The Memorial

Saturday was the memorial service for wife's Uncle Jeff. It's been about 5 days since he passed, and I'm still and a state of denial. Even more so than when my childhood neighbor John died or any of my relatives. I think it's just so unbelievable still that this happened. I can't comprehend it still. I can't even imagine what his wife and children are still going through.

When I came into this family, Jeff was for all intensive purposes, wife's father. He was the patriarch of her family. He welcomed me into the family and made me feel like I really belonged from the start. He had that tough-love thing going, and I seriously don't think there is a person that's met him, that didn't like him. I can't say enough.

I'm very worried about the family. He's been in charge since he was 13 when his father died. Jeff kept everyone in line. Until the day he died he was doing so. Without him now the current rift going on in the family will grow considerably worse. I don't see anyone strong enough to step up. It's very sad.

One of the things I liked about the memorial was the many picture boards that were setup. He was cremated so there was a nice little box up there with all the flowers. I think this is the way to go. I don't want to be embalmed sitting in front of the family the whole time during the calling hours. I wonder if because I never actually saw him afterwards is why it's so hard for me to believe it actually happened? I don't know.

I have many more thoughts about the whole thing but it's hard for me to put them down, so I'm going to leave it at that. This was a very unorganized post, even for me.

Jeffy

My wife's family had a horrible loss yesterday. Her uncle died of apparent carbon monoxide inhalation (accidental) while working on his truck. He walked my wife down the aisle at our wedding. This is the only picture I have of him on the computer. Haha, he made great Santa.


He'll be missed dearly.

MEME (Fours)

4 Jobs I've had:
1. The Pet Store
2. Engineering Technician
3. Assistant to the Pimp
4. Pimp

4 Places I've lived:
1. Eastlake, Ohio
2. Youngstown, Ohio
3. Perry, Ohio
4. Utah for a few weeks

4 Movies I'd Watch again:
1. Batman Begins
2. Indiana Jones movies
3. Star Wars movies
4. Lord Of The Rings (all of em)

4 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. Scrubs
2. The Office
3. My Name is Earl
4. Anything on History, Discovery that isn't bike building.

My 4 Favorite Foods:
1. Just about any seafood.
2. Lasagna
3. Salad from Olive Garden
4. Chipotlè

Places I'd rather be Right Now:
1. Home with my family
2. Anywhere warm
3. Cedar Point!
4. ....band camp?

Friend Tim

Neighbor?

Wife doesn't think the neighbor has moved out. I'm not 100% sure now either. I just missed Rick yesterday when I got home from work. As I was pulling in my driveway, he was leaving his. I was going to go over and see what was up. They still have plants and furniture in the house it looks like, but maybe they are renting a truck for the big stuff. They still have all their outdoor toys for the kids and stuff out there.

I don't know if this hottie thing is working out. There's been a lack of comments. Even though the map looks better, I'd rather have the comments.

I've got Mary and Heather upset at me for opposite reasons dealing with this past Saturday night. Damnit!

That's all I got. I have some funny High School pictures I'm going to post once I get them scanned in.

Sweet & Sour

I decided to go with the less conservative Ali Landry today for the photo post. I would have done the fully dressed shot, but I'm in a really bad mood right now. More on that in a second....

I got in a really sour mood today when I was taking the recyclables to the bin down the street. I noticed my neighbor had a few SUVs parked all over the front yard. I didn't think anything of it at first because they always have visitors over there. But then I noticed each one of the vehicles was packed to the gills with stuff. I decided when I came back from the bin I'd walk over and ask Rick what was going on. When I came back they were all gone. 20 minutes later they all came back to reload, but for some reason I didn't go out there. It sucks, but I saw this coming as soon as he told me they were doing the whole renting-to-own type thing. I just hope we don't get crackheads next door like before Rick moved in. I may change my views about owning a gun if something like that happens again. They still have their grill and a bunch of outdoor stuff still in the backyard, so I hope I can say bye when they are packing up that stuff.

The Steelers winning today didn't help my mood either. Oh well.

"I fashioned a spear out of something."

I ended up going out Saturday night after I didn't think anything was going to happen. I met Shirring and Lauren at BW3, and Terri showed up for a while until she had to go pick up her brother.

I was telling them about my story of getting arrested in Waite Hill back in 1996. I don't know if I was really arrested. Probably more like detained. There were no handcuffs involved. I'm sure they've heard this story more than once, but I don't have many stories and they were talking about how the police like to ticket people there for no reason. Where was I...ah, so there we were, four of us, fishing in what we thought was Willoughby Hills. We didn't catch shit that day and I was starting to get pissed. On the other side of this large pond or lake (I'm not sure at what point a pond becomes a lake?...Shirring?) was a small, shallow pond filled with these very large carp. I decided to fashion a spear out of something, probably a stick I snapped in half. As I attempted to spear fish I saw a dull yellow pickup truck drive by and soon after that we were busted by the police. Apparently the yellow pickup was the land owner. We were fishing in a bird sanctuary....in Waite Hill no less. The police took us in, and I remember sitting at some big conference table for a while before my brother came and picked me up. We were pretty nervous for a while because the police captain kept telling us we were probably going to go to DH for what we did. Jesus, it's not like we were shooting birds there. It's a good thing they didn't find the bottle of cheap vodka we brought down there. The only thing that happened was that we had to go to the county juvenile place and talk to a court referee or something, and they told us we'd have this on our record until we turned 18. I don't remember what that meant, but I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to get arrested or detained or whatever until after I turned 18. So, that's pretty much my best story that doesn't have to do with staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Allentown...hahaha. Ok, that was a pretty sad story. I stink like smoke and I'm tired now. See ya. Stay tuned for another hottie tomorrow.

