My weekend started Thursday evening after work. I decided to go see the new James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace” (shouldn’t it be “Quanta”), so popped into Wendy’s for some chili and then headed straight to the theater. The was a mom and two daughters in line for tickets ahead of me for the film “Twilight” and the teen-aged daughter smiled at me and asked me if I was getting tickets for “Twilight” and I smiled and replied “I don’t think so.” Nope, no “Twilight” for me, no thanks. The James Bond film was decent and the female lead was very, very attractive. I got out of the theater just after 20:00 and decided to pop into Shop N Save (one of the big-3 local grocery chains) and get some things in preparation for Thanksgiving, but at this time on a Thursday night, it was an absolute madhouse with several bare shelves for popular items and super-long checkout lines, so I split and went to the nearby Super Wally World which paradoxically was not crowded or busy at all, so I picked up quite a few things there. I then buzzed home and unloaded the goods and then headed up to The Dog, where outside I saw something that looked a lot like Tim’s truck, and sure enough Tim and Jen were sitting at a table and I joined them. We hadn’t really had a chance to talk in a couple of weeks so it was really nice to catch-up on things. It was a cold night and the fireplace was roaring and very comfortable. I talked to some of the regulars and Tim and Jen and I caught-up on our various neighbors and what’s going on in the neighborhood. Tim and Jen stayed until about 00:30 and I left at about 01:00.

Friday was shopping day and after sleeping in until about 10:00 I cleaned up, did a few housework items, started some meatballs in a crockpot, exchanged some texts with Mary, and hit the road. I stopped at a Taco Bell in O’Fallon and then headed to Kohl’s where I ended up with a new pair of shoes and several shirts, including two Chaps shirts, one of them bright-red. I then went to each location of the other 2-grocery chains, making purchases in one including a bunch of canned goods for a food collection going on with the Boy Scouts on Saturday. At the second of the two I didn’t buy a thing. Then it was onto a Sears Hardware for some browsing, then to Lowe’s for a bag of fertilizer, some OOK picture hangers (I swear by these and won’t use any others), and a 15-foot heavy duty extension-cord with 3-outlets. I then stopped at a discount liquor/cigarette store that is a local and bought 2-bottles of bourbon, Buffalo Trace and my favorite, Bulleit. I had been texting a lot with Mary and had suggested the day before that we get together this weekend. She texted me late in the afternoon and said that she had gotten a piece of metal in her eye and was headed towards the doctor. So this is the second time that Mary has effectively cancelled out with some type of eye injury, the first time being a black eye. Pretty amusing stuff and I don’t let it bother me and we even had some fun with it later in the weekend, commenting about her bad luck. It was dark and after 17:00, so I headed home with all of the booty and had meatball sandwiches for dinner that were scrumptious. The up to The Dog for what I call friends and families Fridays. I kept the fireplace stoked and had a lot of conversations. I left about 00:30 and watched a bit of “Ballykissangel” and then headed to bed.

