A Valentine's Day Tribute

Chris and Debby Falco

Today's sole post is a Valentine's Day tribute to Debby Falco, the woman I fell in love with and envisioned spending the rest of my life with. A warm and wonderful woman who gave me three fine children, years of fond memories, good times, and loved me...at least for a number of years.

Time heals all wounds they say...to an extent this must be true...last night, for the first time in nearly three years I was able to listen to my favorite song without tears....our song that we danced to at our wedding about 20 years ago. I love that song and it was good to be able to listen to the longer live version...and drift back to that the first dance as man and wife.

So on that note I dedicate today's post and the following song to Debby, my X wife, who I still love. May everyone have someone special in their life to love.

Wonderful Tonight
by Eric Clapton

It's late in the evening; she's wondering what clothes to wear.
She puts on her make-up and brushes her long blond hair.
And then she asks me, "Do I look all right?"
And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight."

We go to a party and everyone turns to see
This beautiful lady that's walking around with me.
And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?"
And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight."

I feel wonderful because I see
The love light in your eyes.
And the wonder of it all
Is that you just don't realize how much I love you.

It's time to go home now and I've got an aching head,
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light,
I say, "My darling, you were wonderful tonight.
Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight."


In spite of the divorce, it is good to have loved and to still love. I think "How empty is a man's heart who has never known true love", though Alfred Lord Tennyson may have said it best. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.'

Violence at the local Mall

I was quite distressed this AM to read a report of a stabbing at the local mall that my family and I shop at on a regular basis. When we moved out here from New Jersey almost 7 years ago, the area was so nice and peaceful than the east coast and so much more family oriented. My X and I were shocked when strangers would greet us! Don't get me wrong, we were not living in a war zone or anything back east, but, area out here was so much nicer. From the friendly people to the family rest rooms and kid play areas in many stores and such you could see that family life was important out here.

Now I see I will need to be looking over my shoulder in the formerly perceived safe shopping area. I mailed the X and to her to be aware, particularly if visiting the mall after dark.

WHAT IS WRONG with people these days????

Rare picture of Eagles and their young

Time for a picture! Mom sent me some awesome pictures that were taken recently near Comox , BC, Canada. No one knows who the photographer was. This is something few people will ever be privileged to see. I have three more, let me know if you want to see them and I'll post one a day.

Click picture for a larger version in a new window

Oh, the major weather we were supposed to see is going to be mostly south of here. Our up to 12 inches has dwindled down to an inch at most. Yay! It was a balmy 14 degrees this AM, today we are not supposed to hit 20, in fact we won't see the 20 mark until the weekend they day. It had hit 26 yesterday but another cold front is moving in. In fact, Today (Tuesday) is the 17th consecutive day with below average temperatures, at least 10 degrees colder though in some cases it is much more than 10.

Last night the kids and I had left over pizza; I picked up Scott from his Mom's on my way home. He was feeling somewhat better. Chris, Scott, and I watched a Scrubs, then Chris, Danielle and I watched Lost while Scott took a snooze in his room. We all then watched Family Guy and The Simpsons from Sunday. Scott was a bit sad as he said his Mom 'yelled' at him when he wanted to stay home from school today; I explained that he was feeling fine last night, playing games and horsing around with his brother and then he did not want to take his cough medicine before bed, so he was up coughing all night. I also reminded him Mom was feeling terrible too and when we do not feel good we sometimes do not react completely correctly. I also reminded him is is out way too much from school! Kids! His Mom is a good Mom...we all raise our voices some days......though I can understand how he feels to a point....when you are sick even someone raising their voice a bit can seem so extreme.

I sent Chris and Scott home around 6 so Scott could get settled in and start on the homework he has missed since last Wednesday. Danielle elected to stay with me and she played on the computer a bit after doing her homework. Then she asked me to make her Hot Chocolate; since we were out of whipped cream I put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it.

I usually use Swiss Miss instant no sugar added mix (except when I make my infamous home made hot chocolate once a year) but I blend it with a hand-held high speed mixer to make it smooth and frothy. It is just never right using a spoon, you always get some little clumps of the mix.....reminds me of the Bill Cosby bit where he is talking about lumps in cream of wheat and how he can't get them down, even if someone put a hundred dollar bill in his hand!

Her Mom picked Danielle up around 7:30; I had Danielle all ready to go so the X did not have to get out of her car. I hope the X starts feeling better; she picked a nasty case of bronchitis down in Florida and she still is not over it. She stopped in a clinic on the way home and went to her regular doctor yesterday. He prescribed more medicines and told her if she was not a bit better today she would need to go get chest x-rays. I shall have to call her later and see how she is feeling!

Right now outside the window it is windy and snowing....I have to take Scott to the Doctor a bit later, I hope the roads are not slippery if I have to go the the pharmacy for prescriptions! The doctor is on the same street I am on, just on the other side of the cross street. That side of the street is all businesses while my area is all residential.

Not much to say other than snow...snow...snow

It was a cold and blah weekend in Grand Rapids, Saturday I picked up Danielle around 11:20AM for her OM meeting, at least this time it was not snowing (much....)

I picked her up at 1PM, we did some quick shopping at Meijer's, then snagged MCD's for lunch, stopped back at the X's house to pick up Scott who had been home sick Thursday and Friday. We headed to my house and the rest of the weekend passed in a fog as I was starting to feel really sick. Danielle had a sore throat, Scott the walrus-like cough, and me all of the above.

Sunday the X and Christopher came over around 12:30 to await pizza (this was after a fevered dash by myself to the ATM down the road for cash) as they had been down at Kettering the college Christopher will be going to in July.

We ate, then everyone except Christopher watched a Scrubs and then the X, Danielle and and I a Medium from last week. They headed out back to the X's house and other than some chores and such I enjoyed being 'one' with couch until bed time.

I called my Dad and talked to him and his long-term girlfriend; they are possibly coming out for Christopher's graduation on May 21s2, that would be awesome! My brother and Sister in law may come too; I can't wait! It would be awesome to see them all again!

While so attached to the couch, I remembered the Sci-Fi channel is rerunning Special Unit 2 on Fridays. This is a show about a unit of the police that deals with supernatural things like gargoyles, werewolves (no vampires, THEY evidently are just a fairy tale!) . It is in the vein of Men In Black, as it is most amusing with some drama throne it. I watched the first three episodes of the DVR last evening along with the Lost Survivors Guide.

The X called this AM to inform me Scott was home again; she said he was fine all afternoon on the PC and horsing around with his brother........he misses way too much school!

Today looking out my office window it is again snowing; we've probably had about an inch since I got in this AM. It is supposed to stop soon, but tomorrow it is supposed to snow all day. Up to 6 inches is predicted, we shall see.......

Cathedral Windows

For those wondering what the view is out my Cathedral Windows, here is a shot looking out from the dining room. Note also the same windows exist in the living room too.

Note this shot is about a year old....the only major difference is there is less snow in this picture but the house is neater a year ago! ;)



Click on the picture to open a larger version in a new window

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!

OK, granted, most of you may not know my brother Rick, but, he's a heck of a guy who I love a great deal, and TODAY IS HIS BIRTHDAY, so I just wanted to post it here.

Oh, in case any of you are wondering why I titled the post "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK" and are wondering why since my brothers name is Rick, well, you might as well ask about Wee Working Willie, Mr. Liquid, Jimmy The Greek, Mr. Funny Shoes, or the fire at the middle school that I was suspected of!

Heck! You might as well ask if we can eat the scorpion..........

I love you Jack! Wish we were together today!

Another fine day in Michigan

It's even warmer today in Michigan! A temperature of 9 degrees awaited me, though, again today we are not expected to get to 20. In fact, my morning e-mail weather forecast this cold weather to last through the end of the month, and possibly through most of March too!

Yikes and EEEEEEKKKK to coin a phrase!

It is snowing lightly outside my office window as I take a lunch break to make this post. The roads this AM are much better, I hope there is not enough snow to ice them up again!

Upon arriving home after work yesterday, exhausted as work is very crazy these days with a new project dumped on us regarding the daylight savings time changes. No work has disappeared and now virtual every computer needs to be patched. That's thousands of computers.....

So, I wanted nothing more than to plunk down and relax and Scott informed me he needed for school a 3 ring binder, binder organizer, sketch pad, plus he had to pick up his USB memory stick at his Mom's house so he could scan some picture as part of this school work.

So, after a quick pass through the e-mail we headed out, got what he needed at OfficeMax, and then stopped into Gamestop to pickup a game for his DS Lite that he wanted.

We headed back to my house by way of his Mom's so he could get his memory stick and his DS Lite. We arrived back to my house where I made sandwiches for Scott and Danielle (Chris has made one for himself while Scott and I were out). Danielle had wanted hot chocolate so I made her that too. Everyone seemed a bit lethargic, so, we settled down on the couches and watched a couple of Monk Episodes from this past Sunday's marathon. By this time Scott was coughing a lot and stating he was not feeling well. The kids headed back to their Mom's house around 8PM. I talked to the X this morning and Scott stayed home from school.

