A Year of Change

Good morning to all.  The birds are singing, the sun is shining and the rain has stopped for the time being…storms are to return this afternoon.  I love the humidity we are surrounded by and lush green foliage…my flowers and shrubs have never looked so beautiful. We now have snakes and toads in the front yard for the boys to hunt….I know we have had snakes in the past, but I do not recall toads…at least I think it’s a toad…I heard him croaking day before yesterday and saw him yesterday…so did our oldest and he says it is a toad, so there you have it….a toad it is.

The boys woke up early on there own today, they must have finally caught up on their sleep.  The oldest just left for swim team and the youngest is next to me on the couch playing a game that has been missing since we went to California for my mom’s birthday in April…it’s like having a brand new toy…good times.

Little Lady fell last night right before I went down to give Bunkie his insulin shot. Her leg went out from under her when she was taking a step up to her porch. Thankfully nothing is broken, but all of the skin was scraped off her forearm from an inch above her wrist to an inch below her elbow…she also hit her forehead right above her left eye and she will no doubt have another “Shiner”. I have to change the bandage this morning and then one of the neighbors will take her to the doctor if she can get an appointment with Kaiser today.

I had my my meeting from 9:45p.m. until almost 11:00 and it was all I could do to stay awake.  It was hard for my friend as well…she got pulled over for swerving on the way home.  The nice officer just made sure we were okay and then sent us on our way.  We told him that we had a meeting at work and that neither one of us was accustom to being up so late.  He said he could relate because he had recently started working the graveyard shift. Lucky for us they don’t serve cocktails at work meetings!!

Today we have Paolo and Kristina with us. I will take Kristina down to Cherry Creek where she has an appointment to have her hair done before they head off to Vegas. I think this afternoon I’ll drive her up to Red Rocks for a photo opp so she can take advantage of the gorgeous natural beauty of the Amphitheater. Paolo has a wine tasting from 1 to 5 and then they have to head to the airport tonight.

I called my dad yesterday and he is still not feeling up to par after his illness over Father’s Day weekend. He said he would call a doctor this week…I’ll follow up to make sure that he does indeed make an appointment.

I haven’t been up to Grandma’s to plant the day lilies that I have for her yet, so that will be on my to do list this weekend….plus I really like to visit with her.  I bet her pond is almost overflowing with all of this rain….handing off to the mister….time to make breakfast….

OK, you could easily tell that was the misses. Now, where should I start, hmmmmmm. You all thought I was going to jump right into politics, right? Well not today, instead I’m focusing on getting the house cleaned and organizing the basement. I personally don’t like all the humidity like the misses. We have lots of mushrooms growing in the front yard plus all this moisture leads to mold and rust, two things we don’t need around here. Right now I have the attic fan on and all the windows open trying to suck some of the moist stale air out of the house with a cool morning breeze. They say the rains are going to continue at least through next week while the midwest is in the middle of a dangerous heatwave. Can’t wait for it all to end.

Lots of water in the mountains too. We just received some windmill parts I had to get from Nebraska that will soon be getting the water pumping up in North Park although right now there’s plenty of water. After fixing this one, all four windmills will be up and pumping water again. My dad would love to see this I’m sure. The whole State has never been so wet. I did manage to draw a second rifle season over the counter elk tag for this fall. On Sunday the oldest and I go to the first day of his Hunter Safety class from 3 until 7pm. We then have to do some work at home on the computer and have another class from 6 to 11pm on the 27th. This is mandatory in the State of Colorado for anyone born after Jan 1, 1949 to get any type of hunting license. I took my class when I was 13 years old and am the proud holder of license number 402! With all the hunters in this state, 402 is a pretty low number. After completion of the course, which you can’t take until you’re 9 years old, you can get a license to hunt small game. You have to wait until your 12 years old to hunt big game. So this means this fall he can hunt pheasants, rabbits, squirrels and other small game. The only thing I plan on letting him participate in this year is pheasant hunting. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. He’s really excited to go hunting and I’m really excited to take him. he can go elk hunting with me, he just can’t take the shot. We might also try our hand at turkey hunting but we’ll have to wait and see. I tried but didn’t draw an antelope tag. I don’t really understand this as they’re everywhere! I’m glad they have this safety class as a requirement in Colorado as it’ll make sure he understands safety comes first. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a life long passion for him. Too many kids don’t get any exposure to the outdoors anymore, not our boys, they’re all in.

