Carpe Your Diem!

Today is Cha Cha and my 30th wedding anniversary. She doesn't read the blog because, as she says, "I live it," but I did tell her happy anniversary this morning and I will make a fancy dinner for tonight. Jill is at work and I am still off until Sunday. I would think about going to The Hotel Baker for dinner but they were pretty jerky the last time we were in St. Charles and we just wanted to walk around and reminisce. We even mentioned, of course, that it was where we had our wedding dinner. I can be a grudge-holder at times though I have gotten better about that.

This coming Sunday I also have to call to see if they picked me for jury duty. I am guessing that working for a police department for several years will probably disqualify me as a juror. I would be fair and just in my decisions but courts, at times, can be unfair and partial. The trial, if it goes forward, will mean that my vacation will, by law, continue with me in a courthouse.

I was going to go to Rockford today but I am not going today. Maybe tomorrow? I am pretty obsessed with The Rockford Peaches right now. I read a lot about the celebration that they are having in May/June and I saw that Megan Cavanagh, who played Marla Hooch in the movie, is going to be there for the anniversary celebration. I sent out a Tweet about it and copied: Rosie O'Donnell, Penny Marshall, Tom Hanks, Gina Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty, Gary Marshall... hoping there may be more star-power to get a bigger turnout. I am not sure why I care so much. I suppose it is that I am disappointed that women have been discriminated against for so long in so many ways and I want to help as much as I can to help remedy or makeup for that disgrace even though I was never guilty of those sentiments.

I have been tired off-and-on over the past few weeks. I fear that I am going to be sick soon. I think the travelling may have just wore me out. I have always been an excellent traveler but I have never traveled at my current age. I suppose that fact would be the same as if I traveled in five minutes.  At least if I am getting sick it is while I don't have to work.

The Red Skelton Show is on right now. He was a pretty funny guy. I remember his characters Freddie the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper from when I was really young or maybe I remember them because I majored in Radio-Television in college? Red was born in Indiana and his real name was Richard Eheart. I had heard that he also almost sued the guy who did the voice of Bullwinkle the Moose because Bullwinkle's voice was too similar to Clem's. I am not going to praddle-on about that because these new computer doohickeys can look things up quickly if you need to know more.

I have to head to a few stores now so I will end. I have to go to the grocery store for food, the drug store for Cha Cha's meds, another supermarket because they have the certain things that Jill needs and one more because they have the better produce. Why do they make all of these big box stores if I still have to travel to get all of what we need? I am going to the library first so the food doesn't spoil in the JEEP. I am doing the nap deal today for sure. That's the bad thing about having so many days in a row off - I stay up too late and get up too early to try to carpe the diem.

If You Blog the Truth You Don't Have to Remember Anything

My hat is actually my new Rockford Peaches' cap

We are back from vacation/ 30th anniversary celebration. We cut the trip a bit short to save money. I, sometimes, hate when good sense takes over. It was going to be tough and more grueling to go all the way to Arkansas as Cha Cha has to work tomorrow. I am off until next Sunday. I thought she had taken more days off but I suppose it just seams like I took more days off because I have my usual four days off before my three vacations days and my usual four days off after Tuesday. We had a great time at the Cardinals' game as they won in 13 innings. It is nice when the game is on a weekday and when it goes long because people leave and we all get to move closer.

I didn't realize that I had gotten as much sun as I did until we got back to the hotel and I took my watch off. It is like a bikini strap tan except with a watch and on the wrist.

After a few days in St. Louis we went to Hannibal and stayed there for a few days. I am a huge Mark Twain and it is a fun, quaint place. We did a lot of the touristy stuff there and, while walking around, we saw a lot of buildings for sale or lease and talked about maybe buying one. We are looking to downsize soon because this place has gotten very large over the years with people moving-on and such. One thing that would cause me pause is that Hannibal has very poor WiFi (maybe that is why they still have that small town feel?). In addition to poor WiFi, Missouri also has a wack-job of a Governor (Eric Greitens). There had been rumors of his resigning after he said that there was "no blackmail" and "no violence" and he had "a consensual relationship" with his former hairdresser. The hairdresser said the Governor "had bound her hands and blindfolded her, taken a photo of her partially nude and warned her to remain silent during an encounter in his St. Louis home." I may just stay in good old liberal Illinois though we still do have too much house now. Thanks for the heads up Gov. Whack job.

I did quite a bit of writing off-and-on again for what may become a story or two. I will probably do some research tomorrow on the two that I started writing. I will begin at the library tomorrow and maybe go do some on-site investigation/fact gathering. I am also thinking about going to Rockford again tomorrow. I have still quite much curiosity about my mom. I don't know what but I have a feeling there is still some things I need to discover to feel complete closure. As if there really is total closure when we lose someone.

Tomorrow is OFFICIALLY our 30th wedding anniversary. I am not sure how leap years comes into play. I got her that Purple Heart that she earned but it is a surprise so please don't tell her.

Sprint and T-Mobile have reached a deal to merge. Maybe the industry will finally make it better for we consumers.

I am going to end now and will probably blog again tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

Big Muddy Here We Come

It is 18:42 on a Tuesday and I am blogging. I got off of work at 18:00 and ordered dinner which I have to pick-up in 15-20 minutes. I do not have to go back to work for 13 days (coincidentally, 13 has always been my favorite number). Jill has to work half the day tomorrow so we are leaving when she gets done. We are driving to St. Louis and we ARE going to the Cardinals' game on Thursday afternoon. She did not bat an eye at that. She's a peach. Speaking of peach I got my Rockford Peaches' cap in the mail today. I will wear that to the Cards' game along with one of my St. Louis jerseys. I also got a Peaches' lapel pin from the museum and I put it on the hat so people don't think the R is for the Boy Wonder. I have about 12 different Cards' hats but I think there will be enough St. Louis caps present. I wore my Chief Wahoo (Cleveland Indians) hat to work today.

While I am talking about fashion - after I go pick up our food at Fatty's I am going to remove all of my facial hair. If I am headed south I am going to tan my entire face. I am not going to decide later that I want to shave it off and find that I have a white-skinned flesh beard underneath. I don't wish to be a pale face. Okay, I have to go get our grub.When I picked-up the food I saw my two bosses there. It was like, when you were a kid, seeing your teacher at the store or something.

