted minutes or hours but not much longer than that. Whether they are true or not this evil existed and he is dead, either from execution in the nineteenth century or old age in nineteen sixty. My fantasy baseball team is sitting atop the cigar asylum standings and I took a 10-6 lead last night over my opponent after being tied most of the day at eight each. My hitting isn't very good at all but my pitching is the best in the league. I used my top draft picks on the top pitchers available while everyone else went hitters or sluggers. Today is Thursday, tomorrow is payday. Life is good.

Sausage Breakfast

This morning I got up right after the alarm went off at a quarter til six. I had a craving for link sausage and knew we had some in the fridge so got up, showered and put on my work clothes, and headed into the kitchen. Thing 2 always gets up about fifteen minutes before me so she was getting ready for school. I heated up the small skillet and put in five links to cook crispy brown. That'd be plenty to get a guy going in the morning and get him energy once he got to work! All in all a satisfying morning and now it's time to get the dog outside and get The Date's coffee and start her on the waking up process:)

Deadliest Catch Tonight

One of the best shows going continues tonight as the fleet falls on hard times in the Bearing Sea. With an epic storm, numerous injuries, and general mayhem in line for the fleet this season it'll be a wonder if any of them go back next season. Thing 2 and I did some lawn work last night after her orthodontist appointment. She has a spot all raked out under a tree so we bagged up everything she raked and I put it on the curb. We picked out some flower seeds that will look pretty good where she wants to plant. Nothing unusual to report this morning, all's well this morning! I'm about to make The Date her morning cup of coffee and get her to start waking up. Thing 2 is ready for school, Thing 1 is soundly sleeping away. The cats are running around and will soon start their eight hour naps. The bunny has been fed, and I'm about to put the dog out. The zoo is in good shape!

Nice Sunday

Yesterday was fairly busy for a lazy day. I mowed in the morning, got laundry going, and Thing 2 did the dishes and weeded part of the yard and cleaned up the patio. After that I headed to Beersnob's house for cigars until about seven. Got to hang out with Teehee which is always nice! Had a nice time! Today it's back to work and I believe auditions for Shakespeare in the Park are tonight for Anthony and Cleopatra. It'll be a big cast and comes on the heels of the summer musical which also has a big cast. They really need to separate these two shows for several reasons but mainly it's two big shows and our actor pool isn't that large. Not to mention Shakespeare is a brutal show in the heat of the summer and it's a TON of work. You unpack everything and then pack it back up after the show. I'm done with that show for a while, I've put in my Shakespeare time. Things are going well right now:) Here's to continued success:) As an aside, Bloodstains is pretty disturbing and not for the feint of heart.

Sunday Morning

We survived the night, stormy as it was. It makes for darn good sleeping weather I can tell you! Yeah you might wake up a little bit when the initial thunder and lightning hit but after that you doze back off with something on alert in the back of your mind listening for tornado sirens. Every Oklahoman has that special siren sense. I bought my first pair of Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars Friday, well my first pair since the late seventies and early eighties when Nike came into prominence and kind of took over the shoe world. Yes I had a few pairs when I was a youngster and I just thought, "What the heck, give them another shot at your shoe buying dollar!" So I'm now sporting a pair of black monochrome, high top Chucks. I even went so far as to go to their website and play around with the shoe custom creator for a while. It's pretty fun to build a shoe from scratch and have them send it to you! If it were manufactured in the USA I'd say it'd be the perfect shoe! But then again few things are anymore... Yeah you can make your own custom pair of rubber soled shoes that will announce your presence with canvasy style. I remember wearing them as a kid until the rubber toe separated from the rest of the shoe and the eyelets strung down onto the laces as they gradually wore out. Sure the high tops take a bit longer to lace up and tie but what the heck, it'll make a darn good cigar smoking shoe! I usually only buy one pair of shoes at a time because I wear them out at work and ruin them in under a week. But now I have a work pair and a home pair of shoes. Pretty rare for me actually. The day looks like it'll be warmer and sunny. I didn't see much on the radar coming in yet but I don't doubt that something could at any given moment. We'll see!

H. H. Holmes

On a lark I purchased a book called Bloodstains on Amazon for the Kindle. It is about the great great grandson of Herman Webster Mudgett also known as H. H. Holmes. Holmes was America's first serial killer in the late nineteenth century. His main atrocities were committed during the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

He built was he called The Castle or Murder Castle. Holmes lured victims from the fair there and subdued them in a special room with a chloroform flowing pipe under the bed. After the victim was unconscious and pliable he and his assistants would take the victim to the basement that was equipped with acid vats for body disposal.

Jeff Mudgett was willed two tackle boxes from his unloved and solitary grandfather, Bert. In the bottom of one of the boxes was a hidden compartment that held two old diaries allegedly written by Holmes himself. The writer of the diaries had some pretty wild claims and was seemingly a Forrest Gump of serial killers gliding in and out of some major historical events. While Holmes was supposedly executed in 1896 the author of the diaries lived until 1960. Holmes claimed to have been in London in 1888 and could very well be a main suspect for the infamous Jack the Ripper.

While not finished with the book yet the author is now trying to certify that the diaries were in fact written by H. H. Holmes or were an elaborate hoax. The author was a practicing lawyer and knows what he is doing when it comes to this type of research. It's an engrossing story and one that I'd wager few today are familiar with. For the Kindle price of $2.99 you really can't go wrong.

I'd say this is a companion book to Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City which told the parallel stories of Holmes and Daniel H. Burnham, the architect of the 1893 World's Fair. This is one engrossing story and you'll have a hard time believing it really happened.

If you have a Kindle or are interested in this style of history I'd highly recommend that you pick up Bloodstains. It might give you nightmares as H. H. Holmes was one horrific individual and walking evil.

Friday!

We all made it! Congratulate yourselves for another good week of work so we can have a weekend of play!

Looks like a stormy forecast this weekend though, possibly clearing out by Sunday. Hopefully that is, The Date will be coming back by then and I'd rather her have dry highways and safe weather to drive in!

Not a lot to report really, the new guy at work is getting better. We really don't have a lot of justification to send him back. He's just not what I want which is young and able to work circles around me like I used to do to my current coworkers. I'm the youngest and I'm forty two, two others out of seven are in our forties, everyone else is mid fifties up.

The Date is doing very well with her job! Still loving it! I'm loving it when she comes home and I'm cooking and she tells me what happened during her day! I sat outside last night in a folding chair and she sat on the porch and we talked about our days. It was nice! I'll miss her this weekend when she's gone.

Almost Over!

The weekend is almost upon us! The Date is heading to her dad's house Friday to take care of her dad this weekend and get him stocked up, I really don't have a lot in the way of plans. Thing 2 and I will probably come up with something on our own to do. It'll be rainy so we'll be limited on what we can do.

Maybe a trip to her favorite Asian store in the city and get her stocked up on some stuff. She loves that place! We'll have to look at her work schedule and see what it allows.

Sunday is the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Beersnob and I will likely enjoy a cigar and libation.

Deadliest Catch

It's sad that the Cornelia Marie won't make it this season. The boys weren't able to put the funds together to get it going after a rocky last season. Now Jake and Josh Harris are now working for the Time Bandit and the Northwestern.

The king crab quota has been cut in half this year to preserve the crab grounds for future generations leaving a tough choice for most boats, fish for the king crab anyway and earn half the money or gamble on the no quota and harder to find blue crab that is further up north in harsher seas and weather.

The fleet is split about fifty fifty with the more seasoned captains choosing the fish for king crab except for veteran captain Keith Colburn of the Wizard to go up north and gamble.

So far the first strings on every ship have pulled up poor numbers except for the first two pots for the Northwestern. Good numbers and then they fell off to single digits fast! This is going to be one rough season. The previews showed big waves, hurt men, bad weather, and the horrific words, "Man overboard!"

Looking forward to this season and enjoying every bit of it!

Not A Lot

All is quiet on the western front. I'm awake and alert. The house is quiet, the kitties fed.

Deadliest Catch begins tonight and I'm looking forward to it! I'm mulling over birthday presents for The Date after the trip to see the Thunder Sunday. I'll come up with something really good between now and October for sure! She'll be impressed!

I've just got to hit the right idea and I think I'm on that trail and have had a couple of good ideas already that she would enjoy!

Great Evening!

We went to the Thunder game last night to watch them wallop the Toronto Raptors! They ended a three game losing skid to them at home and now are on their way to Wisconsin to play the Bucks tonight. Then back home Wednesday for the Clippers, one of the better teams in the league.

It was a great time! The Date was a bit freaked out by the height of the seats but got used to it after the game started and was fine after! She enjoyed it and got into the game as well.

