I got called Squirrely

I know right, squirrely.  Who calls someone squirrely?  Jenn over at My Daily Jenn-ism called me squirrely.  What the hell is that supposed to mean, so I Googled and the Urban Dictionary says this.

Seriously?  That’s what Jenn thinks of me?  She has been my biggest supporter from another blogger.  She gives me all kind of love on her facebook page.  She even got me to 100 followers which was quite a feat since I think I was only hovering around 30 or so.  I thought she liked me, I thought I had a friend.  Maybe squirrely means something else, I’m going to read the other definitions on urban dictionary.

What the hell did I just read?  Surely Jenn doesn’t think that.  Unless she knows something I don’t know.  The only way to understand why she called me squirrely is go back and figure out how she said it.

Oh, wait, I don’t think she meant the definition above (especially that 2nd one, my “bum” hurts thinking about it).  It’s an award!  Well then it definitely can’t be negative.  That’s the Jenn I know.  The rules of the award are you’re supposed to give 10 facts about yourself.  We’ll see if I can even manage that.  Last time I got an award and had to come up with facts I barely made it.  I should probably pull that up to make sure I don’t duplicate any.
I went back and I won 2 Liebster awards and a 3 award which totaled 25 facts about me.  This is going to be tough to come up with 10 more but here goes.

1. I’ve had the inkling to write a book.  I don’t know if I’m scared to fail or just to lazy to take the time to do it.  I know nothing about writing a book.  I have some vague ideas for stories but I don’t know if I can make it the length of a book.  I know, everybody thinks they are a writer.
2. A lot of the reason I want to write a book, is to say that I’ve done something with my life.  Physical evidence that I’m more than a factory worker.
3. I always wear socks.  Always!  When my feet get cold, I get cold.  I generally sleep in my boxers but on an occasion that I sleep in the nude, I’m not nude, I still have my socks on.  That’s why you never see me in sandals, even on the beach, I wear shoes and socks.
4. I don’t like massages.  I’ve never had a professional one but I don’t like when anyone tries to rub my back or neck.  My wife thought she’d give me a back massage, she started and I just laid there.  She asked if it felt good, I said not really and she got mad and said I was weird.
5. I rarely have my wallet on me and when I do, it’s never in my back pocket.  I don’t understand how people can sit on their wallet all the time.  It just doesn’t seem comfortable at all.  If I don’t need my debit cards or ID, I just carry my cash in my pocket.  When I go to a sporting event, I put my ID, debit and cash in my pocket.
6. The car I’m driving is 10 years old, and I’ve owned it almost the whole 10 years.  It is a 2003 and I bought it in the fall of 2003 so it wasn’t new, but it wasn’t really old either.  I don’t remember ever washing the outside.  Other than cleaning the trash out of it, I’ve probably never really cleaned the inside either.  I’m not big on possessions, it’s a car.  As long as it gets me where I’m going, I really don’t care what it looks like.  It’s not like it’s filthy, it does rain every so often.  There is no trash in it either, I keep it clean, I just don’t wipe it down or sweep it out.
7. I have never fired a gun.  I’m not sure I’ve ever even handled a gun.  I’m not against them, just never really had the opportunity.  I guess I’ve had the opportunity, I was in a firearms store yesterday and I’m sure if I would have asked the owner (my ex-sister and brother in law) he would have let me hold a rifle.  He has told me that I can come out to their place and shoot some guns sometime.
8. I used to skip school, a lot.  So much that they started calling my mom at work when I did because she would never get the messages when they called home or sent some snail mail.  One time, they asked her if she cared if they picked me up.  Sure enough, I opened the door to the vice principal.  The really bad thing was I had talked my brother into skipping as well, so we both got busted.  He dropped him off then took me to school.
9. I once got accused of being gay at work.  How did I react?  I hit on him, he freaked out.  Apparently he was homophobic.  I would walk by someone else standing close to him and say to them loud enough for him to hear “Damn, Tony’s ass is looking mighty fine tonight.”  He finally started yelling, “I get it, your not gay, just stop it.”
10. Speaking of being gay, I have been in the local gay nightclub.  Even watched a drag show with a necklace with penis’ on it.  That even earned me a lap dance from one of the queens.  I was there with a bachelorette party and the sad thing was, I hadn’t even had much to drink.  But I had a good time regardless.  For one, you’d be amazed at how many single women are in there.  The night we were there, there was 4 other bachelorette parties going on.

