Picture Of The Day 09/10/10

Me and my Mustang

New Year's Eve Through Midnight

Tails and I continued to watch TV and relax. As it got closer to 8 PM when people would be arriving I started getting the cold appetizers ready. I made a big platter adding the imported dried salami after slicing it and removing the peppercorns. To this I added two rows of crackers and assorted cheese cubes (Swiss, Colby. and Cheddar). I put out bowls of Potato Chips, Peanut M&M's, Mini Tortilla chips shaped like little bowls and spiced with just a hint of Jalapeno, Cheddar Goldfish crackers, a box of assorted truffles, and several things for dipping/spreading including double cream spread, spinach dip, and sour cream with onion soup.

Scooby Snax got nothing on these

Sadly, because of the way he was feeling Mom and Dad could not make it, and my older boy, as expected, was going out with friends. So that left myself, Scott, Danielle, the X, Kevin, Lili, and Lucy.

Once everyone had arrived I had also finished off my quick version of Chili Con Caso dip. I basically take some prepared taco ground beef (several companies sell this in little plastic tubs at the store) and heat it until it is warm. I then add some cubed Velveeta cheese and heat again until the cheese is melted, and then stir. Everyone (except Scott) loved this dip and it went pretty fast. There was a lot of the aforementioned dips and such left over but the Con Caso went pretty fast.

Uncle Kevin is very allergic to certain pet dander, and one of his eyes had swollen up alarmingly! I heard how he had sat for hours in the X's office using her computer. I asked how he could sit in a room with a cage of Guinea pigs being allergic to them....his reply was that he had work that had to be done....I would have moved the pigs or the computer! He looked awful and I felt bad for him as it was plain it was really bothering him during the course of the evening.

Ewwwww! Someone's been around the Guinea Pigs!!

Everyone partook of some snacks and while conversation was going on I showed Kevin the program I use to store and track my DVD collection. He was quite impressed because you can view the collection it a list, or by DVD cover images, you can search for titles by Movie Name, Actors, Genre, and a lot of other criteria, and once you've selected a movie you can also see full color pictures of the front and back covers along with detailed information on the movie, actors, description, and all this is populated for each DVD automatically via the UPS Bar Code of each DVD.

The others came wandering into the living room and we settled in to watch Eagle Eye which I though was excellent! I have been doing pre-installation work pulling old cables for my new AV receiver, which is supposed to arrive today. At the time I thought I had accidentally pulled off one of the wrong wires because the sound from the computer (which I used to play my DVDs from) was terrible. It turned out that while moving things around I had changed the audio processing options of the current receiver by pressing one of the recessed buttons. Funny how it only affected the computer and the the fiber optic TV service. Anyway, we ended up watching the movie off the XBOX 360 using the speakers on the plasma display for sound. Nowhere near as good as the sound from the AV receiver, but, more than usable in a pinch!

Posed pictures of the kids do just not work!!

I was also having some trouble getting used to having an XBOX game controller control the movie. This was the first time I have ever used the XBOX as a DVD player, so a few times I overshot chapters accidentally. I did what I could, such as providing funny squeaky voices as I fast forwarded to get to the right point.

About halfway through this week took and intermission where I started the hot appetizers (four types of mini egg rolls, Jalapeno and cream cheese poppers and breaded chicken and bacon nuggets. For Scott i made a bowl of Ramon, and then one for Lili after I mentioned there was more once she had seen Scott's. I was pleased I had chop sticks to offer her which she prefers.

Lili enjoys a steaming bowl of Ramon Noodles

Once the hot appetizers came out of the oven we filled out plates and returned to the movie which everyone enjoyed the movie and even Scott got sucked in. He had started by sitting on the couch playing his portable Nintendo. I like that about Scott, even if what we are doing in the living room is not to his liking most often he will come and sit with us anyway while he plays his portable game system.

We finished the movie a bit shy of midnight and so then we started going through the various networks looking for something to watch. Some teen heartthrob boy band was playing on all the networks which really rubbed the musical appreciation of our older viewers the wrong way! Unable to find anything to watch in the interim I put it on mute and everyone made fun of the band by providing their own vocals and sound effects.