Oh man, it is tomorrow already (today to you) now. We have decided to just go to St. Louis and save the money of driving and staying in hotels in Arkansas. We will check into the hotel tonight and go to the game tomorrow. I checked for tickets and they have some seats for as cheap as $3.00. Probably because it's a day game on the MIDDLE of the week.We also may go to Hannibal to visit the Mark Twain stuff again. I have been there many times but I could never get tired of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. I think I am kind of a cantankerous smart ass like he was at times. I think we both acted/act that way just to humor ourselves and keep others on their toes while guessing what might come out of our mouths next.

I did shave my beard yesterday when I got home from work. Jill came home from her work a bit later and she didn't even notice. I guess that is good because I feared that I had gained double chins (more Chins than a Chinese phone book) under that white fur so I was happy that she paid no never-mind. I was pleasantly surprised that I do not have more that one chin.

We do a lot of our grocery shopping at JEWEL and we are collecting the Monopoly pieces for the board game that are running. I guess Safeway is running it too. We only need one piece to complete the area to win $1,000,0000. How many other people need that same piece do you suppose? Who knows, maybe we already have the one that there are only two of and we will get the final piece and then pay off everything and disappear forever. If we did win, unlike many winners of big prizes, we would sell this house and get a smaller one. We are talking about that anyway. This house is too big for two of us and a dog. We would also consider renting it out. It has lots of rooms and a nice backyard and a full basement. Ha, it sounds like I am already advertising to sell it.

Some exciting news, Splenda bought a new car though I suppose it might actually be considered an SUV? Or maybe even a cross-over? I have only seen photos but it looks really, really, nice. It is a NISSAN. I would put the photo that she put on Facebook here but I would not do that without someone's permission. Luckily, for me, Clemens is dead so I felt that I could use his photo.

Okay, I will end now. We are heading to Mound City in a few hours and I am not even packed yet. St. Louis is called Mound City because of the Native American earth mounds that were located throughout the city and surrounding areas. The only one that still that exists in the city is Sugar Loaf Mound which is now owned by the Osage Tribe.

Thanks for coming by. I think we will only be gone for a day or two and I will either blog when I get back or blog from Big Muddy if there is some downtime. Have a great day and night and GO CARDINALS! TTT?...MITM (out)!

South Bound and Down

Sorry I didn't write on Saturday but Cha Cha had other things on the agenda and I could not find the time to write. To make that up to you I am writing on a rare Monday. As you may remember, I work Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays but, when I got to work this morning, they were letting people who wanted to go home leave. Of course, they had to read through the list of people and asked if they wanted to stay or go. Some would stay and some would go. I kept waiting for my name to be called but, since I am a trainer and we have to have so many trainers be there, I wondered if they would get fulfill the number of people before they got to reading my name. I was the last person who was allowed to leave. I have several hours banked-up so I can back-fill today's hours with hours from my bank rather than go home without pay. I would not have come home had I not had hours to cover the twelve today.

Tomorrow I will work even if I am offered the chance to come home. On Wednesday Jill and I are heading south for the celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary. I should buy her a purple heart for putting-up with me for this long. We were even together for five or six years before that - maybe she has earned sainthood by now. We were going to rent a car but we decided to take the JEEP instead so I got the oil changed today while I was off. Fabio is going to stay here with Jeff. I'd rather pay him than take Jeff to a kennel for several reasons.

That is not Jill I am with but she took the photo

Anyway, we are headed to St. Louis for the first night. It is only four hours away and I would normally like to push through a few hours further but that is where we spent our honeymoon because we were broke as a joke in 1988. We went to a Cardinals' game and even got to meet Fredbird. I am going to check and see if thet're at home that night. They are home versus The Mets. It is also PGA Championship Night at Busch Stadium that night. I am not sure what that means (yes, I do know what the PGA is). It has something to do with St. Louis hosting the 100th PGA Championship this coming August. Maybe they'll give us free tickets to the open. If, by some miracle that were true, I would ask my Uncle Rick (my mom's brother) to go with me. I am not holding my breath for PGA duckets though. Why doesn't anybody use the word "duckets" anymore?I think the last time I was at Busch was when Fabio and I went to the Cardinals' - Tigers' World Series in 2006. That was a blast. May be a tough ticket since they lead the NL Central right now. I sure hope we don't hear any banjo music while we're gone.

While I am talking baseball (Kluszewski, Campinella...) I cannot wait for that Rockford Peaches weekend in Rockford this summer. Oh, that reminds me that I ordered two baseball caps from Amazon Prime. I received my Cleveland Indians' cap today (the one with Chief Wahoo on it). Supposedly the Indians are going to get rid of the Chief and go back with the block letter C. I have dozens of baseball caps but I do not have the Chief Wahoo one; I just had the block letter C Indians'cap until today. I also ordered a Rockford Peaches' cap. That will probably arrive tomorrow. 

I have no idea why that last paragraph changed its format but I cannot get it to go back. This computer has sucked for about four years and it's about time that it meets it's maker.

I am going to shave by beard and mustache off tomorrow night after work. If I am going to Arkansas I am not going to have facial hair. It may be hot and I may even decide to shave my beard in the summer and I do not need whiteness where my heard had been previously been.

How can this not prove evolution?

I would just be getting done with my second break at work right now. One more day after today.

War for the Planet of the Apes is on HBO. The Apes movies have sure changed (evolved LOL) from the days of Roddy McDowall playing Cornelius and Caesar. I have loved the POTA movies ever since I was a kid. I wish I still had the action figures (the full-size ones like G.I. Joe used to be) from when I was a youngster.

I m gonna end before my computer acts-up again. Thanks a lot for stopping by. I may or may not write while we are down with banjos on our knees (even though I don't think we will get to Alabama. I am considering checking out Louisiana and Mississippi though depending on how things roll-out.
TTT?...MITM (out)

Take Me Out to the Ball Field

It is 08:20 on Friday and I am going to write a bit though I will have to continue/finish this blog when I return from Rockford. My dad wants to go up and settle with everyone (funeral home, cemetery...) that he owes from my mom's funeral. I guess we are also going to go to Beyer Stadium where the Rockford Peaches played baseball tool. I am not really sure why he wants to go there but I am excited to see the place. I know we are going to a game and such at the end of May and the beginning of June but I will go along for the ride today. I say "going along for the ride" but I predict dad will have me drive. I hope they have a souvenir shop open because I would not mind having a Peaches' cap. I have caps of all the MLB teams as well as some former teams, like The Montreal Expos and The Brooklyn Dodgers, but it would be cool to have a cap from the team where my mom was bat girl for. Sorry I ended that last sentence in a preposition but I can break all or any of the rules proper grammar. I think, if we ever go to another Halloween party, I will cross-dress as a Rockford Peach. Please do not invite me to a costume party just to stare at my legs beneath my skirt. A lot of coincidental foreshadowing in this paragraph I know now at 19:12 (the future from now)! 

