17th Annual Halloween Costume Contest for Dogs

On Friday October 24, 2008 they held the 17th annual Halloween Costume Contest for Dogs. It was my first one I ever attended. I really enjoyed it. The dogs were all well behaved. I only heard a couple of possible scuffles that were killed right away. As a general hole the dogs all got along well, tolerated the costumes, and loved their owners.

The sponsors were super. Sir Pizza donated their lot to hold the contest in and was feeding the people all the hot choclate you could drink. Hey it was damp and wet. A1 Rental donated a huge tent and the lights so no one had to be drowned as it was a very wet day. There were plenty of pet companies that were sponsors who gave prizes to the people that entered and to the winners. In the end I think I was not the only one that had a fun evening.

Here are just a few pictures of some of the dogs in costumes. If you would like to see more, check out my set in Flickr.

The Flasher



The Cow



Octopus's Garden (took first place)



We Love Our Dogs



McCain (on left) and Obama - not sure I see it however



And there you have it. If you would like to see a few more pictures then check out the link at the top to my flickr set.

Championship Butt Sniffing, more to come

This is just a little teaser of what is to come tonight/tomorrow. I promissed Championship Butt Sniffing and here you have the only photo I have of that aspect of the contest...

55Flash Fiction Friday

It is always the same
You’re stomach is in a not
You are in a slight panic
Over and over you ask
why am I doing this?

The lights come up
The announcer finishes
The audience is clapping

You take the stage
Walk up to the microphone
And just like that
the concert is underway

Anyone that has ever been on stage probably knows this feeling. Some of the best performers I know (and yes I am including you in there GoGo) thrive on this. I believe it makes their performance even better.

The above was a 55Flash Fiction. If you would like to participate just put together something with about 55 word. You need a theme and at least one character and there you go. Post it and go see G-Man and tell him you posted one. You would be surprised, they are not that hard to do. Some people write the most incredible 55s. Others are much more average like mine are. I hope you join us.

Well I will be on a run the rest of the day. This evening will be 17th annual Costumes Contest for Dogs. I have never seen one of these and I think it is high time I go see it. It will be damp but there should be a big tent donated by a local rental place. If I can I will bring you a few photos of the championship butt sniffing contest that I am sure will go on. I know all the costumes are always fantastic. It should be a fun time.

Shame on you Red Cross

OK, I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Actually this all started yesterday...

I went to the Red Cross to give blood yesterday. It was amazing how quickly they were able to process me. Normally it takes a little over an hour. Yesterday I was out of there in 40 minutes or so. It is amazing how fast they can push you through when it is close to closing.

It probably has been happening all along but yesterday I just really noticed it. When I sat down I was asked my social security number. OK, there is no reason they need this number. By keeping this number on their database systems they are opening themselves up to future security breaches. It has happened at least once and I am sure even more often that data including social security numbers were compromised. Anyway this is my first complaint.

I asked the nurse taking my readings what the number is used for. She said it was to identify who I am. Certainly this does not need to be done. I watched medical insurance companies remove social security numbers from the medical cards. If they can do it so can the Red Cross. Anyway at the time I said they should not be using the social security number and left it at that.

At the end of the review she printed out a form with all my information on it including my social security number. So now I have a piece of paper out there with my number out there, a number that should be kept secure. Who knows where that paper is headed. When it gets there will it be shredded or securely filed? Beats me but I intend to find out. Working with computers and seeing what other companies have done I know something can be done. At the very least they should only print the last 4 digits of the social security number.

Well I have not contacted the Red Cross yet but I will. Will this go anywhere? Probably not. Will I take it further? You bet I will. Will I still be ignored? Most likely. In these times where people get their identities stolen all the time I think it is irresponsible of the Red Cross to still be using our social security number.

In all fairness I have to also mention that the Red Cross does a lot of good for people out there. Picking on them for this one practice they do, something that others still do all over the place, hardly seems fair. Still I think they need to take steps to correct this and I hope to give it a try to bring it to their attention. With luck maybe they are already working on correcting this.

Another dull day in New York City

I am so behind. This past day I have been trying to figure out what things I am going to do to track health related things. Stuff like blood pressure, weight, exercise, etc. The doctor and I had a little talk yesterday. He did not push hard but I can tell he is saying you need to make a change. If I am going to do that then I am going to track what I am doing so I can share the results with him when I go back in two weeks.