Thank you honey so much for such a fun experience:) It was truly a very memorable birthday present! Love you!

Going To Be A Great Day

My honey got us tickets to see The Thunder tonight for my birthday! They are playing the Raptors so it should be a terrific win for them! I'm very much looking forward to see the game tonight, it's going to be so much fun!

Teehee bought me a bottle of Johnnie Walker gold scotch as well, what a great guy! He's just amazing and I can't say too many good things about him! He's a friend, brother, and I consider him family.

The kittens are all fed this morning, The Date is playing a pretty addictive zombie driving game and doing pretty well at it! Thing 2 is upstairs sleeping away and it's Easter Sunday! I believe I'm going to enjoy this glorious morning with a cup of coffee and a morning cigar!

In fact the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, "I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night. I wish to say that I'm not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don't feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God."

He is Risen! Rejoice!

Finished

Yesterday Tech Guy and I started a project to make the theatre look much better. We painted the proscenium of the stage. Wall to wall, ceiling to floor. It was a ton of work and a large undertaking. We weren't able to find a boom lift that was light enough to fit on the stage safely so we had to build scaffolding.

We started on the stage and masked up the curtains above the stage, in fact we masked up the entire opening of the stage. Then other volunteers including The Date and Thing 2, and Art Professor draped plastic from the lights to the floor in front of the stage to prevent over spray on the seats.

We started after work yesterday and finished up around midnight, then started once again this morning at ten and finished up around four. It's been a big project but the theatre looks much better now! The audience will enjoy it much better, and the casts and crew will feel better putting on shows with a better looking stage!

It was tough and frankly we encountered problems with the top layer of scaffolding, it wouldn't fit because of the ceiling. So Tech Guy stood on the top layer with no safety rails while I held a rope and he leaned out and painted the wall beneath the ceiling. It was very dangerous work but he was man enough to step up and handle it! I was positive I wasn't able to do it. I was pretty unnerved this morning in fact when it came time to get the paint on the wall.

All in all though it went well and we got it finished! Job well done!

42

In theory I should be twice as smart as I was at twenty one. However I don't really feel that way, in fact I probably just feel fairly average. In my youth I probably had expected to have been a world weary traveler by now ala George Bailey however like George Bailey I wound up with a wealth of family and friends....and broken plans.

Naturally the trade off isn't even comparable, I'd give up nothing I have now! Not now, not tomorrow, not any day! I've got the best wife you could ask for, the best daughters I could have ever hoped for, the best friends you could ask for, and even the best pets you could hope for.

This is going to be a good year though, I can tell. 42 is the ultimate answer to everything in the universe according to Douglas Adams, so that obviously means my family and I are going to have a great year!!! I also hereby resolve to read the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a trilogy told in five parts, this year. I read the first one years ago and enjoyed it very much! This year I'll put them on my reading list and get all five parts read!

Not to mention when I'm sixty two I'll definitely wish I was forty two once again! So I'd better enjoy it whilst I can! Now my honey has planned a great secret birthday celebration for me and she gets to let the cat out of the bag today! She's been keeping this secret for a few weeks and it's killing her to tell me! Hahaha! I love her so much!

Thursday

Came home last night, mowed most of the lawn, painted the last bathroom cabinet, washed half of the dishes while Thing 2 finished them up, and made a Boboli pizza for supper.

When I was able to chill for a bit I watched a few innings of the Cardinals and the Marlins as they opened up the new Marlins Park stadium. What a gorgeous ballpark!

Tonight it looks like I'll be running tech for a band for Turpin Tunes but it's not the regular night for that so I'm not sure what's happening. Usually it's acoustic guitar players and they'll sing two or three songs each. But that's on the third Thursday of the month so we'll see what I have to do.

Things are going well!

Training A New Guy

Well he isn't new by any means but he's new to our shop. He's got about sixteen years of seniority so he's worked where I've worked for quite a while too. Just in a much different section.

He's not really used to working much though. So I've kept him busy every minute of the day with some pretty physical stuff. And then we do our paper/computer work and everything we've worked on. He's never done that either.

We've got fifteen working days to evaluate him and see if we're going to keep him or not. Right now I lean towards not but I know the next person won't be much better but the next person has already worked in our shop so they wouldn't need the evaluation time.

What I'd like to have hired is a twenty year old that can learn quick, works hard, and is smart. Instead we've got the option of a nearly sixty year old, worn out, and close to retiring or another mid fifty year old that's further away from retiring and can do that job as long as the job is simple.

What's a guy to do?

Finished Ready Player One Again

It was such a good read I read it twice! I've moved on to A Feast for Crows again. I'd gotten about a hundred pages in before I decided to read a different book and that's after I'd read the two giant previous novels A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. Both tipping it at well over a thousand pages.

So it was just time to switch to a different genre for a bit. Now I'm going to read the fourth novel and maybe move on to the fifth which would catch me up in the series and put me alongside the waiting public for the sixth novel. That could be another few years yet as George R. R. Martin is now taking his time with writing.

The next book entitled The Winds of Winter is hopefully well on its way to being finished but we'll see.

Opening Week

Baseball starts this week. While I'm coming back around to liking the sport again I'm not at the point of loving it like I once did before the 1993 strike that wiped out the World Series.

I joined a fantasy baseball league on Cigar Asylum, mainly because it took cigars to enter and my humidor is still overflowing with them. I needed the room. So I sent off nearly twenty cigars for that and as a donation to the troops. The Asylum always supports the troops and depends on the generosity of its members for cigar donations so I am happy to oblige.

Game of Thrones was pretty good last night, picking up with the start of the second novel, Clash of Kings. Eventually five kings claim dominion over their own lands and fight it out while a common threat grows beyond the great wall in the north.

River Monsters was also pretty good last night. The new season started with a tour through America, including Missouri and Oklahoma my former and current home states respectively. Not too shabby!

Busy

Thing 2 and I have painted 95% of the bathroom three different colors. Sadly two of them are too similar, we thought we got different colors but they are too similar sadly. We might have to revisit one of the colors and make it a lot different.

It seems that Keith Olbermann was fired from Current TV. The erudite liberal (of course what liberal doesn't believe they aren't more erudite than your run of the mill conservative?) was fired from his contract by Current management. The notoriously temperamental host had a list of continually mounting grievances against management and Algore and his partner Joel Hyatt.

Olbermann, perpetually at odds with anything resembling management as Quixote was against windmills, has alienated himself from yet another cable network. He's quickly running out of places to work for. You'd think he'd be more careful as he's a true blue liberal and would calm his prima donna self down to get out the liberal message. If anyone is ever going to buy into the liberal message they need the pioneer willing to put up with horrible conditions to stay the course and disregard their own personal discomforts.

However ratings at MSNBC are testament to how well the liberal message travels as well as the colossal failure of Air America. Olbermann has his, he's extremely wealthy and has no need to work again. Not to mention who'd pay for this traveling trainwreck of a host? He couldn't even get along with liberal icon Algore for crying out loud! It'll be interesting to watch.

Game of Thrones begins again this evening! Looking forward to the second book played out on the small screen!

Saturday

No plans, not much to do until Thing 2 gets off of work, and did some grocery shopping. After that we are going to attempt to paint the bathroom. Not sure what colors yet, I'll leave it up to Thing 2.

Over half way through the second reading of Ready Player One, again just as brilliant the first time I read it!

Other than that, not much is going on:) And it's nice!

We Made It!

A rainstorm hit at the right time last night and I slept all night through, I know The Date did as well, we were both exhausted after our workdays. I didn't make much in the way of supper, just grilled some hot dogs and opened a can of Bush's baked beans. Simple but man that's darn effective and filling!

I hear the birds singing outside this morning , welcoming the promise of a new day. It's nice, it'll be a nice day. Jet and Lydia are playing on the couch, they are both black so it's hard to tell anything is going on except you can hear them. The older cats are thinking about nap time after their breakfast and a long hard night of sleeping.

I'm close to half way finished with Ready Player One already. It's just so good that you really find yourself getting lost in it easily. It's interesting to see how Wade Watts deals with instant celebrity after finding the copper key and clearing the first gate. Everyone knows who he is and everyone either wants help or something from him. It's interesting for sure! I'll be finished with it this weekend, easily.

Enjoy your weekend!

Almost Done

Today and tomorrow and the week will be over with. Yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. The morning was pretty quiet actually while the afternoon really took things to a new level of busy!

I suspect today will be fairly busy. That's ok, the day will fly by I hope!

Going to read Ready Player One again over War and Peace. Perhaps in retirement I'll tackle War and Peace again but for now I'm fine knowing I made it as far as I did. Fifty pages of that book is the equivalent of a full adult novel or all of the Twilight books combined.

