Making plans is the easy part.

Finding a way to pay for those plans to become reality is another matter entirely.

But find a way I must, and soon.

A general timetable I've established in my mind that will help define these plans and reach these goals- or at least some of the more immedaite ones, anyway.

Discipline it will require.

Admittedly that's a skill I tend not to possess at times.

Or if I do indeed possess that certain skill, I've currently misplaced it.

Wouldn't say I've lost it all together, but some might venture down that path.

Sacrifice certain things I must in order to accomplish these lofty goals. The good news is they are attainable. All of them.

Sure, there are risks involved, but nothing worthwhile comes cheaply or easily (most of the time, anyway...)

Now where'd I put that discipline??

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Oh stop worrying. NONE of these plans even remotely considers my quitting blogging. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

Six unspectacular quirks o' mine

At some point in the past, I borrowed this from dabich.
I'm not posting any rules, since no one follows them anyway,

Six "unspectacular" quirks that I have.

Here we go:


1) I don't get creeped out by many things, but someone else's stray hair stuck to the bar of soap in the shower gives me the heebie-jeebies. Someone else's stray hair stuck to the wet shower walls are almost as creepy. I make darn sure none of my stray hair remains on the soap (or on the walls of the shower for that matter) when I'm done washing myself. Please extend me the same courtesy. Oh, and no stray visible hair clogging the drain, either. That's just as bad as stray hair on the walls.

2) My ex-wife asked me once if I minded sleeping on floral-patterned sheets. I promptly told her that I do not care one bit if the sheets I sleep on are flowery, striped, polka-dotted, solid, checked, plaid or whatever. I go to bed (primarily) to sleep, not to look at the linens.

3) Nightlights and wall clocks that tick loudly/make noise: Can't stand either of them. Like Dracula, I need total darkness and total peace and quiet when I sleep. (One exception would be my (eventual) partner lightly snoring next to me - that and the warmth of a female body next to mine is actually quite soothing.) Nightlights blare like the midday sun in a room I'm trying to sleep in. Little ambient noises like clocks ticking or water dripping seem magnified in a quiet dark room. Both of these things will keep me awake. I needs mah beauty sleep, goshdarnit! Can't you tell it's not working!!

4) When I sleep alone on a large mattress, I tend to lay diagonally.

5) Doesn't bother me to have uncoordinated towels/washcloths in the bathroom. Nor do the pillowcases on my bed pillows have to match with the sheets. See #2.

6) More on linens/sheets: I absolutely cannot fold them neatly when they come out of the dryer, so my sheets are usually wrinkled ( I can fold the pillowcases, though). Just like the patterns, wrinkled sheets bother me not (see #2). AND I make my bed all nice-and-neat-like only once a week when I change the sheets. Otherwise the covers get hastily pulled up in the morning.

BONUS QUIRK: I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I like to put grape jelly on top of my grilled cheese sandwiches. Speaking of cheese sandwiches, please - any cheese but American. Swiss or Provalone are the preferred cheeses for sandwiches.

There are a few people I'd love to see do this but I'm not tagging anyone. If you're gonna do it, do it! Ultimately, I'd love to see you all play along but I know that's not gonna happen.

Do it, don't do it, whatever. However, please let me know if you DO do it, so I can visit and read your responses! If you did it already because you were tagged by someone else, let me know that too, so I can read your responses also.

39 is not a prime number

...but it is how old I am today. It's just the final rung on that ladder leading to 40, which I will reach next year. We'll have plenty of time to dwell on 40 in 2009.





V and M tell me quite frequently that I'm not old - and they are right. I once read a saying on a Salada Tea bag that has stuck with me through the years which said that, "Age is a matter of mind. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter." I really don't feel as old as I am and still certainly look younger than my age. Apparently I look older than 21 because I haven't been carded at a restaurant in quite some time. That's progress... I guess.

"Honey, it's not the years, it's the mileage." --Dr. Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Still though, I'm quite happy to be where I am now age-wise. I've got a lot of miles left!

{BTW, only six more months of shopping before Christmas!}

Your Birthdate: June 25

You excel at anything difficult or high tech. In other words, you're a total (brilliant) geek. It's difficult for you to find people worth spending time with. Which is probably why you'll take over the world with your evil robots! Your strength: Your unfailing logic. Your weakness: Loving machines more than people. Your power color: Tan. Your power symbol: Pi. Your power month: July.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

How well do you know me?

