Tech Support

I really need to get caught up on my blogs, I logged into my reader today and started with the oldest, from October 22nd.  I’m really behind.  I do have an “All-Star” folder that all the blogs that I really like are in that, so I stay up to date on those.  Mainly because I comment on those more often and it always felt odd dropping a comment a week after the post.  Like a creepy stalker.  I do need to move some more blogs to the all-star folder but I never think about it when I’m sitting at my laptop.

Speaking of my laptop, I went to scan some cards for my other blog yesterday, because I’m way behind in that too, and I double clicked the scanner icon on the screen and it asked me if I wanted to register my new printer.  What the hell?  I’ve had this thing for over a year, it isn’t new.  So I went ahead and acted like it was a new one and entered all the information and downloaded the drivers for it.  Only there was an error downloading.  Damn it!  I hate printers, I swear you only average about a year out of them before they start doing something stupid.  I’ve had more issues with printers.  So I had Cheri load up her laptop and double click the icon, same thing.  So I figure if it is doing it on both laptops, then it’s an issue with the printer and not our computers.  So I call the tech support for the printer (HP) already knowing that my warranty as probably expired, but I’m annoyed, so I called.  After finally figuring out what I was saying, she says that she will open up a free ticket so she could help me.  I heard “fee” not free, and I said “so because your software is screwing up, your going to charge me, that’s crap!”  Then she repeated what she said, and I heard free that time.  Oops.

After 2 hours she figured out that the printer updated itself and for some reason, my laptop wasn’t uninstalling the old software before it could reinstall the new software.  She tried to uninstall in manually and it still wouldn’t uninstall.  She had to uninstall each file, one by one.  In order to do all this, I had to give her control of my laptop.  So I sat and watched her do the work.  Then when we were done she gave me a ticket number and said that someone would call back at 7 and fix the other laptop.  But since I now knew what the problem was, I told Cheri, she did it and got it working.  Which is a good thing, because they never called back like they were supposed to.

The only thing I hate about talking to tech support is they act like I’m an idiot.  I understand your used to talking to idiots but not all people are.  I also understand that it’s easier for them to act like everybody is stupid in order to get the information they need.  So I guess what I’m saying is, I hate calling Tech Support.  I troubleshoot pretty well, Google the answer to the problem, I do everything I can to not have to call.  If I’m calling Tech Support, I’m in the green on the chart below.

Artist:  Chris Isaak

Song:  Wicked Games

I know, I know.  What’s really sad is the memory that this song brings back is me being a horny teenager.  It was released in 1989 which would have made me 16.  It was also back when MTV actually played music video’s and I loved this video.

Oh yeah, that was hot back in the day.

Bra dancing with demons at work

I had yesterday off work, due to maintenance needing to shut down the lines.  So they say.  The actual reason was we didn’t have a lot of metal and they didn’t want to pay us to stand around.  The maintenance guys I talked to said they were only going to even be in the plant for a few hours.  And I heard the maintenance foreman was annoyed that the plant manager blamed his department.  Because while it was nice to have the day off, everybody’s checks were all of the sudden (they told us Friday) 12 hours short.  People were very displeased to say the least.  Speaking of work, I saw this today and it kind of scared me.

I circled the company name and the footage.  I blacked out the Die # and Part number in case these are supposed to be secrets,  It’s not a government job so I assume it was ok.  It sounds like Demon and the footage is the mark of the beast.  Should I be scared?  I mean I’ve talked about work being hell lately, but maybe it’s actually becoming hell.

My mom threw together a last second birthday party for my stepdad.  It was last second because getting everybody’s work schedules to not conflict is a very difficult task anymore.  She also wanted the grandkids there.  So I had called theEx as soon as I knew about the party (10:55 am) that morning, asked her if I could have the kids that evening for a few hours.  She said that was fine, I would have to meet the JackAss at 5:30 at the usual spot.  Cool.  Cheri and I go out to pick some things up, do grocery shopping, ect.  We were just about ready to head home with the groceries when I received a text from the JackAss telling me his medical conditions on why he can’t drive to meet me.  Those excuses might fly had I not known he drives to Fort Wayne (45 min) every Monday and home again every Friday.  But what made it worse, he texted me at 4:55.  They live just over 30 minutes away.  He has known we were meeting all day but he waits until the time he has to leave to meet to tell me.  So needless to say, my kids didn’t get to go.  I really wish he would have told me earlier and I could have arranged to drive out there, especially after my mom made me feel like crap for them not being there.  It wasn’t so much that she blamed me, but I could feel the disappointment rolling off her.  On top of him doing this to us, I had given the kids to theEx on Thursday night through Monday afternoon because they had both those days off of school.  What she doesn’t know is, I am no longer giving her extra days when they don’t have school.  It pisses me off that I do everything I can for her to have more time with the kids then I get screwed over time and again.

