Weekend? They really do exist!

Private lessons available by appointment only!

It is finally my Friday tonight. Tomorrow is my Saturday and Sunday rolled-up into one. Tonight is my last day of non-stop work (meaning days in a row not, literally, non-stop). My next day of forced overtime is October 3rd. Tonight I have to bet five to get 7.5 (meaning that I work five hours and get either paid or get the vacation/COMP equivalent of seven-and-a-half hours). Five hours will be a breeze. I even get to go in at 2300 rather than 2200 and I get off at 0400. I think they make it five hours because anything after that they have to give me an extra paid thirty minute break. I like Unions now that I am back on this side of the line and not on the management side anymore. Maybe Cha Cha will get a day off soon too huh?

Last night at work I saw a "suspicious vehicle" (that's an industry term) driving around a parking lot in the MIDDLE of the night. I drove up and saw a young lady behind the wheel and a young man in the seat next to her. They looked very nervous when I drove up; I see this look pretty regularly at work. I asked, "is everything okay?" The girl said that the dude was "teaching her how to drive stick shift." I could totally relate to this. When Cha Cha and I were in college at Southern Illinois University I taught her how to drive a standard transmission vehicle in a college parking lot down there. I just told them to be careful and wished her good luck and went on my way. I never even called in the plates; I hope it wasn't Clyde Barrow teaching Bonnie Parker how to drive the get-away car. I radio'd it in so they wouldn't be bugged every two seconds and went on my way. When I taught Cha Cha we did the lesson during the day so nobody really bothered us.

The St. Louis Cardinals now have a three game lead over the second place Milwaukee Brewers. The Cards have won five-in-a-row and the Brewers have dropped eight straight. I hope that, by Monday, the Cardinals will have won nine straight and the Brewers will have lost 12-a-row. They play each other in Milwaukee, starting tonight, for the next four days/nights. The last MLB game I saw live was when Greg and I went north of the Sausage/Cheese Line to watch The Cards come back from a six run deficit to beat the Brew Crew. I would like to get up to see one in this series too but my only night off for those four is tomorrow night and think Cha Cha and I are going to Cooper's Hawk for date night. Maybe she would prefer a peanut and Cracker Jack dinner? She has been working VERY hard (20 hour days) for the past month+ on a huge project that she will be hosting world-wide on the web for her company tomorrow and she deserves a night out with a handsome prince. Hopefully, if she kisses me I can turn into one? She may have to settle on this toad. I could use one of the COMP days that I have earned to go to Milwaukee but I will hold-off. I would like to see another World Series. I never thought I would get to see one in person and now I am talking about going to my second. I realize I am putting the beer cart before the Clydesdale here. Just let the Pirates (lost four straight - three of those to the Cardinals) and Brewers continue losing for now.

I have to end now. I have some pending issues I need to attend to toot-sweet. Have a great rest of your Thursday. I will probably write again tomorrow. Thanks a lot for stopping in. Your invited back again to this locality to have a heapin' helpin' of my blog reality. TTTT...MITM (out)

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have to give a big thank-you to the young lady at Walmart. I do not usually shop at Walmart for many philosophical reasons but we had bought Fabio some pants for work there because he is tall and slender and Walmart seems to cater to pretty much every body size and shape. We got the incorrect size; he was even skinnier than we thought. I did not have the receipt but they were kind enough to exchanged them. The girl (I do not mean that in a demeaning way but, at my age, there are more girls than women these days) asked to see my ID. I pulled out my driver's license and handed it to her. She asked, "do you have a CURRENT ID?" I asked, "what?" She responded that my license expired in 2013. She handed it to me and, sure enough, it had expired September 14, 2013. She was kind enough to accept my FOID card and my work IDs and exchanged the pants. I went directly to the DMV and got a new license. The lady (not a girl) there said that if I had waited two more weeks I would have had to have taken the driving test... I am fairly certain I would have passed but I suppose that costs more (this was only $30). My birthday is in 12 days and, at that point, I would have been driving illegally for a full year. I have driven out of state and averaged driving over 100 miles per night. I have shown my ID many times to many people over the year. I have been driving state vehicles (allegedly) that entire time. I even bought another car and bought plates and had the title transferred. I have to have my license on file at work and you'd think they would have asked for a new license. There have been a lot of balls dropped over the past year (mine too it seems). I am not sure if I should even say anything at work. I do not think I will.