Today begins the fourth year of my blogging experience.

(And there was much rejoicing....Yaaaaay!)

I really do appreciate all of you who take the time to read here and share in this corner of my life. The only complaints I can muster are that y'all need to leave more comments AND because I usually tend to post alot, I think some of you miss out on some of the posts I write (hence comments would help here because then I know you're not missing stuff), so please scroll down and catch up on what you might have missed. [Not to mention three years of archives...LOL!] Mucho gracias.

Since this is my 3^rd bloggiversary (and some of you amazingly have been reading here nearly from the get go) I wonder, after three years, how well do you really know me? How much have you actually been paying attention to what you read?

Fill out what you think are the correct answers to the following 25 questions and leave them in the comments section. I may offer a prize to the lucky stiff with the most correct answers. I'd offer a prize for the most amusing answers too, but I'm too cheap for two prizes.

That's not really true, though, I'm really a very generous person. ;>)

I really do want to see how much you've been paying attention and what kind of answers you manage to come up with. In the three years I've been with you here in bloggy-land, I've probably answered every one of these questions at one time or another. Go nuts. Knock yourself out. Have fun. Play nice with the other children.

At some point I'll leave a comment with the correct answers.

1. Did we meet in person?

2.If so, Where did we meet and when?

3. If we haven't met in person yet, would you like to meet at some point?

4. Take a stab at my (real life) middle name?

5. Do I smoke?

6. Do I drink (alcohol)?

7. If I do, what would be my favorite drink?

8. What are the color of my eyes?

9. Do I have any brothers or sisters?

10. What's one of my favorite things to do?

11. What's one of my least favorite things to do?

12.What's my favorite type of music?

13. What's my favorite movie?

14. Who is my favorite actor?

15. Who is my favorite actress?

16. Am I shy or outgoing?

17. Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules?

18. What special talents do I have?

19. How long was I married for?

20. How many children do I have?

21. What are their names (or the blogger equivalent of)?

22. If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would bring?

23. How many times did I have surgery?

24. what was it for?

25. Where did I go on the best vacation I ever had?


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Must take care of business - Happy 25^th birthday, C.

Holiday weekend lull

I interrupt your Memorial Day weekend for this important message.



Ok, so it's not really that important, but here goes!

I'm experiencing a lull in my normal weekend routine and I don't quite know what to do about it.

Weekends for me usually begin by picking up V and M from K after work on Friday. That didn't happen this week. V had a slumber party with three of her school friends on Friday night and because of that, we didn't make the exchange until Saturday afternoon.

Today, V, M and I were going to go to church, but for a garden variety of reasons didn't. We still had to meet K at a certain meeting place at 12:30, so they could go to a family cookout at their other grandparent's house. V and M will spend the night at K's house and tomorrow morning the three of them will participate in a 10K walk/run thing that is held in their town in memorial of some chap whose name escapes me who died way too young.

K is going to call me at some point tomorrow morning so that we can meet at our normal meeting spot, and I can reclaim V and M until Tuesday morning, so that K can go to work Monday night.

Tuesday morning this week will resemble Monday in that I'll drop them off at K's work in the morning before I myself can go to work.

Long story short, I'm experiencing this lull in my weekend because V and M are normally here now and they are not. V would have been working on her project for school which is due on Tuesday while M and I surely would have played catch this afternoon as the weather here is absolutely wonderful. Clear blue sky, high temperature in the low 80's with no humidity.

With the kids out of the picture until tomorrow, I should be motivated to do some stuff that I should be doing, that I wouldn't likely be able to do when they are here. But I am not finding the necessary mojo, if you know what I mean.

Maybe I'll watch one of the five DVD's I signed out of the library last Thursday. I did actually watch two of these DVD's tonight, which I'll either review on SNMR or maybe on the BIG SCREEN blog at some point.

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Had my grandfather lived a few more years, he would have been 99 today.

grad-yee-way-shun and a no-no

Yesterday my youngest sister graduated from college... again. This time with a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

Everyone say "Oooooooh! Aaaaaaah!

Actually I'm very proud of her accomplishments. Congrats, C. All the best to you.