But enough about the negative. as I mentioned above we went shopping.  We hit the bra section at Walmart because my girls (her girls) needed some support.  I offered to hold them up all day long but apparently she felt that wouldn’t be feezable.  So I figured since I couldn’t hold them up all day, I did the next best thing.

I think I might have embarrassed Cheri a bit standing in the bra section with a bra on my head taking pictures of myself.  I figured her knockers are so big that if it could fit my head, it might fit her.  I was just trying to help.

Samantha had a flash mob at a local shopping center.  The picture above is her getting down.  She did a good job with the choreographed dance for this kind of event.  But I think she probably has the dancing ability of her father.

I’ve been saving that .gif just for talking about me dancing.  I think it’s perfect for me.  I’d probably make those faces too.

I need to go to bed, it’s after 1 am and I think Cheri is posting pictures of our cat all over Instagram because she’s bored and waiting on me.

Roundabouts

Every time I drive through this intersection, I think, I should blog about it.  Then I never do.  I do that a lot.  If I blogged about everything that crosses my mind, I’d be closing in on 1000 posts instead of closing in on 240.  I guess that’s a good thing for you guys that actually read every post.

But back to the intersection, they put in a roundabout a few years ago (pictured above).  They’ve actually put a few in around that time.  I like the roundabouts, but the problem with them comes when other people don’t know how to navigate them.  When they first put them in, it was horrible.  Now you don’t run into too many people who have trouble anymore.  But this one stands out in my mind because while it does have it’s share of traffic, it’s in the middle of nowhere.

Completely surrounded by corn fields.  Welcome to Indiana.

• Artist – Neil Diamond
• Song – Forever in Blue Jeans

I know what your thinking, Neil Diamond?  Really?  But he has sentimental value to my playlist.  Anytime I hear a Neil Diamond song (yes, I have more than one on my playlist) I think of my grandmother.  I picture their condo outside St. Louis, the sliding glass door open on a nice spring afternoon, with Neil Diamond on the stereo.  I heard it enough, I’m going to assume she had a CD.  But that’s what his songs remind me of.

Stats, part 2

Part 1

I left you off in July of 2011.  Random Thoughts hadn’t transformed into the kind of journal type blog it is yet.  While I have learned a few lessons from the start of it, there are still some lessons to be learned.

You see above that I have finally hit my 10,000 pageview and that I have posted 4 more blog posts.  If you remember, I’ve left you with 4 posts in each of the last 3 months.  I was spending more time over at My Sports Obsession   Let’s take a look at August.

In August I got a little better at posting.  I had a whopping 7 post  Some of these posts are a lot like the shorter ones I do today, so I think at this point, I was trying to actually learn to blog.

August 2011 - 7 posts – 2196 words – 14 pictures

• average of 314 words per post.
• average of 2 pictures per post.

When I left you in July, my average words per post was over 600 and now it’s down to less than half of that.  But you can see where I’m using less of the humor posts with all the pictures and few words.  The Trip to the Cove post with 12 pictures was a personal one that had photos from a Girl scouts trip.

I went back to only 2 posts a month for a couple of months.  All written posts, so I may have not know what this blog was going to turn out to be but I had a notion.  I just didn’t post the smaller posts that I do now.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say, it was I worried nobody wanted to read that.  As you can tell by these stats posts, I now post for myself.

September 2011 – 2 posts – 2124 words – 6 pictures

• average of 1062 words per post.
• average of 3 pictures per post.

All the pictures were in 1 post, but that post had almost 1500 words so it wasn’t just a picture post like I used to do in the past.

October 2011 – 2 posts – 740 words – 0 pictures

• average of 370 words per post.
• average of 0 pictures per post.

Not much to say, I continue with more meaningful posts, just not very often.

What the hell happened, I’ve gone backwards.  I don’t mind the photo cleansing posts because I take all the humor pictures that I had come across and put them in one post.  The sad part of this month isn’t the lack of words, it is that out of the 7 posts, is that they all occurred in 4 days.