So, it is now 16:42 and I am back home. It was a really fun trip and I did not even have to drive - BONUS! So we went to Beyer Stadium and started walking around the field. I took lots of photos of the field and the dugouts...with my phone. I walked by several areas that had photos hanging on several stations that were protected from the elements by hard plastic covers. I came to one on the third base side that had three young, smiling girls sitting on the bench. The girl on the left looked somewhat similar to my daughter. There was a caption with the players' names and the one on the left was listed as Fay McGuire. Hey, my mom's maiden name was McGuire and her first name was Faye. Holy crap! It was my mom with two other bat girls.

While circling around another ball field, Marinelli Field, I saw an equipment trailer of the Rockford Expos. I had never heard of them though, of course, I do have a Montreal Expos' cap from before they became the Washington Nationals.  I looked it up and the Rockford Expos were, indeed, a Midwest League minor league team for Montreal in 1988. They finished in first place in the Midwest Northern League in their one and only season. I wonder if they ever met Crash Davis? Did you know that there really was a Lawrence Columbus "Crash" Davis who inspired Kevin Costner's character in the film Bull Durham? I love that movie. That Expos' reference from the first paragraph there and the one from this paragraph are both true and I wrote that first paragraph way before we went to Rockford and I am writing this one way after we got home.

Another oddity about the trip today was that I found a sports paper that had a story about my grandmother, my mom's mother - Virginia (Betty) McGuire at the time. The Rockford Sporting News And Entertainment Guide, talked about what a beast she was being in a golf tournament. She was always a good golfer but I did not know that she was the shiznit. She was a good grandmother and always fun. I may have gotten some of my athletic prowess from her? Not her golf skills though, sadly.

I almost got e coli today but I was saved by Splenda (my daughter, not the sweetener) and Chipotle' (the restaurant, not the pepper). We (Fabio, Cha Cha and I) ordered dinner from the restaurant on the phone and I was going to go pick-up the food at the restaurant. While I was waiting for the time for the order to be ready I continued typing and talking to Fabio. Splenda, knowing I am eating mostly salads right now (I had a salad last night when we had dinner together), sent me a message. I opened the link she had sent that talked about how romaine lettuce is carrying e coli. At that same time, I got a phone call and I did not recognize the number so I kept writing. The same number came up again a few minutes later and I answered. It was Chipotle' telling me what I had just learned. I told them to remove the lettuce on our dishes ordered and I went and got the food. A salad is not a salad without lettuce. It was good but it was just chicken and veggies. Since I had a grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli for lunch when dad and I stopped for lunch I just kept the veggie day going.

So, seeing how lucky I was today with my Rockford Peaches' quest  and not dying from e coli I thought about buying some lottery tickets. My lucky number has always been 13 and, when I reached into my pocket, I pulled out all of my cash and I had thirteen bucks. I went into the Road Ranger gas station across from Chipotle' and put the money on the barrel-head. The lady told me that they were $2.00 each but, I had an odd number of dollars. I reached into my pocket, expecting to pull out pocket lint, and there was one single dollar in my pocket. I guess 13 was not all the cash I had afterall. So, I got fourteen dollars worth of tickets. If I win does that mean that my new favorite number is 14 or is 13 the reason I found 14 in my pocket?

e coli does not look delicious

Oh my, it is 19:43 now. I should probably wrap this up. It was a very adventurous, successful, fun, interesting day. It would be great if the greatness carried over into tomorrow night's lottery drawing and I could make our upcoming trip to Hot Spring, Arkansas for our 30th wedding anniversary trip even more awesome than it is already going to be.

I am now ending and, since it is almost tomorrow (LOL) I may not write again tomorrow. I would bet all of my future lottery winnings that I will write again tomorrow. I will be signing free autographs at Fatty's tomorrow afternoon. I am not sure what I will eat there with the ecoli deal going on. I;m a salad guy. Their Corncob Salad is amazing. I will do my menu homework on-line before we go to look for alternatives. Why is everything trying to kill us all the time? TTTT (almost certainly)...MITM (out) BYE!

Fake Blog or Just Fake Ads?

Hello again. Just before I began writing I went to the Matt In The Middle site and saw that there was an advertisement on the page. It had something to do with a business in Evanston, Illinois where, not coincidentally, I am at the moment. I wonder if I should just advertise for people myself if they (the spam ad people) would stop placing ads on my site? I would not even charge for your ads if they help my friends. I would also do that while retaining the right of editorial decision to not run the ads if I deemed them inappropriate or in poor taste or hurtful... Since they would not be paying for the ads they would be out nothing. I would just rather help people that could use and appreciate the help than companies that are already conglomerates or pariahs looking to feed on all of us. This is precisely why Facebook is in the situation that they are in right now. I knew that Facebook was making money from advertisers but it has been worth that for me to stay connected with friends. I think I will add phony ads here today just for fun. Maybe, if I advertise false ads, they won't make us see real ones?  Experimentation time. I will probably forget by the next time I write the blog. Tomorrow, maybe?

I imagine that you have heard why Kentucky Fried Chicken, not long ago, officially changed their name from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC. I had heard that they changed their name because people are so calorie and cholesterol conscious these days. I bought that nonsense though I have not liked or had KFC since I was about twelve years old I think. It was always too greasy. Colonel Sanders always kind of creeped me out as a kid because he looked kind of like many slave owners that I had seen in old movies. I am sure that Harlan Sanders may have been a very nice man, and, when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken in Utah in 1952, nobody knew or cared about oil or grease or caloric intake or their hearts and arteries clogging. To be entirely historically accurate Colonel Sanders began selling chicken in Kentucky at a roadside restaurant and he eventually started the restaurant franchising thing. We can thank him for: McDonald's and Taco Bell and Long John Silvers and all of the other places that made it easy for us to have high cholesterol and larger pants and spilling food all throughout our vehicles. I am glad I ate a healthy breakfast this morning or I would have just made myself hungry. If I did that to you I apologize. Just grab some grapes or a banana or something before you make a bad decision.