Speaking of kids Danielle got her MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) tests back and was above acceptable in all areas tested! I was most pleased by this news and praised her on her accomplishment!.

Sunny Days

Today it was even warmer when I arose! A full 3 degrees above zero! Whoo who!!!!

As daylight began to cast off the mantle of darkness the Mistress of the Night has enshrouded us with, I was heartened to see the sky was blue and soon the sun was shinning down.

HOWEVER even now, past the noon hour, the temperature is barely 15, the windchill is minus 2 degrees, and we will not see 20 today.

20's are predicted for one day this week, but, then another cold front will be hitting later in the week and more snow could appear!

Driving yesterday home from work was just as slick as the evening before. This morning though I could see some improvement on the roads, though they are still a long way from being safe. The kids have school today, which means they will be at my house and it is Wednesday night so I will have them until 8PM.

We shall see what to do about the feeding.......they are, at the dinner hour, akin to the velociraptors from Jurassic Park...

For some strange reason I fell like grilling, but, I cannot justify using a whole tank of propane just to heat the grill enough to cook some steaks! I am thinking something simple, such as turkey bacon and egg sandwiches, or something inexpensive out.

Munch on Snowy Goodness!

Here are all the pictures I took Saturday February 3, 2007 during the blizzard. Click the picture below to open the entire album of 31 pictures in a new browser window.

February 2007

How cold is it in Michigan?

It's so cold that there have been reports of polar bears breaking into walk-in freezers at various warehouses, in an attempt to warm up!

Seriously though, I know it is colder elsewhere. For example I hear it is 40 below in Minnesota right now! Brrr! The 10 below we hit yesterday was cold enough for me and it is the coldest I have ever been outside! As to places where it is colder.....well, all I can say is, if you are crazy enough to live in an area like that, you must like cold weather and you are probably a member of the Polar Bear Club. The first question on their site's Q & A page sums up how I feel about swimming outside in the ocean or lakes in the dead of winter; "Are you folks nuts?".

Today I was greeted with temperatures far above yesterdays morning temperature of 8 below zero. It was a nice balmy 1 degree above! In spite of the warmer temperature the streets were even worse than yesterday, I found myself sliding more than I had yesterday on the ride to work even driving as slowly and carefully.

I did get to see light pillars this morning! As I turned out of my street and headed towards the first traffic light, I saw what looked like many searchlights trained on the sky. This turned out to be cars that were just below the intersection on a slight upwards angle pointing skyward. Evidently as the local TV station's weatherman's blog educated me, on rare occasions (usually when the temperature is colder than +10F), we get to see light pillars. Columns of light rise upward from a light on the ground. These columns are caused by tiny ice crystals/needles in the air. I had pretty much figured this out as I drove and could see the tiny crystals reflected in my headlights.

Here is a picture of this phenomena for your viewing pleasure. (Click on it to make it a bit bigger.)


This was a totally new experience for me; I love when you get to experience something new! In fact, I can hardly wait to experience warmer weather again!

Yesterday on the way home since the kids had the day off from school, I stopped at their Mom's house to pick them up as I have them for dinner. Monday as some of you may know is traditionally Quizno's. They have a special on Monday where you get three of their subs for a very decent price. It's the only night that they are affordable in my opinion!

It was about 3:45PM at this time and Quizno's is just down the street past the street my house is on. As it was cold and windy and the Mustang was having trouble going forward I announced "You're either all hungry enough to have Quizno's now, or, I'll be making cold cut sandwiches at dinner time because I am NOT taking the car out again tonight!" The kids unanimously agreed they wanted to eat now, so I bought them sandwiches (and they picked out a large bag of Doritos to have with them) and we headed back to my house. While they ate I made myself a sandwich using some of the cold cuts I had bought last Friday when the storm started.

Their Mom showed up around 6:30 PM and we all watched the Scrubs episode from last week which we had saved so she could see it. They departed shortly after 7.

The kids have off today from school today too, so I will stop at their Mom's and pick up Danielle as she has an orthodontist appointment. She will then stay at my house until her Mom picks her up on her way home around dinner time. I do NOT plan on venturing out again after Danielle and I get back if I do not have to!

Poor kids....today makes the fourth school closing day for bad weather, so, they now have one day to make up at the end of the school year.....they think nothing of that now.....But I predict they will sing a different tune at the end of the school year.

Odyssey Out of my Mind!!

Click on the picture to see it larger.

Here is a picture I took while driving my daughter to her Odyssey Meeting on Saturday. As I said I must be out of my mind for driving in conditions like this!

It's snow Good!

It was one of the worst and coldest weekends since I came to Michigan back in 2000. It was 8 degrees below zero this morning when I awoke. As I did my morning rituals I had the TV on in the bedroom and the living room watching the local news as I do each morning. In the 20 minute period that elapsed the finally got to the school closing list that contains the school for my kids. By the time I shut off the TV as I was walking out the door, they still had not reached the part that was on when I first started watching!

Because it was so cold overnight, even though in many areas no new snow had fallen, so many schools were closed because of the icy roads. No matter how much salt you use in temperatures like this, it will not melt the ice on the road, hence the many schools closing. I did wonder though why they just don't show a list of schools that are open as the announcer said virtually every school in our viewing area is closed today!

The Mustang was hesitant to leave the dry garage and looked at me piteously want to stay inside. Since the alternative would be a walk that would surely lead to the loss of toes or worse, I drove. The roads were incredibly slippery in spots, but, carefully driving got me to work in twice the usual time; it took 12 minutes instead of six! ;)

Over the weekend with it snowing and being around 10 to 15 degrees I just wanted to stay inside the house. Danielle had her Odyssey of the Mind meeting Saturday, I must have been out of my mind to undertake the odyssey of taking a drive in total white out conditions (I shall post a picture of this today). Well, we made it, but, it was a ride literally fraught with danger. The Mustang is an excellent sports car and with it's all-weather tires it handles OK in snow. NOT a foot of snow, not during a blizzard, not when it is 10 degrees out, not when the development the coach lives in was barely plowed. When I went to pick her up 3 hours later it was even worse. It was snowing so hard that not only did I have to snow blow before I took Danielle out, I had to do it 2 and a half hours later when it was time to go pick her up.

I vowed to stay inside the remainder of the day but around 7PM Scott and Danielle wanted additional treats and convinced me to head out with them to the local grocery store. It was freezing, windy, and still snowing. I decided to tease the kids a bit and intended to do a fishtail coming out of the driveway. Imagine my surprise as we did a complete 360! In the few minutes we were in the store the car completely iced over.

Sunday we managed to stay indoors for the day other than myself going out and snow blowing. The X-wife was due home from Florida and she arrived with my older boy (who had been holding up at his Mom's house since he was going to be snow blowing there) around 6PM. I had offered to cook dinner for us all, but the X wanted to buy us dinner, so, in spite of my resolve to stay warm (and safe!) we headed out. It was fridged, windy, and snowing and the X's small car (with Scott, Danielle, and I crammed in the back seat) was hard pressed to have traction to proceed and we had the usual idiots going to slow or too fast driving around us (those that were foolhardy enough to be out!) to make matters even more fun!

The kids had wanted to eat at Red Robin, we parked and zoomed through the freezing weather only to find they had closed earlier because of the storm. We ran back to the car and ended up at Fridays. Danielle and I got the last 2 cups of hot chocolate and we had an enjoyable dinner and a frosty ride home!

201st Post

Well, the pressure was too great for the 200th post, so, what can I say??

200th Post

Yup, that's this one!

ARE YOU FREAKING CRAZY!!???orLet it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I must have missed it on the news last night, but, when I awoke this AM to my usual ritual of groggily groping for the TV remote, and, after finding it, turning on the local news, it was snowing and had been for several hours. There were already 3 inches outside and unlike a couple of weeks ago when they had an inch or so of supposedly very icy ground covering and cancelled school, they did not today even though up to five inches more were expected.

Since the X is again out of town and I have had the kids for a week, I have been taking Scott and Danielle to school each morning since the bus stop is around the corner and down the street and thus not in view of the house. Add to that the cold weather, etc. I just feel better driving them and they like that I do it.

We headed out about five minutes early and the roads were not in good shape at all. However leaving a bit early was a good idea as we got there only a few minutes later than we would have on a normal departure time with very little traffic in front of us so I was able to keep up a safe and sensible speed without either

A - Some idiot in front of me driving five miles and hour because Oh my god there is snow on the road!!! What shall I do!!!!
or
B - Some idiot zooming around me or sliding off the road endangering me in an SUV or Four Wheel Drive vehicle without any brains at all thinking (picture this in goofy kind of voice) Gosh! Gee willikers! If I cans starts out easier on slippery roads in my four wheel drive I can stops faster too!

