Daughter and I are going to the symphony tonight. We don't always dress up. But, she is threatening to dress up tonight. Hmmmm, I have the outfit. It remains to be seen if we will go dress casual or dressed well. I haven't dressed up in several months. So, I can dress up or dress down. Hmmmm....

Gonna go hear YoYo Ma tonight.

I volunteer to be the judge of your hotness.

Ah, you must be near a center of culture!

Yes....some highbrow and some lowbrow.

Last week I saw Poo-Poo Broussard and the Chee Weez. This weekend I have a Mardi Gras party for my cousin that's a Duke in the Krewe of Herculese this coming year. The Krewes start a tad earlier than the rest of the public.

I'd say my culture is more Unibrow!

A name like Poo-Poo is to be avoided! It makes Bubba sound like a great name.


YoYo Ma looked like he would be a pretty nice guy. Looked very approachable. Like he would actually be a relatively normal person.

The percussion piece was incredible......I have never seen a musician that active in my life. It was so incredible. Soloist's name was Joseph Gramley, I think. If you ever have a chance, see him.

There was a piece written by a male composer from Uzbekistan, a piece written by a female composer from China, and Don Quixote by Strass....conducted by a man from Nicaragua.

And, on the way out, I actually had a conversation with a best selling author who has won a PEN Faulkner Award and been a National Book Award finalist.

Today, I took daughter to work at 6 a.m. Then, I came home and crashed for 2.5 hours, awaking again at 9:10 - after my scheduled arrival time to do something for church youth group at 9 a.m. - so I jumped back into some clothes and arrived at the building at 9:30 to tend the pumpkin sale. No customers so I spent 1.25 hours rearranging pumpkins to increase road presence. Then, I went to a grocery store to buy lunch and on to a friend's house to see her garden and get some plants and seeds.

After that, I went and picked daughter up at work. We went to see my mom for a few minutes and left to go home for a bit.

At 2:45, we left to go to the library. I dropped both children off and went back to the church building to drop off an inflatable pumpkin to draw attention to the sale. Then, back to the library. It is library fine forgiveness week and son left some books at home so I had to go back home to get books (only 2 miles). After that, I went back to the library for about 30 minutes. Then we came back home and I took a short nap.

After that, I got dressed up and went back to the church for a 25th wedding anniversary party for some friends.

When I got home, I discovered the dog had committed a really huge puddle on the den floor and I had to help daughter deal with that.

Did I do enough today?

I went to daughter's place of employment 2x, library 3x, and church 3x.

Yep Cinderella you did enough today!!!!!! You forgot the two naps on the list though!!!! A mother's job!!!!

I worked a volleyball tournament at HS, kept track of the limbero's, wasn't sure what that was when I first got there, but a quick lesson, and did the best that I could.

Got groceries as it is my turn to cook for Wednesday night, scalloped potatoes and ham or Chili Mac, your choice with green beans salad and dessert. I do the food from scratch or semi homemade as that one lady on TV says, and they can't figure why I always turn a profit on my night to cook!!!! I won't have to do this again til January though!!!

Talked with a new guy from online dating, seems nice enough. Will see.

Daughter called and said that she did want to go out to the youth barn dance/hay ride. So put groceries away and went out there, just got home at 10:30. Pretty cold!!!!

Got to talk to oldest GS until he said he was hanging up on me so that he could call back and leave me a message! He is 4 and it's fun to talk to the machine!!!

Will bowl tomorrow after doing SS and church. Normal weekend for me! What has become of my life?


Wait we all get to read Monday about booka and the gal pal's he connected with over the weekend!!!! Anybody else ever get jealous???

Dawn

Yes, I will admit that I do.....I have this visual of Booka in my head - and the visual I have of him is someone that I would love to hang with!

I am in awe of his ability to meet new people in any and all circumstances - when I started dating, I had NO luck smiling at strangers on the street and striking up a conversation - no matter how hard I tried! I failed miserably. And, I volunteer at church, at an animal shelter, I'm involved in city politics, and still didn't meet anyone new! I failed miserably.