November 2011 – 7 posts – 171 words – 9 pictures

• average of 24 words per post.
• average of 1 picture per post.

Those numbers are just pathetic.  I have nothing to say.

As you can see, it continues this month.  Although my average words per posts will jump dramatically because on the last post.  It was about Cheri and I’s trip to Chicago.

December 2011 – 3 posts – 2580 words – 2 pictures

• average of 860 words per post.
• average of 1 picture per post.

Kind of false stats since all the words came from 1 post.

More of the same and by more, I mean more posts.  The only post that has any writing to it isn’t even my writing.  It was something I copied over (with credit given) because I thought it was good.  Had I known I was going to keep my writing stats, I would have just posted a link.

January 2011 – 10 posts – 817 words – 14 pictures

• average of 82 words per post.
• average of 1 picture per post.

Blah! Blah! Blah!  Just pathetic.  Don’t worry, it’ll be coming to an end soon.  The following month is when Random Thoughts really starts becoming what it is today.  Not that it’s anything special, but it is mine, and I’m proud of what I do.  But you will have to wait until part 3 to see that.  I know you’ll be anticipating it.

Styling and more

Going to do kind of a random post today.  We’ll start with Monday night.  Right after I posted this, I get a phone call from Cheri that my cousin was stopping by and I needed to meet her in the parking lot.  So I head on out there and who pulls up?  None other than Cheri.
Now Sunday night I had suspected that she might come home on Monday.  I would have put it at about 80% chance that she was going to show up.  But then talking to her via text all day, she must have gradually convinced me that she wasn’t coming home because when I saw her pull up, it was the last thing I suspected.  So while I knew she was coming home, she still completely fooled me.  Chris was doing great and she decided he didn’t really need her there anymore.
Even though Cheri was home, I kept my half day on Tuesday, mainly to spend some more time to Cheri but I wouldn’t be lying if I said I didn’t just want to get the hell out of work early too.  I took the kids to the park after I picked them up from school but we didn’t stay too long because it started to rain.  They went with theEx later in the evening so Cheri and I took the chance to go out for supper since Monday was our anniversary.  I enjoyed the food and the company, she just enjoyed the company.  Probably the older couple at the table.
Then last night after the kids came home and went to bed, I posted this about my brother.  Then I woke up this morning to a comment on my blog from, none other than my brother.  I didn’t even know he read my blog.  First thing I did was try to remember if I had said anything bad about him previously, but I think I’m safe.  If you went back and read that post, you see that I made fun of him for having his callback number on his text messages.  I received a text from him today, and the callback number was removed.  So I can now title this blog as educational since I taught him it was annoying.  Actually, he just knows better to not listen to his big brother.

We had parent teacher conferences today.  We stopped by the book fair first and bought some books and then I made the kids sit outside the classroom while we were in the conference.  That’s what the picture above is.  Both kids are doing well and all is good there.  But while waiting for the conference before me, I saw this.  I broke out my Misty’s Laws ninja like photo taking skills and took this shot of a mother inside another classroom talking to the teacher.  Let’s start with the hair, how does anyone think completely blond hair with completely dark hair underneath looks good.  Secondly, why is everyone so obsessed with wearing boots with everything all of the sudden.  I see the dumbest looking boots with anything, including shorts.  Even my 10 year old came home from theEx’s with shorts and a pair of boots on.  I asked her if she went in public like that she said she had.  I told her she won’t with me, I’d leave her ass home.  I was never in style compared to everyone else but seeing the styles of clothes and accessories that people wear now, is completely ridiculous.  Mismatched socks, sandals with everything, horrible dye jobs, boots, and don’t even get me started on skinny jeans.  I don’t think it’s all that attractive on girls but don’t even get me started on guys wearing them.  I say guys because a real man wouldn’t be caught dead in them.  Amish styled beards and skinny jeans.  Dressing like your homeless.  Bringing back the 80’s style’s which includes the big ass glasses.  I don’t get it.  Maybe I’m the crotchety old man hollering “GET OFF MY LAWN” already.  Maybe nobody just has any sense of style anymore.  If my kids dress like that, you’ll be damn sure that I’ll be making fun of them.  And I definitely won’t go into public with them if their underwear is hanging out.

Sorry, got a little off topic.  Came home from the conference then had to walk over to Walmart to pick up an ingredient that we forgot to get earlier for supper.  The things I do for my wife, I walk all the way over to Walmart to pick up one thing, under the moonlight at that.  I could have been attacked and left in the gutter for dead but I risked it.

