Why?

I just don't get it. No clue.

Hiatus

As probably already noted, this blog is on hiatus and will continue to be so unless something major happens. Until then, enjoy going about your day without checking in...there won't be anything to see.

Country

So I guess I can officially claim to be a country fan. Having purchased the MegaTicket for the summer, I have lawn seats for seven country concerts. Last night was the fifth of those concerts with Kenny Chesney in town. I must say it was quite a show, one of the better overall concerts I have seen, though not quite the “show” as far as lights go as Rascal Flats, but still a great show. Thus far we have seen Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and the aforementioned Rascal Flats. We skipped the Montgomery Gentry/Toby Keith show due to my surgery. The concerts are a pretty good time. The seats are in the lawn, which is about all you want for the summer shows. Last night, however, we managed to pull a seat upgrade that moved us under the awning and half way to the stage in that area. With a pretty typical digital camera zoomed in, there was plenty of pictures and video shot with Kenny taking up the full frame. Of all the shows to get the upgrade, last night was the one to get it. Much props to Lilley and wife as they told us about the usher who was sporadically handing out a huge stack of tickets to fill the closer seats as the lawn sold out in a hurry.
Another thing about the shows, they have all been on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday, with most being on Friday. Always a bonus. With these nights, it makes tailgating prior to the show much easier. Just as a football game, tailgating is half the fun. Needless to say, the people watching is AWESOME. Take anything you could stereotype in the south, add alcohol and music, and you have the pre-game for most any of the shows.
The remaining schedule includes Brooks and Dunn with ZZ Top and Martina McBride. The first probably being pretty interesting, the other, so-so for me. All the acts have had big openers including Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Leann Rimes, and Jewel.
For those who have the option to catch a ticket package like this ($200/season ticket) I strongly recommend it if you like the music at all.
These aren’t Grand Ole Opry shows with some twanging and guitars. They are legit shows that rival most of the rock acts on the road.