The only way I was able to meet available men was through blind date fix ups by my married friends......I was just getting my courage up to try online dating when I was fixed up with my BF.

Laura

I thought I would share photos of the area where I live.

The mountains of Northwestern Pennsylvania in the Fall.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1350525086_30115084_1658.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1350525086_30115090_3159.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1350525086_30115092_3703.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1350525086_30115094_4264.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1350525086_30115098_5439.jpg

This last one is the sunset on Lake Erie.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/alluringreeneyes/n1493624368_30025959_6136.jpg

Pictures are AWESOME!

I've always thought that the hills during the fall look like big mounds of fruit flavored Trix cereal. :RollieEyes:

AGE,

How beautiful!!! I will have to take a drive and take some pictures of the prairie with the creeks running through and the colors of the trees!!!

We forget sometimes how beautiful of place we live in til we share with others!!!

Dawn

Fantastic pix AGE!

Tab's mom came all the way from Mississippi to help with her as she isn't getting any better. However when Tabs found out her mom was coming, we had to clean the house spotless and she could do that whereas she couldn't even get out of bed for weeks.

I personally think she has a sprained or torn ligament in her back and not a damaged disk, which is good news.

Just the thought of her mom coming over helped her alot. Her mom and I discussed the psychological effect of her visit on Tab's recovery. We both agreed that her staying a week should get her back up and running.

Roxy took right to her mom and they were inseperable. Her mom is beyond amazed at how friendly, cuddly, gentle and smart Roxy is.

She let her sit in her lap and eat supper with her.

Thanks guys! It is beautiful here! I always think of the mountains looking like a patchwork quilt in the fall!

I'll try to remember to post some winter pictures as the snow will start flying soon.

Did Laura get her hamburger(s) this weekend?

For the uninitiated, I am 6'2", about 215, 34" waist, natural blonde hair with no bald spots, blue eyes, Van Dyke, of Dutch extraction, have a very tidy and organized home, will finish my 30th year with the same employer November 20th, and have many interests.

As a note, gas was seen here at $2.76 this weekend.

Here goes:

Wednesday when Susan took me to lunch for my birthday she had mentioned meeting for drinks and I had suggested that Friday would work good for me. No word was heard from Susan since Wednesday, so Friday afternoon I texted her with no response and then at quitting time called her with no answer and I did not elect to leave a voice mail. She has property at a lake in NE Missouri and said that she needed to get her boat and I will assume that is what she elected to do. Phone coverage may be spotty up there and Susan also has some PA (Passive-Aggressive) tendencies and I don’t let any of this bother me. My value is very high and I’m sure that she is aware of it. It’s her move.

So I went home at watched a movie for a bit, made a big sandwich, and then headed to The Dog. The Dog up until this point has always been a cash-only affair with a most ancient manually operated (non-electric) cash register. It doesn’t even have a crank on it; you must depress the correct buttons with much vigor to rack-up the sale. Things are changing and last Sunday I saw the, insert drum-roll here please, the ATM machine, the only ATM in St. Paul, and the only one for several miles. I had the distinct pleasure of using it Friday night and made a pretty big deal about it for Eric, Kelly-baby, Mike and Nan and they were highly amused in my exuberance and enchantment with the ATM. I repeatedly told them that I was going to grab my camera and take a picture of it. A debit/credit terminal will be installed this week completing the picture.

I try to explain The Dog to people and it’s hard to really give the full impression of it. Friday nights are karaoke night and I also call it social night. The Dog is a social environment is a huge part of the social fabric of the town. You can get all of the news in one place. It is a place that people go to socialize and is the least like a pickup place of anywhere I go. That doesn’t mean you might never meet someone who captures your interest there for I always say you’ll never know who will walk through that door. My expectations are such that I enjoy The Dog for the social and entertainment value and have zero-expectations that I will meet someone there.