I have to say though that as I was listening to all the speeches and associated graduation crapola that goes along with it, I couldn't help but chuckle at the idealism, hopefulness and anticipation of going out into the "real" world that I heard laced in every speech.

Sure, some in her graduating class might make it big or make a noticeable impact on society, but more than likely most of her graduating class will struggle to make ends meet and suffer through interminable job after interminable job, like most of us inevitably do.

Gee, do you think I'm a wee bit jaded, or what??

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Unlike last time, I didn't miss this one. (hello, Esther!)

Well, at least I saw the last three innings of Jon Lester's no-hitter tonight against the Kansas City Royals.

Because I'm a sports geek, one thing that I love is all of the neat statistics that ESPN and other media outlets dig up when someone pitches a no-no, like:

The Red Sox, as a team, have thrown 18 no-hitters in their history, second only to the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Red Sox are tied with the Yankees and Marlins for the most no-hitters since 1993 with four.

Lester's no-hitter was his first complete game in his major league career. He's 24.

Lester is the first Red Sox lefty to throw a no-hitter since Mel Parnell did it on July 14, 1956.

Jon Lester's no-hitter was the first no-hitter in the majors since teammate Clay Buchholz threw one last season. The last team to have two straight no-hitters was the Angels in 1974 and 1975, when Nolan Ryan threw both.

The Royals were no-hit for only the second time in franchise history. The first time was in 1973 by the Angels' Ryan.

It was only the second time that there has been a no-hitter in consecutive seasons at Fenway Park (1916-1917).

Red Sox Catcher Jason Varitek set a major league record, catching his fourth career no-hitter with four different pitchers (Hideo Nomo in 2001, Derek Lowe in 2002, Clay Buchholz in 2007 and Lester).

the phone always rings....

Isn't it true that the phone always seems to ring when you're in the middle of eating dinner or when you're sitting on the hopper or at some other inopportune moment?

If you're one of the lucky suckers whom this doesn't happen to, then I congratulate you on being... weird.

So here I am in one of these inopportune moments (at 23:15 tonight, actually) when my cell phone rings. Of course my cell phone is in another room, well out of reach. I generally try not to let people who call me leave a message because, well, messages usually die in my voice mail box waiting for me to answer them.

Anywho, my phone rings, and I quickly stop what I'm doing and rush over to it to answer. What follows is the conversation that ensued:

CALLER: (weak grovelly voice) "Hello? Is Darlene there?"

ME: (serious, fatherly tone) "First of all, it's 11:15 at night and you shouldn't be calling so late. You might wake someone up. Second of all, no she's not. You have the wrong number."

CALLER: (indignant voice, demonstrating extreme intelligence) "F%$# You!" [CLICK]

ME: (laughing loudly) "!!!"

Now I may be crazy but how cool is that!!!!!!!

[I wasn't going to turn my computer back on to share this with y'all but I just had to. Too funny.]

In case you were wondering or even if you're not; my phone rings, quite loudly, to the opening theme from Star Wars and I love it!

Journey to the philosophical

Two Saturdays ago I picked up V and M at the Tae Kwon Do studio after they were finished testing for their (green belt with) blue stripe. I got there at 10:10 and they were done at 11:30. The TKD master, at the end of the testing session, talked for a few minutes about what TKD has meant to him over the last 50 years, what he's learned from it and what kind of an impact it can have on a student's (kids and adults, men and women of various belt levels) life if they keep up with it.

As I was listening to his speech, he ended with a very thought provoking question. He said that life is a journey in which we all travel, which everyone present seemed to be in agreement with. He then asked: "Does the journey make the person or does the person make the journey?"

What I think he was getting at is simple, yet does not yield a simple answer.

I understood his question more on a personal level, as if he was asking me if I let events in my life shape me or do I shape the events in my life?

Right now, I have no good answer for this question. At least not an answer I'm satisfied with or willing to share right now. Maybe I will at some point but not yet, anyway. I need to turn the question around in my head a bit more, I think.

So I will toss the question back at you, dear reader. How would you answer the question?

In this life, does your journey make you or do you make your journey?

I agree

In blogging, there are rare occasions when the unthinkable happens. One of them is when scribe and I agree on something, which doesn't happen too often.

But the Scribester is totally right in that y'all need to get your wonderful blogging selves over to our wonderful movie blog more. Create a link for your sidebar or something, but visit! and comment! (Comments are always niiiiiice....)