Birfday

So the birthday weekend was pretty great. I should really say my birthday week as things spread out over that time frame. I got home Monday evening to find birthday cards from mom, grandma, and my uncle all waiting for me. Normally I wait to open them but knowing I would be out of town went ahead that night. The next night Beth came to the house in spite of my completely crappy attitude from the previous work week and thus far that week and was determined that I would open my gift from her early, though I wanted to wait. Turns out she got me a Wii and wanted to set it up ASAP so we could practice for our trip to MD. More on that later. It was a great surprise as I thought she was maybe trying to get me one but had dismissed that idea for some other things that I figured her more prone to spring for. We did get a little practice time in that night and the next evening at her place. I found out two things real fast about it. The addiction factor is as great as anyone has described it to be. It is extremely portable and easy to set up. Maybe because TV inputs are easier to deal with our maybe because the last time I set one up I was 15. Who knows.
On to Thursday: We checked with USAir and found that at least 6-8 seats were still open on the early afternoon flight to Salisbury MD (Beth’s hometown, on the Eastern Shore and NO WHERE NEAR DC and NORTHERN VA) and with her frequent flier status we could bump up “standby” without any additional fees, so we both jetted from the office at lunch and were in the air at 2:45 instead of 7-something. That made Thursday so much more enjoyable as we were there in time for happy hour, which we took full advantage of with her parents and neighbor, then to a fantastic steak dinner with plenty of sides at her parents place. Remember, as I mention food, I haven't eatne normall for nearly three weeks, and not had some of these things for much longer, so they were big treats.
Friday (birfday) we headed out for a run with the rest of the neighborhood (I mean this literally as at least 10 people were part of this) that a neighbor had organized. There was another birthday person in the group so that was pretty cool. The rest of the day was hanging out and attempting to help her dad get the boat ready for the weekend while Beth took great care in soaking us both down with the hose…numerous times. Her parents gave me a pretty funny card and cool tie to go with the additional card Beth gave me so I would have something to open that day. We cleaned up and headed to the country/yacht club (Country club on the Wicomico River with several docks) for the traditional fare and fireworks. I gorged on fried chicken, ribs, dogs, burgers, and fixins’. The only downer was the 45 minute delay for the fireworks due to the omnipresent thunderstorms of the weekend. The delay was well worth it as the show was pretty awesome. Some of the best fireworks I have seen and we were very close to the launching area so seeing them fire from the bases was really cool. I found out that the person who has always done them was letting his license expire and this was sort of a farewell show for him. It was great and all the members talked about how it was one of the best he had ever put on. After we got back to the house around 10:30 Beth and I were sent to play with sparklers in the driveway while candles were being put on my surprise cake. It was a Smith Island cake which I highly recommend to anyone that gets a chance to have one. Think ten very thin layers of a pretty rich cake with icing between each. It was topped with three candles to signify the looming big 3-0 for next year. Needless to say they were the one’s that don’t blow out though I managed to get one all the way out prior to using any water.
Saturday we decided to ignore the overcast and somewhat foggy weather to experience Ocean City, MD. Think all things you associate with Myrtle Beach, dated 25 years older and crammed on an island less than a quarter mile wide. Beth was disappointed in the place we ate dinner but those things happen. We hit a place called Seacrets and I partook in a couple drinks known as Pain in de ass. If you’ve been to a Wet Willy’s think something out of the frozen drink machines with that kind of kick. I had a couple and switched to beer so I could stay upright the rest of the evening. Beth DD’ed so I could experience it and we left her fam back in Salisbury. After this experience we hit the boardwalk for Thrasher’s famous fries (dinner was at like 5) and to see the sights. Pretty cool to see where she spent most of her free time during the summer.
Sunday we headed out on the boat for a while though her dad was disappointed in motors performance so we stayed close to the put-in location and ran the river a bit without heading down towards the Chesapeake. That night we headed out for my first crab picking experience. Picking Blue crab is nothing like the Alaskan or Snow crab most are familiar with from your typical seafood joint. The crab house was all wood with long picnic table covered in brown meat packing paper and was all you can eat. They bring fried shrimp, clams and chicken, along with some hushpuppies and corn early to fill you up then the onslaught of crabs begin. I probably picked 8-10 and ate every bite of meat I could get out. Most of the meat being inside the main shell where the legs protrude. Anything else significant being in the claw.
Monday was pretty uneventful. A little lunch, handled some work calls, and saw Beth off as she is in PA for a few days and had to rent a car. Her mom was at the house with me and shuttled me off to the airport and saw me off as if I was part of the family, something they did pretty much the entire time I was there. It was a great weekend to say the least. Her family was beyond accommodating and nice, I got to see so much more about Beth, and had a fun and relaxing time the entire trip. Without my family around, I really couldn’t ask for more.


Addition: A friendly rivalry with her dad sprung up on Wii tennis. I seriously need to improve my game as he found out a way to wax me on teh return during my crummy serves. It was his home machine and he recently crossed the "pro" point plateau since our visit and I was playing as a lowly guest with no status. Don't know if that mattered but I may as well not had a front court player. We played at least a few matches every day. If I could only get him to box, I may have a chance as I am quickly approaching Pro status on my machine. I will most definitely being learning how to save my Mii so I can take my proven skills on the raod whether it's across town or cross country.

