BINGO update

So mom and I started playing BINGO pretty much right when I got here, They have a Community Club House where they live and Bingo is every Tuesday night. We've only missed a couple of nights since I've been here and right now we are up :

$ 93.50

Not bad. We pay $10 to play each week [that's for both of us] and we pay that from our winnings. So far, our only out of pocket was the first week and we paid ourselves back from our winnings the next week.

I love Bingo...and when I move back to Texas, I am going to have to find some place to play..and yes, I am sure I will drag some of you along with me.

Woo hoo !

Movie Review : Madagascar 2

So, I haven't done a movie review in awhile, mainly because I haven't gone to any movies. But, I broke that streak last weekend when we all went Sunday afternoon to see Madagascar 2. It was the perfect movie to get me back in movie mode.

The penguins are by far the best characters in the movie, as far as I am concerned. They should have their own movie.

So, Monday, I went to McDonald's at lunch to see what animal they had for happy meals this week - I wanted the penguin of course - it talks. Here is the exchange between me and the the drive-thru girl [my thoughts in blue] :

Me : What toy is in your happy meals this week ?
DTG : Madagascar
Me : [Duh, what ? the whole movie?] Yeah, I meant do you know which character ?
DTG : Um, the giraffe and the lion I think. Were you looking for a particular one ?
Me : Yeah, the penguin.
DTG : I don't think there is a penguin.
Me : [Do you not watch your own commercials.] There is. I saw it on a commercial.
DTG : Oh......do you have kids ?
Me : No, it is for my brother. He loves that character.
DTG : Oh, how old is he ?
Me : [Starting to wonder if the DTG is writing a book about me.] He's 31.
DTG : He has kids ?
Me : Nope, it's for him.
DTG : Did you see the movie ?
Me : [Surely this has already been established as a yes.] Yes.
DTG : Was it good ?
Me : Yeah, it was for kids but there was enough adult humor in it to make it fun.
DTG : I need to go see it.
Me : [Ready to pull forward, get my diet coke and move on.] Yeah, well, have a good day.
DTG : You too.

Anyway, go see the movie, it is cute and fun for the whole family.

How can a water tester be water-proof ?

LivSure Water Tester



* Measures Contaminates in Water
* One Touch Operation
* Pocket Sized
* Takes Just a Few Drops of Water
* Results in Just a Few Seconds
* Smiley Face for Clean Water
* Frowning Face for Dirty Water
* Shows Number of Contaminates
* Waterproof
* Batteries Included

Fishin' Franks

I remember a story my dad and brother told me several years ago when they first moved to Florida. They had decided to take up fishing and as any good fishermen would do, they had gone to Wal-Mart to buy their supplies. After that they decided to stop by the local fishing shop, Fishin' Franks to get some bait and find out a little about local fishing.

Mistake !

Frank of Fishin' Franks was not pleased to learn that while they bought all of their gear from Wal-Mart they had come in his store for FREE advice. Needless to say, when it was all over they left with some fishing advice from Frank and their tails between their legs along with an oath to never return to Fishin' Franks.

Well, since I have been here, Joey and I have also decided to take up fishing. Of course Joey has all the gear and a little more expertise since the Fishin' Frank incident. However, one morning when we left particularly early to go fishing we started a conversation about where to get bait. We had found a place the weekend before but we weren't sure of the store hours and we were leaving pretty early. So the debate began.....do we take a chance at that place or do we go to Fishin' Franks which we knew was open early enough.

After weighing the pros and cons, and chastising ourselves for being such wusses when it comes to Fishin' Franks, we decided to go there. As we arrived Joey formulated a plan on what to bring in to get the bait and what to say so that he had a chance to sound like he knew what he was doing to avoid a confrontation with Frank. And I removed my 'Offshore Angler' hat in order to remain low on the Frank radar. As we entered the store, I thought of the Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi and hoped we would not hear Frank say : "No shrimp for you !!"

Needless to say, Frank was not there.

Can you help me ? There is a frog in my car.

People are so funny.

A few weeks ago, Joey and I were coming home from one of our night-fishing trips and we were stopped at a light in downtown Punta Gorda. On the corner to our right is a auto repair place and there is a woman who has clearly pulled her car into the parking lot of the place and is now out and walking around her car, looking in windows.

A minute later, a car pulls up behind us and to our right, right next to where she is and she walks over to the car and says :

"Can you help me ? There is a frog in my car."

Believe it or not the guy in the car with his girlfriend/wife/sister - pulls into the parking lot to help her as the light turns green and we are on our way.

Jesus for sale ?

Disclaimer : This post is not intended to offend, just go with it.....please.

