Yes it is....The final game...The Superbowl is on Feb 1st.

Ermm... isn't it cold out for the spectators and cheerleaders?

Yeah but die hard fans don't feel the cold!!

My son turned 18 today! So hard to believe. I sat here the other night going through his baby book and photo albums and cried! UGH!

I took him to Applebees for dinner tonight...just he and I...it was nice to sit with just him and talk. A few of his friends who work at Applebees blew up balloons and wrote Happy Birthday and his name on them. He blushed a million different shades of red. It was cute. I made him carry them out of there too Big bad football player carrying balloons!!!!

Tomorrow we are having a party with family and friends. So that will be fun! Then Sunday we are going to watch the Ravens get their feathers plucked

Not sure what to do this weekend. Supposed to go out w/kids and BF but may be experiencing a little bump in the road w/that one. He's NMNK and pretty much does whatever he wants. For example, if there is a trip he wants to go on, off he goes. He doesn't go out drinking or anything, and he's always great about including me but for some reason, I'm feeling a little frustrated. Is this normal?

I gave the children a trip for X-mas and have been busy planning it. BF said he wanted to go and would pay his way. So, I find a great plane fare, tell him I am going to buy the tix and he starts asking me what my budget is and whether I know how much the trip costs, etc. Well, it has been my dream to take the family on this vacation. Prices are down now and there are some deals. I don't make a lot of money but I am frugal w/what I have. I am not in debt and have made some sacrifices this month to help pay for it.

It's weird, but ever since that conversation, I have felt a little resentful. BF didn't do anything wrong, except point out the obvious...I am planning something that is a bit extravagant.

It's as if somehow I feel controlled. This issue has made me feel like I have a husband w/out any of the benefits of marriage. BF told me today that I have become obsessed w/this vacation. I can't argue w/him about that. I just want to buy the tickets and be done w/it.

I haven't felt this way towards him before. Everything has been going along so well for close to two years. He has helped me get my finances straight (by telling me where to put my $$) and I appreciate it. So what is wrong w/me? I have been out of sorts for about a week and it shows.

BTW, we don't talk about marriage, except to say occassionally that it's something that will happen w/in the next 10 years. I've known him forever and he has never had a broken heart. I told him that broken heart thing bothers me.

Since I have children, we usually see each other alone one night during the week and every other weekend. It's like I have 2 completely different lives. One weekend, I am sleeping in and then putting on my clothes from the night before to go home like some college kid, and the next weekend, I am serving cereal and pop-tarts. During my next free weekend I will be out of town, so that means we won't be spending any significant time alone until February.

I am wondering if I am ready for more of a commitment, even though I have a hard time visualizing it.

Anyway, it sounds like you all have great weekends lined up. I am going to try to forget about all this and spend a great day tomorrow w/the children. If BF cals and still wants to go w/us tomorrow night, then we'll see him then and I won't talk about my vacation (even though that's hard to do). I found great fares and perfect schedule but they have since gone up about $50/person during the week that I have been stalling my purchase.

Children and I went out to dinner tonight and I didn't even think about BF and our bump.

Have a great one and thanks for listening.

He says he thinks you're obsessing about the trip. And you agreed with that.

Maybe he feels like he's being put on the back burner.

Just sayin'...

WOW what a weekend. We got back a few hours ago from L.A. It was so nice for just the 2 of us to get away. We went to the Jeff Dunham show last night at Universal Studios. It was awesome.

Although I noticed alot of kids there.....WHY would someone bring there kids to the show. Most people are very aware of the language and vulgarness at times of the show....Some people.

Otherwise We got alot of alone time to just BE together. No phone calls from the PD, No family members needing one of us to come over RIGHT AWAY (just to get something down from a shelf), and (we love him dearly) kids (2 legged and 4 legged) to create a giagantic mess and throw a fit when asked to clean it up or throw up on something (fiances cat has IBS).

PLus even tho I found tons of stuff I would love to have at CIty walk at Universal. I managed not to waste the money on it....We did pretty well....Now that comic book figurine will haunt me in my dreams (I know I'm a dork).

I meet up with a girlfriends to listen to a local band Friday night. Had been emailing with a local guy from the online service and he said he was going to be at the same venue so said for him to text me when he seen us come in!!!

We got there before they did and so go a text about are you? You can still run!!! Then there was something about dancing on a table so they could find us!!! Had a great time very nice guy and easy to talk to went for bar to breakfast and then to a late lunch Sat and then went out with the girls again and meet up with them,

Talked on the phone just now and set up to go to a matinee tomorrow!!! I have to get the bathroom floor finished and the texturing done in the bathroom so I can paint on Tuesday.