Believe it or not, we do put considerable time and effort into that blog, though we may not always post as frequently as we (or you) may like.

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In case you missed anything: Episode 12 and Episode 13. I'll post the link to tonight's episode tomorrow.

WOW, what a weird Big Brother tonight! I have to say I was totally disgusted that the house chose to bring back newly evicted James, instead of going with America's vote for Alex. I really wanted to see his red haired mohawk butt out. It will be interesting to see who wins the HOH competition this week, since the show ended with an unresolved contest, and I do not subscribe to the live feeds. Well I guess I'll find out by going to one of the BB spoiler web sites to see who is going to win.

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Sorry I haven't had much time for blogging this week so far. I've been busier than normal this week. I hate it when life prevents me from my writing/blogging.

Fear not though, nothing tragic has happened to me. I'm not sick, either.

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Be a good little doobie and go now over to read Scribe & Green on the BIG Screen! I'll still be here when you get back. GO. NOW!! (Please?)

BB9, extra days and sad news

Here are the links to Big Brother 9 episode 6, episode 7 and episode 8.

I was sad to see Alex/Amanda get evicted last night but was more happy that Matt/Natalie got to stay. I'm a little concerned that Joshuah/Sharon won this week's HOH. I like Sharon but can't stand Joshuah. My guesses for the nominated couples this week are Adam/Sheila and James/Chelsia. I just don't see any alliances between the HOH and those two couples forming. Though I do miss out because I don't subscribe to the 24/7 live feed on cbs.com or BBAD on Showtime 2. My judgments are solely based on the Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday regular episodes on CBS.

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V and M have been on their February school vacation this week. As a result of that and due to a meeting K has at work at the hospital tomorrow, I have agreed to take the kids for an extra day and a half this weekend, so I'll have them this afternoon through Monday morning. It'll be good to have them for the extra time but sadly I get less done when they are here. Ah well, such is life. V and M are great kids and I love them dearly.

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I'm not sure she'd want me to say anything, but I will anyway since she has had not the time or energy to do so herself: Please pray for and/or send good thoughts or whatever your belief system allows you to for our dear blogger friend Esther, whose father passed away on Tuesday. She'll be heading out of town Thursday or Friday for the wake and funeral this weekend. More than that I'll not say. Whatever, if anything, she chooses to share about it on her blog in the coming weeks will be entirely up to her.

Weekend wrap

K called me yesterday afternoon and advised me that she was sick and had called out of work last night. That meant that I had to bring V and M back to her house last night instead of meeting her at the hospital this morning. Though it was less time with the kids this weekend, none of us had to get up at 05:30, our usual time on Monday. V and M had school today even though it was President's Day. They had last Friday off due to a teacher development day and have February Vacation next week.

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One downside of being divorced with children: Missing vacations. K, V and M are going to Disney in Orlando at the end of April (during V and M's April vacation) and I'm not invited. K's off and on boyfriend R and his daughter are going. While the kids are disappointed that I'm not going, I told them that there will be vacations that we'll take together where K will not be involved. V, sweet soul that she is, has vowed to bring me back a souvenir, even though I told her not to. I'm bummed that I'm going to miss seeing my kids reaction to their first airplane ride and the Disney experience. They're going to have a great time.

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Finally stopped procrastinating and did my 2007 federal income taxes over the weekend and e-filed them. I'm happy to report that I'm due for a larger refund than I expected. This is good news, because I need to buy new glasses. I've had my current prescription since February, 2005. I can tell I need them because I normally have to wear my glasses all of the time to see but lately have had to take them off when doing close up work, like reading or typing on the computer. Distance vision (like for driving) has not been an issue yet. I've had glasses since the summer before I started sixth grade.

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The beginning of March will be the start of something I've requested for several years. The first small group men's Bible Studies at my church are set to begin the week of March 3^rd. Since the church congregation is rather large, there are going to be four or five different groups meeting through out the week to accomodate different schedules. I've signed up for the Tuesday night group. This is the book we'll be reading in additon to relevant passages from the Bible, of course.

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The third episode of BB9 was on last night. Click here for the official recap.

