Oh Weaver, we played Tripoly too! I used to feel so grown up when we got the game out. What wonderful memories. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Really, you played it too? I just bought new ones as gifts for my siblings last Christmas. I know what memories.

We played board games and cards all the time, and when we did watch movies on TV, my dad always made popcorn for us.

It makes me sad that DD doesn't have that type of childhood (only child, and only me...no grandparents or anything), but she has different good memories I guess.

ff:


Then you'll just LOVE Jone's Soda company's new Holiday Flavor!:

http://www.jonessoda.com/gifs6/smoked-salmon.jpg

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

-ol' 2long

2long:

all I can say is ewwww...

I've got marinated sesame steak, whole wheat couscous, and sauteed vegetables for the party.

If anyone wants the recipe, here it is:

Marinate 1 1/2 lb. flank steak (except I used a NY Strip) for about 8 hours or overnight in:
- 1/4 c. soy sauce (I tossed in some teriyaki and worcestershire for part of this)
- 1 T. sesame seeds
- 1 T. honey (I used a little more)
- 1 t. fresh ginger, chopped or grated
- 2 cloves garlic, smooshed and minced
- 2 green onions, chopped

Toss the marinade, cook the steak. Says it serves 4; YMMV.

Deeeeelishous.

I'm having it with a 2003 Four Vines "Old Vine Cuvee" California Zinfandel. Not the best wine in the world, really, but it'll do.

Oh, and dark chocolate covered raisins for dessert.

And no, I didn't cook it myself. I did the marinade this morning and my brother cooked everything before I got home. This is true brotherly love.

Edited to add number of servings and correct amount of meat to use.

Hmmm. Okay, this evening just got waaaaay too decadent. My brother made us chocolate chip cookies and coffee.

In honor of that, here are some lyrics. Not the whole song, because I have a hard time reading it when others put in the whole song. Just enough for the flavor.

I believe
this is heaven
to no one else but me
and I'll defend it as long as
I can be
left here to linger
in silence
if I
choose to
would you
try to
understand.

Hey J, send your brother to me ok?? Yum!

Hope I'm not a downer here...

Tomorrow, for me, will, assuming my ex cancels the pointless exercise in litigation she's supposedly arranged (I've received no official notice from family court), be a sort of official end to this odyssey.

In the last eighteen months, I've dismantled and reassembled myself hundreds of times. Semi-publicly grieved. Imagined hundreds of never-to-be-acted-upon revenge fantasies. Vainly dreamed up scores of meaningful things I could say to my former wife, if I should ever speak to her.

And now I'm done. I spent a year with most of my life on auto-pilot, just trying to get through. Spent many months after that working my rear end off and taking very little leisure time so I could regain success at work and hang on to my house, at least for a while longer. So here I am alone, wondering what'll happen now. Tomorrow is, in a way, day one of my adult life. I feel neither happy nor sad about it. Just uncertain.

I have a few things going for me, but often have a strong feeling I'm destined to be alone. I don't buy it, because it seems vain and romantic, and 'cause nobody has a known destiny. But I still have the feeling.

In Bull Durham, Crash Davis, in the back of the bus, says, "I was in the show for twenty-one days once."

My marriage is turning into a memory as vague as the college years that preceded it.

Maybe that's the way. You don't remember the thing lost as something great that you hate to have lost, and you don't remember it as time wasted on a life with a person who turned out to be no good. You just forget the whole damned thing.

GC

J,

You didn't tell us how to cook the steak. I need all the instructions. Do you broil it, fry it, grill it...or what? Or does it matter? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I was talking to DW (new guy) on the phone last night and I learned he was a dance instructor for 6 years. Even had a 60 minute show on TV once. This is the first time he told me this, and it almost floored me. Although I knew he was very graceful and a very good dancer.

I hate to say this on this board, but I am falling in love. I have never gone out with anyone as sweet, and cool as him. He doesn't even swear around me, and yet he has two harleys and is heavy into heavy metal music. So in appearance it would seem he is a bad boy, but he is so not. He doesn't smoke and rarely drinks. And he is a very good bowler.

I can't describe him, except he is a gentlemen and so much fun. Most of our phone convo's we spend laughing most of the way through.

After hunting season is over he is coming up again, and this time he will meet my D. We'll all go bowling, and probably play scrabble and other board games with her.

