On deck...

we opened family gifts last night... finally broke out the Guitar Hero World tour band kit, which is pretty cool, although I think I may be able to wean Ryles off the drum thingy because of this...she started to get tired after the 7th song or so... I-Man took his turn on the drum set and lasted about a quarter thru the first song before quitting. I think it will eventually be Ryles on vocals, I-Man on bass, Jessica on lead guitar on.. gulp...me on drums.

..today see us hitting Grandma for lunch, then continuing on to Nanna and Pappa's for Christmas eve, with Santa finding his way down there tomorrow morn. I will return back late Chrismas day for I have to work Friday. I might use time on Saturday to catch up on some stuff around the house....

Dude...you like..um...SUCK!!!!

I kinda think Kanya West is average. But his performance on Saturday night live left something on the table... ouch... click here or google it on the web...

Happy Anniversary!!!!!

We celebrated 10 years on Friday. A lot of times I have a tad bit of chip on my shoulder concerning this but I wont delve into it this year.

We celebrated at The Eiffel Tower Restaurant and that Filet Mignon was as tasty as tasty can be. They came out with a special small dessert (some sorta Chocolate thingy that was flat out awesome) for Jessica and I to share. Jessica also had some sorta souffle that took 30 minutes to cook for dessert. It looked awesome... I just sipped my French Martini, which i had several of during our stay... We all stayed at Paris Las Vegas, and while the view from the room was uninspiring, the hotel itself was pretty slick. It was a definite change of pace from the typical casino hotels. We spent a lot of time sitting around and drinking spirits and people watching. And boy, were there people to watch. The things some women chose to wear was...um...questionable.... yet entertaining. I figure we gambled less tha a 100 dollars while there, but it was nice playing the games and never quite figured out the deal with the supposed free drinks to you when you were playing. I guess me playing at 25 cents a play didnt warrant the "high roller" treatment. We didnt really do a club/dance thing but I dont figure I missed much. Maybe when we return in ten years... I also didnt get to a strip club... sigh... oh well... not like I'm missing out on anything.... the interior of the hotel was like you were sitting outside in Paris with shops and tables outside for people to sit and watch everyone else. Really did remind me of Paris in that while inside, even at 2 in the morning, it was still a glow to the air... all in all I had a blast on the trip and I think it was appropriate for the event. I guess all else I want to say is that I am grateful to be blessed with my family... Jessica , Ian and Rylee. I think we have done good so far and I look forward to 10 more years and the many adventures that it will lead us to...

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

[Chorus:]Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

VEGAS!!!! Baby!!!!

So... we went out to Vegas for a couple of days to celebrate our Ten Year Anniversary. It was a lot of fun and I think overall, the trip went fine. I will post some pix tonight once i get home... the only thing kinda weird about it is the letdown now...I have devoted so much mental time to this trip tha i am now kinda at a loss...gotta spool up for the next event, whatever that is going to be. In the meanwhile, after arriving back home @ 2:30am, I am back at work.

Yea!!! we are more better 7!!!!!

Ryles and I-Man celebrated their official birthday last night...a day early. They couldnt wait to open their last couple of presents from us and themselves...now all that's left today is another cake... Seven Years!!!...wow... I-Man continues his Star Wars/Clone Wars/Iron Man/Batman/Transformers/Hotwheels/Speed Racer/Lego/anything green run O' Loot while Ryles continues to be a little more diverse, hitting Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus/Barbie/Bratz/Baby Born(in her hand)/"Butteryflies"/anything pink along the way... by the way, that's a Star wars Tie fighter I-Man has, and he went to bed with it over his head last night with his head under it...

by the way, Congrats to Josh on the birth of his Son... way to go, guys...

Next up...10 years of marraige....

KNIGHT RIDER HAS BEEN CANCELLED!!!!!... how could they cancel such a fine and well produced TV show?

in other news, the twins had their birthday party last Saturday at the YMCA. It was a pool party and i must admit that it went better than I initially thought it would. About 10 kids showed up, along with various adults. Most of the kids were from the twins' class at school. And the swimming was a big hit evidently. It was an indoor pool and when you walked into the pool area you were hit by a wall of heat. It felt like it was a 100 degrees inside, except for the blaring sun, which made it actually cool to be inside... imagine a sauna with an olympic size swimming pool. And the twins got a bunch o stuff... a week early at that. Their actual birthday isnt until next week... Today I-Man and I finished the X-Mas shopping by getting his gift to Ryles at Wal-Mart. Did I mention that the twins' Piggy banks (with an aditional jar of money from Pappa) netted them $156.00 for Birthday and X-mas gifts for each other? They will open these on their actual birthday and when we open gifts for family. So..I think we will stick with this program for the future.. nothing like taking a couple of jars of change you have been collecting all year, dumping them in a machine, and having it ring up 150 dollars. I'm like...BONUS!!!