I just had to take a break and run down to the Little Old Lady’s house to check out her arm. The misses called and wanted me to take a look at it. It seems last night the neighbor lady decided to rip off the lose skin and cover the wound with a bandage while she should have left it open. Anyhow it looks much worse than it is but it’s a good laceration. It’ll need to be cleaned (probably scraped with a brush now) and then wrapped but she should heal ok. The bump on her head, and the headache she had all night, is much more of a concern. It’s good she’s going to the doctor this morning. She gets around alright but seems to fall quite a bit. I think this is because she has that damned oxygen hose attached to her all the time and it probably gets tangled in her feet. Luckily she has strong bones or she could have been a goner by now with all the falls she’s had. Looks like God is watching out for her.

It’s almost 8 and I should hit the showers.We have lots going on, (again) today! I can’t remember a day when we didn’t have a lot going on! Oh well, we’re living life to the fullest, no down time here and never a dull moment. We wish you all a great weekend and hope you’re all doing well. Give us a call over the weekend and say hi if you have a chance. Take care and God Bless,

p.s. I made it, no politics today!

Last night it came again, just like clockwork, thunder , lightening and lots of water. The misses and I were downtown for a friends birthday dinner and driving home was an adventure in itself. The street drains were full and mini lakes were present on every corner. Lucky we have and suv and a truck as we plowed right through them. They say (Nobel Prize winners) we’re going through a polar shift meaning the northern hemisphere is flip flopping with the southern hemisphere. Now I don’t know about this but somethings going on with the weather. I hope this is all part of a 500 or 1000 year cycle but no one has lived long enough to recognize it.

Football was canceled because of the storms so the boys hung out at home with the babysitter while we headed downtown for dinner. This morning they’ll also get a break from swimming because of too much rain. The misses has a store wide meeting at 9:45pm tonight and the bulk of the day will be spent cleaning up inside and out.

I’m too disgusted with both sides to go into politics, I’ve reached my limit but suggest everyone get ready for something, I don’t know what, but somethings gotta give. Everyone needs to think for themselves, don’t let these talking heads on either side think for you. They’re just people who are espousing their opinions on tv, you’re just as smart as they are. I mean does anyone think the government is actually telling anyone the truth about anything? My how we’ve fallen from a time when my parents were young when elected people were more interested in serving their country instead of getting re-elected. Ok I guess I’m getting into politics, sorry but nobody is awake to stop me! Here’s a quick quote and then I’ll move on,

“How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government’s Treasury Department!” – Ludwig von Mise

How about the guy that caught the star New York Yankee Derek Jeters 3000 hit baseball, held it in his hands for less than 15 minutes, then gave it back, and now the government says he has to pay taxes on its value! Wow, talk about doing the right thing and then having the government swoop in to squeeze you for some cash. This is as bad as going after little kids lemonade stands for not paying taxes. Whoops, I’m back into politics, I just can’t help myself. At least Miller Beer Company is stepping up and paying the $100,000 tax bill the government says he owes from catching a baseball and getting some free tickets from the Yankees for his kindness, he would have been better off to just let it hit him on the head and bounce away. Once again, my how times have changed. What about going after the Federal employees that owe over a combined $1 Billion in delinquent taxes???

Well I don’t want to lose the few readers I have and since I can’t control myself, I guess I’d better go. Maybe I can coax the misses into writing for a few days. Stay tuned for tomorrow to find out! Hope everyone is ok and doing well. Remember think for yourself and whatever you do, don’t bank on the government to be there to take care of you as it’s obvious they can’t even take care of themselves, ok ok I’ll stop, in closing, ponder this…

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – G. K. Chesterton

Have a great day and God Bless,

Last night was the loudest, brightest, longest, scariest thunder storm I’ve ever experienced in my life. It started around 8pm and seem to go on forever. I called my Mom around 9 or so who told me I shouldn’t be using the phone during an electrical storm, then she also confided she was scared. We obviously brought Mojo inside for the night but he wanted out at 3am so by then the storms had passed. It’s still misting outside right now, what a night, it’s like living in the mid-west. Sure would have started a stampede if you had a few hundred head of cattle out in that storm. Good news is we have hardly had to run the sprinklers this year. We’re waiting to call the swim team hot line to see if it’s on this morning as there might have been too much rain. Right now it’s a little after 6 and both boys are still sleeping. The misses also was talking in her sleep last night and woke me at 3 with some jibberish, fun night!