Surgery

So I finally went under the knife about two and half weeks ago to help remedy the sleep apnea I was diagnosed with back in February. The procedure lasted about the 2.5 hours as anticipated, without any known complications. It consisted of 5 or so smaller procedures rolled into one to help alleviate the problem. They were a rhinoplasty (I think this was for the minor deviation of my septum), turbinate resection (more nose work), UPPP (removal of tonsils, adenoids, and other stuff), a tongue resection (they shaved the “base” with some radio wave laser thing), and something else that may have included the pinning back of my uvula if that wasn’t part of the UPPP. Basically they gutted the inside of my nose and throat and realigned some muscles so I have more room for air to get in.
Coming off the anesthesia was interesting. I don’t think anyone expected me to be talking much if any for the few days, much less within an hour. I drifted in and out while they fed me a popsicle and I tried to talk. I stayed overnight in a recovery room, hooked up to an IV for fluids that they also used to keep me on main meds. They also had this forced oxygen/humidified air thing that blew in my face the entire night. It worked to keep my nose and throat moisturized to aid in healing but the it was a very noisy machine and would gargle up through the tube that fed the pseudo mask as condensate would build up. That was annoying as hell and I would have to call the nurse to come fix it periodically and never in tune with a pain med boost or fluid replacement. Fluids worked too. Didn’t know you could go every two-three hours without drinking anything but you can. Beth and my mom were both there through the entire surgery and up through most of the evening. Mom stayed and suffered through the noisy machines and sleeping on the one chair that pulled out similar to the airline seats they advertise on international flights. I did get to watch a little TV prior to falling asleep which was pretty early that night.
They discharged me after I ate/drank the required amount and noted the jogs I had filled up over the night. I was home by 11 the next morning after the procedure had started around 1 the afternoon before. The first two-three days involved a lot of sleeping and lying around. Needless to say, between a very loving mother and girlfriend, I was taken care of quite well. We had a shift change on Monday shortly before my follow up appointment as mom headed back to TN and my stepmom came in. They pulled my packing (think a 2” long tube about the size nice pen) at this appt and the ENT indicated I would not need to come back and see him unless I had seriously bleeding later on. This was important as I had 30+ stitches in the back of my throat and obviously some healing to do in my nose as well. Things were pretty eventless through about Thursday. I was able to move from only popsicles and water to Jell-O, soup and even some mac and cheese. Stepmom went back Wednesday and I spent the rest of the week on Beth’s couch as it kept me closer to town, doctors office, and hospitals, as well as the working folks I could call if need be. I stayed on my pain meds and antibiotics and things went pretty well until Friday and the 7-10 day pain came back. Basically I couldn’t and didn’t feel like eating. The pain was worse than anything early in the week, including the first couple days after the surgery. It sucked and I doubled up on pain meds for about a day (it was allowed) until it subsided last Sunday. Since then things have been improving pretty quickly. I started driving (aka off the pain meds) last Wednesday, worked pretty much a full week, less Monday morning, and have been fine since.
I can still feel some physical ramifications as I get tired a little more quickly if I do any physical activity. Still can’t tell any real difference in my sleep though. Still extremely paranoid about sleeping on my back as the scarring isn’t complete and therefore I still snore some. It’s definitely not like it was and the doc indicated to Beth that I shouldn’t snore in the future. Granted that carries a big asterisk as any significant weight gain will make this entire process null and void. I did have a set back last Thursday with a pretty bad nose bleed overnight but that was attributed to a scab falling off and the associated blood clot letting go in my sleep.
Here are a few things I learned during the whole process:
Cherry is my favorite Jell-O flavor.
Cookout (local Carolina chain) has the best milkshakes but Ben and Jerry’s has an ice cream, mocha-something that is the best cold dessert drink I have ever had.
Chicken noodle soup goes right down but pudding sticks to the roof of your mouth and tongue like a champ.
It’s easy to lose 10-12 pounds on a liquid diet.
Ensure is only good in chocolate. If you are depending on the vanilla for your protein, just let your muscles go for a while.
Don’t take Percocet on an empty stomach. If you take it with Tylenol or in a double dose, you will be loopy and make funny faces and expressions.
You can bleed a ton out of your nose or at least it looks so when you wake up in your own stuff.
Chips are your enemy. Stay away from Mexican joints that bring them to the table with salsa. The temptation is almost, if not more, than the will power to abstain.
Shopping in advance for any form of anniversary is a very, very good idea.
Even if you think you can go back to work and put in a full day and be as effective as you were, forget it. Accept that you will need at least a few weeks to be back to 100%

I am going to MD for the holiday weekend to see where Beth is from and grew up. It should be fun as there is a lot to see and do in just a few days. Just hoping I am back to 100% when I get on the plane in a couple afternoons so I can keep up.