Now comes part of the battle. If I am going to try and lose weight (which I seriously need to do) than I can not lose at an acceptable rate for the doctor. Only losing a pound a week for a guy that is taking things serious is actually a hard thing to do. When I was on Weight Watchers many eons ago I was losing around 3 ½ pounds a week. Of course that is probably part of the reason I developed gallstones and had to have my gallbladder removed.

We had a hard frost today, YEA. I have been wanting to clean up my planting beds anyway and now that should kill just about everything off once and for all. Well it better not touch my new shrubs but other than that…

Today I go see the Red Cross. I do not mind giving blood but the delay of over an hour to give is a pain and it does not always fit in nice. Hey have been hounding me for a little bit. I guess tonight is the night. Of course I had coffee today and that tends to elevate my blood pressure. Maybe I will not be giving after all.

I had an electric tooth brush give out on me. It turns out it was just in need of a good charge. Yea, that is a few bucks that I can save. Speaking of saving, gas in my neck of the woods is about $2.65. Amazing, less than a month ago it was somewhere near $4.12.

Sorry my blogging seems to have hit a long skid. Nothing exciting to write about for me. I will see if I can change that without getting my self tossed in jail to provide an interesting story.

Q and J

I know I am late with a post today so I thought I would post two things. The first one is a question then how about a blonde joke just for good measure ... and no I am not picking on you Sign, honest.

My question

Having been around for a lot of years I have noticed something I think interesting. When I was growing up there was not this big credit card thing. Yes you could get them. One of the big things to do was get a Sears and Robuck credit card and they were hard to get. If you were lucky they may give you a $400 limit on a card. Then again it was more likely you would get rejected. Sears was a great place to start building credit.

So what did you do without a credit card? Well back 30, 35 years ago what you did was used layaway. I would take your item or itemes to the layaway department and then you would leave it with them after paying a certain amount down on the item. Then in a few months you would pay off the layaway item(s) and you would finally take them home with you. Putting things on credit was not the norm at all.

So fast forward many, many years and what do you see? Layaway, what is layaway, everything goes on credit. You get to take things home right now after all we all expect instant gratification.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and what do I see, people talking about layaway once again. An then over the weekend I saw a commercial for KMart and it mentioned layaway too. I do not know if this is the credit crunch or what but I was amused when I saw this happening. So is it just me or have you noticed that also?


The Blonde Joke

A guy took his blonde girl friend to her first footballgame. They had great seats right behind their team’s bench.After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.

“Oh, I really liked it,” she replied,” especially the cuteguys with all the big muscles; but I just couldn’tunderstand why they were killing each other over 25 cents.”

Dumbfounded, her date asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, I saw them flip a coin and one team got it and thenfor the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was:

‘Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!’

Helloooo? It’s only 25 cents!”

55Flash Fiction Friday (Part 3 - Conclusion)

and now the conclusion...

At long last someone comes
and places a load in the washer
next to yours. But then
they do something unexpected.

They stop the dryer and
snatch one of your panties
and quickly turn to leave.

At long last you caught
the panty thief.
But much to your surprise,
it’s your
next door neighbor Heather.

OK, sorry to drag this on for so long and sorry if it offended you. It was just something that kind of slipped into my mind and I just knew it had to have a twist. I won't head this direction again, promise.


I had one of the most unique experiences. I think it is part of what I love about Mom and Pop operations. Yesterday I went to see a movie at my local cheap movie house. Half way through the two hour movie the movie projector broke down. We spent the next 40 minutes as at first one of the workers tried to get the film back where it belonged. Then she called in the big dogs and they made their attempt until they finally said this will be a while.

The whole time we were getting the occasional information, always on the positive side but never right. Occasionally the projector would come on and we would get maybe 10 to 20 seconds of the movie and all of a sudden it would go in slow motion and finally come to a stop. One of the comments once was, "well we did not melt the film". Great confidence builder I tell you.

At one point I ended up talking with the guy across the isle from me. Short nothing much sentences. Then after a while the last presidential debate came up as it was just about to start. Then we talked a little about politics. Now that and religion are things I generally never talk to someone about. I mean I have opinions and all but I also know these topics can be get pretty heated. But it was refreshing to talk a little politics, even if it was guarded. I was rather surprised when he mentioned Ralph Nader was looking better all the time, something I had thought about a month ago. Anyway after talking a little while it was time to go but not before I learned that he knew the owners.

