#51

Yesterday, I turned 51. Seeing that I've already had my mid-life crisis, it wasn't that big of a deal. My daughter, The Ogre, came over with her husband, The Huntsman, and their two kids, The Boy & The Girl. My wife, Lady-Nottaguy-TYG, had made cube steaks in gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, & biscuits for supper. She also had picked up a "Cake Boss" cake from Kroger. The meal was great and so was the cake.

On Saturday, which is the actual date of my birth, My wife set up a date with a couple from our church to go to Logan's Roadhouse in Mansfield. I don't usually use the real names of establishments here, but the service was astounding and the meal was great. I figured I'd give them a shoutout.

Anyway, once we got there, we ran into four more of our friends. After a meal of salad, steak & baked potato, our waiter talked us into ordering dessert. i was content to come home and eat some more cake, but why not. We order a peanut butter ice cream thingee and were astounded when they brought it out.

Huge does not begin to describe this. We each had ordered one to share with our spouse. We could have shared this with the whole table. There's a Veggie Tale episode where a resturant opens up and advertizes "Food as big as your head". This very nearly was.

Lastly, as we were heading to bed, it dawned on us that we needed to set our clocks back for daylight savings was ending. There's nothing like getting an extra hour's sleep for your birthday.

How's That Again?

The other day we were sitting down to supper with two of our grandkids, "The Boy" & "The Girl". The Girl, who is five, turns to Lady Nottaguy_TYG and asks her, "Nana, where are your kids?" My wife told her, "Honey, My kids are grown up. My kids are your mommy and Aunt Lemon." The girl processed that for a moment, then replied "So,... you're old?" I really did LOL.

Making Apple Butter

Friday night, "The Girl" stayed with us a little later than normal to help Lady Nottaguy-TYG make homemade apple butter. She had purchased a half-bushel of apples from a local orchard in preparation for this night.

We attached our apple peeler/corer/slicer on the little table that we have in our dining room. "The Girl" got to turn the crank.

Everyone know that the workman is worth his wages, so she ate her fill of peelings and small pieces of apple that would find themselves on the table.

The filled two containers with apples slices. A large pot for the stove to make right away and my wife's large oval crock pot liner. That batch was going to cook all night as we slept.

Once the apples were sliced, and to table cleaned off, the pot was taken to the stove where the other ingredients would be added. Lady Nottaguy-TYG measured out the ingredients and let "The Girl" put them in.

Once the apples had cooked for a while, it was time to mash them. We had to remind "The Girl" several times that the apples were hot, as she tended to get a wee bit excited about "mashin' dem apples."

After the apples were mashed and cooked some more, they were mashed again. By this time you could tell that "The Girl" was getting tired as she was getting giddy. After some more cooking, the apple butter was ready to can.

She was really pumped that she got to take some home with her when "The Woodsman" came to pick her up. She told him that she would share with him. How nice.

Farewell To A Friend

On Monday of this week, we said farewell to our fierce dragon and protector of the realm. Sparky crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.I hadn't had a dog this long since Peanut, the dog of my childhood. Thanks to the invention of the camera phone, he was the most photographed pet we ever had. Here are some pics of my little buddy:

He was always the protector of the weaker or smaller. My MIL's therapist didn't like him because Sparky thought that he was trying to hurt her during rehab for a shoulder injury. Kids were safe from bigger kids & parental reprimands. He also patrolled the back yard and played :Nanny Dog" when the kids were in it

All of the furniture belonged to him. If you didn't want dog hair on you. Too bad. Any blanket or pillow was a comfy spot to take a snooze (especially if there was a sunbeam involved). He even had us trained to lay out his big stuffed platypus on the floor so he could be with us while we watched movies.

Sparky was always willing to pose for us. What a photogenic pup. I'm glad I have all the happy memories with him. He really was a great dog. I'm going to miss you. You were a good boy.

Where Have I Been?

Hello. Yes I know you haven't heard from me for a while. I didn't fall off the edge of the Earth (or get swallowed by Facebook. I still don't have or want an account).

There have been LOTS of things going on around here, but I just haven't had the groove to post about them. I know there's much to catch you up with. I'll try to do some of that in this post.

Earlier this year, My dad was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). It makes a lot of sense seeing his struggles over the last two years.He fell multiple times and one day he just couldn't walk. Doctors attributed this to knees that no longer had any cartilage and he had a knee replacement. As he continued to weaken, Mom thought that perhaps he had suffered another stroke. As the doctors ran their tests for stroke, the diagnosis of ALS came. This man who was a strong carpenter now cannot even feed himself.