My logic paid off because int he 5 minute interval of dropping both Scott and Danielle off at their respective schools and heading back out to the roads I just traversed, there were now many care coming and they were doing about one-quarter of the speed I had been able to do minutes ago on the uncrowded roads.

I even got to work by the usual time I do when I drop the kids off to school, and it has been snowing steadily up until just about now (a bit after noon as I spend my lunch break at work blogging today) and some sun is just starting to peek out. There will be snow blowing after work for me and Chris, with his Mom out of town, will have to take care of her house.

We have videos and a game to return to Hollywood video, so, we will do that this evening and I will splurge and get the kids some fast food for dinner. Last night I made pasta and sun-dried tomato and basil meatballs and pasta with Parma Rosa sauce for Danielle and I. Scott had pasta with marinara sauce. As Chris has stayed home from school with his stomach bothering him, had had a banana and a bagel for his evening repast.

Oh! As to the ARE YOU FREAKING CRAZY!!! portion of the title of this post, as I was nearing the office there, in four inches of snow in the freezing cold was some, IMHO, IDIOT riding his bicycle! I can;t imagine how he was not falling every few feet, but had I not been afraid of startling him I would have put down the window and shouted ARE YOU FREAKING CRAZY!!!?? to him. not only was he endangering himself but what if he slipped and fell into traffic causing a car or cars to have an accident.

I also have an employee who is a nice guy and a talented worker, he drove 100 miles here, a good portion of it in the snow. He would get the runner up crazy award and I told him next time if he has any doubts as to conditions up here to give a buzz and he could work from home that day! Have to admire his dedication though!

I hope everyone is doing well! Still no word here on the GE buyout of my company but we should, I hope, hear some things soon. Anyway I had written this between 12 noon today and then added this note at 12:20: Oh! In the interval of when I started writing this and me finishing it up, the snow is back with a vengeance!

THEN When I tried to save it blogger was doing it's semi-regular "Can't talk to the server crap" so I saved all this text into a mail message and now am posting it from home around 4 hours later. Both boys are asleep on the couch...they will be woken soon as we will be departing in search of food!

I did have lots of fun snow blowing when I got home though, yay!

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.

Smiths Group plc Sells Aerospace Division to GE

Perfect Monday, cold, snowy and icy, and news at work this morning that our division has been sold to General Electric. Most people were flabbergasted by this news, and now begins the fun period (third time for me since starting to work here 27 years ago) of playing the "Will I have a new job after the transition is completed" game. Not one of my favorites, I must say!

Read about it here

Winter has finally arrived in Grand Rapids

We had half an inch of snow last evening, our first measurable snow since Dec. 7th. That’s a record for winter in Grand Rapids! In 2000, the first year we were living in Michigan, we had 96 inches of snow by the end of December, and more hammered us after that new year.

Thirty days without measurable snow beats the old record of 26 days set back in Jan.-Feb. 1919. Yesterday (Sunday) was also only the 2nd day in the past 29 that failed to reach 40 degrees! Normally by this time of year we have had quite a few days that were in the single digits.

Note however, our string of days with above average temperatures continues as the average high temperature for today is 30 and we’ve topped that…so today makes 30 days in a row with above average temperatures, though right now the average temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than this time yesterday, and 20 lower than the warmest day last week.

I remarked to Scott and Danielle this morning, that, as far as driving them to school was concerned I was glad they would be back at their Mom's this evening (I'll be picking her up from the airport later; She's been gone for 10 days down in Florida on business again) so I don't have to take them to school in the snow as they are predicting Nuisance Snow all week.

Nuisance Snow to me is less than an inch; just enough to make the roads dangerous. As we were heading to school this AM the radio was fraught with tails of terror of folks on medians on the highway, and down ditches and embankments.....why can't people just drive better? I still laugh at the idiots with four wheel drive vehicles! You know the ones I mean! Those stupid, drooling, Cro-Magnon low IQ types that think they will stop better than a car without four wheel drive!

Rest in Peace, John

I had the sad news Friday that my friend John passed away. I shall miss him and am pleased to think he has been reunited with his beloved wife who he missed so much.

Farewell, John!!!

My Friend John

I live in Michigan, so since his passing the news has been mostly about former President Ford since he was born here. While I feel for his family and those who know them, and I send my prayers and condolences their way, what about the average person that we never hear about?

Here on the day that President Ford's remains were arriving via Air Force One, it was something that had to be experienced! My company was on the route from the airport to the final resting place in the city, and you could not believe the number of police and spectators. There were helicopters too. In town for the interment there was a 21 gun salute and multiple fly-overs of 21 F-15 aircraft!

Again...what about the average person?

For example, I have a very good e-friend named John who I have know for over six years. Our first contact was when he e-mailed me to comment about one of my screen savers.

Over the years we e-mailed about computer, his sadness and subsequent coping over the loss of his wife of many years, my sadness over my divorce and the way it affected me and my three children, other issues, computers, and more. We exchanged jokes, pictures and kept in touch over the years, more so than most of the physical friends I had on the east coast. He read my blog on a regular basis and made suggestions for new screen savers and other ideas for my web site.

John was, a very good friend, and I was always happy to see a message from him in my inbox!

To make a long story short, his daughter sent out a message this week to everyone in his address book that John was now at home near death, with no hope of recovery after surgical procedures done in November of last year and the resultant complications. One of the last things he told her was he was ready to go and be with his wife and God. I was so distressed I could not reply for almost a day, but did, because she asked if anyone wanted to tell her how they knew her dad, her best friend as she called him, she would like to know. I am so saddened by this news and wished I had known him better and had gotten a chance to meet him in the real world.

I ask that everyone who reads this say a prayer for John and his family and friends.

Farewell my friend John! You will be missed!! May you find peace and joy in heaven!

New Years Daze

Well, we had fun at work on 12/28, we had a total Data Center outage planned so we could do some wiring the town's code required, we brought everything down in a controlled fashion. To make a long story short some equipment did not want to work and play nice with its neighbors so we had a rash of problems. Thank goodness for 24/7 shifts and good backups, all I can say is I need a vacation from my vacation break. The time between 12/26 and yesterday when we got the last system up and running seems like a cross between a blurred recollection of things that happened and a bad dream.....

ANYWAY....Happy New Year to All!

Update - To extrapolate further, for NY Scott, Danielle, and I stayed in. Chris went over to a friends house while the little ones and I alternated between watching TV together and them playing video games, we rang in the NY by watching the countdown at 11:55PM on the small TV in my room as the DVR was recording two shows. After hugs all around they vanished for another 30 minutes of video games, before we watched a Scrubs episode and I sent them to bed at 1AM on New Year's Day.

No place like home for the Holidays

First off some general comments of mine, this was the first Christmas since moving to Michigan over five years ago that we did not have a White Christmas. I really missed that. In fact, yesterday was the first day in two and a half weeks that the temperature was not above 40 here! This is not common at all!

I also noticed this year there were many less houses decorated for the holidays. Christmas since the divorce has always been very difficult for me, so, external decorating of my house was just not going to happen though I did do some indoors for the kids, particularly Danielle. Compared to previous years I spent little on the X and just got her a funny card. No need to bother her or myself with one professing love, etc. She gets nothing out of that and it only makes me melancholy (though I must admit I did pick up such a card but common sense prevailed, so it sits now unused in an envelope with some other Christmas cards that I may use next year. Anyway, I will admit that I was not as down by Christmas this year as I was the last two. ANYWAY on to the Holiday weekend recap - Working until 6PM Saturday night, headed home to cheerful collapse on couch for some holiday shows; I was so beat I had a festive dinner of Ice Tea and Bar-be-que potato chips since I did not feel like going to the store!

Christmas Eve Day was fun...I got up a bit before 7 so I could go do the shopping for Christmas dinner tomorrow. My idea of being there right when Forest Hills foods opened was a good one, as there were not many people in the store. I was in and out in under and hour with everything on my list except fresh basil for the sauce.

I did some work from home, wrapped gifts for X and extra gifts for kids. Headed over to X's at 5PM with 3 out of 4 gifts. Mom and Dad arrived shortly thereafter and we headed off to Minados for Chinese buffet. We arrived back at Deb's and kids opened Christmas eve gifts. Then Mom, Dad, X, Danielle and I watched March of the Penguins off of DVD which was the Christmas eve gift the X had chosen. Headed home after that and checked out some additional holiday fare off of the many items I had recorded on the PVR over the past couple of weeks.