Saturday I slept-in and did a bunch of housework and started a roast in my newest crockpot. When used on High, this crockpot really gets hot and I was not comfortable about using it on a countertop after my last experience with it, so after using the stove and then cleaning the top, I put the crockpot on the stove and used the extension cord that I bought Friday specifically for this purpose. After finishing everything and getting cleaned up, I headed to Chris’s house and spent about 90-minutes there talking about all sorts of things, including his latest adventures with someone we will refer to as T2. They went to a company-sponsored kiddy-movie outing earlier in the day with their combined total of 3 DDs and Chris said tongues would be wagging at work today after him and T2 being seen together. T2 works at the same place that Chris and I do. He was forthcoming with other details as well and I am happy for him. I went home and had more meatballs, this time with pasta, and had brought some meatballs to Chris as well. I then debated my wardrobe choices and decided to go with the bright-red Chaps shirt, Polo jeans, and new brown shoes, and after ironing, etc., headed to The Dog, which was packed. A certain Molly was hosting a birthday party and there were many non-regular people there. I grabbed the last seat at the bar left and the band, Common Ground, started, and they smoked. I eventually worked my way down to the barstool next to Paul and we had some running commentary on the various females on the dance floor. I had a very nice chat with Curt’s (Dave and Jo’s son) new girlfriend Ginger, who is gorgeous in a non-conventional way, and she and I had an amusing conversation and became friends. She has been hanging around for the past several weeks and I had said hello to her before but never had a conversation with her prior to that point. She was very interesting to talk to and we danced in place for a while and I was entranced with her eyes. My guess is that she would be a bit older than Curt, who I believe is mid-20’s. I’ll be dancing with Ginger the next time I see her! She is but one of 2-Gingers at The Dog! How about that! The band was great, although very loud, and had a great repertoire. Julie was there; I had originally met her with Tom Sommers at Donna Ell’s birthday party in October and had commented at that point how she kept stepping on my feet. Of course Julie is hot and I’m not really certain the circumstances of her being there, she talked to my friend Clete a lot and I’ll make some discrete inquiries with him. I will take a moment to talk about boots. I am loving the boot-styles this season, whether they’re high-heel as Julie had on of the flat sole ones, as long as they are worn with a skirt or over the pant. I was sitting next to Paul and he and I are talking about Julie. Gene, the 80-year old dancing machine, has a Knack for picking the prettiest (or hottest in this instance) girl and yanking them out on the dance floor. I’m sure my jaw was dropped when he was out there with Julie and Paul and I had a running commentary about her, Denny came over and said hello and blocked the view, so I grabbed him by the shoulders and shifted him to the side and Paul laughed his you know what off. After it was done I had to fan myself off just from watching, and Paul laughed his you know what off again. Any woman that hot has got to be trouble and there were a few more instances at the bar, one of which she was to my side an I touched her arm and said hello and she smiled back, the other Clete was sitting next to me and she kind of leaned over me to get a beer. I am never sure whether something like that means something or not. She just could have been getting a beer and I could have just been enjoying the experience. I did enjoy the experience! Tim and Jen and I had made some plans for Sunday when we talked Thursday, so I left before close and was in bed at 01:00.

I got up Sunday at 09:00, texted Tim, cleaned up, made the bed, a quick sweep of the floor, and then gathered my possibles and walked up to Tim’s, checked out the painting that they had done to the living room, very nice, sort of a dark mustard color, and then we took off in Tim’s truck for the Orscheln’s in Troy, which is a Midwestern-based farm and home store. We took a scenic ride there and none of us had been to the store before but it was easy to find. Tim and Jen looked at truck toolboxes and I browsed the clothing and particularly the rubber boots, but unfortunately that had no size-12’s. As it was, none of us bought anything there but we had an enjoyable time and the way up and back through some pretty countryside and riverside. Jen made several calls on the ride back and we found out that Cara is pregnant, making for 3 pregnant neighbors, so it looks like I’ll be holding some babies this summer. Jen called Laura and we made plans to meet tony and Laura for lunch at a Max & Erma’s at the mall. Let’s just say that I’m not a mall person and my shadow rarely darkens the doorstep of any mall. We had a very nice lunch and got to catch-up with Tony and Laura. Tim, Jen, and I then went to look at a million-dollar-plus home in a new subdivision in St. Paul called Stone Castle (aptly named as it turns out). I had not been there since summer and was very surprised at how much construction was going on; it appears that the wealthy are still building homes. I really should take some pictures; almost all have porticos and most are all-brick with stone elements. We were able to take a walk around the house in question and it was quite amazing. I saw one under construction that just ruined me for the rest of the day! I told Tim as we were leaving the subdivision that he had depressed me by taking me there. We all laughed. We stopped at a Firestone in O’Fallon to pick up Jen’s car. Tim took me back home and since Sunday was the nicest day of the weekend, I got the spreader out are fertilized for the last time the whole yard. I then sat outside for a while with a Partagas and a beer and enjoyed relaxing. The clouds later rolled in, so I went inside, watched a couple of episodes of “Ballykissangel” and then started up one of my favorites, “Saving Private Ryan”, had snacks for dinner and a couple of cocktails, was tired from a long weekend and clocked out at 20:30.

As always, there was a lot more that simply cannot be reported because of the sheer volume.

A late addendum, the toaster story.

