Happy Haunting

First let me share with you my Halloween costume. I decided to go as BTExpress.

UNFLATTERING PICTURE REMOVED BY AUTHOR. I HAD SECOND THOUGHTS. BESIDES BEING A TERRIBLE PICTURE OF ME, IT WAS NOT VERY NICE TO TONY. I WOULD NOT WANT TO DO THAT, TONY IS ONE OF THE MOST SUPER PEOPLE I KNOW.

OK, sorry Tony if you see this. You actually looked cute in that one picture. Words can not describe what the hell I look like here. Don't say you did not receive a good (or is that actually terrible) fright today.

I thought I had a cute Halloween joke to pass on but for some reason I can not find it. Shucks, it would have been fun and I do not think the person that sent it to me would mind.

Moving on, today is clean the garage day. I have excess vacation time and I need to take it. I am sure everyone wishes that was their problem too. So I thought I would spend the day tackling the most scary thing I know, my garage.

This evening no trick or treat for me. I live off a major road. Across the street is apartments which kids do not visit. On my one side is open property owned by the city of the phone company. On the other side is a few neighbors but all and all it just does not make sense for kids to visit. There is no booty profit in it. The hit the neighborhoods in back of me. The most kids I have ever seen here is 6. So I am playing scrooge tonight and leaving the light off.

I think I will actually put together some real quick, silly (and not as scary) costume and go over a few peoples houses trick or drinking. Now it is not what you think. Normally you would think I was going around bumming beers or something. I am actually going to bring beer with me and leave it with the people. I thought that might be a fun thing to do. Funny when I mentioned it to a couple of people at work they protested and said what about me. I think this could get to be a very interesting thing to do.

So how about you. Do you see many kids for Halloween? I hope so, that is part of what makes Halloween fun.

Happy haunting and Happy Halloween everyone.



I've learned there are three things you don't discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin. --It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I got a rock! --It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Busy Sunday

It was suppose to be an entire weekend project but it turned unto a 7 hour project on Sunday. My garage is a disaster. Half of it has always been a mess but when the spring broke and I could not get the door open any more I figured that is OK during the summer. Then I started to dump stuff in there without even thinking about storing it away. So now I have a huge mess and there is no way to get anyone in to work on the door.

TIME TO CLEAN UP

Well that is the project. I had moved a bunch of stuff outside earlier in thw week and tarped it because of the bad weather we have been having. This afforded me some breathing space so I could start organizing. I cleaned up a bunch of messed and took up a ton of dirt from the floor. Where did this call come from? Anyway to make a long story short I am aways from being done but I am getting rid of this one thing that probably was a bar in a previous life that never really worked out well for storage and replacing it with three heavy duty racks capable of holding 1,000 on each of the five shelves each unit has.


This will give me 2 1/2 times the storage and it will allow me to get some stuff off the floor. Stuff like fertilizer, topsoil, room air conditioner units, etc. This in itself should go a long ways to getting the garage clean. Now if I can only get a day off so I can concentrate on the garage. I need to start parking indoors, it is almost Winter and it is Michigan after all.



Nice rack. --Seinfeld

Time to Fall Back

Well it is time most likely if you observe Daylight Savings Time and if you are in the Northern Hemisphere. I do not know but I would assume the Southern Hemisphere just might be springing forward. Here is a Wikapidia article about Daylight Savings Time.


The time you are suppose to set the time back is 2:00 AM on Sunday but most people just set it back before they go to sleep.

In the Wikipedia article above it mentioned something new. Now normally, at least here in the United States, Daylight Savings starts on the First Sunday in April and ends on the Last Sunday in October. Well all that changes next year. In an effort to save more electricity the United States will start make a change next year. Starting in 2007, Daylight Savings starts the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November. That will buy us 4 to 5 extra weeks of Daylight Saving Time depending on how many Sundays there are in March. Personally I just wish they would do away with Daylight Savings Time all together. There are studies that prove that this changing of time has a negative impact on people.

Enjoy your extra hour of sleep.


Uh... that Daylight Savings Time is over, Sir? --Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - Safe

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is SAFE.

Oh my gosh I am so excited. I can not believe this happened. A little while ago they moved us from where our offices where located to another building. Bascially it had been 13 years or so since they had done anything other than basic cleaning, patching and panting what they patched. The place needed to be redone. It was doubly needed since, for one reason or another, we managed to get all hand-me-down cubicle parts before. While we were moved out, the carpet was replaced, the walls were painted, and new cubicles were assembled.

This is going on to long so let me get to the point. The place they moved us into was an old bank building. On the first day I went exploring and what did I find but a "SAFE." Now I did not know where or when I was going to need it but I made sure to take pictures. After all, how often do you see a bank safe and, even more rare, how often are you allowed to take a picture of a bank safe. I would think that would be a huge security problem.

So now you know why I am so excited. I have been planning the photo hunt set for a while. Without more ado I bring you my SAFE pictures.







Thank you for visiting and best wishes to you for a good weekend.

Baseball and SignGurl and Drugs, Oh My

OK, that does it... I'm not watching.

I still do not watch major league baseball but ... but it is the world series and the home team is in it. But you see I have been accused of jinxing a team before, my boys the Red Wings. You know after a while I was afraid to watch a game because I did not want to make them lose. I was convinced they were losing because of me.

So now here we are. Detroit is down 3 games to 1. And I have been watching them. Am I jinxing them? I think I am going to have to miss the next game. I am fighting for you guys.

So now what am I going to do with all my free time?


If we do not hear from SignGurl sometime today I will see if I can reach her and see how she is doing. I hate to bother her but inquiring minds...