Ok, so it wasn’t dark yet, but the moon was out, I didn’t lie.  Oh, and Walmart is next door too.  I spend as much time walking across the parking lot as I do walking to the parking lot.  I just put my headphones on and walk over.  It’s not a big deal, I just make it out to be so Cheri think’s I’m special.  I have to trick her into thinking that I’m a good guy so she sticks around.

Track – Hero/Heroine

Artist – Boys like Girls

I love this song, and it’s probably my 2nd favorite song on the previously mentioned CD that Cheri made me.  2nd favorite behind “our” song that I’m still waiting for to come up on my random play.  If you haven’t heard it, check it out.

I picked a video that had the lyrics on it as well so you could see those.

Real life bros

My brother and I have what I guess is an unusual relationship.  We don’t really have that much in common, other than our family and our sports.   We are both Colts and Michigan fans.  But

• He hates baseball, I love baseball.
• He can work on cars, I don’t know jack about cars.
• He’s a grilling machine, I’ve grilled once, maybe twice in my life.
• We both are good fathers, but he’s a better one than I am.  He does a lot more with his kids than I do.  Maybe that’s because he doesn’t see them as often as I do (his ex has custody) so he makes plans when they are with him.  Maybe I just suck at that part of being a father.
• He’s a beer drinker, I don’t like the flavor of beer.  I drink alcohol on occasion, but it’s very rare anymore.
• He was always the popular kid, I was the loner.
• He always dressed nice and took care of himself, I could care less what I look like.
• I’m a big computer guy, he’s good at the basics (facebook).
• He’s a good employee, I’m a smartass to management.
• He’s was in the military, I can’t imagine being yelled at all the time.

But with all those difference, we are the same.  We have the same quick come backs, we both love our family and we both would do anything for that family and each other.  After all, we were both raised by our mother.  We can go weeks without hardly talking and it isn’t a big deal.  That’s kind of a guy thing anyways.  But I know if I had to move tomorrow, I could text him tonight and he would be there in the morning (been there, done that).  And vice versa.  He’s called me to come out to his house just to help move one item to the basement or garage and as long as I’m not busy, I go.  2 weekends ago, I went over after getting home around 8 o’clock after being out all day (in-laws for birthday party).  Went over in my PJ’s to help him drag out his TV that died.  It was one of those huge big screens.  It’s been in the garage since then.  I got a text from him on Wednesday night.

    

First he has to ask if I’m up because he works 2nd shift and apparently decided to wait until after work and text me at 12:22am.  Luckily, since Cheri isn’t here, I was on the phone talking to her, otherwise I would have been sleeping already.  We were having 2 conversations, I blocked out the other since it doesn’t really go with this post.  You can also see by his signature that he is the Michigan fan I told you he was.  As soon as he asked what I was doing in the morning, I figured he needed my help for something.  Sure enough, there it is.  The TV again.  I’ve already moved it a bunch of times too.

You see the last text from me to him.  Had it not been 12:42am, he would have texted my mom and told her that I called him a name.  Then I would get a text from her to stop calling my brother names.  That’s happened more than once.  We can be a strange family.

And as you can see, his smart ass responds.  And I can’t argue that, I am getting up there.  These are our typical conversations via text.  But as you can tell by this conversation, we get along just fine despite all our differences.  Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen him since I helped him move that TV the first time 2 weeks ago.  I may not see him before Thanksgiving, despite him living 5 minutes up the road, and less than a minute from the kids school.  But it doesn’t matter, I could call him to help me move a dead body tonight at 3am and he would.  As would most of my family.  That’s the way we were raised.

One other difference between us, I take my callback number off my text messaging.  I just got a message from you, I know your damn number.

• Track – Bodies
• Artist – Drowning Pool

Today’s track of the day I loved when it first came out.  I think back then, I was watching wrestling and it was either a theme for one of the wrestlers or for one of their pay per views.

I like these songs like this that when you sing them, you feel like a bad ass.  Which would be why the WWE was probably using it.  They tend to stick to those kinds of songs.  I don’t generally like the songs that repeat over and over but for some reason, I don’t have that problem with this song.  And it repeats.  A lot.