Oye ve, somehow I left the toaster story out. I went to BBB Saturday evening armed with a stack of 20%-off coupons (I have boatloads) with the clear mission in hand to get one of those immersible blenders (sort to the inverse of a blender, instead of putting something inside the blender, you put the blender inside something else):

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=14915265&RN=436

This I wanted to puree the onions in the cooking liquid. I decided that after two years of living without a toaster, I’d pick one up so I could have hot-beef sandwiches. I picked out a stainless two-slot toaster:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13078807&RN=70&

It was a little pricey, but hey, I’ve waited 2-years, it’s a low-usage item, I dig stainless stuff, nuff said, the 20%-off doesn’t hurt either, so I grabbed both, had some snappy repartee at the checkout counter, and hustled home. I opened on the blender-thingy, everything kosher, open up the toaster, scratch my head at the congratulatory card for my wedding (cosmic-comic-kismet-karma operating there), take the toaster out of the box, it packaged like from the factory, except there’s no instructions, no warranty card, fingerprints all over it, and crumbs in the tray. How effing funny is that!

That toaster is in the box in the bar with the receipt and congratulatory note waiting to go back to the Bed, Beth, & Beyond that practically next door to work. I want my hot-beef sandwiches!

:MrEEk: Booka!!! Does the congratulatory note give any indication who the toaster was for???!!!! Not good at all! You would think they would at least inspect returns!

I need a hug right now. I just delivered 2 of my 3 cats to their new home. I can't take them to the condo I'm moving into. My darling DS went to great lengths to ensure that these 2 cats went to the same home - they are brother and sister and have never been apart. It looks like a decent home - they will be loved there. I left in tears and I'm still having a hard time now. I feel like WstbxH's home-wrecking skills are still at work. I stopped on my way home to pick up some toys for the remaining cat. He has never been alone in his life. He loves his toys but it won't be long before he misses the rest of his family. I do have to work tomorrow. The big move is this weekend. I'm still hurting from moving the sofa and loveseat. I am not sure how I'm going to manage the rest of the furniture - all solid wood.

The congratulatory note was very nice and as I recall used both first-names of the wedding party and was signed with the gift-givers name, which I could not read.

I took it back and had them rolling in the aisles at the return desk. The woman was mortified when she opened the box and saw the note. I told them I wanted to exchange the toaster for another, one that hadn't been on the honeymoon! Suffice it to say, I am very happy with the replacement and it even was elevated to having its own counter-top spot.

I hope that cats are happy. I'm sending you a virtual hug and it works out way better in person as I have long and powerful arms. I hope that you can secure some help for the rest of the furniture. I'll be sending some positive thoughts your way.

First of all, my best and heartiest wishes to you for what I feel is the best American holiday. Don't sit at home and bum-out, I have two extra bedrooms and you know that I won't be sitting home and bumming-out, no sir/ma'am.

so this is the agenda, although brief at this point. Tonight is a special night at The Dog featuring a band for their annual Turkey Dance. I'll say one thing about The Dog, and when I say it it's really about Jo Ellen, who does a lot of work and a fantastic job at that, decorating for the different seasons and holidays and for the special holiday events that they put on. I am thinking about putting on a special outfit for tonight's festivities.

Tomorrow I have a full turkey breast, don't care for the wings, legs, dark-meat, and all that, nor the internals, so I'll brine that tonight and roast it tomorrow and will feature some the the traditional accompaniments. I'll plan for a reasonably early dinner and then will traipse down to The Pageant for a concert by Jake's Leg, who play a Grateful Dead tribute. If they play "Uncle John's Band" I will feel close to heaven. I'll then take Friday off as I will surely have a late night with the concert and will more than likely not participate in any Black Friday sales events. I have enough beer, bourbon, food, and cigars to hunker down for a day and let the madness rage around me. Beyond Friday during the day, I have no other plans, plenty of house projects, a small amount of housecleaning, and we'll just see what else will happen.

Please eat, drink, and be merry!

I did my after-Thanksgiving shopping today. I will spend the weekend trying to figure out the family Christmas present. My children are 15 and 18 and I have already told them we won't be having a big pile of presents this year.

Instead, I bought the family a 32" flat screen television. That's as big as I can put in our custom built shelves. The hole is 31" wide and I found a television that is 30 9/16" wide. It cost $100+ more than I wanted to spend but it was the ONLY television I found that would fit the cabinetry.

I think I can install this baby since I'm going to use the base and not a wall mount.