Christmas Day - I had to be at X's for the 9AM opening of the Christmas gifts (She has a nice big living room and a nice big tree, unlike the pathetic small fiber optic I tree I bought for my house simply to make Danielle happy). This was the first year we did 9AM, it used to be 7:30. Anyway I overslept and rushed like mad to get the pot of pasta sauce on the stove so I could make my 1PM target for dinner. I rushed out of my house at 9AM and as I was turning into the X's street two minutes later my cell phone went off as kids were wondering where I was. I took the usual movies of kids opening their presents and headed home swinging by McDonald's as Christopher really wanted MCD's for breakfast even though we were sure it was closed, I thought I would check. EVERYTHING was closed as I expected.

I got home and cleaned up the house and began making the coating for my Chicken Parmesan, a secret mixture of breadcrumbs and spices. I then zoomed back to the X's house as I had forgotten her heavy frying pan as I only have one, and then arrived back home. I mixed some garlic butter for the garlic bread I was making and left that to steep in its flavors, and then two frying pans full of hot olive oil later I began coating and frying the chicken and putting it in glass Pyrex dishes. When three were filled I put them int he over to bake and began cleaning the incredible mess in the kitchen. The chicken done baking I removed it, added sauce, covered with foil and put it back into bake. I then spilt two loaves of bread and spread one with the garlic butter which was threatening to escape from its tub, and the other with spread seasoned with a bit of extra virgin (how can a virgin be 'extra' virgin....can someone explain that to me?) olive oil as Mom can't eat garlic. about 10 minutes to 1PM I was ready to put in pasta but there was no sign of anyone. Called X who made excuse about being delayed by kids. Mom and Dad arrived about 1:10PM and I added pasta to water, breads to over, and removed chicken. X and kids arrived and X topped chicken with mozzarella cheese after I sprinkled them with Romano. She then zoomed out for 7-11 as Mom and Dad will not drink diet soda and that's all I had in the house plus some diet ice tea. X returned, we all sat down to an excellent dinner. This and the cleanup (which Mom and the X took care of most of) behind us we opened the last of the Christmas gifts. Deb's brother Tim called form Florida and we all took a turn talking to him, then we watched a Christmas episode of Becker off the PVR.

Around 6PM everyone left. I invited Mom and Dad back for left overs tonight, we shall see if they can make it and because the X could not I made her a plate. Chicken Parmesan is her favorite, in fact that is why I made it for dinner. From that point the rest of Christmas day was a real nose dive with the kids gone. The empty house can be bad enough most days but on Christmas it shines.... I called my brother and Dad's houses and left holiday messages. I did hear back from my brother and his wife later. Here it is Wednesday and my Dad still had not called back. He must be at his girlfriends for the holidays. Did not even get a Christmas card from him yet (it's Wednesday today). Watched some TV until bed time and that was it; time for bed.

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!

A Gourmet Taste Treat!

I have posted about food in the past and some excellent meals I have prepared. This brief post is to communicate a sandwich Gourmet Taste Treat!

Take your favorite sandwich on some really good bread (preferably with assorted meats and cheeses of your choice, NO veggies), and layer on the bottom and the top, along with mayonnaise, your favorite brand of bar-be-que potato chips. Press it tightly together and enjoy! It is awesome! Fantastic! Food for the gods! They should be showing this on the Food Network. I have been doing that for years so I thought I would share that. I will have to do that for lunch today!

And so on, and so forth

It's been weeks since the last post; been busy at work, things of interest (to me anyway!) are listed below:

The X was out of town from the day after thanksgiving until late on December 9th. Since the divorce that is the longest I have had the kids. Of course her trip, work related doing some jobs down in Florida to bring in extra bucks, had to come at the time when we are busiest at work. It was great though having the kids for such a long period! I still so hate being alone in my house when they are not there. Since the bus comes to my house for school 15 minutes earlier than their mom's house I drove them to school every morning. She will be leaving again on the 29th of this month, and a final trip in January.

Scott had his holiday concert and he sand a solo. That as great and we were in the third row so I recorded the whole song and got a good shot of him at the microphone.

I put up my meager Christmas decorations and went over to the x's house with the kids and we got her tree down from the rafters and setup so it could be decorated when she returned.

Since my last post on 12/3 there has been NO more snow, there have days approaching 60, with average temps in the 40 range during the day and above. A very strange December but one that will be easy on the pocketbook for heating costs! Right now it is still doubtful that we will have a white Christmas, something I thought here in Michigan we could always count on. Scott was mentioning that the other night that he wished there would be snow for Christmas.

The X's brother, who had come out to Michigan over a year ago left for Florida when he is moving with a friend he met in Chicago. At last check the were still jobless and looking for an apartment.

I was sick for over the week with flu-like symptoms. Scott and Chris missed 4 and three days of school with assorted ills and Danielle and Scott missed a day last week with sore throats.

Did 99% of my Christmas shopping on line....that was fun, and no crowds to contend with! I really find myself missing my family back home in New Jersey all the more around this time of year.

In any event, everyone have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The weekend so far.

Well, we did get snow, enough to make things icy and a real pain in the rear on Friday. After getting home from work I used the snow blower. Saturday was better; no snow and sunny for parts of the day; after we picked Scott up in town from his Art class we headed to Meijer's and got Danielle and new bedspread as she had mentioned she was too cool at night. We had lunch at MCD's returned home, and after a bit headed over to the X's house where Chris has to snow blow and Scott had to change the Guinea pigs cage. Well, we got there and realized we did not bring the litter from my house were it was for speedy, Danielle's dwarf hamster....so she and I snagged that and then headed back there. I was amused to see my 18 year old snow blowing with the discharge cute pointing.....directly in front of the snow blower. I got out and mentioned this and he explained he could not figure out how to turn it to the left or right, and he had tried. This is my son whose math knowledge drawfs mostly everyone...even some teachers. I turned the crank the did this and refrained from any additional comments. Danielle and I headed back here and Chris and Scott soon arrived.

I played with Windows Vista (still can't use it 100% as my primary desktop) and the kids played video games and such. Chris had two friends over and they did not leave until 7PM when of course the three kids cornered me that they were hungry. I ordered pizza and since delivery time was up to 90 minutes Chris and I headed over (after mapping the route as I had never been there) and picked it up. We ran into Mom and Dad (the X's folks) awaiting a table as they were staying to eat. We snagged the pizza, came home, ate, watched TV, played games, etc.

Sunday morning brings more snow...looks like this evening I'll be snow blowing again....the whole week is supposed to be cold and snow on and off. Joy! Hard to believe last Wednesday and a few days before it was in the 60's.

SO, what's happening these days?

What has happened since the last blog post.....well.....of noteworthiness are the following (and some pictures may be posted for some of these events)

Boys got their Wii system
Thanksgiving
X headed to Florida for 15 days
Chris' 18th Birthday
Scott's 15th Birthday

Chris spent 15 hours inside the Miejer's here in town to acquire a Wii gaming system. Scott spent some of the time with him though he was excused for 3 hour dinner and TV break at my house with the X and her brother. We had chinese food and then watched the two hour first episode of Dead Like Me. We had been watching the replay of this on series on the sci-fi channel but had missed the two hour start). According to the X they did not get back home until 1:30AM with their purchase. I was most impressed with the way the boys stuck with it; Chris had a wrist band and could roam freely in the store but could not leave. So, that is certainly better than waiting outside the store all night to get in! Miejer's is open 24 hours and has food, drinks, BATHROOM's, etc.

Thanksgiving was great. As I like to call it our dysfunctional family (Me, the kids, the X, her folks, and her brother) met a tmy house where I had been cooking since before sun rise. I made a 20 pound bird with my famous cornbread and sausage stuffing, corn bread, biscuits, niblet corn, peas, onions (cooking in with the turkey), home made gravy, and mashed potatoes. For Chris I made a nice buffalo sauce to go with his turkey. This year for the stuffing I omitted the traditional sage turkey seasonings and everyone loved it. The X, who never eats stuffing, actually did and had some seconds, and my daughter loved it too. We also celebrated the family gathering of the boys birthdays since they occur within a week of each other. They got loot from the relatives. From Deb and I we had combined their birthday money and gotten money from Santa for xmas presents they would have gotten so they could afford the Wii. Befroe desert the X headed out dropping Chris and Scott of at Meijer's so they could pick things up; Scott got a Zune media player and Chris some game, I forget which. They eventually returned. For dessert we had Ice Creak cake and a pecan pie Mom and Dad brought. This was accompanied with the traditional flaming candles on the cake and the off-key singing of "Happy Birthday".

Thanksgiving this year was also Chris' birthday. 18 years old! Seems like yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the first time! I am so proud of him. I also can't understand why he is now old enough to go get shot and killed in a war, yet has to wait three years before he can legally have a beer....go figure!

The day after thanksgiving the X and some of her company headed south to Florida. Evidently to make their bottom line they are doing some last minute quick high paying jobs down there. While I love having the kids extra time (today is the end of the first week) it could not have come at a worse time since at work we are hitting for our site and our two sister sites the culmination of two years -planning and work to transition us over to a new infrastructure. And of course this week we had the boys sick. Three days for Scott and two days for Christopher. And of course two of those days I got little to no sleep as Scott was barking like a seal all night. Oh well, stuff happens!