The X had brought a bottle of sparkling lemonade which my daughter had wanted to we watched the countdown and the ball dropping in Times Square and toasted in the New Year with that particular beverage!

A bit after midnight, every one headed out. Tails and I stayed up until about 1:30 AM before returning.

Here's hoping for a Happy, Safe, Joyous, and Prosperous New Year for us all!

Friday

Not much to say, I had to work so after rising I headed into the office. The temperature was still below freezing, though predicted to rise to the upper 30's. The roads were not too bad but there were some slick spots so I took my time.

Work was like a ghost town! I swear I saw tumbleweeds roll by my cube several times. I am in a division of GE that provides IT services, so, even though I sit in Grand Rapids as I did when we were Smiths, I am not part of the Grand Rapids company which is a different division. So, while they kept the same holiday schedule Smiths had, which gives them off from Christmas to New Years, my division does not have this.

When I pulled into the lower parking lots, there was only one other car, and by the sheer amount of snow and ice on it, it had been there for days, maybe even since that first big storm a week ago.

After a fun day at work, I came home, relaxed with Tails until about 5 PM when mom picked me up and brought me over to the X's. Friday was Kevin and Lili's anniversary; in fact, they were married out here in Grand Rapids on a previous trip!

We were going to our favorite Chinese place, the First Wok for dinner, but, mom told me they were delayed at the mall...not an unusual occurrence where Lili is involved. If ever there was someone born to shop, it is Lili; she loves a good session at the mall.

After confirming via a call phone call that the X and company were on the way, we headed down to the restaurant. We had an excellent dinner, some of us sharing our dishes with each other. It was nice to have all of us together (and Scott's friend Ben...the X said there was a story behind this but I forgot to ask her) and it was a very enjoyable dinner. I was quite impressed by the way Kevin and Lili's daughter was so polite, saying "Please" and "Thank you". I asked Kevin, sotto voce, if she could give my kids some politeness lessons!

Afterward, mom and dad dropped me off at my house as some of them were going to the movies (more than one movie actually, depending on preference, I was so beat I just wanted to relax.

Tails and I watched some TV, and I was in bed around 12:30 AM. All in all, other than work, a relaxing day.

Computer Stuff

My Microsoft Elite Bluetooth keyboard has fallen one too many times off the back of the couch as I had mentioned previously.

So, for a bit over a week now I have been using the dinky little RF keyboard that comes with the HP Z565 system; not something I would want to do on a regular basis!

I also still had that annoying problem where media center would not load on the PC and the screen would just go black. I can't tell you how much time I spent into that one, talking to three vendors, trying my own ways to fix it, and resulting to a lot of the technical forums out on the Internet. No luck!

Yesterday my friend David e-mailed me to tell me about SP1 for Windows Vista and the dramatic performance improvements he had on his laptop after installing it. That made me think about SP3 for Windows XP which has been out for a few weeks. So, yesterday, I decided to install it.

SURPRISE! Yay!! Good News! Media Center now starts up! reinstalling SP2 did NOT fix my media center issues, so I was really, really pleased.

SURPRISE! Arrrgh!! Bad News! Sound was no longer being carried via the HDMI cable back to my AV receiver!!!! After pondering this and checking some things within windows, which thought there was no problem whatsoever, I went under audio properties and chose Test Hardware. I heard some clicks and pops and after the conclusion of the 5 minute test sound was restored and worked through a reboot; being paranoid, I checked media center which still ran!

So, yesterday I thought about going out and getting a keyboard, I have been researching this most of the week. I was just too blue yesterday, and basically took a day off, staying in with Tails, playing games, listening to Music, and watching TV as much as I could get away with.

Today I was feeling a bit better so I headed over to Best Buy and picked up a Logitech wireless Wave keyboard which I am very happy with! One unexpected benefit, the sleep key works both for putting the computer into standby mode, and waking it up! With the Microsoft keyboard there was no way to turn the PC on without walking across the room and hitting the power button. A picture of the wired version of the keyboard is shown below; other than the wireless functionality the keyboards look identical.

A blow for laziness has been struck!

Easter Day 2008

It was a very nice Easter!