My dad called and wants me to help him scan something and send it to the people that are still working through all of the stuff from my mom's funeral. I forgot that Splenda is probably meeting Cha Cha and I for dinner though I am not 100% sure she answered Cha Cha's text. I told dad that I am still in Evanston and that I would probably be home by six or so. Then I recalled the Splenda thing. I can see that my dad's world has gotten even smaller without my mom to take care of. I know the sorrow and pain that I would feel had I would be in the situation that he is in. He still does some work for his former boss now and again but I think he is lonely and bored and I know I would be the same way. I may just go over to his house tomorrow and help him with it then, depending on whether Splenda is meeting with us tonight. I just want to make everybody happy all of the time and, as I had learned a long time ago, that is impossible.

I have to check out of the hotel here at 13:00 (asked for a late check-out). Jill will not be done from work until around 15:00 or later (only about three blocks away from here) so I have to decide what to do for those two hours. I could go hangout at a bar? I could go to the Cardinals' game at Wrigley Field but that would still be going-on past when Cha Cha will, supposedly, be done with work. Whoa, I could go to a bar and watch the baseball game on television. I am not drinking alcohol (not even wine, sadly) because I am still working on my girlish figure. I do like iced tea though (not Long Island ones at this time). The JEEP is parked here at the hotel and the bellmen (I did not see any bellladies) would hold my luggage until we were ready to get the car. Decisions, decisions. The library is right across the street from here too. I need to Google and find a bar that has some good, healthy food choices. A bar that has good salads. Hmmmm, a salad bar. Maybe I should open a salad bar in my college town. I could serve bad bar too but salads would be our main fare. I may be onto something here. If you steal the idea please cut me in. Maybe the thing already exists too as far as I know.

I have to write something here so that the fake ad over there to the right looks like it fits better. Before I began writing this paragraph it went well beyond the next paragraph below this one and it looked silly. I know this is like letting you see that The Wizard of Oz was actually Professor Marvel. I hope that is not a spoiler for a movie that was made in 1939. I just checked and the words still do not go far enough down to make the page as aesthetically appealing as I usually shoot for. Believe it or not, I do agonize on making the blog aesthetically appealing. I do not aim for perfection but I do want it to look like garbage.

I am going to end now and figure some of this stuff out. I thank you for coming by and I always appreciate you. If I do end-up going to my dad's house tomorrow (one possible option based on what happens today/tonight) I will call on my dear friend Ma Meyer. I will, certainly, let her know ahead of time, of course. TTTT (most likely sometimes depending on my social choices)...MITM (out)

Great Marriages and Women in History (at least two for today)

I am sorry I am blogging so late today (currently 19:49). I have been in Evanston (Illinois) pretty much all day. It may even be tomorrow before you read this but it will still be today for you even though it will be today's tomorrow for me which makes no sense unless you are me. I think.

Today is my first day of the weekly four-day weekends so I will still have a few days off of work when we get home tomorrow, before heading back to do my three days of work and then (big fanfare) I will have eleven days in a row off of work. I will get my usual days off of work plus my thee days that I would normally work for vacation. Cha Cha and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary within that eleven days and we are planning a trip. I know we had talked about going back to Puerto Rico to help there and we talked about going back to Key West. So, since it looks like Puerto Rico has too many things going on and Key West has already been done we have decided to go somewhere that we have never been before, We are going to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was her idea and what kind of husband would I be if I didn't let my bride make that choice? I have been to, I believe after looking at the map of the U.S. and A,, 37 states. Maybe while we are down that way we could sneak in few others I have not been to like: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama (even though I don't have a banjo)? When we got married, back in 1988, we were pretty broke so we just went to St. Louis for our honeymoon. She was a great sport (pun intended) because we even went to a Cardinal's game and met Fredbird. When she suggested Hot Springs I figured I owed it to her to get her choice on this one. In thirty more years we will flip a coin.

The Hilton that we are staying at tonight is right across the street from the library so, after I walk Jill to work in the morning (stopping for breakfast on the way). I will then, probably, go over there and: read, do research more for my upcoming bestselling novel, blog and who knows what else. Nap? I guess I could do that at the hotel though, couldn't I? I get free WiFi because we are Hilton Honors' members. Maybe will get a free stay in that we can use when we head down south?

Ha, Animal House just came on the television (HBO) here. Silence of the Lambs was on before this. Two of my favorites. Very different genres though they both have something to do with animals. Jill is doing work on her computer because that is what she does. She has the best work-ethic of anybody I have ever known.

Could they be called The Bushes?

I am still doing well with managing my food choices and I lost another three pounds this week. I do need to do more working-out and that will begin this week too.

Very sad news about Barbara Bush dying. She was a very classy lady, a great First Lady and I never even heard one disparaging word about her. Before she was First Lady she was Second Lady of The United States. I was nosy, as I am, and I researched to see how many women have been second lady and then first lady - there were actually fourteen women who had been second ladies and became first ladies. Hopefully, Karen Pence will be number fifteen (nothing against Melania). In addition to being married to The President of the United States Nres. Bush bore and raised another President of the United States and a Governor of Florida. She and George H.W. were married for 73 years until her death. I am not sure if you are still considered married once one of the spouses dies or that's where the "'til death do us part" thing comes into play.

I am going to end because I won't have anything to write tomorrow if I don't. Thanks for showing up. I am happy that inclement weather doesn't discourage you like it does with some of the cream puff Major League Baseball teams. Or officials or whomever makes those decisions. I am only a very short train ride from Wrigley Field and who knows what might happen tomorrow on my dance card?

TTTT...MITM (out)

Blogs are not Political Activism

I am very sad this morning while watching the news and seeing all the coverage of the innocent children  and people of Syria being treated for the missile attacks on chemical weapons storage facilities by my country along with the coordinated efforts with a couple of other counties (France and The United Kingdom). Many people have been killed and maimed and left to fight for their lives. The children, of course, break my heart the most. That is the bleeding heart part of being a bleeding heart liberal. I started watching the mainstream American media first but now I am watching ALJazeera and Reuters news because they do more balanced coverages with fewer advertisers in my view. Working for many newspapers and magazines and a television news station, along with my college education in news and journalism, over the years I suppose I am sort of picky on this kind of coverage sometimes. I also learned that Trump is not attending The Summit of the Americas. The word America appears right in the name of our country. Why, on Earth, would be not attend? Because the rest of the world would all learn that our emperor wears no clothes? A sadness we learned many months ago.