So, Joey and I were at WalMart a few weeks ago and we decided to run down the CLEARANCE aisle to see if there was anything noteworthy when we found this :


I don't know what is more disconcerting; the fact that Jesus is on sale at WalMart or the fact that the discount is a mere 97 cents.

.

WOW !

No, that is not an exclamation of excitement - it is actually the abbreviation for an on-line game called WORLD OF WARCRAFT - it's been around a while and my sister is addicted, I mean, has been barely interested in it for about 2 years. She came to Florida by herself for a visit in September and while she was here, she bought my brother and I the software and a one month subscription.

We've played on-line a couple of times.....once with her here to guide us and then together with frequent phone calls back and forth.

I think the main thing about it is that it is FOREVER ... there is no end to it, no win. It's basically just an alternate universe where you have a character and you constantly go on quests to accomplish tasks. It seems, although I am new to it, that it is best played with a group. I think as you gain levels and start having more complicated quests, you can't do them on your own anyway.

If I remember correctly, I am a Druid [Night Elf] in the Sentinel realm for those of you that are familiar and may even have a player yourselves.

Anyone ?

Halloween

So, yesterday was Halloween. We actually went camping at a local campground two weekends ago to celebrate the holiday. They have a Halloween weekend where everyone decorates their campsite and people are there with their families. It was a lot of fun and there were TONS of kids, we ran out of candy [300 pieces] before it was over.

My niece and nephew did their trick or treating Thursday night at church....here are pics of them :

Morgan - the construction worker

Mason - the Ninja

And last but not least, here is my friend Courtney in her Tony Romo costume, complete with pinky splint - hee hee :

Happy belated-HALLOWEEN !

Hello....testing.....1, 2, 3....is this thing working ?

Um, yeah....so, I haven't been blogging again. To be honest I have more to blog about here than I ever did in Texas, as far as me doing stuff, but for some reason when I get off of blogging, I really get off of it. Who knows if anyone will even see this at this point....

I'll take my chances.

Believe it or not, I have been making short notes of things I want to blog about, they just never seem to make it from my white board in my room, to my blog.

So, every other day for the next week or so, I have scheduled some posts to kick start my blog back on track.....so check again in 2 days for something new and then 2 days after that, and so on and so on.......

And, if you are out there and still reading, let me know with a quick comment .... please.

Ciao for now.

REMEMBERING RAYMOND YORK

In 2006, 2996 was formed. It was a coalition of bloggers brought together by D.Challener Roe to pay tribute to the lives of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Each year since then, on this day I have remembered forty-five year old Raymond R. York who was a 20-year veteran of the New York Fire Department. He is survived by his wife - Joan and their four children.

Although, the coalition does not have as organized an effort anymore, I have still been thinking about Ray as the date approached and I want to remember him each year. Periodically, I check his Legacy Guest Book when I am notified that new entries have been made by those that also remember him throughout the year.

This entry is for Ray and all of the others that lost their lives that day. My blog will again be silent for one week in honor of his memory.

A Fireman's Prayer

When I am called to duty, God, whenever flames may rage;

Give me strength to save some life, whatever be its age.

Help me embrace a little child before it is too late

Or save an older person from the horror of that fate.

Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout,

And quickly and efficiently to put the fire out.

I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me.

To guard my every neighbor and protect his property.

And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life;

Please bless with your protecting hand, my children and my wife.

Additional Tributes to Raymond R York

http://raymondyork.i8.com/

http://www.legacy.com/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=93194

Hannah, Ike and Josephine......

.....OK ! Enough with the hurricanes already.

Still alive.....

....the hurricane/tropical storm ended up hitting land a little south of us so we mainly got lots of rain and it was very windy all day yesterday. Of course for the next couple of days, we will have residual rain from the storm but really that is nothing new. It rains almost every day here anyway.....at least for 10 - 15 minutes.

Mom, dad and Joey stayed home from work yesterday as their jobs were closed due to the potential hurricane. They were in and out all day as the resulting weather was not that bad. The only thing that was really open was WalMart, of course. Since we never lost power or internet, I worked all day as normal.

No BINGO last night so we stayed in and played cards. I was winning in the beginning but of course, fell to last place by the time the game was over. But, it was fun.

I guess, I officially feel like I live here now. It is nice having people around in the morning and evening to talk to and hang out with, but I am missing everyone in Texas too. I'm starting to have trivia withdrawal...ha ha ! I'm going to try and get out to play, next week.

Later.

Well, this is new.

I am battening down the hatches for a hurricane. Here is a picture [not that great of quality] from the National Hurricane Center website that shows the probable course for the hurricane [now known as Tropical Storm Fay] - on the picture where the PINK star is.....yeah, that's where I live.