Some random things from email

Laid up at home on Oxycodone and getting kinda bored with it so here is some banter off of email I received today. More on why I am home and doped up later;


.Subject: London Times Obituary of the late Mr. Common SenseInteresting and, sadly, rather true.
'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.No one knows for sure how old he was,since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. '

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone



THOUGHT FOR THE DAY OPEC
Sells oil for $136.00 a barrel. OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel. Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel. Can't buy it? Tough! Eat your oil! Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled filet of camel ass!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

So, the posts are getting a little more spaced out but much longer. Don’t know that I am keeping anyone in anticipation as the antics and rants have been on the decline but I am staying very busy so I thought I would give another update.
Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone and we kept to the plan of stopping by and seeing the Mouse. After the girl hooked us up with a first class flight upgrade (both ways) and huge discount on rental car we headed off to Animal Kingdom then possibly one of the other parks. The heat and humidity was ridiculous but the park was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the Safari ride though I couldn’t convince her to do the Everest Coaster, though she offered to stay in line with me if I wanted to ride it that bad. I do recommend Yak and Yeti if you are there for lunch PF Chang-ish, about the same price, and I actually liked it a little better though the menu is tremendously less in total options. After sweating our way through the park, we decided to check in to our hotel for and get cleaned up for dinner and Downtown Disney for the evening instead of upgrading the already pricey tickets and trying to see part of Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Definitely the right call as it decided to pour down the typical Florida afternoon shower within 15 minutes after we checked in. We also had the opportunity to ride the free shuttles/monorail/water ferries around the park hotels and check them out. It was fun for the girl to relive some memories of past family vacations spent at these locations as we strolled around, especially at the Polynesian. Dinner was at a seafood place on “the water” at Downtown Disney with some excellent beachy drinks and some time in the Downtown Disney bars. Having gotten up around 5:30 that morning and being out in the Florida heat, midnight pretty much came as our time to call it a day/night.
The next morning we tried to score a ton of Hilton Honors points but had been suckered into something much more time consuming than we had been promised. We managed to get out of it having only lost about an hour or so of time and maybe a little extra sleep but no biggie. My advice if you didn’t already know…if you go to get the extra points at the Vacation Club desk, take the points for showing up at the desk and pass on the rest. After this little time detour we headed for the folks place in Venice by way of a little shopping/site seeing in Sarasota and the St Armand’s/Long Boat Key area. The girl had not been that far south on the gulf side before I think she really liked seeing Sarasota. It’s a pretty town, especially if you are into boats and that part of the coastal life. I know she definitely liked shopping at St. Armand’s though the weather was still extremely muggy though we had the ocean breeze to help. That night we met my grandfather and his lady friend for another seafood dinner, this time at an old time fishery in a little area known as Placida. It was great and was a perfect dinner.
Sunday we had intended to go to Siesta Key, regularly ranked as one of America’s top beaches but decided on a big sit down breakfast first. Turns out all the parking for the public beach, including multiple small access areas were full by noon or so. Honestly don’t know if we would have done any better grabbing breakfast on the way and going straight there that morning. We ended up back at a beach much closer to the house and saw some folks parasailing from where we were set up. Decided that was a great idea, so we cut the beach time short and headed around the jetty, 10-15 min by car, swim it in under 5 if you can handle the current and dodge the boats. It was a great idea and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Especially cool since we could go up together and talk, laugh, and take pictures as we sailed over the gulf. They even did the feet dip thing as we were probably 100 yards behind the boat. That night we had a very nice meal at a restaurant at the jetty and watched the sun go down over the gulf. While waiting on our reservation we spent some time on the jetty watching a small school (pod?) of dolphins chasing fish where the canals dumped out into the gulf. Very cool and we took a ton of pictures there.
Monday came around and it was time to head back to Orlando to catch our flight home. Not until we spent a couple hours on the beach and having one last nice lunch and a few drinks.
Getting back was a bummer as it always is after a great vacation. They are always too short but I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Hoping we can get back down there later this year…hopefully without as much of an agenda so we can enjoy some of the simple pleasures after cramming as many of the fun options as possible in the long weekend.