I awoke around 8:30AM, puttered on the computer, drank a nutrition shake and a bit later rode the exercise bike. After getting cleaned up I had Scott and Danielle make their Mom Easter cards and at 12:30 we arrived at her house for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Christopher, home from college for the weekend, hid the eggs and we learned a new thing; he has ADHD and forgot where he hid most of the eggs so later in the hunt when they were missing 20 eggs out of the 104 that were hidden he was running around to get them!

There were not real eggs but hollow plastic ones the X fills with assorted candy.

The kids all got Easter baskets, shown below, then we headed back to my house to pickup Scott's wallet.

While Scott ran into the house I backed into the street, and backed back into the driveway so the car was facing the street, the experiences with Scott backing the Mustang out and almost hitting the tree across the street racing through my head!

Scott, wallet in hand, or at least in pocket, came out of the house and we headed off to the X's parents house for Easter dinner with Scott driving. He drove very well, excellent in fact, so much better than the last time we made this journey some months back. I was sure to praise him alone and again in front of everyone.

I( had not been to Mom and Dad's for awhile, so, I caught up on the news and also got to see their remodeled kitchen (most nice!) including new range and microwave. I once again engaged in the mental debate of spending money on a new oven for my house.....sadly no conclusion was reached and the debate will rage on!

Mom was having rouble with her PC again so I spent about four hours working on it, tweaking, tuning, scanning for viruses, and came across a new scam, this program called Macro Virus she has downloaded as a virus scanner said she has 212 infected objects, but, they were bogus; SpyBot defined this program as a scam, it lies about all these viruses to try and get you to pay for the registered version, then it 'cleans' them saying they are all gone afterwards. Slick trick, huh??

Mom's PC's biggest issues seemed to be a combination of too many temporary (over 25,000) files, fragmented hard disk, too many startup programs not needed running, and system restore running. Taking care of all of these too time, and as dinner was being served I left a disk check running and enjoyed a fabulous Roast Beef dinner,with baked potato, fresh asparagus with Hollendaise sauce, Holiday break (like a cinnamon nut loaf almost, salad, gravy, and sauteed mushrooms. I complimented Mom on how good dinner was and mentioned I could not have done better myself! From me, that is high praise! I even mentioned I was not sure I could have done the roast beef as well; i will have to put that to the test one weekend! Dinner over I continue work on the computer, took a break for a thin slice of strawberry cake, and then we headed home around 6:30PM with Scott driving, once again doing most well!

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing with TV, Fate on the computer, with bed around 11 PM.

Tails got canned food at bed time even though she had it before we left for Easter festivities earlier in the day; figured that was her Easter dinner.

The only negative thing off the day was that this year Danielle did not ask to color Easter eggs; I attribute this mostly to all the time she spends on the computer, which I think more rigorous action is required to break her of this habit.

HD-DVD Player

Using Gift Certificates for Amazon that I got for the holidays and a couple I already had I did procure the Toshiba HD-A35 DVD player which arrived yesterday.

It is incredible playing HD-DVD's (I got 10 free!) and on normal DVD's the upconversion does a fantastic job so existing DVD's look great.

I am most pleased with my new toy; I jury rigged it yesterday so I could watch the HD-DVD version of Serenity. my Plasma only has one HDMI input and usually the PC is connected to that. While my Onkyo receiver has two HDMI inputs, I was shy a cable, so I unplugged the PC to connect the HD-DVD and I used the optical audio output on the HD-DVD player fed into the Onkyo. It was incredible! I ordered another HDMI cable which shall arrive today then I can have both switched through the receiver.

Tails was impressed too; below is a picture of her taken during the battle of the Alliance and the Reavers in Serenity:

Curious, Tails also looks like this when I make Beef Jerky! You may click the picture to see a much larger version in a new window.