While watching the deterioration of my dad, I also watched the deterioration of my Mother-In-Law. She had been in the nursing home several years battling with Parkinson's Disease, Emphysema, Diabetes, Congestive Heart Failure and a laundry list of other ailments. She was a WWII US Navy veteran and a dear saint of God. Many people joke and have nasty things to say about their in-laws. I grew to love her. She went home to her reward in May. I miss her but seeing her struggle like she did, I wouldn't wish her back. She's in a much better place.

We also lost our beloved PT cruiser. We were in an accident (nobody was hurt) and the body shop said it would cost $2700  to fix it. The other driver's insurance would pay for it, so they totaled it out for $3500. I still don't see the sense in that. You won't pay $2700 but you will pay $3500? If I was a shareholder, they would, as Ricky Ricardo would say "Have some 'splainin' to do".

This is the PT with a play house that we bought at a yard sale. The hatch wouldn't close so we had to bungee cord it down. After the accident, the hatch wouldn't open, neither would the back passenger door. :-(

I am still fighting Workman's Comp over the injury to my left shoulder. I hurt it at work over a year ago. They've ruled that the injury was "pre-existing" and had nothing to do with the fall I had. How can something  be pre-existing if you never injured it before? Grrrrr.

We also had a scare with my mom. She was hospitalized with arrhythmia. She has rheumatoid arthritis and it affected her heart. She also has to have both knees replaced as she is bone-on-bone with both of them.

I'm sure I've overlooked several things but at this present time, I can't think of what they might be. I'm sure my wife will let me know what I've forgotten.  

What's Going On At The Castle?

The other day, my grandaughter, The Girl, wanted me to play with her. I have an Imaginext castle and she needed me to put it together for her to play with. She drug it out of the toy room and I dumped it out, sorted the pieces and commenced to build a castle. Once I had the castle built, she had some grand plans.

First off, she wanted visitors to come to the castle. So I rounded up some visitors. I came up with a giant and an ogre. The ogre needed help crossing the street, so the giant held his hand.

Then there was a ball in the castle. Cinderella and The Prince were dancing together.

But everyone knows the story. The Prince also had to dance with Cinderella's ugly step-sister. This step-sister could have had as much beauty sleep as Sleeping Beauty and still have been ugly.

You've got to love the imaginationof a four year-old little girl.

A New Accomplishment

If you were a member of The Cheezburger Network a couple years ago, you would know about the collectibles that they offered for going to different sites & pages in their network.When they made the announcement that they were discontinuing the collectible program, there was a scramble to complete sets of those that had missing collectibles. I completed all 82 set and gave away 902 to others in need. When this ended, on of the Cheezpeeps developed a site that offered four collectibles per week for those that enjoyed the chase. The difference being is that the member created the collectibles and voted which ones made the cut for the set.

What does this have to do with anything, you may ask. Recently I made a colletible and it was voted in as part of the set. It recieved the second most votes. It was the first one I made that made the cut. The category was Bad Hoomin (that's Bad Human for those that don't speak LOLspeak). Here it is:

Translation: Who is this "Work"? And why do you spend so much time with them?

That's my dad's dog Coco and, yes, he is sitting in Dad's briefcase.

My Hilarious Grandson

Driving home from school today, I had Sean Hannity on the radio. He mentioned that an official in the Obama administration "mispoke". I told "The Boy"that when a government official "mispeaks", he is really lying. He retorted with "I thought whenever anyone in government spoke, he's lying."  LOL and LTIC. I told him that he was wise beyond his years.

Just What Have You Been Doing?

Things have really been busy around her this month. Recently, "The Boy" had the lead role in our church's Christmas musical "In a Galilee Far, Far Away". He was Commander James T. Church of the starship Emmanuel.

Here's the rest of the bridge crew:

Navigator Polo

                                                                      Robot

                                                  Communications Officer Sparky

Information Tech Info (the resident Vulcan)

                                           Security officer Zip (the resident Klingon)

And Chief Engineer Otto (who I must add did a great James Doohan impersonation)

The kids were fantastic. the props were out-of-this-world (no pun intended). "The Girl" got to play one of the animals at the manger scene. At the Sunday morning performance, she tried and wandered from the manger to the friendly lap of her dad, "The Woodsman"

We also had a Middle School band Christmas concert. Here's "The Boy" playing the marimbas:

Once the 6TH grade band finished, "The Girl was finished too. Since she no longer could watch her brother, she found other ways of entertaining herself.

Last night we did our annual Christmas cantata. We've been practicing for months. Our director was a wreck. She kept saying "Christmas has snuck up on me this year." She even cut a song from the list, which we would belt out at different times during lulls in practice. At the end of the cantata, when the thanks yous were being said, we belted it out again. On a related note, my wife watches the directors youngest a couple times a week and once they were watching a Veggie Tales movie with said song in it. Her eyes got big and she exclaimed "That's the song my mommy doesn't like!" ROFL