Working at the concession stand at son's school's football game tonight. Cleaning house the rest of the weekend.

Busy one.

Tonight - making hamburgers for my daughter, my girlfriend and her daughter, then playing board games and hanging out.

Tomorrow - around the house stuff then girlfriend is making dinner for my birthday with my family, some friends, and the kids..

Sunday, girlfriend's daughter's 4th birthday party in the afternoon after church.

Happy Birthday Gekko!

Thanks, It was technically Wed and Tues we went out at the last minute to celebrate.

so far 38 feels just like 37, so that's good.

Happy Birthday gekko!!!!!!

Dawn

Happy Birthday Gekko!! Your weekend sounds fun!! Enjoy!!

I'm going to son's football game tonight.....IN THE RAIN AND I HAVE A FLIPPIN CHEST COLD!!

Tomorrow I'm suppose to work...unless I feel worse than I do now...and then I'm gonna lay around all day Sunday and hopefully get rid of this stinkin cold!

My plans??? 4-H meeting tonight, dress shopping all day tomorrow. My wedding is 4 weeks away and the girls have nothing to wear. Plus, the next two weekends are BOOKED! Church and the church picnic, and heaven knows I've got to mow the lawn. Lots of excitment.

Congratulations Greengables!
Post your wedding photos, will you?

Gekko, Happy 38th Birthday!
So young.

I haven't had anything planned this weekend. Most likely to be alone.

Wooohooo my Steelers did me proud again!!

Hope all in the path of IKE survived and are in the clean up mode!

Friday night stayed home on my own, watched "Because I told you so" I love sappy movies!!!! Got my grandson's rocking chair stained.

Saturday--took out this huge picture window from my dining room. Dad and I went to put the new one in that I special ordered and it is majorly the wrong size! UGH!!!! So started calling around town to see if I could get something different. My mom is all stressed out over it. Why? If I don't get something I board up the whole with some plywood!!!! Ended up with a window standard size.

Went and helped bowling guy with the PeeWee Bowlers there are 15 between 3-6 yo. They are so cut and he is so awesome with them, has a great deal of patience. We switched roles as I was the one that ran the youth bowling program for the past 6 years and he helped me. So very different for me!

When done he stopped to help dad and I put this window in, my mom and her walker came across the street and she is coming up the driveway and he pulls him in behind her and honks, not once but three times, dad and I looked at each other and said "he's gone get flipped off." And sure enough she gave him a bird! We about died laughing, he was just aghast as a 68 yo women flipped him the bird!!! Now remind you these are the two that had the major water gun fight in my house on memorial day weekend!

Bowled last night--struggled the middle game big time, daughter is trying to coach me--not good! And then somehow like magic it all came together the last game and I rolled a 209, needless to say I beat daughter and her crew of buds!!!

So it was a good weekend, with a new window and bowling starting back up again!!

Dawn

Sounds like a good productive weekend Dawn!!

Note, McGurk's is the Irish pub/restaurant in the next tine, and The Dog Is the world-famous Dog Prairie, the sole tavern in my little town.

Friday I went to McGurk’s, sat outside, talked to two guys from South America, had dinner and some Guinness, and then headed up to The Dog for some very interesting conversation with several people, including someone that I had never had a conversation with before. Very interesting in deed, I was kind of the meat in the sandwich with my buddy Jerry on my right and Katie Brown on my left. I was very impressed with Katie’s intelligence having never really talked to her before. Her husband Bruce was very slow to warm up to me when I first met him last year but now is very cordial and I always have a nice conversation with him as well. It was talk-night at The Dog!