As March winds down and we head into April I've already mowed like four times. We put down a weed and feed and things just exploded. I was hoping for more of a dead weed look in the yard like after spraying things with Roundup. I guess I don't know how these things work. The guys at work says it burns the weeds by them growing too fast or something along those lines and that they'll go away but not as fast as from a spray.

The Snowball Is Rolling Again

Last night The Date and I got our bills together once again and put them in order and started the snowball once again. With both of us working full time we'll have these hammered out in no time at all! I don't have exact dates figured yet but it won't take long.

I'm by myself from now until the seventeenth at work. Thirteen work days and it'll be hectic! I know the phone will ring off the hook constantly, that's the way it goes when there is one of us to man everything. Just the way it goes. He's earned the leave, it's part of our compensation for working there and you are free to use it whenever you wish.

War and Peace isn't going so well. I am roughly fifty pages in and it's a staggeringly deep novel and possibly too much challenge for me right now. I'm having a hard time concentrating on it, dense Russian literature isn't easy. I will probably have to postpone War and Peace and go with something a bit more fluffier right now. I've got a bajillion classic novels on my Kindle so it'll be easy to choose something a bit easier and then tackle War and Peace in the future. I'll browse my Kindle app today at work and see what I've got on there!

Busy Day

Yesterday was pretty busy despite my coming home six and a half hours early to go to Urgent Care for a sinus infection. I'd had just one too many sinus headaches over the past two weeks and enough was enough. I took the bathroom door off of the hinges and sanded the bottom smooth to shut over the new threshold R installed, got the final adoption papers filed with the lawyer, took Thing 2 to the doctor and got her some medicine for a bronchial infection, checked on a car for her with the bank, and last but certainly most important had lunch with my honey!

That is a rare treat, especially now that we are both full timers but what a treat it was:) How often do you get to set down with your spouse and have lunch? You can talk about your morning, while mine wasn't all that whippy hers was pretty good and made mine feel better!

We ate at BWW, the first time in a long time. We had the lunch specials with boneless wings! A nice combo along with your wife's company:)

Wednesday is when I'll be alone at my shop for nearly two weeks as my coworker is going to two cooking contests. One in Las Vegas and one in Tucson. It'll be a busy couple of weeks but I'm fine with that. He's pretty good and has a good chance to make it into a bigger contest. These are winner advances to the next round contests. He's taught me a lot about smoking and we talk over recipes and cooking techniques quite often. I'm a better griller but he's a better smoker!

Off To Another Workweek

Thanks to a fine meal cooked by Crime Reporter last night I still feel stuffed! We had burgers, baked beans, pasta salad, chips, and red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! All outside under a tree with a noisy bird in it.

That was a good time!

The bathroom is nearly finished, many thanks to R for putting the great new tile down! There are a couple of details left like painting and such. If the neighbor comes through tonight I'll start sanding the upstairs floor. He said his company has a floor sander and would bring it home with no problems. He's a good neighbor!

The Date is now on recovery from the show, she'll have post show blues for a few days but she'll also be able to heal up from lots of bumps and bruises she received from the show. Ankle, knees, elbows, shoulders, and other assorted booboos. I'm glad we got to do the show though, it was a fun one! Set strike went quickly yesterday, taking things apart is much faster than putting them all together! As far as I know the next show will start building their set next weekend. The Date is doing costumes for that show so it'll be a easy transition from the post show blues for her:)

Closing Night

It went well enough, the audience was the smallest of the lot and a bit more subdued than previous shows. With that said they still hit their laugh lines and still had a good time!

A fine show run and a fun show!

I picked up two scrips for Night of the Living Dead last night as well. This is going to be my show this coming October and I'll have auditions this summer so I can shoot the video parts with the actors and get it all edited.

Yes, this is going to be a fine stage directorial debut. The video/live action combination will be a great addition to this show! It's fairly short and is one single act, however this will be an added advantage in that there will be no intermission and once the show starts, we have the audience until it ends! Even if it were longer I'd probably still consider running straight through with no intermission. Horror movies just work better that way and this would be no different in that respect.

I'll put on a memorable show, that I promise!

Last Show

Last night a great audience! They laughed at everything and loved the show! Tonight is the last chance to see Wrong Window!

Awesome day out, bordering on hot and air conditioner weather but I'm sure we'll resist. Starting the search for a car for the soon to be sixteen year old Thing 2. Looking in the VW arena of cars available. Dependable, fairly priced, great mileage, and safe. Sounds like a perfect fit!


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Two Full Weeks!

Today is two full weeks of my honey working her full time dream job! Yesterday she had everything all to herself as her boss was gone for the day. She's really loving the way the show is going and has been really busy.

Tonight is the start of the closing weekend of the show Wrong Window. The comedy Hitchcock spoof that is very good and The Date has a really funny role in it! Well actually all of the roles are funny but I'm biased:)

Tonight, tomorrow night and that's it folks! Get your tickets to the show!

I received a tenth cigar bomb yesterday too! It had, ten premium cigars in it! Top shelf stuff too. I've got a tremendous selection and LOTS of extras to go around. So if any of you are interested in having a cigar, let me know or interested in learning the art of smoking cigars, again let me know and I'll hook you up!

The Ninth Bomb

Yes, one more box of cigars arrived yesterday! The ninth! It contained ten very premium cigars too! A couple are pretty hard to find. Awesome selection and another amazing gift from some generous brothers!

That's one of the amazing things about the cigar community, everyone helps everyone. They love sending boxes to people and the troops with their favorite cigars. They love adding this and that in there and surprising people!

The Cigar Asylum fits in with my natural generous tendencies and I'm considering joining one of their fantasy baseball leagues. I don't watch baseball but my humidor is overflowing and there is a cigar entry fee so it'd be a chance to send off some nice cigars to the troops and get some extra room in my humidor for the two entire boxes of cigars I still have!

I'll probably do it, it's only a five cigar donation for the troops and five for the winner.

All in all I'm really enjoying the cigar hobby and I've literally got more than I can smoke in a year at my slow pace of smoking them!

American Horror Story

Well after it setting on the DVR for months I got around to watching this show the past two nights. It was pretty good, like a long rated R ghost story. It was violent but not as bad as Sons of Anarchy believe it or not.

All in all it was a very well written show, the twists at the end really made it shine but it was solid all the way through. Not for everyone though, not at all.

It's Wednesday and by all accounts should be a pretty nice day out. Our inspection at work has gone well, I've had two over the shoulder inspections so far. They literally stand by you and watch you work. I passed without any problems or discrepancies. Pretty good for someone that's been there nearly twenty years!

I mean I should know how to do this stuff with my eyes closed, well I do. A lot of things I'm not very good at, the list is numerous but the things I do know how to do, I'm pretty darn good at!

Rolling Through The Week

It's Tuesday and we've got an inspection underway. It's a major inspection and there's a lot riding on it from our and the company's best interest. So far we are doing just fine but again it's just underway.

I received four more boxes of cigars yesterday, I'm not kidding. One box had two full boxes of cigars in it! It's been crazy! I'm totally speechless! I guess it means you can practically live in an online community as well. The Cigar Asylum town is a pretty nice place to hang out!

There's a lot of very cool and generous cigar smokers there and they are all willing to help a guy out! They send constant care packages to the troops via donations and funds out of their own pockets, they "bomb" unsuspecting people such as myself just because they can. They are fast to help and slow to anger, who could ask for a better group of people?

Rainy Day

This morning I got up, showered, put a roast and veggies in the crock pot, let the dog out, fed the herd of pets, and I'm making coffee while I'm blogging! The Things are on spring break so I'm not taking Thing 2 too school this morning. I'll kind of miss it for a week, it's nice to get up at the same time and have bonding moments while we are getting coffee in the mornings.

The radar shows it's going to rain or sprinkle at least most of the day. Fine by me, we need it. We have no show or rehearsal tonight so we won't have much to do this evening but chill out and rest! It'll be nice!

We'll get home at roughly the same time, by then the roast will be done, and we'll just be able to enjoy each other's company for the evening! Something we've haven't had an abundance of the past three years, evening time when families are traditionally together after work.

Last week was pretty nice but we also had tech week to go to every evening along with a show on Friday and Saturday. This week we really don't have anything until Thursday to do! Talk about nice!

House Hunting

We decided we'd take in a couple of open houses today. The house we were mainly interested in was sold before the open house even opened. The other two were similar to stepping back into the late sixties. Pink tile and all of that. All in all it was a bit disappointing.