Wow would you look at that. First KMart offered specials on some generic prescription drugs. Then Walmart started $4 prescriptions for about 300 generic drugs. Then Meijer started to offer free 14 day supply of for 7 generic antibiotics. Now KMart offers $15 for a 90 day supply of certain generic drugs. I don't know about you but that is cheaper than my co-pay and what I pay now. Now I am one of those pill poppers. One prescription is not generic but the other two are. I just might need to check into that. It is about time someone does something about drugs. I sure hope that helps out my parents.


Ahhhhhh more political ads... my ears are bleeding. ENOUGH ALL READY!


Exactly! Temporary. You're nothing but a wannabe, a placebo, a generic brand. Marked-down, over-the-counter, useless Tic-Tac! --Osmosis Jones

Free For All

I have really grown over the years at what I do for a living. I have been developing software and systems for 28 years now. Some people might consider that boring but I actually love the challenge.

Let's get into that way back machine for a moment. The first program I had to do was produce a report. Nothing to big. They told me what they wanted and another developer filled me in on the environment around there I was going to have to work with. I disappeared for a month. Yes I said a month it took me to get the project done. Now part of it was just getting used to the stuff I needed to work with. When I presented the program the first thing they did was ask if I could make a few minor changes. I said sure, give me a week. To this day I can not believe I was not fired for how long it took to do things.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was trying really hard to finish a project so I could go home early. The whole time I was trying to wrap things up I was in conversation in email with people that were changing what it is that needed to be done. How on earth are you suppose to hit a moving target. But what I find interesting is it did not phase me. I have grown tons in the time I have been developing software. I do things in a flexible way it I can move forward even when I do not have all the answers. I plan things in such a way that, short of a major change, I can usually accommodate about any change. What a long way I have come. In the end I not only did not go home early but I stayed almost 30 minutes late. Maybe I can sneak out early today.

What did not help yesterday was that SignGurl was having an operation. I found myself the whole time keeping her on my mind. I was worried about how long it was taking as I had looked up about how long they expect that procedure to take and it seemed over due. I was very happy when I heard all was well. But now here comes the interesting part to me.

I have known SignGurl for about 11 months now. In that time I have met her over that one weekend of the blogger meet in March. I also attended a concert that her oldest daughter was playing in so I said hello that day. Other than that it has just been the exchange of comments and some times email. So why was it affecting me like that? Now do not get me wrong, she is a wonderful person but it just seems interesting that would affect me like that. Of course what has happened with her and actually many people is they have become my friends. Even people I have never met in real life fit in that category. Isn't that amazing. Of course it could be just me.

Boy I am really hating regular TV these days. The stupid political commercials are insane. There is only one commercial has got me thinking. I thought I knew how I was going to bote on all the proposals but now I am not sure about the one. Now I have to spend several hours researching this and probably even read the bill behind the proposal. I hate having to do that. You never can understand what it is that they say but I fear I do not trust anyone else to tell me really what is going on. Now I am not usually that anal about voting but this particular proposal is important not to get it wrong. I think once I figure out what I am doing, I am going to go to sleep for the little over a week until the elections get here so I do not need to deal with the commercials, the phone calls, the mail ... wake me in 12 days please.


Commercials? Oh boy, I can't wait. Thirty-second materialistic sound bites that insult our intelligence? Ooooooh, give me more of those! --Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mid Week Ramblings

I heard a couple of things on the radio today I thought I would share since I am at a loss to post anything else.

A 23 year old lady from China was looking to get some plastic surgery to make her more ugly. Everyone turner her down. Now why would she want to be more ugly? Her boyfriend left her because he said she was to beautiful and he knew she would leave him for someone else eventually. Now I have to say, what a jerk she was dating. Talk about a permanent scar. It is a shame she could not have taken it for what it was worth, she was dating a jack*ss and just ignore it.

This second story comes from the Netherlands. It appears that a legislator over there has proposed that they send hookers in when ever they deploy troops anywhere. The thought behind it is that it will allow the troops to blow off steam and keep from bothering the local woman. This should prevent a lot of problems the troops seem to get into. If this should pass then there will be hookers in Afghanistan by Christmas.

So what is the best thing you can do for exercise? What allows you to work out the best? It turns out that swimming works the most body muscles by far.

I have been seeing a commercial. I think I might need to get a Lexis. Why is that you ask? It seems that they have a feature called and Advanced Parking Guidance System that can actually parallel park your car for you. Nice. Of course when I looked up the car I also saw a ton of other things like a wiper for your headlights, heated steering wheel, feature memory system, backup camera... Of course I refuse to look at the price tag but what an interesting car.

Today is SignGurls gastric Bypass surgery. Remember to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Sometime probably early evening after I have heard from Mr Sign look for an update on her blog. Best wishes SignGurl.

Happy hump day.


What is this? "Hump a Limey" week? –A Fish Called Wanda

Crashing

Last night it was not quit time to call it a night. So I decided to do something dumb. I laid down but I had not turned off the TV or the lights. What was I thinking?

Well a while later I woke up. I could hear that Conan O Brien was on so I had been down for a while. I got up and did I turn things off and go to sleep? Heck no, that would have made sense.

Now here I was unable to sleep staring at my computer. So I messed around a little and Conan went off. The next show came on and went off and finally the one Judge show came on. I think it used to be called Texas Justice. Now this was a weird show when I saw it before. I was not sure what I thought of it. Well the unthinkable happened and it has gotten even more weird.

The judge now has electronics in the courtroom. At one point he as the women in the courtroom to vote on their electronic thing to see what they thought the one person should have done and 97 percent agreed with what was to become his verdict. Another case the put the evidence up on a big screen so everyone could see. What was really crazy was the way the judge was ranting and raving and behaving during the procedure. Bizarre is about all I can say. This brings us to the whole point of today’s post.