Woo Hoo!  I did it, I got 10.  Of course, my wife gave me 3 – 6, rather quickly at that.  Maybe I should pay a little attention to that.
The next step is to hand it out to 10 other bloggers.  I currently have 549 blogs in my Feedly and narrowing that down to 10 is not happening.  Sure, I have some favorites out there, I even have a folder on my Feedly called All-Stars that I make sure I keep up with daily, it has 268 blogs on it so that doesn’t help much either.  So if you would like this award, take it and run with it.  If you want me to post your blog on here, let me know and I will post it as a recipient to the award.  I do appreciate the awards but mainly because it gives me something to blog about.
Big shout out to Jenn from My Daily Jenn-ism for the award and more, I meant it when I said she was my biggest supporter.  My facebook page would be nothing without her, not that it’s anything special now but she’s responsible for about 3/4 of my likes with multiple shout-outs on her’s.

Liebster Award

When I was doing the A to Z Challenge last month, I received the Liebster Award from 2 different bloggers (“The World As I See It” & “Laughing at Life, 2”).  It’s nice to receive an award and lord knows I could use the press, but I’m not overly huge into receiving them.  But I’ll do what needs to be done here, for the most part. 
First off, 11 (times 2) Fun Facts about me.

1. Apparently I suck at coming up with fun facts about me.
2. I’m a cryer when I watch TV & movies.  I guess I get emotionally involved in the stories and characters.
3. I love technology but when it doesn’t work, I want to throw it against the wall or out a window.
4. I’m not big on possessions.  I’m pretty content with what I have and rarely want something more.  The question I hate the most before Christmas and Birthday’s is “What do you want?)
5. I’m very laid back, so much so that at times, it drives my wife nuts.  Things that should make me angry, I just shrug it off.  Meh!  But there are certain people who set me off right away.
6. I’m a cat person, not a big fan of dogs.  I don’t mind them, they are just more work.  Cats are self sufficient where as dogs you have to walk and play with them.  Plus, living in Indiana, I don’t want to have to take my dog outside every few hours to go potty in the winter.  I’ll take cleaning a litter box once a day, takes 2 minutes.
7. I Googled the word Liebster because I had no idea what it meant. (German word – dearest, beloved, favorite.)
8. I haven’t had a “best friend” since high school.  And while he is on my Facebook, I don’t ever communicate with him (he’s never on it).  I don’t really have many friends if any.  I have work acquaintances that I occasionally do things with outside of work, but it’s very rare.  When I got married in 1994, out of my best man and 4 groomsmen, only 1 do I even talk to anymore, and he’s my brother.
9. I hate the fact that I’m overweight, but that hatred doesn’t out do my laziness to do something about it.  Some of it is laziness, some of it is I just don’t enjoy working out.
10. My ex (theEx) and I both have middle names that start with D, so both of our kids have middle names that start with D.  My current wife (Cheri) has 2 kids, both of her kids have middle names that start with D.  Sadly, Cheri does not.  She’s an oddball.
11. I used to have an earring and long hair (long enough for a small pony tail).
12. I have  tattoo’s on both my arms, a block M (for Michigan) specifically designed for me by a friend on my left arm.  My right arm has both kids names and birthdates along with a design with a heart in the middle between the names.
13. I was never a huge fan of the show “Friends” when it was on, but my wife loves it so we’ve been watching it before bed most nights and I’ve become a fan of it.  I’ve always been a little slow.
14. I’ve talked about my OCD before, another thing I’m OCD is I can’t just start watching a new show in the middle of the season, I have to find it On Demand and catch up before I start watching the current season.
15. I’ve only kissed 2 women in my life, and I’ve been married twice, you do the math.
16. I have no desire to travel as far as leaving the country.  There is plenty here in the US to keep me entertained if I decide to travel.
17. I’ve driven on the Bristol Motor Speedway.  Not in a race car but in my wife’s car.  The banks suck when your only doing about 20 mph.  You feel like your car is just going to roll off the track onto the infield.
18. I truly don’t like conflict.  I can handle it just fine, but if I can talk myself out of it, then I will.
19. My mom used to buy grapefruit just because it was the only drink she could keep in the fridge that my brother and I wouldn’t drink.  I didn’t like that, so I drank it till I could tolerate it just so for when it was the only thing left to drink, I would still have something.
20. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate the University of Notre Dame.  I hate a lot of their fans.  Although, in the last few years, some of the actual school’s decisions have rubbed me wrong.
21. I’ve never been diagnosed with a broken bone.  I may have broken my nose once but I never went to the doctor for it but I now have a lump on the bridge of my nose.
22. I’ve been working on this post for about a week, and am so happy that I am done.  I saved these facts for last because I knew it would be the most difficult for me.

