Four Generations

 Spent a little bit of time yesterday with my youngest grandchild, Lizzie. She doesn't look very comfortable in this picture, but she was happy. She is almost always happy, or maybe I should say content. She doesn't cry much (at least not while I was there today) and she tries to coo and communicate.

My mother and father followed me to my daughter's house to see their great grandchild for the first time. Mother, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer's had no idea that this was her great-grandchild or even remembered her name after two minutes. I think we had to tell her about seven time what her name was. She may not have known her, but she loved her! Wanted to hold her so bad. But she wasn't able. Dad, as always was all smiles. Always is when he is around his family.

My son wasn't here, as Lizzie was visiting with her Aunt for the weekend to give her mommy & daddy a break. But four generations, how is that even possible. It seems like yesterday it was just me and these two. My mom & Dad (that was before my brothers as I was five before my first sibling came along)

Mother is 82 now, and even though here in body, mother left us a few years ago. Slowly. Alzheimer's is a cruel disease. She is nothing close, personality wise to who she used to be. She doesn't know any of us now, except for Dad. Regardless, she still smiles, and gives the best hugs. She also tells us all about her mom and dad. My grandparents died in 1999 and 2000, but she believes she lives with them.  And maybe in her mind she does and that is okay. 

Cherish days like this. Family. Parents. 

This is what life is really all about.

Trimming the Hedges

 I mentioned in my first blog post back on my birthday and my first post in seven years that I was living with DJ and his husband, B now. In 2013 they bought their first home and about a year later they asked me to move in with them. It was odd at first, but I finally settled in and their home became my home. Fast forward to today. About a year ago, sometime in August 2019, DJ and B put their first home on the market. On December 17, 2019 they closed on the new home. A thirteen room colonial with an acre of land. We all love it, including the babies (the doggies).

I went out for a little bit today (as I have not been out of the house other than to go to the doctor) and when I returned, B had hedge clippers and was trying to manually cut the huge shrubs in the front of the house. He was not having the best of luck. I proceeded to get the electric hedge trimmers out of the garage and finished the job, and the photos above is the completed project.

I was quite proud of myself as the last time I had done this big of a project was way back in the mid 1990's when I worked with my former father-in-law. He taught me quite a bit about landscaping (as well as other things, I may add).

Hat's off to me, and thanks to my former father-in-law, RIP.

The Weekend

Everyone's watching, to see what you will do
Everyone's looking at you, oh
Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight
Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right


The next line of the song is...Everybody's working for the weekend, and isn't that so true?  As I read the status updates today on Facebook of all my friends, they are all about the weekend.  What they did, where they went, who they did it with and it seems as though everyone is having one hell of a good time on the weekends.  Who cares if we are having a heat wave!

My weekends over the past month and a half, have also been great.  One weekend after another I am venturing out into worlds unknown, places I dared not not go before, and meeting people that I wish I would have met sooner.

Friday night my bestie and I went out on the town.  First we hit one of the "hot spots" of the city and saw a drag show.  Now I am normally not one for drag shows.  Never been my forte', however this one was quite well done.  For Cincinnati, that is a good thing as there are not that many good drag shows in town, nor that many good drag queens, but then again, I really haven't been out much in the past few years, but I must say the show I saw Friday night was well worth the time I spent.

We then ventured across the river to one of our regular hangouts and played some darts...yes, I played darts.  It's about as athletic as I can get, but it too was quite fun, not to metion the shot of ' Jager I consumed prior to leaving.  So the night was about over and then we made one last stop...

I am not going to go into specifics, but let me suffice to say that I found out that 'Jager can change the way you see things...and see people!

Saturday came, and again the weekend continued to get even better (without 'Jager this time)
Anyway, I loved the weekend, so it will soon be Monday again.  Let the work week begin and lets work for next weekend!  Hope to see you there!!!

Another March Madness

Check out my blog posting regarding March Madness in 2007. Well, it is that time again, and much like the 2007 version, this one is very much the same. However, this year I did play the "brackets". I picked the city in each division that I like or would like to live in and chose them. So in the final four I have Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Memphis, which I narrowed down to Duke and Wake Forest with Wake Forest going all the way. I've been laughed at now for two days, but who cares, it was only 5$.