These days, particularly if you have surround sound, interconnections to the new TV can be as simple as a power-cord and a HDMI-cord. This of course assumes that you'll be using something else, say like a A/V receiver, to do the video-switching between different sources. It depends on your setup.

I bought myself an early Christmas present, the budget was right and I had a limited-time promotion code. so I ordered and now have in my possession "The Sopranos: The Complete Series". I missed most of the last season due to my divorce and will start t the very beginning and work my way to the end.

Uh, Booka.....I can probably hook it up but I have no idea what you just said... I'm only competent to follow the instructions assuming they were written by someone who really writes English.


I have NO IDEA what an HDMI cord is...unless the book tells me - in which case, I will probably forget after I get it done - assuming I can.

My CD player, DVD player, VCR, and television all connect through my receiver so the sound comes out the stereo speakers...As for surround sound, that would mean a trip to the attic and with an R22 blanket of fiberglass up there, this woman isn't going. And she isn't drilling holes in the floor to hook it up there, either.

Thanks.

Hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. I will unfortunately be at work. Our TG was last month!

Oh, NO!!!! I have managed to get the surge protector in place....that was a 2 person operation. Now I have discovered that the outlet does not have a third prong slot in it so I can't plug the surge protector in.

Even if I could get the cables all connected properly, I can't plug the thing in to the electricity.

Guess I need to call x after all. He would do this for us. It's not my idea of fun but he does know electricity. I don't. Besides he built the shelving unit and he knows how his jerry rigged wiring goes.

Just break off the third prong. It won't hurt it.

Or you can just get an adapter plug. No big deal.

The owner of the company I work for dropped by my office Tuesday at lunch and he had his flight jacket on. He said come with me to lunch and grab your jacket and Ray-Bans.

He took me to the airport and we flew to Athens, GA for lunch and to talk. He didn't want walls to overhear our conversation.

He let me do the flying calling me the autopilot. I told him let's go up to Dahlonega one day so he can fly my plane.

I am getting a big promotion over my supervisor and will operate independent of her. There is too much of a struggle between the other managers for control of the output of my department.

The company is also changing it's logo and colors so he assigned me to take care of all the printing through my twin brother at the company where he works.

He had also come to me Monday about buying a rifle and took my advice and bought the collectible Colt AR-15 from the 60's. He absolutely loves the old rifle.

We got back from lunch and my supervisor was LIVID. She really isn't "my" supervisor, but she sets production schedule and I merely follow her instructions to meet her required deadlines.

She blasted me in front of the subordinates and I politely informed her that the owner's meeting between him and I was strictly confidential. She had no need of knowledge of my whereabouts and I was under orders by HER supervisor.

I went into my office and closed the door. I hear her name come over the PA system and 10 minutes later she opens my door looking a train just hit her and asked that I make sure the heaters are off for the holiday and left.

This was at 2:00.

I guess she got a taste of what she was dishing out, just like the other supervisor that tried pushing my buttons. He has no respect for me as I'm "the new guy" and he thinks I have no experience. I have 25 years in the field I was hired, but I have never been a sign builder like him. I have always been skilled technical labor and my 15 year stint as a teacher. He can't stand professional educated people. A few weeks ago a machine broke down in the screen printing department and he failed to repair it and suggested it needed replaced with a new one. I came in to work that Saturday and found the problem and made the repair. The owner got word that I saved them ten grand and came to my office to thank me personally. This totally infuriated the supervisor that failed to repair the machine so now he's gunning for me even worse. He got reprimanded twice by the owner in one day for messing with me just days afterward.

Anyways the owner gave me 5 pheasants to roast for Thanksgiving and I am going to meet him at the gun show on Saturday for us to have some "boy's time" together to really get to know each other.

I think everyone is leading a more exciting life than me.

Heavens....it's Thanksgiving evening. I have the VCR and old TV working. The dog and cats and I are home alone. I do NOT shop unless unavoidable on the day after Thanksgiving, usually. Now that there is shopping walking distance from my house, I might go get a couple of things. Nothing big.

Tomorrow I could do some yardwork or some housework.


Pariah, will two-pronging the surge protector not destroy it's surge protection abilities? I do NOT want to fry that LCD television.

A power strip won't stop a true surge regardless.