Turkey Week

Wednesday saw my Mother and Brother coming to town and bringing turkey meat. We had Thanksgiving food stuffs with them and put up the tree... Thursday we then headed to Florence and met up with Aunt Ellen, Uncle Wes, Aunt Ashley (and her Mother and Step Dad), Cousin Madison, Grandma Catoe and Nanna and Pappa for Turkey Meat. I actually baked a Chocolate Applesauce cake and it seemed to go over well... Friday saw us come back to Lextown for more turkey meat with Grandma Moore and the long lost enigmatic Uncle Buddy from Knoxville. Came back to the home ranch Friday night and I went over and watched Clemson beat USC...(yawn)..again... like...ISN'T THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A RIVALRY OR SOMETHING??? gets to be boring if we win all the time... tsk, tsk... Then Saturday night went over to Brandy and AJ's house for a while...played this strange new game called Costanza. Went to Frat meeting tonight and listened in on discussions on giving bids to candidates...seems like everything that was said I have heard about people since 1994, but it is always interesting to hear the slightly different twists every year... twins having an early Birthday party this coming weekend...more on this at another time...

a small beef

I have very few things that bother me...but... when I do drop by a fast food joint for a burger and fries, I would appreciate IF YOU WOULD JUST GIVE ME EXACTLY WHAT I ORDERED, ESPECIALLY THE DAD GUMMED, FRAKKIN DIET COKE. NOT COKE... NOT PEPSI... NOT Dr. PEPPER... JUST EXACTLY WHAT I ORDERED...a DIET COKE, WHICH I REPEATED 3 (THREE!!!) TIMES.... A SIMPLE, SUGAR FREE DIET FRAKKIN COKE (or PEPSI)

pretty busy weekend...

...the twins were off to visit Grandma for a couple of days this past weekend.... We met up with a friend of Jessica's from work, Chris and Aunt Ellen and Kenneth for dinner at Stax Omega, then saw Quantum O Solange or something like that. It was pretty decent for a Bond movie...

... then I went over to the Homecoming game and stood around on the sidelines for a half and watched the team upclose. Interesting seeing how the team reacts to Dabo... watched the band at Halftime then bolted back to the house...

...It was great to sit around 2 (TWO!!!) firebowls and visit with Chris Sloan, Brent White, Aunt Ellen, Kenneth Russell, Brian Harwood and wife Jessica, Gresham and Cheryl Barker, Mike Spacholtz and girlfriend Christina and talk about old times....

???

I know we talk about this every year, but....

Even though Walmart and the Malls have their Xmas stuff out now... in oh.. say... September, I noticed yesterday while at the Mall that Santa had made the trip into town and was at the Mall taking pictures with children. November 12th!!! I remember when we didnt even have a mention of Santa until Turkey Day at the earliest...now I get to see him sitting in town at least 2 weeks earlier now...

Santa has last laugh.....

Well... "Anonymous".... Santa tells me that you can keep chuckling, but He's ALL DONE. The fix will be that Ryles and I-Man both have piggy banks with about 60 dollar coin in them both... here's the plan...each one splits their banks to the tune of 30 dollars jack for one gift each for their birthday and Xmas for their sibling. I will give them each one of the 2 Toys R Us catalogs (complete with 10 dollar off coupon) we've gotten in the mail, let them circle 3 things they want, and take each one separately shopping for each other to get gifts for the other one... follow that. Any extra things not manufactered by Santa can be retrieved from the Toys R Us assembly line quite nicely, thank you.

Santa tells me that he has already spooled up the ThinkThank for birthday/Xmas 2009. Gotta keep pushing ahead before Obama tells me I need to tell Santa to give gifts to people who failed to plan ahead and spent their stimulus checks getting their hair and nails done or wasting it on 20 inch rims next year. Yeah... i know...complete stereotype there...but...well..its true...

Who's coming? Homecoming?

Everyone is invited to drop by after the game on Saturday... Alumni, Actives,spouses, significant others and kids are all welcome to drop by. We'll be hanging out all evening, so drop by whenever. Need directions, email me or call me or text me...

TV ads suck...