I hate March Madness for many of the same reasons I hated it in 2007, but another reason is DJ works double shifts throughout this entire fiasco. So for the next three weekends I will not see him at all. Yes, the money is good, and being a bartender during March Madness at a very well-known national sports bar chain, is financially profitable, but I miss my own private bartender!!

Another March will soon be over, and so too will the madness of it all.

Cleaning House

It is almost 70 degrees outside today and it has me in the mood for cleaning! Spring cleaning! I hear you now..."You are kidding right?"

But no I am not kidding, I NEED to clean house. Even though we have only lived here about 4 months (Oh, yeah we moved again, didn't I tell you? Sorry. A bigger place, two bedrooms, same complex) I really need to clean. Even though neither DJ or myself seem to be spending as much time at home, it is a MESS! So most of the morning I have spent cleaning.

I have also been cleaning the blog up a little. I was reading my blog list (that list of blogs to your right) and I am finding out that some of my favorite bloggers have disappeared from the blogoshere. Lost them to facebook or Twitter I guess. So I cleaned house over there, deleting some blogs that have disappeared and added some new ones and brought back some ones that I used to read. I also added (or should I say updated) my picture links. I am focusing the picture links to my grand kids.

Well as I am sure DJ is happy I cleaned house, i hope you are also happy I cleaned up my Blog-House.

Thomas the Train

Saturday night I received a lesson in engines. Train engines that is. From my two-year old grandson. I learnt all about Thomas, James, Gordan and Henry, just to name a few! It amazes me that a two year old is so engrossed in a cartoon show.

But then that should not surprise me that much, I mean it was Sesame Street in my day, now it is Thomas the Train and Spongebob Square pants.

My Grandson let me know right away when he arrived at my home what our agenda was going to be. When I turned on TV it was on HLN (Headline News). His response to the was..."What this crap?" and then was proceeded with.."We watch Thomas!" Wherein at that point he pulled out his DVD collection.

Yes, Thomas the Train it was.

Post #555

555 posts! Wow, that is a lot of postings. But then again the blog is almost 5 years old so that is not a lot of posts really.

Well on with the post. I wanted it to be something exciting and memorable for you to read and laugh, however our weekend was not something laughable. It actually was somewhat disheartening. DJ's trusty vehicle, "Linda" a 1998 black Chevy cavalier blew a rod. Now I was somewhat lost as to what this really meant, but I soon found out that it means, she will never grace the highways again. She will go to the graveyard that is specially designed for her breed. Or we could pay over $2,000 to have a new motor placed into her body, but it wouldn't be "Linda" anymore. I mean it would be like a total organ replacement for a human, it just wouldn't never be the same. And spending that much money on her would not guarantee she would last another ten years. So we are on the lookout for a new car to replace "Linda".

Regardless of what we buy, both DJ and I require two things. Gas efficient and the color. It HAS to be a shade of orange. Yes, you heard me orange. So, off we went this weekend car shopping. We have narrowed it down to two models, a Hyundai Accent Hatchback or a Chevrolet Cobalt.

Fortunately for us, the orange colors are only available is certain areas and Cincinnati is one of those areas, due to the legendary Cincinnati Bengals....

So we are pondering our decision, and awaiting the results of our financing to see how much this new purchase is going to set us back per month. But regardless of the monthly cost it beats the $400 a month I am putting out for gas to travel to and from work each month. Stay tuned, maybe by post #600 we will have our new family member!!

Late Night

Now that the Oscar's are over I will return to my regularly scheduled programing. Sorry but I am an Oscar addict. I know way too much useless information about the Academy Awards. But anyway...

I am still awake and it is almost 2:00 a.m. I can not sleep tonight. I tried but it just will not come. So I decided to play WoW (World of Warcraft). Now that DJ and I both have a computer I seem to playing more often. It is so much more fun playing with him. Sleep just will not seem to hit me tonight. I suppose I have a lot on my mind.

The weekend was not long enough. Went out Saturday night to celebrate DJ's Birthday (Which is Wednesday, which is now tomorrow) with some of his co-workers. Had a really good time, even though most of his friends are at least 15 years younger than I am. But when your partner is 20 years younger, that tends to happen. hey, it keeps me young! At least in my mind, now my body is a different story.