It was a cool day, we didn't do a whole lot. The evening is being spent watching Frozen Planet on Discovery! Love these wildlife shows!

The show last night went well other than a couple of distracting distractions in the audience. A couple of loud elderly ladies in the front row couldn't help but telling each other and the cast about how much they disliked the show. Then the dreaded cell phone user who didn't turn their phone off before the show.

But the cast was on regardless and tech went well:)

It appears as if we'll have quite a storm headed our way and should be here in a couple of hours. Love sleeping in the rainy evenings! This was a good weekend:)

Slice Of Heaven

Opening night was great, the audience was so into the show! They laughed at everything! There were times when there weren't even laugh lines and they chuckled! It was very very good! The gathering after the show was a lot of fun as well! We just hung out at Pan's and had snacky food.

The actors were ON, everything flowed, the show ran great! I'm proud of my Honey and the rest of the cast!

The Date went and sang Karaoke after with a couple of the cast mates and R. Thing 2 had to go to work early this morning so I took her home and hit the hay! It was a long day but a darn good day!

The Date's first week of work went far better than expected, she's really loving her job! She's learning the radio terminology and the products they offer. She's getting her new responsibilities down and she's going to fit right in! She absolutely loves her new job! She's always been a spectacular idea person however now she actually gets paid to implement those ideas! How cool is that?!

Now for the least of what good happened this past week, I posted on Cigar Asylum, my online message board go to site for everything cigars, about wanting to use my last Walmart paycheck to fill up my humidor! Well one of the veteran posters decided to send me a box of cigars and told me to keep my last check. Well all of a sudden a few others get on board and Friday I wind up with four boxes of cigars! FOUR BOXES!

Around ninety cigars headed my way from four different brothers on the board! Not only that but Icehog3 (who got the ball rolling) said he was pretty sure it wasn't finished yet! How generous these guys are huh? That's why I love the cigar community, they are all about sharing what they enjoy with others, it lends itself nicely to my nature as I love to share what I enjoy with others as well.

Good Lord above my humidor is full and I'm heading over to Beersnob's later on to share my new found bounty with him. He helped me with my cigar smoking activities through the rough times and I'm going to return the favor and stock up his humidor today!

This morning I sat out in the yard, watched the sunrise and enjoyed a Rockey Patel robusto to welcome the day!

Opening Night

If you haven't gotten your tickets for Wrong Window tonight or for any of the showings then I urge you to do so! It's a fantastic show and simply hilarious! There are so many Hitchcock references it should be a drinking game!

I'm glad things worked out the way they did and I quit Walmart when I did. Doing tech for this show and my honey is a fun treat. She has made it through a week of tech rehearsals, her first week of work, and survived Daylight Saving Time, along with the help of a lot of coffee.

I'm thirteen and three on probably my best bracket. My other bracket though is fourteen and two. We'll see what today's games hold! I'm enjoying the heck out of the March Madness app! The streaming audio has been really good and smooth! It's pretty amazing, there's practically no buffering at all! Not to shabby for a free app!

So get to the show tonight and treat yourself, it's been a fun show and you'll enjoy the heck out of it!

The Madness

One of my favorite sporting events of the year starts today! In fact it might be my second favorite. I like fantasy sports first, probably March Madness second, Super Bowl third (mainly because I enjoy fantasy sports more than the actual games anymore) and the two NASCAR races at Bristol.

Everything else is watchable but mainly if I'm in the mood. I'm all for the sports surviving in the sports world though, I just need to be in the mood to watch. Today I've got two brackets going in the work pool, five dollars a bracket and it pays three places. I've won the whole thing once, last time Duke won the championship! I believe I tied for second one time as well.

So today you get to follow all of the first round games, I can do it all on my iPhone. Got the March Madness app and it'll give me live game audio, video if I paid 3.99 for that option but over 3G it'll be worthless, and push updates on scores, close games, buzzer beaters, and of course upsets! Not too shabby for a free app!

Let the madness begin!

Tech Going Well

We lined out the fireworks effects last night and have all of the lighting and sound effects pretty close. I have to tweak a couple more and that should lock them up for the show. The actors are ready for an audience, they want to get the laughs and know when to pause everything. They are right on and will pitch perfect opening night!

My honey loves her job and is trying to hire two new people to sell ads. She works with Ten now, the former manager of the defunct and dearly departed Oklahoma Storm and also fellow fantasy football owner and competitor. Ten usually puts together a strong team and is one of the teams you really dread to play because somehow they always score a ton of points. But as I've blogged about him before, he's a great guy and fellow conservative and we have enjoyed the occasional political discussion!

It's practically summer out now. Temperatures are in the eighties and I'm starting to believe the easy winter we had is an indication of a harsh summer. Last year was blistering hot but the winter before that was very rough as well.

So now we're going to kick this day off and get things started!

Great First Day At Work

My love had a fantastic first day! She loves her new job! She has her own office and she gets to do what she loves to do! She's going to be super amazing in this job and have a good time doing it!

Tech rehearsal went good and bad. Good because of the actors, they had their lines down and did a great job. Bad because we are still having to retool the fireworks effects and it's just got working as well as we'd like.

We are going to try another technique tonight and see if that works better. Hopefully it'll suffice! We'll see!

Big Day!

I'm all excited that my honey is going to her first day of work! I hope she's pleasantly SURPRISED and it turns into a CHOCOLATY good day! It's going to be her dream job and even though we've got the start of tech week tonight and it's a traditionally busy week. It's going to be a good week and that's going to start today!

Congratulations to my baby, I'm proud of you, I love you, and I'm so happy for you!
You're going to do great today!

The Concert

Was really good last night. Cell signal was horrible though. I wrote my blog standing in line and posted it but it didn't make it up!

Heart sounded really good! For Nancy and Ann Wilson, 57 and 61 respectively, they did a great job! The crowd was full up and it was standing room in the back. they did nearly two hours! A ton of their famous songs, including the Swiffer song! Ann was drinking from a mug, hot tea or coffee probably but after one song she did take a shot on stage near the drummer:) got to keep that voice tuned up!

The sound was really good but not overpoweringly loud or distorted. It was a good evening!



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In Line For

Heart!
We had a really good set call this morning. Put some polish on the set, got the light cues lined out hopefully. We'll know for sure tomorrow night. A few things here and there to get set for tech week!

So to chill out from set call we decided to take in a concert! Heart is playing at an Indian casino north of Newkirk near the state line. They've been getting good acts through there lately. Up coming shows are George Thoroughgood, Boston, Willie Nelson, New Edition, Shinedown, and others.

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night with your love!
The gates are about to open!


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Great Reharsal

This show still has a week left in rehearsals and it's practically ready for the stage now, tech not withstanding. No one got too lost and everyone was having a good time on stage. That's the mark of a good show, when the actors can have fun with the show and with each other then you know you're going to put on a fun show!

When you dread going to rehearsals, it's a job, and you aren't having any fun at all with the show then you know it just isn't going to be that good despite the show material itself.

All in all I'm glad I have this fun show to work on as my first show back in over half a year!

I'm Back

It's great to be back up in the tech booth for a show! Watching my honey on stage is a thrill not many get to witness but I'm one of the lucky few! To be able to see your wife on stage and doing such a good job while having fun is priceless!

I'm glad everything worked out right so I was able to do this show with her! For a while I felt like I would never be able to get back into the booth again, at least for a while longer. Well everything DID work out, although unexpectedly but it happened.

This is one funny show too, I was chuckling up in the booth at most of the lines. I've trained myself not to laugh as it is distracting to the patrons below. We learned long ago they can hear everything we say up there! No kidding, that's a long way up too but they can! Regardless it's funny!

This will be one of those shows that won't get old too fast. I've worked shows where after the first night of tech you are bored with it, that makes for a long run. This one will still be good on closing night. I can tell:)

Good job honey, you are great up there! I'm blessed to be able to watch you the next three weeks on stage!

Doing Good

The warmer weather is having a great effect on my mood. Yeah it's windy as all get out but you get that here. It's just a natural fact that we get tornadoes and wind. However this year the tornadoes are hitting east of us from Alabama north to Indiana. It makes me wonder what we will wind up with this season.

Tomorrow and towards the weekend we'll be having a high chance of slow moving soaker rain. That'll be nice as we are still drought ridden in many places. I put down lots of weed and feed on our yard over the weekend so that'll help kick that off and get it going.

I'm starting to come down after my high of quitting Walmart now. Yesterday was one week and that's plenty of time to stop being giddy, now I'm just thrilled that I get to start tech rehearsal tonight with The Date and Thing 2. Next week is tech week but we are going to get things started a bit earlier as they need light adjustments to get things rehearsed correctly.