My modus operandi is to work my way around from group to group, first touching base and then later focusing on subjects that are of interest to me. This activity can last all night. That was a pretty-good description of how things started out, but they got very interesting later. Firstly, Kerri the busty-blonde was there as is her custom for Friday evenings and she and I flirted quite a bit in a very humorous fashion and in a physical manner. Then later SuzyQ, my busty-blonde workmate arrived with her current BF Mike in tow and with her friend Lana and her husband. SuzyQ and I have always had some chemistry and if you asked me would I, I would say yes. So she greets me with a hug, introduces her party, none of which I met before, ordered a bucket, and invited me to sit at their table. This I did after finishing a current conversation. I joined their table in some small-talk, but it was obvious to me that SuzyQ and Mike felt a little apprehensive by my presence as if I was the wild-card in the deck. I of course could care less and forge onward. My friend and fellow alderman Anna and her husband Kerry show up, so I joined them. I typically tell people that Anna is the most rational woman I have ever met. Her and I tend to have very high-bandwidth information exchanges and out of all of the people I know in St. Paul, she in my closest match intellectually. I later ask SuzyQ if she wants to have a quick trip to have a look at my house. She gets all nervous about the idea and her insecurity is like an intense light shining brightly. I am frankly a little put-off about her display and tell her that I’m going to return to my conversation with Anna, which I did. Anna, Kerry, and I talked for about the next hour and they took their leave and SuzyQ and her party shortly after that. Anna gave me multiple hugs and SuzyQ also gave me an exit-hug. Not bad for a Friday night. Then things got pretty funny. My friend Keith comes in with a shorter hair cut, a shirt with sleeves, and his very long goatee gone. I don’t recognize him at first and that fact alone was a source of amusement that lasted all weekend. I thought the guy was Keith’s better looking brother! It took some time to realize that it was indeed Keith and I commented at how much better he looked. There were more rounds of communication and I ended up leaving about 00:30.

I got up Saturday about 10:00 and started major housework that kept me going for hours. I then got cleaned up, did some ironing (I am the king of ironing) and got ready for my first meet and greet with Kris. My friend and workmate Dan has a most unique house on top of a bluff in Chesterfield, which is about a 40-minute drive. This was his fall wine festival, so I brought a bottle for him, a bottle for Kris and me, and two wine glasses. I arrive just prior to 18:00 and standing there talking to Dan is his next door neighbor Bill, who I knew from the amateur-radio club that I used to belong to, so that was a bit of a surprise and we caught up on news while another pretty interesting thing happened.

I have to hearken back to the last time I went out for drinks with my hairdresser Jill. She has a friend Ashley who has many mutual acquaintances with me. Ashley is as cute as a bug, very early 20’s, and comes from our neighboring town, Josephville. She is related to my fellow alderman Lori whose husband Bill might be Ashley’s uncle. Everybody is related around here and in just a few questions I can figure out a lot about a person from what family they came from. So Ashley tells me back then, probably September, that she knows someone at my work who was encouraging Ashley to apply for a job there. I tell Ashley that she can use me for a reference.

Friday late in the work-day I walked to the other side of the building to catch-up with my best friend Chris. We start talking and this woman walks in to talk to Chris. He introduces me to her, Tracy, and we shake hands and chitchat in a very humorous fashion before Chris and Tracy settle down into a work related conversation. I am thinking to myself, this woman looks familiar, and ask her if I saw her at the Mexican restaurant I went to for lunch on Tuesday, she answers yes. She then tells me that she has heard of me through Ashley, but I didn’t put it all together at the time. Let’s just say that I was attracted to her and that she met several of my criteria and I learned quite a bit about her. I was of course my charming self and her body language was telling me that she had some interest. It was commented by someone else sitting close by that I was hitting on her. Altogether it was a pleasant experience.