Tomorrow I will have news!! My new grand-daughter will arrive Wednesday at around 6:00 p.m. What happened to the good ole days when the sex of your child was a surprise as well as the date and time of their arrival? I will be sure to upload new pictures. As it stands right now she will be named Alyssa, but we will see if that remains once she arrives.

Well, the late night is coming to an end, I MUST get to bed, 6:15 will come awful early....

Presidential Weekend

No, this is not a posting on my political views. I do not do that often on my blog, and there is a reason. One I will not go into, however I did finally make my choice on who I will cast my vote for in the Ohio primary in March.

And again I will not give my reason as to why, but Hillary has my vote...

Now onto the real posting of my blog today. I had a three day weekend due to the observance of President's Day. The last three day weekend until Memorial Day! I did very little. Actually I did very little all weekend. My boys, J2 and AT were here and we sat around playing WOW most of the weekend.

We did go out for a birthday celebration for DJ's cousin, Brit who turned 18. I ate way too much, came home and passed out watching Fracture.

Sunday I went out and bought a new vacum cleaner. Exciting huh? I had to. The old ones were just wore out and were not picking up all the cat hair, and god forbid if I carry my cat's fur to work with me. It had to be done. It's Dirt Devil and I am quite happy with it, even though I only vaccumed one room so far.

Today I slept until 2:00 p.m. Yes, you heard right. But then again I didn't go to bed until 4:00 a.m. (Something else I will not give the reason for...) Then I went to visit "Midget". She had surgery on Tuesday and she is mending at her mother's. Her mother is just fantastic, had a great dinner prepared and we had a great visit. Midget is doing well and will be back at work in a few days barring any complications.

So, there you have it. My weekend. Not real exciting I agree, but it was President's Day, what does one really do on this holiday anyway?

I REALLY Wanted to Go Shopping

All day yesterday I thought about shopping. You know "Black Friday", but I refrained myself and stayed in all day, just venturing out long enough to take out the garbage. Even though my sons, who are staying the weekend wanted to get out of the house. I boarded up the doors and sat solemnly in my home, but my heart was saying... shop shop shop...

So today I decided I was going SHOPPING!!

We got up and I fixed breakfast and had a shower and we all headed out. I had my heart set on buying this new TV stand that I really wanted. So DJ, J2 and AT and I headed out into the world of bargain shoppers. We got all the way down the interstate, and onto the exit ramp to turn onto the busiest stretch of shopping heaven this side of Cincinnati. As I waited for the light to turn green, in anticipation of loading my car up with a newly purchased TV stand, the car died...

Yes, right on the exit ramp with cars coming up behind me, with that same determination that I had to shop, barrelling right behind me, but I was going...NO WHERE!!!

To make a long story short. I went shopping today. At Advance Auto Parts where I purchased a shiny new fully charged battery for my car.

So much for the festive shopping experience I was entertaining in my head.

Lucky Day

I've ben hearing about this day for quite some time now. Today is supposed to be lucky. Very lucky. It seems that every wedding chapel in Vegas is booked around the clock today, because everyone wants to get married today, 7-7-07. Not to be a sceptic, and not to say I am an expert on relationships, but I don't think it matters if you are married on 7-7-07 or 6-6-06, once you are married it takes more than luck to keep a marriage together. Right? A few things need to take place for a relationship to continue to grow and nurture. First of all love has to be in the equation. Then you need respect and communication. Not just talking to each other, but talking WITH each other. And of course you have to continually be patient and understanding and work to keep things fresh alive and new. Now if you think luck is going to bring all that together, then you really need a reality check for sure!

Now for my day. Today DJ's family had their annual family reunion. Lots of fun, pool, food and drinks. Many many drinks. I started my drinking a little early today. We had to go pick up food trays and dessert trays at DJ's store, and while we waited for them to get finished I had a tall, double vodka and cranberry. Since I've not been drinking for a while, it hit me fast. Then off to the party, where I continued my vodka and cranberry fix. The entire family was there. I've become part of the family so to speak and I now know most of the attendees. One of the main reasons for the reunion is for DJ's step father, Big D to spend time with his sister, Little B, who lives in Indiana. Little B is married to Indy K, and they have a daughter together, Dink ( I call her that cause she is so thin, a very sweet young blonde teenager), then there is their grandson, Tornado. I call him Tornado because like a tornado once he starts he keeps going until he is all spent out. A very busy little boy, who is ALL boy. He is 10, but looks about 7. Thin as a rail. Mainly due to immense energy. Indy K also has a son that attends when able. A sure fire catch for any available young women looking for a great guy. He seems like he would treat a girl with respect and a lot of attention. We will call him Fuzzy. (for obvious reasons if you check out the pictures to the left.) Then there are all the others, cousins, step moms, aunts, cousins, and in laws. A real mixture of people, cultures and backgrounds. I enjoy the family reunion and the food, and the pool, and the DRINKS! This year was no exception. Check out the pics over on the left side of the blog.