Bet my daughter bowling tonight, yippeeee!!! Feels so good when I do that!!!

Had the family over for dinner as mom's birthday was Friday,

So it was a good weekend!!!

AGE, I see your team one!!! Congrats, you must have a pretty happy household!!!!

Dawn

Thanks Dawn! Yeah it was a crazy night here last night! So thrilling! I hope Hines gets healed before the Big Game! I feel bad about McGahee too. Hopefully he'll be okay.

It's going to be a long two weeks!

Big day!

One year ago today, my divorce from the soul sucking harpy was final!

Firstly, this week’s song downloads:

The 88 - “Coming Home
Yellowcard – “Lights And Sounds”
“Light Up The Sky”
Our Lady Peace – “Innocent”
“Somewhere Out There”
Anthony Green – “She Loves Me So”

The last song in particular is unusual for me in that I have been avoiding love songs for quite some time, in fact preferring the opposite, but I really like the mode and mood of this song.

My weekend started Thursday night with a little shopping at Wally World, a quick dinner at home, and thoughts of spending the evening at home, but it was truly and very cold, 0 or less air temperature, and after not smoking many cigars because of the cold I had, I wanted to smoke, and I was not going to do it outside and don’t smoke inside my house, so I packed up my vice-kit (portable humidor, lighter, punch, all specially designed for cigars)and headed to The Dog and it’s wood burning fireplace, my favorite fireplace in the world. Had an interesting chat with a guy I’ve seen a few times lately but don’t know his name. I would guess that he’s about my age and we have some similar characteristics, including the same type of dating experiences. I often tell people that dating in the 40-50 year old range is a very strange place. The percentage of the sane and undamaged is distinctly small. The physical attributes start failing, and for many who depended upon their physical attributes for their self-worth and purpose of validation become a bit unhinged as they lose their most valued resources. We discussed what I refer to as the OLDW (On Line Dating World) and the high percentage of, using an unvarnished term, liars that there are there. So I found the parallels in our experiences to be very interesting. I know I continuously debate whether it’s better to remain single or not. There are distinct advantages to being single. I need not enumerate them for you. My neighbors, whom I should call friends, Tim and Jen, showed up around 21:00 and I had arrived about 20:30 or so. We sat together at the bar when I wasn’t tending the fire and had some very interesting chatter about exes. Neither has been divorced, but Tim’s DD comes from his XGF, who is truly a nut job (excuse the technical language). My buddy Tom rolled in and we had an interesting time recounting his latest adventures in Key West fishing with his friend, who we’ll just refer to as a very prominent citizen. We then got on the subject of health care and included Tim and Jen and picked up some interesting perspective from Tom, who has owned 2 small businesses so far in his life. I had a vey nice chat with him, perhaps the first time that we’ve had the chance to, and I’ll him to the list of people that I need to get to know better. I gained a little intel on Wendy from Jesse. Wendy is the woman that I had fun dancing with last weekend. Jesse is Nan’s daughter and it’s gets a little complicated describing the familial arrangements, but that would make Jesse Jo Ellen’s niece. Jesse was tending bar and I broached the subject and she told me what she knew about Wendy, which was mostly about Wendy’s XBT (ex-boy-toy) Nathan, whom I actually liked. I’ll need to confer with my friend and neighbor Jethro to see what light he can shed on Wendy. He has told me that he saw her after her divorce and I would guess that the timeline goes like this, she got divorced, saw Jethro, then lived with Nathan for a while, and then got rid of him. Jesse wasn’t sure about some details but said that she thought that Wendy moved to St. Paul to be closer to her family and also told me what she thought Wendy’s maiden name was and it is a common name in these parts and I know some of them. I just checked the property records for where I believe she lives (I know it by sight but not by the street number) and the last name is the same what Jesse thought Wendy’s was. That begs the question, is Wendy a real name, a contraction of another name, or a name like Peg/Margaret? I had plenty more chats and left at about 00:00, went home, started a movie, and was off to bed at about 01:00.