When I went out into the lobby the person was friendly enough and was offering a pass for a future movie or your money back if you wanted. I figured I was not giving up on my little Mom and Pop theater that easy. Besides, the last thing they need is people taking their money back and just splitting. So I talked a little with the person giving out the pass and son of a gun if the pass did not turn into two passes. All I was hoping for was one pass so I could see the movie again today so ... bonus.

Today when I showed up the person (one of the owners family) remembered me and said good, you are back. It is kind of fun to be somebody. We said a few more words but I was just barely on time to see the movie. One thing she did mention however, they were working on the projector until 3:30 am. I am glad they were able to get it.

When the movie was over I discovered that the guy that was sitting a few seats away was the same guy from the night before. He made a comment about how when we got to the point where all the problems had happened he noticed the film kind of jumped and he was worried we may lose the projector again. Funny, I was worried the same thing. We said a few more words and then headed off in our own direction. I still have no idea who that masked man is but next time, should there be a next time, I will be sure to introduce myself. Now tell me, when was the last time you had anything as exciting happen at a movie.


I have this fun little thing I do when ever I go to movies. Usually on my return trip home I take this fun little road. It is kind of a country road only it is black top. It winds, it has gentle rolling hills, it has fun turns, it has a traffic circle (well that is just OK), and it runs along a little river. The houses are back off the road a little which helps lend to the country feeling.

As I am flying down the road having to keep flipping my brights off out of courtesy for the on coming car only to turn them back on it hit me. I love this little road and this is not the first road like this that I enjoyed either. I have another road the runs between Ann Arbor and Dexter that I really love too and it has nothing to do with the fact that I took that road to go get a keg on more than one occasion. It turns out that road is very similar to my little road I was on tonight. There are a few less trees, a little more country, and you can actually get right down to the water in several places but as a whole they are much the same kinda road. So now I sound like a weirdo collecting favorite roads but I can not help it, it just is a fun thing to do for me. I guess I am just easily amused.

UPDATE: Oh my, I reread this last part of the post and you can tell I was falling asleep when I wrote it. I did a little patching to make it at least half way readable. Sorry 'bout that chief.

Eagle Eye

Over the weekend one of the things I did was go see a movie. If you are looking for a chick flick then look somewhere else. Eagle Eye is all action. As a mater of fact this is the first movie I can remember where I thought it was to much action. I will give you an example. There is a point at which they are on a road and suddenly there are cars and trucks flying everywhere. Of course most of that is in slow motion and it is heading your way... and heading... and heading... and heading. In the end it just got a little uncomfortable for me in a few spots but that is probably just me.

Now I am sure I missed a bit of the movie as I was think about my niece's volleyball game that we needed to bolt out of the theater as soon as possible to go see. I will be going to see the movie again at my local mom and pop theater next week just to take in a little more of what I missed. It is nice to support Mom and Pop and $2 is not bad at all.

Anyway the action was interesting. At first I was saying there is no way that all of this could happen. Then as the story progresses I decided yea, maybe it could happen. I enjoyed Shia LaBeouf in the lead role. They even tossed in Billy Bob Thornton in there too. I really enjoyed all the characters. Now was the movie original? No, but then they sort of mixed things up a little. I found myself entertained from beginning to end.

So what happens? Well without saying much you have two characters who's lives are thrown together who eventually work together to overcome all that is happening to them and their families. You have a few surprises tossed in, you of course have a villain who does a decent job of it. Sometimes things are just to cast to dark either just by the plot or other times they are actually to dark and you can not see anything. Not a problem here. The sound was brilliant as I felt luck ducking out of the way on many occasions. Of course I saw this at a modern theater and not the Mom and Pop shop I normally go to so that could explain why it was so nice. Oh one more things about the movie… they left it wide open for a sequel.

In general I would recommend this movie to anyone. It is rated PG-13 and has a bit of intense action and violence in it but other than that, if it is action you are looking for, go see this on the big screen.

Wasn't That a Weekend

What a weekend. I was busy making a little bit of food and making my way down to my parents. We celebrated two birthdays. I came home with the 6th season of 24. Later this month seasons 1-5 will be priced right and I will have the series. I starting watching 24 last year and really loved what I was seeing. I got so hooked. So some time over the winter I will have a 24 marathon. Oh boy.

