While the Benihana Christmas episode is about to begin, I saw on my email that a surprise guest is coming to The Office for the hour-long post Super Bowl episode.  Jack Black will be dropping by the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin and what the plot will concern is anyone’s guess.  Will he be bringing surprises of his own?  Will we see a wedding, perhaps?  Maybe an appearance Jan and her baby and a resolution to that plot line?  What do my fellow watchers think?  Sorry, D.

Many post big game episodes have done really well.  Most also feature celebrity guests like “The One after the Super Bowl” episode of Friends featuring Julia Roberts.  The brilliant series Alias (that was cancelled way too soon) had a memorable post game episode.  Unfortunately, J.J. Abrams seemed to put the spy series starring Jennifer Garner on the back burner while making way for his new series Lost.  There were also Simpsons post Super Bowl shots.  Hopefully, the Dunder Mifflin crew can bring another great addition to the post Super Bowl hour.

I received another ‘getting to know you’ email forward, and this one promises to be ‘different’ so here goes…

Here’s a new one & it’s much better than previous versions. Cut and paste and fill in the answers. Then, send to all your friends!
*A – Age:              30
*B – Bed size:      Queen
*C – Chore you hate:   drying dishes
* D    Dessert you love:   depends upon my mood
*E – Essential start of your day item:    yogurt
*F – Favorite actor(s):      Steve Carell, Tom Hanks
*G – Gold or Silver:          Gold
*H – Height:         5 ft. 8 in.
*I – Instruments you play:   little bit of piano, various percussion instruments
*J – Job title:    Homemaker
*K – Kid(s):   3 girls and a boy
*L – Living arrangements:  Husband, 4 kids, 2 dogs, and a parrot
*M – Mom’s name:    Phyllis
*N – Nicknames:     Mom, Lis
*O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth:  other than MY birth or any birth?  Cuz I’ve had 4 kids…  Also some ear infections when I was a baby.
*P – Phobia or fear:   frogs
*Q – Favorite quote: Until I can think of a better one – “Abraham Lincoln said, if you are a racist, I will attack you with the North.”  – Michael Scott 
*R – Right or left handed:    Right
*S – Siblings:    1 older sister
*T-  Talent:  multi-tasking
*U – Unique skill:    I can hang a spoon off the end of my nose
*V – Vegetable you hate:    peas
 *W   Worst habit:   procrastination
*X – X ray:    dental
*Y – Yummy food you make:  I just made a California blend soup yesterday out of leftovers that everyone loved
*Z – Zodiac Sign:      Cancer, the crab!

The song would continue “is like being nowhere at all.” Today I spent the evening in Toledo, actually the Suburb of Maumee and I had a wonderful time. Spent the evening with a large group of my daughter’s friends. Went out to eat a great Restaurant, when to her house and played some group games. All around fun for the evening.

This was a bit of a change from my reflective evening yesterday. We had such a large group at the restaurant that we were asked what the occasion was. Welll the occasion was that it was Saturday. Fellowship, food, drink were all enjoyed.

Just getting into my relaxing phase. I do tend to psych myself up for long drives in the evening, and it takes me a bit to unwind to fall asleep.

Night folks

I just got back from a gathering of friends. This gathering was celebrating the 2nd birthday of a wonderful little girl. Now of course the parents said that gifts were not required, so I didn’t buy any. Instead, I handed out memories to the 4 children of my friends. These were very specific memories for me and my children. It is hard to pass on memories when only one side knows what they are. So I am writing about those memories so, if the parents desire, these memories can be passed on to their children.

My wife collected three things during our marriage. One collection was pets, mostly chinchillas. Another was raccoons. When it got tough to find different raccoons, she started collecting Eeyores. Yes, that little gray (blue) donkey that Disney made so popular. The one from the Pooh Bear stories. For those who don’t know it, Eeyore was a gloomy little donkey, who had the most down to earth, sad, outlook on life. Except for the rare occasions when he found good in the bad things that happened. It is that rare gift to find the good during the bad times that captivated my wife with this character, other than the fact she though he was just soooo cute.