Christmas Day 2007

From left to right; Chris, Scott, and Danielle Christmas Morning

(Click on any of the pictures for a larger version in a new window)

I banged it in Christmas Day sleeping later than I ever had on Christmas morning! In the past it has always been opening presents around 7:30AM but this year we started a new tradition...we had decided not to meet up at the X's house until 9:30. I arose shortly after 8AM and immediately set to work on the getting the sauce for dinner going. I coated the bottom of a large pit with imported olive oil (thanks Steve!) and sauteed a large chopped white onion, fresh basil and oregano, and some other spices before adding several cans of tomato puree, and 10 small sticks of Hormel pepperoni. I also added some tomato paste thinned with a bit of water to increase the thickness of the sauce.

I released Tails and for her first Christmas feeding gave her some of the Sheba shredded chicken she loves so much. Danielle arose and had her Cinnamon bun I had bought at the bakery of Forest Hills Food in yesterday's mad shopping frenzy, and Scott soon around and had his; I enjoyed a rare treat, a blueberry muffin from the same source. At 9:30 the phone rang, it was the X wondering where we were, we headed out with Scott remarking it was OK for his Mom to be late constantly picking them up and such, but is someone else was a minute late...well!

We arrived at the X's house to find Christopher, up and alert very unexpected as he has been keeping very late hours, often staying up most of the night and getting up an hour or two before work, or after lunch if he has the day off. Jeff, the X's new roommate (used to be her business partner) was there too and the kids began the frenzy of opening the gifts. The X was pleased with what I and the kids had bought her and I received on DVD the Muppet Show Season 2 and The Original Christmas Classics (which includes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town/Frosty the Snowman/Frosty Returns/Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol/Little Drummer Boy/Cricket on the Hearth). From Chris (The first year he had bought anyone Christmas presents without parental help or funding!) I got a Nesco Jerky Xpress, which he and I will use together for the first time. I can't wait!

The present opening festivities over I exchanged hugs with the X and kids, and headed back home; there was much to be done before guests arrived for dinner!

I began by slicing imported Soppresata and Swiss and Cheddar cheeses. These were then placed in zip lock baggies and returned to the fridge but not before Tails and I had each sampled a piece of the cheeses and the Soppresata which was excellent!

I took the ends of the Soppresata and put them in the pot of simmering sauce which was being stirred every 30 minutes. You have to be careful when you make a thick red sauce like I make even on the lowest flames it can burn and stick to the bottom of the pot.

I vacuumed the main level of the house and, after filling out gift tags and affixing bows I placed all the presents for the afternoon under my tiny Christmas trees. I added to 3 gift bags gift cards from my brother and Camille (his wife) plus $25 each from my dad. These were for Christopher, Scott, and Danielle. These were placed by the tree as well; below is a comparison of the tree and the X's house and my house. I let her keep the tree when we were divorced, at the time I just did not give a damn, and realistically there is just no place in my living room that tree could fit without severe room rearranging.

The tree at X's house

The Tree at my house

I got cleaned up and around 12:30 I began putting out snacks; I had mixed nuts, three kinds of crackers, cheddar cheese 'nippy' spread, the sliced Soppresata and cheeses, fresh salsa and tortilla chips, and sliced pepperoni. The X and the kids arrived adding a tray of baklava.

Mom and Dad arrived there was conversation and snacking (the Soppresata was the star of the snacks!) I began the Chicken Parmesan preparation. I made a coating of Italian breadcrumbs, some spices, and some grated Romano cheese. A dip of egg beaters, 2% milk, a dash of olive oil and some dried spices preceded each boneless chicken breasts drag through the dry ingredients. I then sauteed these over a medium high heat for 3 minutes on each side in a blend of two types of olive oil. (again, thanks Steve for last years present of olive oil!) and then these were placed single layer into Pyrex glass baking dishes which were coated with olive oil PAM type spray. They were baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The X saw them going into the oven and asked about sauce and cheese. I explained that this step is necessary to crisp up the coating.

While the chicken baked presents were exchanged and opened. Dad seemed to like the bottle of wine I had selected for him and his Texas Roadhouse gift card. They game me a box of assorted spices and a covered serving dish Mom had decorated herself. Both were awesome! I also got a $25 gift card to GameStop.

I had fiendishly wrapped a preset for the X, it was about 8 layers of wrapping, bubble pack strapped tightly with packing tape, and tissue paper in ribbon, all inside a nicely wrapped box; it took her about 15 minutes to open it and it was most amusing; everyone enjoyed it as she finally arrived at the Texas Roadhouse gift card inside.