I got up around 10:00 Friday, my normal day off, did some things around the house, got cleaned up, and went out to shop. I had lunch in O’Fallon at what amounts to a local chain of sit-down Italian restaurants. I’ve said before that Italian is probably the predominant cuisine in this area (that I affectionately refer to as The Lou’, a contraction of St. Louis) and that even the common places, such as the one I went to for lunch, are much better than some of the finer Italian restaurants in many other markets. Seafood is another story however. I had a nice lunch and then headed to Costco for some necessities. I stopped at a Home Goods and browsed their artwork and almost bought a few items but decided I would look around a bit more. I am reading a biography of Andrew Jackson by Jon Meacham, so I stopped by a Border's and picked up another book by him, “Franklin and Winston” and another of the prequels to the “Dune” series of novels. I personally think that “Dune” itself is the best novel I’ve ever read and would encourage you to give it a try. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read it. It is one of the few novels that I’m aware of that imparts both practical advice and philosophies and mere by-products of its narrative. I could go on but I won’t! I got home and stowed everything in place and read some of the new “Dune” novel and then watched a few episodes of the 6th and last season of “Ballykissangel”. Again I thought about staying home because of the cold weather, but for the same reasons I went back to The Dog and had a very nice evening for what I always call friends and family night. In pretty much a repeat of the night before, I left about 00:00, watched a bit of a movie (“In Harm’s Way”), and then was off to bed about 01:00.

I got up slightly earlier Saturday and did the normal things around the house, including reading the paper, and then since it was a balmy 40 degrees and spent a good chunk of the day outside chasing leaves around. I have one small tree and all of its leaves are long gone. Now I’m chasing pin oak leaves and I have no pin oaks. Go figure. I came inside and had a VM from Sherry who wanted to let me know that she had another grandchild (cripes, I’m dating grandmothers) and I in turn left a VM for her. I took about an hour’s nap and did a load of colors in the wash and did some reading. I had plans for dinner at 19:30 so I got cleaned up and picked out and ironed my outfit for the evening, which included a vest and sport coat. I walked up to tim and Jen’s and road with them to the ex-town and a riverfront restaurant. There were 11 of us altogether to have dinner to celebrate both Laura and Tony’s birthdays. We had a very nice dinner and great conversation and then left about 21:30. I had some very interesting conversations with Tim and Jen as they are interested in my history and I led them through some initial information about the XW. I popped some for my vice-kit and then headed up to The Dog to see Common Ground play. For those that keep track of these things, neither Jenny nor Wendy was there. There was an abnormal amount of the people I see on other days of the week, including many of my favorite people. I hit the ATM as the first thing and by the time I said a few hellos and got a beer, a seat opened up at the bar as my friend Rick was leaving. I sat next to the other Rick, the one that Paul and I hang around with, and then settled in for the band. There was a minor amount of drama with someone who had been there too long and it was a bit of amusement for me. I would occasionally get up and make the rounds of people that I knew. I talked to Ginger and she had invited one of her “soccer-mom” friends along and gave Paul and me some intel on this friend, Ray. Later I see a strange woman in the bar and of course it’s Ginger’s friend Ray and there are just some things I can tell about a person in about 5-seconds. I knew that Ray would be trouble for someone! I was making the rounds again and Ginger asked me to rescue her from playing pool with Ray. I promise to pay a visit to the pool table which is in the most remote area of the bar. On my way back there I run into Patrick and Alice, whom I had become acquainted with last Sunday. They are both very interesting to me and I decided that I would like to get to know them much better. Patrick is Mike’s brother and Mike is married to Nan, Jo Ellen’s sister. It’s all about family! I chatted with Patrick a bit and said more hellos and went back to the pool table and entertained Ray for a while therefore taking the pressure of sole entertainment off of Ginger, who called me her hero. Ray, well let’s just say she’s a biker chick beyond her prime and was wired very tightly. I knew better than to fully engage and kept it light and fluffy. We got on the subject of my work and Ginger can’t believe that I’ve worked at the same place over 30-years. We had some very amusing interplay and then Paul came to rescue me and both Ginger and I headed for the dance floor. Paul was not seen for the rest of the night and apparently became very interested in Ray. There is a long story behind the band and there was a father, sons, nephew, etc. playing in the band and at one time they served as the house-band for The Dog. The band members are local and Dave spun some interesting stories to Clete and me about the old days when another iteration of the band played The Dog. That explained some of the non-usual Saturday-night people being there. There were very few young people and only a few chicks, so I limited by dancing to those that I already knew. I had a very nice time, not earth shattering, but very nice, enjoyed the band immensely, and had an all around interesting and fun time. I left a bit after 01:00 and saw Paul and Ray in the parking lot and yelled hello to them as there was something going around there! I got home, fired up my movie, had a couple of cocktails, and went to bed at about 02:30.