Don't you hate when you plug your laptop or your cells phone... in to charge and then you go to use that devise and it sends you a message that you need to plug it in only to find out that one of the ends of the cords wasn't plugged-in properly? So, now I am writing this on a leash.

Thank goodness my phone isn't this large (TWSS)

I have a phone application (app) that I just love. Soon it will be useless for several months (kind of an APP that takes a winter vacation) but, for now, it is my favorite APP. It turns my cell phone into a transistor radio from back in the day of sorts. As many know, I am a huge St. Louis Cardinals' fan. Incidentally, If you are not a baseball fan you may just want to skip to the next paragraph. You are welcome to read this paragraph if you wish, however. The APP is called At Bat. It allows you to listen to the live local hometown radio feeds of any game going on in Major League Baseball. Better yet, it is a free APP. If they ever decide to charge for this APP I will keep it. I am currently listening to the KMOX feed of the Cardinals/Pirates game. It just makes it even more nostalgic when I walk around with my cell phone in my breast pocket and a hometown baseball game is being broadcast from my boobie.I have heard Milo Hamilton broadcast Astros games on KBME, Jim "Catfish" Hunter doing Orioles games on WBAL, Vin Scully and Rick Monday broadcasting Dodgers games on KLAC, Bob Uecker doing Brewers games on WTMJ... I love it. My faves, of course, are: Mike Shannon, John Rooney, Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky broadcast the Redbirds though. Maybe it combines my love of broadcasting with my love of baseball? I even like the commercials; they keep the local commercials in. I hate those feeds that just have dead-air during the commercials. You aren't sure if you've lost the signal or what. This will be really cool the next baseball trip I take. Every Major League Baseball broadcast is available. Even Toronto surprising. I don't know why that surprises me but it does. I have loved broadcasting and baseball since the day I was born so this APP was made just for me. I miss Foster Brooks' Harry Caray's broadcasts

Speaking of broadcasting - have you listened to the new Load of Dirty Laundry Podcast? It is also free! We moved up 3,856 spots in our ranking yesterday; odd how having a new show after a month will do that.

I am almost done bitching about work for awhile. Tonight, normally my Friday, is the second to last day of no nights off. Eight hours tonight and five hours tomorrow night and I get one day off to launch me back into "regular" schedule. As long as working overnights is considered "regular." The next round of overtime, depending on the assignment and when it occurs, may not include me volunteering. Some things we are forced to work. I am one of two people who have Thursdays off (the other person is below me in seniority so she would be forced if I didn't sign-up) on Fridays (the other person off is above me so I may as well sign up and look like a team player rather than get "forced" to work). I just looked at the schedule and there are no more home football games scheduled on Thursdays or Fridays this season - yessssssssss! I do like having the COMP hours off though. I am not sure if I just like to bitch more, however. Politics are abound in every walk of life aren't they?

Cards and Pirates are still scoreless in the 5th. At the point of this writing the Cardinals lead the National League Central by two games - finally and hopefully permanently.Go Cubs (don't get used to that).

I am gonna scoot. It is 1406 already and I will be trying to sleep in about three hours. I love baseball day games. Even more so that I work nights. Thanks a lot for slowing down to stop here for a few minutes. Have a great rest of your day and night. I will probably blog again tomorrow. TTTT (97%)...MITM (out at the plate on a close call) Seeya!

Bloggus Interuptus

I got in the car to come home from work a few minutes ago and while I was driving here a song came on the radio that I used to begin every day's blog with so I took it as a sign that I needed to share it again so a-one and a-two and a....hit is Roz. Now I am gonna sleep before I finish writing this and editing the show and working on Labor Day. Is Jerry Lewis still alive? Nighty day.

It is now 16:44 and I am about ready to go to sleep again before work. The podcast is 90% edited and I am still working on it now as I write this. I was also listening to the St. Louis Cardinals game; they beat the Pirates and are now sole occupants of first place in the National League Central. I will not speak of that anywhere but here, for now. The Pirates are the team I am worried about most right now; they have been playing pretty hot for the last few weeks. Work tonight will be regular time PLUS holiday pay - more OT / COMP Time for Matty. This coming Friday I will finally get ONE day off in a row. These last three weeks have been a rough stretch. The extra days off in the bank will be awesome!