They're voodoo, only a transient line conditioner has that capability. The strips don't contain enough diodes to contain a jolt. However if you are truly worried about your new TV, use a UPS for a computer. They'll absorb a good lick and sacrifice themselves for the equipment on the other end.
I just got me an HDLCD TV myself and I'm using a battery back-up UPS for mine.

That's what x suggested. I'll check it out.

Part 1 of tonight's distraction!

Part 2 of tonight's distraction!

Folks, this is good stuff!!!!

I usually paste distractions on a different thread...but this was SO good that I HAD to share it with more people. Enjoy!

I had a quiet Thanksgiving and weekend with friends and family. About 2 months ago, I decided to drop my current girl-friend who could be very nice, but also seemed very demanding and controlling at times. I figured that it would never get better. She is who she is. So for the last two months I have just bumped around, enjoying some social times, but not dating. It's felt good to be able to go to a party, dance, or any other event and just enjoy it without the stresses of looking for a date.

I hope everybody has a great Holiday Season.

10/18/08 you had posted that you were unsure about a European vacation...with or without her. When did you break it off with her then?

Thanksgiving- It is totally possible to feel like the turkey isn't the only thing thats stuffed....I think I gained 10 lbs. Black friday didn't even work it off...darn homeade mashed potatoes.

Many, many adventures were had since Wednesday and I really need a film crew to follow me around and document everything. A lot of stuff happened!

First, the new-music list:

“Sundown” by The Trophy Fire.
“Old White Lincoln” by The Gaslight Anthem
“Northern Downpour” by Panic at the Disco
“Cannibal Queen” by Miniature Tigers
“Kicking and Screaming” by Funeral for a Friend
“Over and Out” by Alkaline Trio

I obsessed several days over “Old White Lincoln”, don’t know why, it’s just one of those songs that hooked me from the very first listen.

I may have to do this in parts as time allows. Wednesday night I went home after work and made some dinner, as I recall it was a hot beef sandwich made with the now famous toaster. There was the annual Turkey Dance at The Dog, so I put on a special outfit and headed up there about 20:00. The place was packed and I eventually found a place at the bar with Paul. The band was a bit more country-oriented than the usual Saturday night fare, but no problem for me as I went through my country-phase in the early 90’s and for some reason am very well-versed (pun intended) in classic country music. Dorothy, the city clerk, was there with her husband Chuck and she yanked me out on the dance floor. They were sitting at a table of seniors and they all watched with great interest Dorothy and I dancing. I proved popular with the senior crowd and later Butch Hucklemann asked me if I would dance with his wife Evelyn, which I did, and had the same reaction as before with the whole table watching. I danced many times with a variety of women, including several with Jo Ellen and Kelly-baby. There were many hugs, kisses, and handshakes to go around; I should add that lately I’m getting hugs and kisses on the cheek from my female-friends. Kelly-baby’s sister was there again and this is where some interesting drama occurred. I came to find out later a bunch of stuff, including the sister’s name, DeeDee or however you spell it, I’ll just refer to her as D-D from here outward. She sat with Kelly-baby and Eric and some others across the bar. I asked Paul about this one guy I run into in several places, we’ll call him J-H. Paul tells me that J-H is a bit unstable and that it would be best not to antagonize him in any fashion, which I have never done. J-H is a very large guy and almost as soon as Paul told me about him, in some surreal fashion he notices D-D and according to her J-H told her that it was love at first sight. This got very amusing over the course of the evening as he yanked her out there for every dance and when she wasn’t pleading for me to save her she was putting on quite the dancing show for my benefit. We’ll take a bit of an aside at this point to highlight a few points from a philosophical basis, the first point is that any woman has the power to say no when they want to and a lot of women don’t say it when they really should to sort of nip things in the bud, they tend to not want anyone to think bad of them, including the person that they’re trying to say no to. This is all wrapped up in self-esteem and insecurity issues. I was not going to save D-D from her dancing partner, that job was hers to own. The second point, to be fleshed out by further findings later in the weekend, was that any woman who has shown the level of interest in me that D-D has is probably a little insane. I seem to have some sort of attraction factor for the unbalanced. D-D was wearing a short leather jacket and at certain points would toss it to me while dancing with J-H. J-H finally went to the bathroom and D-D yanked me out onto the dance floor for a slow dance which I did in fact enjoy. I’ve slow-danced with D-D more in two nights this fall than I have in total since D-day and it can be a very enjoyable experience. We stay out on the dance floor for several songs and J-H is aware of it. She sits with me at the bar, I buy here a beer, she tells me about the love at first sight of J-H and that he had already proposed marriage to her. It just gets more surreal from here. She says she’ll be back later and goes back over to where she was sitting and enters a long conversation with J-H and he eventually leaves the bar, evidentially having gotten the message that marriage that night was not looking too possible. D-D of course then devotes her full attentions to me, telling me that I’m cute (I prefer devastating handsome) and that I was very fashionable. Besides that drama, I had many conversations with many people and saw some really nice things that I don’t see everyday, like Dave talking Jo out for a slow-dance, in fact several people who rarely or never hit the dance-floor in my experience were out there. I had a great time that evening and ended up at close talking to D-D, walked her out, gave her a single brief kiss, and went home a really slept-in the next morning.