My Dad turned 76 and we were nice to him. He only had 3 candles on his cake which him blew out no problem. I can not believe it, I bought a birthday card on Friday at lunch time at work and forgot the card on my desk. It is hard at best for me to get into the office on Saturday so I picked up another card on Saturday which I misplaced when I got down on Saturday. Me and birthday cards. I almost always buy cards last minute and I tend to lose or misplace them. Oh well, in the end my Dad got his card on Sunday which was his actual birthday rather than Saturday when we celebrated it.

They said they did not want anything for his birthday. I had no idea what to get, well until we were actually celebrating. So now I am in the process of looking at all in one copy/print/fax/scan machines. As long at you can copy without having the computer on. He is always using the copy function we have set up for him but he gets confused with everything. So a nice stand alone thing should work out well for him. That and I will probably get them a few things for their furnace but that will not be a birthday present.

Sunday, among other things I visited with friends and also got to see my nieces last volleyball game. The won one and lost two but they were close. I also got a chance to learn a little more about shooting volleyball. Still much to learn but I did much better.

While I was in the Detroit are I also bought gas for about $2.85 a gallon. I also say one station selling it for $2.73. Amazing. I filled my tank for just under $50. I only wish it would last.

Today I plant a few things including shrubs and bulbs. That should be fun. I can not wait to get home from work now. I will be planting my first tiger lilies and some more tulips too. Next spring and summer should be fun. I just hope Mr squirrel does not dig up my work.

Enjoy the nice weather while you can...

55Flash Fiction Friday (part 2)

Continued from last week...

It has been over a week,
time to trap the thief.

You do one load of laundry
and place it in the dryer.
The other load is placed
in the washer and you noisily
go back to your apartment
only to sneak back down and
hide in the corner of
the laundry room and wait.

Yesterday I had and awesome time. I met Sign Gurl at her favorite spot and she showed me around the trails. Now I knew the place I was going to had something like a mile and a half track around it. That was incredible in itself. But now I found out that the trail system was much larger than I ever knew about. First there was a series of trails that was already there. But then I found out they recently extended the trail to allow it to connect into a 8 mile trail system.

OK, I am out of shape so we did not make it a real long ways but I was really impressed with what I did see. I even got to see the location of some of Sign Gurls previous posts, It is so amazing that they would put together such a wonderful trail system for all to enjoy. I think that means I need to make a whole bunch more visits and get in some exploring time. Oh, one thing however... I saw a ton of wild life. Yep, there were mosquitoes everywhere. I should have know better as the other times I have been there they were out. What did I expect as the other times I was there I got ate alive. One of these days I will remember and bring spray.

Let me tell you, even though I am sure my legs are killing me today, it was so worth it. Thank you so much Sign and thank you for dinner afterwards. What a most enjoyable evening. And one more thing, Sign is every bit as lovely as she is in the photos. I can not believe how much change I see in her face. I always thought she was pretty seeing her in person now... incredible.

The above was a 55Flash Fiction Friday. If you are interested in attempting to write a 55, you can visit here to learn about it. Then tell G-Man you played this week.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Stuff

OK, bring on the election already. Are these Presidential debates changing anyone’s mind? If you are undecided you certainly will not learn very much new at the debates. At this point no one is making big mistakes either. Wouldn’t it be nice to just go out and vote already?

My bulbs arrived. Time to plant for next year. I have some tiger lilies for the summer and some tulips for the early spring. I love flowers that are early risers. I can not wait to shake off winter and seeing the greenery always helps.

Why or why did I fertilize my lawn. I took forever cutting the lawn yesterday. I think I am going to cut it again today. No, I don’t have a thing for cutting the lawn. It is just time to start cutting it shorter for the winter.

Eating cereal for dinner is no fun. I am so hungry right now. Of course after eating a foot long subway sub for lunch I best slack off a little.

Why is it most of the time nothing is happening. Then a million things happen all at once. That happened to me at work yesterday. I had so many things happen that I just got rather frazzled. I did kind of lose it for a little bit there. Maybe I should bring in treats to make it up. I hope today is better.

I celebrate my birthday (again) this weekend. The family has been “busy” and we partially celebrated it back when my birthday was (beginning of July). Now we will do it again. I wish we would just drop it. This weekend is my Dad’s birthday, on the same day as Lime. We will celebrate for him too and most likely go golfing. The weather will be great for it.


Some Humor that came my way...


