Legalize Clownsnack.....

......just because.

We put Xmas stuff away today. I know it's late (or, for some, early) but with the wedding and everything this is the first chance we've had.

So my living room is somewhat back to normal.

Anybody want a piano?

Welcome Alumni.....

.....you perverts.

The folks that worked at my college radio station have been burning up the internets lately.

So, we set up a blog.

http://wnte.blogspot.com

That's where us old folks go. :)

Dearly Beloved......

Toby and Melanie got married yesterday.

Friday night was rehearsal. I zoomed home from work and we headed up to McClure. This towns claim to fame is that Davy Jones from the Monkees has a farm there. My niece ran into him in a bar up that way one time.

Anyway, I digress.

We all got together and rehearsed, then went to one of the anterooms and had lasgana, quite tasty.

We headed to the EMS building in Mifflintown to set up for the reception and I fell in love. With the lighting. They have a professional control system and 8 leko's that we're made in this century. Very easy to set up. I had no idea I was running into this so it was kinda like xmas for me. They had a mirror ball, so we put a few lamps on that and set up a few lights for a spotlight dance. There were colored strips on the stage that we're hard wired. It would be nice to break them out over the dance floor, but we take what we get.

I would KILL to have that setup at the high school. Bump and chase capability. Just fantastic. Margaret has talked about doing her show up there, but has a few problems with the physical plant. Maybe I can talk her into it.

Anyway, I digress......again.

They did an outdoor type thing. There was an archway at the entry, a lovely "piece" over the dance floor and behind the head table. I'll put some pics up after I finish this.

We worked into the evening. Talking to the kids later, we realized that their alcohol setup was limited, so we offered to go pick some up for them.

We went home after everything was up.....around 11 or so. Had a lot of fun putting stuff up too.

We got up and headed into the liquor store before noon. Billy met us in there and we made our selections. We then headed to the distributor and got the kegs and set up. Dropped stuff at the building, headed home to change.

Then went over to get the inlaws and went back up to McClure. I got roped into doing video, so I got to set in front of the crowd, but I did get some great shots. It was a 4:30 wedding and it was very nice.

The most interesting thing was, at the end, the bride and groom dismissed the rows. So instead of a receiving line, you got to greet them an go.

We wrapped everything up and headed back to the inlaws to change, then into the EMS building. The dj's were good, but it was WAY too much country music for my taste. I worked with them a little bit to get the lights the way they wanted.

Then we partied.

I got to meet Toby's friends, who are very cool. In fact, I got invited to a party on St. Patty's day and I'm going. :)

Everyone had a splendid time. We tore down the alcohol and headed home. I'm thinking about opening a bar. :)

Check out the picblog for some wedding pics.

cya

Word G

Shoo the kids outta the room.

Here's the link.

My Tree......

....blew away.

Seriously.

We took the xmas stuff down last week. It's been too windy or raining to burn the tree, so it's been sitting just off of our porch. Actually, it's been wedged between the porch and the bush.

Anyway, we have severe wind warnings tonite. The winds are supposed to be 25/35 mph with gusts to 50.

I heard a noise on the porch and went out to check. Our trashcans fell over, but I noticed the tree isn't there.

I came in and asked Deb if she did anything with it, she said no.

You have to understand. I've looked all around my house. Used a flashlight and looked up and down the road.

I can't find my tree.

I'll take a look tomorrow.

If you see my tree, say hi for me.

(yeah, I know it rhymes)

cya

If you're really nice to me....

I'll give you syphillis.

Here's another cool link.

Karma Can Suck

We are flying into a new year.

Had dinner with both newly engaged couples on Saturday. A local nouveau cuisine restaurant that was very good.

Billy stopped by last night and we exchanged gifts. I can finally stop worrying when I hear the reports from Iraq.

Speaking of Karma. Without getting into specific names. A family that treated me very badly is finally getting their comeuppance. The youngest son is up on an aggravated indecent assualt charge. This stems from involvement with an 11 year old.