When I finally did arise, I did some housework and through the full-breast that I had bought into the oven. I made gravy, stuffing from a box (I actually prefer it), and canned corn, and had a pretty decent-sized meal. I then cleaned everything up, got my stuff together, and left for The Pageant at about 18:30, arriving their at about 19:15, where the house was pretty empty. I got a beer, which is a rare occurrence there as it’s a very long drive home. I really had my choice of seat and sat right next to the pit/dance-floor right in the middle. A cute little 25-year old sat next to me and we had a brief conversation, her not being quite as open as me. Later in the night after several Vodkas, she became very conversant and turned into what I and others call an attention whore. The subject of divorce was broached and she stated that she was glad to be divorced. She was several months out from D-Day. I asker her how long she had been married, and the reply was 9.5-months. She then launched into a monologue and thankfully the band resumed at that point. The band had been together over 30-years and had a very amusing slideshow of themselves at various points along those 30+ years. They are called Jake’s Leg and play around the area and feature Grateful Dead music. Now I have never been to a Grateful Dead concert and cannot comment upon the crowd at one, etc., but the crowd here was very interesting, causing me some regrets that I wasn’t wearing shorts, sandals, and a tied-died T-shirt while dancing some very strange solo dance out on the dance floor. Now multiply that by several hundred and it gets interesting, with the women in long flower-print shirts. I saw some very amusing things! The band started at 20:00, took 2 brief breaks, and came out for an encore at about 23:15, and that’s when I decided to hit it and headed on home. It’s about a 45-minute drive. I should add that there weren’t that many people there when the band started, parking was a breeze, but later on the place got really packed. Their advertised capacity there is about 2,000 people. I got home, made a turkey sandwich, poured a cocktail, and turned on the DVD to watch The Sopranos. I purchased the entire set of all seasons on DVD and started from the beginning. Prior to this I saw all of the seasons excepting all of the last season due to certain upheavals in life. I stayed up until about 02:00 and then hit the rack.