This was a case of a fraternity boy verses a fellow fraternity buddy. Or at least they were buddies but not no more. It seems that the former buddy borrowed his Eddie Bower Explorer to go pick up his girlfriend. Now here is where it gets good.

In the process of heading back he got in an accident. The person two in front of him suddenly stopped for no reason. So the next person either was unable to stop or was pushed into the lead person by the Eddie Bower. Either way he hit the car in front of him. He did about $3,000 of damage to the vehicle too. He was being sued for the cost of deductibles. The jerk had the nerve to say that it was not his fault, the person should not have stopped so fast. Now while that is true there are a few facts here.

First when ever you drive a car you are suppose to be in control of that car. You are never suppose to hit someone else and if you do, you best be prepared to pay. Two if you were driving the proper distance away you could have stopped in time anyway if you were not distracted. Three, and this is the important one, when you borrow something you return it in the same shape or better than it was when you borrowed it.

Now is it just me or do you think it is OK to him to have just walked away and not expect to pay to have the car repaired? I think he got off lucky and should have been responsible for the full three grand. He said get your parents to pay for the deductible. Excuse me, you didn’t go there. If he wanted to get out of this he really needed to sue the person that caused the accident to recover what he owed but still it was his responsibility to take care of the automobile he borrowed.

Am I wrong here? I know I very rarely borrow things from people because I do not want to be responsible for it. Somehow I get a little nerves knowing that. When I do borrow something I am extra careful not to screw things up. Is it just me or do you think that guy was clueless? I tell you if that is what people are learning in college these days I think we best rethink our institutions of higher learning.

One last thing I would toss in now that blogger finally let me upload a picture. I received this in email this morning. I thought it was cute. Enjoy.



Ohhh! That was a *horrendous* crash! –The Dukes of Hazzard

I Got You Covered

If you live anywhere in the mid west I have your back this winter. Why is that you might ask? I mean I am not going to come over your house and clear you snow or anything.

What I am going to do is chase away the snow. That's right, this year the mid west states will not be getting a lot of snow. If you like to cross country or down hill ski, snowshoe, snowmobile or anything else that requires snow you may want to plan to head out of town for a bit because there is not going to be much snow. No Frosty the Snowman either. Here is why.

I live off of a 4 lane road. The snow plow person just loves to burry my double wide driveway. While they are at it they also toss up more than a little snow on the sidewalk which is pretty close to the street. Now I have a single stage snow thrower that does OK on the easy stuff but the foot of the drive way, forget it. So this year I broke down and bought a little larger snow thrower.

This snow thrower is a double stage thrower that can blow snow up to 40 feet. It should be able to handle what the snow plow person throws at me and then some without breaking a sweat if snow throwers sweat. I should be even able to clear the snow away at the curb to keep the mail box and drain clear of snow. First how about a picture of the thrower.


Now two things I hate about my snow thrower before this one. First it was a 2 cycle engine that needs oil mixed in with the gas. Second it is one stage rather than two stage which means sometimes the chute plugs and it does not throw the snow very far. And finally I am always getting a face full of snow. Well the new unit has the first two items covered and I bought a cab to deal with the last one.



OK so now I am all set or at least I will be once I pick up the snow thrower this week sometime. So what does that have to do with you, why are you all covered?

Well you see it is like this. Everyone knows that when you was a car it is going to rain. Well the same is true when someone buys a snow thrower. When you buy something like this especially something this size and with extras (well with an extra, the cab) then you just know it is not going to snow very much at all. Heck I may not even be able to use this unit this season. So now you see how I have the mid west covered. You can thank me later.


Call Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow. --The Simpsons

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - Dreaming

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Dreaming.

First let me say thank you Melli for being the first person to visit my hunt pictures this week and tell me I posted pictures for the wrong theme. I am more than a little embarrased. So I retooled and I offer the following. Keep in mind it was with short notice...

Here we have my brother-in-law from several years ago. Now I am not sure what he is dreaming about but it may very well be his dream home. Over the course of three years he built his dream home. Plumbing, gas pipes, sewage, phone, electrical, painting, heating/cooling, grating the property, planting the grass seed in clay (and having it take), intercom, television, siding, shimming, shimming, and more shimming. All in all he did not ruff in the house, do the cement work, brick work, insulation, do the roof, or sheetrock but he did everything else. That house is built better than any other house built as he exceeded most guidlines. Anyway this picture was taken about a month after they moved in. By the way, this is not his house I caught him dreaming in.


By the way, this is his home. This picture really does not do his dream home any justice.


Thank you for visiting and best wishes to you for a good weekend.

Footloose

This week in particular I have noticed more than a little talk of booty shaking going on. This brought back memories of my 8th grade. Let me take you on a way back trip. I remember it so well, sort of.

8th grade was funny. We were bumped up to the big school. For that particular year they moved the 8th grade into the high school. Here was this big old school to navigate. Lots of people too. Multiple classes with multiple teachers, it was more than a little interesting. I remember this one stair well in particular. Not because I had a make out session or something on it but I just remember looking up and seeing all the people passing to and fro.

One thing they did was hold dances that were only our grade. We went into the cafeteria that was all done up for the dance. The music was a blaring. The chairs were all line up along the wall. The refreshment area was busy but the dance floor, the dance floor was mostly empty.

Now we had the boys lined up against the wall. We had the gaggle of girls all clumped together but not dancing for the most part. They were probably waiting for the boys to come up and ask them to dance. Eventually a clump of girls would break off and go dance followed by some more. Of course there were a handful of boys that took to the dance floor too. Now that I think of it they were the same people that were being recognized as best dancers and best dressed.