Guess It's Been a While

Guess it’s been a while since I posted much of anything on here. So what’s been going on since Cup? Let’s see I think it goes something like this:

Took the girl to George Strait in Cola. Great show for the music but downtown Cola is not my favorite place and the crowds of local yokels always rub me the wrong way there. It’s a late Thank god for 8th row seats with people who, for the most part, know how to act.

I hit G’ville and the ATL in one weekend. One for an ASHRAE conference and the other to meet the girls cousin who is due August. Pretty fun trip as we hit the Farmers Market in Decatur and a cool Mexican spot near downtown called No Mas.

Hit Kingsport for a quick trip over Mother’s Day for a little yard work and to take her to dinner.

Speaking of that weekend and expecting ladies, congrats to the Rochmondfordstiensburgs. Seriously, big congrats go to Brad and Lauren for the birth of Kate Emerson. They are the first of my close friends to have a child and everyone seems to be doing well.

Planned a little traveling. Heading to the folks place on the gulf coast for Memorial Day weekend by way of Orlando. Thanks to Mickey for having cheap airfare. Think we will stop by and say hey to him and his crew for a day or so on the way to the coast the end of the week.

Hosted JDGA. Battled some drizzle with 11 others. Great to see a bunch of those guys, about half of which were in from out of town. Others from around here I don’t see as much since I’m at the lake. The foursomes crushed their handles by the 16th holes respectively. Other than the grill running out of gas a quarter of the way into cooking burgers that night, the weekend went well though it’s obvious we aren’t the same drinkers we were when it was founded.

Scheduled my surgery (finally) after all my insurance approval went through. That will go down on Friday, June 13th. Who knows how long I will be laid up but I hope not more than a week as I want to get out of here for the 4th of July celebrations I especially like to partake in. Maybe this year they will be in MD but we will see.

This weekend out of the past 6 weeks or so has been one of the best though. Started it off with the Jason Aldean/Tim McGraw show Friday night with the girl and some of her friends, one of which I know from work as well. Truly slept in for the first time in a while that night without the affects of poor sleep from having too much fun the night before. Was on the lake by 10:45 yesterday morning for the second time this season. Saw the Red Bull sea plane actually on the water. Didn’t get to see take-off but saw him fly over a little later. Headed back in to town after picking up some great picture and making a stop in Birkdale for a little wine tasting and shopping. Had some dinner on the balcony then off to meet some friends for free beer (we tipped really well) and to meet the new kickball teammates we will have in a few weeks as they celebrated the end of their spring season. Finished up the weekend with a trip to Southpark to blow some cash on needed work slacks, swim suits and a new belt. Hit the grocery store and Charlotte farmers market for some fresh tuna and veggies. Going to wrap up the weekend with a little wine I’m about to pop the cork on, watching the rain move through, and a nice meal off the grill that should be interesting. Get a good nights sleep and start the short week off well rested and ready to roll.

As you can see things have been pretty darn good and I haven’t had many stories of stupidity or things that have really ticked me off to write about. Good things.