The Sunday after thanksgiving we had turkey leftovers. I bought more biscuits and we basically had the same meal again, though their were enough biscuits this time for the kids; they each had four if they wanted them.

Scott's Birthday was this past Wednesday, he had been sick Monday and Tuesday, but had rallied, and overall we had a good day and went to Red Robin for dinner. We stopped at Gamestop on the way back so he could pickup the new Sonic game for the Xbox 360. Later in the evening he was very sad that his mom couldn't be there for his birthday. I explained, and I am sure he understood, that his Mom's work required she be away on that day. He was sick again yesterday and is doing better today. I told Scott this weekend I would take him to his favorite Chinese buffet as an additional birthday treat.

OK, what else is going on.......mundane things like I cleaned out the gutters on the house, got the snow blower ready for the winter (which started today with the ice storm now turned to snow) , and that's really about it. Last night I made home made chicken soup for dinner. One other noteworthy point is I heard from a good friend and coworker from my new jersey days. Tyrone, if you are reading this I must tell you talking to you today was indeed the highpoint of the day! Thanks so much for taking the time to call!

Easier to post comments

For those who may have tried to or have posted in the past, and were put off by the validation section where you have to enter the characters appearing in the picture, I have turned this off which makes posting a comment much faster and easier.

Faith in my fellow man

I can't speak for all of you, but I'd like to think that like me you do what you can when you can if someone has a need. I often fix people's computers and ask for nothing in return, even if the job takes a week of my free time. I give a bit to charity when I can. Sometimes though you find yourself wondering how many good people are out there and the world seems like a cold, impersonal place.

I went to leave work yesterday and noticed my right rear tire was very close to being flat. I had an oil change at one of these full service places a couple of weeks ago and they told me the pressure was low in that tire but did not see anything wrong.

In cases like this a can of 'Fix a Flat' has often sealed a slow leak and left nothing else required. As there is an auto parts store nearby I decided to slowly drive there. I procured the 'Fix a Flat', and one of the customers remarked along the lines of I was in the nick of time based on the current deflation. I headed out and so did this patron with his purchases. We talked and he asked if there was a nail or something in the tire and told him about the conversation I had with the oil change folks. He dropped what he was doing (I was dressed in work clothes, he in blue jeans) and crawled under the car. He found a large screw stuck in the tire and then offered, if I wanted to buy the tire patching kit, to crawl under the car and take care of it. As I was in work clothes I agreed, the tire was patched (plus he showed me how to do it; I'd never patched anything other than the tire on my ten speed when I was a kid!) As he knew the owner of the auto parts store, he asked him to fill up a portable canister of compressed air so we could re-inflate the tire.

I thanked him and the owner for their help and offered this young man some money which he promptly refused. I let him know again how much I appreciated it, and how pleased he was that, like myself I would not take money for helping someone out.

Thinking of this last night and today it just makes me feel good inside to find people of strong moral character. Just the type of thing to put a spring in one's step.

I put the tire patching kit in the trunk of my care; perhaps one day I can fix a flat for someone else!!

So, what's up with us??

Well, since you asked, not much! Danielle has joined Odyssey of the Mind and has had her first meeting, Scott is taking his annual art class in the city and is drawing even better than ever. I plan on taking a picture of one cartoon he did in class that had me laughing very hard when I saw it Saturday when I picked him up.

Chris was accepted to Kettering University this week! His Mom and I are very proud! He will start in July of next year with the co-op program. On the more mundane side, Christopher's car had the wires on the engine eaten through for the second time at my house. I paid this time and the guy at the service center said they get a lot of vehicles from September to December that around for a few days and have this happen. I told Chris from now on if he is not using his car all weekend when he is at my house to leave it garaged at his mom;s since I can't make room in my second stall for his car, plus there is no opener. If it happens again he gets to pay!

And me? Still enjoying a crushing workload at work...not much more to say for myself, other than loving every moment I get to spend with the kids. I'm getting by, not really happy, but not really sad, so, for me that is OK. I have been enjoying the new Season of Doctor Who and Heros and Jerhico to name a few of my favorite shows.

A glass of wine is GOOD for you!

FYI for my fiernd Dave in Michigan who asked about my Dad, after much additional testing we have validated the statement made by wine drinkers that a glass of wine a day is good for you! One of my Dad's doctors had advised him to abstain from drinking any alcohol, and I guess that his body chemistry with all the medicines he is taking was thrown for a loop. He resumed his drink a day and is eating better and putting on some weight!

Thanks, Dave, for caring enough to ask!

Halloween Humor

Some BAD Hallowwen jokes for you!

1. Q - What is a vampire's least favorite meal?
A - Stake !!

2. Q - What do vampires enjoy most about baseball?
A - The bats (and the double-headers)

3. Q - What does a monster wear when it rains?
A - His ghoul-oshes.

4. Q - How did the monster predict his future?
A - With a horror-scope.

5. Q - What did the monster do when he lost his hand?
A - He went to a second hand store.

6. Q - Why wouldn't the skeleton cross the road?
A - Because he didn't have any guts.

7. Q - What is in the red blood cells of monsters?
A - Hemogoblin !!!

8. Q - Who did the boy monster take to the Halloween dance?
A - His bootiful ghoul-friend.

9. Q - What two types of music do mummies like best?
A - Rag time and Wrap.

10. Q - Why couldn't the skeleton go to the dance?
A - Because he had no body to take!

11. Q - How big was Dr. Frankenstein's castle?
A - "Monsterous" !

It's Snow Good!

Regarding yesterday's post on the weather I heard on the morning news today that it set a record for the earliest date we have had an inch or more of snow. Joy! Though the analysts say we are supposed to have a milder winter this year.

After last year's natural gas bill debacle, I have decided when the kids are not sleeping overnight at my house to keep the heat much lower than last year and just wear a fuzzy pullover. I am not paying $450/month again during December/January to heat my house!

You know, if everyone did that you would see the prices go down!

Oh the weather outside is frightening!

I turn on the TV when I awake on workdays and put the local news channel on. They mentioned snow! October 12th, and it is snowing out! Weird, even for Michigan!

Last night around bed time I thought of putting a latter out in the mailbox. I decided I would just do it in the morning. So, this AM I walked from the garage to the curb to mail a letter and I was literally encased with snow. When I made the right-hand turn onto cascade I thought the light a quarter mile down the street was out as I could not see it or the lit up signs at the gas stations until I was right on top of them!

Cheeze!

Pray if you got 'em....

For those of you who are religious please say a quiet prayer for my Dad. Over the past weeks has dropped about 50 pounds. I fear for him, he sounded terrible on the phone yesterday and after weeks of tests (more to come tomorrow) they can find nothing wrong. He is too nauseous to eat!

I am, preparing myself for the worst; the fact that he is over 700 miles away does not help. I have found it very hard yesterday and today to focus on what else is going on around me.

Stairway to Heaven

Well, if you can call dry stairs heaven, and I can, then, hence the tittle for this post. Many of you know that I have had a leak problem on the basement stairs of the house I bought after the divorce. I had a company come in who sealed outside around the foundation three times and after the last treatment, and no leak for a year, I thought we were good! A few weeks ago we had a torrential storm with tornado force winds and the stairs leaked again (along with a crack in the foundation in another part of the basement that had been fixed when I bought the house. I ended up spending the whole weekend ripping up carpet and padding to dry the carpet after moving most of the fur nature off it.

I did a bunch of Internet research and ordered three things from this place called Ame's Research. A 'Super Primer' which is a chemical that bounds with concrete (and other things) and makes it stronger, seals cracks, and is waterproof, and plastic waterproof sealing tape, and a top coat of another sealent and leak stopper.

So, this past weekend I began Friday evening by using a portable steamer (thanks again Josh!) to remove the carpet from the lower part of the flight of stairs. Saturday it was up and off to Lowes where I snagged a 6AM electric drill, assorted wire-wheels, goggles, filter masks, etc. and headed home. The best thing though was the A23 battery for my garage door opener that died a couple of days before! They actually had them there and I could use the garage again!

I spent a fun filled three hours cleaning the areas on the stairs that had to be treated with the drill and wire wheels. i had a large fan at one end of the house blowing and at the back end of the house where the stairs are I had the sliders open and a fan blowing up the stairs which are right in line with the sliders. So, other than me and repeated cleaning of the stairs with the vacuum while I worked dust infiltration into the rest of the house was all but avoided! Yay science!

Next, I spent the rest of the day applying coats of the Super Primer which needed 2 to 3 hours in between coats. With my back having to bend of so much and stand on unlevel footing (one stair above and below on each foot) by the end of the day I was in considerable pain. Thee evening cooled off rapidly (it had been high 60's during the day) and soon it was in the 50's and dang cool in the house!