The boys and I had a fun day yesterday. I started off by boxing 20 boxes of wine around 6am and was at Fed Ex by 10am dropping them off. The boys then wanted to go to Kokoro (a favorite counter style Japanese restaurant) for lunch. After that we ran some errands and then I dropped them at our savior Uncle T’s house for about 90 minutes, while I had to run an errand. He’s sure been helpful to us. The misses got a much deserved .50 cents and hour raise yesterday, whoo hoo! Now we don’t want to turn anything down but I mean come on, .50 cents? Is that all they can do? We’re still determined to get the misses out of there, but we can’t until we find some other way to replace the income. The grocery discount card is the biggest thing we’re afraid to lose. I’m going to track it to the penny to see exactly how much we’re saving.

It smells musty in the basement and I’m sure there’s water behind the wall but it’ll dry out as soon as the monsoons stop. I did go downstairs last night to get some food and other essentials off the concrete floor just in case water came inside last night as it has before. Mom’s off the rest of the week and she’s planning on getting the house back in shape today. I did manage to get 3 loads of laundry done yesterday between my errands and work. It’s also been 9 days since the misses and I have had an adult beverage. We decided to make this stand for a number of reasons. We’ve lost weight, we’re sleeping better and we just overall feel better, we’re all in! Our first big test was dinner with Paolo (our winemaker) the other night and we have a dinner tonight and the big bowling party/dinner Saturday but we’re determined to stick to it.

My first call is at 10am this morning and I’m in the process of making some sweeping fundamental changes to the way we do things. It seems to be working well. You need to constantly adapt in this economy to stay ahead of the game, it’s almost a daily thing to keep the car on the road. We’re starting to see a bunch of scare tactic tv ads already popping up on the boob tube. They just showed 3 old people asking “Mr. Congressman, what gives you the right to cut medicare, we’re calling all our friends and telling them to call you and ask you why”. I got news for you, everything needs to be cut! Medicare, Social Security and all the entitlements that have put us in this mess. Everyone talks about taxing the rich, I say go ahead and close all the loop holes but even if you took all the income from the rich, 100% of it, you still wouldn’t do anything but put a bandaid on the problem. Think about it, if you’re in debt you can try to make or get a little more money but the real key is to stop spending more than you have, right? Why can’t these people in Washington get it, what a joke. Alright I’ll stop now, it’s just that these people in Washington on both sides are so out of touch, they’re like children playing with our future. I’m dreading the next 15 months as we’re going to be bombarded with political ads like you’ve never seen before.

Both boys are off to swim team with the littlest one wanting to watch his brother before his practice. Time to jump in the shower and get the day started. Hope everyone is doing well, so until tomorrow, God Bless,