Eventually this was a little bit of boy girl dancing going on, the music was playing, the mirror ball was a spinning and shining. Did I ever dance? Well maybe once or twice but ... I just don’t dance. Now I think I know why. I blame it on 8th grade, it ruined me. While this does not make sense, it’s my story and I am sticking with it.


Hey, hey! What's this I see? I thought this was a party. LET'S DANCE! –Footloose

More Meme

I have been putting together a meme page and in the process I discovered I am way behind on meme’s. So I thought I would steal this sucker from Kristen who borrowed it from Dzer.


1. What kind of shirt are you wearing?
A nice warm sweater.

2. Would you kiss anyone on your blogroll?
Sure but the question truly is, would they kiss back or just call the cops?

3. Do you have a "thing" for anyone on your blogroll?
I am with Kristen on this one. They would not be on the blogroll to begin with if I did not enjoy them.

4. How many people on your top friends do you know in real life?
Probably a bit over half. I have met some pretty wonderful people online too.

5. How many kids do you want to have?
Probably none but I bounce between 0 and 2.

6. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
You betcha.

7. What name would you want besides the one you have?
Bill Gates. Hey, the money is hard to resist.

8. What did you do for your last birthday?
Small party with the family.

9. What's your current ringtone on your phone?
I don’t know. Why don’t you call me and I will tell you. 866-ITS-MEME ... call me.

10. What do you think when you get meme's with missing questions?
Every time I get one I say next time I will catch it but I never do. By the way, thanks for nothing for making me check for missing questions on this one.

11. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Just going to bed.

12.Where is the furthest place you've ever called to talk to someone?
Germany unless you count that one International wrong number...

13. Do you like having your hair pulled?
Please find some other way to give me attention cause I do not like my hair pulled. Of course I might be wrong...

14. Name something you CANNOT wait to do?
Oops, sorry I just did it. How about visiting my friends over Derby time. Of course that means it will be spring again.

15. Last time you saw your dad?
Last Sunday evening.

16. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life?
I think I would take back that one letter I sent to someone I had a crush on back in 10th grade. What a geeky thing to do.

17. What is your favorite board game?
Doctor Ruth’s Game of Good Sex. Check it out at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7348

18. Do you have a pimp name?
Sorry, Barman is a pimp as it comes. Unless you count big bird that someone called me in 11th grade. I have no idea why.

19. Have you ever talked to Tom (from MySpace)?
Sorry Tom was being a pervert and was kicked off. I think the police hauled him off but they are keeping it pretty quiet. Didn’t you hear?

20. What's the last thing you ate?
Roasted Chicken.

21. Favorite month?
Late April or May. It is nice when things start to turn green and I am not talking about someone that is sick.

22. Least favorite month?
February, possibly January depending on the weather.

23. What's the last piece of clothing you borrowed from anyone?
Underwear. Can we talk. Actually I think it was a jacket unless a baseball cap counts.

24. Who's getting on your nerves right now?
Who ever keeps asking all those stupid MySpace questions. That would be a yepper.

25. Most visited Web page?
My own blog as I am getting links to someone else’s blog to go visit.

26. Do you ever sleep in the nude?
Rare but sometimes.

27. What is the strangest thing you have in your purse or wallet?
A membership card to the Detroit Curling Club. What makes it even more strange than the fact that most of you have no clues as to what curling is ... It was for the 1978/79 season I believe.

28. Last person to make you sad?
I get sad easy.........doesn't take much. (Oops, by mistake I borrowed this answer from Kristen. I guess my Sister made me sad when I tried to fix problems between her and Mom and she was being stuborn)

29. Would you help your best friend fight if he/she is losing?
I hate to fight but that is part of what best friends are for.

30. Coke or Pepsi?
Regular coke. Can I choose Mountain Dew instead? Funny things is I can do Pepsi or diet Pepsi but keep diet Coke away from me.

31. Do you have a crush?
None for me just now.

32. Have you kissed or been kissed by anyone in the past week?
Does kissing up to the boss count? If not than NO.

Long Meme

OK I saw so many of the cool people fill this one out I thought I would give it a try. I finally stole it from SignGurl.

1.The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?
It is not going to be another political phone call, that is for sure. I have a couple of friends I have not heard from in ages. That would be nice to hear from them.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
Most of the time.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?
A little of both but mostly a listener.

4. Do you take compliments well?
I do not take compliments well. I usually deflect it by downplaying things or cutting myself down.

5. Are you an active person?
I need to be but sadly, no.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, do you survive?
I would make a good go if it. I'm a survivor, I'm not gonna give up.

7. Do you like to ride horses?
I have only rode horses less than a dozen times but I did enjoy it. It was fun.

8. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?
Band camp for 4 years. It was the best.

9. What was your favorite game as a kid?
Kick the can at night with the neighborhood gang was pretty fun.

10. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was married would you?
Sorry but no. Even just being in a relationship makes them off limits to me.

11. Are you judgmental?
I try not to be but I am afraid sometimes it just happens.

12. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?
Yep.

13. Do you like to pursue or be pursued?
A little of both.

14. Use three words to describe yourself:
Fat, Funny, Dull.

15. If you had to choose, would you rather be deaf or blind?
If seems like deaf would be easier to live with. I mean my friend has done well being blind but you would miss out on so much.

16. Are you continuing your education?
Traditional 2/4 year degree or masters and doctorate, no. But I self teach myself things all the time for work and have taken may focused classes over the years.

17. Do you know how to shoot a gun?
I own a gun however it is at my parents house. I used to go deer hunting while I was growing up. Do I know how to shoot a gun? That is a good question. One time I had a deer probably no more than 25 feet away and ... I missed him. So no, I do not think I know how to shoot one, at least not effectively.

18. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you tried to save?
If I could I would go for my pants. They usually have my keys in them and would allow me to seek shelter in my car. It also has my cell phone. One of my coworkers had his house burn down in the last year. What did he go for? Well there was a case of beer right by the door...

19. How often do you read books?
It comes and goes. Probably only 5 or 6 a year other than work related.

20. Do you think more about the past, present or future?
I tend to think of the past a lot. I also try to think to the future. The present seems to get lost.

21. What is your favorite children's book?
"The Little Engine that Could" or "Green Eggs and Ham" possibly. Truthfully I think my favorite was the World Book Encyclopedia. I think we may have bought it from my Grandma or she was involved in it somehow. I loved those books. Three of the first things I bought when I first was on my own... A couch with a Love Seat. A Kitchen Table and a set of World Book Encyclopedias. I still have them but now I never open them since I search for things on the Internet.

22. Have you kissed any of your MySpace friends?
I have an MySpace account but never use it. MySpace, deserve the rap or not, is bad.

23. How tall are you?
6'1"

24. Where is your ideal house located?
Up in Northern Michigan at least other than winter. I might need to reconsider for the winter.

25. Boxers, briefs, thongs, panties, or grannies?
Briefs.

26. Last person you talked to?
A telemarketer for like 3 seconds. Grrrr....

27. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth?
Long time ago. I think I still have a strip somewhere where I had my cast from back in High School.

28. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?
I would guess 3 to 5 years ago. I so want to take my parents there for lunch. They never go but they like it there.

29. What are your keys on your key chain for?
My house, parents house, sisters house, old van, three office keys, a bicycle lock key, some weird key that looks like a diary key that I have no idea what it is for. It has come in handy for other things.

30. Where was the furthest place you traveled today?
About 4 miles to work.

31. Where is your current pain at?
Does heart burn count?

32. Do you like mustard?
Yes. And ketchup, and mayonnaise, and miracle whip and butter and ...

33. Do you prefer to sleep or eat?
Did I tell you I have a problem with eating to much?

34. Do you look like your mom or dad?
I guess I would say my Dad but possibly more like my one Uncle on my Dads side.

35. How long does it take you to shower?
Usually about 5 minutes.

36. Can you do a split?
Only in my mind. No way otherwise. Never could other than possibly a pair of pants or two.

37. What movie do you want to see right now?
Nothing at the moment. Probably something funny.

38. Do you put lotion on your dog or cats?
What? If I had a pet and they needed that to be done you bet I would but since I do not have a pet... No.

39. What did you do for New Year's?
I was suppose to go over someone’s house I go to every New Years but I was not feeling well so I spent the night home alone..

40. Do you think "The Grudge" was scary?
Sorry, I have no idea what "The Grudge" is.

41. What was the cause of your last accident?
Cutting the lawn. Don’t ask me how but I hurt like crazy afterwards. Only me.

42. How much money do you have on you right now?
$9.83

43. What are you drinking?
Water.

44. Was your mom a cheerleader?
I don’t think so.

45. What's the last letter of your middle name?
"R"

46. Who did you vote for on American Idol?
For me Taylor Hicks was in the running.

47. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
I would like more but 6 is about the most I ever see.

48. Do you like Carebears?
Yes. Funny incident on my last job with friends...

49. What do you buy at the movies?
A ticket and sometimes pop and popcorn (I go to the cheap theater).

50. Do you know how to play poker?
Yes but I am terrible at it. If I stay in on a hand it is time for you to pull out. I do not take chances.

51. Do you wear your seat belt?
Almost always, almost.

52. What do you wear to sleep?
Underwear but sometimes sweats or now warm flannel pajamas.

53. Anything big ever happen in your hometown?
I moved there. No seriously we got our own zip code. Other than that there probably was but I can not think of it.

54. How many meals do you eat a day?
3 with snacks on occasion.

55. Is your tongue pierced?
Whad you thay? Nope. When I have a flaw in my tooth I can not leave it alone for a moment. I can not even imagine a piecing there.

56. Do you always read MySpace bulletins?
See 22 above. I do not do MySpace.

57. What's you favorite NFL team?
*cough*Detroit Lions*cough* You couldn’t ask me my favorite NHL team, could you?

58. Do you like funny or serious people better?
Funny.

59. Ever been to Vegas?
Someday.

60. Did you eat a cookie today?
I had about a quarter of one.

61. Do you use cuss words in other languages?
If I do that would be a surprise to me.

62. Do you steal or pay for your music downloads?
A little of both. But mostly I have a pay service that I listen to legitimately.

63. Do you hate chocolate?
I have only had chocolate once that I did not like, other than that no way.

64. What do you and your parents fight about the most?
I hurt my Moms feelings sometimes without meaning to.

65. Is anyone mad at or irritated with you right now?
I do not think so but anything is possible.

66. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Mainly Christmas but both to be truthful.

67. What's your favorite preparation for eggs?
Depends. Over hard, sunny side up, scrambled, even poached sometimes but generally I try to avoid that.

68. If you could have any job (assuming you have the skills) what would it be?
I think an astronaut might be fun.

69. Are you easy to get along with?
I would like to think so.

70. What is your favorite time of day?
I wake up early and I like the time in the morning before I have to get going.

71. Who was your best girlfriend/boyfriend?
For boyfriend lets say Don LaFramboise. For girlfriend, sad to say, I wanted her to be my girlfriend but she did not want to hear it.

72. Who do you hate?
I try to never hate. It just zaps energy from you.

73. Would ever date your first love again?
How about date her the first time. She got away before we dated. I would love to.

74. Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?
If I understand this then yes but only a few.

75. Current mood?
Sleepy... is that a mood?

I Got Nothing

What am I going to write about? I got nothing. I had a couple of ideas but I thought better of them. I just knew they would be funny to me and me alone. So I thought I would write about BLOGGER.