March Madness

No this is not a blog entry about Basketball. Well kind of.

I hate Basketball. Sorry all you BB fans, I just never was able to get into it at all. Football? Yeah, Baseball? Of course. Gymnastics, Tennis and Ice Skating? Uh yeah.

But not Basketball.

That is all that has been discussed at work. They have their brackets, and one of the attorneys even brought in a 42 inch plasma screen TV to be able to watch the day games!

It's madness alright.

Another March Madness I have never been a fan of is St. Patrick's Day. The girls at work are headed out tomorrow night to party and drink green beer. Number 1, I don't like beer. I need something stronger and Number 2, Do you realize how many people are going to be out in the bars tonight? I really don't want to share my "space" with that many people, not to mention the increased price of the drinks.

What really is March Madness is the weather! One day it's 70 degrees, the next day it's 32. that is MAD! I hate this weather and I am not a big fan of the month of March.

Basketball, Maddening Weather, and Green Beer. That is March Madness alright.

So for my March Madness, what will I do?

Hang out with DJ, my kids, and grand kids, watch some TV and catch up on my DVD's

Weekend Update

The weekend came and went and here we are again, Monday.

Saturday night I met up with Kare Bear and her friends at the Back Porch Saloon for dinner and drinks and catching up. Kare Bear has not changed. Even after not seeing her for over a year, we fell right back into sync. It was just like the days we hung out almost every weekend at the bars. We drank, laughed and drank some more. Kare Bear's friends were there, "Miss Algonquin" (long story) who I adore, and of course "Miss Thang" and her husband, and "Mary Mary" who is expecting her first baby in April; along with some new friends that I had heard about and finally got to meet. Catching up eith everyone and re-living some of our past antics was a lot of fun. It was great to see everyone again. It was a much needed night out.

Sunday, DJ and I began moving some of our boxes and furniture that we are not taking to his mothers into storage. Hard to believe we have so much SHIT! You don't realize how much you have until you have to box it up and start moving it. We moved about 12 boxes, with some bookcases and other small items and we didn't even fill up a corner of the storage bin. We got a 10x20 unit, but I really think there is going to be quite a bit of room left over once we get everything into it. After moving we both were exhausted and spent the rest of the night "vegging" on the couch watching "Indiana Jones" movies.

Back to the real world here on Monday, so back to the want ads...

What's Up for the Weekend

Happy Friday the 13th!

I hope you enjoyed my posting yesterday, my first 12 of 12 posting. I spent a long time getting it together and posting it, but guess what? I forgot to post a link over at Chad's site! All the work for nothing. Well at least you got to read it! See, I told you, I do have a boring life.

But, I actually have plans for the weekend!

Tomorrow night Kare Bear is having a get-together over at the Back Porch Saloon, she and her hubby moved to Savannah back last year and she is coming into town for the weekend and wants to see everyone. So I will be getting out of the house for a while. I think it will do me good to get out and enjoy others company instead of sitting in this half-empty apartment. Kare Bear and I worked together for about four years at the law firm I used to work at. We were let go at the same time. I haven't seen her in quite a long time so I'm looking forward to the "reunion"

Sunday DJ is off and we are going to be packing the majority of our stuff and moving it into the storage bin. All of our living room furniture, dining room suite and boxes that we have packed. That will leave our apartment pretty empty. So for the next few weeks we will be living in an empty apartment. Of course the TV, DVD player and the computer will be the last things we move. A man has to have something to do!

Thirty Days Hath September

Remember that little ditty from school? Thirty days hath September, April, June and November...