Around 6PM my daughter Danielle had called me because usually she (and Scott most times) sleep over many Saturday nights when it is their Mom's weekend (thanks X for letting them do that) and they already knew they would not be doing that this evening. She wanted me to come over and watch TV, so, with a groan in my heart I got cleaned up and wandered over there (I would have preferred to stay attached to the couch I was so sore) because I just could not say no to her wanting to see me.

I got there around 9PM and we watched an hour of TV together along with the X's brother, I put her to bed and after some additional chatting with the brother in law I headed out. As I was leaving Scott wanted me to go downstairs to look at some of his flash. I was just too sore after already traversing the steps the Danielle's bedroom I declined, but, I felt bad!

I got home, and ran the fans again to keep the smell of the primer down. I finally turned the fans off shortly before bed.

Sunday arising I could barely move, and I seriously considered putting it off for two weeks until the next weekend I did not have the kids. However, with a groan and the realization that today was going to be even warmer than Saturday (plus who knows what the Michigan weather will be like in two weeks, they are predicting lake effect show this weekend already!) I decided to bite the bullet. So, the next couple of hours was spent applying the tape down the stairs where the wall meets the steps (the parts that were cracked already and the rest all the way down as preventative medicine) and then I was ready for the top coats. This took the remainder of the day until around 7PM when I was finally done. At least it was not so cool as Saturday night with the fans running!

As I crawled into bed last night I was both glad that the job was done and I had persevered without help. Since I did not treat the foundation crack that leaked when the stairs did, I figure I can use this as a test if we get a really heavy rain. If the wall leaks and the stairs do not, I will be good, and then I will treat that area the same was as the stairs.

Cost for the chemicals and tools needed: $200
Cost of Satisfaction for doing it on my own: Priceless!

Lord, I was born a rambling man

Trying to make a living and doing the best I can........SO, what's up with Chris? Well, here are some random ramblings below.

Work is incredibly busy, now that I inherited all the folks from the Enterprise application group I have more than double the people in my department as I had before. I believe I have the largest number of direct reports for IT globally for the company. While this is only supposed to be temporary it has been a month now and if I thought my workload was incredible before it is insane now. It takes me most of the day Friday to do the weekend report to my boss as I have to go through everyone else's reports....... If we get our sometimes yearly bonus this month I have promised the kids I will get a cat. I miss having cats around and have decided one of the automatic cleaning litter boxes will be in order.

At home well, we all have been enjoying the XBOX 360 and Danielle too her new DS Lite. The basement steps, which have not leaked in over a year leaked when we had tornado class storms. I went out in the rain and cleaned out the gutters by that part of the house as they were clogged. I have also ordered a three step sealing process to treat the stairs. I have to start this this weekend and it will be no fun! I have borrowed a steam cleaner from my good friend Josh and will use this to remove the rest of the carpeting from the stairs and the paint on the side concrete so I can do a proper surface prep and so the first chemical, which bonds molecularly to concrete, can do its magic. I also have to steam the remainder of the carpet adhesive from the stairs that used to be carpeted. I am SO not looking forward to this!

Was distressed that Stargate SG-1 was cancelled, have been enjoying the second season of the new Doctor Who, along with Stargate Atlantis. The show Eureka is also very good! Battlestar Galactica starts up again tomorrow night, so that will be great. I love my Sci-Fi Friday!

New shows I have been watching this season: Jericho (excellent!) and Heros (Good).

Really miss my daily e-mails with my brother in New Jersey, but, with his job from hell we can no longer communicate so readily. It really stinks!

The fall is upon us; weather doing the seasonal ups and downs temperature wise, soon the leaves will be falling......summer is so gone!

Working on getting my mortgage refined to save some bucks......will be going down about 1.5% and have a fixed rate instead of the adjustable rate I have which is scheduled to go up next month.

As to me? Well, still Miss the X and having the kids full time....will never ever get used to that, but in a few years they'll be out of the house anyway....so.........what the heck will I be doing then? We shall see!

What the heck is a blog??

I got an e-mail from a long time good friend of mine on the east coast. He too has gone through a divorce.....which is neither here nor there for this post, but, I feel a special bond with him as I do all divorced folks whose spouses have ripped their hearts still beating from their chests and held it in front of them with an expression on their face like the girl in the "Cold as Ice" music video ...... cough ....cough ......anyway...back to the story at hand!

In his e-mail he asked me what a blog is. I have always figured it for being my on-line log or diary, but, when I really thought about it I realized I did not know what blog really meant.

SO, thanks to the folks at Wikipedia (you can read the full, much more extensive article here) I know now that 1) I am not all knowing in computer Jargon, and 2) blog means the following:

A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term "blog" is a contaction of "Web log". "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

X-Files

Today is the day I was married on almost 20 years ago. The second one now since the divorce. It will be a melancholy day for me.

All I will say on this is my X and my kids will be in my thoughts today. I love them all, and wish things could have worked out between the X and I.

I'll leave this in tribute of my feelings for the X...who...I still do love.

Fare you well, my honey
Fare you well, my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Are flown, except you alone

Gonna leave this brokedown palace
On my hands and my knees, I will roll, roll, roll
Make myself a bed by the waterside
In my time, in my time, I will roll, roll, roll

In a bed, in a bed
By the waterside I will lay my head
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

River gonna take me, sing me sweet and sleepy
Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back home
It's a far gone lullaby sung many years ago
Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come since I first left home

Going home, going home
By the waterside I will rest my bones
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Going to plant a weeping willow
On the bank's green edge it will grow, grow, grow
Singing a lullaby beside the water
Lovers come and go, the river will roll, roll, roll

Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

(From the Grateful Dead song Brokedown Palace)

More It is to laugh

My friend from Steve responded to my post of bad jokes with a few of his own. I particularly remember the seventy six joke from when we worked together in New Jersey. In fact, I heard that one multiple times and still get a grin and chuckle today. Thanks Steve!

A man burst into a doctor’s examining room and shouted, "Doc, you gotta help me. I’m shrinking!" The doctor replied, "Sir, go back and sit down in the waiting room and wait your turn. You’ll just have to be a little patient."

A bum tried to sneak onto an ocean liner and hide until launch, but a ship’s officer caught him and took him back off the ship. As they walked down to the dock, the officer explained, "You have to understand, beggars can’t be cruisers."

Groucho: "Are you married? Are you rich? Answer the second question first."

Groucho (As auctioneer): "Seventy-five, seventy-five, seventy-five. Will someone give me seventy-six?"
Bidder: "Seventy-six."
Groucho: "That’s the spirit!”

Gomez Addams: "What are doing with that net, Lurch?"
Lurch: "Caught a pterodactyl."
Gomez: "That’s no pterodactyl, Lurch. That’s my mother-in-law!"

Water yet again

The dam* leak on the basement stairs leaked again this weekend. Probably my fault since the gutter were clogged and the water was just sluicing off the roof on the affected area. I ended up sending the better part of the weekend moving furniture, ripping up carpet and padding and playing with fans and heats to dry it out. Had to cut and remove the padding and hang it to dry!

I also went out in the rain and unclogged the gutters; now that was refreshing!

Just ordered some interior primer and sealant off the internet which may help things.

Sigh!

It is to LAUGH!

My kids, desensitized by modern day TV and video games, often do not share the same sense of humor that their Dad has. I think the following 7 jokes are hilarious! What do YOU think??

1 - Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2 - A jumper cable walks into a bar and asks for a beer. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't you start anything."

3 - Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4 - A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5 - A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."

6 - Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this
taste funny to you?"

7 - "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'" "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" Well, "It's Not Unusual."

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Avast ye cretinous dogs!

Today be Talk like a Pirate day! A fine tradition we be upholdin'! Anyone of ye scurvy dogs who does not observe this holiday shall not be welcome aboard me blog!! So! Be ye Pirate and welcome? Or be ye land lubber and consigned to Davey Jones Locker?????? Arrrrrr!

Smartly ye all, be clicking this hyar link quick as can be, or ye be walkin' the plank fer sure!

Click Hyar!

GREAT PC LINK

For those geek types out there, ever have a problem with a PC that would not boot

Try this for the Ultimate Boot PC - A bootable CD with lots of diagnostic and some repair programs! For Free! I love that price!

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!

My apologies to Mr. Shakespeare for the title of this post!

Through much effort I have managed to suppress much of the feelings for my x-Wife from my conscious mind. It's rough, because of whatever had happened between us I still do love her as much as the day I married her. And, sadly (for me anyway!), I still miss her a lot.

Anyway, the subconscious mind is worse! It's very distressing (well, when I wake up anyway! 99% of the dreams I have with her in them are nice dreams of us being together and doing things like going on vacation, having dinner, a trip to the mall, a walk in the park.......