Investment tips for 2008

For all of you with any money left, be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some BIG BUCKS! Watch for these consolidations in 2008:

1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W. R. Grace Co. will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.

2.) Polygram Records,
Warner Bros., and ZestaCrackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.

3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become: MMMGood.

4.) Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become: ZipAudiDoDa .

5.) FedEx is expected to join its competitor, UPS, and become: FedUP.

6.) Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will become: Fairwell, Honeychild.

7.) Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become: Poupon Pants.

8.) Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become: Knott NOW!

And finally ..

9.) Victoria 's Secret and Smith/Wesson will merge under the new name: Titty Titty Bang Bang

I have more ramble to do but no more time to ramble. Have a nice day everyone.

Songs From 1975

I stole this from Lime who stole it from Suldog. They both seemed to think their year was rather dark. Well I happened to like my year but what I found out when I went back, I liked more songs after 1975 and before 1975 than songs that actually were from 1975. Oh and I found out I suck at this list as I do not want to say I disliked any of them. OK, here we go.

The rules:
A) Go to Music Outfitters.
B) In the search function, enter the year you graduated from high school. Get the list of the 100 most popular songs of that year.
C) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate, and underline or italicize your favorite.
D) Do nothing to those you don’t remember or don’t care about.


Lime followed the lead of Suldog and decided to break the songs down into lists. I thought it sounded like a splendid idea.

Songs I love: These are the songs I really like. When I hear them I crack up the radio and sing to most of them if I am alone or lip sync if I am not. It is not out of the question to car dance either.

1. Love Will Keep Us Together, The Captain and Tennille (hey it is fun)
2. Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Campbell
6. Shining Star, Earth, Wind and Fire (my new favorite group)
7. Fame, David Bowie
9. One Of These Nights, Eagles
10. Thank God I'm A Country Boy, John Denver
13. Lovin' You, Minnie Riperton (Yes, embarrassing as it is I love this song)
15. Black Water, Doobie Brothers
16. Ballroom Blitz, Sweet
20. Pick Up The Pieces, Average White Band
21. The Hustle, Van McCoy and The Soul City Symphony
22. Lady Marmalade, Labelle
31. Magic, Pilot
34. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Elton John
36. Have You Never Been Mellow, Olivia Newton-John (A crush no drought)
38. Cat's In The Cradle, Harry Chapin
41. Listen To What The Man Said, Paul Mccartney and Wings (Love Wings)
50. You're No Good, Linda Ronstadt (OK, her too)
60. Lady, Styx
64. Get Down Tonight, K.C. and The Sunshine Band
65. You Are So Beautiful/It's A Sin When You Love Somebody, Joe Cocker
68. How Sweet It Is, James Taylor
74. Some Kind Of Wonderful, Grand Funk
78. Killer Queen, Queen (Queen rocks)
81. Can't Get It Out Of My Head, Electric Light Orchestra (Gotta love ELO)
83. Lonely People, America (I like other songs that they do better but...)
89. Bungle In The Jungle, Jethro Tull (I love Tull)
91. Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John (for the most part, Elton John too)
98. You Aint Seen Nothin' Yet/Free Wheelin', Bachman-Turner Overdrive


Songs I Like: Now these I like, just not to the extent I like the songs above. I probably don’t know all the words either but I still like them. Being someone that never wants to cause trouble I threw most of the songs into this category.

3. Philadelphia Freedom, Elton John
4. Before The Next Teardrop Falls, Freddy Fender
5. My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli
8. Laughter In The Rain, Neil Sedaka
11. Jive Talkin', Bee Gees (for not liking disco... I loved Bee Gees)
12. Best Of My Love, Eagles
14. Kung Fu Fighting, Carl Douglas
17. (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, B.J. Thomas
23. Why Can't We Be Friends?, War
24. Love Wont Let Me Wait, Major Harris
25. Boogie On Reggae Woman, Stevie Wonder
28. Angie Baby, Helen Reddy
29. Jackie Blue, Ozark Mountain Daredevils
30. Fire, Ohio Players
32. Please Mr. Postman, Carpenters
33. Sister Golden Hair, America
35. Mandy, Barry Manilow
37. Could It Be Magic, Barry Manilow
39. Wildfire, Michael Murphy
42. I'm Not In Love, 10cc
43. I Can Help, Billy Swan
44. Fallin' In Love, Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds
46. Chevy Van, Sammy Johns
47. When Will I Be Loved, Linda Ronstadt
49. Please Mr Please, Olivia Newton-John
52. Walking In Rhythm, Blackbyrds
53. The Way We Were/Try To Remember, Gladys Knight and The Pips
54. Midnight Blue, Melissa Manchester
56. Poetry Man, Phoebe Snow
57. How Long, Ace
59. That's The Way Of The World, Earth, Wind and Fire
61. Bad Time, Grand Funk
62. Only Women Bleed, Alice Cooper
67. Feel Like Makin' Love, Bad Company
69. Dance With Me, Orleans
71. Never Can Say Goodbye, Gloria Gaynor
75. When Will I See You Again, Three Degrees
82. Sha-La-La (Makes Me Happy), Al Green
85. The Rockford Files, Mike Pos
87. No No Song/Snookeroo, Ringo Starr
88. Junior's Farm/Sally G, Paul McCartney and Wings
90. Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), Leo Sayer
94. Only Yesterday, Carpenters
96. Only You, Ringo Starr