Okay, now it is September 2nd - the day after Labor Day. Bloggus Interuptus! I ended up finishing the podcast yesterday and getting it uploaded. I paid for it last night at work but I am happy to have it out of the way today. Check it out free at Dirty Laundry Podcast or, as always, free on iTunes. I really do love doing the podcast.

Sure, list all of the things that I don't mind paying my share for

I just wrote the check for $3,357.10 to the County Collector for our second, and final installment for this year, for our property taxes. They list all of the things that my property taxes go to and I am not really that excited paying the: County Pension Fund, Forest Preserve Pension Fund, City Pension Fund, Park District Pension Fund, School District Pension Fund, Kishwaukee College Pension Fund, Sanitary Pension Fund... No wonder I will never be able to retire; I am too busy making sure everybody else in the city and county are owning a vacation home in Del Boca Vista. There are lots of other things listed there too that I have no problem paying (parks, bridges, roads, sanitary, library, forest preserve...)Why should my property taxes in the MIDDLE of all of these corn fields be $6,714.20 this year though? I know everyone who pays these taxes feels this pain. Two times a year I wonder why we didn't escrow this into our mortgage? It is nice every month when I only write a check for $990 for the mortgage though. These are the few days a year that I usually buy a lottery ticket or two. I know I will not win but I may as well pay into some of the state employee's pension funds too I guess. Hey, I am a state employee. Do I see any of that money? Maybe I can write lottery tickets off as a contribution to my retirement fund?

I have gotten myself all worked-up about something that seems to be out of my control. Some days I wonder why we don't just rent. It is nice having the yard and all of that but, it would be nice having a yard that someone else had to mow and pay taxes on too.

Tonight would usually be my hump day night but right now is my hump time (TWSS) this week. It is so much easier to calculate hump days when you work an odd number of days and you have days off. Thursday night, my normal Saturday, is only five hours though. Five hours will translate into 7.5 hours of Comp Time which equals one entire day off with pay in the future or the cash equivalent should I die or leave before getting to use said time off . Working five to get an extra day off is worth it too me. I used to work around the clock pretty much all the time but, now that I am on the dark side of The Middle, it isn't as easy on my constitution. I am such a pansy!

The first two are most believable because everything was black and white back then

I recorded the mini-series Houdini starring Adrien Brody. I have always been a fan of Houdini. When I was a kid I wanted to grow-up to be a magician. Now I am just hoping to eventually grow-up. I watched part one when I got home from work this morning. The second, and I believe final, part is on tonight. I never know how much of these things are true. I do know that I am happy I recorded it because I am fairly certain that one-third of the recording is commercials. They have some pretty clever commercials meant to trap you into believing they are the show returning (Houdini trying to get out of Visa/Mastercard debt troubles and things of that nature). If this show is true it talks about some stuff that I never knew; Paul Michael Glaser and Tony Curtis didn't touch on this stuff. According to this show Houdini was a spy for America during the war? He was welcomed into every country (even the scary ones because he was Hungarian by birth and a magician) and, supposedly, while he was seemingly locked in a safe on a stage performing for heads of state... he was off stealing papers and maps from safes and gathering intel from Presidents and Prime Ministers... of evil countries? True or not I like the twist. I have always liked Adrien Brody's acting. If I get to Toronto next year, like Greg and I have pencil'd in, I am going to the  Houdini Magical Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls. Supposedly, Houdini and his wife Bess have visited the hall of fame from the afterlife. They have photos there to prove it. And, all of the things he did in life were really magic - he wasn't a master locksmith. I am sure that is one of the first places they would visit as ghosts, sure! Slowly they turned, step-by-step, inch-by-inch...

I have to get dressed and get over and drop this payment to the tax man in the mailbox; it has to be postmarked by today or they will penalize me for the extortion they are charging me. I am not really that upset about the taxes though; ours do seem pretty steep for living in the MIDDLE of nowhere though.

Have a great day. Thanks for letting me whine. Have a great day and night. I will probably blog tomorrow; otherwise I would have to clean the garage, TTTT...MITM (out)!