I had picked up a six pack of Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale for Jeff but did not want him to know what it was. So, I took a long thin HP box I had, and wrapped bubble pack around the bottles which were laid flat in a single layer with the flattened out six pack placed underneath. I then wrapped it upside down so when unwrapped it would look like a factory sealed HP box. He was faked out but very pleased with the gift! He gave me a Celebration Cinema gift card and popcorn bucket to use with the kids. I was most pleased!

Dinner was soon served and we all enjoyed an excellent meal if I d say so myself! We then watched some TV, breaking into several groups, the boys playing video games, Dad, Jeff, and I watching TV, and Danielle, the X, and Mom playing "Are you smarted than a 5th Grader", which was one of the gifts Danielle had asked for.

Around 5 PM we had dessert which was Chocolate Torte, baklava, and home made chocolate cherry cookies Mom had baked.

After dessert, the X left to run Jeff back to her house, she returned, they finished their game, and every departed around 7:30 PM. Tails and I spent the rest of the evening watching Christmas themed shows off the PVR. I think this was the best Christmas I have had since the divorce. Perhaps someday Christmas will return to it's former place of my favorite holiday.

Christmas Eve 2007

After arriving home from Forest Hills Foods slightly battered and numb from the experience of being in the store with such crowds, I put away the perishable items and relaxed for a few before continuing with house cleaning and last minute gift wrapping. Around 5PM UPS dropped off a preset for the X's mom that we thought was going to be delayed until after Christmas. Murphy's law; I had already spent an hour making a nice certificate sowing a picture and description of what was coming!

The X dropped off the kids shortly after 6PM and departed. The kids and I spent a very enjoyable evening watching Christmas shows and them occasionally playing on the computers. I made them Nestles Chocolate Chip cookies and mixed up the garlic butter for tomorrow's dinner (no, I did not slather any of the cookies with this!)

Danielle wrapped the Christmas present that had just been delivered, and finally all the wrapping was done and the dinning room table which for days had sported has sported scissors, rolls of paper and tape, bows, ribbons, and bubble pack could finally be cleaned up!

We watched holiday episodes of Sabrina The Teenage witch, Monk, and more, finishing up the evening later (around 10:30PM) with A Muppet Christmas Carol which we all love. I bid the kids Merry Christmas at midnight and let them stay up until 1AM. I hope they had pleasant dreams anticipating Christmas morning. It was a most enjoyable evening!

Friday and Wing Heaven

Friday my son Chris and I got together; I picked him up at 2 PM and we braved the holiday crowds and went to the Woodland Mall for Chicken wings at Wing Heaven. This place has some excellent wings and they do a 12 piece sampler where you can choose 4 different sauces. So far I have sampled the following of their 17 sauces:

SCORCHING
HOT BBQ
SWEET RASPBERRY PEPPER
SPICY GARLIC
MANGO HABANERO
CARIBBEAN JERK

After finishing our lunch/dinner we hung at my house watching TV together alternating with us each playing games on our computers. Around 11PM I took him home, this was the longest time we have spent together in one day and I greatly enjoyed having his company.

Scott's Birthday

Thursday was Scott's 16th Birthday. I know from talking to the X that his girlfriend Emma surprised him at the house that morning so she could go to school with him; wish I could have seen his face when that happened!

I left work early to pick him up at school. When he got in the car I surprised him with a pack of Peanut M&M's, his favorite candy snack and wished him a happy birthday. I could tell he was pleased by my small but thoughtful gesture, and we headed over to pickup his sister from her school which is int he same complex as the high school. Scott informed me that he was wearing the shirt and scarf Emma had gotten him, and they were both quite nice. I teased him a bit and asked if he complained to her about getting clothes as a present, as he has all through the years, as most kids do, when this happens.

We headed home, Scott getting first dibs on Tails as it was his birthday! After greeting her we all did a quick cleanup of the messy house common areas and our bedrooms, and then spent some time watching TV including the new Shrek the Halls Christmas special which we all thought was excellent!