I got up at 10:00 and made my single trip outside all day to get the paper. I finished my load of colors and did a load of whites, had an early supper, exchanged VMs with a friend, and finished the new “Dune” novel. I had an early dinner at home and just an all around relaxing day. I did stay up a bit past my bedtime watching “Donovan’s Reef” and went to sleep at about 22:00.

And here it’s Monday and back to work. The usual disclaimers apply.

Congrats, it was 2-years for me back in December. I feel so much better about everything else in my life.

My internet has been fritzed out and they finally got it fixed today - after telling me it wouldn't be working until Thursday. Fortunately, it came back online earlier.

cin, I just read your quote at the bottom!!!! I love it!! I pretty much do that in life!!!!

Dawn

Thanks for noticing. Daughter and I were in the audience when the author said that. I loved it. It's a great piece of advice.

Did you also check out my adventure? Daughter and I are training for a half-marathon and raising money for Gilda's Club which provides free support to people living with cancer - men, women, and children - all forms of cancer - and to their families.

Walk into that room like you own it!

Room!?! What room? I'm concerned about that 13.1 mile race course!

I've done this before - 2 years ago - but those two years have really taken a toll on my body.

Yesterday, in the freezing wind - not as cold as some places but cold enough - I walked 5 miles....then went to the fitness/wellness center nearby and put in nearly an hour of cardio work. Will I be able to walk tomorrow?

This weekend featured a bit of a different pace than of late. Friday I stopped at Wally World after work and picked up just a few grocery items and headed to the Knights of Columbus hall in St. Paul to see about dinner, but my friend Dean does the dinners on Friday night there only does it every other week and this was not his week to do so, so I headed to The Dog for friends, family, and karaoke night. I had dinner at the bar and had many conversations with many people. There is a series of sisters that are married to various individuals, including my friends Bruce and Bob, and I’ve seen the other BIL before and this time really met him and spoke with him quite a while. It turns out he’s from the small town where my youngest sister lives about 130-miles south of where I live. We had a lot of fun comparing note and figuring out who we knew in common, etc. There is not 6-degrees of separation in St. Paul, more like 2. I enjoyed his company a lot. I also had a very long chat with friends Bob and Taco (Jerry) and as I’ve remarked before more and more people are getting interested in my history, so we discussed that quite a bit and of course there are distinct reasons why I ended up in St. Paul and people are curious how I got there. Later in the evening Sandy wanted to dance and I danced with her twice, one a slow dance. She goes out with my friend Glen. The story that I have heard about Sandy is that she’s a nurse and did a tour of duty in Iraq. She arrived back home at some point last year to find her husband gone and moved in with someone else. It was the talk of the town for a while. I am sympathetic to her history and have always tried to be extra nice to her. She seems to be in a good place in her life now. I stayed until about 00:30, went home, had a cocktail, and watched “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and clocked out about 02:00.

I awoke at 11:30 and felt terrible, got something to drink, and went back to bed and slept until 15:00. I got up and felt like my cold had returned and went through a whole box of Kleenex that day. I would sneeze about every five minutes. I finally had enough energy to do some things, so I finished a load of laundry and then reorganized all 3 closets, ending up with 4 bags of clothes to donate. I finally took a cold pill, had a frozen pizza, thought about going out, and at about 21:45 said that’s it and went to bed. Definitely not my usual Saturday but after feeling tired all week, I needed to recharge my batteries.