I slept until about 10:30 and then did massive housework, not daring to go anywhere on Black Friday. I had a hot turkey sandwich for dinner and headed up to The Dog for what is officially karaoke night and unofficially what I call friends and family night. I of course had a great time and later some people came in that I don’t see too often there and I danced many times with the wife, Tammy, and some other tall and stunning blonde. At close, Paul said that they had sobriety checkpoints up on his route home, so I told him to stay at my house and he asked if he could bring Rick along with him and I said yes. Paul has seen my house before but Rick had not, so I gave the nickel tour and we had a beer or two and then I said that I was off to bed and went. I told the boys that they could spread out in the other two bedrooms, but they stayed up until I don’t know when and I found Rick on the loveseat and Paul on the couch when I got up at about 10:30. I tiptoed around a bit until they woke up and then had a voice mail from Chris, so when they both rustled up I called Chris and he wanted to stop by, so the boys decided to leave with promises about the evening. I cleaned up the house a bit and then Chris arrived and we talked for a couple of hours about the many imponderables of life and women. He then left after 14:00 and I went down for a nap which did me a world of good. I got up later that afternoon, cleaned up, made a Greek chicken dinner thing from Wally World, very flavorable with feta cheese and kalamata olives. I then picked out an outfit and headed to The Dog at about 20:15. Once there no sight of Paul or Rick so I guess those guys had too much Friday night. I felt that the band, 3JC, was so-so, the band itself got better but the singer was pretty terrible the whole time. The female talent pool was low but I did meet and greet with the regular folks. Later Kelly-baby and Eric arrived and I had the chance to talk to Kelly-baby about her sister D-D. This was very amusing and certainly not what I expected, Kelly-baby told me that D-D was a flake and her life was a mess and that she felt I would be better off not getting involved with D-D except in the most casual fashion. She said that D-D could be fun and I replied that there are degrees of fun, Kelly-baby then elaborated a bit more. After that she turned to me and told me that frankly I was way too good for her sister D-D. Now this is not the kind of advice I hear everyday and probably not what I wanted to hear, but I know way better than to ignore the advice of someone who knows. I’ve been with the unstable before and it’s not a freaking picnic. I know that Kelly-baby had my best interests at heart at that’s what it’s really all about. I thanked her and returned to my table. I thought about what she said, and I went back over there and said to her that I would never want to jeopardize our friendship in any fashion with this kind of thing, that our friendship was way more important to me than her sister. She must have been touched, she said our friendship would never be in jeopardy, she then hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, and said that she loved me. She is a great friend, always has a smile for me, I never intrude upon her about her relationship with Eric, would love to see those two get married and I want to be there when it happens. I think the world of her and Eric. I sat back down again. A guy I run into from time to time was there and I joined him and Dave in some conversation at the bar. He later sat down with me and we had a very interested chat. His name is Tom and he comes from one of the very large families in the area. I enjoyed his company and I’m sure we’ll meet up again; he’s the kind of guy I’d like to get to know better. I have several on the list; one can never have enough guy-friends, especially locally. I should add that there was a funny moment earlier in the evening shortly after the band started and no one had been on the dance floor yet. I got up to get a beer and Jo was coming around the bar, grabbed me by the hands, and yanked me onto the dance floor, and she and I had the first dance, which was interesting as every eye in the place was on us. I was not in a dancing mood that night and was not at my best. It was definitely a mixed night and after having such a good time the preceding nights, this ones was a bit anticlimactic and was probably cosmically called for, because one cannot always have the time of their life, especially 4-nights in a row. I left just before midnight. It had rained earlier in the day and had started snowing while I was at The Dog and was coming down really well when I went home. I had a cocktail and fired up The Sopranos and hit bed about 02:00.

I popped awake and ready to go at 09:30 and grabbed the papers and listened to my favorite radio show. I threw a brisket into the oven and decided I needed to get out of the house and went to Costco and didn’t by a thing! I saw plenty of good Christmas gifts and came away with some good ideas. While there I ran into my friend Danielle (of Danielle and Randy) and we had a brief but nice chat and a very nice hug from her. I’m not dying from a lack of hugs, but they’re all for the most part hugs of friendship. It’s funny to think of having a romantic hug at this point, I do miss them, but there is a joy in a friendship hug and I’m a popular dude for handing them out to both men and women. I’ve changed in that fashion; I’m much more apt to hug someone these days. I don’t know why and won’t spend any effort to analyze it. I had a very close examination at Costco and then ran to Dierbergs, which is one of the Big-3 local grocery chains, and the most high-end of the Big-3. I picked up a bottle of Veramonte 2006 Cab Sav, bread, hotdog and hamburger buns, and some house-made twice-baked potatoes and mac and cheese to go along with the brisket. I got home and unpacked and took a cold up the street to Tim’s house as he and his brother Ryan were on Christmas decorations duty, so we hid out of the wind and snow in his garage and caught-up on news. I went home, yanked the brisket out, made some au jus, and sat down for a nice dinner and some more Sopranos. I was tired from a very long weekend and hit the rack early.

Awoke today to some off and on snow. There was some late afternoon sun but in all a cold winter’s day. Tonight I’ll go directly from work to a firehall in O’Fallon for a FEMA training course for governmental officials. I think we (BOA) need to take 2-classes along this line which basically tells us to stay out of the way! There was a late email from Dorothy saying that the city administrator, who bought into a pizza franchise, will be bringing pizzas. I hope to see Anna who has been constantly travelling and spent the holiday and the weekend in Chicago.

As always, this is not the full picture of what went on, not because I won’t tell you, I just can’t!