I also have to answer 11 questions from each bloggers who gave me the award.  First up is Michael’s questions from “The World As I See It”

1. What kind of creature is Grimace? (The McDonalds mascot) – Is he even still around?  Great question, I think he’s a creation of Cee Lo Green.  He’s shaped like a gum drop (you know Cee Lo has to like sweets), He’s purple (Come on, you’ve seen some of Cee Lo’s clothes) and he has short arms (do I need to say it).     
2. Who's your favourite non-rock or pop musical artist? (I think that leaves Jazz, Blues, Country, Reggae, Trance, most Rap/Hip Hop and Dubstep) – I went through my Spotify playlists and nothing really stood out other than the rock kind so I’m going to answer with a group I enjoy listening to.
   
3. What's your favorite variety of cheese? – Hmm, never really thought about it.  All cheese is good cheese.  I guess it’s Colby Jack, I eat that more than anything.  I do like Bleu Cheese dressing on my salad.
4. Have you ever mimicked the Gangnam Style Dance? – That would be a Hell No.  I don’t think I’ve even done it in a joking manner.
5. Who's selling sea shells by the sea shore? They never mention who she is. – I’m going with Cee Lo again.  Cee Lo sells sea shells by the sea shore.
6. When was the last time you went for a pap smear/prostate exam? – My father died at 30, so I did a full physical when I hit 30 (10 years ago).  I’ve thought about doing another one this year since I’m turning 40 but I’m really leaning against it.
7. Don't you think it's time? – I think I answered that above.
8. What's your favorite Star Wars, Godfather and Indiana Jones film? – Star Wars, I’ll go with Empire Strikes Back.  Godfather, I’ll say #1 but that’s only because it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen them.  Indiana Jones I’ll go with the Last Crusade.  The relationship between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was hilarious.
9. How many songs are there on your mp3 player or phone? – I don’t use an mp3 player or store music on my phone.  I use Spotify and stream music and in my “Anything & Everything” playlists, I have 1198 songs.
10. Do you/have you ever talked about religion or politics with strangers? – That would mean I have to talk to strangers, but no.  I believe everyone has their opinion so who’s to say my opinion on the matter is right.  I don’t have a problem discussing this stuff, but if someone would have the conversation with me, and I thought what they were saying was stupid, I’d just shrug my shoulders and say ok.  Why do I care what they think, especially a stranger?
11. Which of the Avengers is the hottest? – Well this is the easiest question being as I’m a guy, the Hulk, because he’s shirtless and buff.  I’m kidding, that would be Black Widow.  She’s hot without the black outfit, but wow, even better with it on.

And now for the questions from Shawn at “Laughing at Life, 2”

1. If you could choose to have any super power what would it be, and why? – X-ray vision.  Sorry, but once a pervert, always a pervert.
2. What would you do for a Klondike bar? – Considering I don’t even buy them, probably not much.
3. If you could be any cartoon character which one would you choose, and why? – Bugs Bunny, because he always got the best of everybody.
4. What is your favorite movie? – the Shawshank Redemption
5. If you could be granted one wish what would you wish for? – To never lose anyone I love.
6. Why did the chicken cross the road besides to get to the other side? – Because he was riding his bike on the wrong side of the road.
7. If you had the power to change laws, what would you make legal, and what would you make illegal? – Legal is easy, gay marriage, although it’s slowly being changed now.  Illegal, nothing comes to mind.  People are going to do what they want to do, illegal or not.
8. What is your favorite way to spend your free time? – I hate to say it, but being online.
9. What is your favorite quote? – Going to church doesn’t make you a christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car.
10. In your opinion, do you think man has really been to the moon? – I’ve always believed they have, and I’m not into conspiracy theories.
11. What is your favorite quality in the opposite sex? – Sense of Humor.  If you don’t have a sense of humor, then you won’t like me.