Funny how some things you remember like that, but other things you totally forget. Like the name of the really cute kid on my paper route when I was 10. He was a little older than me and every Saturday when I would collect he'd be the one to pay me and with the $1.75 he always gave me a tootsie roll. I am sure his mother gave it to him to give me, but I always wished it was actually him that thought enough of me to give me candy each week. But for the life of me I can not remember his name.

The same way I forgot the name of one of the women that interviewed me on Thursday. The interview went great and at the end I wanted to impress them that I remembered their names, so I said Thank you to each of them calling them by name, except the second girl's name was Bev, not Joyce. They don't even sound alike. I hate it when my mind let's me down like that.

DJ is working from 10-1 this morning and then 5-2 tonight, so I have the Saturday night all to myself. Not that I am looking forward to that, because I'm not. I'd prefer him to be home with me while I sit on the computer...no really I am not going to complain, I am just thankful that one of us is working. So I suppose I will spend the rest of my Saturday writing.

So how many days does September have?

Deje Vu

You would think at my age, and as many jobs that I have had that I would not be as anxious as I am concerning my interview tomorrow. I've spoke of my position about interviews here before. I'm not a fan of them. I really do not think interviews are an applicable tool in determining a potential employee. But regardless of my own opinion that is what employers use to gauge if they want a person on their payroll. My interview is at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed!

Last night Silver and his son came over to join DJ and my two sons in a night of D&D. We have been playing D& D now over a year and I think I have always been the dungeon master each time we have played. Most of the dungeons I have played I have found on the Internet. A couple I have written myself. Last night we began playing the dungeon and it seemed rather familiar to me, but we continued. Finally about four hours into the game we all realized..."We've done this before!" So not to make the entire night and game a squander I mixed up what remaining time was left with two or three other dungeons and finished our game. I gave the players extra experience points due to my poor memory.

I've had three sales so far on my books at LuLu.com, so I am looking for the rest of you that I sent e-mails to purchase them fairly soon!! Honestly though I am surprised at the hits I've had already in just a few short days. I've had over 25 hits on my page at Lulu, so at least someone is looking at what I have to offer. Now if they would just buy the books.

Another weekend has come and gone, and fall is creeping in quicker than I really want it to. I love the autumn but winter is right behind it, and winter is not one of my favorite seasons. Tonight and last night it was cool enough for us to shut off our air conditioning and I am sure within a few days or weeks it will be turned off for the year. Then the heat will have to be turned on. YUCK!
We have been here over a year now. (That in itself is hard to believe.) But our electric bills have been very acceptable. Hopefully this year will be more of the same.

I used to do this quite a bit, but haven't featured a fellow blogger in a while. If you like reading blogs, check out LOVE LEMMING. I've been reading his blog for quite some time now and enjoy finding out what is going on in his life. Plus he is a SIMS2 freak like me! He has recently moved to Portland, so go see what he is blogging about!

Again, wish me luck tomorrow; I will post an update when I hear anything.

Flashback #1: A Memorial Day

It seems like I am always trying to find something to blog about and come up short on ideas or events in my life that are interesting enough. But as I think back to some of my past escapades I can think of a lot of things to write about. So for those of you that read my blog, on every last Thursday of the month I will post a FLASHBACK . A post about something that happened or something that I did in the recent past or in the not so recent past.

With the Memorial Day holiday coming up this weekend I thought I would share a flashback to a past Memorial Day. Complete with pictures and interesting side notes.

This flashback goes back just a few years to Memorial Day, 2000 . Veruca and Silver were still together, and I had not yet met DJ. At the time I had just moved in with Veruca and Silver at their condo and we were all working for a law firm downtown. They through an impromptu grill out and invited some co-workers. KareBear was there (prior to her marriage) , her friend T came along, Jodafina was also there with her room mate at the time. I do not recall her name but she made the movie Single White Female look tame!
But the best part of the day was the guy I invited. Sad to say he was straight (albeit somewhat curious) but very cute. And again my age is showing as I can not remember his name either. But not that it matters, as I have pictures (some of which I will not post...hehehe).

I invited him down to my room to show him some pictures on my computer. (really that was my intent!) He instead wanted something a little more than just looking at pictures. It may have been due to the fact that the pictures I was wanting to show him were mostly of scantly clad men, and he really wasn't interested. But he looked at them, at least for a while. But then he pulled out some 'tobacco" and proceeded to light one up right there in my bedroom. Aha! I thought, ...an opportunity! But unfortunately all I got was a peek. And another picture to add to my collection.