Home at midnight and then up around 09:00 and ready the paper, drank espresso, and got ready for the wedding. The wedding was in the ex-town at a Catholic church that I had not been to in 25-years and that was for another wedding. The rain held off all day for the wedding party and they were extremely fortunate in that regard because there was report of rain all around, but it was a very warm day, topping out near 90 and very humid as well. The wedding was a full mass and was very nice and went off without a flaw. I sat with 3-couples who are friends and neighbors. I enjoyed the service tremendously and am glad that some people can find happiness in marriage. My perspective of a Catholic wedding has changed quite a bit now that I’m Catholic. I left the wedding after it was done and grabbed a late lunch out, then did a spot of grocery shopping for hurricane supplies, you know, beer, bourbon, etc. I puttered a bit and watched 2-episodes of a BBC-series that I’m watching called “Ballykissangel”. I then left for the K of C hall near the church (about 1.5 miles from my house) and went past The Dog and was the wedding party’s bus there, so stopped in and said hello to everyone and they were all in fine spirits. Had an interesting conversation with the maid of honor Trish who is married and was flirting with me a bit. Not to be alarmed, I get harmlessly flirted at by all kinds of married women, I feel it’s their version of a sport. Trish said that I smelled good, always a plus, and that I was handsome, always good to hear. I had one beer, said my goodbyes, and headed up to the hall. There were quite a few people that I know from town there and I made my rounds, grabbed a beer, and then saved a table for my friends and neighbors who arrived a bit later. By the best man (the groom’s older brother) and the maid of honor (Trish) gave the best toast speeches I’ve every heard and both had me tearing up a bit. The food was very good and catered by my friend Dean, we had some interesting conversation and I met quite a few people, including perhaps the only single woman there over the age of 25, she was in the Air Force and stationed in Korea performing aircraft maintenance on A-10s. We had quite the little conversation about the infamous “Warthog”. About 22:00 or so I said my goodbyes, wanting a change of pace and a change of venue, and returned to The Dog and had so more interesting conversation and had another married woman, Cynthia, who told me I looked handsome, which is great to hear for the second time that day. I had two beers and got home about 23:00, debated heading back to the reception which was booked until 00:00, decided not to, and changed clothes and smoked a fine stogie and had a couple of bourbons and headed into bed before midnight.

Got up about 10:00, finally slept well for once, and dried out my newspapers from the hurricane rains that had come at some point during the early morning and the temperature had dropped over 30-degrees and the wind was blowing steady about 35mph, so it was time for something other than shorts. I threw on another layer and listened to my radio show and read the one paper that I could get dry enough to read. I puttered around, made some lunch, got cleaned up, headed to town, checked Wally World for the second season of “Dexter”, not a good price because Target had it much cheaper, went to Target, bought that and “Big Fish” on DVD, went to both Lowe’s and Home Depot to see if they had any bargains in the plant department and had very good restraint at both venues. I did go inside Lowe’s to look at a new Whirlpool non-maintenance whole-house water filter and will get one at some point, and also looked at some plastic panels that look just like a tin-ceiling and comes in several varieties that can be used as a kitchen backsplash. I looked very closely at them and picked up a brochure so that I can figure what color will work best. I then stopped at the discount chain of grocery stores and picked up some more grocery items. My cabinets are packed, my refrigerator is packed, my chest freezer is packed, and maybe I should actually eat something! Tacos tonight most likely. I was in a Corona mood so slice a lime, drank Coronas, had a light supper, and watched some more of “Ballykissangel”.

Tonight, maybe a movie out, Tuesday have a Board of Alderman meeting, Wednesday want to get my hair cut and that may involve hanging out with Jill my hairdresser and her lovely workmate Robin. The rest of the week is indeterminate.

In dating news, I did call Sherry Friday night while at McGurk’s and had a nice conversation. Susan texted me Saturday. I had 2 emails on Yahoo from Mary and have had other emails from Donna, Sherry, and Jodi this morning along with a multiple texts with Susan.

Life is good and I will entertain questions.

I loved "Big Fish!"

Are you a member of K of C? I was thinking about joining one of those groups to meet people... like Kiwanis or one of the others

I'm not, but I want to join and at the picnic several people insisted that I join, so I'll try to catch them on the third Thursday of the month.

Booka how is it you manage all those women???

My weekend was so so. It rained the whole time. My mom came for lunch Saturday. Then I painted Sat afternoon. And Sunday. It still needs another coat but it will have to wait until next weekend (I'm too afraid of heights to go on the ladder so I need help for that part).

The biggest excitement of it all was painting the cat. Now I've been painting for months and my cats have completely ignored it. But Saturday, I openned the can, set the lid down next to it and began to stir. My fat female cat came over, flopped to the ground and rolled into the paint lid !! I immediately picked her up and washed her under the tap. Luckily she is declawed or I'd be permanently scarred.

Saturday night we (my BF and I) attempted to watch a movie but the power went out half way through. So we went upstairs to get candles (we were in the basement - totally pitch black). Got some candles lit and the power came back on. So we went back down to resume the movie, turned the TV and DVD player on and the power went off again. So we stayed upstairs after that. The power was out for about an hour and we played cribbage by candlelight.

So not a bad weekend but not great either.

I don't really know, I guess I'm just a good multitasker. The other thing is that I'm so relaxed. Dating is work, including all of the prelude, which is where I am now with all. But I'm not letting it get to me and I must be putting out invisible waves which women are picking up on. I have no agenda and no expectations. I just plug away quietly and at a steady pace. I know quite a few truths about dating and in particular know that I will need to sift through a lot of people unless I'm very fortunate and that every person has the ability to add some value to your life, but not every one will become a candidate for anything more than friendship. I have learned to just say no to the toxic, damaged, fragile, and insane. Heaven forbid feeling sorry for someone. I learned a huge lesson recently with someone I fancied that turned out was exhibiting some of the same characteristics of the XW, yuck!