First I think this is awesome how someone that has no idea what they are doing can pick up this program and put together a post to share with people. The exchange in comments is great and seeing what you friends are up to is super. I do believe you become friends with the people that you blog with even if it is not the same as having a friend right by your side.

Of course blogger has its problems. I have seen a lot of times where people can not upload pictures. That has happened to me a little bit two but thankfully not to much. How about this problem. You typed in something for a blog and you go to upload a picture. The picture uploads and all of a sudden, everything you types is now on giant paragraph.

Of course my spelling is terrible so sometimes I use the built in speller. I click on it and, at least on occasion, it eats what I just typed. Also, have you ever had comments just disappear? I do not know about you but when someone leaves me a comment, even if I do not agree with it I will not delete it. I only get rid of it if it is spam or if something hurtful was typed. So far I have only deleted spam comments. I think most people do the same when leads me to believe that blogger is losing comments sometimes, it has to be.

Of course tacked on to blogger but not part of it is blogrolling. Now when this thing works I love it but on occasion it is down all together. Other times it never tells you when someone has updated their blog. For me at least it has been several days since it has been updating the list of who has updated. It just started updating again this morning.

Now I guess you get what you pay for and, after all, this is all free but sometimes it is just a little frustrating. Still I am enjoying myself and am glad I finally decided to jump into blogging oh about 11 months ago. There are some real super people out there and I keep finding more around every corner.

I hope blogger is kind to you today.


This is totally going in my blog! --How I Met Your Mother

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - Lost

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is LOST.

I had several things I was thinking about for LOST but none of them were working for me.

So what we have here is a float that I see on Memorial Day here in the United States. What it represents is freedom that has been lost. This is a captured prisoner of War from when the United States was involved in the Vietnam War.


I realize that this particular photo could strike a nerve with some people. If that is the case I would like to appologize as that was not my intention. This particular picture actually has a lot of meaning to me on a lot of levels from back them and even now. Wouldn't it be nice one day if we could all get along and the whole concept of war would simply be lost. To world peace.

Thank you for visiting and best wishes to you for a good weekend.

Friday the 13th

Beware. It is Friday the 13th. I am thinking of spending the day in bed after my day Thursday. Have a safe day...

What a Difference a Few Days Can Make in Michigan

These pictures were taken by a coworker. He shared so I thought I would too.

October 7



October 12




You know what they say about weather in the midwest: if you don't like it, wait an hour. --Prison Break

... and More Stuff

Hello, is anybody out there? Echo, echo, echo... Boy with blogrolling down, at least for me, I can not find most of you. I do have a few people book marked from before I used to do blogrolling so some of you are not safe. Watch out.

I watched our states Governors debate today. I will spare the details but one thing I noticed. The Governor was blinking probably 80 or more time a minute. That is suppose to be the sign of being nervous or un trust worthy. I can not picture her being nervous. She lives for this kind of stuff. She is very good at speaking. Now her opponent was the opposite. He almost never blinked. He had the deer caught in the headlights look. I was not really a fan of either look.

I won a contest that had no prizes. I guess I get bragging rights.

Snow on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday is my Dad's birthday. A friend from Minnesota has her birthday on the same say. Here is a math test. Two cards are mailed on Wednesday morning from the post office. One is going to Minnesota, one is going to the Detroit area. Will either of the cards make it in time? I suspect my Dad will get his card.

I think my load of laundry is done. Time to make my bed and catch some z's.

Happy Hump Day to all.


I can't say hump or screw in front of the b-a-b-y... I just spelled the wrong words didn't I? --Friends

Laundry

So, everyone that has ever done laundry knows all about missing socks, right? I mean you do the laundry and when it comes out the other end you are left with a sock missing. What happens to it is beyond me. Maybe that is where all the lint comes from. Maybe there is some sort of Laundry Ferry or something.

I once saw a Carol Burnett sitcom that tried to answer this one. In the story an embittered woman fell into a commercial-sized clothes dryer in the laundry room of her apartment building in search of a missing sock -- and entered into the Land of Lost Things, there encountering once more all the things she'd lost in her life, e.g., her sense of humor, her childhood, her virginity and her ability to love. I am sort of inclined to believe this one myself.

Well I had something much more difficult to explain happen to me. I was running low on underwear. So I gathered up some stuff so I could make up a white load. It was then that I realized that I hardly had any underwear. How could that be. I remember buying some more not all that long ago. Now mind you I take some out of circulation at the same time but still.

Well it turns out I forgot to remove the last load of laundry from the drier. Now being single and living alone I am not doing laundry every day so it had been a little while. So it turns out that, at least in this case, it was not some sort of laundry ferry or a washing machine or drier gone awry. Instead it was just me being caught in a blonde moment or is that a senior moment.

Oh, buy the way, I checked and no, there were no socks left behind in the drier.


Hey, where's my sock? Hey! --Family Guy

Ramblings

Frosty the Snowman,
was a jolly happy soul,
With a corncob pipe and a button nose,
and two eyes made out of coal.

Frosty the Snowman,
is a fairytale, they say.
He was made of snow,
but the children know
how he came to life one day.

There must have been some magic
in that old silk hat they found,
For when they placed it on his head,
he began to dance around!

Frosty, the Snowman,
was a live as he could be;
and the children say
he could laugh and play,
just the same as you and me.



Thumpety thump, thump,
thumpety thump, thump,
look at Frosty go.
Thumpety thump, thump,
thumpety thump, thump,
over the hills of snow.



Frosty the Snowman,
knew the sun was hot that day,
so he said, "Let's run,
and we'll have some fun
now, before I melt away."