Eeek !
More later.

Haircuts and bingo....

So, I haven't done much blogging this week. Just trying to get back in the routine of working, etc. Dad made me an awesome office space here in Florida that makes working super comfortable and pleasant. I think up until now, I still feel like I am on vacation but the fact that I live here is starting to sink in.

The first weekend I got here, I went and had 8 inches cut off my hair....I don't really know why, for some reason it just seemed cumbersome here and supposedly when you make one change in life, you tend to make many, so off with the hair.

Mom and I started our weekly trip to Bingo on Tuesday night....we didn't win anything but it was a nice evening out and we had fun. Soon we will be regulars and I am sure there will be stories to tell.

My uncle Jim is coming into town tomorrow for a week.....it will be a fun visit and I am looking forward to seeing him. Mom took next week off from work so she can spend time with him too.

More from Florida later.....I miss everyone in Texas !

Hiatus Ended !

Happy Monday everyone ! I am going to begin blogging again today so for those of you that drop in there from time to time, you can start checking it again today.

For those of you that do and those of you that don't know, the main reason that I moved to Florida was to lose some weight and get healthy with the love and support of my family down here. I've decided I don't really want to turn my blog into a "diet blog" so I don't plan on posting many weight loss updates here .... instead I have created a little email distribution list to send out monthly email updates. If you want to be on that list, please let me know in comments. If you are already on the list you probably got an email update this morning that looks similar to this blog post.

So, I arrived into town on Tuesday, July 29th and the healthy eating began. We did our first weigh-in on Wednesday morning for our starting weight. We decided that Monday's would be our weigh-in day. My brother and parents have me on 3 meals a day and 3 snacks a day, all healthy......low carb, good grains, no red meat and lots of fruits and veggies.....so we had our first weigh-in this morning after only *5 days* and I had lost.......drum roll.....

.....14 pounds already, in just 5 days !! I know, WOW ! I was even shocked. I guess it is working. We started walking, a very short distance in the mornings, as I build up my stamina, but it is all going well.

Again, all further updates will be send via email at the end of each month, so let me know if you want to be on that list.

That's it for today, more updates this week.

..

BLOG HIATUS UNTIL AUGUST 3, 2008

OK - so obviously I have not been blogging. I have lots going on with new job responsibilities at work and I am in the process of moving so my blog is on a hiatus until August 3rd. I appreciate everyone that reads it and I promise to be back then - just hang in there.

Something new....

So, Courtdog and I decided to check out the new place in town - BUFFALO WILD WINGS - we went for dinner Tuesday night. It was good. Definitely nice to have different menu items to choose from. We played trivia and got some high scores on the board and overall had a good experience. Best of all, we had a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert, something we have been begging for at No Frills Grill for years.

Personally, I thought it was a little LOUD and it was hard to have a conversation. Now, it was FULL and there were lots of wait staff there running around, AND there was an NBA Final game going on which all probably contributed to the loudness but this is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Having said all that.....we're gonna check it out again Friday....so, instead of No Frills Grill this week, we will be meeting at Buffalo Wild Wings.

More life later.

The BIG Announcement

I'm moving to ....

Yikes. I know, CRAZY !!

If you want to know the specifics of WHY, comment on this post and I will email you or tell you next time I talk to you. I can say it is not financial, more personal. Basically, my parents made me an offer I could not refuse. It scares me a little bit. I am 42 years old and I have been on my own for almost 25 years and now I am moving in with my mom and dad. Scary.

Don't get me wrong, and I am not just saying this because they are reading it, my parents are the best. The absolute best, but my whole family, no matter how close we are, is very independent and opinionated so there are bound to be some tenuous times. So, let me say now in case I forget to say it enough while I am there, I am very GRATEFUL to them for this opportunity.

So, the plan was originally to move at the end of August but basically I have decided, why wait and am now planning on moving at the end of July. I will be putting in my vacation days tomorrow and then the planning, organizing and executing the move will begin. Initial steps include; getting a storage place and getting rid of some furniture. Other than that, each weekend until then will be spent going thru things; tossing stuff, packing for storage and packing for Florida.

So, more on all of this as it develops. PLEASE feel free to ask questions in my comments and I will do my best to answer them in future posts.

Isn't photography neat.....

I was looking for a graphic to use with my big announcement tomorrow and although I didn't find anything I wanted to use, I found the following three photos taken by individuals that I thought were just really cool. It is amazing the shots people can get sometimes. Check these out :

Hmmm.....maybe you can use these as clues to my big announcement....actually, most of my regular readers already know what it is....but this could be fun.