I miss her

As most of you know, Cheri is in Virginia.  The hardest time of our relationship was when we lived 600 miles apart, which is what has made this week so hard.  It brings back all those memories of going to bed thinking about when I’ll get to see her again.  Even after a couple years of marriage, we sit and spent a minimum of an hour every night talking on the phone while she’s been gone.  I’ve always appreciated all she does for me, but maybe I haven’t expressed that as much as I should have.  She tells me she loves me all the time, and I love that about her.  I feel like if I always just say I love you back every time she says it, then it won’t be sincere.  While I do tell it to her first on occasion, it certainly isn’t often enough.  I will work on that when she comes home.

I hate to admit that I was looking forward to having some alone time this weekend with no wife or kids, but to be honest, even though I wasn’t doing much of anything other than sit on the computer while watching TV, I wanted Cheri there.  We could sit in the same room for hours without talking and it wouldn’t matter.  She makes me more comfortable when she’s around.  I realized how pathetic I am this week because I miss her more than I thought I would.  Don’t get me wrong, I knew I’d miss her, I wasn’t expecting to miss her this much.

She probably thinks I miss her because she does most everything around the house, but that has nothing to do with it.  I cook out of boxes or frozen stuff so that only takes a few minutes in the kitchen, I’ve only had to run 1 load of laundry and I haven’t even ran the dishwasher yet (I will tonight).  So while I do miss that she takes care of everything, that’s not what I miss the most.  I miss her.  I miss having her here to talk to and to talk to me.  I miss joking around with her.  I miss hugging her.  I miss kissing her.  What it all comes down to is, I miss her.

Why am I expressing this today? 

2 years ago today, Cheri and I headed out to a local small town that had a little meaning to us. We drove downtown to the local park where a local pastor met us. We stood at the gazebo and within 5 minutes or so, we were married. We then texted and called family and friends before posting on Facebook. Because nobody knew we were doing it. While some were shocked that we got married without anyone there, nobody was shocked that we got married. Everyone knew we were in love. We’d been living together since the previous June and it pretty much felt like we’ve been married for years. You can check out our story here.

Since then, I’ve only fallen more in love. We’ve had our trials and tribulations, but we always come out together in the end. We have our differences, but we have a lot more in common. We both are homebodies and we are both content just sitting in the same room together most of the time. Sure, we enjoy the occasional movie or date night, but really, as long as we are together we don’t really care what we are doing.

I know 2 years together isn’t the momentous compared to most of you.  But it’s been the best 2 years of my life and I only look forward to the next 50 more together.

Happy Anniversary Baby, come home soon.  I love you.

Stats

I’ve admitted before that I do pay attention to my stats.  That’s partly because I would like the blog to be respectable among it’s community, but also, I’m a stats guy.  I love numbers.  At the beginning of this year, I started a spreadsheet and kept track of stuff.  How many times I ate out and where.  How many movies and sporting events I watched and attended.  How many times I traveled and to where.  I was even keeping track of how much money I spent on cards and where.  Why?  I love stats.  Do I still keep this list?  No, I stopped a long time ago.  One day I just shook my head and said, that’s just stupid.  It served no purpose.  Although, now it would make great blog material.  But you see where this is heading, don’t you?  No, well I will tell you.

I spent a few hours Friday night and a few hours Sunday morning going through all my blog posts and counting each word I typed.  Every, Single, Word.  I’m kidding, I didn’t count every word.  I just copied each post over to my Window Writer and it gave me a word count at the bottom of the page.  But I did that for all 228 posts.

I also counted how many pictures I used in that post.  Whatever picture or video it was, got counted.  Even logos and such.  So let’s take a journey down memory lane.  This will be a long post, but I plan on doing this periodically in the future just to catch up so those won’t be nearly as long.

There is where I stand currently.  As you can see, I’m closing in on 10,000 pageviews.  But that’s not why we are here, is it.

I started this blog officially on 2/22/11 but it didn’t become what it is now for awhile.  I used it more trying to get followers so I posted humor mixed with personal stuff.  You can see here that I had 5 posts that didn’t even have 100 words in it, including 1 post that didn’t have any.  Those were mostly funny picture or toons.  I debated on deleting all this nonsense since it isn’t what this blog is now, but it shows the blogs growth.  All that stuff I did to get followers, didn’t work.  Eventually I would realize this and blog for myself and when I did that, I gained more of the followers.  Despite that being the reason I blog now, it is still nice to know that someone cares what I’m typing.

12 posts – 1720 words – 12 pictures =

• average of 143 words per post.
• average of 1 picture per post.

Told you I love stats.  You see that last post, I used to keep track of every TV show and movie that I watched and did a weekly post.  That didn’t last long though.