The last step of the award is to give it to another 11 blogs with 200 followers or less.  I’m not going to do that.  I read a ton of blogs and being as I use an RSS feeder to read them, I don’t go to their blogs and I have no idea how many followers each of them have.  So if you have less than 200 followers and you want to do a post like this, consider yourself a recipient of this prestigious award.  If you do accept the award, leave me a comment so I can read your post.  For your 11 questions from me, select 11 of the above 22.  I’m sorry I’m taking the lazy way out but it was a lot of work coming up with 22 fun facts that were new to most of you.

Randomness

A couple of quick things.  The good news is it’s really slow at work (not normally good news) but it means I get to read more.  This generally means when I’m working and have nothing to do, I read blogs on my Google Reader and on my breaks, I read books.  I got almost all the way caught up on my blogs today.  This is how I looked.

That would be me sitting on a 5 gallon bucket with my head on my desk (sweatshirt for padding), reading on my Kindle Fire.  It helps that I’m in the slowest section on the line.  I’m sitting in front of my fan as well, if I had some hair, you could see my locks flowing in the breeze.  It may be 40 degrees outside, but it’s still warm inside.

I know none of you really read my sports blog, but I was having issues and started a duplicate blog on Wordpress.  I did the same with this one.  So if you would rather follow this blog on Wordpress than you can at http://randomthoughtsfromjccsst1022.wordpress.com/.  The blog posts will be an exact duplicate as here so if you don’t want to switch, then don’t.  This will still be the main blog and will have more sidebar activity as well as pages.  I don’t like the Wordpress site as much as Blogger but it may just be because I’m used to Blogger.  I do like that people can like your post without having to leave a comment.  And I like that now I can comment on Wordpress blogs and have account to link to.

Special thanks to Brian from “Brian Jones’ Diary – the Ramblings of a Menopausal Man” for my 3rd Chairman’s Choice man card for my post “Surprise Package” and for giving me another blog to read.  Be sure to check him out as well as the other guys over at Dude Write.

Always a good time for a couple of Apple Sucks posts.

Since this is so short, I’ll throw up a couple of things that I posted on personal Facebook account.

Some days this is the hardest thing I have to do.

If I keep eating fast food, I won’t be their fast food.

It’s funny how the unlikeliest characters become the most popular.

And a picture from my wife’s Instagram.

If you remember my last post where I said I crashed on the couch for a few hours.  Apparently Kitty found a place to sleep as well.  Right on my back and ass.

Haven’t done a Track of the Day in a little while so we’ll throw another one out there for old times sake.

Track – Sunday’s on the Way

Artist - Carman

Another classic christian song.  This was chosen because I did some service work at a church in Kentucky.  And one night we did a skit to this song.  It’s about the demons and devils partying after Jesus’ crucifixion waiting for Sunday to come to see if he comes back.  Anytime I hear this song, I go back to Thousandsticks, Kentucky and all the fun I had on that missions trip.  We did all kinds of cosmetic and maintenance to a church and surrounding buildings.  We slept in the church sanctuary on the pews and the floors.  That was back when I was a good guy, before I got corrupted.

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.

Attention Ladies and Dudes

I have to make an announcement.  Today, I am officially a man.  No, I wasn’t a woman before and just finished my surgery.  I got an official man card earlier today.  As you should know if you read my drivel, I’ve entered in the Dude Write contest a few times.  Today, I finally received a man card.  It wasn’t one of the top billing ones (Diamond, Platinum or Gold) but that doesn’t surprise me because there are some great writers over there.  I can’t vote for myself, but I wouldn’t anyways because I never think I’m in the top 3.  But they also have a Chairman’s Choice award where the previous week’s winners get to pick one.  WilyGuy chose my post “Dating Mrs. Palmer” for one of the cards.

Thanks bro, or should I say, Dude.  I guess I should have known it was going to take a post about masturbation to impress other guys.  Be sure to check out the Dude Write site for some other great writers that are men.
To celebrate my win, I decided to make myself like one of the manly men out there.

      

Shave Tom’s head and it’s close.  I’m rocking that mustache.

I posted this picture (the one on the right, I know they look like the same guy) on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram figuring I’d get all kinds of comments.  I did get one, and this is the type of comment I was expecting.