A bit before 6 PM we headed out, stopping at the 5/3 drive through so I could stoke up the wallet with some Yankee Dollars, and we arrived at Outback where Scott wanted to have dinner. having just witnessed his brother Chris being embarrassed to no end at Texas Road house on his birthday, he opted for outback. At Texas Roadhouse, they can really embarrass the heck out of you on your birthday like no place I have ever seen.

Mom and Dad were already there and had a table setup and the X along with Chris and Emma arrived. We had an excellent dinner and at the end Scott was presented, quietly, a small bowl of ice cream and topping with a candle in it. Around this time the X's cell phone rang, it was Uncle Kevin (and family) who called t wish Scott a happy birthday. once this had wound down a bit the bill was settled and I headed out with Scott, Emma, and Danielle as Emma had to get back home. The X and Chris headed off to get Scott Chris' birthday present.

Arriving at Emma's house I dropped her off and we headed back to the X's house where I watched Scott open his last present. This was a Legends of Zelda jacket and shirt which Scott had been wanting. He was most pleased with it. After he disappeared to play his Wii I got ready to leave, and, after recalling them, hugging the kids I then headed home. Thus ends post 3 of 3 and below is a picture taken of Scott with Tails. Needless t say, though obviously I am saying it, you can click on this to open a new window with a much larger version.

I know from IM'ing with the X this morning that Scott and his friends had a good elebration having Pizza, snacks, and Cake and were up until at least 1AM. As of noon, they were still sleeping. I was pleased to hear this!

Turkey Part 2

I am just getting around to writing this now; we had a quiet but enjoyable Thanksgiving. I arose around 8:15 AM, later than I have in previous years, but I was only cooking for five; Scott, Danielle, myself, and Mon and Dad (The X's folks). The X elected to go out of town for the holiday and Chris had to work.

I prepared the following meal with Danielle acting as assistant chef ,(a role formerly held by my brother Rick who, along with his wife, my Dad, and Julie his girlfriend were sorely missed!) for much of the preparations.

• A 15 Pound Butterball turkey
• Sausage and cornbread stuffing with onions using chicken broth, seasoned with assorted spices including hot Chili
• Onions roasted in with the Turkey
• Fresh button mushrooms sauteed with a bit of the sausage drippings
• Mashed Potatoes
• Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
• Gelled Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce (one of Scott's favorites)
• Corn Bread
• Biscuits
• Niblets corn with butter sauce
• Gravy made from pan drippings, milk, chicken broth, and assorted spices. Thickened just a bit with a small amount of corn starch. Also a dash of hot chili powder here and fresh ground pepper.

For Dessert (Many thanks to Mom)

• Brownies with icing and half topped with marshmallows (Danielle likes this Scott does not)
• A Mrs. Smith's Blueberry pie
• Vanilla Ice Cream (went great with the slightly warmed pie)

I had the stuffed Turkey in the oven by 9:45AM. All my life I have feasted on Turkeys prepared the way my mom had made them; cooked in a covered roasting pan and over the years I have used the same method. This year I followed the Butterball method and used a 325 degree oven and had the bird uncovered. I had also rubbed the bird down with some of the sausage drippings.

Mom and Dad arrived around 2PM and after some frenzied last minute finishing up of the dinner, such as cornbread, biscuits, gravy and mashed potato creation, we sat down to eat.

Tails instantly became a royal pain jumping up on the table and everyone's laps so she was banished to the basement until we we were nearly done. She then received a bowl of sliced turkey, a dollop of stuffing making sure there was sausage in it, a bit of cranberry sauce, and a few nibblets of corn. She ate it all.

After dinner we watched thanksgiving episodes from Dharma and Greg, Everybody Loves Raymond, and the Cosby Show, plus a thanksgiving episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

We then sat down to dessert which was very good. Mom and Dad left around 7PM. It was a very enjoyable day.

I always like to give thanks for something special on Thanksgiving. This year I give thanks to Mom and Dad, my former in laws, who, are still like family to me. I love them very much and I am so pleased to have them as grandparents for my kids.

Oh! Below is a picture of me getting ready to enjoy a small portion of Turkey, followed by one of Tails enjoying an appetizer before dinner. You may click on either for a much larger version in a new window.