Some additional thoughts, while stuff is still fresh in my mind, like I said, a lot went on the past few days. I should add that I had quite a few texts on Turkey Day. Chris was quite forthcoming about T2 and I have to leave myself amused by a few things about him, her, and him in general. This may be the first mature relationship of his life and he’s kind of at the point wondering why his heart isn’t beating any faster and they’ve yet to have too much time together in my opinion. Everyone wants that instant fix but the instant fix isn’t good for you. Anything worthwhile will take some effort and will not fall into your lap.

Saturday there was some 2O-something at the bar with her BF. I’ve seen her before and she was determined to put on a show at every opportunity. I felt that she was very immature. She took the BF out on dance floor with a full cup of beer in her hand and came back with an almost empty glass, all of it on the dance-floor. Now there’s something in my blood that severely disturbs on multiple levels, safety, cleanliness, and the fact that someone would be so self-absorbed that they would slosh all of that beer around and not be concerned about looking like someone acting very immature. She later was determined to put on a show in place at the bar and in some weird way I felt that she was doing it for me. I’m sitting at a table relaxed, confident, and trying not to watch this excess behavior and succeeding at it. She kept looking at me and squirming all over her BF. Some people have that certain exhibitionist quality and need an audience for their own validation. I was not a good audience for her. I’m just not digging that kind of behavior.

Now I saw a lot of tall-blondes and will admit I have predilection in that direction, but they’re all married, like Tammy, or 20-somethings, and while I’ll dance with a 20-something, that’s about the limit of my interest. There’s a distinct lack of single 30 and 40-soemthings and that’s to be expected according to the demographics for the area and indeed a lot of places. The pickings are exceedingly slim. My ambivalence increases. My love-life is essentially zero and I continually balance a limited desire against the cost (not just monetary) of dating. I guess I’m a bit tired of trying and I’ve been through this phase before. I have a few leads to run out and after that may consider doing some different things. I want to plan a trip this year to go someplace I’ve not been and to go alone. I sometimes feel the desire to get out of town and to see some new things. Hey, there’s always the priesthood!

The good news is I rarely feel alone and lonely. I could have stayed home Thanksgiving Night and not felt like I needed company, well except for Tony Soprano. I feel its real progress to be alone on a holiday and to feel like you’re enjoying yourself, which I did. I am feeling very confident about Christmas, which is my worst holiday and the one that I’m truly thankful for it to be over. I hope that everyone had a great holiday and the associated weekend.

Well, I got the last of my crap moved out last night. Today is closing day. Tomorrow I am going to pick up a PVR from the cable company and get my TV hooked up, plus work on putting away some of my boxes. But I'm really looking forward to Sunday. Sunday is going to be a pajama day!!! I'm going to sit around all day and do nothing at all, not even get dressed. I can't even remember the last time I did nothing. I can't wait!!!!!! (does this make me pathetic?)

Busy weekend planned for us. This is my first weekend with my kids for about 2 weeks because of Thanksgiving. They were with their mom this year, and the weekend prior was her normal weekend, so they were with her back to back weekends. Tonight I think we're going to order a pizza and then meet up with my GF (Jill) at an art show. Jill was already planning to go with her sister and her friend and the original idea was for her to drop by my house afterward.

Today she asked if I would bring the kids out to meet up at the show. My DD is developing a pretty hefty appreciation for art. So much so that she's asking for a painting for Christmas. When I asked her what she was going to do with a painting, she looked at me like I maybe wasn't quite -the- stupidest person she'd met that day (but close to it) and replied, "Put it on my wall... And look at it.". Well, alrighty then.... Anyway, she will like it, but I might have to come up with other ways to keep The Boy entertained. Hopefully there will be paintings with boobs (there usually are at these things). He's 4 and a half and already fascinated, so that will be good.

Tomorrow morning is a b-day party for a friend of DD, and then off to pick out a Christmas tree. I'm then going to make dinner (homemade turkey pot pie with the remaining leftover turkey) and we're going to try ice skating at a downtown park with Jill and perhaps her friend. I've never tried it before, so I'm a little nervous about looking like a complete fool.

Sunday is church, getting the tree decorated, mowing the yard for probably the last time until Spring, and then some time to relax and hang out until I make dinner (beef stroganoff is my menu item).