Wonder what today’s title means? Can anyone guess? It’s the exchange rate of the euro to the dollar. That means it takes $1.38 to buy 1 euro. Now why is this important, well it’s important because it’s a way to measure the world economy and it directly affects things we buy and sell daily and most importantly, how much I have to pay for my wine. The neat thing is that it hasn’t been this low for a long time. Less than 90 days ago it was approaching $1.50. The reason it’s so low is that the crisis in Europe, particularly Greece is even worse than here. The reason we should be worried is that what’s happening in Greece is a preview of what we’re headed for unless we make some dramatic changes. There’s lot of talk on the idiot box about raising the debt ceiling. The repub’s want to limit anymore borrowing why the dems want to borrow more money against ours and our children’s future. Now wherever you stand on this, it’s a bad situation. It’s so bad the President feels the need to get on tv almost every other day to try to convince us to allow him to keep spending on the nations credit card which has already gone passed its limit. (wish I could do that, no wait, glad I can’t!) In my opinion, most if not all of his motivation is political as he’s starting to lose his base and he knows he’ll never get re-elected if he stops giving all these handouts to all the special interest groups. So, make some tough choices now and make some real painful cuts to real people, or keep putting it off. Good news is the american people in a CBS poll yesterday, voted 69% to 28% (with 3% not voting) NOT to raise the debt limit and to stop spending money we don’t have. This surprised me as I don’t have much faith in the “regular guy” understanding what’s going on. When you’re bombarded by tv ads saying they’re kicking grandma out of the nursing home if we make cuts, most people vote to keep spending. I think it’s getting so bad that even people who don’t follow the world economy are starting to understand we cannot continue to spend money we don’t have. Just my 2 cents, you all have to make up your own mind which way to go, the point is, sooner or later, someone (that’s us) are going to have to pay for all this spending by Washington or in other words, pay the bill. I wonder if the politicians in Washington would vote for all the spending they do if they had to personally write a check each time they vote to spend more money we don’t have, hmmmmmm.

Ok, more heavy rain showers today, possibly earlier they say. Mom works today until 5pm as she switched yesterday with Miss Carrie so she could spend the day with Kristina. They had a good lunch and then did a little shopping. We had a nice dinner with Paolo and Kristina and they’re off to Aspen at 6am this morning returning to Denver Thursday night. We’ll see them again Friday early evening before they fly off to Vegas for a few days and then continue their trip around the U.S. promoting his wine. Uncle T and Aunt B (or maybe just Uncle T as I think Aunt B might have been working) hosted the oldest boy for a while and then both boys when the younger one joined the party. The boys sure love visiting them. We (Uncle T, Aunt Robi and I) never had and Aunts or Uncles close enough to go hang out with, we’re really happy our boys do. Today I’m boxing a bunch of wine and then Uncle T is going to watch them for a quick hour while I run to Fed Ex. I was hoping to get this done by 10:30 but now it seems it’ll be closer to 12:30 as I have some unexpected calls, hope Uncle T is around or else I’ll just take them (the boys) with me.

The next few days are a whirlwind. We have swimming every morning, football tomorrow night and we (the misses and I) have to show up at a birthday party downtown for at least an appearance. Then Mom has another company wide meeting at 9:45pm Thursday (she had one at 6:15am yesterday) and on Friday she’s spending the day with Kristina again and then we all hook up for dinner before they fly out at 9:30pm. On Saturday we have a bowling party with our friends (the judge/my former lawyer, and his wife, and Jeff and Tina) who we get together with every three months or so. After bowling (Jeff bought some certificate at a charity auction) we’re all going to La Loma for dinner. I think the boys are spending the night with Uncle T and Aunt B. They’re both super excited! We’re wondering if a kid can overdose on candy! We’ll let you know Sunday morning. So it looks like Wyoming and horseback riding this weekend is out, bummer.

Mom’s out of the shower and the oldest ones slowly getting up while the little guy is playing a game next to me on the laptop. He gets up much earlier than his older brother. They’re both little angels in the morning, hugging each other on the couch and conversing like brothers do about their upcoming day. Of course later in the day, usually after some sugar, they’re involved in some battle over something that means nothing like who’s using the bathroom first or who’s sitting where. Oh well, it’s just what brothers do, at least we know they really care and love each other as we see it every morning. We need to go up and see my Mom, I spoke with her yesterday and she seems well but we’re about due for a visit. I’m still waiting for some more macaroni and pea salad!

I guess it’s time to run as I should start boxing up some vino before my cell starts ringing, maybe I can get a jump on the whole thing. It’s still real green and humid around here, more than I can ever remember. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life, it’s short enough as it is so get out there and do something new while you can, get crazy. Here’s a quote for the day, enjoy and God Bless,

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Seems like fall is just around the corner, watch out it’ll be here before you know it. It’s a bit after 5am and Mom and I are up as she has a store wide meeting at 6:15 this morning. I’ll be taking the boys to swim team (the oldest) and then Mom will be home by 7:30 to take over which is good timing with my conference calls starting then.