So at least one of my friends didn’t let me down.  I actually didn’t leave the mustache, I was in the process of shaving it all off and thought I’d stop and take a picture.  But I haven’t told any of my friends yet.  All my disappointing friends that is.  Who wants friends that are going to be nice, a friend is supposed to tell me I look like an 80’s porn star, that I have a caterpillar on my lip, tell me I look like a douche, something.  They suck!


Damn, I could have been a millionaire and gotten laid over and over.  Give me a few weeks, I’ll grow another one.

He Shoots the Three, and Scores

I won an award, I’ve made it, I’m a top mommy!  Oh wait, not that one and you know, I’m not a mommy.  Red bestowed it upon me to give me the 3 award.  What this means for me is I have to tell you 3 things about me, shouldn’t be too hard.  And for me to pick 3 other bloggers that I want to know about.  That will be a little more difficult since I follow so many.  As I’m relatively new to all this, there are only a few of you that I’ve even talked to via comments.  Take Red out of that takes half of those out. I need to get out there more apparently.

So to start off, 3 things about me, hmmm. 

1. To my family, “traditions” are huge.  Each holiday, we do the same thing every year.  You name a holiday, and I can tell you when and where we’ll be.  An example – Easter – Meet at my mom’s for lunch, after lunch, everybody but a few of us walks down to the river and it doesn’t matter if it’s 20 below out, your going.  The few that stay back hide eggs in the backyard and I’m talking 300+ eggs for everyone.  River people come back and the kids go looking for eggs.  Hang out for a bit and then head home.  Every holiday is preplanned like that.  My grandmother once asked me if I’d carry on the traditions after they were gone, I said “Hell No, the traditions are dying with you”.  But in reality, we’ll all still be doing them, which she knows.
2. I’m a square.  I may lose readers after this one, but I’ve never done any drugs (other than doctor recommended), none.  I hadn’t even smelled pot before this year (stupid neighbors).  There is reasons for that, one, I’ve never desired to try any but also, I’ve never had a lot of friends so I was never peer pressured to try any.  Being a loner is not always a bad thing.
3. Back in high school, I took a trip to Wyoming with a group of other teens.  We spent one day hiking on “The Grand Tetons” mountains.  Elevation is 13,770 feet (2.6 miles)  We left from the base of the mountain in shorts, and had to hike though huge snow banks when we got to the top.  It was pretty wild.  You couldn’t walk straight up on the snow because of the slope of the mountain, you had to walk across and zig zag till you got to the top of the snow.  If I recall correctly, I got in trouble on the way back down because rather than do the zig zag, I sat on my backpack and rode it straight down.  Digging my feet in just before I hit the rocks at the bottom.  Out of the 25 or so teens that made the hike, I was 1 of the only 3 that made it all the way to the top.  Wish I still had that kind of energy.  My brother wussed out on the last mile.

Well, there’s 3 things about me.  That was a little tougher than I thought it would be.  Mainly because I’m pretty much an open book.  I really don’t have many secrets but that’s mainly because I generally don’t care what people think about me, therefore, why would I care what you know about me.  To prove it, feel free to ask me anything in the comments.  I’ll answer.
Now for the 3 people I’m giving awards to, this is a little tougher because there’s so many that I follow.  I’m going to try to show some love to the other Dad’s out there blogging about their adventures.  I don’t much about them or their blogs as I’ve only been reading them for a few weeks, but I do know that I enjoy them.

1. Wag The Dad – Because he’s a dad, and takes on various topics from a father’s perspective.  He pulls no punches and is funny as hell.  And apparently likes to drool in the shower, haven’t tried that yet.
2. Daddy Scratches – Because he’s a dad, and I loved his last post about the Harry Potter books.  And he’s not afraid to tell his kids no, which is a rarity anymore.
3. Telling Dad – I’m really new to his blog, but I like what I’ve seen so far.  And I read where he is F-bomb free which is cool.  While I don’t mind cussing, I tend to cuss a lot outside of my home.  I just can’t bring myself to do it in my blog.

So there you have it, showing some of the dad’s some love.  Be sure to check them all out and be sure to check out another (soon to be) Hoosier, Red’s blog “Doesn’t Speak Klingon”.  Thanks for the award, it was greatly appreciated.