5 Years!

Today marks my five year wedding anniversary. Five years and two kids later...wow. That's a really good way to describe it. Imagine would it would be like to be a sophomore in high school and think, "Only ten years from now I'll have been married five of them and have two kids." That's kinda weird. I was going to post a picture from my wedding, but realized I had none scanned in at all. What a great time that was, but I think I would have enjoyed it a lot better just being a guest. I loath all the picture taking that's involved. It takes away from the fun. Plus I think I would have had more fun if we hadn't had to bury my grandfather a week beforehand. That whole week was pretty depressing. So, in conclusion, Happy Anniversary to me and my beautiful wife!

The last week or so I've actually been getting up at a decent hour for work. I've completely stopped using the snooze button. It's of no use to me. I'd be better off setting the alarm an hour later and getting that full hour of sleep. Instead of the snooze I've been walking my ass to the TV and watching the news and weather. I usually turn to the music video channels too. They actually still play music at that hour, it's pretty neat. MTV is usually playing the rap videos, and I hate the rap, so I only watch for a few seconds. But I have noticed a trend, perhaps, of these rap gangster types with the fucked plating they have on their teeth. Does anyone really think this is cool? Do the women go for this? To me they look like Jaws.

I think I like Jaws better.

I was thinking about what it would take to get more hits on here. I don't know why I really care, because the only people I care to read this are my friends, and a few over-seas blog buddies. So to try to get as many hits as my other blog buddies I'm going to post a hottie every once and a while. Yep, it's come to this. Sorry. Maybe a few of the guys and a couple special ladies will enjoy it though. Hehe. Have a good one...

Monica Bellucci

Nasty

I bet you're wondering why I have a used condom here? I'm wondering why there's one on my front lawn! Nasty!

I am actually pretty motivated this evening. As soon as I got home I got all the Christmas lights down and put away in the attack, with the exception of some extension cords. I took the garbage out, and dropped of the recyclable to the bins near the school. I'm usually pretty lazy when I get home from work. Strangely enough, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Weird.

Anyway, I found the rubber in the front yard when I was taking the trash out. WTF is wrong with people? I mean, I even get pissed when people throw their cigarette butts out. We got kids around here for god's sake. So, the damned thing is still out there. I don't know why I didn't get a stick or something and pick it up. I will.

I found an interesting site while searching for the picture. I guess these people will sell you high resolution photographs of the condom in every stage of it's use. Well, except when being worn. Very weird. There's even photos of one being hung out to dry, like it was going to be reused or something. I'm sure someone, somewhere has tried to pull that. Gross! Alright, enough potty-blog talk for one day.

Sleep Is For The Dogs.

I think I now know what it feels like to be Pepsiqueen. Last night we dog-sat for the in-laws while they were at some wine tasting thing. They pulled an all nighter and got a hotel room, which is probably a good idea. We thought it would be fun to bring our dog. It was a lot of fun for him. Damnit, I got 2 hours of sleep last night! And Georgia (the in-laws dog) has the worst gas of anything in the universe. It makes the inside of your nose burn. After wife woke up (she slept in the locked room with the baby), I decided to come home with the dog and sleep a little longer. I woke up at 12:30 and wasted 1/2 my day!

Anyway, before that we had a fun night. We had Mary and her girls over, originally to watch March Of The Penguins, but it didn't come in the mail. So, we just kinda vegged out and let the kids play.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. It's our 5 year wedding anniversary on Friday. Saturday, we're invited to Mary's for a massive playdate with many other kids. And after that we'll be getting together with Shirring since he'll be in town.

alright, I'm about all blogged out. Have a good one.

Baby Night

Ahh, It's SO quiet at home right now. Wife and the boy went out on their 'date night' for a while. She wants him not to feel like it's all about the baby. I think it's a good idea. Wife and I are at odds with eachother for no apparent reason. Today I was a little pissy with her because she got pulled over for speeding with the kids in the car. Recently I think our financial situation has been a reason, too. I gotta get passed winter and these damned gas bills before it'll get better. No more going out to lunch with work buddies, I'm afraid (amongst other things). If people keep bringing me cookies every day for lunch like today, that wouldn't be too bad. I gonna go find some grub now!

Happy Birthday to Jenn tomorrow! (January 14th)

Map Envy

When we hit the New Year, ClusterMaps reset. Since then I've had some major map envy of my blog buddies!

Shirring	Heather
Pepsiqueen	KingsHead II

Come on! I don't even have a Canada! I do have Germany & England (Thanks, ladies). Hey Canada, where's the love?!


I like your radio stations! Or at least one....

Steel Force

So, a buddy of mine at work was google'ing (is that right?) people he knew and came across this pic of me. Of course he made fun of me a little bit. Anyway...This was probably taken between '99 and '01 at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. We were riding 'Steel Force'. Shirring and Lauren are sitting right behind me and Josh. I don't think this is the day Ryan was dry heaving after riding that mofo 10 times straight, and I really wish I had a picture of that. Haha! Google is the coolest.

Aquarium!

I'm very excited about this:

http://www.newsnet5.com/money/5946920/detail.html

I hope it pans out. I'll blog about the weekend later. I gots some pictures, too.

Where's Your Crown, King Nothing?

Happy Birthday, Vern!