Let's just say that this Memorial Day was a little more memorable than most.

Fishy Smell

Another weekend update for those of you that care to read my blog. I had my boys J2 and AT again this weekend, and I think they had a good time. DJ took them fishing on Saturday while I worked. Now I don't care for fishing, so I thank God for DJ who likes to do things like that, because my boys enjoy it. So at least they have someone that they can go fishing with now. The fish are still sitting out on our patio in a cooler, rotting. But at least they had fun fishing. I have a picture of Jordan with his big catch of the day. I bet he about shit his pants when he pulled that damn thing out of the lake. DJ said he wished he would have gotten a picture of his face when he pulled it out. Of course I had to deal with the fishy smell the rest of the weekend.

I watched Family Stone last night with DJ, and we were both quite surprised. We were not expecting such a good movie, but it was really good. Diane Keaton as always gave a great performance. It is one I am sure we will watch over and over again. DJ had tears in his eyes as the credits were rolling. Well I had tears too but that is normal for me, I cry at Bambi and stupid movies like Lord of the Rings. DJ hardly ever gets emotional while watching pictures. Good thing Silver wasn't watching it with us, we would have to mop up the floor afterwards. But seriously it was a great movie.

Sunday morning DJ got up and made his great breakfast. I am a lucky man, he can cook!! It was wonderful, then we spent the day cleaning and doing laundry. Now it is back to the mental ward tomorrow, I just pray that this week will be as calm as last week.

That is it for the weekend update, see you alter in the week.

Roller Coasters of a Different Nature

This weekend was a little similar to last weekend.

Well not really, last week involved real roller coasters, you know the metal, wood, up and down hills. The kind you find in amusement parks. This weekend involved a roller coaster that is worse than the metal & wood kind. This weekend was an emotional roller coaster.

I have shared with readers before about what I call my job, which from now on I will refer to as the mental ward. I got up Saturday morning with visions of having a great day and a great weekend. DJ and I had made plans to share Saturday evening together, something I feel we do not do enough of. Then Sunday we were to meet at his grandparents to work out in their yard. You know the typical spring work detail, cutting grass, laying mulch, and planting flowers. As it turned out, that was not to be. When I arrived at work I found out that the yard detail picnic had been re-scheduled for Saturday afternoon. DJ asked if we could do that instead of what we had planned, which sent me reeling. Meanwhile, his uncle, who lives upstairs over the mental ward, came down and began making snide remarks about the way I do my work. This coming form a 43 year old high school drop-out who has never worked a day in his life that mooches EVERYTHING off his parents. Normally I would not allow him to set me off, but due to the fact I was a little upset with DJ, I exploded on him and wasted my energy and sanity on someone that is not worth a hello most of the time. Our argument escalated into an all out verbal war.

after which, I was an emotional mess. I was fine with the ignorant asshole, but the minute I left I broke down. Literally broke down emotionally to the point I had to call DJ to come and calm me down. My body starting shaking and I broke out with hives on my arms and neck.

DJ being the saint that he is, listened as I ranted and screamed at how I had to get out that job and get a life. All the while taking the blame himself. Which is not the case, but it helped me calm down and come back to "reality". We left work early and went to dinner. After dinner we went shopping and found a new game to play (get your mind out of the gutter!)

We found Settlers of Catan, The Settlers of Catan is a board game of discovery, commerce and settlement. The object of the game is to be the first to settle this remote island. You gain resources in which to build up your settlements. They include brick, wheat, wood, and ore. As you progress you advance your settlements into cities and expand boarders with roads or development cards. We played for a couple hours and then settled in for the night. The roller coaster ride was almost over.

This morning we awoke and DJ prepared homemade waffles for breakfast and then we invited Silver over to play our new game with us, which he won (beginner's luck) and then afterwards DJ and I sat and watched a new movie together. One I highly recommend by the way, Shop Girl, an adaptation of Steve Martin's nouvelle of the same name. Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Martin all star. Even DJ loved it, and he normally does not care for romantic comedies.

So the roller coaster slows down and comes to a stop. At least for now.