We had a bunch more rain yesterday with more scheduled for today and tomorrow, and then it’s supposed to clear out for a few days. In the morning we headed up into the mountains to some friends who make their living (his misses still works a regular 9 to 5) building custom saddles in the old way of the greats like Frazier and Gallup (pioneers in saddle making) when Pueblo Colorado was the saddle making capital of the world. (this was around the late 1880’s until around 1940 for those of you who might be interested) Allen, our friend, is a transplant from Alabama but is quite the craftsman making saddles for all kinds of people including the likes of Tom Selleck and Buck Henry and other notables who’s names you wouldn’t recognize. His saddles don’t cost much more than the more mass produced versions, they just use rigging styles reminiscent of the original designs meaning some of the straps are on the outside, the swell and cantles are higher and they’re a lot more comfortable than what you’re used to if you have ever rode much. His wife and the misses are designing some leather and cowhide pillows together as the misses keeps seeing these for hundreds of dollars plus they’re always difficult to find. Now’s the time to work my magic and get him some good orders so we end up getting  couple for ourselves for free! Don’t underestimate me, I’ve already set the table and I’ll get it done somehow!

Yesterday the dogs had a much needed walk and Mom got her nails done late in the afternoon. I have to get about 20 boxes of wine packed and shipped Fed Ex to Chicago today while the misses will give the house a quick once over and then shop for dinner tonight with Paolo and Kristina and a couple of friends that are coming over. Sometime today, probably around noon, the misses will pick Kristina up and they’ll spend the day together until Paolo is dropped off late in the afternoon. All in all, it’ll be a busy day.

The oldest just asked if he could skip swim team just this once. Funny the misses and I were just discussing this and I told him ok as they’re pretty tired and have been swimming 7 days in a row now for over a month. You can actually see their shoulder muscles changing and getting more definition. The main reason I agreed is because the little one is still sleeping and I’d need to wake him to drop off the older guy. He needs his sleep much more than his older brother from an attitude standpoint.

It looks like at least two (maybe four) of us are headed to Wyoming this weekend for some family riding. We’ve been trying to get up there for a few weeks but between swim meets and wine arriving and the holiday weekend, it kept getting put off. Both boys (especially the older one) are all in when it comes to horses. We’re lucky we have numerous friends with horses that we can ride anytime we want, just wish they were in this state! This might be trumped though as Uncle T and Aunt B have offered to have the boys for a sleepover this coming Saturday. Now even though riding horses is way up there on their list, not much can compete with a night and T & B’s! We’ll leave it up to the boys. Might just be the misses and I which would be ok too as it’ll be nice to have a mini break.

I’m too tired to go much into the economy and politics. I did run into a guy I went to high school with yesterday at the grocery store. He recognized me and I him but had to ask him his name. After talking for a couple minutes he broke down and started telling me how this economy is so rough and how he’s fighting to hang onto his house. Now here’s a guy I haven’t seen in 37 years, who in the grocery store, after 120 seconds of conversation, breaks down almost to tears and starts venting on the economy and his troubles. I think that right there about says it all. It’s rough out there and a lot of people are hurting, regular people, not the rich disaffected politicians in Washington, but the guy on the street. Many people that are a lot smarter than you or I are warning of the likes of civil unrest as things get worse. I sure hope they’re wrong but the average guy on the street doesn’t have much if anything, to fall back on if it all goes south. So once again (then I’ll stop I promise) please buy a little extra food and put away a few hundred dollars in small bills (or better yet some pre 1964 silver coins) someplace safe, if you can, for a rainy day. Things are only going to get more expensive before things get better.

In closing here’s a quote from many many years ago, in fact hundreds of years ago, think about it, take care and God Bless

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Yutang Lin

First off, thank you Aunt B for sending a comment yesterday, this means at least two people are reading the blog on a regular basis. We are beginning to wonder if the rest of you actually know how to email, hmmmm.

Onto the day, yesterday, as you know, we were at the swim meet from 6am until noon. Both boys had about 5 races each and without recapping each race, the littlest one shaved 2 seconds off his best time and the oldest 6 seconds from the previous week. Now this may not sound like a lot but trust me, it is. They’re both really coming into their own and with a bit of fine tuning (one more private lesson) I’m sure they’ll do even better. The oldest in particular really has a swimmers body. The rest of the day was spent visiting an antique store that was having a sidewalk sale and then a late lunch at one of our favorite haunts. Then they boys watched a much anticipated show they’ve been waiting for, while Mom and I read some books and lounged around the house.