It is also interesting that many of the foreign news programs cover the weather for the entire world not just for their own areas/ Perhaps that is because many of those countries are the sizes of one of our states. It's fun to hear how they pronounce the names of our states and to see how they care about the rest of the world while our country is just worried about us. My favorite weather person is Rob McElwee. I would like to go out and have a pint with him though I am not drinking for the time being. Maybe some cider then? Once you see this bloke you cannot help but liking him.

Cha Cha is hinting (largely hinting) that she wants to go for breakfast. I am full - I had a banana 40 minutes ago already for crying out loud. I am going to break (fast) here now (8:43) so I have to go get dressed to keep mama happy. She has always been a breakfast person; having grown-up on a farm breakfast was always the big meal of the day.

We are back (it is now 12:31) home. After breakfast we went to Jewel (grocery store) and got stuff food lunches for the week. Sadly, my three-day week begins tomorrow but, thankfully,
I only work three days per week. I am making homemade chicken soup right now. It is homemade because I am making it at home. Low sodium broth, chicken, carrots, onions, celery, pepper, rosemary (no Morrie Amsterdam) and peas. The boss is not a pea fan so I am cooking them on the side and adding to my portions. I will eat the remainder on the side.

Cha Cha is going to Evanston again this coming week and she wants to know if I want to go with her. I think I will and maybe hang-out at Northwestern University's Deering Library while she is at work. I had a great idea for part of the book I am trying to write while we were heading to breakfast but I forgot what it was. I did not have a pen and paper with me, like I usually do, and my memory is terrible so I have to hope that it will come back to me. Maybe it wasn't as good as I thought it was so my hard-drive deleted it for me. I will check mt cache. No, my memory just really stinks now.

Alright, that is enough for today. I will probably blog next on Wednesday from Northwestern University. Thank you for stopping in today. I hope is is warmer where you are than it is here. TTT sometime next week...MITM (out)!

Happy Thomas Jefferson's Birthday

Looks like an entirely new Jeff

Happy Friday the 13th. And, happy Thomas Jefferson's birthday. I am no triskaidekaphobiac. Thirteen has been my favorite number since my beginning and, who doesn't love Fridays? Fish maybe.

It's only 10:03 and I am ready for a nap. Jeff and I were at Autumn Green Animal Hospital in Geneva at 6:54 this morning for his primping appointment. I got to help because he doesn't like all of the kind of attention that he had today and he can be a handful with the beautification process . He got: his nails clipped, his teeth brushed, a shower, his hair conditioned and then blow-dried. He has always hated the blow drying but they do it differently there. They put the dogs in a cage and hook three or four hoses up to dry the fur. Jeff seemed okay with this today. So, while the drying was going on I had to kill 45 minutes. For all of his inconvenience he got a cool bandanna that he is still wearing. I went to Meijer and wandered around.

After I got home I took a couple of boxes of dishes over to Goodwill. I still have a large bag full of towels and sheets... that I need to take over to Tails Humane Society. They use them for bedding and drying the animals after baths and whatnot. Tails is on the other side of town so I am waiting to maybe go there this afternoon and stopping at Hy-Vee to have their salad bar for lunch. They also have really good sushi.

Last night was kind of an ordeal. Jill got to O'Hare International Airport from Austin last night and realized that she had left her coat (with her car keys in the pocket) in the trunk of her rental car which was still in Austin, Texas. So, I got dressed and headed to the airport. I got to United Airlines arrival gate 1A and she got in. I drove her to the hotel where she had left the Fiat while traveling. Of course, I had the spare keys with me and we drove home separately (obviously). Traffic was not bad and the trips weren't bad either way. I guess she has called the rental car place today and her coat and keys will be sent here.

I am watching the news (Newsy) while I write this and they are saying that racism and antisemitism are on the rise around the world. I have never been prejudice against anyone for their: race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs... I may not agree with things that people say or do but I have always been a proponent of the live and let live. I believe people can think whatever they want as long as what they're doing or saying is not hurting someone else. I think a lot of what is going on with our national government has a great deal to do with prejudice and fear and ignorance and just plain meanness. I am a bleeding heart liberal (and always have been) even though some of my family lineage has tried to attack me in that arena with no success. I will not bend on that issue. We all are descendants of immigrants in this country unless you are Native American and, in that case, you are 100% American. So, maybe most of us have some prejudice in our family trees.

I am scheduled for vacation at the end of this month for Jill and my 30th year wedding anniversary. We were talking about going back to Key West but today she was talking about maybe going to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Thanks a lot Hemispheres Magazine. Hemispheres is United's in-flight magazine. After I am done writing this I will Google Hot Springs and I would wager that we are heading to Hot Springs. We will rent a car so as to not put the miles and wear-and-tear on one of our vehicles. I am up for Hot Springs. If it is good enough for Bill Clinton it's good enough for me. I wonder what if half-way between Hot Springs and Dekalb (Illinois not Georgia). I now know that it is 730 miles from here to there. If I average 73 miles per hour we can be there in ten hours.That is provided that we don't stop along the way. Oddly, we would go right though St. Louis and that is where we went on our honeymoon. She was a sport enough to go where I wanted to go 30 years ago so I can be sport enough to go where she wants to go this time. That means I get to decide where we go our 60th anniversary when I am about 85-years-old. The Hot Springs trip goes right through the Mark Twain National Forest. Okay, I'm in!

I am going to end now. I still have the rest of today off and and all of tomorrow off. Wow, then it will almost be time to head to Hot Springs. At this point, I am intending to come back from Arkansas but who knows what could happen while we are there. Have a great weekend though I will probably write again tomorrow unless Friday the thirteenth carries over to tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (13)!

It's a Good Day (let's keep it that way)

Good morning. I say good morning because as I begin this it is 11:33. If you are reading this after noon you can substitute "morning" for afternoon of evening or night or day or whatever you choose. That is one of the freedoms we still have as Americans. Which brings me to different time zones too. I know there are people who read this in other parts of the world so it may even be tomorrow or yesterday for you.

Schedule

I worked on the taxes this morning and I do not have Cha Cha's W-2. All I need to do is get her information and then finish and electronically file. When I got done doing what I could do I ate some fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe, grapes, blackberries, blueberries and bananas). I then went up stairs and put on some dirty clothes and cleaned the garage. It took about two hours but I did a pretty good job. When Jill drives into the garage she will think she is at the wrong house save for the fact that her garage door opener opened the garage door. I am not sure what time she will be back from Texas. I talked to her once when she got to Austin but not since. I sent her a text this morning but I imagine she is busy.

