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.

Day 3 update

Didn’t have too much go on yesterday.  I just wasn’t in the mood to blog either.  It seems I blog better when I take pictures throughout the day.  I’ll have to explore that idea more.

I went to pick up the kids after school yesterday.  You line up in front of the school and it usually extends out into the street.  There is a turn lane that turns into the school and then if the line is longer than the turn lane you pull over in the grass so your not in the street.  All the parents do this so that is not my complaint.  It’s only a 2 lane road in front of the school so everyone not blocking it is cool with me but what kills me is when they pull off the side of the road and then gradually move forward.  When they get to the turn lane they still stay off the road instead of sitting in the turn lane.  You can see in the picture to the left, the white line on the left side is where the turn lane is and everybody is off the road in front of me.  The bad thing is, you can see where I pulled into the actual turn lane, now all the cars behind me followed me and used the lane.  So apparently all the parents are just a bunch of followers that do what the person in front of them do.  I guess that follows suit since this school system has money.  Cheri and I go to school functions and we feel so out of place.  And it’s not like we are dressed down or white trash or anything, but everybody is always really dressed up and proper.  Kind of snooty like if that makes sense.  We just feel like we don’t fit in because we don’t spend a fortune on our clothes, we’d rather be able to feed the family.

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked.  There are all kinds of things that annoy me about the pick up line at the school.  Not pulling all the way forward.  Parents that get out to open the door for the kids.  Pulling away when your kid is in.  The list goes on, but the lane issue above just cracks me up that people are that freaking stupid.

I got home and had to go to the office to pick up a package for the 2nd day in a row.  The ladies in the office asked if my wife went on a shopping spree if that tells you anything.  Truth is, she gets a lot of this stuff cheap or even free.  Plus she has some of her meds sent to us amongst other medical supplies so it wasn’t a shopping spree.  But she’s been gone for 4 days now and I have 3 packages sitting on the table for her.  There was 4 but she gave me permission to open one.  So I did.

    

I didn’t realize how bad the glare was on that first shot.  It’s a small box that says “Happy Anniversary Darling” on it.  Inside was the cookie you see on the box on the right.  We were sitting around on Monday before Cheri left and I was going through my email when I came across one from my yahoogroup for my family.  I set up a calendar and it emails reminders of birthdays and anniversary’s for our family out to the family that have joined.  See, I don’t have to use Facebook to remember.  Anyways, on Monday I received the week before reminder that our anniversary was next Monday.  I told Cheri that she wouldn’t be here for our anniversary (probably told her she doesn’t love me either).  She was upset about it.  While I’m sure we wouldn’t do anything really special, maybe go out for supper together or something, she doesn’t like being away from me, and not being here for our anniversary, she really didn’t like.  So apparently she got online and ordered this cookie to be shipped to me.  I think it was the guilt personally because we don’t usually buy anything for each other.  Neither of us are all about possessions, we rarely by ourselves or each other anything.  The kids are pretty much the only ones who get stuff bought for.  Or in the teenager’s case, gas and grocery money.  So I’ll be celebrating my anniversary all my lonesome, probably with online porn so at least I’ll be busy and won’t think about it.

My cousin’s kid had a fundraiser and be bought these individual pizza things from them.  The kids and I cracked that open for supper.  It was 4 individual pizza crusts then you put the sauce and topping on and cook it.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of making their own pizzas so I had them do their own.  In the picture to the left you can see Cheri’s biggest complaint about the kitchen, no counter space.  Trevor and Samantha are putting together their toppings after putting their sauce and cheese on.  Notice the Michigan and Colts shirts, I raise my kids right.  They had fun with it, they thought they were being super creative by making their own pizza’s.  Popped it in the oven for 12 minutes and out comes their supper.  I made my 2 separately due to the afore mentioned lack of counter space.  Plus, I made it while the kids were cooking so they were in their rooms and I used the last of the cheese in the fridge to add to mine.  They don’t exactly supply a lot of topping’s for you to use.