Well, last night it crossed a new threshold.....I was having a great dream of the five us being at the lake on a sunny day. I awoke, and went into work and my brother in law asked me how I was getting along dealing with the divorce. Did I still miss the X? I mentioned how I had just had a dream with the X in it last night, and I was still dreaming about her, missing her, and still loved her, and how distressing this was for me.

THEN I WOKE UP AGAIN! My former brother in law had actually worked for me back in New Jersey, but that was about 8 to 10 years ago. This was the dreaded 'dream within a dream' scenario I have heard about and seen on TV numerous times. Sigh! It was most distressing.

Unrequited love is the worst love of all!

Danielle Turns Tweleve!

My Daughter had her 12th Birthday this past Friday! I surprised her at her Mom's house that morning before she left for school and gave her a stuffed tiger and a candy bar as a special treat for lunch that day. After school I pretty much let her do whatever she wanted, and the five of us and the X's brother went to dinner at the Chinese Buffet, then back to my House to open presents and she, the X, and I watched the new Shaggy Dog Disney movie before the X departed. I let Danielle stay up until Midnight for maximum birthday enjoyment!

As a followup I took my daughter to Toy's R Us yesterday so she could buy herself a DS Lite handheld game system with all the gift cards she had from previous occasions and some birthday cash from this year. We then hit Gamestop on the way home so she could trade in heer DS, which she got $44 for, so, she bought a new DS game and took some store credit home to boot!

Fifty - Half a Century of being......Me!

Turning 50 wasn't so bad....a quiet day at work, and quiet time with the family, and the X with her Mom and Dad and brother took me out to dinner at my favorite Chinese place. Nothing memorable for a half a century mark, but, a nice day all in all for a birthday.

A couple of lines from a Pink Floyd song kind of sum up how I feel about it

"Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time, plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines"

and

"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death"

For the handful of you who sent birthday greetings, I thank you. To the rest....well......use your imagination! If I have yor birthday on file, I send a greeting.

The Big Five O

What a great birthday so far; we've been fighting a major virus at work for the past 6 days and over the Labor Day weekend were working 24/7. I've been fighting a bug for days, which of course today has taken major hold. I feel, like something the cat dragged in. Sigh!

Well, anyway, make my day by wishing me a Happy Birthday!

T-Minus 10 Days And Counting

10 days to go until I turn 50; so so so very excited; insurance rates will go up...even less money to be had each week......sigh....can't wait. Maybe I'll stay in bed all day!

New Pets!

While I still go back and forth with the should I get a kitten or kittens question, the X took the kids out yesterday and got a new Guinea Pig (named Hax) for the boys, and a Dwarf hamster for Danielle (which she named Speedy)

I will see the new pets today after work.

Picnic and Spider Monkeys

We had the company picnic this weekend on Saturday. The kids and I got there around 11:30AM. After the long hike from the parking lot we discovered they were just starting to serve food. A decent selection of pasta salad, salad, potatoes, hot dogs, boneless Pork, and chicken awaited. The kids and I loaded our plates and dug in. After eating and listening to a song from the band I suggested we do the zoo, since free admission to the John Ball Park Zoo was included (a $24 savings for us! yay!).

The weather, while overcast so not requiring sun block, was exceptionally humid; my outdoor thermometer had sad 70% when we left home. Doing the outdoor portions of the zoo was like walking through a giant armpit! Of particular note was the Australian area they had which was full of kangaroos. We got to one point where we were overlooking the area with the spider moneys. The three kids were riveted for 15 minutes! I got them pulled away with the promise that we could stop on the way back where we would be on ground level and we continued. We came to the large area that the chimpanzees are in, and, noted that they ARE very intelligent! Instead of frolicking around like the spider monkeys all were seated in the only shaded area! We continued into an indoor (and blessedly air conditioned!) area that had no animals and noted when we came out a few of the chimpanzees were playing around.

We arrived at the ground level of the spider money area and the three kids spent 25 minutes watching their antics. No video games! No TV! No Multimedia extravaganza! It was most gratifying to see them enjoy a real world experience outdoors that riveted their attention!

After this we hit the aquarium, and headed back to the picnic, where we had a snack, and then double serving of ice cream. At this point the boys started up with "How long do we have to stay here" so we headed home, enjoying the delay through the three miles of I-196 that only had a single lane open.

Kitty or not to Kitty!

I have been going back and forth about getting a cat. After the loss of Cyclone yesterday, the kids have been asking me again if I will get one.

Pros:

o I LOVE CATS!

o Kids love cats!

o Cat would be a nice companion for those all too many empty house evenings when I do not have the kids!

o I REALLY LOVE CATS

Cons:

o Expense - would need to be spayed, de-clawed, and fed, plus vet visits.

o Litter Box! Kids swear they would clean it but the said the same about Cyclone...and the X was more often than not chasing after them to do it and her house stank like dirty litter.

With my back I simply will not be dealing with the litter box chore anymore. Anyway, I keep going back and forth!

Oh my aching back!

I slipped in the shower Tuesday morning narrowly missing pitching right through the glass door (times like this I hate living alone!). I wrenched my back and these past days it has been bothering me worse than it has this past month. Tuesday night I had Scott and Danielle over and the X graciously offered to bring dinner over. She took care of feeding the kids and I, plus cleaning up. I thought that was very sweet of her.

Now, if only I could get a decent nights sleep!

How many planets are in our solar system?

If you answered nine, THINK AGAIN!

Panel declares 12 planets

Fare Thee Well, Cyclone!

Goodbye Cyclone! We'll Miss you!

Sad news greeted me early Wednesday morning AM; an early tearful phone call from the X to tell me that my older son's Guinea Pig Cyclone had died in her arms. The kids were all very sad when they awoke and my older son buried it out by where I had a few years ago buried my younger son's Guinea Pig Chocolate. They had shared the same cage for a year or so. I can't speak for everyone reading this, but, we tend to get very attached to all pets (well, except fish....) and treat and consider them one of the family.

The kids were all very muted yesterday obviously saddened by the loss of their beloved pet. I must gather a few pictures of faithful pets passed and post them here for all pet lovers to enjoy!

I had a good friend ask this morning how anyone could get attached to a Guinea Pig; I explained that the kids often took Cyclone out of her cage and played with her, pet her, held her in their arm and feed her fresh veggies by hand....it's very easy to get attached to any pet (well, except maybe a fish!)

We have always been pet people. I grew up surrounded by a litany of cats over the years, and one year we had a mommy cat who had kittens in the basement of our two family home. We lived on the second floor, and some of my fondest kitten memories are of those kittens! Every day when I would come home from school in the afternoon, every other step or every third step from the ground floor to the second floor would have a kitten on it! I'd stop and pet them, pick them up, delighting in their purring and affection! Pets have always been one of the family in my house. To be loved, cared for, and cherished! When things were going good I would pick up whatever cat we had a play with it; when things were bad I would cry into a cats fur; there were always there for me, and me for them.

Farewell Cyclone, you will be missed!

XPC From Hell (Treat your PC well!)

After I picked up my Daughter from her Grandparents house yesterday (where they were making "the best chocolate chip cookies; might have been if the bottoms had not been a bit burned, but still good) I headed over to the X's where she had been having abysmal PC performance

After 15 minutes from booting you might get some response form the system....might....

She has 768K DSL service.....I clocked her system at about 40K (less than a good dial up modem).

It's an older PC running Windows 2000, but, when I left it was purring like a kitten and seeing an average 1.2 mbps download rate!

Lesson to be learned here; your PC is not passive like a TV......it's like a car, it needs to be taken care of and like a child cleaned up after.

SO! What did these four hours encompass? How was this miracle of improved (vastly, incredibly improved!) performance attained!!??

Briefly there were about 12,000 temporary files (NOT including Internet Explorer temporary files!), about half a gigaybte of Internet Explorer temporary files, about 1000 invalid registry keys, and when I ran a disk fragmentation analysis, the whole thing was blood red with fragmentation. Thousands of fragments. Compound this by the fact that there was very little free space on the system (under 100 megabytes) it was literally in its death throes. This is also compounded by the fact that there is an account the kids can use on her PC.

SO, I killed all the temp files, flushed Internet Explorer caches, repaired the registry and defragmented the disk. Now the system is flying. The system has other issues, such as it will not recognize any CD-ROM drive (even a USB external drive, which made using the CD full of tools I brought useless! I ended up having my son suck the PC onto his USB memory device and moving the files that way), but, if it is good enough for the X to do her work and my daughter to play on Mom's PC, then it was four hours well spent.

As the X was at an appointment around 6PM I gave Christopher money so he could zip off to Quizno's and get their Monday three large subs for a decent .vs. the super-inflated normal price deal.......he took advantage though and also brought them treats. I flagged him on that and mentioned I had not had them bring me anything to save some money and he kind of blew it by buying snacks for everyone, and not to do so without permission in the future.