..or at least thats what Santa tells me.... especially when he was telling me today about how he has his list of naughty and nice boys and girls here at the house, and has virtually completed toy making. And how it really sucks when one of those blasted toy makers puts on a TV ad for the newest, greatest, hottest, most possible funnest toy EVER, and you get to hear your son and/or daughter go "OOOOHHHH...that's SOOOOOO cooooooolllllllll. THAT'S WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!....I'm going to ask Santa to bring me that for Christmas!!!!!"...silence...crickets chirping...

Obama Wins!

Obama takes the White House by 7 million ( or so) votes, or a 52-46 count. Time for less talk and more action. I wanna see all this change happen. The Democrats hold the Executive and Legislative Branch. No excuses. if you want to do all these things, I expect to see them happen. if they dont, i suspect you will get booted out too... (see Republicans '94)

glad this is over

I long ago stated that I thought there was a definite slant toward Obama from the NBC/MSNBC, CBS, and ABC. Several studies have shown that these outlets have "reported" up to 70 percent of their stories about McCain as negative. I have seen legitimate questions about Obama go unasked or be downplayed, yet see story after story go on about what dress Palin is wearing. I dont beleive this election has been fairly reported. Perhaps Obama is the right choice. But I dont think all the information has been placed on the table for ALL Americans in the same light about Obama as has been about McCain. I no longer take ANYTHING NBC news has to say about the elections as serious. I may never again. If you are looking at a place for fair reporting towards both sides, I go to www.fair.org It is these types of places where I made my decision regarding my vote... not Foxnews or MsNBC and their obvious or subtle slants on their coverage. Because it was even shown that coverage of the debates and how they had cameras posed on candidates was designed to make you think a certain way about candidates...

..my biggest beef now is ths... if it is so important that you vote, why is this not a national holiday? Or at least change the day to a Saturday. Why do you have to make plans to get to the poll @ 7am or wait in line @ 7 pm?

????

Click here (here) and (here)

Halloween...

I-Man was a.... soccer player. He dressed up in his soccer uniform. Ryles was a gymnast. She dressed up in her gymnast leotard. That is what they wanted to be. We didnt even have to point them in that direction. they decided on their own. So... no trip to the Halloween store this year.... thank goodness...

Hot water

Ok...so after purchasing and installing the new water heater (and removing the old gas water heater), we now have hot water. Had to add a circuit breaker to the fuse box and run another cable and wire directly to the heater, but the job got done. Many thanks to my Uncle for the electricity expertise and making sure the wiring was all good.

Screw Fort Hill Natural Gas... I will enjoy walking in on Monday and canceling my service.

P.S., anybody want a used gas water heater?

Tickets, please

"At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell. But as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found, one Christmas, that she could no longer hear it’s sweet sound. Though I have grown old, the bell still rings for me. As it does for all who truly believe." - Hero Boy

...Santa was talking to me a couple of days ago(we have a surprisingly close relationship) and he was telling me that he figures this might be the last year I can think that the kids will not ask any questions about what is in the house right in front of them...

...After our HD Box went dead on Sunday, I have realized after all the comedy of error on part of Charter, that they are idiots... After 3 days of snafu and a bunch of irate calls and 2 visits to the local office, we finally have cable and HD again downstairs....

..and then did I mention that after I reported the smell of gas near our house, they came out and found the cause of the gas smell way up the hill at another house. Then they supposedly found a potential leak underground at the base of the fron of the house, but they cant actually confirm a leak..but... they cut our gas off and wont turn it back on until we pay to have test run on our lines, potentially dig up our front yard and eliminate any possible leak that may or may not be there...at our expense. Well... looks like the gas powered Hot water heater is about to be heading to the dump and in comes a new fangled electric hot water heater...

So..the comedy of errors for a week is about to end...just when I thought I would have to figure out a way to run power over to where the hot water heater will go...well.. lookee here...whats this? well, i'll be...there is power running down the wall right exactly where I need it. looks like someone was thinking WAAAYYYY ahead of me about this.

So...agenda for the weekend... drop 300 on a hot water heater, get it hooked up and see if we can get it powered up so we can get hot water again...oh, and go to I-Man's last soccer match of the Fall...oh, yeah...Halloween tomorrow night...

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

....or L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs ("Hell is full of good intentions or wishes") - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Thank goodness this election stuff is about over. Then what, a couple of months before we start it all over again? Seriously....

...but... McCain... has a long record of experience...patriotic...more moderate in the Conservative movement...Obama... a definite catalyst with ability to galvanize people... fresh approach at this level of politics....