That'll screw up your political career. :)

It really couldn't happen to a more deserving family.

You know what they do to those guys in prison, right?

:)

cya

We are...

....11 and 1.

At 1 am, it's finally PSU 26, FSU 23. The battle of the crappy field goal kickers. :)

Really a good game, if you're not a fan of either team.

Sorry I haven't been posting, but it's the holidays and all the associated crap that goes with them.

I'm back at the Harrisburg PO from 9 to 5:30 until further notice.

And on that note, I have to go to beddybye.

Cya

Santa Doesn't Need You......

(Santa Doesn't need Anybody!!!)

Yesterday I went shopping. Not like you mere mortals go shopping. My compatriots and I set out yesterday and Kicked.....Shopping's......ASS!!!!

I left home dull and early at 6 am. Went to Newport and picked up my niece, Karen, and headed to Enola to get Chrissy. We were on our way to the King of Prussia Mall about 7:30.

Our first stop was just down the street from Chrissy's to get coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. This is where I promply spilled half of my coffee in the console of my car. A mess to clean up, but now the car smells GREAT. Until this summer...

We headed down the turnpike and were at the mall by 8:45. We actually had to wait a few minutes for Crate and Barrel to open. Laying waste to that store, we headed across the street to the mall proper.

We used Sears as our anchor and pillaged the Plaza section of the Mall. After that we moved to the Court section of the mall. This is the first time I've ever made it to the court section, so that was kinda cool. Everything is pretty much a blur, so I'll give you the highlights.


The first few hours there was not a lot of buying done.

Be very careful of mall sushi.

The most difficult thing is finding a table in the food court.

Candles are crack for women.

Chrissy and I fought over buying two country cd's for my wife's aunt...neither of us wanted to.

Certain food court vendors REALLY like my niece.

Cartier is intimidating.

Illuminations is dark.

Babies function better in carriages when they can see mom and know everything is ok.

Karen likes to rock out with her chicken.

Call The Cheesecake Factory a year in advance for a reservation.

It costs 5 bucks to walk by Bang and Olufsen.

Urban Outfitters is my new favorite store.

....and much, much more.


I saw a perfect ass. An ass that should have had a choir singing when it was viewed. I told my niece..."Hey Karen, look at that girls ass!" She goes, "Oh Geez..." and looks. Then turns around and says, "She DOES have a pretty nice ass." The funny thing was, it was all lighting and the position she was standing in. She took a few steps away and I looked. It was still nice, but it wasn't nearly as perfect.

Finally, at 10:45.....yes friends, that's right.....almost a full FOURTEEN HOURS after we started, we headed for home. Take THAT, Shopping!!!

It was funny stopping on the turnpike. We were all walking like 80 year old women. I bought more coffee and didn't spill it.

So....the winner of the funniest xmas card was at Urban Outfitters. It was a picture with CHRISTMAS spelled out in ornaments across the top. Empty vodka bottles and glasses strewn about with a Santa laying face down drunk in the snow. Open the card and on the inside is the first two lines of this post.

Happy Hollandaise

cya

Curse you.....Burl Ives!!!

"Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas....."

Over, and Over, and OVER......

oh well......"Ding dong merrily on high....."

see how it works???

On the job front. I've been in training at Fry Communications for 2 weeks. They say it's been the slowest they can remember in a long time. Then, earlier in the week, one of the guys in Harrisburg has a heart attack. So I have to fill in for him until he comes back or someone bids on his job.

It'll be 9 to 5:30. I'm not complaining.

I like the work over in Mechanicsburg, and the area is cool. It's a little longer trip but it has it's reward. The one thing I couldn't get a handle on was starting at 7 am. If I would have done it longer I would have adapted, but I've just been really tired all the time.

The second day I started going over there I got hit on Rt. 81. Totally the other guys fault. So I've got that process to go through.

Chrissy and Karen and I are going to King of Prussia tomorrow to hit the big mall. We're gonna figure out lists and bills and stuff tonite. That's always fun.

cya

....I'll be on my knees.