Songs I do not Like: Now these are just a few songs that I really did not like. Not hate but just was not thrilled with them.

26. Wasted Days And Wasted Nights, Freddy Fender
66. One Man Woman-One Woman Man, Paul Anka and Odia Coates
80. Do It (Til You're Satisfied), B.T. Express


These songs are from 1975???: And finally these are the songs that I have no idea what they are or just do not care about them. I was surprised how many fell into this category.

18. He Don't Love You (Like I Love You), Tony Orlando and Dawn
19. At Seventeen, Janis Ian
27. Fight The Power, Pt. 1, Isley Brothers
40. I'm Not Lisa, Jessi Colter
45. Feelings, Morris Albert
48. You're The First, The Last, My Everthing, Barry White
51. Dynomite, Bazuka
55. Don't Call Us, Sugarloaf
58. Express, B.T. Express
63. Doctor's Orders, Carol Douglas
70. Cut The Cake, Average White Band
72. I Don't Like To Sleep Alone, Paul Anka
73. Morning Side Of The Mountain, Donny and Marie Osmond
76. Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor), Joe Simon
77. I'm Sorry/Calypso, John Denver
79. Shoeshine Boy, Eddie Kendricks
84. You Got The Love, Rufus
86. It Only Takes A Minute, Tavares
92. Misty, Ray Stevens
93. Bad Blood, Neil Sedaka
95. I'm On Fire, Dwight Twilley Band
97. Third Rate Romance, Amazing Rhythm Aces
99. Swearin' To God, Frankie Valli
100. Get Dancin', Disco Tex and The Sex-O-lettes


Why don't you give it a try and share how the songs from the year you graduated worked out for you. I had fun doing this but it took me a while as I looked up most of the songs with Amazon.

Homecoming weekend

This weekend was homecoming for the local High School. As usual I made it to the parade but this year I also attended the homecoming football game.

Things sure have changed since the bagillion years ago when I attended High School. First the floats were much more to them. The one year we built a Raggedy Ann and Andy on the float. I think they must have been 10 foot high. I still remember one of the floats I saw this past weekend. It had a pig on it... at least I think it was a pig. I suppose it would have helped to know the theme for the year but I had no idea. Oh well.

They had 2 bands in the parade. The High School band was first and they did pretty good. The lines were OK but not as straight as they should have been. Sorry I am a former band geek and I look for things like that. The drum line was strong but you know, I can not think of a band that does not claim to have a strong drum line. Of course as soon as the band got in front of me they stopped playing. Typical. When they were playing they were playing Anchor’s Away. Later I figured out that must be the schools song.

The second band was strange. While the first band had spiffy uniforms, the second one had on what ever. Some shirts with the district name, some with ratty jeans, some with something else that at least had one of the school colors. And what were they playing??? Why Anchor’s Away of course. I do not know who these people are. Maybe it was the overflow band if to many people went out for High School band. UPDATE: It turns out it was the eighth grade band and the reason for the mismatch is they normally wear pull overs and it was to cold for that. So they asked the kids to wear school colors. Apparently they should have asked the parents to make sure they wore school colors.

Now what else was in the parade? Why of course you had to have the cars with the homecoming court on board. Now once again things were so different. When I was in High School I think there was four or possibly six couples but not this parade. They had 13, count them 13 couples. One for the class of 2009, one for 2010, one for 2011, and one for 2012. OK, that leaves 9 other couples. I am not sure why there were do many.