My thoughts are these: It's no surprise that Ryan/Allison and Jen/Parker are the two couples nominated for eviction last night with the revealing to the whole house that Ryan and Jen have been dating outside of the house for ten months. The whole Jen/Ryan issue will go away when one of them gets evicted. I feel bad for Parker and Allison, whose fate is tied up in this mess. They didn't ask for it and one of them will be eliminated because of it. I personally like Jen and Parker and would love to see them avoid being evicted. But I think they will be the next couple to go simply because I sense a growing resentment toward Jen forming in the house, especially among the other women. I'm not liking Allison right now. I think she whined too much over what really shouldn't have been that big of a deal. I have no problem with Ryan. He's handled his business without making waves.

Frankly, the producers of the show erred when they didn't pair up Jen and Ryan to begin with. What would have worked better is if they had paired Sharon with Ryan and Jen with Jacob, leaving Parker and Allison as a couple. Then their little setups (Jen/Ryan and Jacob/Sharon) may have had a better chance to last longer.

Sheila has got to chill out. Adam may not be her type but does she have to insult him so much? I think they're on the short list for eviction unless they can gain HoH soon. He may be a jerk, but she's no better.

So far my favorite couples are Alex/Amanda and James/Chelsia. Jen, despite her big mouth and that nasssty tounge piercing (gross!), is the best looking woman in the house. She and Parker would be back at the top of my favorites, if they manage to avoid eviction.

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Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

On the Way of the World

I probably found this on someone else's blog at one time or another and thought it was worth sharing.

I really wish I could take credit for this, but I am not its author. However, it perfectly demonstrates the stupidity and ridiculousness of the world with the simplest of metaphors:

DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM -- AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows

BUREAUCRACY -- AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk
the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are
surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the
analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give
excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You drink some vodka.
You count them and think you have five cows.
You drink some more vodka.
You count them again and think you have 42 cows.
The KGB shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

AL QUAIDA CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.

POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally
vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is
the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegal.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.

Summing it all up

This is pretty much how I feel today:

Good idea... or not?

Sure. On the surface and in the short term, this seems like a good idea. We all could use a little extra money right now ~ I know I certainly could.

The responsible thing to ask though is: How will we (America) pay for it in the long run? A report on CBS Evening News tonight suggested that whatever amount of money is requested from Congress - the rebates would be paid for by adding $150 billion more to the national deficit. That's like overspending the limit on your credit card; the interest and fees alone will hurt real baaaaad. Believe me, I have unwanted experience in this area. I don't know if I like where this is going.

I mean, if Congress wasn't grudgingly signing bills left and right to fund George Bush's War in Iraq....

Waaaaaaaaaait a minute! Hey, here's an idea!

Instead of fighting a never ending war that we can not win (admit it - the war in Iraq is this generation's Korea/Vietnam), the {next} President needs to tell the Iraqis to defend their own country so that we can bring the vast majority of our troops home soon. Then the government can use the money saved to help rectify America's weak-a$$ economy and strengthen our borders and airports to help protect against possible future terrorist attacks...

And while I'm waxing political, let me talk about jobs for a sec, OK?

Bush says he wants to create more jobs here at home and that's fine. All well and good. Right?!?!? But what kind of jobs are we talking about, exactly?

Is he talking about creating more minimum wage jobs that keep people with families fighting against the poverty line trying to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck OR is he talking about real jobs that pay enough to allow families to not only meet their monthly bills but get ahead (even if only a little) and maybe - save a little bit?

Twenty-two Rules to Live By

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, "I love you," mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry," look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married. {It takes at least this long to plan a proper wedding...}

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dream. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. Say "God bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY-ONE. Spend some time alone.

TWENTY-TWO. Read your Bible and pray to God daily, thanking Him for the blessings you receive every day.

I must be....

...the biggest loser in the world. I honestly think I'm the only one matriculating the blogosphere^TM on a Friday night. Well it seems like that anyway. Aaaah one of the few drawbacks to having kids.... no weekend social life. Not that I have much of a social life during the week, mind you...

Honestly, though this is the first real time of peace and quiet I've had all day to just wander about on the net. Aside from a few quick checks during the day, I spent most of the day outside at the pool with V and M. Met ex at Marshalls in Bedford at 10 this morning. Made the kiddo exchange and were off to see the wizard by 11:00. Usually the kiddo exchange happens around suppertime, so it was nice to get in a full afternoon of pool use.