So Black Friday comes....

I hit the road at 6 am. Had to get tires on the car. And it was 17 degrees when I left the house. Nice.

Got the car dropped off and went to the Dunkin' Donuts next door. I did learn one thing. Anyone who says the word "Gubment" doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about.

I got a call from my niece and she wanted to hook up later. Got the car around 9, headed over and got it washed and headed out to meet her at Costco. Saw a lot of cool stuff and got some ideas, then headed to work.

It seemed that the longer I worked on Friday, the stupider I got. I had to do 2 reports 3 times. The I messed up 3 intakes. But they do say the way to learn the stuff is to make mistakes and correct em. If that's the case, I should know everything very soon.

Got home and crashed quickly cause we went shopping today.

Went down and got Chrissy and headed over to Sam's. Got a lot more ideas. (Robopet's are VERY cool) We then headed to the Harrisburg East Mall. There is a Bass Pro Shop in there, that's a very huge, very expensive store.

We saw the boat that we want. Unfortunately they're two different boats. The one I like is very sleek looking. The one Deb and Chrissy and Mike like is more conducive to fishing. Oh well, outvoted again.

We did a little more shopping, went back to Chrissy and Mike's and ate and then headed home. I just finshed watching Stanford come THIS CLOSE to upsetting Notre Dame, and then I wrote this.

Tomorrow? House rearranging for Xmas tree placement. Thrilling.

cya

Tires

Ordered some today. It turns out that Mike was able to help me get a decent value on a new set. I'll be getting them put on on Black Friday. Hope to hit the mall's while I'm waiting.

I put up a new blog today. Here it is I hope to get a few more pics for it in a few days.

Work is cruising right along. The house is pretty well caught up. so I've had some time to catch up on this stuff. And I got to post two days in a row.

And yes Cat, I must inform the world of my exciting life.

cya

Ongoing

The new job is very cool.

We're getting stuff together for the holidays, seems to be going pretty well.

I'll post when I can. Or if I ever have something to say. :)

Mazel Tov

Shabbat Shalom....and other Hebrew words that I don't completely understand.

I went to a Bar Mitzvah yesterday for Justin Dekelbaum. Deb deals a lot with Justin's father Larry and Grandpa Max. All lovely people by the way.

The event was in Potomac Md. So we had to get up early and drive. We got there with a few minutes to spare and went in to the temple service. It was 9 am. Not many people there, so I didn't think it would be too bad of a gig.

Time passed...

A LOT of time passed.

3 hours and 15 minutes later it was all over and young Justin was now a man. The service was actually more interesting than boring. With the small exception that I don't understand a word of Hebrew. But I'll stop kvetching.

I could never be a Jew. It's really a lot of work. The Torah's that were provided had an english translation. They say a few lines of prayer, have to bow left right then center, say a few more lines, bow, take 2 steps back. It's a lot of work.

Then there's all the acoutrements. They have a bag with a robe they have to wear. There's the standard Yarumulke (Jew Beanie).

Imagine how many people would show up at the local 1st Lutheran if you told them they needed special clothes and had to learn a language, as well as have a ton of money. :)

The service is interesting tho. They save money on an organist by doing the whole gig acapella. A lot of milling around and chit chat. Since I didn't know what I was doing I didn't really understand. My Jew guide (Deb) was separated from me upon entering the chapel.

So we went and had a nice catered, stand up lunch in the lobby. We talked to Larry and got some directions and headed to the mall.

We managed to kill a major chunk of time. Hit the Apple store (think Video IPod for me folks) and Sharper Image (Roboraptor!) to mention a few. Then headed out to the parking lot and caught a quick nap.

We went back to the temple around 7 and found the bar. Deb found a wine she REALLY liked and I was having Grey Goose and OJ. I see what all the fuss is about. This guy filled a glass up half with GG and it tasted like straight OJ, I shit you not. They had a sushi bar set up, a mashed potato bar, a mini cup of soup bar and a band in the lobby.