Down to the village,
with a brooomstick in his hand,
Running here and there, all around the square,
sayin', "Catch me if you can."

He led them down the streets of town,
right to the traffic cop;
and only paused a moment when,
he heard him holler, "Stop!"

For Frosty, the Snowman,
had to hurry on his way,
But he waved goodbye,
sayin' "Don't you cry,
I'll be back again some day."


Oh my gosh. We normally do not see snow up here in the southern peninsula of Michigan until November and usually we are struggling trying to have a white Christmas. But here I was, minding my own business when I heard the early Sunday news mention snow. When the weather came on there it was. Friday they are talking about us seeing snow mixed in with rain. Burrr. I am not ready for snow. Of course I see they just opened the scating rink at Rockefeller Center. Can we just skip winter this year?




What an interesting day yesterday was. The Detroit Tigers baseball team, basically the laughing stock of the American Basball League last year and for many years, advanced to the next round of playoffs.

I have not followed baseball for years now but I remember checking to see if the Tigers had lost 100 games yet or if they were on target to lose 100. 100 games! That is over 60 percent of their games. The one year they were one game away from losing the most games any team has lost (I believe).

What happened to make the difference. It is truely amazing. This year the almost WON 100 GAMES. Now if only I could bottle that and apply some of it to the Detroit Lions. They have not won a game yet this season other than a preseason game.




30 days before the election here in the states. If only there were some people that I felt like were worthy of voting for.




Despite the approaching snow, it is going to be in the mid 70s today. The trees are turning colors and leaves are falling. What a mighty fine fall day.

Happy weekend to all.

Saturday's Photo Scavengar Hunt - Sleep

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is SLEEP.

This first picture comes from a family reunion several years ago. I guess we need to work on making the reunions a little more exciting.


This second picture was taken at the Run for the Rose event from the Kentucky Derby Festival from last year. Don't know who they are but the picture was just to cute to pass up.


Thank you so much for visiting. Now I think it is time to get some sleep of my own. Have a great weekend.

RIP Audio Blogger

I received an email recently. The people that run Audio Blogger are closing up shop. You have until the end of the month to record messages and then they will be no more starting November 1st. Why is this? They claim it is to resource intense and they are going to focus in other directions.

The only piece of good news is any recordings that were already done they will continue to host those files.

In the email they did list several alternatives.

   Gabcast.com is a free service for recording by phone
  Hipcast.com has a seven day free trial and lots of features
  Gcast.com is another free service for phone recording

Now why do I care. Well first I have used it several times myself. As a matter of fact I left a audio blogger entry while I was driving 70 miles an hour through the heart of Indiana on my way to Kentucky. It seems like I did that on more than one occasion too. Sometimes it is just nice to be able to quickly leave a post.

But more than that it has been fun getting to know other people just a little bit more. Like Sign Gurl. I do believe there have been a drunk blog or two left. Then there is Madame X. You have not lived until you have heard one of her poems or stories in her own voice. Talk about hot. There is Brighton with her "Hey Y'all" that is just so cute.

Of course there are others I would love to hear. I approached one person in an unsolicited email once about doing one of those and she about bit my head off. I did not mean anything and when I appologized, it got worse. Oops. The Read Me button on Madame X blopg probably applied big time to what was wrong here. There is Kristen. I think her Southern accent might be real fun. You do have an accent, don't you? You know I am curious about how Denny sounds too. For that matter I would love to hear everyone whose blogs I have visited. It could be so fascinating.

Oh well Rest In Peace Audio Blogger (death November 1, 2006)

Oh one more thing. Just as I was typing the above line my TV bit the big one too. I better end this post while I am ahead of the game.


If it was up to me, he'd have let schizo dog rip your circuits out a long time ago. --Transformers: Beast Machines

My First Political Sign

Out of all my years that I have been around, all the time I could allow political signs to be placed on my property I have always resisted. First off it is no ones business how I vote. Also I so hate being branded one way of the other. For one thing I do not care who you are, if I think you are the better person, I will vote for you regardless of anything.



So why am I excited about this particular sign? Well it is not the sign. It is your basic sign with very little else. Also I am not even in this persons district, I’m on the wrong side of the street. It certainly is not because I finally decided to declare what party I tend to vote for. It is because Jim is my friend. And not just a friend. I think the following says it best.

A GOOD FRIEND WILL COME AND BAIL YOU OUT OF JAIL .......BUT A TRUE FRIEND WILL BE SITTING NEXT TO YOU SAYING, "DAMN, THAT WAS FUN!"

Jim is a true friend. Now we do not always see eye to eye and he so knows some of my buttons to push to make me hot under the collar and he take pride in pushing them from time to time. We have worked together in the past. Heck we were even partners in a small business for a little while before people decided it was time to disband. College football, hockey, and even the local minor league baseball team ... it is not the same without him there.

Let me give you an example of typical Jim. We are at the ball park. Jim is up getting beers and what should happen? A ball was fouled off into the stands in left field. As luck would have it the ball hit the ground and bounced all around Jim while he was waiting in line for cold beverages. I saw that he actually managed to get the ball. Now it just happened that my parents were with us at this game. I made sure they knew what happened and I said, watch, he will give that ball away before he even gets back to his seat. Sure enough, Jim found some little kid and made his day. That is just so Jim. I have a simular but much better hockey story but I will hold onto that one.

Will Jim win? I think he will. If he can knock on enough doors he will win people over. Also it helps the area I live in is somewhat republican and he is running on the republican ticket.

Will this post make any difference in his campaing? Of course not, that is not why I am posted it. As a matter of fact I do not even intend to mention it to him.

Will Jim make a good commissioner? You bet he will. He is responsable. He is very much a people person. He would love to hear from his constituents and is already thinking of changes he wants to make so he is more accessible. Jim is a dreamer but he also gets the job done.