Pool water today: between 83-86 degrees. Air temp was in the low 90's, so the pool water felt like bath water. An absolutely gorgeous day for non-productivity.

Catch the (heat) wave... or it'll knock you out

I like hot weather. Really I do, but this humidity is killing me. I've got a massive heat headache that even two Advil hasn't been able to shake... yet.

Yesterday was hot, today is worse.

Today's forecast in my area: High of 92 (feels like 97), with humidity at 47%. Barometric pressure is 29.89 in. and falling. Dew point is 69. The low temp for tonight is supposed to be around 72.

Now we have a severe t-storm warning until 10 PM EDT, but only a 40% chance of precip, according to weather.com. Some people have been getting inundated with rain. I say gimme some o' that!!

17:35 update: aaaaah booming thunder - and RAIN!!! It rained heavily for about 10 minutes and then just as quickly stopped. What we need is the rain to dampen the humidity just a wee-bit. Ain't happenin' so far...

Tomorrow's high is only supposed to be 84, with a 60% chance of rain and t-storms.



Gotta love summer.

Summer Solstice 2007

Today at 14:06 EDT marks the official beginning of Summer here in the Eastern United States and at various times today all throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

This is my absolute favorite season of the year. I love the heat and all of the outdoor activities that go with it. Cooking on the grill, eating outside, campfires, toasted marshmallows, going to baseball games, swimming or just sitting on the deck by the pool (as I am now) and even sitting on the beach by the lake or ocean.

It's all good in my opinion.

Even thumbles of runder and lashes of frightening.

Except for the skeeters. Hate them lousy skeeters.

Happy First Day of Summer everyone!!!!

Woo-hoo!!!!!!

L-a-n-d-s-c-a-p-i-n-g

Today I was reminded that the only land that is fun to 'scape is my own.

And since I don't currently have a lawn to call my own... well you get the idea.

This morning I worked for my brother, who owns his own landscaping company. After butchering a large bush at the end of my parent's driveway, I went with him and his buddy to the house of one of his original customers. A had me trim the bushes there, in the front and in the back yard. Not knowing how these people like their bushes, or how A normally does them, I either a) trimmed too much, leaving bare spots or b) didn't trim enough, so that A went back over what I had done.

Once we were finished cleaning up it was 13:30 and time for lunch. A wanted me to trim more bushes for him by myself this afternoon while he and his buddy went to mow some lawns.

I frankly told him that I'd rather not, since I didn't want to ruin someone else's bushes and garner complaints. Plus, when it comes to certain things, I'm a perfectionist and when I can't do them as good as I'd like I get frustrated and (probably) way too critical of myself and my performance.

Raking I can do. Picking up leaves and lawn debris I can do. Spreading mulch - I can do that, too. Cutting a lawn? Well I could handle that with a standard lawn mower and have done so, though I've never used either of his big commercial mowers.

It just doesn't do anything for me to take care of someone else's property. Sure I like the finished product but getting to that point is no fun.

Unless the 'scaping is mine.

Plus, I'm outta shape for a thin guy and my arms are tired...

Rant and whine o-v-e-r.

Opening Day

A long awaited day to be sure. A day that is looked forward to all year.

No, I'm not talking about baseball's opening day which takes place at the beginning of April. I'm talking about opening day as in opening the swimming pool at my parents' house.

Once we took the pool cover off, we saw what we'd hoped to see - nice clear, clean water. V hosed off all of the loose debris and pollen that had remained on the cover. After 15 minutes in the sun, the cover was dry enough to fold up. Dad and I filled the filter halfway with water and added 100 pounds of sand. We took out the chemical jug suspended across the water over the winter and removed the three air pillows strung out across the pool, two of which were deflated and partially filled with water.

While we went to lunch, we left the garden hose on to fill up the pool to the proper water level. Once we got back, we added the proper chemicals and now all we have to do is wait 24-48 hours, I think.

That the pool is open now is good, because the temp is supposed to reach into the 90's this week.

Speaking of lunch, my parents took V, M and I to the Rainforest Cafe at the Burlington Mall. My kids and I had never been there before. The atmosphere was cool for the kids and the food was okay because none of us has gotten sick yet. The quality of food at that restaurant has been known to be questionable, as Rebecca from I'm Just a Girl can attest.

Next, it'll be ice cream sundaes at 18:00.

So far it's turning out to be a wonderful weekend.