CUUUUUUUUUP! Part II

Okay, so it has taken about this long to make sure all the stories are straight.
Here is what I know happened from first hand knowledge:
We got up and rolling at like 7AM and I was sporting a Vineyard Vines tie and blazer due to the cool weather.
We left about 9AM from Charlotte and maybe were at the spot setting up at noon. About an hour later than desired...it could have been more like 12:30.
I started the "Cuuuuupppppp, wooooooooo!" rallies around 10AM somewhere south of Chester. It caught on like wildfire. Nothing like having a bus of 23 people yell "Wooooooooo" as though it were scripted without breaking stride in conversation when a "Cuuuuuup" was let loose. Agent orange got a phone call and message with the first "call' of the day.
Set up was easy, the food was good, and we had a ton of freaking alcohol.
We did have numerous women, not just men, jump off the bus following the first bathroom stop, to pee in the woods/weeds/front and side yards of the houses along the route. Can't say that anyone was innocent. This was on the way down.
I drank a lot, ran into frat club, talked shit to some dude that told me to go back to Villanova even after he heard me speak (what a douche), and got kinda pissed when it started raining.
It rained. A lot in a short time period, and I still don't have my tent back, not that I care about it at this point. Thank god I am the weather man and convinced the girl that she and I needed to take rain coats. Double edged sword for me for helping get stuff gathered up. Great call for her.
Keg tosses happened after the rain while waiting to get out of the infield. I thought about playing along until I saw some dude about my drunken level fall on his ass after trying the spin and toss technique.
I don't remember riding home but do remember making my hair into a drunken mohawk and full spikey look after getting on the bus post rain.
I fell off a two foot wall, and landed funny and was bruised for the next four days after we got back.
Got cleaned up and sober enough to make a Chairmen of the Board concert in Charlotte after the four hour return ride to top off the evening.
I dozed off on the couch before making it to bed.

Other things I was told happened but don't remember:
I stepped into a heated argument and gave numbers to the good guys. Drunk fighting didn't happen.
I was the only person to play along with the organizers dance party on the bus. No shuffle involved.
Cucumbers were apparently the most awesome food ever and I hate a whole bag of them while trying to drink a Jack and Ginger that was more like Jack with a splash and throwing out a mostly good piece of chicken.
I missed one of the pit stops on the way home as I was passed out.
I took a bunch of pictures with the girl. I'm lucky she is still dating me as I could have passed from the scary old guy behind the hotel desk in a few of them. Okay, most of them. Thank god she was partaking in the alcohol too.
I talked to some lady in a van while the old dudes in the back drank the rest of the Jack straight from the bottle. Apparently she and I were friends.


More stories to come I am sure. It's just been over a week.


By the way, it rained late in the day. That sucked.

CUUUUUUUUUUP! Part 1

As you know, some of the best Double D stories and some legit short bus action has occur ed at the glorious event known as Carolina Cup. Hours on end in a bag chair, drunk on a Bud Diesel Bender will cause that to happen. Well, this year will be my encore appearance. Don't think I have made it back since then, and definitely haven't tried a repeat performance of that day outside of football season. Riding a 25 person bus down from Charlotte, leaving at 8:30AM. That's right, I'm taking a short bus to CUUUUP! By default, and the fact I am the tailgate guru during football, I am providing a tent, a couple of chairs, and the cube cooler along with organizing food and drink for a 6-7 person faction of the group. We are meeting another bus full of people coming from Columbia. We should have roughly 50 people in the two spots in the infield (K102 and 103 for those in attendance). Should be fun. I am going full Country Club with seer sucker and a sweet new tie. Hopefully the weather will hold. Forecast has bounced from mid 70's with a chance of a thunderstorm (Tuesday) to low 60's, cloudy and a chance of afternoon shower after five (earlier today). Hopefully I will have a good story or two come next week. Maybe they won't be too good though as that kind of story usually brings great laughter at a heavy Double D expense. Until I am back...CUUUUUUPPPPPPP! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

TN

Went to TN a couple weeks ago. It was cold and snowed but I got to see a buddy of mine who is on his third tour in the middle east and finishes up his last tour sometime in the next 6-8 months. Girl went along and we had a chance to finish up the whole meeting of the parents trifecta. Things went really well at Dad's. Much, much better than mom's visit. Their report card came back stellar as well so I feel a tremendous amount better about that aspect of the relationship going forward. Trip was uneventful as a whole, asaw a ton of HS friends, which is always good, and we got back to Charlotte at a reasonable time on Sunday. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and releived some unneeded stress I had building up after Feb.