Anyway, after that I headed home to about 120 work emails and after that watched a couple of Walker Texas Ranger episodes off the DVR before retiring. I did have a nice surpise, my friends Suresh and Indu had sent me a 'care package' from New York, some spicy Indian Snacks and some hot Chili powder! The majority of this bounty shall be saved for my birthday early next month!

Michigan: Target for Terrorists!

Charges have been filed against five men, three from Texas and two from Ohio in a plot involving pre-paid cellular telephones to blow up the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan. Bail has been set at $750,000. each.

This was not what I had in mind when I relocated to Michigan!

Click here for the story

Another day at work...and McBride

Ah Sunday! Sunny Day! Blue Sky! I am at work as I was yesterday! Joy!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekends! Since I don't have the kids this weekend, being at work is no big deal. Sad eh! :)

At least sitting at my desk I can look at the windows and see the Mustang enjoying the sun! He looks most comfortable!

Been watching a new (new to me anyway) show this past week, McBride, where he is this lawyer who takes on, mostly for free (Yea, I know, lawyers taking on cases for free, it made me laugh too!) cases where the defendant looks guilty as sin. He always wins (at least so far for the five episodes (90 minutes each without commercials) I have seen. It's on Hallmark channel, and it is most excellent.

My best friend growing up had a last name of McBride....have not heard from him in ages and ages!

Priceless

You know the mastercard adds.......the ones that end with some sentimental dribble like "getting to walk your daughter down the aisle.....Priceless!" at the end? Well, I have a more practical one. Being able to feed the kids for $2.49......Priceless! That was the net cost of the kids dinner last night for a jar of pasta sauce for Scott, Danielle, and myself. I had the pasta on hand, and I mixed in the left over peppers and onions from the X's Fajitas birthday leftovers...and Chris had leftover pizza. I had ordered him (NOT Priceless!) pizza Sunday because he was home from camp and I let him have what he wanted. He is maturing; he had wanted prime rib but did not mention he was thinking that until after the pizza had been eaten. Good thing I mentioned back, since I could not afford that for the kids this week. After our priceless dinner last night we watched UHF and some of Weird Al's music videos together. Chris and I also watched a Stargate Atlantis episode.

Tonight, I shall see if I can feed the kids even cheaper! Blah ha ha ha!

T-Minus 29 Days And Counting

Well, 29 days until I turn 50; something I had always envisioned would be a big ta-doo with both sides of the family and friends gathered. Now most of them (my side of the family and the majority of real world friends I have) are 700 miles away! BUT I do get to look forward to even less cash because my life insurance deduction is going to jump significantly on my paycheck when I turn 50. Yay! I already have a large deduction because I provide the kids medical coverage and it's quite a big jump payroll deduction-wise from the single employee medical coverage to family (which is two or more; this means there is no decrease in payments as the kids go off to college and come off my insurance until they are all off). Add that to child support and it's a very hefty portion of my paycheck, and when I have one of these two week periods where I have to live off of $200 while feeding the kids...even with the $100/week easement I get on child support over the summer is it just not enough........I get a bit bitter here....well...maybe more than a bit.

I had a tiring day yesterday; I slept very little Sunday night (I kept dreaming of the X, happy we were still married dreams where she still loved me) and after each one I awoke and had trouble getting back to sleep. Days like this it's hard to embrace the "life sucks" aspect of things. It's like now that my conscience mind has made the effort to go on, my subconscious mind is rebelling. At least last night my dreams were blessedly free from her and I feel somewhat more rested.

I am thinking those dreams of X were possibly caused by watching the Walker Texas Ranger two parter where Alex and Walker get married followed by "The Nanny" where she and Maxwell get married Sunday evening must have hit a chord. When I see that happily ever after crap on TV and realize that some years statistically 50% of first marriages end in divorce....well.....it's kind of sad when you think about it.

Once again I say I hope other married couples I know don't make the same mistakes my X and I did, in other words, if you're dissatisfied or unhappy let your partner know in no uncertain terms. Telling all your friends will do nothing to help your marriage. And of course burying your head in the sand like I did and not noticing your partners dissatisfaction won't help either.

Anyway, back to the fun of the day! I have the kids this week and that always puts a smile on my face.

Fajitas, The X, and my back

Wednesday was the X's Birthday and for her present I promised her Fajitas for dinner. It's amusing, while she may not miss living with me, she certainly DOES miss my cooking! I took a half day and picked up Scott and Danielle at her house, and we headed to mine to pickup rentals which we returned, and then stopped in at Wendy's (right by Family Video); the kids had seen the sign proclaiming a new vanilla Frosty (Wendy's Chocolate Frosty's have long been a favorite frozen treat of me and mine). So, I got them some vanilla Frosty's and fries as they had sandwiches at their mom's already and I had a Bacon Cheeseburger. They loved the new Frosty but I did not; it had that artificial vanilla aftertaste that lower quality vanilla things have (a shame considering how good their chocolate ones are). I was hoping for Dairy Queen vanilla quality! That crisp clean delicious vanilla flavor! SADLY disappointed here!

Anyway, we headed back to my place stopping at Forest Hills foods (where they are, yet again, expanding the store, this time putting a new front on it, to the tune of many loud jack hammers....) where I picked up the ingredients needed for dinner. I had lots of fun creating the marinate (mixture of oil, many spices, and freshly squeezed lime) and butterflying the London Broil I had bought into two long fillets. The meats in the fridge marinating I watched some TV and then began the process of cutting up the onions and peppers. I used tri color (red, orange, and yellow) peppers and these two were set to marinate (minus the lime juice, and ground hot chili added to the peppers), and then headed BACK to the store as I had forgotten the cheese needed for the dinner. I also swung by the X's house (viva la cookware revolution!) and picked up a large frying pan.

As this was all transpiring we watched some TV together and I watched some alone as the kids played downstairs. Scott asked for a sleepover with his friend Taylor this weekend, stating he wanted to do it because Chris would be away at camp still and they could camp out downstairs. I told him he could.

Around 5PM I began sauteing the onions, put them in a separate pot, and then did the peppers. This took about an hour. The X's brother showed up around 6PM and as I was thinking of lighting the grill around 6:15 the X's folks called and they had not left the house yet (we were supposed to eat at 6:30). So, I awaited until around 6:20 to light the grill just as the X showed up. Mom and Dad soon arrived and as I was almost done grilling the beef and chicken a grease fire flared up and in my haste to close the grill I tripped and wrenched my back (still in much pain today!) so I got to enjoy tremendous back and leg pain for the rest of the evening. Anyway, I sliced the beef and chicken and had to thrown them in a frying pan to finish the coking process, and then we all ate. The weather was still quite warm and humid and the house central AC struggled to keep things cool with the additional BTU output of the stove.

Anyway, dinner was finally ready! I had refried beans, three kinds of cheeses, salsa, sour cream, and taco sauce on the side and everyone (except Scott who ate waffles!) really enjoyed the dinner. Afterwards the X's mom snuck out to Forest Hills and picked up a cake and ice cream. The X had also run out to pickup a DVD at her house (she has the Blockbuster version of NetFlix) and we all (except Scott because there were not enough comfortable chairs and he did not want to use a beanbag chair) settled in to watch Madagascar. We took a break around 9:30 when we had cake and ice creak and then finished the movie. Everyone headed at at 10PM, and, other than the back pain it was a most enjoyable evening!

Footnote: Last night I made left over fajitas! YUM! There are enough leftover onions and peppers for a nice egg beaters omelette or two!

Armpit Hair

These past three days here in West Michigan have been the hottest of the year. Ozone and Heat Warning days. People passing out days......Free rides on The Rapids public transportation days.....AC running constantly daze, mercury pushing just under 100 degrees yesterday (99). Scott, Danielle, and I went to the pool and for the first time this season the water was no cooler than the surrounding air! It was like stepping into a spa; it was wet and warm and I wanted to drift off into sleep. Gulping water repeatedly kept waking me up however!

I was even more started around 10PM last night after I realized I had some trash that needed to go out to the curb (where the large can was already for the morning pickup). I was dressed in shorts and sandals, and as I stepped outside, I knew, in that instant, with the total clarity of though that comes with an Epiphany, what an armpit hair must feel like! I was SO much more humid than it had been earlier in the day when we were at the pool, even though it was only 90 degrees now. It was suffocating! I dumped the trash, feel to the floor in the kitchen and began kissing the air conditioning grate on the floor, bablling over and over again "I love you air conditioning!". I wonder what anyone without AC would have done on a day like this! many fans? Live done in their basements finished or not? Check into a hotel??

Blessedly it is supposed to be cooler today (ONLY around 90 though with the same humidity) but a cold front is expected this evening and temps and humidity are supposed to drop over the next few days.