When I got up this morning I watched the HBONow original movie Paterno. I remember all of the sexual abuse cases against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky who was convicted of being a serial rapist but I never really knew all of the details and how Joe Paterno (played by Al Pacino in this movie) fit into the equation. The end of the movie kind of left me still not knowing whether or not Paterno knew what Sandusky had been up to before his firing. It was a good movie to watch while doing taxes but it saddened me also. Sandusky was molesting young men/boys during football camps that he held. I recommend the movie but it is sad and disturbing at times.

Pretty good casting and who doesn't love Al Pacino?

I slept very well last night but cleaning the garage and working in the backyard really tuckered me out. It is my first day of my two hump days and I am already tired? Maybe I worked all of the fruit off too quickly and I need to refuel. I am thinking salad for lunch. I love salads and there are so many different things you can to to and with salads. Oh, I just remembered that I got the frozen broccoli in those steamer bags. That may be lunch?

I really enjoyed Andre' The Giant (the movie). He was such a special and very unique person. I feel even more fortunate that I had an actual encounter with him even if for only a brief time. I did not realize how special and wonderful of a person until seeing this show.

I called my dad yesterday to see how he is doing. He was waiting for my mom's life insurance check to come so he could pay off the funeral homes and the cemetery... He asked me, a few week's ago, if I would go with him when he got the check and, of course, I said "yes." But when I called and inquired about it he said that he got the check on Monday and went up to Rockford on Tuesday. He said he also stopped by the cemetery to see mom. I was kind of disappointed but he wanted to get that off of his plate. I guess we are going to get lunch this week or next?

I am still entertained (horrifyingly entertained) by our country's leader. I know religion and politics and money are the three things you are never supposed to talk about but I am blogging about a few of them and that is not one of the rules, right? I respect most opinions on all three and am open to hearing about any of them. I may disagree but I am open-minded enough to listen and form my own opinions on any of the three. Of the three, I like money the best.

I am going to get some more food in me (mainly broccoli) and work that off. I am hoping you are having weather similar to what we are having here today because it is just about perfect in my mind and on my skin. I wonder if Jill will want to go to Geneva with me tomorrow? I imagine she will be sleepy and getting up at 6:00 AM, when she just got back from a work trip, probably isn't on the top of her list of things to do right away.

Okay, have a great rest of your day and I suspect I will be able to blog again tomorrow. Jeff is sleeping on the floor next to me and that seems like a pretty inviting idea? Oh, I am going to start some laundry now while the broccoli is steaming instead. Thanks a lot for stopping by. TTTT...MITM (out)

Matt and Jeff

My weekend is well under way. My weekend and your hump day started with me going grocery shopping again. I bought mostly fruits and vegetables and some chicken to add to my salads. Oh yeah, and the zero calorie decaffeinated iced tea that I love (I can only find it at one place and, thankfully, that is the store closest to here). Of course, I bought a couple of kinds of giardinieras that I use for my salad dressings too.

I met a few people from work (who are also on their 4-day weekends) at Applebee's here in town for lunch. Applebee's doesn't have many choices that are weight-loss/health-friendly, I learned, so I got a grilled chicken breast that came with two sides. I chose steamed broccoli for my first said and steamed broccoli for my second side. I also drank iced tea even though some of the others were drinking Golden Margaritas. I love margaritas but I like fitting into my existing clothes instead of buying new clothes even more.

When I first woke up I stepped on the scale and saw that I had lost 12 pounds since last Wednesday. I realize that will not happen every week but eating, mainly fruits and vegetables, has really worked so far. I pee like a racehorse as I take in a lot of liquids and the fruits also add to that liquid intake.The salads assist with disposing of a fair amount of waste too. I do know that my body is doing what it is made to do at this point.

Sorry, I got side-tracked: calling my dad, setting-up a grooming day for Jeff and working on paying some bills. I am not sure how I got everything done when I had two-day weekends and then three-day weekends. Tomorrow I am going to work on cleaning the garage. It is weird how the garage closes-in on us during the winter months and then we have to make room for the other two seasons. Winters seem to last a lot longer these days; it is really nice today though.

Jeff and I just went to the post office to mail some bills. Jeff, being a dog, doesn't have many bills but he loves to ride in the car so I bring him with when I am paying our bills when the opportunity is accommodating for him. He doesn't have a checking account of his own so I usually pay his bills for him. That is one of the benefits of being Matt's best friend (don't tell him but he is probably in the top 20 but he is not my best friend). I know he would sell me out for a bowl of kibble is he had the chance. I can appreciate that. I would not leave him in the car alone very long and this was just a drive-up and slip the envelopes into the box kind-of a deal. Speaking of Jeff, I called and made an appointment for him to get his nails (or claws or whatever a dog has) snipped and a bath. Why did I agree on having him in Geneva at 7 AM? Granted, I will still have the rest of that day off and Saturday off but, 7 AM?

Yes, he is driving and no, that is not a Cubs' cap

I mentioned, in Friday's blog, that the Andre' The Giant special was going to be on HBO soon. Well, soon is today and I am going to watch it when I am done writing today. Cha Cha still has a few days in Austin. She flies home on Thursday and boy, will her wings be tired.

I am still on the fence about the Facebook thing and whether I should leave the social media giant. Cha Cha got off of it several years ago for goodness' sake; she felt that what has ended-up happening was happening. She has been the brains of this operation for just about forever. I am too nosy and I like to stay in touch with you; Facebook seems to be one of the easiest and quickest ways to do that with all of our different schedules, longitudes and latitudes...

Okay, I have Andre on my mind now so I will wrap this up. I have the thought-span of a collie. Thank you for reading my blather and maybe, while Jeff is getting a snip snip here and a snip snip there and a couple of la-di-das I will find a place with WiFi and I will blog. If not then, I will find time to write again tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (out).

Liking the 4-Day Weekends So Far

It's 15:04 on the eve of my returning back to work for three days. I am loving this four-day weekend thing so far. Yes, this is my first week of getting all four of the days off but I am already used to it. Jill is headed to Austin (Texas not Steve) for work so I may sign-up to work a few half-days or some full days or a combination thereof while she is gone. I may change my mind on the extra hours as the next four-day weekend approaches.