Later in the evening, Trevor went to Boy Scouts and that was our day 3 without Cheri.  We are all still surviving on our own, I’m sure Cheri is shocked by this but she won’t admit to it.  Oh yeah, Kitty is still alive in case you were wondering.  Chris is doing fine in Virginia, he had his surgery yesterday and they kept him overnight for observation.  As I type this, he is checked out and back home.  Cheri hasn’t killed her mom yet either so lots of positives coming from Virginia.

I have to apply my tags quickly and head off to pick the kids up at school.  I would have gotten this out earlier, but I snoozed most of the day on the couch.  I didn’t have a chance to proofread either but I have to go.

 

I played my Spotify while typing this out and kept a running list of the songs that popped up, I don’t know why I do this but I may find it interesting when I go back in 20 years and look at this again.

• Disturbed – Land of Confusion
• Kelly Clarkson – A Moment Like This
• Carly Ray Jepsen – Call me Crazy
• Crumbacher – Terra Firma
• Meat Loaf – Two out of Three Ain’t Bad
• Ray Boltz – Watch the Lamb
• the Choir – Robin had a Dream
• Alice in Chains – Rooster
• Michael W. Smith – Go West Young Man
• Michael W. Smith – Pray for Me

Photo journey

I’ve been taking pictures thinking, I’m going to blog about that.  Then I never do.  I suck.  But I’m going to throw all those pictures up here, and talk about them, quickly, so the post doesn’t get too long.

I know, looks like I’m fooling around.  I sent that to my wife, she asked what I was doing.  I sent this.

Going in there.  The catwalk above my head is the one I walk on while working.  That is not a door at the end of a hallway, that is the other side of 2 tanks.  I had to go in there to grab some parts that fell through the.  It was dripping, a lot, therefore the towel on my head.

Some cool clouds on my way home after work.

Kitty taking it easy with Samantha.

Sent this to my wife as well, since she was in Virginia.  Kitty has been very needy since she’s been gone.  As a matter of fact, hang on and I’ll take a picture of her now.

I included the laptop so you could see I actually just took it.  She is on my left leg, her arms are stretched underneath the laptop.  The cord in the USB port on the side above her is plugged into my phone.  Except the cord is wrapped around her.  And she’s purring.

I sent this to my wife.  I’m using her car while she uses mine in Virginia.  I told her I was making her car feel more like home.

I took the kids to the park after I picked them up at school.  That would be Samantha on the left, on the right is her “don’t call him my” boyfriend Blaine.  I actually talked to the kid.  Samantha said that he said I was mean.  I told him I was.

This is what I did when I got home.  I had to peel the label off my fruit jar for Samantha to take to girl scouts this evening.  She made a pumpkin candle out of it.  It was the only jar we had.  I have fruit for breakfast at work, hence, the fruit jar.

I made supper.  Although it looks kind of nasty in this picture.  It’s a cheesy, ham casserole.  Don’t be to impressed though.

It’s a box meal.  That’s the extent of my cooking ability.  We were going to make our own pizza’s but apparently I was supposed to thaw it out earlier and I didn’t realize it.  So that will be tomorrow’s supper.

While we were waiting for Samantha to get done at Girl Scouts, Trevor and I went to McDonalds and got hot fudge sundae’s.  Because we’re cool like that.

Now that those are posted, I see they were all taken in 2 days.  Friday and today.  That’s my exciting life I guess.

My History of Music

Since I’ve been doing Track of the Day, plus I’ve thrown out a few Insane in the Membrane’s, I figured I would give kind of a music background.  While I do love music, I’m not so into music that I can name band members or even half the time, I don’t know who sings the songs.  I just know whether or not I like the song.

I was born in 1973, so the majority of what I listened to growing up was 80’s music.  That’s about as far back as I remember.  I do remember the first cassette I bought for myself.  Billy Squier – Emotions in Motion.  I knew it was Billy Squier, I just had to google his albums and I recognized the cover. 

Once it got into the late 80’s, I got into religion.  I went to a local boys club that was religious in nature and I took to it.  I was popular there and soaked it up.  I eventually became a Sunday School teacher and was even a layperson for the church I went to.  During this phase, I strictly listened to christian music so you’ll see a lot of that on it as well.  Your high school years are impressionable, and that was the music I listened to at the time so even though I’m not religious at all now, I still love some of the music.  A lot of the songs bring back memories so I like it when they pop in on my “station.”