Through the 2nd month of existence, I’m still posting fairly regularly.  This month I actually have my first 2 posts over 500 words and they both exceeded 1000.  You can see the posts with the word book in them.  I used to do book reviews of the book I was finishing and touch on the next one.  Those didn’t last real long either because I realized when I expected to put out something, it wasn’t much fun.  It was like having a deadline over me and I just didn’t enjoy those.  This is the main thing that I learned the first year or so of this blog.  I still have “features” such as Flashback Fridays, Cousins and What the Hell Are You Watching as well as smaller features that I include in other posts as WTF Did They Just Say?, WTF Were They Thinking?, Track of the Day and Insane in the Membrane.  But I do those when I feel like, they aren’t set to do on a weekly basis and that works better for me.

15 posts – 3898 words – 35 pictures

• average of 260 words per post.
• average of 2 pictures per post.

Here again you see 6 posts with less than 100 words and half of those have no words.  Definitely not making blogging history here.

The first 2 posts are titled exactly the same.  I actually went back to make sure I didn’t accidently duplicate the title doing the spreadsheet and I didn’t.  I have 2 posts over 500 words and only 1 under 100 so I’m getting better.  You will also notice there are less posts this month but also less pictures than any month.  That could be a good thing into growing this blog.

9 posts – 2821 words – 10 pictures

• average of 313 words per post.
• average of 1 picture per post.

There is still a humor post with very few words and a book post, but you see the TV & Movie guide is gone.  The post called I need an intervention is about my love for baseball cards.  And soon you’ll see where that effects this blog.  It already has some but it’ll get more noticeable.

Do you see it?  It looks like a lot of posts, but if you look at the dates, you’ll see this is 3 months worth, with 4 posts each.  What happened?  Well, on March 29, 2011 I started another blog (My Sports Obsession) about my baseball cards and sports in general.  I started giving a lot more love to that blog.  That blog got a lot more love than this blog, it was easy to get more followers because it was a topic specific blog.  I think I was sitting on 3 followers on this blog at this point.  So needless to say, I spent more time over there.  That was one of those lessons I learned too, but I hadn’t learned it yet so I’ll wait until I learn it to tell you what it is.

May – 4 posts – 1768 words – 50 pictures

• average of 442 words per post.
• average of 13 pictures per post.

The reason the picture count is so much higher is that 37 pictures in the post Cantigny.  Cheri and I went there and took a bunch of pictures so they are all personal photos.  But you see my words per post starting to climb.  The post Cantigny put me at 2 milestones as well.  10,000 words and 100 pictures.

June – 4 posts – 2194 words – 8 pictures

• average of 549 words per post.
• average of 2 pictures per post.

Picture average is better but they were all in a humor post.  My average words per post continues to climb.  Guess that happens when you only post 4 times in a month.

July – 4 posts – 2477 words – 17 pictures

• average of 619 words per post.
• average of 4 pictures per post.

Again the words per posts goes up but that’s partly because of one post where I talk about being a caregiver to a MS patient that has over 1000 words.  The pictures are up again but 7 were personal and 10 humor related.

 

I’ll stop there for now and continue this in 2 other posts.  This post is getting pretty long (1242 words).  I had more to say about the stats then I thought I would.  Don’t worry I’ll space them out so I don’t chase you away with 3 majorly boring posts in a row.

Days 4-6, weekend edition

I bunched all 3 of these days together because I don’t really have much to say in regards to them.

Day 4 (Friday) – Dropped the kids off at school and came home and crashed on the couch.  Cheri and I have reverted to what we did while we were dating with 600 miles between us, talk on the phone until we are both about ready to fall asleep on each other.  Half the time we aren’t even talking, that’s just how we used to hang out together.  But we usually end up staying up way later than normal.  So I crashed, for about 4 hours.

I got called into work for the first time, ever.  I told them I couldn’t come in because I had to get the kids.  I might have gone in for the overtime, it was just bad timing.  Now they will probably never call me again.  I don’t mind going in like that because I can come and go whenever I like.  I don’t have to stay 12 hours since I volunteered to come in.