I'm Not Into Health Food and I Have Half a Brain (Barely)

My system (the one that runs my body not my computer) is totally out of whack, yo. When did it become necessary for me to say "yo" every time I use the word "whack?" So, here I am blogging. Yesterday I went and had my bank meeting and that went VERY well. I came home and mowed the backyard and took the Roundup and sprayed the base of the fence both inside the yard and outside the yard. I also did the sidewalk cracks and all of those other weird areas like around the basketball hoop... Then, last night Cha Cha and I went out downtown for dinner. We knew Corn Fest was going on but we went downtown anyway. We sat on the patio at Eduardo's so we could people-watch as the restaurant is right downtown where Corn Fest is happening. Dinner was great but, as we got the bill, I had wished I had been drinking Pina Coladas. The bill came and the skies opened up (doesn't "getting caught in the rain" go well with Pina Coladas?) We went inside and waited for a mild break in the rain and went to the car. As we got in the car the sky opened-up again. We headed home to record Dirty Laundry Podcast.

Fabio had gone to the high school football game with a couple of buddies. He texted us and asked if it was alright if they came to our house and hung-out for awhile while they waited for a movie to start at the theater. So, they came back and we put the recording of the show on hold until they left. I decided to go upstairs and lie down until they left. I asked Cha Cha to let me know when they left. I never got that call and I just fell asleep. Now, today, we will record the show. We WILL record the show today!

Now at the low, low price of only $5

I cannot believe there are people charging $5 to park in our usual free parking lots downtown during Corn Fest. I suppose it's nice for the different groups to make some cash but isn't this what part of all of the damn city taxes we pay? I was not going to be held hostage and I made my way closer to downtown and parked for free. That worked out very well when it was raining because had I parked in one of these lost when they were charging we would have gotten soaked (in more ways than one). I would rather tip our waiter $10 on our $30 tab (which I did) than to pay $5 to park in a free lot (which I did not). The free corn is from 1100 - 1400 today downtown (at 4th Street and Lincoln Highway if you are coming). I may head down again for that.

A new work week is beginning and that means more overtime for me. I am trying to put a positive spin on the whole thing. I work Monday, as usual, but this Monday is Labor Day and, since I look like I am ready to give birth, I work and get paid for those hours and also get paid eight hours of holiday pay. Then, Thursday, I have to get to work for five hours and get that OT. I think that may be the end of my overtime for awhile. I took all of the hours from last week as Comp Time so I put almost an entire week-off in my "bank." I will put another couple days-off in the bank this week. Time spent with family and friends is more important than cash to me right now.

I bet Houdini Candy would be delicious!

I am gonna lie-down for awhile before we record the show and I head down for some free corn. I usually go with the "no butter" option. If I want to taste butter I will go put a straw in a bucket of popcorn at the theater. Have a great Saturday (or, as I like to call it, Monday even though I cannot tell the difference these past few weeks).  A show about Harry Houdini is on right now - I love Harry Houdini. I t even adds to it that he lived in the MIDDLEwestern state of Wisconsin (I think Wisconsin is considered the Midwest). They are auctioning off a lot of his old tricks... the audience is filled with famous magicians. There is a two-part mini-series with Adrien Brody about Houdini starting soon so, we will see every show that all of the other networks have in the can. A can that Houdini could, and is, escape from. I have the record set-up for that mini-series. Okay, now I will let you escape. I sure am full of stupid puns today. Thanks for stopping in. I will let you know when the new show is up and I will probably not blog again until your Monday. TTTM...MITM (out)

Bamboozled, Hoodwinked, Swindled and Hornswoggled!

I think all of the technological breakthroughs have really made our lives easier. I wonder if that is really a good thing some times though. I believe many of us have become sissified. I am speaking for myself for the most part I guess. Maybe a lot of the problem in my case is also the fact that I am rapidly on the other side of MIDDLE-age. Most of the time I don't feel my age but for the last few days I feel Methuselah's age. Does anybody really believe that Methuselah was really 969 years old when he died? Geez, I wonder why people don't believe The Holy Bible is a real account of history. If The Bible was referring to lunar years that would have made him 81 years old which is more believable. I don't see how someone could live 969 years especially when, in Biblical times, one could not be sissified; not even a little bit.

Scanners and computers are much easier 

I got off on a tangent there. When I was talking about technological breakthroughs I had a whole different thing in mind. Remember back in the good old days of forgery where they would capture these people and they would have all of the printing plates, bags of money, ink on their fingers... and such on the news reports? It was so costly back in the day and it wasn't even worth the time to counterfeit anything smaller than a C-Note. Technology has even sissified these people. Now they can even counterfeit V-Notes. I am not sure, but, if $100 bills are called C-Notes because the "C" is 100 in Latin than $5 bills should be called V-Notes because "V" is five. There have been five-dollar-bills counterfeited in my MIDDLEwestern town. I think maybe we should go back to gold and silver being weighed on scales. I suppose debit and credit cards would work too?