Once I got out of my religious era, I basically listened to the local pop/rock station so whatever was mainstream, I listened to.  I got my brother a job with me for a stretch and we always had lunch in his car, usually running somewhere to get something.  He listened to gangster rap most of the time so there were a few songs that I liked and are on my playlist.  His wife got him into country as well so he introduced me to a minimum of country because I was not a big fan of most of it.

Then in the late 90’s, I worked steel construction and had to ride in the work truck, sometimes for a couple of hours to and from the jobsite.  The foreman (and my brother, yes I worked with him again) listened to the local rock station so I gradually went from mainstream to rock.  The station also played a little classic rock so I heard all kinds of rock.

Rock pretty much covered the last 13 years or so.  That was what I mainly listened to until I met my wife.  While we were dating, she gave me a CD with some songs on it.  It had pop, R&B and country singles.  Plus when I went down to Virginia to spend time with her, while she was working she had the radio on and we listened to mainstream so I got back into that some.  When her and her kids moved up here, I picked up Skyler from school for awhile and let her pick the music in the car as well so I ended up hearing a lot of different music.

So now, I have a playlist with 878 (currently) songs.  I add to it whenever I think of something else that I like.  I actually added almost 100 songs while typing out this blog.  That would be why it took me almost 5 hours to write this out.  I have the playlist streamed to my phone so I can use it at work and in the car.  I generally get around 2 hours of music at work but I only work 3 or 4 days a week.  I can use it on the laptop as well but I don’t often.  Although, with the wife away for the next 9 days, I will probably use it more.

So that’s my music history.  I’ve added a Track of the Day page at the top, I’ll link each post with a Track of the Day on it to that page.  Let’s see how far I get before I quit doing that.

Even famous people talk to me

I got a tweet today from the author of the book I’m currently reading.  I guess Twitter is good for that.  I thought it was pretty cool.  If you don’t know, I belong to Goodreads, where you post what books your reading or have read and you can post your progression of the books.  You have friends like Facebook and you can follow what they are reading as well.  Consider it a social media site, but only with books and readers.  There’s a widget over there on the right side and down.  It also posts my progress on my Facebook and Twitter account.  That is what the author replied to.  All he said was he was hoping I enjoyed it.  I was going to screen cap it but it really wasn’t that exciting.

But it’s cool when a “celebrity” talks to you.  I used to do the same thing with what I was watching on GetGlue as well.  It posted what I was watching to Twitter and I was watching “Ball Boys” and the owner of the store that the reality show is out of responded and asked how I liked it.  We went back and forth a couple of times.  Nothing special but it’s still kind of cool.

Have I ever talked to a celebrity in real life?  Why yes, yes I have.  I’ve been around a few and by around I mean within talking distance.  I was at a Cubs game and our seats were under the upper deck and Muhammad Ali came down the catwalk to go to his suite.  He was a little ways away but he was close enough I could have thrown something at him with little effort.  It was cool because everyone stood up and started chanting “ALI, ALI!’

I’ve also been in the same room as Garth Brooks where I used to work.  He came through and took a tour of Crown.  We made all his equipment that he used at his concerts.  The amps and other kinds of equipment.

Crown also provided the sound equipment for the Special Olympics in Reno, Nevada one year.  As well as provided some volunteers to help out at those Special Olympics, and I was one of them.  I won’t get into that unique experience but I met and briefly talked to none other than Tina Yothers.  Anybody remember her?  From Family Ties.  I was helping out at the skating rink and was between jobs and she was sitting there with a friend.  I walked up and shook her hand.  I really don’t remember any of the conversation, but I remember talking to her.  The picture to the left is from back then.  She’s all grown up now.

I’ve been close to athletes to but I don’t count those.  They are on the field of play and I’m in the front row so definitely doesn’t count unless I talk to them and I haven’t.