Our house was filled with Eeyore things. Eeyore jewelery, clothes, dishes and cups and of course the stuffed Eeyores. There was an Eeyore for winter, Christmas, Summer, Fall and spring. There is even a Halloween Eeyore. Eeyores of every shape and size. These filled the house and our lives.

After my wife died, some of the Eeyores went to family members. I gave her sister a dress Eeyore watch, since she likes Eeyore too. I gave some stuffed Eeyores to my daughters and niece, so they could have something to hold on too. I gave at least 1 Eeyore sweatshirt to each daughter, so they could have something warm to wrap up in. Most of the stuffed Eeyores I kept and I held onto them for me. The Eeyores never left the family until today.

I gave 4 small donkeys to the children of my friends. 1 was especially for babies, so their youngest could have one too. Two were identical donkeys, (not quite Eeyores) that were bought by my children (ok, it was Dad’s money) to give to their Mother for some special day. A fourth was one my wife would carry with her to give a little comfort in times of stress, this one was given to the birthday girl.

These were gifts of fond memories that we had as a family. These were not expensive, but they are gifts most rare. These were gifts of the heart. From one family to another, a shared blessing of the good things in life: Love, commitment, honor, trust and just a bit of pessimism.

Always looking for hope, and sometimes I happen to find it

Since my pal jamiahsh mentioned my $8.00 putter, I guess now is a good time to tell how I happen to own said putter. I am not a golfer by any means. I’ve played maybe 2 games of golf in my lifetime. In both games, I did lousy. My drives were short, but straight, my short game was all over the place, and putting on a real green, forget about it. The one thing I do reasonably well with a golf ball is miniature golf, especially the par 2 Putt Putt courses. I’ve played on a few, and while I’m nowhere near to being a Putt Putt pro, I usually can break or make par on these courses after a round or two to get used to it. As with any sport, somedays you just don’t have it, so I don’t always make par.

Anyway, on to the story of my $8.00 putter. A few of years ago (was it really so long??, yes, it was during our magic show) a group of us were invited to have a day at the nearest Putt Putt / Go-Cart place. I got to the town a little early and we stopped at a local sporting goods store. I’m not sure now if I stopped with the thought of picking up a putter, or just saw it when I got there, and had the idea, but anyway C is a slightly competitive person, and his friends know this about him. Me, I’m never beyond trying to set someone up for a joke, so knowing about his nature, I wanted something to play games with his mind.

So I picked up the cheapest putter available at the sporting goods store. For 8 American dollars, I picked up a putter that was much better than the clubs at the local Putt Putt. And it gave me a wonderful joke to play on the rest of the gang. I arrive at the Putt Putt with putter in hand. Now everybody thought that I was a serious putter. I saw fear in their eyes. (not really but it sounds good doesn’t it?) I did have a really good game that day, having quite a few holes-in-one and ended up in first. I was lucky my putter worked. I may have looked a fool if I didn’t have a good game. After that I don’t think too many believed that I just picked the putter up that day. They can comment if they remember. But I think my youngest convinced them.

So now, I always have that putter with me during the summer months. My youngest and I frequent the putting places often, and I’ve grown used to my stick. Sometimes, like today, it brings out the fear in my opponents…. Ha ha ha (how do you write an evil laugh???))

This day actually started some time yesterday evening. During a thunderstorm in the area and a tornado close to us, 4 outlets in our house went out. I’m thinking something in the storm caused it, because to was only part of a complete circuit. Looked like I would have to replace at least on outlet. I couldn’t tell from a exterior glance as to which outlet shorted out. So I put a trip to the hardware store on my Saturday to-do list. The first thing on the list was getting my daughter to her SAT testing.