It may look like I am licking the bird but I am not! I swear!!

A note about Tails; when I started this post I had to stop twice to get her out of the kitchen sink, then out of the planter by the stairs. She then found her way on the couch playing and biting at my arm, then onto the back of the of the couch sitting by my head. Purring now she has ended up on my chest where she demands petting, stroking, and scratching under the chin!

The Visit of Rick and Camille

This post chronicles the visit of my brother and his wife from Sunday May 20th through Thursday May 24th, and starts May 18th, the Friday before they arrived:

I spent Friday after work, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday preparing for Rick (my brother) and Camille's (My sister in law....though we think of each other as bother and sister) visit. I did a 'spring cleaning' which on both floors of the house, plus I had to pick up things like towels and bed linens because we have never had overnight guests before other than the kids friends for a sleep over, and I was not going to ask Rick and Camille to sleep in sleeping bags.

Saturday I also took the Mustang for an oil change which ended up costing me $250, because, not only did the oil need changing but the transmission fluid was showing signs of becoming oxidized, and the rear differential needed to be taken care of. For the transmission they flush the transmission and the cooling element in the radiator with several gallons of cleaner and then refill and test for leaks, and for the rear end, since for the mustang it should be done every 3000 miles with regular fluid or 100,000 with synthetic. Since the cost is $40/$80 for each option I chose the synthetic since in the long term in will save me some significant $$$. They also gave me all the extra options for a car wash. Woooo! Spend $250 get $9 in upgrades to a basic car wash!

Anyway, by Sunday afternoon I had the futon made up, plenty of towels and washcloths in the closet, the place cleaned and shined within an inch of it's life, and I was ready to go pick them.

I was however delayed in this when I saw that their flight was delayed. A quick call to my brother's cell confirmed this. I called the rent a car place to inform them I would be late and then ended up heading over there around 5:30PM instead of 4:30 as I had originally planned. I parked the Mustang in short term parking and went in and picked up the key to my rental car. I then sat over in the gate area watching the status on their flight. I waited until they deplaned and, standing around the corner fell into step behind them while they were busy looking for me in front of them. I appeared between the two of them, and we hugged and made greetings. After getting their luggage (and me receiving a cooler with three nice sized Taylor Hams!!!), we headed out to the rental car. We looped around the airport re-entering so I could drop my brother off by the Mustang. We headed out, I had only been in there a couple of minutes so did not have to pay which was a nice surprise. Camille and I chatted on the way and also noticed that my brother appeared to be having way way too much fun driving my car! I could see him drumming on the steering wheel and a big grin on his face. We headed for the grocery store making a quick pit stop at the X's house to say hi to her, Scott, and Danielle, and then picked up a few items and headed back to the house. We had the 50 cent tour of my extensive estate (ha ha ha) and then decided we were all famished.

I had picked up Delmonico steaks that morning so we grilled those after rubbing them with the Montreal steak seasoning and had corn on the cob and a nice salad. We sat around watching TV and chatting, and my brother and I stayed up a bit later (as we did every night) watching M*A*S*H reruns)

Monday morning I arose before my House guests and, knowing we would be out late for graduation, did my first 60 minute work out on the exercise bike. As Chris' graduation is covered in another post I won't detail it here...though I will mention when Scott and Danielle arrived home from school there was much hugging, happiness, etc! We talked watched some TV together and then got ready to head for graduation.

Tuesday after I took Scott and Danielle to school Rick, Camille, and I took a ride to a place called Chic which is a school for hair stylists, etc. Camille has often gone to places like this to get deep discounts on things like facials where they charge you a fraction of the price. Of course one must remember that these are students, so, ANYTHING can happen! :) It was going to take about an hour, so Rick and I parked by a strip mall with an Odd Lots and went in and shopped around. We then walked across the large parking lot, crossed the main road, and checked out Radio Shack where I was looking at HD TV indoor antennas. We then walked up the street and noticed a music store. We went in and Rick picked out some guitar picks for Scott which I bought. Rick had helped Scott tune his guitar using this portable tuner I had bought him. He also wrote down some chording instructions and diagrams for Scott. After that we crossed the road again, this time at the light, and went into Walgreen's where I picked up a small portable fan for $9 (to be used while riding the exercise bike) and a pair of blue blocked sunglasses for me. The day outside was so sunny I was getting a headache. Rick marveled at the effect of the glasses, which, do not some much decrease the amount of light you see (unlike regular sunglasses which darken everything) but filter out the blue annoying spectrum of light. he was most impressed. We drank the soda's Rick had bought for us at Walgreen's and enjoyed each others company. It was SO GREAT having my brother around as we walked and talked of many things. I really have missed him these past two years and I know he felt the same. We would often tell each other "It's great to be here" "It's great to have you here", it was really nice!