So, who is at Dan’s party but Tracy? She sidles up to my conversation will Bill and we get into the subject of work while naturally of course I’m flirting with her. She recalls for Bill the conversation with Chris and is under the assumption that I work with Chris. I reply that I worked in another department. She asked why I stayed for the entire conversation and I reply in a humorous fashion that I stayed to enjoy the full effect of her charming company. This causes her to pause and I remark to Bill that my statement to Tracy was pretty good stuff. This goes on for a bit more and I run into her a couple of more times during the party. I excused myself to go out to my car (Ford Focus ZX5) and was in the process of grabbing the bottles and glasses when Kris rolls up in her vehicle, which I believe was a Toyota SUV. Dan is on a court and I was parked very close to his house, so Kris had ample time to observe me and waved in recognition upon approach, rolled her window down, we said hi and finally glad to meet you, etc. I tell her I’m fetching the wine and to go ahead and find a parking spot and I’ll wait for her. She does and I end up walking up to where she parked and gave her a nice hug. Now I know that the women are going to want to know about Kris, so here goes. Prior to this point, I had only seen a head-shot of her. She was prettier in person and might be of Italian extraction, although I did not inquire. She was quite plump and I couldn’t help but think that if she lost some weight she would be a knockout, but life is seldom that simple. We immediately launch into conversation and talked on the walk to the house. We got inside and I made some introductions and opened and poured the bottle. As an aside, I am never nervous for a date and this proved to be the exception and I was glad that I got there before she did and had a chance to relax. The first 5-minutes might always be the toughest but we soon found our rhythm and after talking for about 20-minutes or so, we went outside and sat near a fire-pit and spent most of the evening there. Kris I have to say is my equal match in personality and boldness and I do award points for that. I made more introductions and she had some snappy repartee with my workmate Jeremy who is Mr. Personality and from Texas, which made the Mizzou game (Kris’s ala mater) against Texas a very interesting experience for me and they bantered back and forth about the game which was on Dan’s TV. This was compounded by the fact that the Rams were playing Dallas the next day. Jeremy even asked for Kris’s phone number so that he could heckle her for both games. This was an interesting scenario, he asking for Kris’s number in both mine and his girlfriend’s presence. I don’t care the least as people are free to choose what they want. I am secure in myself.

So, as the evening progressed, Kris and I covered a lot of ground. She works for some foundation funded by the United Way that does something for women and she was very interested in the fact that I’m an alderman and asked my about my political ambitions. Dues to my conversation with Anna, It looks like I’ll be running for mayor in 2-years. Kris gave me free reign to get up and wander around and said she could handle herself. I can’t tell you what a huge freedom that was to me. I did get up a couple of times to browse conversations and ran into Tracy one last time before she took off for the evening. I’ll need to define some context here. I was enjoying Kris and she was my “date” but I was seriously disturbed, in a positive fashion of course, by Tracy and don’t recall being on a date before and being so conflicted. It was a very interesting feeling.

Kris and I had the fire-pit to ourselves and the conversation was working and there was the usual physical interaction of touching of arms, etc. About 21:15 she said she was tired (she did have a big and long day) and I said that I was ready to shove off and we said goodbye to everyone and I walked her out, dumping the wine glasses in my car first, and then accompanying her to her car. I gave her a nice hug, turned to face her, and it was obvious she wanted to be kissed, and we spent several minutes doing that. I told her goodnight and that I would be in contact and sent her on her way. I got in my car and drove directly to The Dog for my first visit this season of band night. The house was rocking led by a female singer/bass-player that I have seen several times and I danced a lot. I dance mainly with married women who all know me and husbands or for the “single” women boyfriends are all my friends and know that I am “safe”. After the XW cheated on me, I could never have an improper relationship with a married woman and it’s not in my character to do so. I avoid the “currently separated” like the plague. So I would dance, usually with several women simultaneously, and we all have a good time, and then I would return to the bar and chat with several people, including my friend Paul who told me Friday night that he was thankful that I was his friend. I get verklumpt about those things because it’s just natural for me to be that way and to be very good friends with many different people. It’s my very being. The Dog had a very busy day with a poker run in the afternoon and then one of Jo Ellen’s cousins having a wedding in the side-yard of The Dog. The wedding party kept coming in and out and I could best describe them as being dressed in flower-power era clothing and also with the emphasis on warmth of a high of 60 day. There was one stunning young woman among them out on the dance floor with a most unique outfit that was just a pleasure to watch. Too young for this old geezer! I have gotten to the point where people are making a point to introduce me to people I don’t know. Nikki, who is Jo Ellen’s niece introduced to another stunning young blonde, Priscilla believe it or not, and I have several amusing chitchats with her and complimented her on her footwear. There was more dancing, I had a good conversation with Jerry, Nikki’s husband, who I have some special connections with, both being born in Maryland for example, and I launched into a diatribe on why I am not attracted to the extremely attractive and high-maintenance women and Jerry was validating every thing that I said and commented specifically about how he had found a good woman in Nikki. This of course is in contrast, which Paul and I discussed heavily, to Steve and Renee and Jason and Cynthia who all revel in discussing and displaying their unhappiness in their marriage partner. Renee is infamous for cheating on Steve and in general has the type of behavior that Dave just rolls his eyes at and when Dave rolls his eyes, it’s his rare show of disapproval, so I know that it carries a lot of weight and that he knows and has seen things that I haven’t. Just another little benefit of living in a very small town.