I have wavered for a while now, but have remained somewhat right leaning in my thinking in regards to this election. Since the first George Bush, I have had a moderate conservative way of thinking. I supported Bill Clinton, then I supported the current Bush for election then re-election. I think some people mistakenly take me as a neocon, while others assume I am a member of Operation Push. i am none of those things... but here is a sampling of what I believe, for what its worth...

I believe it is a Woman's right to choose (up to a point)

I believe that you should be a citizen of this country and pay taxes to use the infrastructure (schools, hospitals, banking system, etc.)

I believe that it was the right response to go after the people (and the supporters) who attacked us on 911

I believe that the US got sidetracked by greed in pursuing the previous response

I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a large, covert conspiracy to kill JFK

I believe that my money that i work for should not be taken away and given to people who have not worked hard for it. I will decide who I want to assist. Not someone else. If I want to keep every single penny of my money, that should be my right. Period.

I believe that the same people who jumped up and down and accused the Republicans of altering voting 4 and 8 years ago are doing the exact same thing now.

I believe that we are not alone

I believe that the overwhelming majority of the media has slanted the entire coverage of this election process to elect who they want to elect.

In addition, I believe that the coverage of the polling is slanted only to those polls that show Obama ahead by larger margins. Coverage rarely mentions the slim leads in the most respected polls.

I believe that education should be a top priority of our society.

I believe that peanut butter and jelly should be mixed very carefully, with about 2 parts peanut butter to 1/2 part jelly being about right.

I believe that America as a whole is ready to elect a Black man or a Woman as President

I believe that racism and sexism are still a huge problem in this country, and that problem may unfortunately play a factor in this election

However, for me race is not a factor at the bottom line. Obama getting to this point is a fact that I can be proud of in some form. But honesty must tell you that he got to this point because he is black. If he was white, he would quite possibly not even be a Senator. But he has used the opportunities given him and made the best of them, and he is to be applauded for his acheivements in so short a time. However, i cannot support the somewhat far left thinking that he seems to support. Be it the past associations that he seems to always have an excuse for to the more recent comments about redistribution or spreading the wealth. His past comments that are record seem to show support for a socialist way of thinking. While I certainly am not in the super rich, rich, wealthy, well off, or financially set for life category I am still ahead of the paycheck to paycheck category...albeit not by much. And even then, i do not want other peoples money. yes...that stimulus check helped buy an extra tank of gas, but the more you squeeze the people supplying the goods, the more that same tax break or credit is simply going to get eaten up by the increase in costs/price handed down to me by the taxed. And where is Obama going to get all this money for all these entitlements? where is it going to come from? i keep hearing that redistribution thing over and over. Well, we just bailed out the banking stuff...there went a whole heap of programs and other promises by Obama. Then how is he going to keep these promises? by taking from those who have money and giving to those who dont even pay taxes? how is this going to work, let alone even fair?

While McCain certainly has his drawbacks... somewhat ill-tempered, somewhat old, somewhat well... a bunch of things... he doesnt scare me with the radical associations and changes that are potentially out there with Obama (and more importantly..Pelosi). Some people call it the smell test, and when I see Obama at this point in time, I see an untested politician who we are taking about giving the keys to, who has shown bad judgement at times in the past, and who hasnt really done ANYTHING of note at this level, other than run for President. I will say again...McCain has his shortcomings, but I sense that his Change is a better type of change that we need...will McCain keep some Bush things in play?...Yes...will he change some things and end some things...Yes. Does he have experience at this level working? Yes.

Now all this being rambled on, Obama is still playing with the lead. The polls are all over the place, with some giving him a 10-15 point lead (oh, NBC/MSNBC shout about this nonstop...) to some like Gallop and Rasmussen citing a 3 point lead with likely voters (never hear about these polls, do you?) Lets see...the last two elections had both Gore and Kerry winning the same way with the polling data going into election day, where Bush squeaked it out by a 200-300 thousand votes or so. Will the ACORN stuff get Obama over the top in a similar type of tally? we shall see...

So... I am choosing to go with the proven experience and a more temperate mode of change of McCain versus untested and unknown experience and ideas (Do we REALLY know if he is as radical as his friends are or is he just using them to get to the top?) for change from Obama that reek of a socialist society and government acting as a nanny for us all. For me, it has nothing to do with his skin color. It has to do with his lack of record, as well as his on the record statements for what he believes in.

Maybe Obama gets elected and is the person he has led us to believe he is. If he does, I will be happy. For now, he has not met my bar. I have not bought in. I will cast my vote for McCain