I think that is all of my celebrity ties, it’s nothing special, but at least I’ve talked or tweeted with someone.

Today is a special Track of the Day because I’m guessing not many people have heard of this group.  Probably a few of you but I bet not many more than that.

Band – Here Come the Mummies

Song – Attack of the Wiener Man

I first heard this group on the morning show “Bob & Tom” and I love a couple of their songs.  This song isn’t my favorite but it’s up there.

He waits all patient out in the street
All the honeys want to sample the meat
He can't help but relish the fact
(The Foot Long Keeps you coming back)
Once you're feeling safe and cool
That's when the wiener man makes his move
Mm-m-Mm-M-M-M-M-M
(You can't scream when your mouth is full)

It’s not what it sounds like, that’s why their songs are so great.  I’m even going to post the song here so you can listen to it.

 

She’s leaving me!

I’m in the mood to blog, problem is, I have nothing to blog about.  Nothing exciting happened today at work, the kids are with theEx, there isn’t crap on TV or the DVR.

My wife is getting ready to leave me.   No, not that kind of leave, she hasn’t fallen out of love with me, yet.  She’s heading back to Virginia to take care of her son who is having his tonsils removed.  It’s normally not an overly big deal but he was born with 3 holes in his heart so any kind of surgery becomes more of a big deal than normal.  They have to take him down to Wake Forest just to do the surgery because of it.  Cheri is going to take off on Tuesday and be gone through the Thursday of the next week.  So she’ll be gone 9 days.  So some things will change around here and some things will stay the same.

   

Same – I’ll probably watch a lot of TV and sports.  Change – I can watch the shows and sports that Cheri doesn’t like without the guilt of making her watch.

  

Same – We still have to eat.  Change – Our meals will suck in comparison.  Cheri cooks the majority of our meals.  Full meals as in meat, potatoes, vegetables.  Our meals this week I have to take care of which means box dinners or fast food.

  

Same – I have to work.  Change – The 4 days I work while she’s gone, I’m only working half days.  I’m dropping the kids off at school at 7:45 going to work at 8, then leaving work at 2 (6 hrs) and picking the kids up at 2:20.  Works out nicely, I will say this is the only part I like about Cheri leaving, is working half days.

  

Same – Kids are going to their mom’s on the weekend.  Change – I will be home all alone.  While I love just kicking back with my baby on the weekends, I am a loner at heart and will enjoy hanging out all by my lonesome.  I may have to reinstitute naked Fridays.

  

Same – I have a car.  Change – I’ll be driving Cheri’s car.  My car is more comfortable and gets way better gas mileage so she is taking it to Virginia.

   

Same – Cheri’s mom will have all kinds of drama.  Change – Cheri will be stuck with her dealing with it.  Hopefully Cheri doesn’t catch her crazy and bring it back.  She’s starts acting like her mom, I’m sending her ass back to Virginia.

   

Same – I’ll pretend I’m in charge.  Change – Cheri will still be in charge.  I call her boss (she doesn’t like it) and I call myself her bitch (she says she doesn’t like it, but I secretly think she does).

   

Same – I’ll be sitting in the living room, chillin like a villain.  Change – I’ll be able to sit in the recliner (probably naked, don’t tell Cheri).  She gets the recliner because of her issues.  It’s the only piece of furniture she can sit comfortably in.  I usually sprawl on the couch, sometimes on the floor, sometimes a combination of both.  I can sit anywhere so it doesn’t bother me that she gets the comfortable chair.  It’s my superpower to her, she’s always uncomfortable where as I can get comfortable anywhere.

   

Same – I’ll look at online porn.  Change – NO SEX FOR A WEEK!!!  That’s BS, she can’t go now.  We have to change her plans.  I just hope after a week, I don’t mistake the cat for, um, you know, pussy.

I don’t really have any plans while she’s gone.  Other than a naked weekend, I better remember to keep the door locked.  I’d feel bad that she’s leaving, except I know she’ll miss the cat more than me.  Hope the cat can handle not getting spoiled for a week.  Guess we’ll see.

Maybe I’ll get some good blogging done.  If I can tear myself away from the online porn that is.

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