The only down side is he lives in Milwaukee and can't move here, and I love my job and don't want to leave it...and also moving my daughter is a whole other issue.

Anyway I told him I would not even consider moving D and myself until we have dated for atleast two years. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I don't for one second believe that you are destined to be alone Gray. Like I said, there is an angel out there just waiting for your heart to open once again...and when it does, she will be there.

I spent four years completely alone after my D's dad and I split up. I didn't even date, and they were among the happiest (until my parents died) years of my life. Because I knew that this time was for me and D, and for being alone. Of course I still had a lesson or two to learn, so the next man in my life was Dan...and we all know how that nightmare turned out.

Anyway...you are not going to spend your life alone, for the simple reason that you like women, and want one in your life, and so you shall.

In the words of the great Moody Blues -

"whatever we want, we will be in the end"

GC, this is only the beginning for you. Let's celebrate the start of your new life...you are such a good person and a man of honor. There is much to like about you and much to celebrate.

Muchas gracias. Weaver, I like the sound of this feller.

I own my house. Took the day off to get it done and see to a few final things.

And no kidding, the place looks a little different to me this morning.

GC

Congratulations! No longer the home of sparrow and GC but the home of the new and improved GC. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My brother fried the steak. I think it'd be fine grilled, done on a George Foreman, or broiled. He cooked it a bit rare and then I put mine back in to get it to medium. Excellent food last night, it really was.

GC, I think you just remember it the way you do all the other events of your life. Life is full of pain and happiness and mostly just tedium that we don't bother to store. If I had the capacity to be aware of all the inputs my senses receive, all the breaths my body takes, and then remember all of those in full and living color, I would probably be insane. Our imperfect memories are a blessing as much as they are anything else. What does it mean? It means that there are layers of richness and experience and wisdom in you that you never had before. The love, the grief, all of it, contributes to the solidity of you-who-are. I bet you never would've thought of compassion for the woman at the dump a few years ago. You probably wouldn't have thought about it at all.

The key transformation is pain-into-joy. Hard one, that. Kinda (exactly) like lead-into-gold.

So to end my first day I went to an NBA game with one of my cronies, and on the way home stopped at the neighborhood bar, where the giraffe works, for a glass of wine. The girl working was the giraffe's friend, who the giraffe has told me about and has talked up a bit, but who I never actually met and tonight I couldn't remember her name either.

As I killed the last of my wine, the girl asked did I want another glass. I said no but blah blah blah and introduced myself and asked her name. She said her name, and "nice meeting you", and out shot her hand. Like this was a job interview. What a harda$$! I shook it, said, "It's very good to meet you," paid for my wine, and got the he!! out of there.

She's not really my type, but it was wicked fun exercising the old "hello allow myself to introduce myself my name is GC" muscle, which has no doubt atrophied.

GC

Hi, GC.

Quote:
======================================
I own my house. Took the day off to get it done and see to a few final things.

And no kidding, the place looks a little different to me this morning.
======================================

Outstanding!
Congratulations!

Gimble

Thank you gimble. Cheers,

GC

BTW, Weaver? It's really cool to read someone else gushing and having fallen in love. Even on this site that's all about infidelity and the hard stuff, it's really good to read the good stuff. Maybe especially on this site about the hard stuff.

Speaking of which, SS, you mentioned something that sounded less like marital bliss and more like a few bumps in the road. I hope things are okay for you and your family.

FF, my brother is single and rarely gets up the gumption to cook. I do like him -- and he wouldn't make that good of a houseboy. I despair of marrying him off and getting him out of my basement sometimes. But where there's life, there's hope, and he is, underneath his grumpy exterior, one of the best people around.

GC, How's the house?

2Long, How's the house?

SLH, are you well?

Anyone else wandering by, hi there!

Likely just need the right woman at the right time for him then.

SS and SLH, I miss you.

Gimble, good to see you. I miss seeing you around lately.

2long how are you?

Hi GC, hope you are better today.

Howdy, Weaver! I like reading the gushy stuff too which is why I enjoy J's posts and SS's posts. Now I get to live vicariously through Weaver too. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hi, FF.

Quote:
=================================
Gimble, good to see you. I miss seeing you around lately.
=================================

Thanks!

I had to take a 'business is running me crazy and basic sanity break'. I sometimes have a hard time disconnecting from the pain of the people that file through the forums here.

I hope all is well with you, FF.

God bless,
Gimble