JDGA

The weekend will be April 18th. If you want in...let me know. Game plan will be to have everyone roll in that Friday afternoon. The rest of the schedule will be set according to the number of people coming to town. Golf will be that Saturday starting around lunch.

Parents

So the last two weekends were spent meeting and greeting family. As previously mentioned, I met Beth's parent's last Friday as I helped pick them up from the airport. The original plan was for me to meet them Saturday afternoon and help her dad install a fan in her room and then go to dinner later that evening at a favorite restaurant of ours up near the lake. Saturday ended up having a change of plans. They decided to do some shopping and running around in South Charlotte and the fan was put off until Sunday afternoon. I snuck off to get 9 holes in but back to the house in time to get cleaned up for their arrival. I met them at the house and showed off a few things I have had assistance picking out for decorations. Dinner went very well and was excellent as always. Sunday I headed into town prior to the call I had been waiting on to pick a few things up and was literally within two blocks of Beth and her fam when they called to see when I could meet up. We knocked the fan out without any hassle, something I wish I could say about the experience with the chnage out I did on my own a month or so ago here at the house. As soon as I walked in with the ladder and assorted tools here mom said they would be ordering in if that was okay for dinner. It turned out we went out but I was already obligated. Felt kinda bad about it and offered to pay Sunday night, just as I attempted Saturday as we had a glass of wine at a little shop near where we had dinner. The response was not to worry about it, as long as I treated Beth fine, they had no problem picking up dinner/drinks. All I could do was smile and thank them again and again. Needless to say, I think things went as well as I think they could have and I wouldn't change any of it. Definitely spent a lot more time around them than expected but there was plenty of kidding around and never an awkward silent moment. Even dorked it up talking some engineering stuff with her dad for a while Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend was a reversal as my mom was in town for her birthday. Beth met us to go to dinner at the same place as the previous Saturday night. Conversation was easy as Beth's mom is also in education as is mine so they had plenty to talk about. Saturday I took mom shopping and she met us out and about for a while then again later in the evening for dinner. Afterwards we took mom by her place uptown to see the view then they said their goodbyes and we headed back to the house. I received approval without even an attempt to ask, which made me happy. I have no reason to believe this will be any different when she finally meets dad and company. She has already swapped some messages with my oldest sis on Facebook. We may be headed to TN in a couple weeks for a Crawfish Boil for a friend back in the states on leave from the middle east. Assuming it works out for both of us, I guess she will meet the rest of the immediate fam that weekend.

All in all I am happy the way things have worked out thus far. Some folks have made a much bigger deal out of meeting the folks than I think it is at this point. However, with things going well both weekends, it gives me a little piece of mind as out families are both extremely important to both of us, especially their opinions on many things, including people we associate with.

Wow, this posts sounds cheesy.

The last 3 or so weeks

I am targetting the weekend of April 11 or April 18 for JDGA unless we wait until late May early or early June to assure the courses are in better shape. Need feedback. Spread the word.

Beth (yes, girl has a name) has her parents in town. First night was pretty uneventful and all nervousness was eased in a hurry as her dad intentionally botched my name as I was introduced while helping pick them up at the airport. I will be helping him with some home improvements at her place while the women shop this afternoon. Should be interesting.

I have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. It explains my roof rattling snoring. Currently using a machine called a CPap while sleeping when I am home. I hate the damn thing but it works. I refuse to travel with it though as it requires it's own computer sized travel bag. Had to upsize my carry on for Mancation 08 to Steamboat just accomodate the damn thing. Hopefully I won't have to fly with it again because security was a pain with it. I am on track to have corrective surgery (UPP) for the apnea as well as a deviated septum. Looking forward to it in a strange, sick way but will most likely be laid up for a week to ten days from what the E.N.T. specialist who will do the procedure told me. Looking at late April to early May for this. That explains the timing of JDGA to bring this post full circle.