The kids had a room where they could make their own pixy stik art. They had 2 big projection screens that they could play video games on. I should mention that Justin and his family like to deep sea fish, so the theme of the evening's festivities was fish and the ocean. Both vid games were Sega Deep Sea Fishing 2003 or something like that. The kids also had a french fry and onion ring bar set up.

They then hustled us into the main event room (still in the temple, folks). I guess around 300 people in all. A large balloon archway covered the dance floor. The band had now moved inside. A 4 piece that covered jewish standards and cranked them up a bit, not bad, actually. Facing the bandstand at the other end of the dance floor was Justin's name in balloons and a Disc Jockey.

We sat with folks that work for Larry. The man has 3 businesses, Food Distribution, Restaurant and Catering. So naturally he catered his own event. The guy is a ball of energy, moving all over the place.

They started dancing crazy right away. (An open bar helps, folks) The tables were done with a tackle box full of gummy worms and candy fish. Each place had a fish shaped caribiner as a gift, and Deb wrangled a fish shaped pen. Now that I think of it, we could have gotten 2 more.

Anyway, the 1st course comes out. It looked like a fish, meat and chicken kabob. But when you started, you find out it's all fish. And very tasty.

They brought a red and white wine around to the tables. I preferred to refer to both as battery acid.

They had some kid games so the adults could get more lit. Then we heard "The Stations are open" Turns out there were about 10 courses total if you wanted. Chicken or Meat of some type in peppers and onions (very tasty), Chinese, Chicken breast, Prime Rib, Filet Mignon, etc. It was quite the spread.

We got desert, which was the coolest. They had a boat made out of chocolate with a chocolate sail. There was mousse inside the boat and it set on a "sea" of blue tasty stuff. In the sea were a few small candy fish and a gummy fish. Very neat.

I would be amiss to my regular readers if I didn't describe 2 VERY attractive women that were there. One, seated to my right, was the spitting image of Claudia Black. One to my left was a cross between Eva Longoria and Pat Benatar. Very nice.

We drove home and made it in exactly 2.5 hours. That's interesting, because I've always gone a different way to DC and it takes about an hour more. It's nice to know we can get down there, cause the mall we went to has shops on a par with King of Prussia.

Ok, enough from me. Sorry I've been so late posting, hope this makes up for it.

Cya

And.......

We're Back!

Two weeks. Lotsa memories. Lotsa good people.

I'll be setting up a website that folks from the class will contribute to. You'll be able to see a bunch of pics there. I'll have it up late in the week.

I love flying. But I hate the seats. From OKC to Chicago the guy in the seat was bigger than I was. Chicago to Harrisburg was a little better, but the seats still suck.

We went to the PSU game today with Darlene and Karen. 3rd largest crowd ever. Looking forward to next week. It should determine the Big 10 champion.

More stuff later.

Ooooooooooooooook..........

......lahoma.

Here we be. In sunny (and hot) Norman, Oklahoma.

I flew out of Harriburg (MDT) at 8 am on Sunday. I was told to be at the terminal 2 hours early, so I was. We got there at 6. At 6:15 I had checked my bags, gone thru security and was seated waiting for the flight.

Flew out on an Airbus. I was a little uncomfortable. No room for my arms. But I listened to the IRiver and it was fine.

Got to Ohare and found my gate and had an hour to spare. Hung out for a bit, Cat called and I picked her up a t-shirt. Then it was 11:55. I about shit cause it came up fast. Nobody moved. I kept looking at the board, It said everything was on time.

I waited....12:15.....12:30......12:50...... FINALLY they called us to board. After I got here and talked to Deb I realized that I had changed time zones. I am an idiot. :)

So I figure I'm heading down a jetway again. This time it's a Canadair jet. Well...I walk down steps to the tarmac. It's a 50 seater with the steps that fold down. COOL. Then I found my seat....NOT COOL. All the way in the back by the head, against the window. I like the window, but it was setup at a 5 year old's height. The seats are TINY.