I dropped school pictures off to theEx’s sister for her and their mom (theEx doesn’t buy school pictures) and then dropped the kids off to theEx.  I called my mom to see if she was going to be home so I could hit her up and see if she wanted to buy some nuts for the Girl Scouts.  She said they were heading out for supper but I could join them there.  We went to the Rib Shack in my hometown.  This place has a lot of memories as we went there at least once a week for a lot of my preteen and teen years.  It has been sold and has changed a bit but it all looks the same.  We always sat at the same table and there was a framed picture of some dogs sliding down some wood.  It’s no longer there but it has so much history with our family that my mom asked if they still had it because she was going to buy it for my brother and I.  I just spent an hour Googling and trying to find that painting that hung there and couldn’t find it.  I’m not sure what means more to the family anymore, the Rib Shack or that painting.  Put it this way, if I had managed to come up with the picture of the painting I would have been excited.  That says a lot.

theEx actually told the kids that she would take them to a family dance at the school.  I was shocked, I was even more shocked when she actually took them.  I won’t go into their costumes as she doesn’t like to spend any money on the kids.  Samantha’s consisted of a Cowboy hat, vest and boots that were all her mom’s to begin with.  Trevor wore the costume he wore last year.  Samantha did text me after the dance.

   

Of course, as you can tell by the conversation, she texted to brag about hanging out with Blaine.

Day 5 (Saturday) – Slept till 10, didn’t get out of bed till around 11.  Went to Taco Bell for lunch, watched Michigan beat Michigan State and that was pretty much it.  Nothing was on TV so I watched the first 6 episodes of Firefly on Netflix.  Ate some Wheat Thins for supper around 10 that night.  Then Cheri called and kept me up till almost 2.  We both decided that we are pretty pathetic because we hate being apart.  As much as I enjoy my alone time, I miss just chilling with her and it definitely sucks sleeping alone again.  She says Chris is doing really well so we’ll see if she decides to come home early.  Here’s a picture of the sky that I took when I ran to Taco Bell, I decided I better get my ass home.  If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve already seen this.

Day 6 (Sunday, today) – Slept till 11.  I’m going be so tired at work tomorrow because I will not be able to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight.  My plans for today, right now I’m blogging, listening to Spotify and watching the Colts game.  The Colts are my pick for an elimination tournament at work.  After the game I have to run out to the Boy Scout leaders and turn in popcorn orders, then go to the Girl Scout leaders and turn in nut orders.  Then head to Martin’s for some groceries.  Cheri keeps complaining because I’ve reverted to eating one meal a day again.  It’s only on days I don’t work, and I go back to work tomorrow.  But I have to pick up some suppers for the kids and I this week as well.  At least I don’t have to pick up more cat food like I thought, Kitty died in a horrible accident today.  She drove her hammock into the patio door.  At least there is no blood to clean off the carpet.  Picture also via Instagram, you should follow (jlaws13)

Anyways, after going to the grocery store, I’m hitting Mancino’s for supper than picking up the kids and heading home for the best show on TV.  That’s right boys and girls, Sunday nights are reserved for “The Walking Dead”.  Cheri, if your reading this, do not call between 9 and 10.  I have my priorities.

• Artist – Madonna
• Song – Crazy for You
• Album – the Immaculate Collection

Today’s track of the day is fitting because it has to do with Cheri and I back when we were dating.  I would always tell her how she was beautiful or sexy and she would reply, your crazy.  So I would start singing this song to her.  I know, cheesy as hell but what can I say.  I was (and still am) in love.  She put it on the aforementioned CD that she made me.

You’ll notice that I used the Immaculate Collection instead of the original album.  When I’m going through the artists page, the first thing I do is look for greatest hits albums to pick the songs from.  It’s just easier than going through a bunch of albums.

Awards day

The kids came home with some awards from school the other day.  They both got these.

           

Perfect Attendance awards.  My mom is rolling her eyes starting to wonder who’s kids these really are.  I skipped school, a lot.  But I guess at elementary school none of that had started so I guess we’ll see where they end up in a few years.  Trevor also came home with this.

I suppose I could have scanned these and made them prettier, but it’s easier just to snap a picture with my phone and upload them.  I’m not sure what to make of this one.  It’s recognizing him for trying harder.  Does that mean he wasn’t doing anything at the beginning of the year?  Is this one of those awards you give the slow kids to make them feel better?  Trevor’s first 2 years of school he came home with a Student of the Month award the first month of school both years.  Since I got these, it reminded me of that.  Samantha has brought home the Student of the Month before as well but later in the year.  They give out something like 5 per class each month.  So first month I’m thinking, great job.  4th or 5th month, I’m thinking they are stretching to find some new kid to give it to.