Hopefully I can post more about Mancation (not to eventful but a lot of fun) and this weekend in the coming days.

Also, I gave up liquor for Lent. I went to uy Ginger Ale at the store this week then walked right out of that aisle....no point in having that mixer for a while. Should keep St. Patty's day more subdued as I have been pretty good recently anyway. I'm sure you can guess why. However, Cup is the weekend following Easter. I am going on a bus with at least 20 others. That could be interesting. Let me know if you are interested in jumping on board in the CLT with us.

Surprised...nahhhh.

First, this post is about government ineptitude so if you are tired of reading on the subject, go ahead and move on.
As most people know, the Post Office is a pretty sloppy crowd, especially regarding customer service. Mix this in with the wonders of getting a passport and I am sure you can tell where this thing is going. I decided sometime ago that I needed to get a passport. You can't even go to Canada these days without one. Not that I have anything on the horizon but why limit yourself if a sweet E-saver hits this spring or something, right? The fam has been known to hit the Caribbean too. Last time I wouldn't have been able to join them, even had I had the vacation time and been invited/known in advance.
Anyway, I requested an official copy of my birth certificate from the state of TN sometime ago and received it. Didn't want to run the risk of the Passport folks shooting down a faxed or photocopied version. Got it pretty quickly. Filled out all my info online on some interactive PDF type file and printed it off. Had check book in hand for the fees and was ready to go. Checked for the nearest location and even called to see if they were open, very busy (why back the journey if you're gonna wait an hour), etc. Well, it was Friday afternoon and they didn't answer. I was a little perturbed and my timing wasn't exactly smooth, but you know, I figured I would flow through the process in a hurry while the everyday morons were filling out paperwork or getting denied. The non-answering at 2:00 kinda bugged me but I decided to run over there. Walk in, see a few folks (less than 10) sitting around then went to sign the waiting list sheet. I see that it has been marked through. Officially post hours were 9 to 4. It was 3:30. At 2:10 the lady running the show had apparently marked through the remaining time slots for the day with a note saying "No more appts today." What kind of sloppy ass deal is this? I mean seriously, I know you are busy. I know it's Friday. Your website says you are open until 4. Don't freaking mark through the afternoon slots and make them suddenly ineligible. Sorry you are having a shitty day and lots of people are getting their passports today. Even the dude at Walgreen's knew why I walked into the store and directly to the photo booth at lunch. It was a busy day for that process apparently. He obliged with the digital, ran the prints in the computer and asked if I wanted to wait or come back in 10 min (which I did) and have my pictures waiting. What was so damn hard about that? Nothing and he had his money in no time. If you are gonna post working hours, fine, stick to it. If you are going to change or tweak these hours then do one of the following. Post an exclusion on your site if possible. Leave an outgoing message on your voicemail (which didn't exist) or answer the damn phone. A 25 sec phone conversation would have alleviated a pissed off customer, another person clogging her waiting room, albeit temporarily, and saved me 30 minutes of driving around. Sometime in the next couple mornings I am hitting the Uptown P.O. where they also do passports. Yeah, it's further from the office. It will probably be as busy or busier during that time of day, but I'm hoping they will at least handle the process properly. I would rather that branch get my money anyway.

I'm not dead

Yeah, it's been like 3 weeks at least since I posted. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. Saturday's have consisted of trips to Southpark and running errands. Friday's have been going out with friends. The work week is the work week. Guess that's about it. Hope all is well. I'll get back on the JDGA thing soon. Not going to have people bet and declare to early on.
On a side note, Mancation '08 - Steamboat Co is like two weeks away. And I caved in and bought George Strait tickets in Cola for the 26th. You can guess what prompted the latter.