I awoke at 08:00 on Sunday and got busy, washing all rugs, all non-carpeted areas including both bathrooms, vacuumed, etc., read papers, and listened to my radio show. Ken had left me a VM on Saturday and I called his house (in Michigan) and had a long conversation with his wife Anita as Ken was out. After that Chris called and wanted to hook-up. I should say that I felt tons better on Sunday, so I got dressed and went to the agreed upon meeting place, a Buffalo Wild Wings in St. Peter, 10-15 minutes from my house. I arrived at 14:30 and waiting for Chris to arrive. A woman and her daughter sat close to me and I struck up a conversation with her (using my skills!) and I guess that there’s not 6-degrees of separation in St. Peters either as we seemed to know some of the same people and places, including my friend Tom. She, Jean, had played on Tom’s sand-volleyball team at The Dog. She tends bar in the old part of St. Peters at the American Legion hall and I inquired about her work schedule and will drop in to say hello to her on Friday. We went to the same high school and she’s a year younger than me. We had a nice rapport and I told her that Chris when he arrived would draw some other connections as he seems to know most everyone everywhere. He showed up and I made the introductions with some humor, and he did indeed know some people in common. We had a nice chat all the way around. Chris and I had originally planned to go to Hooters and that was what we had planned on Friday, but when we spoke about it Sunday there was a slight change of plans and Chris was going to invite one of the “cheerleader moms” along. Chris had involved his DD in cheerleading for several years and has met quite a few “cheerleader moms” along the way. So his acquaintance Laura showed up, 5’11 and very attractive. She turned out to be very intelligent as well, had 3-kids from 8 to 18, is divorced, and works at a bank. We grabbed a table and said goodbye to Jean and she later said goodbye to us when she left. We had a very amusing 2-hours or so, just the three of us and Laura was very charming. They had to go for various reasons, so we all walked out together and I gave Laura a very nice hug, telling her that I just love tall girls, and she laughed. I then scooted up to The Dog anxious to make up for missing Saturday night and they had a band playing as they occasionally do during band season. This band was Coyote and was very good, starting with country and ending up a bit more rock and roll. I touched base with my friends and then had occasion to meet Larry, who owns the tavern in the next town, Old Monroe. I’ve never been to it but people I know go there with some frequency. Larry likes cigars so I gave him one and we talked a bit about our love of bourbon and our lives. He and I hit it off and he insisted that I pay him a visit at his tavern and the first drink is on him. It turns out that he has a distinctive last name that I recognized and queried him about and again no 6-degrees of separation and he is a first-cousin of a woman that I work with. The band ended up enjoying themselves so much that they played beyond their scheduled end-time of 19:00. I stayed for a bit longer after they started packing up, said my goodbyes, and scooted home. We had about an inch of snow and it snowed on and off all day and was very cold. I got home, considered my possibilities, and decided to head to bed. I was in bed at about 20:00.

After all of that rest, I still feel tired! The next 24-hours should be interesting here with an approaching winter storm. This is my short week and I will be off on Friday. Thursday I have a county Municipal League meeting and have applied for a board-position with them. This meeting will be in the ex-town which of course does not please me, but I’ll go and have a good time nonetheless. I try a few other places with weekend including paying both Jean and Larry a visit. Larry was very funny and I had the impression that he would introduce me to some of the women at his place. I’ll follow-up with Chris later today to see what his impressions where of our time with Laura yesterday. As always, the usual disclaimers apply.

Friday was the Lunar New Year for the Vietnamese here at work.

I ate myself stoopid on spring rolls, crunchy egg rolls and noodles. It was like a bunch of mama birds feeding me as they jockeyed for position for me to try their cooking.

I think one of my next ex-wives is going to be Vietnamese.

J/K

My boss got me from my office and we went over to his house for me to set up his bullet loading machine. I brought a bunch of my supplies and he gave me double what they were worth for my toruble. I tried not to take the money, but he insisted.

I brought him 500 lead cast bullets I cast this weekend to make myself feel better. He really appreciated them and asked how easy was it for me to make them. He said he watched my video of making them anc couldn;t believe it was that easy.

I told him I like to shoot on the cheap and the best kind of bullets are FREEBIES.

Monday 26 Jan is officially Day 1 of the Year of The Ox!!

We have been having reunion dinners since last week and I can't eat no more. The weather has been beautiful and I am now going out for my walk. Tonight's dinner shall be mandarin oranges and... mandarin oranges.

I have an interesting weekend coming up.

I had met this guy through a friend about 1.5 months ago. We chatted, he seemed nice, he asked for my number. I gave it to him. We were both with a few friends of ours, and we all had fun.
Well, I was in a goofy mood, and he spelled my name wrong (not uncommon) and I said, in a mock horrified voice, "I will give you one more chance to spell my name right, or you won't get my number!" I was joking around, he laughed, said he never had to spell my name...

I never heard from him (lol, thought it was because he thought I was making fun of him!)

Anyway, about a week after that night, he went to the business that I work for, and he left his name and phone number, with a note saying that he lost my number, and wanted to get in touch. I did not get the note, since I do not work at that location, and the person he left it with is not familiar with me.

He came into the place a week ago, and left a note again, with someone who knows me, and I got it, along with the old note. I called him, and we chatted, we are supposed to get together this weekend. So, this will be interesting- I hope! I told him on the phone that I thought I had scared him away, and he said no, that he liked my sense of humor! That is good!

I will see him on Sat.

On Friday me and one of my friends are going out to this local bar where we had a ton of fun talking to all of the regulars a few weeks ago. I hope we have fun again!