Now on to Saturday Morning… Storm damage from the previous night’s storms caused some rough driving. A normal 40 minute drive took closer to 1 hour. We just made it just in time to the SAT testing site. Hmm, day not starting off well…

I had to wait around for at least an hour for the hardware store to open, so I stopped for coffee. Those who have known me for a while, know that my favorite coffee shop closed for good a little over 2 years ago. This was the place my dear wife and I spent many happy times, just getting away from the kids, planning for future things, getting to know one another again after 4 children. Good memories in that little place. I have yet to find any coffee shop that comes close to the atmosphere, quality of the coffee, food ect. and the people who frequent the shop itself. The place I stopped in today had a very nice atmosphere (except for the big screen TV, but I went around the corner from that). The coffee was very good. The food I had ok, but nothing special.. Not many people there, so I couldn’t say anything about that. Too bad it was a 40 minute drive… Too far for a once a week type of thing.

After the coffee, I could get the things I needed to replace at least 1 outlet. I got 4 new outlets just in case. I still had at least 2 hours to wait for the SAT to finish. Stopped at another store and was able to find some water filters for our office at work. I installed an older water filter on the tap at work, but the filters have been hard to find. I try to pick up extra whenever I see them on the shelf. Filtered water makes better coffee ya know… Now only 1 1/2 hours for the test to let out…

Got a call from my daughter in FL, we talked until my Cell battery almost died. Then I got a notice that I had 3 messages… Two were from the day before!!! They weren’t there when I got up in the morning, I checked… Storm must have hit a local tower or something?? Anyway a friend wanted to get together to (in his words) “just get out of the house”. Great!! How does one decide what to do when I was already invited to oldest daughter’s place for fun and games… Hmmm. Well, I was expecting a call from the oldest earlier in the week to finalize the plans. It never happened. I let my youngest test goer decide… Friend won the toss.

So after a good lunch youngest, and I head out for some fun. We played games (all sorts), and just had a lot of fun. We played a miniature bowling game. The balls were slightly larger than a softball, no holes, and the pins were on strings/wires. If you ever see one, try it out. They are very fun. We also played indoor mini-golf (black lit area with dark black ‘greens’, and glowing colored bumpers and obstructions). This was fun to, but it did make it hard to ‘read the greens’. I ended up with a hole in one on the last hole. We also played a number of arcade games for ‘tickets’. It was a fun afternoon/evening… Good idea C…

Now I’m tired and ready for bed…. What a Day…

When I was in high school, I was in a peer group called Snowball and one of our activities was to write “warm fuzzies” about each other.  Warm fuzzies are kind thoughts.  When we told family and friends we are now expecting a boy instead of a girl, we got lots of warm fuzzies, so I decided to collect them in one place so baby Christopher can read them someday.

Lisa,
How exciting to find out about your new son, we are so excited for you.
Love, Linda
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YES!!!!!!!
I knew you guys could do it! Congratulations!!
Mary Beth
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Hooray!!!
That is sooooo great. I can’t wait for HIS arrival. I sure Dad is as excited.
Jamy
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Wow!  No wonder you are in shock!  I’m excited for you.  I had 3 boys and the last was a girl, and I didn’t know till she was born – no ultrasounds in those days.  All I can tell you from my experience is the girl was nothing like her brothers, from day one.  For me, 3 boys were easier than one girl!  I’ll be interested to see how your experience is.  Can’t wait to meet little Christopher.  I have one of those as well. (He is and was the “toughest”, most bull-headed of my boys.)
Shirley
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  You are going to love having a son. I know I was very nervous about having a son because I wasn’t sure if I could feel the same way about a boy as I did about Abby.  Because she was a girl, I thought we had this unusual bond that couldn’t possibly exist between a mother and a son, but it turns out that gender has nothing to do with it.   I knew I’d love him, but I wasn’t sure that there’d be that “click” I had with Abby.  I’m glad to reports I was very wrong.  I’m positively in love with my son and couldn’t imagine life without a boy to raise.  I’ve often said that I’d have a whole ball team of boys before I’d have another girl, so if that tells you anything, you’ll LOVE having a son.  HOORAY for you!
Tracy
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