The big news of the day is I guess Grandma Dixie and Pa Don went in with Uncle Scottie on a new motorhome! Talk about living life and not letting the grass grow under your feet, here are three people, all who are 80 (I think Scottie is 80+ too) who just bought a rolling hotel. Grandma Dixie and Pa Don are old hands at motorhomes but you have to hand it to them at their age that they have the “drive” to hit the open road all by themselves. I guess Grandma Dixie told the misses that now we have a place to stay when we go to Oklahoma in August. I guess we’re for sure now going to Oklahoma in August!

Today I woke up at 4:40am which is kind of sleeping in for me. Colorado and our weather for the past few days is making the national news again. We’ve had heavy rain and in some places, large hail for the past week or so. I can’t remember it ever being so humid, even my guitar is going out of tune due to the changing weather, sounds like an inspiration for a song! Everyone (obviously) is still sleeping except for me and the dogs. I forgot to call my Mom yesterday to check on her but hope (and assume) Uncle T did. Funny how the day can just get away from you.

Tomorrow our good friend and winemaker Paolo from Valdobbiadne  (just north of Venice Italy) and his lovely girlfriend Kristina who’s from Czechoslovakia arrive here for a week. The boys love her as she brought them Pokeman cards from Italy last year. The misses and Kristina will hang out tomorrow and then we’ll all have dinner Monday night. Then they’re off to Aspen and Crested Butte and a few other mountain locals to meet people who sell and love his wine. They’ll be back in Denver Friday when the misses and Kristina will again hit the town or pool and then another dinner before they depart for San Francisco Saturday. Then we have 2 other winemakers arrive Saturday for a few days but more on that at the end of the week.

Time to go see if the paper is here to catch up on the useless propaganda printed for us each day. Things are so bad everyday that no one seems to be shocked at anything anymore. I could (as you know) go into a long dissertation here on our problems and the coming World changes, but since it’s Sunday and the day of rest, I won’t. Hope everyone has a great day and is prepared for the coming week. Take care and God Bless

Man I had a headache all day yesterday and all of the night. I couldn’t get comfortable and am not sure if the aching head was due to allergies or some pulled muscle that goes all they way up into my neck and head. Whatever it was, it woke me for good around 3am. I went to the gym at 4:30 and feel a bit better now. I think I’m sore from moving all the wine the other day as the muscle ache moves around from my back to my shoulders to my chest depending on how I favor the sore spot. Getting old is hell.

It’s now 6am and the little one is next to me getting ready for his swim meet. I think we’re already late as warm ups start at 6! We’ll be there until at least 11am and then hopefully be done. It rained again hard, and I mean hard, yesterday afternoon. Good news is the garden and grass are green and thankfully we’ve had no flooding yet, knock on wood. Mom had a long day at work and I had some ribs in the oven when she got home. I did manage to take the boys to the pool yesterday for 90 minutes of exercise. Mom’s taking the boys over to the pool right now to stake out a table at the swim meet. She’ll then come back and get me as I need to shower first. I’m glad the boys are swimming but 6am, 6 days a week, is getting old. Ah, parenthood, when you have kids certain things come with it. I need to now make the boys cinnamon rolls and take them with me to the pool.

I only got an email from one person yesterday, I’m really disappointed in all of the rest of you except Aunt Robi who not only emailed but also called, what gives with the rest of you????

Oh well, I know Grandma Dixie and Pa Don are traveling and my Mom can’t get on her computer I think, but I know there’s a few others of you out there who can send an email. Time for me to run as we’re burning daylight. Here’s your daily quote to ponder,

“The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.” – Proverbs 21:31 (KJV)

Have a great day and God Bless

OK, Aunt Robi seems to be the only one who comments on a regular basis. We have received some from Aunt B as well but the rest of you seem to be MIA (missing in action). Are you there? Who reads this anyhow? We’d like to know. So maybe you don’t know how to comment, if this is the case,  send us a quick email so we can tell who’s reading this. Go to your email and send dougfugate@comcast.net a message.

