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.

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.

Busy weekend ahead... among other things.

On the lighter side: I've had this graphic (on the left) kicking around inside my computer for quite some time and thought I'd share it with y'all tonight. I couldn't successfully enlarge the graphic by itself, so you'll have to click on it to enlarge it. Do the work, have some fun. Cheers!

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Don't forget that there's a fun little football game this weekend (Sunday @ 18:00 EST on FOX) taking place out in Arizona that you really should watch. My prediction for the game will come on Sunday before kickoff.

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On to more serious business: This weekend my church is hosting a Prophecy conference with Jimmy DeYoung as the guest speaker. The schedule appears on the right (click to enlarge). I'll attempt to bring you some of the highlights of the weekend as best as I can.

I'd also like you to look at this. It is the itinerary for a trip that my pastor will lead this fall to Greece and Turkey. I'm not able to afford this trip yet but I would certainly love to go, and am trying to make it happen. It's trips to places like these that make me wonder how anyone can sneer at or doubt the historical accuracy of the Bible, in this case the New Testament. Makes me wonder what world they're living in. I went on a similarly detailed trip to Israel and Egypt in 1996 and I can tell you first hand how awesome it is to visit in places that you read about in the Bible and envision the events that happened there.

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Right now, I'm watching the Democratic debate between Senators Clinton and Obama. It's very interesting for me now, especially since my candidate dropped out yesterday. I think it's encouraging that, while the candidates have differences in some of their plans for this and that, their disagreements don't seem as radical as the disagreements that the Republicans appear to have.

My favorite response came from a question asked by a 38 year old woman from South Carolina. She asked how Hillary could be an agent for change when, for the last 20 years (since she has been eligible to vote) that there has been either a Clinton or a Bush on the ticket. Hillary's response was classic. She said that it took a Clinton to clean up the mess left by the first Bush and that it looks like it will take another Clinton to clean up the mess from this Bush.

The debate was very cordial and the candidates stuck to the issues, which was refreshing. There were some light hearted jabs but nothing too injurious. The results of the Super Tuesday primaries will be interesting indeed.

Weekend Wrap-up

Wow, what a busy weekend.

Friday night I met K at Denny's in Nashua, where I picked up V and M. We drove to my parent's house after I completed a few errands.

Activity started early on Saturday morning as V, M and I got up early in order to be out the door by 8. K and the kids competed in a Tae-Kwon-Do tournament; with K meeting us at Tewksbury High School where the competition took place. They broke the athletes up by age and belt level, with the youngest kids competing at the beginning of the tournament. M and V, both green belts at 7 and 10 were among the first to compete. Both V and M only competed in breaking this time, opting not to do forms or sparring.

Every participant in the tournament medaled for participating. Mike won a bronze medal and V won a silver medal.

V and M wanted to see their mom compete which I had no problem with. The tiring part came with the wait, since the kids were done realtively early. K didn't get in the ring until 2:30ish in the afternoon. She competed in two events, earning a gold medal in forms and a silver medal in breaking.

We didn't get out of there until 3:15 or so; much later than I had anticipated.

Watching this tournament was neat and I have the feeling it won't be the last tournament I'll need to attend. Though one thing I know and it was reinforced while I was watching: I have no desire to take up any form of martial arts. I Advanced to an orange belt in karate as a youth but never carried it any further than that.

Good thing for me I brought a book to read during all of the down time, which made it bearable.

Today the kids and I went to church in the morning and afterwards headed up to K's house for M's birthday party. He'll turn 8 on Wednesday. M had invited six school friends to the party and four showed up. Aside from the standard cake, ice cream and unwrapping presents, all Mike wanted to do after was play with his friends. No cheesy "party games" here.

While I was at K's house, I turned on the Patriots game which had just started the third quarter with the score 42-7 in the Patriots favor. I was kind of surprised at that because the Pats have historically had trouble winning in Miami. Not today. The Patriots are that good and the Dolphins are that bad. QB Tom Brady threw 5 touchdown passes in the first half and had six for the game, eclipsing his personal best set last week and setting a franchise record for a single game in the process. They are now 7-0 and look unbeatable at present.

Boston College moved up to #2 in the Associated Press poll this week even though they were idle, mainly because the previous #2 team lost this past Thursday. If the college football season ended today, BC would play Ohio State for the National Champopnship.

The Red Sox have advanced to the 2007 World Series tonight by dispatching the Cleveland Indians 11-2, breaking the game open late and winning the series 4 games to 3. The opponent will be the Colorado Rockies. The World Series begins on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.