There is one other thing that makes this so cool... think of the possibilities. Election Night Party, Woot!


In this Election, The clowns wear suits! –The Adventures of Blinky Bill

Dinner

Last night I decided I wanted to have hamburgers. I had been thinking about this for a few days. I found a simple recipe to make garlic butter so I could make garlic bread. I had some onions, tomatoes and even pickles. I was all set to get started.

I had to put some oil in a pan and add various seasoning. Then, over heat, stir everything being careful not to burn the seasonings.

Stir stir STIR

And it burned. What the... Oh well, this was just for me and I can take a little burn. I lowered the heat and added a little more oil and finished browning the mixture. Then I added in the butter and kept stirring that. Much better so far.

sTir stIR stir

and at last it was ready. I took it off the heat, dipped several pieces of Texas toast into the butter and headed for the toaster oven. In went two of the pieces of bread and on went the broiler.

It seemed to take forever but at last it seemed to have the two pieces of bread nice and toasted. So I put in the other two pieces and plopped a couple of hamburgers onto the George forman. I also figured why not take advantage of the left over garlic butter and saute some onions for the hamburger so I moved the pot back to the burner and added the onions. I also cut up some tomatoes to finish the sandwich.

Flip, fLip, flIP

went the onions so as not to burn it.

You know, now that I type this out I now understand what happened next. I smelled smoke. I looked up and, oh no, the broiler had smoke coming from it. It is amazing I did not manage to set off the smoke detector. NOTE TO SELF... Check the smoke detectors!

Well it turned out one side was burned a bit but not to bad. Once again, I can live with it. By this time the hamburgers were ready so was the onions and it was time to assemble the hamburgers.

Well surprisingly the hamburgers were not to bad despite the fact the I just had this need. A need to burn something. I suppose I should just refer to yesterdays dinner as blackened burger. Hey why not, I see blackened chicken or blackened fish on the menu at restaurants all the time. I think I know why now.

So who wants to come over for dinner?


It's burnt toast, Kirk. You don't have to eat it. –Gilmore Girls

This One Time ... at Band Camp ...

I really did go to band camp when I was in high school. It was definitely a fun time. But I am not really sure I can use the phrase, this one time, in band camp. Here is why.

I must have lead a sheltered life for sure. In my senior year at band camp I became the senior guys cabin project. What was the project. No matter what they did I just would not swear. It took forever but let me tell you, all their hard work payed off. They would be proud now a days I tell you. Actually I am not that bad but I am not at all like I once was.

One thing that was mentioned kind of in passing was the trails. From what I gather that is where a lot of the “action” happened at band camp. Now not only did I never see any of this “action”, I also never even saw the trails.

There were the romances that were going on. That was nothing new. It was not uncommon for the band geeks to be involved with each other as we all became a pretty close nit group and spent a lot of time together. Of course for me it was the crushes rather than the romances. The person I set my sights on just was never meant to be. Someone else that I ended up liking I never did anything about it. I mean here I was a senior and she was a freshman. That is 3 years difference in age. Now a days I look and that and think how trivial that would be now.

You always heard about cabins sneaking out at night and doing something. The one year that I actually joined the fray we were busted. Not because we were caught but because they just knew we were out of the cabin. We were sent home and for what? Well more might have went on then I realized but there you go again.

Now don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of band things going on too and I have good memories from that. Marching for hours in the sun (ugg), learning new dance routines, challenges, sectionals. Beyond that there was teams and softball, touch football, swimming in the lake, skits at night, tug of war, kitchen duty, keeping the eating area clean, revelry in the morning that often times saw some underwear or possibly bra and panties up the pole from the night before, lots of practical jokes, very mild hazing for the incoming freshman. Yes it was fun times and I remember them fondly. I just an not sure that I have earned the right to use the phrase however.


Sex can lead to nasty things like herpes, gonorrhea, and something called relationships. --Da Ali G Show

Pass the Silverwear Polish, Would You?

It’s interesting. I find, while bouncing around the blog world, someone peeks my interest. I go and visit their blog. I find myself reading what they posted in the past to find out more about this person. And that is when it happens.

I start to get these feelings like I want to be a knight in shining armor charging to their rescue. Of course what little I do read I really do not know this person. Plus they have shared what they chose to share. Still I feel like a long lost friend. All this for someone that I have never met, someone I most likely never will meet. Plus if I were to actually be honest with myself, if I am a knight at all there is plenty of tarnish on that armor.

It breaks my heart some times to see some of what people go through. You wish you could right all the wrongs. What a better place it would be.

Well I have read the little link that I first saw on the blog of Madame X that is a blogger's disclaimer. It certainly is a good thing to remember as I get to know my fellow blogger.

So should I ever do that to you, do me a favor. Just slap me up along side the head. Bring me back down to earth. I will try to work on that knight thing but I just know I have not made my last ride. Maybe I should revive what I called myself online back in ‘95, the Tattered Teddy Bear.

Editor: Something fun…

I just had an age old question answered this afternoon and I just had to share.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

The answer is to get to the parking ramp.

Last week at work we moved to a different building while they remodel our floor. So today, with the permission of the building owners, we went up to the 22nd floor to look around. Now this area is really pretty flat and very few builds are more than a few stories. It afforded a very interesting view especially with the lightning that was in the area. Anyway, we looked down and what did we see but a person in the lead followed by a big chicken. What were they doing? Why they were crossing the road to get to the nearest parking ramp. So there you have it, proof why the chicken crossed the road. Maybe next we will investigate the chicken and the egg…

To right the unrightable wrong, to love pure and chaste from afar, to try when your arms are too weary, to reach the unreachable star. –Man of La Mancha