Yesterday afternoon we experienced the most rain I think we’ve ever had in a single day. It came down so hard that the streets in Denver submerged cars and buses and were closed down. I spent most of the day getting some samples ready to ship to Dallas for a national placement tasting next Tuesday. This was complicated by our warehouse in New Jersey sending me the wrong wine. Some South African importer got my wine and I got his, super. Anyhow by the end of the day I got it all together and made it to Fed Ex by 4:30. The middle of the day was spent having lunch with Aunt B for her birthday. It was the misses and I and both boys along with Grandma, Uncle T and Aunt B. Hope she had a good day. After lunch she took the oldest to Target for some new flip flops since he left them outside a few nights ago and a fox ran off with one and ate the other. Mom meanwhile took the little guy to the pool until the rains came.

Mom works today, swim practice this morning and we have a swim meet all day tomorrow plus I have about 50 boxes of wine to pack and get ready for shipping on Monday. So much for my relaxing weekend. Man I need a break, anyone have 4 tickets to Hawaii laying around? If so, give me a call right away.

I could now go into my daily rant on the economy and the useless politicians and ineffective President (guess I just did huh) but I’m too tired. So today you all get a break. Lots of work today too so I’ve got to run. Hope you all have some fun plans for the weekend. Remember nobody ever says on their death bed, “gee, I wish I had worked more”. Get out there and have some fun and take care of yourself.

God Bless

Yesterday was filled with 3 hours of swimming, 4 hours of unpacking, packing and lifting wine and 3 hours of football. The highlight of the day was the latter. The littlest guys football game was at 6:30 where he played a stellar game of defense and made an impromptu cut and reversed his direction on the whole field to almost score on a long run up through the middle of the other teams defense, he really played well. However it was the oldest who was the star of the day. He was such a force on defense he had the other team reduced to fear and wild throws by halftime. It got so bad that the other team was allowed to add an extra player since they fell behind by so many touchdowns. His new defensive coach has given him the freedom to play defense wherever he wants, in other words, he gets to choose his own position on every play. Much to our surprise, and his teammates, when he would line up to rush the opposing quarterback, he would start at a full sprint charging hard and then growling like a wild man as he exploded into the other teams backfield. If it was a pass he would be charging in with his hands raised and jump so high the quarterback had to just throw it almost straight up in the air as he couldn’t see over the oldest ones outstretched arms. All his teammates were thrilled with this new tactic and would congratulate him on the sidelines after each series. He looked like something out of a football movie. This resulted in a number of interceptions for our team with more than one resulting in a touchdown. But wait there’s more….. the play of the game was a 25 yard (which is a long way) pass route by our boy to get open and catch a long pass from his quarterback and calmly take two steps backwards into the end zone for a touchdown! The tragedy of the whole thing was that the misses and I both missed the play! Mom was pulling into the parking lot and wouldn’t you know it, I was in the bathroom! All our friends (parents of other kids) and the coach described the play in detail but it was too bad we missed it. I told him not to worry as he’ll catch many more, at least his little brother watched it from high on the monkey bars. Those of you that have seen him play before would have thought it wasn’t the same player in the game. Looks like all those recent afternoons playing catch have paid off, as they say, practice makes perfect. Although many players played really well, both coaches singled out our guy for his exemplary play. In fact, they decided to take the whole team to Dairy Queen for a post game celebration. We were all really proud and happy for him and you could see him beaming. I told him after the game that while it was great to score a touchdown, I was more proud of his great defense and how it actually contributed much more to the win than his touchdown. The entire game was really a magical life altering moment which I’m sure he’ll remember forever. Look out as he’s starting to grow into those long legs and is becoming a real force to contend with.