I's tired boss, dog tired. I did my time sheet at work before I came home last night and I got 21 hours of overtime this week. That makes the soreness and tired feeling subside a bit. I took all of those hours as COMP time. So, 21 hours turned into 30.5 hours of vacation time. And I have more OT coming next week. Some pain, some gain - totally worth it. I gained almost an entire week off with pay. I think time with my family and friends is much more valuable than money; you can't counterfeit friends and family.

I have to mow the back yard today. I would do it now but it rained so much last night that the yard is soaked. So weird... I am sitting at a table on the patio in the backyard and, as I typed that last sentence, the sun came out.

Give me my money you crotchety old poop! 

Cha Cha and I WILL record on the new load of Dirty Laundry Podcast today/tonight. I think we are going to go down and see what they know at Corn Fest today too. Right now, however, I need to end this blog so I can shower and get ready for my meeting with Old Man Potter down at the bank and see about my retirement money. When I left my last crappy job of 16 years I had to do something with my 401K and stuff. They want me to come in and go over it and make sure it is "doing everything (I) want it to do." Well, if they mean just sit in an account somewhere and make other people money I am sure it is doing that. I will never retire; do many people really retire unless it is for health reasons anymore? Maybe I should just close the account and pay off my house. Wouldn't that be more prudent? Then I could just take that $990 I pay for mortgage each month and put that extra money away for my retirement. Why do I just let other people make money off of my money? Why do any of us? We have been bamboozled, hoodwinked, swindled and hornswoggled!

Have a great day. I hope to be caught up on sleep and lacking pain later today just in time to start the roller coaster all over again. Wish me luck with Henry F. Potter. I really wish I was more financially savvy. Look for the new show within the next day or two. I will let you know again tomorrow. TTTThen...MITM (out)

Corny? Yes! I Live in a Cornfield, What Do You Expect?

Today is what I consider the epicenter of my busy-season at work. I got off work about six hours ago and slept for five of those. I am thinking of this day as a dry-run for tomorrow. I go in tonight and then get off at 0600 tomorrow and then have to be back about 24 hours from now (1200). Basically, I have to do exactly what I did this morning other than I need to be back at work for a ten-hour+ shift at this time tomorrow. I did not set an alarm today but I have already set the alarm for tomorrow morning. I don't sleep more than four or five hours at a time anyway but, if I did not set the alarm tomorrow it would be the one day that I would sleep eight straight.

The Cosmos is/are (not sure if Cosmos is singular or plural and I don't care that much to find out though I am assuming it plural) having pity on me or rewarding me for my valiance. I am also not sure if cosmos should be capitalized unless I am talking about the Carl Sagan series. The Cosmos is so important that I feel, just out of respect, I should capitalize it. The same way that God is capitalized.  The St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates game is on MLB Network right now. It started at 1130 CST. I wish I were in Pittsburgh today; I bet an 11:30 game on a Wednesday would be easy to get a ticket for. Last night, while sleeping before work, I listened to the Cards lose to the Bucs. I was bummed-out but was less bummed when I heard the Brewers lose later in the evening to the Padres. I am 90% certain that the Cards will make the play-offs and yes, if you want to wager, I will be happy to take your money. I left for awhile and paused the game so don't tell me how it ended. I am watching again now and the Pirates are leading 3 - 1 in the fifth inning. I am sure the game is actually over now unless it went extra frames.

I think I mentioned here that Fabio has a job now. I think it has done him a lot of good. His confidence seems to be much better and he is more extroverted. He has always been a pretty unassuming, quiet guy. He is pretty much the polar opposite of me. He does look like I did at his age if I were seven inches taller. I feel like a bad parent that I didn't take his picture and post it all over Facebook. However, I don't have to sleep with one eye open.
I get to take another four-hour nap in about and hour-and-a-half. I will not have that same luxury tomorrow. Why do I have to think ahead so much about everything? Damn it, I just accidentally saw the final score of this game. It is in the sixth inning on my television but in the real world it is over. I guess I don't need to watch the rest of the game since nothing is going to change. Now I have to hope another Brewers' loss today. I would have rooted for that either way though.

Pretty corny, huh?