Easy enough and I'm glad I get to hang out with my family in the evenings for this:) Sometimes the little things mean the most!

Tuesday's Here

Work was actually really good yesterday! It's a LOT easier going from work to home rather than from work to work. And before you tell me, "this is another whiny two job blog, I'm not reading!" I really don't know what this blog is about yet but even if it was it's my blog and I reserve the right to post anything:)

I came home after work and I have energy now. I did the dishes, made some pulled pork sandwiches for myself for supper, and watched a little TV. I watched a documentary on the Military channel about an Able Archer wargame that good place in 1983 that nearly brought us to nuclear war with the old Soviet Union. It was a simulated attack from Russia on us and our response.

Back then leaders didn't talk much at all, they allowed the spies to do the talking for them. The paranoid Soviets were positive that we were using this exercise to perform an actual attack on them. Their spies reported that there were no preparations and yet they had their fingers, literally, on the launch button. Three hundred missiles were poised and waiting for the code, submarines were in place, underground silos were opened, and the bombers were in the air.

The fallout of this wargame was that President Reagan decided that if we were going to have missiles aimed at a country then we should talk to them. Those talks eventually brought the USSR to its knees and it fell apart as we all know.

From the brink of nuclear annihilation to a country primed for freedom. Well with new President for life Putin in office who knows what will happen now but the people aren't happy he's there. Sometimes the KGB just won't go away.

Cabaret Performance

For those of you that don't have Facebook and read my blog anyway I'd like to show you my wife's cabaret performance! Piano Genius was on fire that night! They both put on a set of Ray Charles, Etta James, Otis Redding and others I don't know! It's a long set, nearly forty five minutes but if you like the blues you'll enjoy this!

One week from today my honey starts her new job! She was going to start today but her new boss said come on in the following Monday. Thing 1 has some doctor appointments this week to follow up from her hospital stay so it's going to work for the best this way.

She's been so excited all weekend, myself as well. We'll finally get to be that family that comes home at roughly the same time and can spend the evenings together! That's for the first time since before we were married. A real normal family because our times haven't meshed before. She's worked a lot of night jobs or had class while everyone knows about the last seven months of what I've done since I've hit that over the head a bajillion times here!

It's going to be a bright (bright) bright (bright) sunshiny day!

And For The Good Times

So today I've decided it's going to be the first smoke of 2012 for the Big Green Egg!

Two, giant pork shoulders or Boston Butt roasts. They will sit, unmolested in the Egg for hours, absorbing a delicious mixture of hickory and maple smoke! The connective tissue breaking down slowly over time to leave gloriously flavored meat!

A porky, smoky, slice of heaven pulled and chopped into tiny pieces and slathered with sauce and love on a bun! Thus today I'm babysitting my ceramic smoker outside, enjoying the warm breezes and wafts of pork flavored smoke!

With God above as my witness today is a good day!


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Ok, To Sum Up This Week

In one single word would be FABINCREDIBOUSTIC!

First it started off like any other week, on a Monday. I don't mind Mondays, they are good days actually. You can never ever have a week without it starting off with a Monday. That's fine, a rose by any other name would smell like Friday, or something like that.

Walmart was Walmart. No biggie, it was busy but they had left a guy off of the schedule so we were short handed. They say it was a scheduling mistake but the guy who wasn't scheduled decided it was time for a week long, non paid vacation anyway. Completely understandable since he had only been working less than two months and this was his first job in two and a half years. Not sure how he went as long as he did without a vacation! Poor guy.

Back to the story, short handed in produce. Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled days off for Burgie (with a J sound) and that left me, by myself for the remainder of my schedule. So for the rest of how that night went you can refer back to Tuesday night's blog.

I've literally been giddy ever since that moment!

So Wednesday morning rolls around and The Date had a job interview, she called me and was excited about it. We talked and it would be a good job but not a great job due to the money. But a great job due to the work and how fun it'd be. So we were genuinely excited for the prospect and potential!

Thursday rolls around and R comes in from out of town for cabaret on Friday night and to decompress a bit! Always great hosting him! The Date turns in her resume to a local radio station that's looking for a sales and marketing director. They literally call her back in two and a half hours after that to ask her to interview the next morning, Friday morning.

She is giddy excited all night and the next morning! Along with cabaret that night it's a good day anyway and we were excited about that evening! So she interviews at ten thirty that morning, eleven rolls around and I text her to call me when she gets finished. Then eleven forty five rolls around and she calls!

THEY HIRED HER ON THE SPOT! Her dream job! She coordinates events and sales now! Incredible job and all of a sudden all of the hard work and bad breaks we've had over the past three years just kind of faded away! She looked at me last night and said she felt like she was dreaming!

Well we woke up this morning and she was still hired and still had her dream job! We are so excited about this, it's going to be an amazing opportunity for her and us!

Cabaret went amazingly well, Piano Genius and my baby put on one heck of a set! They were nonstop great! Hot, sultry, and very good, note perfect and killed the audience last night! They were on fire!

Oh and as the sprinkles on the already massive sized cake of goodness we had yesterday, we also got our tax return:) God is good and His blessings poured out on us yesterday!

Even Better Day!

Last night after work I got to pick up Thing 2 from orchestra rehearsal and then we came home to grab some food. The Date was at rehearsal for cabaret and Wrong Window so we had an evening to get some things caught up that have fallen behind since I was working all the time.

So we headed to Atwoods and got some gardening and lawn care supplies. Oh, and some oddball cokes. Thing 2 got some orange cream, I got a strawberry crush and some butterscotch root beer. All in glass bottles!

I can say this as well and it helped contribute to the incredible mood of the night, Walmart paid up! So after Atwoods we travel to the mall and Thing 2 gets a couple of pairs of footwear. Some dress boots and some heels for cabaret tonight. I drop in at Hastings and pick up Hank 3's Ghost to a Ghost (Very spooky, ghostly, gothic album) on sale! It's either a five star or one star album, just depends on you. There's not a lot of middle ground with him as I've blogged before. While I'm doing this Thing 2 is getting a dress at Ross for tonight. She found a great one!

Then we head home for the evening with all of our supplies and footwear. The Date arrives back home soon with some incredible news, another job interview this morning!!! My great night has gotten better again! I had a hard time wiping the grin off of my face all day and especially in the evening!

So I wake up this morning and I'm still happy! Tomorrow will be the start of my first weekend off since August! Yes, in nearly seven months I'll finally have a full weekend! I've been miserable so long with the two job thing I really didn't realize it after a while. I had no idea how bad I really felt, how angry I had gotten.

I knew I was worn out and constantly tired. Now I feel like I could run a marathon on my mood alone!

Still Happy

Yesterday I felt like a prisoner with his first day of freedom after being released from jail. I was giddy all day long. This morning I'm a bit upset as my Walmart check didn't get deposited. This was for the two weeks prior to this week. It was worked, I got my deposit numbers texted to me, and now no money!

I'm going to be calling someone today and I'm getting paid.

With that one aside, yesterday was a great day for all involved! The Date had a great day and obviously so did I! I called the produce section and asked to talk to Pam, the department manager. She was always nice and I wanted to tell her I had quit as she probably didn't know.

Well turns out the lady that works 4 am to 1 pm was the only one there, everyone else had called in! That meant that after she went home at 1 NO ONE was going to be there until 4 am again this morning! I can only imagine how mad the managers were with ChristinA about her temper. I could only hope they put her in that section to do the work I would have done:) Likely fantasy but still a pleasant thought.

Back To The Theatre

Barely an hour after quitting Walmart I already had tech work at the theatre for the upcoming show Wrong Window that my gloriously gorgeous wife is costarring in! This is my first show since 1776 last year! Now that's a long time!

ChristinA, the manager that was the catalyst for my quitting last night probably isn't a bad person. She's probably just a very unhappy person and takes it out on the associates around her. I'd like to say I didn't resort to personal attacks on her, her obvious problems, or anything about her. Her attitude however is deplorable. She's mean, angry, and walks with an air of superiority.

She didn't know the situation and yet jumped to the conclusion that someone had just left trash to dump. A very inaccurate assumption on her part and couple that with her horrible attitude and not to mention the sheer gall it takes to jump down someone's throat the moment they show up to do their job and if there were any justice in the world SHE would be out of a job not me.

That's not the way the world works though.

My quality of life has dramatically been raised due to ChristinA though. I'm now home in the evenings and as it happens I'll be able to spend more time with my family:) The show is a start and I'm happy to be involved and thrilled to have been asked! I now have weekends free again, the first time since last August. No more sixty six hour weeks. The money was nice but you know something, it's not everything and we'll get by regardless!