Even though it does not sound like it, I actually enjoyed the parade.

Well I took some time getting to the football game and offloaded all the pictures I took from the parade and got all primped and prepped for the game. I showed up about 10 minutes before the game and found my friends and was all settled in before the game.

Out came the camera and zing, zing, zing went my camera as I took a butt load of pictures of the band as they performed on the field. That was followed by an exciting football game. The team was ahead by 14 points at one point but before the first quarter was done it was 14 to 14. It went downhill from there. As I watched I found out that my local team was not good at all. Actually people were amazed that they scored. One game they almost had the mercy rule applied. I had no idea they had a mercy rule in football.

Part way through the first quarter they lost their quarterback and after a while they took him away with an ambulance. Maybe that is why they lost 33 to 21. I noticed after a while the otehr team started practicing going for 2 points instead of a field goal after the touchdown. Might as well, my team was not going to beat them.

The band performed at half time and did pretty good. The drum line was good, the flag girls did very well and their flags were great. Over all I liked the performance. I would not mind watching them some more. But boy did it get chilli after a while. The second half of the half time show was presenting the court and picking the king and queen. The King was a of course a football player. The Queen, well I have no idea who she was but she was very pretty, seemed to be filled with a great personality and seemed to be very popular.

I watched some more of the game but was out of there before the third quarter was over. When I left it was 33 to 21. I did stop by Tim Horton’s to get a nice hot chocolate and when I drove pass the game again it was still 33 to 21 which is what the final score was.
Well that was homecoming. I hope you had a nice weekend.

I think I found a nice hat for G-Man to wear after the football game this afternoon.



G-Man, if you see this... maybe you need to find something else to do with yourself on Fall Saturdays.

I feel your pain.

55Flash Fiction Friday

Ever since you moved
to this apartment
you’ve been losing panties
every time the laundry is done.

Now you’re mad,
your lucky pair just
turned up missing.

You decide to set up a trap
to catch the guy responsible.
But staking out the laundry room
did not work this time.

Next week will be different.

Sorry, when reading someones comment on another blog this idea struck me. Anyway I hate to string this along but this is a several parter.

Is it just me but, if you watched the Presidential debate and the Vice Presidential debate... would you rather vote for the Vice Presidents rather than the Presidents. I like the debate that happened yesterday more. All I know is I can't wait for it to be over.

Today is homecoming for my school district. That should be fun. I will rush home so I can see the parade and maybe, just maybe catch the football game. I look forward to seeing the band, it is my favorite thing about football games.

Well I best post this thing. I thought I did it last night but no. Have a wonderful weekend.

Humor: And then the Fight Started

This was just to cute not to share ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels.

She asked, 'What's on TV?'
I said, 'Dust.'

And then the fight started...

==============================

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.'
I bought her a scale.

And then the fight started...

==============================

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive... so, I took her to a gas station...

And then the fight started....

==============================

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social
Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license
to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet
at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and
come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing
my curly silver hair.

She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and
she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.

She said, 'you should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.'

And then the fight started...

==============================

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asked, 'Do you know her?'

'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up hose many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.'

'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'

And then the fight started...

==============================

I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?

Yeah, well I couldn't believe it... he was a DWARF!!!

He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!'

So, I looked down at him and said, 'Well, then which one are you?'

And then the fight started...

I have an idea, run for the hills...

I have an idea, run for the hills...

I just heard about someone out in California that is painting lawns green and he is swamped with lots and lots of business. Basically he says you paint the grass and it looks good for about 4 months allowing foreclosed homes to sell easier. It is sad that it has come to this but I guess you need to make the most out of it you can.

So I was thinking, what can I do with this. I mean my lawn is not picture perfect... actually far from. But at the same time it is in decent shape. So I really do not need his service. Maybe in the middle of summer when everything turns brown, but wait. Here is my idea.

Here in Michigan we have a winter that usually arrives about December sometime. By this I mean we start getting SNOW. Now snow is OK for a few weeks but then it just is no fun what so ever. By the time March comes along or even April you are so ready for it to be over. So why not paint the snow green. It will not be grass, it will not be spring but if you combine that and a nice sunlamp ... yep, that could just work. Well that or maybe just move south to like Kentucky or Tennessee or something.

OK, maybe I should just go back to sleep and try and not hurt myself thinkin’ any more today.