I'm ambivalent towards women, dating, relationships with women, marriage, etc. It takes a lot of pressure off of the situation.

Tabby1, where do you live and I'll assume that the cause of the power outage was a storm. Cribbage by candlelight? That does not sound very romantic unless the stakes were interesting. (wink)

Ok booka, how does it make you fell having that many females, calling, emailing and texting you? Do you like it, is it stroking your ego to have that many females wanting your attention?

I am really trying to see this from a guys prospective. What kinds of things are they contacting you with? Are they legit or just trying to start a conversation with you?

Anytime that I have tried to pursue a guy it backfires on me, but when I try to have patience and wait for them, I get inpatient and usually lose interest, but am not sure how to go about letting them know that I would be interested if they were to pursue me!!!

So booka, share!!!!!

Dawn

Dawn,

It does nothing for my ego because it all means nothing to me at the moment. I figure (brace yourself) that 50% of what I hear from any woman in a dating scenario is real. Only 50%. I've been lied to and misled by the best. I'm certain the same can be said for a lot of men.

Actually, I look at it from the opposite perspective, I am in contact with all of them and often initiate the contacts for the day. They might very well feel I'm seeking their attentions.

But I'll tell you what, if it gets to the point where several of them show up simultaneously and there's a bit old hairy cat-fight, the winner can take me home. (wink)

Dawn, how old are you? Part of my response will be tailored to your age range. I will say in general that any woman 40 and over that I have met in my opinion never approaches being bold enough for my tastes.

Some contact will be what you classify as legit, the others can be divided into freaks and players. You should be able to tell the freaks by now, if not, seek peer counsel. The players are easy to spot by their behaviors, they will want to pay for everything and will have a very advanced schedule for getting you into bed. After that they tend to fade away rapidly because their thrill is in the chase and capture. They know nothing about sustaining a relationship.

First, let me advise communication skills. If you like someone, tell, them, if you're attracted to someone, tell them. If you like someone, that means you want to see them again. If your attracted to them, then things need to be escalated a bit. Please describe your attempts to pursue, perhaps we can refine your approach. Describe what it means to wait for them. If you give me some specific scenarios I can give you more specific answers.

Since a woman asked this question, I address these general comments to the women, although often they can be applicable to the men.

1. Pets are no substitute for a partner. The more pets you have, the increasing suspicion that I look at you with. Don't put pictures of your pets on your profile, men don't give a hoot for your pets at that stage of the game. Don't even mention must love dogs/animals/cats, etc.

2. I understand that your children are important in your life. I don't want to see their pictures period if they're under age. If they're gigantic hulking teenagers with tats and earrings, I don't want to see their pictures. Just spare the pictures of your kids altogether. I absolutely cringe when people put up pictures of their young children. What are they thinking? If you tell me that your children are the most important things in your life, I probably won't be interested in you and will figure that you live vicariously through your children and have no adult life of your own and won't be good dating material. That and you may not have the ability to put anything first before your children.

3. Men are accustomed to your coyness, passive-aggressiveness, etc., and will reply in kind with all forms of manipulation. This takes time and energy and generally leads to the ultimate frustration of both parties. Please consider Albert Einstein's definition of insanity. Shake it up, try being direct, open, and honest for once. Face your fears and conquer them.

4. Life is short. No one, repeat loudly, no one is going to come knocking on your door unsummoned to rescue you from yourself. Your prince will not arrive that way. If you wonder why that approach doesn't work, consider again Albert Einstein's definition of insanity. You have to get out there. Travel in packs if you're insecure about going alone. Get out of your comfort zone at least once a week. Never refuse an invitation to get out of the house and into a situation where you can meet some people. Trace your moments for a week on a map. Notice the little tiny circle that you operate in. Get out of that circle. Go where men go, and it doesn't have to be the bars. Hang out in the tool section (stop it with the innuendo already) of the big box stores and ask questions. Consider, get ready to freak out totally here, that you may to initiate an approach. That old fluttering of the eyelashes thing will work. I love to garden, you can approach me in the garden section. Become an expert at least one subject that men are fond of (hint: cars, sports, guns, fishing, sports, tools, sports, etc.). Do you want to sit at home debating what shade to paint your toenails? Get out there, I guarantee if you make half an effort that you'll be meeting men right and left.

These are generalizations that may or may not be gender specific, but, and a big but, if they apply to your symptoms, then you have some answers.

I am only expert on what I know and want as a man. I will take specific questions.

booka, I will get back with you later, as detention is only 3o minutes long and it's gone take me a while to respond!

Dawn

Dawn! What did you do? Detention!?