So...I Kind Of Quit Walmart

I guess the last straw came tonight. Here's what happened.

I get there early and clock in. 4:45 on the dot! I get into the produce back room, take care of the organics, take care of the cardboard, and do some stocking.

About six I decide to take out the trash because it's over flowing since I'm usually the one that takes it out.

The Walmart managers decreed that every two hours from seven A.M. on they will be there to unlock the compactor so everyone can dump their trash. I know this and left the trash on a cart knowing they will call me at seven to dump the trash as I know no one else will do it for me.

So the call comes over the intercom that they are there and it's open. I start heading back and arrive to the strains of Christina's whiny voice reminding me that there's a compactor schedule. I reply I know there's a schedule and proceed to dump the trash. Keep in mind it's heavy, sixty or seventy pounds a bag and there's four of them.

I admit to being a bit grumpy however she started on me and I snapped back at her. She says don't snap at her. I'm only doing what I'm supposed to do, dumping the trash no one else will dump. She says we need to go to the office to talk about it. I say I'd love to, and then it starts.

The frustration starts to flow, I tell them I was left again by myself another night because they left Nate off of the schedule. I was holding things down again. And she says I'm not going to talk to her that way.

1. I wasn't out of line.

2. Again she jumped on me first with a very nasty attitude while not knowing or asking why I did what I did.

She again said we need to talk in the office, I said that we didn't. I tossed my badge at her feet and my box cutter on the floor and left.

I feel like an oppressive weight has lifted from me:) I'm done, even if the huge cow like manager got on her chubby knees and apologized herself.

Goodbye Walmart. We've been together since August and I feel our time has come to part ways:)






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Judgment Day

Michigan is a make or break state for Mitt Romney. Arizona is about as conservative as our state is and they should dislike Romney but would they go for Santorum or Paul? It will bring the final front runners into focus and probably be Newt's Waterloo. He should go the way of fallen contenders after today but is going to stick around for Super Tuesday on March sixth anyway.

For the first time Ron Paul has leapt in front of Obama in a national poll and would beat him 43% to 41% but the poll is within the margin of error. Paul, the conservative/libertarian even picks up disenfranchised liberals dissatisfied with Obama and his handling of...well everything!

Our country needs attention right now. We're broke, we're mired in financial disarray, and I still feel that our economic woes aren't over with yet. The next administration will have a lot of work to do. Hopefully a willing and conservative congress, united on common grounds behind him, and we'll start to see a lot of progress as we get out of these Carter-like years an onto bigger and better!

Keep watch tonight, if Romney takes Michigan then he could wrap this up soon, if Santorum does then it'll be a longer fight for sure.

One More Time

Here we go for another week! The Date is nearly off book right now from Wrong Window! They still have a month of rehearsals left! She and Piano Genius have also been practicing very hard for Cabaret this coming week, they sound incredible!!!

Don't miss this show, you'll be disappointed if you do! If the blues is your thing, you'll enjoy this very much!!! It's going to be great and I'll make it this time too as I'm off Thursday and Friday!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How Walmart Lost My Optimism

I'm really not liking a lot of our Walmart customers. Me, the optimist who always believes in a better humanity, a better tomorrow. That things will always get better than they are now.

A few months of working retail and seeing how people treat each other and naturally you as a worker will change that point of view. My main pet peeve is that they will take something from the store, most likely frozen, and just leave it where ever they feel like, to thaw and ruin.

They'll get huge carts full of groceries and just leave them on purpose somewhere. Last week there were two large carts packed full...just left between produce and meat. This happens every week!

Last night I almost got ran over by a manic nine year old that his oblivious mother, and I use that term lightly, let push the cart. Naturally he pushed it as fast as he could making people down the action aisle dodge him! I wanted to thump the kid on his head and resisted the urge to knock him the F out! I know that's bad but I did resist, however that doesn't change the fact that I had that thought and urge.

If I knew how to work the intercom I'd get on there and say something like, "Will the clueless person who left X in the produce section to thaw/rot/or generally tick me off, please report back to produce so you can be humiliated in front of the other clueless shoppers please!"

Which would be immediately followed by a meeting in one of the manager's offices, in which they would likely secretly thank me for doing what they've been wanting to do for years!

It wasn't but a few short weeks ago I was literally frazzled, my brain's circuits were fried. I came home and went immediately to bed and stayed there in the dark. The Date would ask me a question and I had a hard time answering. There were so many people in our section it was like Six Flags in our area!

I will recover my optimism once again but for now it's in a trunk, packed up in the back of my head.

She's Home!

We got Thing 1 back home yesterday to rest in her own bed! She's resting up and getting ready for a handful of doctor appointment followups in the next couple of weeks.

She's doing well and feeling better! Thank you all for your prayers!

I stopped off yesterday after work and got a haircut and straight razor shave at Blue Jay's. I really enjoy that place, it's a bit of a throwback place where men can hang out. He usually has beer in the refrigerator next to the barber chairs that you can help yourself to, even on the base haircuts he uses a straight razor to do detail work and a hot towel.

The straight razor shave, once a mainstay of the barber shop has seemingly faded away over the years. I don't grow much of a beard over the course of a week however he told me the experience really wasn't so much about the shave but the relaxation that comes along with the shave. I believe that! It was nice!

It's a great experience and I'd recommend it for all of my men friends out there!

Good Interview

Thing 1 is still in the hospital. They are going to do a scope sometime today and see what else is wrong. She is still in pain. That's a tough virus.

The director's interview went really well. I feel confident they liked my ideas for the show and are probably going to put it on the schedule for this October. I think we came up with enough alternatives to a drop down screen and projector to make it a viable show.

It'll be a fun fun show to do!

Maybe Today

Thing 1 could possibly come home today from the hospital! The let her back on solid foods and hopefully she'll get over the nausea part. She's had a rough couple of evenings but we are hoping the virus is passing now.

I've got a director's interview tonight at the Theatre. I've submitted Night of the Living Dead as the Halloween show. I wanted to incorporate video into the production as in filming the opening cemetery sequence and opening with that and then the basement and closing sequences where the zombies are rounded up and shot.

It's a bit ambitious but someone has to break down those barriers. If the tech side can't be ironed out then I said I would resubmit another season when it can be done the way I see it.

I'm off this evening and I'm glad! I need this break badly now. It's been tougher on me lately. My coworkers at Walmart have decided to play musical call ins lately and I'm seemingly the only one that comes to work when scheduled to. Last night I actually had a coworker but he got a reprimand on his call ins.

I guess the difference in me and them is that I'm willing to do what it takes to support my family and one of them doesn't particularly care if he keeps a job or not.

Rolling Along

Thing 2 has given herself quite the short haircut, she looks very Joan Jett-like at the moment. She wanted her natural color to come back in faster.

Thing 1 is still in the hospital and they are still thinking it's a virus of some sort. Still no solid foods but they are keeping her for observation and doing blood work until they know for sure.

It's my Walmart Friday, naturally one of my dwindling coworkers called in last night and left me alone to do everything. Meh, I guess it's no big deal in any case. It's a matter of priorities as Teehee and I discussed last night. He stopped in for groceries and we had a nice chat for a bit. It was nice too, he made me feel pretty good! A rarity for me recently as life seems to have me and my family on the kicking tee for a while now.

We'll survive, we'll always survive.

Random Notes

Well the initial diagnosis of Thing 1's kidney stones proved false. They now don't know what is causing her pain. After an ultrasound, and X-ray they came up empty handed on any kidney stone. They should have something figured out today we hope. The Date is worn to a frazzle. She's slept by her side the past couple of nights, rarely leaving her. Any thoughts and prayers headed to us would be greatly appreciated.

Thing 2 and I have carried on and are holding down the fort. I'm glad that we were off yesterday! That was a big help in getting things prepared for the week and I did get a little rest yesterday before heading to work.

I finished the Hunger Games trilogy. It might be for young adults but the content is definitely more horror adult. There are some grisly deaths going on there and some scenes of horror. I'm now embarking on War and Peace and I'm going to make a run at that novel. I've read it's really good after the first hundred pages and it's a still a struggle up to four hundred. We'll see. I'll do my best.

I had a nice chat with my Northern Brother yesterday and he was telling me he remembered how he enjoyed our food when we had a restaurant. As well he should, he worked there quite a bit and did deliveries from time to time when we moved it to this town and made pizzas. Those were fun high school days!

He asked if I was ever going to open up a restaurant. I said I'd love to and have even talked to The Date about what the ideal restaurant would be like here for us to run. It'd be amazing! I'll keep this cat in the bag for a while though but rest assured I'd be able to cook as much food as I ever wanted to and feed as many as I could. Nothing would go to waste, ever.