I have really been watching what I have been eating over the last couple of days and, based upon what I have been eating, I have to pee a lot. I have pretty much been eating fruit (grapes, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, mango, cantaloupe, musk melon, honeydew melon, pineapple...) and drinking a lot of water and zero-calorie beverages. That makes me wonder how many times I will have to go to the bathroom over the next four days at work. I know yesterday and today have been eventful in that arena. I did make a few salads for work tomorrow - maybe that will help soak up some of the fruit juices.

I really don't have much to blog about today but that has seldom stopped me before. I am watching a Netflix original movie. It is called Win It All. I did not realize it was a poker movie but it has Keegan-Michael Key in it so I am all-in (pun intended). I am about 65% into the movie and, to this point, I cannot recommend the movie. Maybe there will be a big turn-around but I don't see it. The only reasons that I am keeping it on are: that I like poker and I am curious how it will end. Not super curious I suppose.

I have to excuse myself for a moment because of the aforementioned fruit juice dilemma.

The end of the movie stunk and I do not recommend this movie. That is two hours of my life I will never get back.

There is a lot of crazy stuff on the news lately; I am not talking only about of Goofus in Chief. The whole Facebook thing  is crazy. Cha Cha got off of Facebook a year or two ago because she didn't want everybody to know all of her business. She works in technically savvy industry and she does a lot of the digital content-type things for the her company. I had been on the fence of getting off of social networks but I would not stay in touch with people without those platforms. It is a riddle wrapped in an mystery, inside an enigma. For now, I will ride this out and see if Zuckerberg will back good on what he is trying to do.

So I changed the station and there was Keegan-Michael Key on a commercial. I am not sure if he is stalking me or I am stalking him. And there he is again. I had to add his photo there because he clearly is trying to get some more ink (virtual ink) in the blog. I will await the residual checks for all of the P.R. I am throwing his way.

Okay, I am clearly running out of things to write about. Thank you for stopping by. I don't know if I will blog again before Wednesday but I will try (I may not even try now that I think of it). I clearly do not more than I do know. Thank you for slowing down to be here for a bit. TTTT (Wednesday)? MITM (out) TA!

I can be an Easy Mark Sometimes

It is day three of my four-day weekend and I am already thinking about Sunday when I go back to work. It is 10:20 and I have gotten a lot of things done. I have done the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, eaten three bananas, drank some decaffeinated zero calorie iced-tea, binged watched the HBO series Barry created by and starring Bill Hader. I thought the binge would last a bit longer than it did but there are only two episodes so far. The show is, what I would call, a dark comedy. I don't mind dwelling in the darkness now and again. It makes coming back out into the light so much more appreciated. I have been a very empathetic person for most of my life and it does cause pain and confusion often. Given all of that I still would never change that trait about myself. Caring for and about others is what, I feel, we should all be doing all of the time. A boy can dream.

I did watch the news this morning and I am getting tired of that. It is the same garbage every day with just different characters doing the same stupid stuff that somebody else did yesterday or the day before... I must say that the political climate in this country is really screwed-up. I am sure that anybody who reads this or knows me knows how I lean politically and philosophically. That being blogged, there are screwed-up people and situations on all sides but I believe that I am following the least screwed-up side right now. I worry about people who being taken for granted and discounting in this country and in the world. I know there have always been people who have gotten the short end of the stick but it saddens me deeply when I see so many peoples being discounted or disrespected or disregarded or disenfranchised... I guess those are some of the ones they are talking about when they say people are "being dissed." It saddens me a great deal. Ha, I write about garbage and I hear the garbage truck out front. I find humor and irony in the smallest things sometimes.

I have begun watching what I am eating again. I am not sure why but I have let my trousers get a bit snug again over the past several months. I am going back to, mainly, salads and fresh fruits and vegetables and such. Maybe watching less of the news would stop me from trying to find comfort though harmful means like not considering the consequences for my actions. I know I need to start working-out again too. I have so many excuses and reasons not to but there are many more reasons that I should. I have an entire gym in the basement and that is only 13 steps from where I am right now.

The whole Facebook breach and all makes me think about leaving Facebook. I know I have written about that before but here I still am. Cha Cha left Facebook a couple of years ago and she has never regretted it. I knew that they have been profiling me for quite some time because the advertisements that would appear on my page or when I posted a blog... would be eerily connected to what I had posted about. I am on the fence about it but I know I would miss connecting with you. Just another thing for us all to worry about. I know that the stations that I watch on Roku are profiling me too. HBO Now, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix... all recommend shows that they believe I would like to watch. They are correct about 85% of the time.

I saw that there is a special coming in HBO called "Andre' the Giant" beginning April 10th. I liked WWF Wrestling back when I was still in college. I always knew it was fake but the absurdity that some people thought it was real always humored me and it was funny to watch when you knew it was phony.. I had a friend in college (I will call him Bob because that was his name) whose dad was the Vice President of the Illinois Boxing Commission. Bob got a pair of duckets (some people call them tickets) from his dad to a match in Chicago (still called Chicago Stadium or "The Madhouse on Madison" at the time) and he took me with him. We sat at the ringside table (scorer's table). Talk about the best seats in the house. Anyway, Andre got a bad decision, in his mind, and he came right up to the table and slammed his fists down on the table. I am really glad that I knew wrestling was fake or I would have wet myself I think. I still remember the mole on the inside of his thigh and saw that his mole was about the same size as one of my hands. He was 7'4" and weighed around 500 lbs. You may remember him form the movie The Princess Bride  as also.I really like that film. Here is a clip of him on Late Night with David Letterman. He once drank 117 beers in one night. He must have gone to Southern Illinois University.

Okay, I am going to wrap this up. I thank you, as always, for stopping by. There will probably be a blog again tomorrow. Have a great rest of your Friday. I am not sure what to call this day for me other than #3 of 4 in the days off I guess. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

I do not think that means what you think it means!

  It rarely does in my case  

I thought I would blog again today because tomorrow isn't promised to any of us. I hope I have tomorrows for today and tomorrow, at the very least, since I have the days after those days off. I have had to reread those last two sentences because I am not sure that they mean what I mean them to mean. When I die I want to die on a night before a day that I have to work. Wouldn't it stink to die right before your weekend? Not like we'd know, I suppose.

I have been working on my novel but I am not certain that it will be done before I am. What the heck is it with me and the great beyond today? I don't remember any particulars about my dreams from last night. I do like that, in my sleep, I can steer the directions of my dreams and/or if anything awful is or is about to happen in my dream I can steer the course of my dream. I had tried to do that for years and, now that I have stopped trying about six months or so ago, I can do it. I have always wanted to be able to meld with other people's dreams while dreaming but I am not sure that is possible. I am not even certain that is even a thing. I suppose that might just be telepathy?