Corn Fest is this weekend. I have Friday off so I may wander over for a funnel cake and some corn. There is free corn Saturday morning. They clean it, cook it and serve it. They have the butter and salt... It's like heaven. I do love corn dogs but I don't eat them. They should have chicken corn dogs. Actually, I bet they do. There is a Beatles' tribute band called American English playing and also The Chicago Six which is a bunch of former Chicago Bears from the Superbowl Shuffle days. That is proof that they cannot sing. I have heard that American English is very good.

I am gonna break-off. We are not going to record the new Dirty Laundry Podcast today as I had hoped. Cha Cha is pretty busy with work stuff. I will have a new show up by Monday even if I have to record it by myself life from Corn Fest. Have a great night. I am almost certain that I will not blog again tomorrow. I will be working 16 of the 24 hours in the day and I need to try to sleep a few hours. I hope it isn't too hot and doesn't rain because I am fairly certain I will be outside most of that time. They really do need to build a dome for football out here (just for me). Thank you for slowing down for a few minutes. TTT?...MITM (out)... livin' the dream!

Back-off Man, I'm a Blogger

Maybe I will work at this very haunted place soon?

Work must really be on my mind lately because it seems to be my main blogging topic for the last week or so. That could be because that is all I seem to do lately is work and sleep. I am in the MIDDLE of two shifts right now (got off six hours ago and have to go back in ten hours - I know that isn't exactly in the MIDDLE but it is somewhere in the MIDDLE). There is a position at another state facility where I am trying to transfer to; I am awaiting a callback from their Human Resources department right now. It is at a very well known facility and it would probably entail much more stress and danger (my MIDDLE name) but with more danger and stress comes more money. You have to die of something and I may as well leave my family a great story to tell about how I died. I just found out that this place that I am looking to work is listed as one of the top ten haunted places in Illinois (cool). The facility has ten open positions but, I only found out about it last night and the deadline to apply is 16:00 today (about four hours away). Since I am currently an employee of this financially broken State I have to fill out a CMS100 form prior to the position closing. I have a feeling, given their proximity to me and me having to work tonight, this is going to be difficult. Especially since I cannot get a call-back. Maybe, considering that I am a current state employee and I called before the deadline it will be okay to go in tomorrow. Que Sera Sera (that's a fancy way of Doris Day believing in destiny I think).

This would normally be my Thursday but since I don't have any days off for several days I am not sure what to call this - maybe Super Thuper Thursday. If the State is gonna be broke I am doing my very best to try to be a large contributing factor to that. I assure you that I earn my money - I am not one of the stereotypical state employees that people picture. I know many of those types but I know just as many, actually more, that are not that type.

Cha Cha's name tag

I am fairly certain that we are going to record a show tomorrow. I think we will try to do a few short shows over the next few weeks so I will have the time to get them edited and uploaded during this busy time at work. Who knows? Maybe we will like doing the shorter shows and do that all the time unless we have a guest in the studio. People are kind of conditioned to half-hour television shows so maybe that would help us grow even more around the world? It's worth a try. Cha Cha is even busier than I am with her work. I know I talk about me working every day for these couple of weeks but Cha Cha works every day (and most of every night) all the time. At least I get paid overtime for my extra work - she is salary so she just does it to get the job done. If I were starting a company she would be the first employee that I would hire. Anyway, if we do a half hour show here and there over the next week it will still show people that Dirty Laundry Podcast still piles-up. Then, we will roll-out the new studio equipment.

I think Fabio and I are going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. We always go there when Cha Cha isn't home - she hates B-Dubs. I think she and MADYM are going to Tribella tonight for her birthday dinner. They usually buy each other dinner for/near their birthdays. Fabio has to work at 1700. If you make your way to Schnuck's you will see him there. He starts school tomorrow - we are gonna stop and get him some school supplies and at the high school and see about his parking pass too. School supply shopping used to be an exciting day when we were kids. It was probably the third most exciting day right after your birthday and Christmas morning. There were no cable television, cell phones, video games...back then; we were very easily amused.

I have to get dressed. Then, when we get back, I will probably go back to sleep. Thanks a lot for slowing-down for this speed bump. I hope you have a great rest of your day and night. I am pretty sure I will blog tomorrow; it seems to be a great joy that I miss when I don't do it. The podcast is a joy I am missing right now. I am such a simpleton. TTTT...MITM (out) still no call on my new haunted house job for lots more money. Back-off man, I'm a blogger. TA!