The guy beside me was cool. He gets his laptop out before we take off. Fires it up in flight and I see the postal logo come up. So we have a chat about that. Turns out he was in Iraq and has the same views (roughly) as Billy does.

We landed and caught the NCED shuttle. The first thing you really notice coming out of the airport is that there are working oil wells right there. Then a little further you see that gas is about $2,25 a gallon. Nice.

I got in and unpacked. I've been going for 12 hours now. Got everything but the pooter set up. Then I realized that I had a bowl of cereal and a candy bar all day. And water, of course. Had to wait till 5 for food, but their food court here is excellent.

Chowed down and came back to the room. Set up the computer and called Deb to let her know I was here and to remind her to buy the winning lottery ticket for Wednesday ($340 mil?) Nice.

Then I called Chrissy and set up World of Warcraft and Ventrilo on the machine. Her and Mike got me situated and then we went out and killed stuff. Nice.

Watched some football and went to sleep. Yes, I know Penn State lost and I'm still pissed about officiating. Go to the 2nd quarter, the play that ends with 5:27 on the clock. Watch the guy go down and make your own spot on the ball, then play it and watch where the ref comes out. I hate to cry about it, because it was a great game, but they really did fuck us.

Day 1 started at 5:30 am. Got up and headed to class. Everything is one story down from me. We are lucky that our classrooms are in this building. A lot are in the building across the courtyard and others are off site. You have to look at the link in my previous post to check this place out. It is really nice.

We have 2 instructors. One is a semi-hyper female chatterbox. The other is a monotoned Notre Dame fan. (Yeah, redundant, I know) Plenty of breaks. Plenty of caffeine.

This was mostly introduction today, tomorrow we start doing stuff.

I went and worked out today. Only 10 minutes of aerobic workout, but 55 minutes of activity. Arms went a little numb once, but everything seemed fine. We'll see tomorrow.

I ate, came up to the room and got a shower, then went down for a 30 minute full body massage. My back has not felt this good in a LONG while. This is the first day I've made it thru without pain pills for a long time too.

Came back up and mailed Cat her T-shirt, then met a few classmates in the lounge for a nightcap.

Now I'm blogging to you......

Nice.

I'm Leavin....

....on a jet plane.

I head out to Oklahoma City tomorrow, then a short shuttle ride to the training facility.

Looking forward to it.

I'll get to blog a bit too.

cya

But you can call me.....

....Grandpa.

Looks like Toby and Melanie's wedding will be pushed up JUST A BIT. I called home tonight and Deb told me the good news.

On the work front? I got my plane tickets and advance today. My abstract came in from Penndot today. I got a phone call at 9:15 am (a.k.a. The Middle of the Night) telling me that all is well with my driving record. Take that, Cat!! :)

New laptop should be in this week. I have to find out if the training facility has broadband.

cya

P.S. Penn State is 5-0, Ohio State this week. If they win this week and stay healthy, there's no reason why they can't run the table.

Phase 1....Complete!

Doris gets her oats.

I passed my pretest. It was interesting, to say the least. I now have to wait for my driving info to come back from the state. They told me today that the two that they really hold you back for are DUI and Reckless Driving. I think I'm ok on that.

I've been scheduled into a one day classroom for a govt. license. Then the following week I'll have a 1 hour test. Then, if I get through all of that stuff, I get to go to Oklahoma for 2 weeks.

Right now I'm booked for the 31st of October, but they are trying to get me scheduled for the 15th.

I'll keep you posted.

cya

I....Had.....FUN!!!!

Big class reunion Saturday night.

After Penn State's comeback in the last 1:30 of the game, I was fired up for some fun.

Everyone had fun and was well behaved. The teacher didn't have to say anything to us at all!!!

I'll be putting up some photo's on the class blog later in the week.

I have my "pre" test tomorrow. So I'm hitting it early.

cya