Kidney Stones Strike Again

Not me by the way, but we believe Thing 1 has one and is currently in the hospital in order to determine if it is or isn't a stone. She had a CT scan and the appendix was ruled out as a cause. The Date has been by her side all night.

I'm headed up there very soon to see her and see if there is a diagnosis yet. After having over twenty of the things I can tell you what the symptoms are and it looks to me that she has them. We'll see though. She'll have to drink more water from now on for sure.

Thankfully I'm off today as it's President's Day! I'll have to head to Walmart later on but if things aren't settled yet then I'll probably call in. We'll see how it goes.

Bright Sunny Day

It's more like spring right now than winter. The mild winter continues. The rain from yesterday and the day before are long gone. I've still got to go in and do my time at Walmart today though. I'm not thrilled about wasting such a nice day but hopefully tomorrow will be better and we can enjoy that one too.

I've got to tell you all why Thing 2 is a special girl. Something she did yesterday was simply amazing! Her place of employment was going to throw away some bananas that were starting to brown. A whole shopping cart full! So she went to her manager and asked if she could buy them because she couldn't throw out good bananas while there were hungry people out there.

The manager agreed if she could find a box then she could buy one bunch and stuff the box with as many as she could get in there. So for less than two dollars she bought a huge box of bananas and The Date and Thing 2 went in search of a place to give the bananas to.

The YWCA took them and were grateful to have them. They never get fresh donated fruits or vegetables. Then in a moment of sheer brilliance Thing 2 asked her mom, "Why didn't any of the older people there think of this? I'm fifteen."

Yep, brilliance I tell you.
I'm very proud of her, she'll do well in this world.

Hank 3

I've been skirting the fringes of enjoying the music of Hank 3. Country music royalty with a lineage second to none. The son of Hank Williams Jr. and the grandson of Hank Williams Sr.

He takes the mantel of outlaw country from the early days pioneered by Johnny Cash, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and naturally David Allan Coe and brings it into modern times. His music borders on punk mixed with Appalachian mountain music. He's not afraid to mix in zydeco with thrashing guitars or crying steel guitars.

He'll never be heard on broadcast radio. He hates pop country with a passion. His latest effort was released last September and was three separate releases. The main was the double album effort Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town. The first part is his version of country, heart rendering loneliness along with ghostly arrangements and raw country lyrics. The second a mish mash of whatever you have and was allegedly inspired by his living in a haunted house.

It's either a love or hate work but it's undeniable that it's unique and creative. Perhaps one of the most creative recordings to come along in a long time in fact.

If you are a country fan of the older stuff, can't relate to the new class of manufactured music sung by generic acts, or just in the mood for something different Hank 3 is your cure.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Amnesia

Abostang was kind enough to buy me a game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It's on many lists of being one of the scariest games ever created. Why? You can't fight back.

It's dark, atmospheric, the sound is very creepy, and it all evokes the afraid of the dark primal fear inside you. You wake up in a dark mansion and have to find the inner sanctum. Something is following you, sometimes it's invisible and you can only hear it while you are running through water.

Abostang and I were on Skype and played probably about half of the game last night, I got stuck a few times while he had a few of the puzzles figured out by the time I got there. We both explored different areas and it's gone pretty well so far!

Oh, one other thing, if you stand in the dark too long you lose your sanity. However sometimes you need to hide from the thing following you and hiding in the dark is the best way to do that.

For a twenty dollar game it's very reasonable considering the only time I've felt like this while playing a horror game was the first Resident Evil. That had some legitimate scares in there and it was so fun! Amnesia is on par with that.

It's for the PC and any PC today can easily handle this game.

But He's Good

“Safe?" said Mr. Beaver."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” C.S. Lewis

This is a quote from The Chronicles of Narnia. It refers to Aslan the lion who is the king of Narnia as they are talking about if he's safe to be around. Well he's a lion, lions are dangerous. Even tame lions are dangerous but Aslan was good and that made all the difference.

God is good but he's also a terrible God. Sometimes we think of him as a buffet. We'd like some of his goodness, mercy, love, and joy but often overlook his holiness, justice, sovereignty, and wrath. Equally all apart of Him.

I've heard people say they use parts of the Bible and it's more of a guidebook to them. Yes and no. More no actually than anything else. It's a tapestry of God's revelation to us. I've often pondered at how an atheist can look at the grandeur of nature and not see God at work.

You can't have God's mercy while being impenitent at the same time and at that point the guidebook is clear on what happens so tread lightly. He's dangerous.

First Friday

Of the week. Yeah, I'm off from Walmart after tonight. Last night wasn't too bad, busy enough the evening went fast but slow enough to catch my breath from the horrendous weekend and Monday night that really killed me.

I hauled pallets on Valentine's Day from the back and located them for the overnight stockers to put on the shelves. It wasn't hard and a nice change of pace from the produce section.

Work was work actually. I call Walmart, Walmart and my real job work. I miss one day and things pile up. Now that's not a bad thing either because if we get caught up with the very few remaining amount of people we have now then we'll never get anyone again. One of our guys who just came off of shoulder surgery is going back soon to have the same shoulder worked on again. He'll be off another three to six months very soon.

We are used to being short handed though, it's the way we roll. If we had a full crew I don't know if we'd know what to do anymore. It is what it is.

Valentine's Day

The day that really singles out single people and exorcises them right out of society. There's not a day in the year more polarizing than this day. You loyal readers know this as I was single and struggled through this day year after year for most of my adult life.

I finally just called it Tuesday instead of Valentine's day. Just another day on the calendar, another day to look at the bright side of things, and another day to be happy I was alive.

A day is just that, a twenty four hour period in which the sun rises and sets in our sky. We get morning, afternoon, and evening and we get it for another day. We can do what we want with it but I chose not to dwell on the fact I was single and to enjoy everything I could about it otherwise.

So if you see a single person out there today, either include them or steer clear of them but be nice to them either way.

Snow Storm

We had a good four or five inches of snow last night. Schools are closed but I'm headed in to work today and then Walmart after. I'll be leaving pretty soon actually, I need to allow myself some drive time.

The snow is starting to melt a bit already though, there's a warmer southern wind blowing. By tomorrow it should be clear roads and business as usual!

The Broken Streak

Well my blogging streak that went back to 2006 was broken yesterday when I failed to blog. I got busy yesterday morning and after I got home I had forgotten all about it! I had blogged every day since since the streak started, over two thousand consecutive posts.

Well as I've said many times lately it's more like an exercise for my brain than it is to actually keep track of what kind of film I'm working on. Lord knows that died off a long time ago. Projects nowadays just seem to hit the talking about stage and die off a quick death from there.

For the past six months it's been about a lack of time and money. Before that it's been a lack of motivation I guess. I don't know the exact reason for sure. Probably a combination of many things at the wrong times.

Well I guess the top news is the death of Whitney Houston today. I've got a hard time sympathizing with her or her indulgent and likely drug induced death. She had a beautiful voice but she traded that away for drugs instead so I don't really call it a tragedy. I'm sure someone will say she was in pain, well so what. Lots of people are in pain daily, lots of people struggle on a daily basis but don't turn to drugs to numb themselves from it.

Her life turned into a train wreck and she struggled a lot. She had a great gift and threw it away. I felt the same way about Heath Ledger, I don't have a lot of sympathy I guess for self indulgent superstars who can't recognize their own talents and choose to take care of them.

Very Good Day!

So today I decided was going to be a good day! The Date and I decided we'd spend it together and we headed to the city. On the way we treated ourselves to Eischen's chicken for lunch.

With full and satisfied bellies we arrived in the city and headed to the big mall. The Date wanted some flannel pajamas and I needed new socks and boxer briefs. We chatted all the way down, and just enjoyed each others company.

We headed to Macy's and found her perfect paid of pajamas and then over to Penny's and found what I needed. It was just nice to get out of town for a while and enjoy my day off. I can't really qualify with words how much I enjoyed today.

After we found what we came for I talked The Date into having a Chinese reflexology massage. She enjoyed the heck out of it! We then headed our weary selves back home where The Date had to work Dinner Theatre tonight. She'll be super tired when she gets back home after working all evening. She'll probably be asleep before she hits her pillow in fact!

Here's to a great day, may we have a lifetime of them!

I'm Off Tomorrow!

I'm blessed with a job in which I can take every payday off and still earn a little bit of leave. I'm taking tomorrow off for that reason! I'm already off from Walmart so having a real day off from both jobs will help. Once I'm able to quit Walmart then I'll concentrate on building my leave back up again. It won't take long either. In June I'll earn more than I am now and I'll be topped out as far as how much I can get.