The mailman just delivered a box for Cha Cha for a big work thing she is doing. I texted her that it had arrived and she typed, "oh man, can you bring it to me?" Of course, I said "yes" and now I have to get out of my Hugh Hefner pajamas again and drive to Geneva and deliver a package. I will put some other clothes on before I go rather than go nude even though the weather is pretty nice already. Maybe I should buy a big brown truck? By the time you read this (right now) I will be back already and it will seem, to you, like no time has gone by. I wish I had a Delorean DMC-12 with 1.21 jiggawatts so I could be back here before I got out of my pajamas. With those butterfly wing doors only one car could fit in the garage so that is impractical. Since you are reading this now I am already back. Maybe I did have 1.21 jiggawatts? Okay I am getting dressed now even though I am already back. 

I still have so many things to do and it's almost 14:00. It was nice to see Cha Cha for about 55 seconds. She said she will not be home late tonight. I know she really thinks that but she will not be home early either. It's okay, we don;t have anything planned for tonight. I have to pay some bills (as always).

I need to stop eating so much again. I think I am going back to fruits and vegetables and salads with giardeniera for dressing. I eat when I'm happy. I eat when I am sad. I eat when I am bored. I eat the wrong things. I know what to do and how to do it but I have just not felt like doing it again for some reason.

I just looked out the window and it is snowing now. Not very heavily but I am tired of the snow for now.

I know I talked a lot about The Rockford Peaches and how my mom was their bat girl back in the 1940's (I didn't talk about it in the 1940's, rather, she was bat girl in the 1940's and I was not even though of in the 1940's) and now they are making another movie about the team and the AAGPBL (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) for Netflix. More of a documentary this time and focusing a lot about The Peaches because of the film A League of Their Own. There is a big deal going on in Rockford in May/June and it sounds like my mom will have a photo, at least, in the International Women's Baseball Center. I wish that could have happened before she died. I think my brother may even fly home from Hawaii to be here. I guess Penny Marshall and Tom Hanks will each be directing part of the film. Marshall directed the movie and Hanks portrayed the coach of the team in the movie.

I have some bills to pay so I had better end for now. I like when radio stations say they are going to take a break to pay some bills and they mean commercials because the advertisers are paying them to run the spots. I do not have ads but I know that blogger inserts ads when I post the blogs. I wish they did not do that but they do. Thanks for stopping in again today. I do appreciate you and, surprisingly, I think I will be back again tomorrow. Have a great night and I will blog you again tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (out) TA!

It's Pajama Wednesday!

I cannot believe that I do not have to work any overtime this week. I did not sign-up for any overtime either because I really want to feel what a four day weekend feels like. So far I am loving it. I have laundry going and am going to reorganize my closet before Sunday. It's funny that I put my pajamas in with this load and, like Hugh Hefner would have done, I put on another pair of pajamas. I think I may need to get a sea captain's hat for days like these. I will clean the kitchen and give the inside of the refrigerator a once-over and get rid of whatever has expired or turned fuzzy or rotted... Oh yeah, and I also saved two human lives yesterday. I hope karma is real and the cosmos will return the favor to me one day.

Yesterday at work I was asked if I wanted to go to dinner with a few people after work. I said yes, as Cha Cha was still going to be at work. It was me and four ladies (just a coincidence that I just wrote about Hef. It was a very pleasant time. We laughed and talked and drank. I had two huge margaritas and I slept like a baby last night: worked hard 12-hours, ate a good dinner, margaritas and then took my usual melatonin and the prescribed sleeping pill and got about nine hours of sleep I think. I am not going to use this method often because it may lead to disaster eventually. I have several tasks around the house and so-forth to keep me busy until Sunday when I go back to work.

The Blue Lotus monastics 

I am thinking about going up to Woodstock Saturday to the Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple. I am not religious at all but I am very spiritual. I think it is nice that many people are religious one way or another and, if that helps them cope or understand..., I think that is fantastic. Jill and I had gone to the temple every week for a long time but when I began working Saturdays a few years ago that was not possible. I miss going there and am looking forward to returning. I cannot believe how much the meditating helped me. And the Buddhist monks are so kind and non-judgmental and caring. I still use meditation now and again because I would not last very long in a penitentiary, I fear, if I gave into some of my primal instincts. That was an over-exaggeration because I very seldom feel enough animosity to harm anything or anyone. I suppose everyone meditates in one form or another but totally clearing your mind for awhile really helps the stress and challenges of every day life. For me it kind of recharges me I guess. My mind can not be trusted be to unleashed. That last sentence is something a news agency would take out of context if I were ever involved in an altercation.

A few years ago I lost my wedding ring. I was certain that I lost it at work and it was gone forever. I though I lost it in a box and it was goodness knows where. I know, when you hear a set-up like, that there is an obvious happy ending. I was reaching into my backpack over the my weekend and I felt something in the bottom of my backpack. I bet you can guess what I found in the bottom of my backpack. Yes, my wedding ring. I wear it most of the time again though I do not wear it to work.

Jill and I watched a Netflix original series (only three episodes, so far) called Trump: An American Dream. The show is very well done and it sure shows how he became the person that he is today. None of what I have seen on the documentary surprised me a lot but there are some things that surprised me some. It is a British documentary (Channel 4 - United Kingdom) so it seems to be unbiased though, I believe, our minds check our own personal boxed biases as we watch it; at least that is the way it is working for me. I think all of us, no matter what the topics are, make our views see fit the way that that we believe they are. This show has a lot of footage of when he was first starting to: build buildings and start casinos and hotels and host Wrestlemania... It is also cool to see clips of all of the news people and talk show hosts from back in the day like: Rona Barrett, Geraldo Rivera, Liz Smith, Howard Stern.... The show really makes me feel sad for Melania Trump. I will say no more about this show as to not sway your opinion in case you decide to watch it. IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) calls the show "a documentary through five decades." I cannot wait until the next episodes are made though I am not really certain of they ever will be made? Perhaps we are living the next episodes right now? Here is a clip if you want to check it out.

I think I will end now because the washing machine just called to tell me that the dryer is hungry now. Thank you for stopping by. Wish me luck on all my projects over the next four days. But, with me being home for the next four days, I hope to blog more. TTFN...MITM (out)!