There were some funny hijinks between my friend Rick and Glen concerning straws in beer bottles. Glen, Dave, and Rick were out frogging earlier in the evening and are very secretive about where they went and how many they got. They don’t want it generally known that they have frogs. This is how the tell me they do it, in a johnboat, with a trolling motor and a spotlight, to which they shine into the frog’s eyes, temporarily blinding them, and then they garb them by hand and put them into a bag. There are many reasons for this technique and of course the result is frog-legs and a food item, very popular around here and with a huge crop of frogs this year.

More dancing and before I knew it, it was 01:00 and last call and I shut the place down, something I haven’t done in a while. I helped Jo Ellen fold up some chairs outside from the wedding and we are planning as a group to attend a concert together in December for a local Pink Floyd tribute band that plays 5-shows a year and sells out every time. They out on quite the show and I’ve always wanted to go. I left right at 01:30 and it was home to bed.

I couldn’t sleep past 08:00 Sunday, so got up and read the paper inside as it was the first Sunday of the fall that it was too cool to read outside on a Sunday morning. After spending most of Saturday inside for housework, I spent most of Sunday outside and mowed the grass in the early afternoon after it had dried out a bit. I had a long talk and walk with the other Tim, I’ll call him T2, he is about my age and we have a lot in common. We ended up in my driveway and he complimented me on my grass and landscaping, which I put a lot of effort into but always enjoy doing it. I retired inside, watched “28 Days Later”, made a frozen pizza for my first and only meal of the day, and then when all was said and done, ran the dishwasher and headed to bed at about 20:30 being tired and starting a new work schedule.

The work schedule will repeat on a 2-week basis and I will work 07:30-17:30 Monday-Thursday with Friday off, then 07:30-16:30 the next Monday, followed by 07:30-17:30 Tuesday-Friday. It probably sounds more complicated than it is. So up at 05:30 this morning and sent a text to Kris saying that I enjoyed her company and would like to see her again. I did have some texts from Mary on Friday and Saturday. And of course, the standard disclaimer, a whole lot more detail was encompassed by the whole weekend.

I LOVE zombie flicks!

28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later are in my zombie flick collection.

Yes, Laura did get her wonderburger this weekend!!! I actually went for broke and had the DOUBLE - as the place closes until march 1st..........I'm still paying for it this afternoon!! All I can manage to eat is a yogurt so far......wayyyyyyyyy too many fried and greasy items yesterday!!!

And, as for your description, I'm normally attracted to dark haired fellows, I will make an exception in this case - will you consider dating ME??? Although we'd have to hang out in your tidy and organized home - as my home is 38 years old, and I have an unfinished home improvement project going on in each room!!

I really do respect and admire your ability to enjoy yourself no matter what you're doing! It would be way fun to sit with you with a beer, pizza and some football!!!

Laura

I haven't seen "28 Weeks Later" and would be curious as to how it compares to "28 Days Later".

I asked my Mom about Redamak's and she knew all about it and has eaten there before.

I will consider dating you and the beer, pizza, and football sounds good to me.