We walked back to the car, dropped of the packages and were starting a walk to a health food store we saw in the distance when my cell phone rang. It was Camille, so we went back and got her and headed back. We decided to drive over to the store we had started walking to, only to discover that it, like a number of other store sin this area, had closed. We headed back home, stopping again at Forest Hills Foods for some supplies, and had cold-cut roll ups for lunch. We watched a Quincy while the kid splayed downstairs and then I called Christopher (who was at his mom's house because school ended for him on the 15th) and we headed off to Steak and Shake, with Rick following me in the Mustang. Steak and Shake was good, but the amount of food I could eat there for the calories/carbs I had for dinner was very unsatisfying .vs. the fact I could have made two nice size roll ups at home, but, it was nice being out with Rick, Camille, and the kids. Chris went back to his Mom's house afterwards much to the disappointment of myself and R & C. We all watched a Simpson's and some Scrubs before eventually retiring.

Wednesday I let Scott and Danielle take the day off and we all went to the John Ball Zoo and had a great time. A few pictures are shown below.

Wednesday night the X took us all out to dinner at and her parents attended as well. The kids then headed back over to her house afterwards. I was talking to Danielle who was waiting outside after dinner was over and the adults were talking; her brothers had gone into Gamestop next door and she was all sad looking. I correctly guessed that she was upset because she was going to miss Rick and Camille a lot. The kids went back to their Mom's house afterwards.



Thursday sucked; I had to take Rick and Camille to the airport which was depressing beyond the telling of it! Not to mention, a couple of hours after dropping off the rental car I get a message from Enterprise saying that there was a ding in the rear bumper though I walked all around the car before taking the keys in and saw nothing. Evidently the paperwork I signed waived my rights to dispute any claims of damage discovered after I park it and someone actually gets a chance to go look at it. After dropping them off, and some sad farewells, I headed into the office.

It's Caturday!

It's not Sunday, it's Caturday! Check out the videos HERE. After watching this video make sure you click on the other Caturday videos on the right side of the screen.

Thanks to Barry for sending this link !

As with all videos or referred links, screen yourself before deciding if suitable for sharing with our younger viewers.

Happily Never After

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, the X called and invited me to go see Happily Never After with her, Scott, and Danielle. It was of course great to spend some additional time with them! The movie was OK, but not great. I did like the trailer I had seen, but evidently they used all the good (the only?) scenes to make the trailer, because I was expecting more. It would have been cheaper to wait for the rental, but both Scott and Danielle really liked it. So, for those with kids it's probably worth it from that point of view!

I was happy to hear that the voice of Cinderella was played by the Sarah Michelle Gellar former star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my all-time favorite shows.

Happy Holidays to all!

No matter what your religion is I just want to wish everyone and their families and friends the best during this Holiday Season! A little peace and love could do a lot to cure much if not all that is wrong on the earth! How can you have war with someone you love? How can you let people go hungry? How can you hurt someone???

SO..........HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!! Now, for those that DO celebrate Christmas and are into computers as I am, below is a link to an excellent free 3D Santa game. I ended up playing until after midnight last night!

Santa Ride 2 Game


For those who like screensavers, here are some that I have created over the years that are free

Happy Holidays 2000

Happy Holidays 2001

Happy Holidays 2003

Happy Holidays 2005

Take care everyone!

Smack that Penguin!!

From what I have seen on-line the high score for this Smack the Penguin game is 328. As shown below in my lunch time game, I hit 320. See if you can beat that score! It's fun!