It’s now 5am and I’ve been up for about an hour. I have a number of calls starting around 6:30 my time so I need to hurry to get to the gym, maybe I’ll just workout here as I’m a little sore from carrying all the wine. Today is Aunt B’s birthday and we’re all going to lunch to celebrate. I do have a few more cases to get out today but not nearly as much as yesterday. Mom had a hard day of work yesterday and I could tell she was tired. We hope we can come up with something else by the fall as they’ve already told her that everyone has to work all holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. $10 an hour is not worth missing family holidays in my opinion. The real point is that she’s way overqualified for this job. Right now though, she’s doing what she can do to help, even though I know she really doesn’t like it. It’s not so much the actual job but all the wacky people and fellow employees. Everyday I hear of some other strange event that happened during her shift. Sometimes I worry she’s not safe as she’ll share stories of some strange guy coming through her line time after time trying to create some personal conversation with her. Mind you this is not a particular strange guy but multiple strange guys almost everyday. I guess that’s the price you pay when you’re as beautiful and attractive as the misses. I need to get her out of retail.

Time to run as I’m running out of time and my morning is packed. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Even though last weekend was a holiday, it was full of a lot of stuff. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun but every minute seemed rushed with something going on, such is life. This weekend I’m just looking forward to a few days with less going on and a little less excitement.

Hope all’s well, take care and God Bless and give the oldest a call to congratulate him on his great game! I know he’d really appreciate it.

Did anyone see the dust storm in Phoenix? It truly looked like something out of a movie, something of biblical proportion. I guess trees were toppled and power knocked out, sure hope everyone’s ok. Today we’re supposed to get heavy rain in the afternoon. This morning we’ll have all the wine delivered and I’ll try to get as much boxed and ready to ship as possible. The misses works today instead of tomorrow as we’re supposed to go to lunch for Aunt B’s birthday so she switched days, good timing huh. I have about 80 cases to re-box and ship fed ex around the country which will be quite a challenge. On top of that I pulled some kind of muscle in my upper back but no worries, I’ll just work through it.

Not sure where to go from here, let’ see, Casey Anthony is not guilty (everyone is shocked but I didn’t watch the trial so I don’t know whether to be shocked or not), Obama says now is the time to get serious about the debt ceiling crisis, (nothing like now getting serious with the deadline in 3 weeks, glad he could squeeze it in between campaign fund raisers), Jim Rogers, the well respected investor/economist for decades warns of the World running out of food in a few years if production is not ramped up worldwide right away, and on top of it all, we bought a $39 microwave yesterday at Home Depot, whoo hoo! Now which do you think is the most important to our family, the microwave of course!

Oh well, enough musings on what’s going, too much work to do in our little corner of the World. The oldest heads out to swim team in about 10 minutes with the little guy following 2 hours later. It’ll be good for them (and us) to get their morning exercise routine going again. The littlest one wants his own room so we’ll clean out the playroom and have to get him a new bed before school starts in 6 weeks. (he’s grown out of his little bed) Both boys want to paint their rooms for a new fresh feeling which will help get both rooms cleaned up which is way past due. In addition we’ll have to plan now for new clothes for both so time to start watching for the back to school sales. We also get hit for about $300 in supplies for both boys because the schools can no longer pay for pencils, markers, glue, paper and the other essentials the kids need. Funny how our school taxes keep going up but every year we have to spend more and more out of our own pockets, hmmmm.

Mom’s back from dropping off the oldest at swim team, she’ll be heading out to give the dog his shot soon. The other day she and I were reviewing where we’re at being half way through the year. On debt, we’re doing pretty well and on schedule. As far as playing more with the boys, we’re also ahead of the game but do need to work on our tone and delivery, that’s the new mantra around here for the whole family, “tone and delivery”. It’s funny when one of the boys stops you mid sentence and says “Mom or Dad, tone and delivery, tone and delivery”. We of course turn the tables on them too and it seems to be helping us all as it gives a pause to think during the conversation. Last but not least is the misses and my physical makeover. This is one area where we’re determined to turn the tables around right away. It seems that while concentrating on debt and the kids, we’ve somewhat neglected ourselves which stops today! We’re both wired as all in type people meaning we need to go at something 100% or we don’t really follow through. Although this approach is more difficult, you see results faster so look out World, here we come.

Well, enough for today as it’s time to run, in closing I came across the following quote yesterday which is pretty simple but true so here you go,

“Dost thou value life? Then do not squander time, for time is the stuff life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin

Take care and God Bless