That's the hook of this job, they give you more time off each year and more money. Before you know it you've been there forever!

Tonight I'm cooking sweet and sour chicken for Crime Reporter and the family. I do so love to cook, there's something simple in the process. Preparing food for others to share, it's something we all need to do a few times a day. Might as well learn how to do it right:)

Keep an eye towards Syria. Let me tell you the Middle East has always been a powder keg but I am not sure that the public will support another ground incursion. We are war weary right now. We've cleaned up Iraq, Libya, working on Afghanistan, and Iran is always on the horizon. Yes Syria is a bad place and they are killing hundreds of people per day. It needs help but are we really in the position to send that help right now?

Syria is going to explode and that might trigger the strike against Iran that Israel is waiting on. Talk about world war three, that should do it.

Notes From Walmart

These are just collected mental notes I've made since I've worked at Walmart. They are only based on my observations and my own internal dialogue. They may not reflect reality, just what I perceive people are thinking or doing.

As I'm coming in I see the McDonald's manager chain smoking his life away. He has a defeated look in his eyes as if to say, "Everything has lead me to this, what happened?" He lights another cigarette off of his last one and leans against the wall. I'm sure he's calculating how many he has to smoke before his life is sufficiently shortened to his satisfaction.

You can always tell those customers who have a bit of self awareness from those who don't. You can always tell who is lonely and who isn't. You have the people who have no awareness at all and walk around in their own personal world, customized just for them with McNuggets in the top of the shopping cart and throwing things into the basket as slow as possible. They also will clog up the aisles with no regard to those around them. You don't exist to them because they really don't know anyone is around them.

Usually these people are very overweight. A testament to their sloth and arrogance. "I own this space, it's mine and so is your space. My time is my time and so is your time, the time you wait on me to move from your speedy life. So here I shall stand, in your way, causing your frustration and annoyance."

Then you have the lonely, those who spend hours in the store in the evenings as if picking up the energy of those around them will ease their loneliness. Three or four times a week they need their fix of people. They will put on their best clothes and stroll the entirety of the store. Wanting nothing but to feel connected to something, something other than what they have. Spending time with their friends, the strangers around them. Perhaps holding out the hope of a short conversation with someone, anyone. Sometimes I oblige.

There are those who wish to break free and yet trapped by the job. You might throw me into that category on some level but not with that job, my real job. Those who know they can do better but the years have passed them by faster than they thought possible. What happened when they had the chance? Did they decide on security instead of the unknown. The devil you know I suppose. The ones you have at home depending on you, so you do it and do it and do it. You have fun when you can, you keep busy as if that helps fill the space where fulfillment would have fit nicely.

And that brings to a close a few of my mental notes I've collected over my working career at Walmart. They aren't bad nor good. They are just what I see and due mainly to my boredom and overactive imagination the situations I paint for them.

Two More Days

Yesterday when I got to work at Walmart they had a gap in workers and everything was low or out. One of the managers asked if I'd clock in early and get things caught up since we were busy. I did and I got to come home a bit early!

It was a busy night but it went by fairly fast. I've got two more nights and then I'm off two. I'll have completed nine straight days of Walmart labor. This coming February twenty seventh will be six months. Hard to believe really. Six months.

Hadn't really planned on working there six months but that just goes to show how my plans usually work out, they don't. For whatever reason they never do, something comes up and spoils everything every time.

I'll have Thursday and Friday off though and I'll enjoy that a lot! Then it will be back to the normal schedule I was working, five on two off at Walmart. It's not complicated really as in reality it's always seven days a week at one job or the other.

Meh Game

In ten years will anyone remember this rematch from a few years back? Perhaps not, we'll see. A few miscues on either side and one crucial catch kind of dictated how this game went. It really wasn't that exciting or high scoring.

Both teams played a very controlled style of football. It wasn't a thrilling game such as when the Rams played the Titans and the game ended literally on the one yard line. It wasn't high scoring and it wasn't a blow out.

The commercials had some funny spots and I likely missed the best one because I had to work and showed up in the second quarter.

Work was alright. Busy and one of my coworkers got a DDay or Decision Day. That means they are on Walmart probation. It's a shame too, she works very hard and didn't come back from lunch the day before as she got ill after eating. She's had a rough life and still has a sense of humor about things.

I've been trying to get her to go back to school again and learn to be a X-Ray tech or something along those lines. She said that was her dream job and there's no reason she couldn't accomplish that with some hard work. Not as hard as working the rest of your life at Walmart hard though.

Perhaps this is the bit of motivation she'll need to pursue a better life for herself. I hope so! She's a good person!

While I was at work yesterday The Date and R installed a new porch light! Incredible what a difference a small thing like a porch light makes! She's one of a kind, my love, my wife:)

Super Fun

Last night was a lot of fun! Haven't been bowling in forever and it was just enjoyable! I bowled an outstanding thirty nine the first game and came in last. The second game I had three fluke strikes in a row and won. Don't know how but I did it.

Tonight is the Super Bowl party and I plan on making buffalo chicken dip. Very simple recipe and it's awesome for sports parties!

A can of chicken breast.
Buffalo wing sauce (your favorite brand)
Ranch dressing (your favorite brand)
Cream cheese
Shredded cheese (your favorite type)
Spice it up with sliced jalapenos.

Put the chicken in a baking dish and use a fork to separate it into smaller pieces. Add in the sauce, the more you use then the spicier it will be. Use the Ranch, the more you use the creamier it is. Put in the cream cheese and shredded cheese. Put it in the oven at three fifty for twenty minutes and it's done!

There are no correct amounts to this recipe. It's all up to your individual taste!

Super Bowling Saturday

Tonight we are planning on doing something really fun! It's been forever since I've been bowling and I'm sure that The Date will wallop me. She had a bowling class, she knows way more than I do and if I can keep the ball between the gutters I'll be doing good. I'm thinking I can break one hundred!

Piano Genius, R, and Thing 2 will be attempting the ball rolling sport. It should be a lot of fun! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to go!

I've got the dog on my lap, a pulled pork roast in the kitchen that R had a recipe for, and I'm done with my Walmart shift for the day!

Let the ball rolling commence!

Rainy Friday

Yes it's Friday for some, just another workday for me as my first Friday isn't until next Wednesday. Then I'm off from Walmart for two nights.

Anyone noticed lately how Hillary Clinton has taken to wearing Mao suits? She's got her hair combed straight back now, has the little button collar of a dark suit around her throat. Mao would be proud.

Well whatever her reasoning is I'm sure she'll enjoy unemployment this coming November.

I'm into the third book of The Hunger Games and it's alright so far. Second chapter so I can't tell much right now about what's going to happen yet. After this I'm going to attempt War and Peace. Much has been made of the length of that novel however it's really shorter than many novels I've already read. George R. R. Martin's series is longer for example.

Depending on which translation you get it's around twelve hundred to thirteen hundred pages. The Kindle version I got was a tick above twelve hundred. I understand the first hundred pages are a bit tough to get through but it flows after that. We'll see, I'm about three hundred pages from starting it so it'll be soon.

Groundhog Day

Well today is my mother's birthday and it is also groundhog day. When Punxsutawney Phil (yeah I had to look up the spelling) will be held aloft by the mayor or some such office and we'll see if he sees his shadow or not. If he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter if not we get an early spring.

I don't know about you but this entire winter has been pretty much an early spring. Very mild and little in the way of snow or ice. I guess it's making up for last year's very harsh winter. We had it all last year and lots of it!

Regardless of Phil's prognostication this year it's too late for a long cold winter. We might yet see some rain or perhaps even snow but it's too warm to stick around long and it's too late in the winter for spring not to be around the corner.

Not Even Close

Florida decidedly gave the primary to Mitt Romney last night, walloping Newt by double digit numbers. It appears that we'll have a moderate as our nominee this go around. Let's hope that his VP pick is a stalwart conservative and can steer Mr. Romneycare away from such notions in the future.

I'd be thrilled with someone along the lines of Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Tom Coburn, or of course Rand Paul. Ron Paul has stated that this is his last hoorah and he won't run for office again. Any of those conservatives would do well to keep Mr. Romney's feet to the fire and on the straight and narrow. I've no love for Mr. Romney, he's plastic and distant but most of the country has little say in the matter.

His election will likely hinge on that VP pick at this point. He pretty much has the nomination wrapped up and while I've no love for Mr. Gingrich's occasional forays into the liberal realm and even less for his personal life the fact is that he just isn't playing well to the people. Romney's defeats have been narrow, his victories massive.

This is our system and until we come up with a better one we'll continue to get candidates such as Romney to guide the country back to prosperity. God help us.